More Coffee.

Chapter 1: Snow

I trudged through the snow, my boots made an almost a crinkle sound to every step. The snow fell in an almost angel like tumble as it landed on my straight red hair. Even through my thick winter coat, I was chilled to the bone as cold wind blew in my face. I could feel my backpack slowly soaking through so I quickened my pace. As I walked through town, the calm scenery crumbled as I walked into Coffee Central. The bell rung as I opened the door and entered. I pulled out my headphones from my ears and walked to the counter. It was surprisingly warm inside the coffee house, I immediately started to warm up and sweat underneath my layers. His green eyes narrowed as he saw me, his words were like sharpened glass as he spoke. "Sorry Aileen but I don't want to serve you coffee, as you know we have the right to deny any customers so I'm denying you." Al said, he turned away from the counter, his curly dark brown hair bouncing as he moved to the workers only room.

"Of course." I whispered to myself and walked away, putting the cash back into my pocket. I shrugged off my jacket as I sat down on one of the couches. I quickly pulled down the sleeves of my cashmere baby blue turtleneck as to hide my shame. I pulled out my laptop and placed my headphones back into my ears. My fingers danced over the keyboard as I worked on my essay. I could hear the faint ticking of the clock over my headphones. Every now and then I would look up to see Al glare at me from behind the counter and if we made eye contact he would spin around and return to playing on his phone. From where I sat his dark tan skin seemed to shine, I couldn't help but wish I could replace my marble white skin with freckles with his coffee colored skin. Outside the world seemed to be a blanket of white, and the more we avoided looking at each other or anywhere around each other the white blanket seemed to become thicker until you couldn't see a thing. I guess that was my hint to leave, I stood and packed away my things before I pulled back on my thick coat. I pushed the door expecting the ring of the bell above to go off but the door didn't budge. "Ha ha Al, can you unlock the door?" I asked. He turned to me and looked at me as if I were stupid.

"It's unlocked." He said and turned back around. I tried to pull the door and when it still didn't budge I pushed.

"If it's unlocked then why won't the door open?" I asked irritated.

"Are you deaf? The door is unlocked." He said without looking up from his phone.

"Are you deaf?" I retorted, "The door won't open." I said, with an exasperated sigh he came over and pushed the door. He tried pulling on it and all the doors, he began to run through the store trying all the doors again and again. "What are you doing?" I asked. He put his hands in his hair, his breath quickened as his chest heaved in a bundle of nerves. He sat down on the floor and continued his heavy breathing. "Are you okay?" I asked, his face was too stunned to speak so he shook his head.

"No we are not okay. We are not okay." He mumbled. I kneeled down next to him and took his shaking hands into my steady ones.

"What's going on?" I asked, he pulled his hands away and stood, he stumbled back as if in a nightmare.

"We're locked in." He whispered, he fell down near one of the white glass panels that surrounded the interior. He banged on it frantically like an animal clawing at it's cage. "Help!" He screamed and he screamed until he could no longer and sat down, his head resting on the glass. I just stood near by looking at him with a "your an idiot" glare.

"Okay the jokes over, can you unlock the doors now?" I said exasperated.

"Did you not just hear me, we're snowed in!" He yelled and returned to his curled inward fetal position.

"I know you hate me but it's Christmas Day I have to get back to my house. So pull out the keys and unlock the door." I said and pulled him to his feet but he crumbled back to his knee's. "Al! Go unlock the doors you've taken this joke as far as you can and it's getting old." I yelled but he didn't budge from his stunned position. "Al!" I yelled again and again but he just stared at the walls in mortal terror. "Oh my god, you're not kidding." I whispered, before I snatched up my phone. "We can just call for help." I said calmly. I hit the on button a couple times, I stomped my foot in frustration when it wouldn't turn on. "Dammit, I used up my battery from listening to music. Al, where is your phone?" I pronounced each word slowly. In a shaky breath he spoke slowly.

"On, on, on the counter." He said shakily and pointed at the bar where you received your drink. I grabbed his phone, just my luck it was also dead.

"What were you doing that made you lose all your power!" I also began to start panicking as I fell next to him.

"I was texting my family Merry Christmas." He said bitterly. We stared at each other in fear as the white blanket surrounded us and in the distance we could hear the bells ringing for Christmas. The clock ticked slower and slower as time froze as I realized my situation. I was alone on Christmas day with someone who hates my guts and I don't know why, we were locked in for who knows how long, and above all I had left my sister with no warning of where I was off to.