[cassie x north]

nebula

私は日本語が話せません
Original poster
DONATING MEMBER
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Speed of Light
  2. Multiple posts per day
  3. 1-3 posts per day
  4. One post per day
  5. 1-3 posts per week
  6. One post per week
  7. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
4 PM to 10 PM
Writing Levels
  1. Adept
  2. Advanced
  3. Prestige
  4. Douche
  5. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
  2. Transgender
  3. Futanari
  4. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
Modern, War, Sports, Racing, Action, Romance, Yuri
c a s s i e
Days at Josiah's Café during this time of year were typically very slow. Even though it was the tail end of the summer break, students had yet to make their way back from wherever it was. Unfortunately for Cassie, home was also where she went to school. Bred, born, and raised in Seattle, she knew these northwestern streets like the back of her hand. It only made sense for her to go to the school in her backyard. It was a slow day, as always at Josiah's. There were a few people in there, but they typically just wanted a cup of coffee and stayed to enjoy the free WiFi.

Cassie also just so happened to be the longest tenured employee in at the cafe at the time. Everyone else had either gone home for the summer, or was greener than her, and as a result she was responsible for making most of the drinks. Cappuccinos, espressos, and whatnot were the name of her game right now. If they were allowed to play their own music, it would've been better, but the owner wanted them to play some easier listening music to avoid offending anyone who couldn't handle a couple of f-bombs. What a shame.

Currently, Cassie was in the front cleaning up a couple of minor stains that a customer had left behind and failed to clean. Customers sucked. Maybe someone could come in and brighten things up for once. Cassie always liked a customer who always tried to make conversation instead of the usual ornery bunch who just came in, ordered their coffee, and got out. That's just what happened in somewhere that was deemed to be the "Next Silicon Valley". You got a bunch of people who felt like they were better than you just because you worked at a minimum wage job.

Cassie looked back at the door, hoping someone else could come in and bring some life into the café.

 
n o r t h

North had been back in Seattle for only a couple of days, it was still fairly warm in the late summer weather, yet she was still very much on her way to her favourite coffee place, books in her backpack to get some reading done before her courses started. She had found that coming back to school with a little more margin before the semester started than most people did was good for her. The arriving back both at school and home was always a bit of a hassle for her. It didn't matter that both places were places she was used to by now, because in the time span she was home she settled into new, and old, routines, that had to be broken when going back to school. Some things seemed to be pretty consistent though and Josiah's Café was one of those things.

She entered the smallish café with a small smile on her lips. The smell, the looks and the feel, all familiar and just how she liked it. It was a little cooler there than outside, and it was very calm and quiet at the moment. She had found this place mid through her first year and decided she liked it, it wasn't super busy at the times she liked to study, the coffee was really good and they had some fantastic brownies. Her order tended to be the same, a brownie and a regular coffee, with a little bit of milk. She wasn't one of those elitist people who claimed things like frappuccinos and whatnot weren't real coffee because they barely contained any coffee, but when she was at a place that actually had a very good version of the beverage she preferred to not have the tastes muddled by sugar and cream.

There was no one behind the counter at that very moment so she could place that order though. Her eyes travelled around the room to see a face that was almost as familiar as the location. The girl who usually had her shift when North came by, cleaning up a table. She was glad it was her because that made it easier to throw out a quick, "Hello," to allert her of her presence. Her family had always called her shy growing up, but she wasn't really, it was more that she sometimes didn't really know how to act around people, and got self-conscious about it. But since she came by so often, saying hello and goodbye to the girl, whose name tag she had noted on multiple occasions said Cassandra, was already something she usually did which made her feel pretty fine about it.

North wasn't really one to make small talk though, she didn't always get the point of it. Or, she got it in theory, but not really in practice, so rather than to say something else she just kind of stood and waited, maybe that was the reason she had only acquired one friend since she started studying in Seattle, but she didn't really know what difference it would make now.
 
c a s s i e
The voice had caught Cassie off guard as she finished up cleaning the table. Nearly dropping her cloth, Cassie whipped around only to see a familiar face. She'd seen this girl around for, but she hadn't really quite caught her name before. From what she had overheard, she was referred to as "North". Cassie honestly thought that was a codename or something like that, because there was no way that someone would be named "North". Just the idea boggled her brain. She wasn't one to judge, though. At least that girl had a cool name unlike hers. Cassie had to come up with a nickname to get away from her overly bougie name. If this girl's name was really "North", then that was going to be something that was going to trip her up for a while.

