Barista Boy [Coffee Shop AU] (Maxian)

☕ Chapter 1 ☕

The rain pelted down hard among the copious streetways and buildings. 

Very few cars drove around the desolate streets, their headlights on a low setting, shimmering against the wet surfaces of roads, tires carrying them onward and through puddles which would occasionally splash up and soak any bystanders who had stupidly wandered out through the rain.

Luckily, most smart civilians of the Western Australian town had vacated the streets and huddled themselves in the warmth of their homes, dry and content as could be.

Unfortunately, a teenager who went by the name of Max Stanley, was not as lucky.

He grumbled curses and swears at every drop of rain that fell ruthlessly on his long, brunette hair, both dampening it and causing it to lose shape and slope over his vibrant green eyes, which only angered the kid more than he previously had been.

The reason Max was out in this god-awful rainstorm, was because he had attended an interview for a job.

Usually, his mother would pick him up from something like that, but Max didn't really wish to face her. She was the main reason he'd applied for this job position, claiming he was getting too old for her to keep buying him, 'that lame Japanese animal crap'. 

Right. 'He was too old for Pokemon.' As if.

The very thought of the hour his mum had spent yelling at him, repeating herself about how she was in debt due his little fanboy obsession with the games and show, had the 16-year-old fuming internally.

To add to his little outburst of anger, yet another car drove by carelessly, tire splashing into a puddle which ended up covering him in water. Great.

Another reason why the youngest Stanley kid refused to call his mother and ask for her to pick him up, was because the people at the fast food place he'd gone to had pretty much informed him, as he was leaving, that he hadn't even been closely the type of person they wanted working in their establishment.

Well, Max didn't take kindly to that, and being the little mound of angst and genuine Australian anger he was, he'd given the manager the finger, told him to 'fuck off', and did the likes of slamming the door on the way out.

So now, both insanely outraged and slightly self-pitiful, the Aussie teen wandered the streets, hands jammed tightly inside of his black puffer coat's pockets, unbothered to even pull up the fluffy hood as water had probably already gathered inside of it.

He sighed lustlessly, the long exhale causing a foggy mist to drift from his mouth and float away, along with a piece of his anger. He knew it was his own fault for being an outright cunt, but at the same time, as he watched the traffic lights reflections in the pavement below, he couldn't help more regretful, grinding his teeth together as he ran across an empty street.

Max found that the more anger he let go of, the less warm he felt. His body began to take notice of the cold and rain assaulting it at full force, and the Australian began to find himself shivering softly, teeth chattering.

He was determined to get home, to somewhere warm and welcoming, so he picked up speed a bit more, jogging over the wet sidewalks until a soft heat smacked him across the face, accompanied by a pleasant, but bitter smell.

The 16-year-old stopped in his tracks and turned to the source of the scent and warmth, only to have his green eyes greeted with a rather cozy-looking space, lit almost dimly with an orange glow. Max was in shock; he'd been through these streets with old friends and family for years and he'd never stopped to notice such a little place that looked so inviting.

Cautiously, he stepped forward and placed a fingerless gloved hand over the shop window, peeking inside. There seemed to be two people, conversing, one younger looking bloke sitting at a little diner-like booth and the other, leaning over the inside of the counter.