Another Day. (Braden Barrie/SayWeCanFly Smut)

Part 1 (no smut here srry🤭)

Driving around my hometown in Ontario. Typical day. Same snow piled on the sides of the road now turning brown and uninviting due to the slushy mixture being disrupted by travelers on their way to live their mundane lives. They go to work. They come home. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. That's not how I wanted to live. Being a robot conforming to society living paycheck to paycheck. Unhappy. I was taught from a very young age to do what made me happy. My mother always told me to follow my heart. See, my mother was my angel. She and my father were two very different people. Not bad. Just bad for each other. The divorce was hard but necessary. My mother was an open creative free spirit and my father was a business man.. I'm sure you can see the differences. He traveled to Toronto to work for a law firm, but she, my mother, was an artist. Not very big. Just locally but her pieces were absolutely breathtaking. You could practically tell a story through her work. It provoked emotion you may have never felt before. My mother always encouraged me to do what I felt was right. So, I dropped out of high school at the ripe age of 16. I then got my diploma equivalent and got an apartment and a job at Kent Bookstore. I loved reading and writing so this was my safe haven. My boss was sweet and always had a new book recommendation when I finished the previous one. In fact, that's where I'm headed after I grab our coffees. I always grab him a coffee on my way to work. 2 sugars. Dash of cream.

I pull into the driveway of the Tim Hortons as it's the closest to the bookstore being only a 3 minute or so drive away. I switch off my engine and lock up my car making sure I had my bag. I walk in, order mine and my boss' coffees and wait. As I'm awkwardly standing there with my receipt and card in my hand I look around the coffee shop and scan the people attending today. A couple teenagers skipping school, an elderly couple sitting in the back admiring each other over their hot beverages, a handful of college students just using the WiFi and sipping on their co- *tap tap tap*

I spin around on my heel surprised to be snapped out of my trance to see a guy.
Black hair and piercing blue eyes. He points to the counter where the lady behind has my coffees ready. "S-sorry" I said. Stumbling over my words out of embarrassment cause duh. That's an awkward situation. I grabbed the coffees and stepped back to take a second to recollect myself.

"Braden"  the barista called out to the guy. Ah, So now I have a name to the face. It's fitting. He must come here quite a bit. Now that his back is to me I can see him a bit better. Plain black tee shirt. Grey skinny jeans. Black toms. Looks like we have an emo kid on our hands. I laugh to myself, I admit probably a little too loudly as I caught a glimpse of him smiling as he side eyes me. Likely curious as to why this freak is laughing at herself next to the rubbish bins but whatever... I pull out my phone to kill time before I need to head to work and as I'm scrolling through Instagram liking pictures of dogs, my sisters burrito and some random guys selfie next to a fountain? I hear someone clear their throat. I already knew it was emo boy. I mean. Braden. I slowly shifted my attention to the boy standing a couple feet in front of me. Damn. He's pretty now that I'm seeing him up close. He has a lip piercing and he's got tattoos covering his arms and I can see a bit of another poking out from the neckline of his shirt. "Um hey... I'm Braden" he said with a slight smile. "I heard that haha. I'm y/n, pleasure to make your acquaintance Braden" I said returning the smile. He laughed a bit and looked at the floor before slowly returning to our comfortable eye contact. "So coffee" I said, trying to make conversation. Clearly I'm a player.  He laughed either at the awkwardness or at my horrendous attempt at making conversation. "Yea. I guess so" he said. Fuck. How do people make this look easy? "So um. I hate to cut this short but I have to be at work in 10." I stated hesitantly. I didn't want to leave but I knew my boss would be waiting for me. "Oh uh alright. Where do you work?" He said with a hint of curiosity and a hint of sadness in his voice.  I brightened up at this question. I really love my job and any excuse I get to talk about it. "I work at Kent Bookstore! Next to Quill & Hatchet?" His eyes lit up. "Really?? I was just headed to Quill & Hatchet?? I have an appointment to get some work done" he smiled. I thought for a second before saying " Hey, as long as you promise not to kill me wanna ride with me? We could talk a bit more?"  He smiled and agreed. We left and got in my car and had a short conversation about our plans for the rest of the day until I parked and we got out. I told him I might catch up with him later if he's around. He replied "definitely" and we parted ways. I walked in the door to hear the familiar jingle of the bell. I handed my boss his coffee and he smiled. " I saw you with that Braden kid. He's a good kid" He said before sipping his coffee. You know him? I asked, shocked. "Know him? That kids grown up in Lindsay. Seen him around here for years" I pressed him to tell me more but he just laughed and walked away shouting to me "guess you'll have to figure that out for yourself dear" gosh this silly old man kills me sometimes. Now to figure out what intrigues me so much about this little Lindsay boy....