Stuffing the towel in her apron, she turned around and started to head behind the counter, "Sorry about that! It's been a slow day today, so I thought I'd just take the time to get things cleaned up." Cassie finally arrived behind the cashier, where she unlocked the iPad that controlled the entire system and looked at the girl who was waiting to order. Th menu at Josiah's Cafe was relatively reasonably priced. This was Seattle, so there was definitely a lot of competition around. The owner knew that they couldn't compete with the quality of their coffee, because there was such an overabundance of cafes in the area. As a result, they decided to take it a different direction and focus on the environment instead.

The efforts had paid off. The reviews on Yelp had said that the cafe had such a warm, welcoming environment to it. It was a great place to be for any occasion, whether it'd be studying or getting together with your friends. This was geared toward the students of the University of Washington, but from time to time people not from the University would come in. Cassie didn't know how she managed to find this place, but she fell in love with it as soon as she walked in - one thing lead to another and here she was behind the cash register of one of her most favorite places in the entire city.

"Hey... you're that North girl, right?" Cassie asked curiously, taking the opportunity to verify the information she'd heard about the girl, "I'm just askin' since I've seen you come in so much but I've never been able to really put a name to the face." Hopefully this girl wouldn't notice Cassie's sly attempt at verifying that her name was in fact North. She smiled sheepishly as she further waited for the girl to make her order.
 
n o r t h

North was a little taken aback by the question, mostly because they usually didn't exchange more words than customary between the customer and the person behind the register. She was asking about her name, somehow she had gotten to know it, she had taken a cup to go once or twice when other people had shifts so they would have probably caught it, it was the kind of name people took note of, or got completely wrong when writing it on a cup because they thought she was making it up or something.

Her name was kind of silly, she would always be the first one to admit it, she liked that it was unique, but the combination of her first and last name literally sounded like a location. Because it was. And it was something she had really realized when getting to Washington, seeing as the city of Everett was just north of Seattle. She blamed her parents a little for not thinking it through completely. But when it came to unusual names she supposed it was one of the cooler ones.

"Yeah, that's me I guess," North said with a shrug, "Um... Could I have a large coffee and a brownie?" she asked this as if she had to actually think about it and it was just what she always ordered, maybe it was a little self-centered to assume it, but she was pretty sure the other girl would at least have an idea of what she got when he came here so there was no real point to act as if she wasn't planning it. She supposed that was just how you usually ordered things. She was quiet for a moment after that, wondering if she was supposed to talk more since Cassandra had actually instigated something, small talk was weird.

"You're Cassandra right?" She decided to say as she waited, "Like I know your name tag says it, but you never know,"
 
c a s s i e
Hearing North make her order, she internally facepalmed. How could she have forgotten? The girl ordered pretty much the same thing every single time she came in here. But on the other hand, what if she wanted to switch things up for once? Better safe than sorry. Using the butt end of her pen, she tapped in the order. Large coffee... and a brownie. Looking at North as she reciprocated the question, Cassie chuckled, "Yeah, it says Cassandra, but I go by Cassie." She shrugged, as she received the payment for North's order, "Cassandra just sounds like some entitled princess who throws a fit every time daddy doesn't buy her a new Mercedes. That ain't me, so I go by Cassie." Taking the sticker for North's cup of coffee out, she pasted it onto the cup. The stickers had North's name on it, as well as anything she wanted adjusted in it, which was nothing. "Anyway, North, I'll call you as soon as your things are ready."

This wasn't some cheap coffee shop. North, along with any other customer wasn't going to be served some coffee out of a dispenser. Cassie had to make the whole thing from scratch, starting from the beans. Getting a coffee filter over an empty pot, Cassie figured she should just make an entire pot anyway. They were low and it was about time that new ones be made. She then grabbed the ground coffee beans that they used, which just so happened to be very expensive, by the way, and put enough scoops on the filter to make a pot full of coffee. Coffee didn't need to be this tedious, but that was what the people of Seattle wanted, and that was what they were getting. It wasn't like Cassie minded, anyway. Making coffee like this helped her be more mindful of whatever she was doing, instead of just dong things all willy-nilly.

