Product of Change

Chapter One

Sitting at his favorite local coffee shop, Alistair Montgomery was writing away in his day planner. "That's not right. That's not right at all!" He spoke in frustration. Biting at his bottom lip a bit he erased the words scattered on the page rapidly, rewriting a different formula. Frustration of his need for perfection. "Dude. How long have you been doing that" his short masculine friend spoke from above placing Alistairs coffee to the side of his shine-y clean black laptop. "I don't know, a few hours?" Alistair answered not bothering to look up. "Well. It's almost 11. You don't want to be late for class" Conner said to him raising an eye brow. A small smile at the corner of his lip as he shook his head and walked away to continue his job at this little run down coffee shop. "Wait what?!" Alistair jumped looking up at the clock on his laptop. '10:47 AM'.

"Shit." He muttered this only frustrated him more. His habit of everything being right and perfect was always making him late. He continued to write, but slightly faster. Not too fast because his writing had to be perfect and read able. Not to mention the perfect size. Not too big. Not too small. The tall man finally finished his work about 5 minutes of 11 and closed everything, not one drop left of coffee, not one crumb left of his sesame seed bagel. He placed his laptop and books neatly into his bag, his pens placed in specific little pockets and his chargers in another.

Raising his wrist to see his watch, he checked the time, '11:03 AM' it read, making him place his strap over his shoulder, and tidy up his clothes. Grabbing his dishes he carried them over to Conner at the counter. "Here you go, I am off to class." He said checking his watch multiple times in a minute. "4 minutes late already. Scurry out freak. Ill see you later" Conner chuckled taking the dishes. Alistair stared not amused by Conners need to tease him. "I know how late I am. No need to mock me, Conner. " Alistair simply stated, checking his watch once again. He waved a good bye and ran out the cafe doors, looking up the the sign. 'Yours Truly Cafe' it read, the owners were a little elderly couple he use to help as a preteen with their organizing of taxes and bills. In return he gets a life time of free coffee and a place to do his work.

Alistair ran down the side busy sidewalk, careful not to hit anyone. He pulled out his key to his bike lock, speed walking up to it he placed in the key, unlocking it. He placed his lock around the spine of his bike twisting around so it wont drag. He pulled out his blue and yellow bike and hopped on. Pushing off his feet found the peddles and off he went, 4 blocks over to his community college class. Carefully passing people who were walking. It surprised him how busy it was today as it was unusual for anyone but college students to be here. He started to wonder if there was something going on he never wrote down. He road up to the classroom door and groaned in irritation. A note written by his professor was taped there.

"To those who didn't read and/or receive my email. Class is canceled for today, and the next couple classes. I have a family emergency I must attend to. Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a happy weekend." Alistair pulled out his phone and opened his email, hunting for the email, there it sat. Arrived at 8:18 PM the night before. "How could I be so stupid to miss this!!" he yelled pissed off. His need to be perfect made his focus slip. He pushed off on his bike making his way home. Steaming, he couldn't help but just blame it on his habit of always being organized. He decided it needed to stop. He didn't want to be this way anymore. He wanted to be normal for once. Messy for once. Conner. although joking, was right. Alistair was a freak, and he was done with it.

As of tomorrow he was going to practice not being a perfectionist. He was going to perfect not being perfect. Or at least attempt to. Knowing this won't be easy, he placed his bike in his garage and walked in the house. "I'm home" he called out to anyone who was listening. But it was 11:30 AM on a Tuesday. No one was going to be home till dinner. He sighed and walked to his room. Placing his bags down against the side of his desk. He pulled out his laptop and put it on his desk.

Logging on, he was scrolling across his social media. A person he doesn't recognize was on his timeline. Weird, he had thought he made all his social media just people he knew, but I guess not this one. Clicked on her page to delete her from his social, he paused for a moment, scrolling down. " Time for a change, ya feel?" she posted 45 minutes ago. He smiled and liked the post answering with a quick "Me too." Changing his mind he left her page and continued to scroll, trying to think of how he was going to fix his perfection problem.