Darkness’s Queen

”Hey, Lillian, sorry about Abby, ” he apologizes without getting up from his desk. Granted, he does sit in the cluster of desks beside us, so its not like he needs to get up anyways.

”Its fi- ”

”You should get your feral cat under control, ” Isa demands as she harshly glares at Nick, purposefully cutting my sentence off. She doesn really like it when I quickly accept the insincere apologies from people like Nick. She says it makes me more of a pushover.

John shakes his head as he gets his binder out for the class. ”Lily, you should stand up for yourself more. You
e too kind to the wrong people. ”

[Its not like I want to be kind. Its just that I can get in trouble. I have to be the perfect student who doesn get caught up in drama.]

I shyly laugh to myself as I rest my head on my desk while waiting for class to start. ”Ill keep that in mind. ”

”Will you really? ” asks a voice from under my head. Surprised, I jerk my head up.

”You good, Lily? ” Isa questions, setting her warm hand on my back.

[No! At least not for the same reason as just earlier!]

”Yeah, yeah, Im fine. I thought I forgot something, but just remembered that I already did it. ” John and Isabelle just kind of slowly nod since they are used to my weird antics, so I lay my head back down, facing my desk. ”You gotta give me some sort of warning before speaking out of nowhere! ” I hushly yell to the darkness.

”Sorry, that was my fault, ” Zaku admits, sighing at his rookie mistake. ”Anyways, are you really going to keep what that boy said in mind? ”

”Do you mean when he said that I should stand up for myself more? ” I whisper.

”Yeah. I know you want to keep your image of being a good student and all, but you
e building it in the wrong direction. Do I need to intervene? ”

Confused, I furrow my eyebrows at the void. ”What do you mean to intervene? ”

”I can always put a spell on that rude girl who shoved you if you say the words. ”

I think a bit to myself, taking in what Zaku is saying. That is when an idea pops up. ”Actually, I have a better idea. ”

”What is it? ”

”Give me any and every piece of information regarding Abigail Roman and Nick Limson that you have. Im going to change the direction that Im building my image. ”

—

The next day rolls around, and it hasn even been ten minutes after I open the doors to the schools cafe when Abigail and Nick waltz into the cafe.

”Good morning! What can I get for you today? ” I ask the two in my best customer service voice.

”Nicky~ Can you buy me a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin? ” Abigail pleads, staring up at Nick and rubbing his arm.

”Two cups of coffee, three pumps of french vanilla and two sugars each, a banana nut muffin, and a blueberry muffin, ” Nick orders as he tries to discreetly push Abigail away from me.

[I guess hes trying to make it seem like hes not interested in her so that he can save face from yesterdays incident.]

Repeating the order back to the pair, I input it into the POS system. ”That will be $5. ” Nick pulls out his wallet and hands me a wrinkly $5 bill. ”If you wait over to the right, your coffee will be ready soon. In the meantime, here are your muffins. ”

Nick nods his head and proceeds over to the area I gestured to with Abigail following close behind. After a few minutes or so, the pair receives their coffee and head over to a table to sit down when, suddenly, Abigail makes a scene about the taste of the coffee.

”This coffee tastes awful! ” she yells as she wipes her mouth with the tissue. ”Did you even wash the coffee machine properly yesterday? ”

Since I am the point person in charge for the day, I walk over to the table that the pair are sitting at. ”Is the coffee not to your taste? ”

”No, it tastes disgustingly bitter as if it was left over from yesterday. Go fix me a new cup. ” I can see the grin form on her face before it disappears as she ”hands ” me her cup. ”Oh! Im so sorry. I didn mean to spill the hot coffee on you. ”

Keeping my cool, I unravel the cloth inside my pocket and lightly dab my shirt to get the coffee off. ”Its perfectly fine, ” I respond with a bright smile. ”I know this isn your first time. Isn this why you got fired from your last three jobs? It seems like spilling drinks on people you don like is a common occurrence. Its also the reason why you can get hired in the food industry anymore because word of mouth about your actions spreads like wildfire. ”

Appalled, Abigail steps back. ”Wha-what are you talking about? How did you know that? ”

”I know everything about you. How you sniff your toenails after clipping them. How you are also trying to get with two other guys on the football team, one guy on the soccer team, and three male teachers, all while clinging onto Nick here who isn innocent either. ”

”You
e just spouting lies to make me look bad! ” Abigail yells as she throws the empty coffee cup at me.

I catch the cup before it hits me in the face and glare at her. ”Throwing things is also a bad habit of yours. Its also why you can work in local hotels and department stores. Word of mouth about you throwing objects at people who boss you around is just as potent as your habit of spilling things. You
e an awful person all around. No wonder your parents are planning on kicking you out as soon as you graduate. I wouldn want to be in the same house as you either. ”

”You
e going too far now, Lilian, ” Nick finally butts in as he offers to help me wipe the floor. ”I understand that Abby is a bit mean, but you shouldn say such harsh things to her. ”

”You shouldn be saying that when you beat up your ex-girlfriend that you are forced to keep around because you got her pregnant, ” I whisper into Nicks ear with an innocent smile on my face. ”You say harsh things to her just like Abigail. ”

Nicks bewildered expression is absolutely liberating to the point where it felt like a high to see such despair on peoples faces. ”How?! How did you know that? ” he loudly asks.

”How did I know what, Nick? ” Knowing he couldn repeat what I whispered to him out loud, Nick slowly backs away from me. I stand up from the floor and gesture over to the door. ”It seems that you are disrupting the other students who are trying to enjoy their breakfast before class starts, so Im going to have to ask you to leave the schools cafe before I have to get security in here. ”

Not sure of what to do, Abigail and Nick hurriedly leave the schools cafe leaving their unopened muffins on the table. I let out a huge sigh of relief as I finally am able to stand up for myself for the first time with Zakus help since Abigail and Nicholas started bothering me in freshman year when Isabelle suddenly jumps on my back.

”Lily! That was amazing! How did you know all of that stuff about Nick and Abby? ” Isa asks as she shakes my shoulders. ”Moreover, what has gotten into you? I have never seen you talk back to someone before. ”

”Some things have been happening to me, so I thought that I should change if I want to become a better person, ” I explain while grabbing Isas hands from my shoulders. ”Do you think you can help me clean this mess up? ”

Isabelle frantically nods and zips off to go fetch the mop and bucket. I continue to dab the leftover coffee on my shirt when I hear my name being called.

”Lilian Frose, ” calls one of the secretary ladies from the front cafe doors. ”Theres someone at the front who has asked for you. He said that you called him to bring a set of clothes for you, and it seems to be true seeing how your clothes are dirty. ”

”Thank you, Ms. Green. I will come after I clean this up. ”

”No, no, you go change clothes, ” John persuades, pushing me towards the door. ”Isabelle and I can clean up here. You
e going to smell like coffee if you don change now. ”

Giving in to Johns persistence, I leave the cafe and follow the lady to the front office where I find Zaku waiting for me with a bag in his hands.

”Lilian! I brought the clothes you asked for, ” Zaku says with a wide grin plastered on his face.