Grabbing a kettle of hot water, Cassie was preparing to pour it over the ground up beans. Looking back at the girl, she couldn't help but to see that she looked a little lonely. Usually, she'd just leave them alone and leave them be, but she was a frequent enough customer for Cassie to justify her starting some small conversation with her. As she slowly poured the water over the coffee beans and the filter, a much darker substance came out from underneath and into the pot. "So... you ready for school to start again? I know I am... gives me something to do besides working all day." Cassie eventually finished pouring all the water in, now she just had to let the remaining water filter through so that every single bit of the grounds could be used. "I'm not looking forward to the long nights ahead of me, though... or all the studying I'm going to have to do."

Taking the brief moment of spare time she had, she turned around to grab North's brownie out of the cooled display out front. Cassie was surprised people actually bought these. They were good, but she was thoroughly surprised to see just how many people actually bought the various foods they had out front. Turning back around, she then saw that North's coffee was done. Peeling off the coffee filter, Cassie chucked it in the trash can before pouring out a large cup for North. The great thing with making coffee was that there wasn't much else she had to do. The more complicated drinks, like smoothies or cappuccinos required a lot more effort, which Cassie didn't really like. Putting one of those cardboard sleeves on North's cup, she walked over to the counter where you were supposed to pick up your drinks and Cassie gingerly put North's order on there. "North? Your order's ready!"
 
N o r t h

The sounds of Cassie preparing the coffee in the background was nice and pleasant, and so was the smell of coffee that had already been present in the café as North entered intensified a little. It was no wonder she liked studying there. It was very different from the larger coffee chains, and the atmosphere was just so nice, plus it was close to campus, which was always a bonus. North had really started to feel like she could focus better there and that was probably true, it was like sitting in the library where there were fewer distractions, only it felt like you were minding your own business a little since you weren't surrounded by a bunch of people trying to study for the same thing as you.

As Cassie went to go make the coffee, North went to go set up her things by her usual table. She had one table she liked to sit by, a little of to the corner where she had found there was an outlet so she didn't have to worry about her laptop or phone dying while studying. If that seat was empty she had a second favourite, but luckily she didn't have to look for that one as today didn't seem to be a very busy day at the café.

She got out her laptop, and the textbook she had decided to bring as well as the notebook she'd be using with that and her pencil case, it was one of those you could open up like a book and contained various pens, pencils, highlighters and so on, all for studying. She was one of those weird people who really enjoyed the task, which was why the things Cassie proceeded to say peeked her interest a little. Not because her opinion on it was different from most people's, at least based on what she said as she wasn't looking forward to the studying apparently, but just because the topic went from small talk to something she kind of cared about. So when Cassie announced her coffee was done and North went to grab it she considered maybe continuing the conversation. Would that be okay? She wasn't entirely sure, Cassie could just be polite and she was working, but adding just a little to it couldn't hurt.

As she stood there, coffee in one hand, brownie in the other, she decided to just go for it, "I'm actually looking forward to the studying... I guess I'm kind of a nerd," she said with another shrug, tone matching her feelings towards the excitement of studying just a little, she sounded happy about it at least, "It'll just be fun to learn more of the stuff I'm actually here for, ya know,"
 
c a s s i e
Cassie raised an eyebrow upon hearing that North actually like studying. That was odd. Cassie had never heard of anyone who actually liked studying. Studying was just one of those tedious things that people had to do. There were numerous things that Cassie would have rather done instead of studying, like sleeping or being here. She didn't want to spend nights hunched over a textbook or in front of a computer reading shit she wasn't going to remember in a year's time. Studying was dumb, but at the same time it was the smartest thing someone could do for their education other than actually claiming it and taking it as far as it is meant to go.

"Really? You actually like studying?" Cassie smiled just a bit. "I guess you're right. No more stupid stuff like history or chemistry." Cassie was an economics major, so unfortunately for her math was very much still in the picture for her. Truth be told, she didn't know why she picked economics. Most of the graphs glazed over her head and she just fell asleep thinking about it, but it was far too late for her to do anything else. At least she'd be able to do something once she graduated. That was what kept her going as much as she hated it.

