Piece By Piece | ✓

7 | vanessa

     "Wel—" Vanessa was abruptly cut off when Nic suddenly took her place, a huge smile spreading across his lips.

     "Tristan!" Nic nearly shouted, his eyes alight with excitement. Vanessa stared at Nic with bewildered eyes, a huge question mark painted on her pale face. How the hell did he know who the annoying blonde guy was?

     "It's nice to see you in my zone, my dearest cousin. I thought you were never going to visit me here!" Nic feigned a hurt expression, which made Vanessa frown deeply. How dare he deny that he wasn't like Kayla, she thought.

     Her slight annoyance towards her redheaded coworker drifted off easily, and was replaced with disdainful recognition. Nic and Tristan were cousins, for crissakes. Now she could see the resemblance—they were both extremely exasperating and they smiled a whole fucking lot. No wonder they're related.

     "Ah," Tristan nodded and shifted uncomfortably, a tight smile lingering on his lips. "Yeah, well, I didn't even know that this was the place you wanted me to check out—you never mentioned that you worked here."

     "Oh, shit. I didn't?" Nic scratched the back of his neck. "Huh. I thought I did, though. Anyway," he smiled widely again, and this time, he shamelessly draped an arm around Vanessa, ignoring the fact that she winced when he touched her, and said, "this is Vanessa, Tristan. She's a good friend of mine."

     Vanessa badly wanted to slap Nic in the face, to leave an imprint of her hand on his cheek. She was itching to hit something, anything, just to let off some steam.

     As Nic continued to entertain his cousin, Vanessa pressed her lips into a tight line, clenched her fists, and tried to calm her heavy breathing. She tried her best to remain quiet, but two seconds later, she couldn't take the skin to skin contact anymore.

     Vanessa shoved Nic away and glared at him. "How fucking dare you," she hissed, her voice cold as ice, her brown eyes ablaze with menace. "Try to touch me without permission again, I swear, you'll be wearing an eyepatch for a week." Nic nodded repeatedly, the fear in his eyes not faltering.

     She ignored his existence and focused on the person in front of her, who was just as dumbfounded as his cousin. She willed herself to sound calm and pleasant again. "What can I get for you today?"

     "I... I think I'll have a cappuccino today," Tristan mumbled, and for once, he was trying to avoid her gaze. Good, she thought, let him see how horrible of a person you are. It'll be a lot easier to be in control of your emotions—of everything—when people dislike you. Let him fear you.

     "Excellent choice," Vanessa smiled wryly as she took out a cup from below the counter and wrote Tristan's name on it. She was thankful for Nic finally shutting up and letting her work in peace. "Is there anything else?" She handed Nic the empty cup and gave him a once-over. He acknowledged her quietly and turned away from her to work on his cousin's coffee.

     Tristan scanned the menu behind her for a moment, then he shook his head no. He pulled out his wallet and asked, "How much is it?"

     "Two dollars and fifty cents," Vanessa said, turning away for a moment to fetch his order from Nic. She narrowed her eyes at him before facing Tristan again to hand him his coffee. "Here you go."

      Tristan gave her a five dollar bill. "Drop the change inside your tip jar," he told her, looking pointedly at the jar beside the cash register. "Thanks for the coffee." He offered her a small smile which she refused to acknowledge. Three seconds later, he sat on one of the gray couches near the bookshelf.