I got no time for a private consultation

 KC hated this dry place. The sand. The cacti. He couldn't get used to the dry heat. 

Well, he was kind of a basement guy, anyway. A part of him felt that somewhere under all this sand was a hidden place. He might never find it. In fact, he didn't want to.

Yes, he was busy with classes. It felt like nonstop middle school, in a way. He was thinking it would have been more hands-on, but the instructors said that would come soon enough.

There was his music to listen to, but it didn't suffice. He needed something. No, it was someone.

"Will you ever forgive me," it wasn't a long email he'd written Harley. He doubted she read it. He'd left a voice mail too. Still nothing. 

His lower lip tightened in a frown. It was frustrating as he looked at an empty sheet of paper there on his study desk in his slim dorm room. Would he write a song or just a letter to Harley?

He'd gone to the trouble to dig through Google, piecing her family together just to find her address. How come he didn't know? God, she only lived two blocks over from him back home. He'd had to call his step-sister to make sure. He was to the point he would just mail the letter to Junie and she could hand deliver it to Harley.

"Why would I do that?" Junie's questions annoyed him.

"Damn it, I don't ask for much," KC was furious. "Can't you do this just once?"

"Maybe if you called me more," Junie said a text would even do. After all, she missed him and his friends. "Is she just a friend?"

"Yes."

Junie remembered Harley. "She could have been your manager. You could have gone far with her, you know." She made it sound like it could have been his big break.

"That's not the point." He was blunt. He really didn't know how else to be. "If I get the letter to you, you can't read it. Promise you won't read it."

"Why?" He heard her childish laugh. He could picture her smiling from ear to ear. "Is it a love letter?"

KC nursed his bottom lip. How did she know? "Look, you're my only hope. Will you help me or not?"

"I'll help you. Don't I always?"

KC knew it was risky, but he needed to get this to Harley, somehow.

"How about if you only work Sundays. Just the hours for brunch?" Chili said about the matter of Maddie looking for a job. "I really need help then."

Maddie listened. She'd have to be here by six and her shift wouldn't end until three. She told her she could manage it. "It'll be good for me." She nodded. "I need to get out more." Especially, on her own. There was a time she thought Rafe might have been her bodyguard, but he was his usual aloof self. She'd heard from others how he was talking about her.

Brick told her he was saying good things about her. He thought Rafe might be in love. Of course, she couldn't imagine that. When he was around her, he was his usual snubbed self. She had a feeling she thought he was too good for anybody, and he might be right.

She'd be fine with Daryl from Art class. He was hard to warm up to, but really he was soft-spoken and a part of her found him that maybe they were too much alike. He just needed a friend and so did she. But they only talked to each other during art class. He acted as if he didn't know her when he was around the grunge crowd. 

Yes, she was going to be fine. Of course, sometimes, she felt as if life made her dizzy. She didn't always eat like she should. She knew she would have to have plenty of coffee to keep her going here at the coffee shop. She nursed on the cup of black coffee. A part of her felt as if she might be a coffee vampire. She could drink enough of it, that the caffeine pulsed through her veins.

"You can't live on coffee alone," Chili brought her an egg burrito. Maddie looked at it and she wasn't sure if she could choke it down. Finally, she took a bite. Really, she didn't feel like eating. Another reason why she drank coffee. It fueled her day.

"Hey," she heard a voice from behind her. She knew that trick of his patting her on one side and sitting down on the other. It was Rafe and before she knew it he was finishing off the egg burrito as if he knew she wouldn't finish it anyway.

Chili was busy with a customer so she didn't notice.

"Want to get out of here?" He asked.

"I'm-I'm talking to Chili," Maddie told him. He slipped the bracelet on her wrist before she could stop him. It was a metal bracelet with his name on it. Rafe Lee. She stared at it.

"What's this for?" She asked.

"I dunno. Maybe it's because we're going out." He shrugged like he was the man. Didn't she know what this was about?

She sighed and pressed a straight lip.

"Haven't we been through enough?" She stared at him.

"Precisely." He nodded. "I got this back in sixth grade from my granny. I didn't know what it was for, until now."

Maddie cleared her throat. She took a sip of coffee. Of course, he drank that too.

"Well, come on. Got something to show you." He stood up and took her hand.

Maddie didn't fight him on it. She had a feeling he might enjoy it. She felt him tug her along. It was as if he was ready for an adventure and he just couldn't do it alone.