Mending The Broken

Part One

She let a small smile slip from the corners of her mouth, but it quickly turned into a blush when she noticed his evident muscular torso he was partially showing, and she covered her grin with her hand.

"What?" He questioned. "Are you only now laughing at my getup?" he scoffed sarcastically.

That's not it, She almost said aloud, watching as similar pedestrians stared as they walked past, some slowing down enough to cause the other citizens behind them to collide into each other like hang gliders sliding into the grassy top of a cliff, but she stopped herself before she could let the words slip out. She shook her head and continued walking down to the coffee shop, silently chuckling to herself.

Roughly ten minutes passed and they reached the coffee shop. Her companion opened the door and, being the chivalrous gentleman he so obviously was, he carelessly let it slam in Elizabeth's face after he walked through.

"This blunt cunt." She muttered to herself. She stood there, shocked. Granted, she wasn't exactly expecting him to hold the door open for her, but she wasn't exactly prepared for it to bump against her nose as it slammed shut.

Elizabeth arched an eyebrow, obviously unfazed by his actions and overall displeased by his attitude. She opened the door and made a point of holding it open as another young man left the shop. She gave him a look sharp enough to cut bread and stepped ahead of him and into the line of customers.

"Right, so which of these did you want?" He asked, seemingly unaware of what he did.

“Uhm..”Began Elizabeth, before she was suddenly cut off.

"Holy s**t, check this out!" Her oblivious companion trailed off as they made it to the front of the line, looking at a sign on the counter.

"What is it?" Elizabeth questioned curiously, peering from behind him.

"I can win up to five hundred thousand dollars cash if I get a cup with the right number on it!" He exclaimed, before his eyes widened. "JUMPING JUICES ON A f*****g TRAMPOLINE! ONE IN EVERY FORTY CUPS IS A WINNER!" He shouted. "Hurry up and choose your drink! I'm buying something too!"

She sighed. It's like he's just a little kid. She thought. She rolled her eyes, hoping to herself that he doesn't always act like a space nerd on Christmas day getting a telescope about every contest he comes across. Unfortunately, she just ran into him about a little less than an hour ago, so she couldn't tell.

Elizabeth sighed as she ordered a tall Toasted Graham Latte, then looked at her accompanying partner and decided to change the size up one. She stepped back, motioning with her arms that it was now his time to shine.

Your turn, butter brain. She wanted to say, but she didn't.

"Alright, well, she's having one of those, so..." He pondered for a moment. "I'll take thirty nine lattes." He paused, "And some salt and pepper shakers." He continued as he handed over the ridiculous sum of money he owed.

The barista hesitantly handed over every single cup one by one, as well as a few of the aforementioned shakers. He then proceeded to open up the tops of each of his own drinks, and pour excessive amounts of salt and pepper in them, more than would be acceptable for an entire family's collective supply of mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving, before pulling off his mask and downing them in a matter of thirty seconds each.

Damn.

Her jaw dropped with every cup that was handed to him, until she had mentally counted thirty nine exactly. When he started drinking, however, her eyes grew wider with every cup he emptied of coffee. She didn't care about his dumping the salt and pepper into each cup, or how fast he chugged the coffee. To each their own, right?

No, what bothered her was the fact that he was so determined to win.

That, and the fact that she'd hate to have to put him down for a nap. She slightly chuckled at the thought.

"Alright, now…" he said as he began to peel off the stickers on the cups, revealing what his prizes would be.

He peeled off the first, and found that he had won...Nothing.

"Shit..."  He peeled off another.

Nothing. "Aw, dammit!"

Another. Nothing. "Eat a bowl of f**k!"

Another. He won five dollars. "It's a start."

Another. Ten dollars. "I'm on a roll!"

Another. Nothing. "GO f**k YOURSELF UP THE ASS WITH A CHEESE GRATER!"

This went on for about a good five minutes. Five minutes of nothing but him and his obscenities. In the end, he won a grand total of a hundred dollars in all, about a mere twenty more than all of the cup's combined cost. She giggled silently when she learned the number of his winnings, but hid her victorious grin behind her coffee.

Elizabeth smiled as she sat back and watched his daily fate unfold before them both. She sipped her coffee and they both ended up finishing at about the same time. "So, feeling like a winner, yet?" She grinned artfully to herself.

"Y'know…I still made a profit. All it took was risking a heart attack and not being able to sleep for the next month. This has been a good day for me." He shrugged, before noticing his mask was still on the counter.

Her eyes were the only other thing to follow his gaze. "And that's all it took." She repeated back. "Now there's only two questions that remain unanswered." She smiled again. "Was it worth it, and what will you do next?" She leaned over the table, pretending to hold a microphone like a news reporter interviewing a winning contestant to add better emphasis.

"Fffffuck yeah it was worth it." he said, putting his mask back on. Elizabeth rolled her eyes in annoyance and boredom. This little boy across the way hadn't learned a thing, besides looking at the bright side rather than realize how deep his determination could go.

"And I know exactly what I'm doing next."

"Do you, now?" 

He puffed out his chest a bit and he continued as he began toward the exit. His entire body twitched constantly while he did so.

Elizabeth furrowed her brows together. She watched him get up in curiosity before she followed suit. She had considered peeling the sticker off of her own cup and decided against it, seeing as her current partner-in-crime had already moved onto other things. Bigger, brighter things, such as going outside for whatever reason that was deemed worthy at that moment in time.

Elizabeth groaned as she got up from out of her seat and hurried towards the door, not really listening to the bell as it rang that lunch breaks were now over.

She followed quietly behind him as he walked down the streets of the city, thinking of what his next move might be, when she suddenly realized something. "Hey," She called out to him. "What is your name?"

Please don't let it be something long or historic, like Michelangelo, or Donatello, or some other Ninja Turtle name. And please don't let it be something outrageous or exotic like Hubbard or Klondike, or simple or random like Bob or-

"Diego." He looked back at her from over his shoulder.

Her eyebrows rose in interest. "Diego?" She hurried to catch up with him. "I suppose you don't want to mention your last name?"

Just wait, it's going to be something that a lot of people have, like Smith, or Johnson or-

He shrugged. "I would if I remembered it."

Remembered?

She furrowed her brows in confusion. "Sorry, but, what could you mean by that?" She watched him.

"I don't really remember much about my life before I was…ah, maybe fifteen years old or so?" He guessed aloud. "Don't remember where I'm from, don't remember my parents' names, nothin' like that."

Maybe something happened? Elizabeth thought to herself, then shied from the thought once she realized that is wasn't really any of her business. She was quiet for a moment. Finally, after a period of awkward silence, "Oh." Was all she replied with.

"Yeah, and it's not like I'm an amnesiac or anything. I think I might have vague memories about some things. Like my first name, that's a start. I think I dropped outta school when I was...thirteen? I dunno. I guess I just didn't care enough to bother remembering all that shit." He shrugged again.