The expression on the girl's face is priceless.

With her chocolate brown eyes swirling with fear, she stumbles backward and crashes to the floor, landing right on her butt. Murmurs ensue from the other customers, but not one of them offers to help. I don't think there was any need to anyway, because just as quickly, the girl scrambles back to her feet. Her face is turning redder each second she brushes off invisible particles from her clothes.

And the funny thing is…

I had made sure that not a drop would land on her. Instead, what little remains of the thick textured latte drips heavily onto the counter.

As much as I would have liked for her to feel a tenth of the pain that I felt, my mom would kill me. Not figuratively, but literally. And how exactly am I supposed to get my dream dance studio from beyond the grave?

“What the hell, Nat?” Anna hisses in my ear. Even though there's a hint of shock in her voice, I can tell she's trying very hard not to laugh.

Pressing the cold wet towel to my hand, I smile politely. “Sorry about that, my hand slipped. Anna here will make you another one. Won't you?”

I cast a glare in Anna's direction who, as I thought, is trying to bite back a laugh.

“Yep, coming right up!” her voice rises an octave at the end as she scurries to make another latte.

"I'm really, really sorry. I- I don't know what happened. Please, let me pay the full price for both lattes. It's the least I could do." Mira stammers, her face a mix of terror and concern.

The clanking sound of metal from behind me allows me a few seconds to ponder over my next words. I can tell she's being genuine, and I know that she didn't spill the cup on purpose, but I'd say I'm doing a really good job in keeping my emotions under control.

Even if I did manage to scare her into falling on her ass. At least the thought of it actually makes me smile, because admittedly, it was funny to watch her have such a dramatic reaction.

Besides, I've already had a shitty morning. I mean, waking up to your hand handcuffed to the headstand is bound to put any sane person in a bad mood, right?

"No, it's fine. Really." You stupid clumsy idiot. "In fact, it's on the house. Our cups should not be spillable or knockable."

Another lie, but who cares. It's not like I'll ever see her again. If she even has a molecule of a brain cell, she will never come back here.

Her watery brown eyes dart across my face. Is she actually... trying not to cry? "Are you sure? I don't mind at all... I... it's my fault."

Oh, it's definitely your fucking fault.

"Yes, I'm sure," I reply flatly. The sight of her teary eyes softens me a little, but I can still sense that I'm about to lose my professionalism and patience. I grit my teeth. "Anna... hurry up."

Anna rushes toward us and carefully places the new cup onto the counter. I make sure to keep all my body parts from the surface as Mira gingerly takes the latte. I don't trust her to not spill it again.

"Again, I am so sorry."

I force out another smile. "No worries." By this point, my face has begun to hurt from faking it all morning.

Mira nervously bites her lip before quickly putting a twenty dollar bill onto the counter and dashing out the door before I can get the chance to say anything. My nerves calm down just a little at the sight of Andrew Jackson.

Just as the tips of my fingers brush against the wrinkly face of the seventh US President, Anna snatches it.

"Hey, that was my tip!"

She scoffs as she puts the bill into the cash register."Your tip? You just gave away almost eighteen dollars worth of latte for that girl, you stupid flirt. And you threw a latte at a customer."

"Okay, but none of it actually landed on her!"

"I don't care. You violated Mom's code, and if you want me to keep this from her, you're not getting anything. Think of it as karma. Now let's go to the back so I can take care of that burn for you." She beckons for me to follow her through the double doors.

"Karma?" I sit down on the black wooden bench while Anna takes out the first aid kit from one of the cabinets. I'm not the first person to get an injury by accident, but even though I can take care of it myself, Anna has more experience and knowledge since passing the MCAT just recently.

"Yeah. How many times has Mom told you that you are not allowed to flirt with the customers?" Raising her eyebrow, she crouches in front of me and motions for me to unwrap the towel around my right hand.

Why is she even talking about the "flirting", which was not what I was doing, when I had flung those latte remains at the girl?

