This is a piece I wrote for my writing class:

Coffee Break

It is an ordinary chain coffee shop. Thousands of people walk in and out of the black metal framed doorway everyday and everyday thousands of people are utterly grateful to have their coffee. The smell of newspaper, and dark, robust coffee beckons people inside, tells them to sit and relax for as long as they like. If these walls could talk they would have a story for everyday. They would tell of conversations, relationships, people, luckily they don’t have to talk because there is always someone around to witness the stories as they happen.

There are very few occasions that have disrupted this calm collected environment, even momentarily, but one such event took place on a brisk autumn evening. It was the kind of evening where you can smell the weather changing from cool to colder. Outside the wind was blowing, pushing people inside where they could be comforted and warmed by dark French roast or Costa Rican blend. The warm, dim lights provided an inviting backdrop for a normal evening. A young couple was sitting at a small table in the back corner of the coffee shop talking quietly. The twenty or so other tables were littered with students talking, working on papers, reading books, and sipping coffee. The hiss of the cappuccino machine worked feverishly to drown out the ability to eavesdrop on any of the conversations. The baristas settled into their routine expecting an ordinary night of mixing modern day cocktails.

A loud sob suddenly interrupted everyone’s pristine silence. The young couple in the corner was arguing. The young man, Nathan, was trying frantically to comfort and quiet his girlfriend but it was too late, they had already attracted the attention of every person in the small coffee shop. She started stammering in between sobs, loud enough to shut the cappuccino machine up, “Nathan, I can NOT believe. . . you. . .are. . . ending it. After. . .four. . .years”. She suddenly realized how hurt and how angry she was and added with full control of her voice now, “and at a coffee shop?!” She calmly collected her things, her cup of coffee, in the cardboard cup with the environmentally safe sleeve to prevent your hands from being burned. She picked up her small designer handbag, searched for the car keys inside, took one last look at Nathan, turned and walked out the door. She never acknowledged the presence of the people staring at her. She just turned and left. Nathan as if surprised by her reaction pulled a small black cell phone out of his pocket and made a quick phone call, “Hey whater you doin? Can you come pick me up? No, the bitch just left me here.” He looked around to find that everyone’s eyes where rested on him and everyone’s ears where hanging on the words coming out of his mouth, “I will be outside”. He flipped his phone closed, picked up his empty coffee cup and walked out the door, leaving all of us, the voyeurs, in a stunned silence.

Everybody slowly went back to their business. People picked up their conversations where they had left them off. The clack of keyboards once again filled the air as the typing of term papers resumed. But for the next fifteen minutes they all stole glances out the tinted, floor to ceiling windows to see if Nathan was still waiting for his ride. A white truck pulled up and he climbed in through the passenger door and drove off, leaving the audience to their normalcy. The cappuccino machine resumed its noisy hissing, providing the comfort that things were indeed back to normal. The serenity had been interrupted for only a few moments but those few moments would change the rest of Nathan’s life, the rest of his girlfriend’s life and even the rest of the audience’s lives. The only object that remained unscathed was the coffee shop. Thousands of people will continue to walk through the black metal framed doorway everyday and everyday those people will be utterly grateful to have their coffee.