Looking at the front door, it looked like nobody was even close to coming in. It was the slowest hour of the slowest day, a prime opportunity for Cassie to start dicking around instead of making stuff. Being the vigilant and proactive person that she was, most of the tasks that she needed to get done were done, and those that weren't done could be done much, much later. Cassie had a lot of free time, and she liked that. Gave her more time to converse with a customer.
"What are you 'here" for?" Cassie asked curious, as she took a rag from her apron and started to wipe the counter to pretend to look busy.


 
n o r t h

Talking about school was something North tended to enjoy, even when she was being somewhat questioned because she liked studying, that tended to be the reaction so she couldn't really blame Cassie for it, and she seemed to get where she was coming from. North just kind of figured most people would be excited to get to their majors, but as she had found out not all people pursued majors the were necessarily super interested in.

"Oh, I'm majoring in Aeronautics and Astronautics," North said, it was a question she, and honestly any college student who occasionally saw their extended family, had answered, "um, like, basically aircraft and satellite stuff, my main focus is on the Astronautics though," she added quickly, she got a confused look or two when mentioning it to family before. None of them were ever surprised when she did explain though, nor when she explained her full plan of reading Aeronautics and Astronautics, and then moving on to get a masters in aerospace engineering and then the dream was to work for NASA. She knew she was being ambitious, and maybe overly so, but this was what she wanted and so far it was going well.

She wondered what Cassie was reading though, she didn't really know her so it didn't really matter, but she doubted she was majoring in coffee making, with a minor in serving up brownies, and was planning on spending the rest of her life in this café. It was just a little weird to imagine her not there though. She had taken note of her on campus once or twice when seeing her, but it still felt like she just kind of belonged in the café in a weird way, maybe because she had been working there as long as North had been going there.

North went back to her table so she didn't have it weirdly stand there with her items, they could still talk if they wanted to, and despite never having really talked to Cassie before, now North felt kind interested in doing so, and continued to speak to her even as she sat down, "What are you doing now that you don't have to do history and chemistry anymore, then?"
 
c a s s i e
Figuring that it was weird to be talking to North across the cafe instead of getting much closer, Cassie once again abandoned her post behind the cashier. She knew that whoever was going to come in probably wasn't going to be happy that Cassie wasn't already there to do their bidding, but Cassie couldn't have cared less about what they thought. Besides, she was the one making their coffee anyway. Grabbing her rag once again, Cassie walked over next to North and started to wipe the table next to her. Aeronautics and Astronautucs, eh? That was a cool major. Space was cool, but the math was far too difficult for Cassie to even fathom.

"Really? That's cool." Cassie beamed, as she crouched down and started cleaning areas she'd never cleaned before. North came across to Cassie as a fine arts major, but the fact that she was wrong had impressed her substantially. There were very few people with the balls to tackle such a difficult subject, and she guessed North had more guts to her than she'd previously thought. That was really cool. Cassie always wondered what it took to get into the field and work for space companies like NASA or SpaceX. Maybe North could enlighten her one of these days, if she ever showed up on a slow day like today again.

"Me? I'm an Economics major. Graphs about money." Cassie shrugged, blowing a lock of blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face out the way as she stood up after wiping the chairs down. "It's deathly boring, but if I get a fat paycheck in my bank account every month then that's the price I'm willing to pay." As materialistic as she sounded, she wasn't wrong at all. Hell, it was the reason she was even at this cafe in the first place. She didn't enjoy making coffee for ornery customers. She just enjoyed the paycheck that it brought her, so that she could do things she actually wanted to do.

Putting her arms on her hips, Cassie rolled up her sleeve to reveal just a slight bit of her tattoo sleeve. The sleeve consisted of various flowers and animals, and the part North could see was a couple of rose petals. It wasn't intentional, but it was starting to get warm in the coffee shop and Cassie didn't like being sweaty. Glancing back at North, she saw that she was actually studying.
"What do you have going on over there? Am I disturbin' ya?"
 
