pages stained with coffee and ink • j. mariano

i. nick & nora/sid & nancy

"hey i need to leave for school, do you guys want anything?" emilia asks the gilmore girls who are still fighting over if they will be late or not.

"donuts!" they both shout at the same time and emilia nods her head while slightly laughing.

emilia walks up to the counter at the same time some kids in uniforms with taylor come in.

great. this'll be fun. taylor started training his replacements already.

"everybody, listen up. decide what you want, place your order, then proceed to the end of the line." taylor tells all of the boys.

one of the boys speaks up "i want a burger."

"i want a grilled cheese." another one says.

"me too." a third one says.

"and i want fries, and make them really really crispy." the second boy says. 

"i want mine crispy too." the first one says to luke and emilia barely stifles a laugh knowing what's about to go down.

"you didn't order fries." the two boys start to argue.

"so?"

"so you can't order crispy fries without first ordering fries." luke interrupts while looking very fed up with there being children anywhere near him.

"why not?"

"because you can't make something crispy that doesn't exist." luke looks about two seconds from flipping his lid.

"why not?"

"get him away from me taylor."

"have some respect. these boys have just completed the first leg of their outdoor survival training." taylor brags like luke or anyone else in this town cares.

"meaning you had them sit under a tree and glue rocks together for two hours."

"you're a very jaded man luke. what happened to you as a child?"

"some creepy guy in shorts and knee socks tried to sit me under a tree and glue rocks together for two hours." luke dryly explains to taylor and turns to see a kid trying to get a donut from under the case. "put that down!" luke yells.

"why?" the kid innocently asks. "because you're going under it" luke responds.

"I won't fit."

"Oh yes you will." luke promises but emilia quickly intervenes before he can actually fulfill it. 

"hey luke, we have to get to school can we have some donuts to go?" emilia asks him before yaylor's nerd squad interrupts again. "we were here first!" one of the boys yells at emilia but she has no patience for these brats and quickly shut them down.

"on the planet cause i don't think so buddy boy."

"huh?"

"i work here anyway so you lose. chocolate, cinnamon, and sprinkle please!" emilia tells luke.

she theoretically could get them herself but luke banned her from touching it because last time she knocked the whole stand over and the fresh donuts went all over the floor.