Every Girl Does It(18)

We approach the dreaded destination to find two male baristas behind the counter. This should be fun.

“You don’t’ have to do this, you know,” Preston teased. “I promise I won’t tell anyone that theology boy rejected you.”

I hit him in his muscular shoulder, probably hurting my hand more than his body, and turn to face the music.

“Just be yourself!” Preston shouts after me as my face heats with sudden embarrassment.

Both baristas look up as I approach. By now you must have guessed that I’m extremely keyed up on caffeine. I’ve had one full cup of coffee along with two shots of espresso. The wise choice would be to order a snack or bread to soak up the sugar or I’ll be totally out of control in about ten minutes. There’s a valid reason for not drinking too much caffeine and pop. I have trouble shutting up when it’s in my system. You’re thinking, “Wow, Amanda, you already have that problem. How could it get worse?” To which I’m guessing you’ll soon find out that it can, indeed, get worse.

“What would you like, miss?” The first one asks. He’s quite good looking for a sixteen year old. There’s no way I should have ever thought that. I inwardly groan. I am so glad nobody can hear my thoughts. It reminds me of the time I went to the mall and saw a sign for Abercrombie and went “ooo he’s cute!” Not realizing that the sign was for the little kid Abercrombie, for kids under the age of eighteen. I was mortified, and of course, Grandma Ned was with me.

You can only imagine her response. If I remember correctly, my mouth got washed out with soap while I read the Old Testament section about sexual immorality. If you ever doubted it before, I got to know my Bible around Grandma Ned.

The cute underage barista is patiently waiting for my order. Clearing my throat, I order a bagel and decaf coffee, with cream. The first one types in my order while the other goes to work.

“Oh no!” The second barista yells. I quickly look in his direction, fully anticipating a scarring coffee burn.

“What’s wrong?” I ask trying to keep my voice even.

“Oh, I just used regular rather than decaf and already put it together, guess I’ll have to redo it.” He shrugs.

“No!” I yell using my outside voice. “It's fine. I’ll take it.”

The baristas look between each other as if I just ask them if they could spit in my drink, and then tell me nicely, “You don’t have to pay for the Americano then, it’s our fault.”

Walking away, I feel a confident grin begin on my face just as the first barista yells after me. “Miss! Miss! Sorry, but you still have to pay for your bagel!” My face tightens as Preston tries to unsuccessfully hide his laughter from me with his coffee.

Turning around, I walk back to the counter and slam two dollars onto the surface top telling them to keep the change. Then I strut past Preston with my head held high and bagel full in my mouth. He better not ask me to share. Trying not to focus on the fact that I’ve lost a bet to Preston, I sit down next to Kristin in a huff.

“So how was your walk or whatever or wait a second…” Her eyes lock onto my coffee then back at me, “How many of those have you had?”

Preston plops down next to me and laughs. “Three. Actually she’s had four shots of espresso and one cup of coffee, to be exact.” Amused he flips open the newspaper and smiles as Kristin stares at me with ice in her eyes.

“You know what caffeine does to you.” She hits Brad to involve him in the conversation sealing my fate.

“You did what?” He yells jumping out of his seat. “You know what caffeine does to you!”

“Preston dared me!” I protest in true teenage fashion while Preston looks innocently at both of our friends as if to say, “I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

“Just out of curiosity, what does Amanda do when she has too much caffeine?” Preston has now put down his newspaper. He’s staring at Kristin and Brad in anticipation of the story he knows they’ll probably blab.

“At least let me tell it so I know there are no exaggerations or falsifications.” I look Brad’s way causing him to look down in shame. He has a tendency to exaggerate everything.

“So it’s not that big of a deal. It only happened one time, and I’ve since learned my lesson.” Preston needs to understand that it isn’t a regular occurrence for me.

“You know what?” I say with heavy sarcasm. “I’m not going to tell and neither are you!” Pointing at both of my friends, I dare them with a silent glare. “True friends keep secrets; just know that you have nothing to worry about.”

Kristin eyes me as she turns back to Brad. “Okay, blue pants.”

“Shhhh,” I say patting her on the knee.

“Did you just call her blue pants?” Preston wants to know.

“Yeah, on account of the blue pants she rocked during her last caffeine surge. Those poor kids didn’t even see her coming.” Brad takes off his baseball cap and holds it to his chest as if the children died or something, and I feel my resolve weaken as I look again toward Preston.

“Fine, I drank a lot of caffeine then wanted to go play laser tag, wore blue pants to blend in to the blue walls in the laser tag place and stayed for three hours while I attacked small children with my laser gun.” I tried to let the words flow as fast as possible, hoping he wouldn’t’ catch all of it.