Economics, North took a sip of her coffee, which lived up to all expectations she had about it, as she thought about it. Cassie somehow didn't strike her as an economics major, but she didn't really know where to place her either. Maybe she would have assumed something like English, she wasn't really sure why, she didn't know Cassie and she wasn't the best at reading people, but she worked in a coffee shop, which was a little hipstery and English felt a little hipstery too. Plus, as she revealed a small portion of her arms North could see some tattoos, and that didn't really scream accountant -- or whatever else it was you could become with a degree in economics.

When asked what she was doing, North looked down at her unopened books for a second, "I was just going to do some pre-course-start reading, just to read ahead, you know, makes it less stressful later," Despite her liking to study, North had a tendency to be a little forgetful sometimes, so making sure she read ahead a little made sure there were no random surprises with things she had forgotten about and thus not prepared anything at all for.

The question was though, if she wanted to push the studying aside a little for now and tell Cassie she wasn't disturbing her. If she wanted to study, Cassie would probably be disturbing a bit, but North felt like she maybe didn't mind all that much. They had existed in each other's lives for ages now, but they had never talked, it was both weird and kind of exciting at the same time. North wasn't even really one to be social to begin with, but mostly because she didn't seek it out or felt the need for it very often. When an opportunity to chat presented itself she wouldn't just automatically turn it down though so she decided to go ahead and say, "But you're not really disturbing, no," and even proceded to continue the conversation by adding, "I don't think I could ever study something I thought was boring, even if it gave me a good job afterwards, so that's pretty impressive,"
 
"Is it, though?" Oh boy, here it came. Cassie certainly felt a type of way about topics like this. "Plenty of people do it. Not like we have a choice, y'know? It's either we give into what society wants in exchange of living a comfortable life, or we go against what society wants and we live a shitty life. The chances of breaking that cycle are like next to none." Honestly, if Cassie had her way and the world was the way Cassie wanted it, she could be studying English right now. But nope. This county decided that teachers simply weren't worth the money, even though they were an essential part to ensuring this country had a bright future. It frustrated Cassie, but she wasn't about to go against the grain herself when it came to that. As much as she wanted to, there was already so much about her that was against societal norms. From the tattoos that adorned her body, to her political views, even to the way she liked her food. Cassie was jealous of North, at least she whatever she enjoyed to study also happened to line up with having a well paying job.

Sighing, Cassie looked up at the clock. It was almost four o'clock, which meant it was almost the end of her shift. Breathing outwards, she once again stuffed the rag in her apron. "Hey, listen... I'm off at four. Are you gonna be around by then? Or do you have any other plans?" Cassie, as usual, didn't have any plans. it was summer, and most of her friends were off doing other things like being in other people's houses and getting drunk off of shitty beer. Cassie then had another brain spark. Seemed like Cassie was just full of great ideas today! Pulling out her pad of paper, because god forbid someone actually ordered more than one drink in an order, Cassie wrote down her phone number and slipped it to North. "As much as I'd love to stay and talk, I have things to do before I leave today. However, if you're ever lonely and I'm not here... you know where to find me."

Cassie gave North a quick wink, before turning back around and back behind the counter to do the things she needed to do. Hopefully she'd be there when she clocked off.
 
n o r t h

North frowned down at the slip of paper for a second, not really sure what to do with it or what implications came with it. She did say it was for if she ever got lonely, which was weird and maybe a joke, but she mostly was at the café when Cassie was there, so what was the point? Still, she put the paper in her pencil case for safe keeping, and maybe to keep it out of her brain, and opened her book, going back to her normal routine of sipping her coffee, gnawing at her brownie, and taking color-coded notes based on what she was reading.

When she felt done for the day, she packed up her things and left as normal. She wondered if she should say goodbye to Cassie, but she couldn't really find her and thus opted not to and just went back to the dorms. The next day she didn't really go to the cafe, she liked studying but it was also tiring and she wouldn't really do it two days in a row unless she had to. She also didn't really think much of Cassie or the slip of paper in her pencil case. If you were friends with her you'd know that didn't really mean anything, North kind of just needed to be approached by other people to do something, she wasn't really one to instigate hanging out, or who really knew how to put together a text to a stranger. Whenever she did think about it, she mostly just decided she'd do it later when she could focus on it for a while and then she forgot.

