Every day, I wake up early to go to work, which is being a barista at a local café here in Los Angeles. No one really understood why someone who took Music Technology and Hotel Management in college ended up working at a café. I don't actually know myself. I just applied for it when I saw that the ad said that employees can get free unlimited coffee every single day. I came in this job for the coffee.  I love coffee. Coffee is the best.

Anyways, I walked out of my apartment complex and went over to the bus stop at the corner of my block. One of my fellow workers from the café also lives near this bus stop and we always sit together on the way to our workplace. She was also in the same situation as I am. We both can't find our soulmates.

Before I start talking about my problems, I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Seán William McLoughlin, but a lot of my friends call me Jack. I'm an Irish man who moved here in L.A. after I graduated from college. I had enough of the rainy skies of Ireland. I decided to move out and move here where the sun always shining; at least that was what I thought of L.A. .

As I was walking, the world was in its usual gray self. For me at least. A lot of the people around can see other things called "colors". Apparently, you'll start seeing them when you've met your soulmate. It will start appearing slowly and subtly. It might appear in different places. It might appear on a butterfly fluttering around or in somebody's eyes. It was always random. But that never happened to me. You'd think that from all the times I've walked around town, ridden the bus, looked through the shops around, I'd come across my soul mate at least once. Heck, a lot of people go to the café I work at. I should've met them (I'm bisexual btw) ages ago.

The same situation goes for Melanie, my friend and co-worker. Ever since she heard about colors, all she ever wanted was to meet her soulmate. She first heard about it as a child, when her parents would tell her all about it as a bedtime story. She's almost 25 now and she's still seeing things in different shades of gray.

I arrived at the bus stop and started looking around to see if Melanie is already here. She wasn't. I guess she's running a bit late. We did talk until the wee hours of the morning. I sat down and waited for her to come. Then I saw her long and wavy hair flowing in the wind. She saw me, smiled and walked towards me, "Morning, you bastard. Because of you I have to be high on coffee today." I laughed, "Isn't that the best way to get high? Besides, I like seeing you bounce off the walls and embarrass yourself." "That's exactly the point. I hate embarrassing myself, you know that," she rolled her eyes. She's one of my best friends. We spend a lot of time together that a lot of people think that we're each other's soulmates when in reality, we aren't. Besides, she doesn't swing that way. We're just really good friends. We tell each other almost everything.

One time, she told me that she wanted to go ahead and tour the world. It's one of her ambitions. "I've always dreamed of travelling the world with her, you know? But since I haven't found her yet, I could just travel around alone and maybe try to look for her. Then when I find her, we'll go back to all the places I've been to and I'll be her tour guide. And of course, the sights are going to be a hundred times better since everything will be in color. She'll be amazed by everything because it's probably the first time she sees the sights but I'll probably get bored since I've seen the said sights so I'll just probably look at her amazing face. Hey, you could come too! You could look for your soulmate as well!" I remember laughing at her, both at the scenario she has in her head and at her suggestion.

I don't want to go away from here. I've made a life for me here. I've gotten used to my everyday routine. I don't want to go away from it all. Besides, I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be. I get this feeling that I'll meet my soulmate here.

The bus pulled over by the stop then the passengers waiting for it got up and walked into the bus. Melanie and I walked in and sat next to each other. I pulled out my phone and ear phones. I plugged them in and wore one end. Melanie took the other one and wore it as well. She grabbed my phone from my hands and picked an album to play. She ended up shuffling all my songs.

The two of us talked to each other for the rest of the trip. We ended up laughing as usual. When the bus pulled over to the stop near the café, I got off first. I waited for her to get off. Then the two of us quickly walked towards our workplace. I pulled the door open for the both of us then we walked in. Felix, another barista and one of my best friends, spoke up, "Hey you two, hurry up! We're going to open up any minute now." Opening up meant not seeing Melanie until lunch when we all log out of our shifts. I took my apron off the hook and wore it. Melanie walked into the kitchen because she works as one of our pastry chefs who makes our best-selling desserts. Meanwhile, I walked behind the counter as Felix walked up towards the door to flip the sign from "CLOSED" to "OPEN".

