The Big Fish by Madison Henley (best free e reader .TXT) 📕

Keliah thanked her, Meredith crawled back into her bed and went back to sleep. Keliah smiled and put on her earrings. She dug through Meredith’s belongings to find some mascara and eyeliner to put on and then put on her outfit. It was casual but pretty. Meredith did a good job, Keliah thought, as she looked herself over in the mirror. She grabbed the book on her nightstand that she was expected to read over break as well as take two tests and write a paper for Georgia’s class and took the elevator down to the ground floor. The sky was a light blue with hints of purple still showing from the early sunrise as it was seven thirty. The wind was blowing briefly, stirring up colorful leaves around Keliah as she walked to her favorite café. The bell went off when Keliah pushed the door open and a smile cascaded on her face. The smell of sweet coffee filled her nostrils and Keliah felt a spark inside of her. She couldn’t wait to see Georgia; she was getting ready to explode. Keliah stood in line behind two people, too thrilled to care that the man in front of her was taking too long to make a decision on whether to purchase a jelly croissant or plain.

“Keliah?”

A second cashier came up behind the counter and Keliah immediately darted her eyes to him. The man motioned for her to step forward.

“Hi, I’m Nate. We’ve noticed that you come in here just about every day and get your order of one sweet latte and one plain chamomile tea and the manager wanted to tell you how much we appreciate your service so much and that we are going to make you a Pro Member.”

“Cool?”

Keliah smiled at the guy. What the hell was a Pro Member?

“You will get your latte and tea discounted of 10% from now on. Just bring this card every time you purchase it just in case someone has a problem.”

The guy handed Keliah a gold membership card with the café’s logo in the corner of it and Keliah’s name at the bottom with her university's name above it.

“Thank you I really appreciate it. This is very kind of you to do this. I’m kind of honored. You guys have like the best coffee.”

“So we’ve been told. My father owns this shop, I’m a freshman here at school and I just work here part time, this is actually my first day but I know that everyone here tries to serve their customers in tip-top shape.”

“Well you guys do.”

“Thank you so much. I’ll get started on that latte and tea now.”

Nate went in the back to go make Keliah’s order.

“Shoot.”

“What?”

Keliah peeked over behind the counter to see what the problem was.

“Latte machine is messing up. It’ll take just a sec. I’ll go make your tea while we're waiting.”

Nate went into the back to make Georgia’s tea. Keliah looked at the vintage clock hanging up in the café to see that it was 8:05. Class started five minutes ago. Damn. Now she couldn’t have her one-on-one talk she usually did in the mornings with Georgia.

“Here you go.”

Nate slid the cup of hot tea to Keliah along with a napkin and turned his back to work on the latte machine.

“Um, Kate do you know how to work this?”

Nate whispered to the cash register girl who normally took Keliah’s orders.

“No what’s wrong with it?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Keliah’s eyes rolled back to the clock hanging up on the wall. 8:10. She wasn’t worried at the fact that she was late, she was more concerned that she would have to wait the entire class period just to speak to Georgia alone and that just irritated her. All of that shopping, and hair straightening...a waste.

“You know what Nate? It’s okay. I’ll get my latte another time…”

“You sure?”

The young boy turned around to look at Keliah with a hopeful look.

“Yes, positive. Thank you anyway.”

Keliah gripped a hold of Georgia’s tea and walked briskly to Georgia’s classroom, arriving there at 8:16. When Keliah opened the door, her classmates had their heads buried into their books reading while simultaneously writing and Georgia was sitting at her desk doing the same. Keliah sat Georgia’s tea in front of Georgia’s computer on her desk and whispered a brief ‘good morning’ to her before taking her seat. Georgia didn’t respond and didn’t look up either. Maybe she didn’t want it to look weird that Keliah brought Georgia tea. Keliah shrugged it off and opened her book to chapter fourteen and began taking notes. Georgia stayed seated, she didn't really interact with the class like usual. By this time Georgia would've been discussing her thoughts on the latest chapter of the book they were reading and why she felt that way but Georgia just remained seated. The entire class. Obviously too interested in the screen on her laptop. What felt like years, class ended around ten and Keliah stayed planted in her seat waiting until the rest of her class exited.

“Good morning. Sorry I was late. Some new guy works at the café now.”

Keliah walked up to Georgia’s desk. Georgia didn’t acknowledge Keliah’s appearance. She kept her head down, continuing to look at whatever she was looking at on her laptop.

“Professor?”

Georgia slid a paper across her desk in front of Keliah before continuing back to writing. Keliah looked down and saw a