The next day she did go to Josiah's, and Cassie was working so North said hello and smiled at her as she ordered her usual cup of coffee and brownie, though they didn't really talk much that day and North went back to studying as usual. And then the past days repeated themselves again, though with a longer two-day break in between because she had gotten caught up streaming some show she got recommended to her by one of her friends back home.

When North came into the cafe again that day, Cassie's number was half gone from her head. She hadn't really registered herself how much time had passed since she got it, and had thought 'maybe later' enough that later probably wouldn't ever come. But since Cassie was there once again as she arrived she did already talk to her, so in North's mind, there wasn't a huge point in texting as well.

Once again the cafe wasn't overly busy, though it was a little more so as the summer was coming to an end, people would be coming by on their break from work and students who were slowly dropping into the dorms were looking for places to spend time until the semester started. The was no line though and North walked up to the cash register as casually as normal, and said a pretty decently happy, "Hello," to Cassie who was standing behind it, feeling on a little more friendly terms with her now she requested, "the usual, please?" instead of saying her entire order, assuming Cassie would know it.
 
c a s s i e
The oddity of the next few days after Cassie's encounter with North had honestly been way beyond her. This girl clearly wasn't from around here, because the way people did things around here was that they people tended to text or call whenever they were given a number. It wasn't like Cassie was interested in North in that way. She didn't even think she swung that way in the first place anyway. She just wanted to get to know her better. She seemed interesting enough, but apparently she didn't feel the same way about her. That definitely harshed Cassie's vibe. She tried not to let such petty things bother her, but for whatever reason this was one that was going to stick with her for a bit.

North had come in, of course, but not much had amounted from it, much to Cassie's dismay. As much as she wanted to bond with the interesting girl, it became more and more apparent she just didn't feel that way. Of course, there was always the off chance that she straight up just forgot or lost the paper, but Cassie had a very good hunch that it wasn't the reason why. The interactions with North had devolved back into the simple order and idle chit chat about some menial things that Cassie didn't pay much mind to, like the weather. It was Seattle in the summer, if it wasn't raining then it was sunny. It wasn't very noteworthy for the person who'd lived here for nearly two decades.

The next day rolled around, and Cassie was yet again working another shift at Josiah's. She was in some sort of mood, considering she had just finished up dealing with a textbook ornery customer, who demanded that their coffee be made with some sort of bean that they definitely didn't have. Cassie wasn't in the mood to be nice or to coat things with a sugar shell. Today, she was more in a blunt and 'fuck you' kinda mood. Being in customer service just killed your soul the more time that you spent there. Seeing North roll in, Cassie internally rolled her eyes. Great. Was there going to be more idle, meaningless chit chat? Cassie was absolutely dying to find out.

Raising an eyebrow as North asked for the 'usual', Cassie sighed and proceeded to tap away at the register system. "Odd. You expect me to remember your order, but you can't remember to give me a text or a call." Tapping the screen particularly hard to finish up North's order, Cassie flashed a not-so-genuine smile, "Ain't that something?"
 
n o r t h

North's smile faltered instantly and her cheeks flushed a little as Cassie called her out on doing something she apparently had done wrong without realising. The fact that not calling Cassie would affect the other girl had never really crossed her mind. She just barely called her friends normally and they didn't get mad, they knew that was how she worked. But Cassie didn't. She hadn't explicitly told her to call though? So wouldn't she have told her to call her plain and simply instead of adding that part about doing it if she was lonely if she really had wanted her to call? Maybe she was more mad about how she had ordered? Was that a rude way to order? She had said please? And smiled? That was what you did to be nice?

... No, she was probably mad about the not calling, but the smiling was throwing her off. She wasn't stupid, she kind of got that it wasn't a normal and friendly smile, she looked quite bitter, actually. But it was the figuring out why she wasn't just being blunt about it that was hard. Did the smile mean she wanted North to act as if it was nothing? Or was she trying to hie that she was angry because if so she wasn't doing a very good job. The whole situation was making North not only nervous but kind of self-conscious. She knew she messed up and read people wrong sometimes, she didn't really know why, probably just because she wasn't very social and didn't have many friends. But it was frustrating and kind of embarrassing.