Cry, Felix's boyfriend and soulmate, walked in to get his usual cup of coffee. This is part of my daily routine now, Cry will come in then Felix will go on ahead and brew coffee for the two of them. While rush hour hasn't started yet, the two of them will slide into one of the booths and act all sweet with each other. Cry's family owns this café so they never get into trouble with our management.

I'm left alone with the couple other people who come in and order their coffee early so that they don't have to wait in a line that's so long. Our café is pretty popular around here so a lot of people come here whether it's rush hour or not. It's always busy, and we're always buzzing around, trying to serve our customers. When rush hour is about to start, which is around 7 a.m., Cry will leave to go back to his apartment to record for YouTube then Felix will come back behind the counter and helps me out with the customers.

The two of them are very sweet with each other. A lot of the customers are used to them now and they don't mind them being all lovey-dovey. I'm actually quite glad for the both of them. I'm really happy that they found each other at a very early age. They were together since senior year of high school when Felix first moved here from Sweden. Why didn't I meet my soulmate earlier? Maybe the two of us will be just like the two of them. Sigh. I guess this is one reason why I hate looking at them. They remind me of what I was missing, and what I terribly wanted.

Once again today, I found myself staring at them, just like always, I heard the bell by the door tinkle, signaling that someone just came in. A boy about my age walked towards the counter and ordered a Frappuccino. I asked for his name to put on his cup and he answered, "Mark." There's something about that name. I don't know why but I feel like that there's something special about it. While I made his order, he made his way to the booth in the corner near the door and sat there. He took out his laptop from his backpack and started using it. I finished his order and called him. He stood up and took it from me.

"Thanks," he said. Damn, I like his voice.

Anyways, a couple more people came in and I fixed up their order. I looked over at the clock and saw that rush hour was about to begin. Cry and Felix noticed it too and got up from their booth. Felix walked Cry out then went back to the counter. Melanie came out of the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. She continued doing this periodically for the rest of the shift. Anyway, more people came walking in and ordered their drinks. I was too busy to notice that Mark was still in the corner playing around on his laptop. He ended up ordering a cheesecake. He went up to my counter and said, "Uh, hey," he looks at my name tag, "Jack, I'm going to get one of those delicious looking cheesecakes." I punched in his order into the cashier and asked him if he needed anything else. He says, "Nah, that's everything. Thanks, love ya!" Um, what?

I raised one of my eyebrows. Mark's cheeks became a lighter shade of gray for a bit, "Sorry about that, it's just something I usually say in my videos." "Videos?" I asked. "Yeah, YouTube videos," he answered. I nodded in understanding. He paid for his order, went back to his table and used his laptop once again.

I went to get his cheesecake from the chiller and served it to his table. "Thanks," he winks. I felt my cheeks heat up. Now that I was standing this close to him, I noticed that he was handsome. Really, really handsome. I felt myself blush even harder. He laughed at how I looked. I immediately walked back behind the counter. He ate up his cheesecake and placed his things back in his backpack then walked out of the café.

Felix, who was collecting plates from the tables around, went to his table and picked up his plate then walked back to the counter. I was getting a customer's change from the cash register's drawer when one of the coins fell onto the floor. I bent down to take it when I hit my head beneath the said drawer. Real hard. That's what she said. Jesus, brain, shut up will ya? My head hurts.

Felix rushes up to me and asks if I'm alright. I looked into his eyes. What. The. Hell. His pupils aren't gray anymore. They were now colored. I honestly don't know what color it was. All I know is that I've never seen anything like it.

"What the actual fuck?!"

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Edited this as well now... Yasss

School's about to start in a couple of weeks now. Updates might not be so often but I'll try my best.

Anyways, thank you guys for reading this chapter, you liked that, PUNCH that vote button in the face, LIKE A BOSS! And, high fives all around *whapish*whapish* thank you guys and as always, i will SEE YOU, in the next chapter! BUH-BYE!