Fists and Knives (A Harry Styles Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

The baristas at the Starbucks nearest to my apartment knew my order by heart since i was there so often.  They knew my name too, but it seemed like it was spelled differently on the cup every time I got it.  It was almost as if they just added vowels and consonants to wherever in the name they wanted.  It always made me laugh.  I had been out of a job for about two months, so every day I would walk to Starbucks with the newspaper and my laptop and look for job offers.  There were plenty of places hiring all around the city; small deli’s and independent little restaurants, but that’s not what I wanted to be a part of.  I wanted to be somewhere like Ruth’s Chris where plates of food sold for 65 dollars each.  That’s what I was about.  I was good enough for expensive restaurants like that and I knew it.  I also wouldn’t be able to handle myself as a chef in an Applebee’s or Outback Steak House.  No.  I was muchbetter than that.

The seats in the Starbucks were comfortable, so I easily lost track of time.  A small growl escaped my lips as my laptop screen went black.  Of course, I would choose today not to bring my charger with me.  I sat back and sipped on my cool coffee, frowning when I realized after all this time that the barista used whole milk instead of soy today.  I peered at my dark reflection in the blank screen of my laptop; my messy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, my dark bluish-gray eyes… I tried to fix the red bandana I had tied around my head like always, but the more I messed with it, the worse it looked.  When I was officially irritated with my looks, I slammed my laptop shut.

“Did you hear about Harry Styles?”

Suddenly, my ears perked up.  I remembered the name from the TV yesterday and didn’t mean to eavesdrop on the conversation happening between two men near me, but I couldn’t help it.  It’s not like I was doing much else anyway.

“The boxer?”

“Yeah.  He’s one of the best.   He can take hit after hit after hit and he’ll still be on his feet.  He’s fast too.”

“Well what happened to him?”

The first man laughed. “He got the flu.  He’s out for a few weeks because of the flu.”

“What??  That guy is like a machine.  He’s not fighting because of the flu???”

I laughed too.  Society often painted these celebrities up to be like invincible people, so it amused me to hear that they could still get a little cough here and there.  It reminded me that they were human.  I was sure that Clark would be complaining all about Harry being out of boxing for a while when he got home.  Clark liked this Harry Styles guy.

After an unsuccessful morning of job hunting, I collected my coffee and my laptop and stepped out into the streets on the outskirts of New York City.  It was a gorgeous day out, so a lot of people had decided to walk today instead of driving to wherever they needed to be.  I liked the city when the weather was nice – it seemed like more people came outside and brought their pleasant attitudes with them.  I was convinced, after two years of observation, that the weather determined people’s attitudes.  If it was raining, people were especially rude. Sun usually meant more pleasant crowds.

I closed my eyes for a moment and let the warm sun sink into my skin.  A small smile spread across my face but quickly disappeared when someone slammed into me, causing me to spill my coffee all down my front and drop my laptop onto the sidewalk.  The technology fell open, a two of the keys from the keyboard popping loose and the screen cracking with the impact.

“What the heck??” I blurted, trying to shake coffee off of my arms and whimpering as I looked down at my destroyed computer.  I threw the empty coffee cup angrily into a trashcan as hard as I could.