"Oh um, I'm sorry? I just come here a lot so I thought you would remember and it would be easier than saying the entire order for the both of us," she said, clearly flustered as she was speaking a little faster than usual. She was trying to explain herself with what had actually happened. She really hadn't meant to insult Cassie by ordering the usual or anything, she hated when things like these happened, because usually people just didn't really get it and it'd sound like she was making bad excuses, "And you said to call if I felt lonely but I didn't and I saw you here anyways so I didn't realise I was supposed to text you?"
 
c a s s i e
Cassie looked at North with a somewhat confused look on her face as she went on about something regarding her order. That wasn't what she meant at all. Cassie had no problems memorizing people's usual orders. The least she could do for reoccurring, loyal customers was that she could remember their orders if they had a tendency to order the same things over and over again. Apparently though, North had gotten the wrong idea about what she was supposed to do. Grunting in frustration, Cassie stuck the sticker for North's order on the coffee cup once again before turning to her and receiving some payment. "That's not what I meant. I know what your order is. Yeah, you were supposed to text. That's kinda what receiving a number means?" Cassie raised her eyebrow curiously once again, "Have you ever received someone's phone number outside of school?"

Cassie then started to make North's order. This time she had made a full cup of coffee prior to North's arrival, so this time the order would be taking not as much time as it did a few days ago. She just poured the coffee in the cup with a sleeve on it already, and put it on the counter along with the brownies. Lucky for North, the brownies were fresh today, so she was going to get a much more delectable treat than she did a few days ago. Watching her, Cassie tsked. "You afraid of phones or something like that?" Cassie asked curiously, "I'm just curious, that's all."

Cassie didn't want to come across as being big time confrontational, but she couldn't help herself. Cassie looked at North with an inquisitive look on her face. Even though North was right there in the flesh half the time, being ghosted was something that drove Cassie nuts. Cassie hated putting effort in only to get none of it back in return. If she put in time for you, you best damn well believe that she expected you to put in time for her as well. She didn't think it was fair that she had to put in more effort than whoever she was talking to. North, was definitely no exception.
 
n o r t h

It was a lot harder to figure out what Cassie wanted than last time they exchanged just a few words. Now she went from angry to something else that North couldn't quite place until Cassie specifically stated she was curious. But even if she was saying she was curious she was grunting and tsk-ing, so maybe she was also mad on top of it.

Either way North felt uncomfortable and she kept her gaze on the coffee as it was being poured and placed on the counter along with the brownies. North really didn't like it when people got mad at her, because often it was about things she hadn't even realised she was doing. Like now, apparently Cassie seemed to think what she had done was rude, and acting pleasant while seeing her now made it even worse. And North had actually thought the opposite, not even realising that was how Cassie felt. Which was pretty embarrassing in itself.

"I'm not scared of phones?" it was just a phone, sure sometimes she wasn't sure how to deal with text because you couldn't really hear people's tone of voice, but she wasn't afraid of phones, that'd be silly. Maybe Cassie had just been joking, though she did not really sound like it, "But I just usually exchange numbers with people when it's needed for something so I'm not used to getting numbers like that and I didn't realise I was supposed to text you right away because that wasn't what you said." her tone was a little rambly, just trying to list the reason why things turned out as they did in hopes that Cassie wouldn't start to dislike her, "But I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you, if I did I wouldn't even be here?"
 
c a s s i e
Listening to North try to explain herself, Cassie suddenly felt more sympathetic to the girl. At least she was brave enough to outright say it. She just simply didn't know what to do in scenarios like this. Cassie had gotten all riled up over nothing and she sort of felt bad for it. It was pretty easy to get on Cassie's bad side. Just the littlest thing could piss her off. But for whatever reason, whenever she got a reason upfront, she felt less angry about it. Sure she was annoyed, but for whatever reason that anger just melted away. Guess that little part of Cassie was right, she just didn't know what to do about it. That same part of Cassie now felt bad for even getting mad at North in the first place.

