Member
• Working at Mochavine •
Although Aya wanted to be sleeping in bed more than anything else right now, the tunes she played on her guitar were keeping her awake and in a more relaxed state of mind than usual. The slight sensation she felt against her nails as she strummed the metal strings, the way she slowly and subtley swayed her head to the song she played, playing the guitar or the piano had an unusual way of calming Aya down regardless of how terrible her emotional state was at the time. It was nice, being able to distract herself from her real life troubles for a bit.
About half an hour through her prolonged work shift, Aya was already getting tired. She would totally kill for a slice of some sponge cake right now.
In the middle of one of her longer songs, Aya decided to get a quick bite to eat after she had finished with a couple more songs. She thought she was deserving of some nice food after working an amazing ten hour shift within the confines of this café, so she was going to treat herself during her ten minute break.
As she brought the song to an end, Aya was greeted with a small applause from a customer just a few feet away. She was surprised, to say the least. She assumed that some of the customers in Mochavine held some sort of appreciation for her acoustic background music, but Aya wasn't sure if there was ever a time when a customer decided to outwardly express their fondness for her performances. Repeatedly, as well. As she continued onto the next song, all Aya could do was get all heated and flustered and embarrassed because hey, someone seemed to actually enjoy her music. Aya cursed her pale skin and genetics, because even without a mirror she could tell that she was now redder than a crate of tomatoes. And she hated tomatoes.
Once she finished her final song before she took a ten minute break, the customer clapped again, and Aya's face reddened. Over the years Aya had grown more confident in playing in front of others, but for some reason, being applauded for her performances was always a surprise to her. If she were even more confident in her social interaction skills, Aya would probably say a small thank you to the customer for actually clapping for her.
But then again, it was only one person. Maybe that one person was only clapping out of sympathy, because no one else seemed to be showing the any remote interest in she was doing. Maybe it was what Aya assumed earlier, that they simply decided to appreciate her music in silence. But what if they didn't really appreciate her music at all? Was there any point of her taking extra time out of her evening to play some cute songs on her guitar then? Was it because her performances were bad, or the other performers that came during the week were just much better than her? Did they not like her music? Was she selfish for even thinking about this? Was the one woman sitting to her right really just clapping out of mere sympathy–
As Aya stood up to go get some much needed cake, she hit her foot against her stool, right in the view of her loyal clapper. She flushed an even brighter red than she did a few minutes ago, pacing towards the café counter to order her fucking cake.
One of Aya's barista buddies saw her little screw up, and laughed. She also saw that her face was redder than a garden of tomatoes, and proceeded to tease the young woman about it as she cut some sponge cake for her. Aya was not happy.
After a brief exchange of curse words and colourful language, Aya was back on her stool, gobbling down her sponge cake and filling her empty pit of a stomach. One delicious slice, and Aya wasn't hungry for the rest of the night. She felt a bit better now, less angry and flustered than she was a few minutes ago.
In preparation for the next song, Aya had to do some major retuning on her guitar. As she was doing so, for the briefest moment, her eyes met with the woman that had so very kindly been clapping after each performance she did, and Aya felt her face redden much more than what most would've considered healthy.
@Zaphias