With an eye roll, I obey her. "I was not flirting with her, Anna." I bite back a curse as the wet towel unsticks from my red skin.

"Really?" She throws the towel into the bin nearby and her face remains impassive at the sight of my already swelling skin. " 'Pretty special'."

"Okay, I did say that but it's just out of habit. She's so not my type. Fuck!" I hiss. Biting my lip to stay quiet, Anna presses an alcohol drenched cotton ball to my scalds.

Anna swipes away her blonde bangs from her blue eyes. "Oh right. I forgot. You're allergic to sweet and cute."

I squint at her. "Maybe you should ask her out then, since you think she's cute."

She laughs as she wraps the gauze wrap around my hand. "You know I'm as straight as a ruler."

"And you also know that rulers can be bent." I smirk.

"Very funny, Nat."

"Come on, I know you have a few woman crushes."

She shrugs. "Yeah, but they're all celebrities, so they don't really count. Okay, you're all done!" She finishes wrapping my hand and stands to put away the kit and empty wrappers.

Anna always does this. Anytime I try to steer the conversation about her sexuality, she either changes subjects or ignores me. And as always, I let her. I don't want to pressure her, because I know that when the time comes, she will tell me. My tingling sister senses tell me that she doesn't just have crushes on female celebrities.

"Thanks." I twist my wrist around and bend/unbend my fingers, wincing as pain shoots up my hand from the burns.

Anna notices. "You sure you'll be okay to work until three?"

I roll back my shoulders. "Yeah. I've had worse injuries."

"You sure have."

A few seconds of silence passes. The light chatter of customers from the front fill the quiet backroom as a truck roars by the cafe and Anna closes the cabinet door.

I bite my lip. "I'm going to miss you when you move up to San Francisco."

Anna sighs before sitting on the bench beside me. "I know, but it's not like I'm moving across the country. Plus, I'm not leaving for a other month or so."

"You're going to be 400 miles away. That's a seven to eight hour drive." I exhale as I run my good hand through my blonde hair. "Why couldn't you just get an internship and go to medical school here in LA?"

"I've always wanted to attend UCSF. I didn't even think I would ever get accepted into one of the top five medical schools in America. I thought you were happy for me. Or are you afraid you won't have a place to stay anymore and you and my couch are gonna get divorced?" Mina quirks an eyebrow at me in suspicion.

"I am happy! And uh ... Ouch..." Anna smirks as I jab her in the arm. "I just don't know how I will be able to handle everything once you're gone. Sometimes I feel like I'm the younger sister and you're the responsible, older one."

Anna chuckles softly and places her hand on my leg. "And yet I'm the one who looks up to you."

I don't even feel like anyone should look up to me. I mean, I'm a twenty-six year old who works for her mom and still can't save up money to fulfill her dream of opening her own dance studio. A twenty-six year old who didn't pursue a master's degree in business and quit over five different courses because "I didn't like them anymore". A twenty-six year old who can't learn to control herself when it comes to preserving a platonic relationship with a roommate.

"What's there to even look up to?" I whisper.

"You're free. You're confident, brave, and you don't give a damn about what anybody thinks of you. The fact that you have a reputation for being a player and you don't care is something I wish I could do. Maybe not the sex part, but have that spirit of not giving a damn and not being tied to what everyone around expects from you."

I scoff as I wipe away a tear betraying my emotions. "You're just saying a thing at this point."

"It's true though! You don't chain yourself to society's expectations! You're an inspiration. And you inspire me. So get yourself out of your brooding mood and let's get back to work so you can espresso beautiful self on your motorcycle or beach or whatever you're going to do today."

"That was a very lame pun." I sniffle and try to suppress a smile.

"You love my puns." Anna huffs. "Now lets see that smile." My smile finally breaks free. "There it is. You ready to work?"

I nod. "Yep."

As I follow Anna back to the front, I can only hope that I'll be able to receive some dopamine later on from my two best friends: a cup of espresso and my beloved beach sun.