Sighing, Cassie made a waving gesture, dismissing whatever resentment she had towards North. "It's fine. I guess you didn't know what to do." Damn, now all of her started to feel kinda bad. North did have a point. If she wanted nothing to do with her, then why did she keep coming and coming? Scratching her head, Cassie was doing her best to banish those silly thoughts out of her head. She had nobody to blame but herself for this. It was a simple miscommunication, yet Cassie had blown it out of proportion like she usually did. It was just one of the many reasons it was hard for her to maintain meaningful relationships with people.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know." Cassie had to swallow her pride. She hated apologizing just as much as any other person, but she felt North deserved it. She wasn't just going to leave her hanging like that especially with the shit that Cassie just flung at her. She looked away and started to tend to other things. The blonde was much too embarrassed to even look at her right now.
 
n o r t h

Cassie seemed to give up her anger and apologize. Apologizes North knew. She'd have to apologize a lot to make of when she messed up like this and had learned over the years that t wasn't too bad, it was a little frustrating when it felt like you hadn't done anything wrong, but mostly she had without realizing. But it wasn't just that, it was basically someone verbalizing their emotions, as if explicitly saying 'I am happy about this' or 'this specific thing made me angry' so she didn't have to feel so confused about Cassie's apparent mix of emotions, and North happily aid, "It's fine," with a small shrug. It was all just a misunderstanding, so no one and both of them were to blame.

She was just about to go sit down and pretend this didn't happen for as long as possible before leaving early when she remembered that she still had Cassie's number in her pencil case. It wasn't like she had lost it and that was the reason she hadn't texted. So she could still text her, but she still wasn't sure if she was supposed to.

"Um... Does that mean you still want me to text you later?" North asked awkwardly after a second or two of hesitation. It was better to ask than not to and end up with the same awkward situation as today. It'd be totally embarrassing to have Cassie tell her no, now, but at least now she'd know and that would prevent future embarrassing situations, and she couldn't end u with embarrassing situations every time she went to the cafe, then she'd have to find some new place to get coffee at and she really didn't want that. And she didn't really want to upset Cassie either.
 
c a s s i e
Cassie had been left to her own convictions as time had passed. She was in the middle of cleaning something once North asked if she should still text her or not. Stopping in the middle of whatever she was doing, she paused to think of an answer. If Cassie had answered yes, then she would've felt like she was coercing North into something she didn't want to do in the first place, but at the same time, it pushed her own agenda, and it wasn't even that harmful anyway. What was it going to be? Was it going to be her, or was it going to be North? Cassie scratched her chin as she tried to think of an answer. It was a lot harder than she'd thought.

Popping up from underneath the counter, Cassie's head was only visible from North's point of view. "If you wanna, go ahead. I'm not gonna stop you if you do, but I'm also not going to make you if you don't want to." That was the best way for Cassie to go about it. Just push the choice onto her instead. Cassie felt proud of herself after coming up with such a genius answer. She continued to clean underneath, before she realized she forgot an important detail. Poking her head back up, Cassie waved her hand to try to get North's attention. "Hey! Psst!"

"Don't uh... text me right now. You can text me whenever you want, if you want, just not right now." Cassie then slid back underneath the counter, going back to doing whatever it was she had stopped herself from doing.
 
n o r t h

"Oh yeah, obviously,"
North said smiling a little at the way Cassie was popping out from behind the counter, though honestly she probably would have considered it, "I'll make sure not to disturb you as you perform you coffee making duties," she shot Cassie a small grin and decided it was time to retreat to her usual table where she sat down and picked up her studying where she had left off last time, which had her completely absorbed for a couple of hours. When she got in the zone, she got in the zone. It was always hell when she couldn't do that, mainly with things she wasn't interested in, but since this definitely was something she cared about she just didn't really care about anything for a while.

Soon enough it was getting to a point where even she needed a bit of a break, and by a bit, a longer one, since she had been at it for a while. So she packed up her things and went to leave. It was then she started to think about Cassie though, she decided that to compensate for upsetting her she'd make sure she knew she would text and when she went out the door she smiled and said, "I'll text you," instead of goodbye.

That, of course, meant she couldn't procrastinate or forget it. She didn't text right when she got back to her dorm room, since she knew Cassie was probably working still. But an hour or so later she decided to shoot a text, she wondered a little if Cassie was expecting her to write something specific, maybe apologise for not doing it before, but she decided to keep it simple and just typed out 'Hello, it's North!' and added a coffee mug and a sparkle emoji afterwards for good measure.