You didn't speak to Shauna unless she spoke to you. It was a simple rule -- a standard that was kept in every environment she was a part of. Her coworkers understood it, her Saturday night poker group understood it, and even her boss understood it. Despite the fact that she was on his payroll, it felt like the other way around. She had a... a quality to her, one that he couldn't quite describe. A quality that terrified him down to the last fiber in his body. Enough to not question her motives, her actions, or anything she did for that matter.
Shauna's look definitely was an element to it. Her hair: Dark red waves with streaks of black. Her eyes: blue -- but not the soft, welcoming blue most people had, a cold, stern blue that reminded you of icebergs. Her piercings: Silver shined across her thin figure from her nose, lips, ears, and belly button (only visible in the Summer, when she surrendered to the heat and threw on a tight tanktop).
Shauna sat at the cafe on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She knew all the waiters by name but didn't need to use them. They knew what her order was. A medium coffee. Black. A white chocolate raspberry scone. Toasted. Two napkins tucked under the pastry.
The coffee came the second she sat down, followed by the scone approximately two and a half minutes later. They had the routine down and no one would dare break it. They weren’t sure what she would do if they didn’t bring it to her -- but perhaps that was what made it so frightening.
Shauna wrote in a notebook. It was rather thick, black, and had a quality leather binding. The notebook contained thoughts, sketches, little coffee stains, and stories.
No one pegged Shauna for a writer. No one ever looked behind the creepy, dark exterior she had created for herself. Everyone stayed on the surface. No one went down deep enough to even realize she had interests like everyone else -- she even watched The Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights, Breaking Bad on Sundays until it ended. You might even say she was a tad bit normal.
Shauna sipped her coffee and placed one hand below the ceramic cup to stabilize it. She cursed as she touched the surface. She had underestimated how hot it would be.
"Are you OK, Ma'am?" An idiot walking by said. Shauna have him an icy look and turned back to her notebook. "I said, are you OK Ma'am? Did you burn yourself? I can get you some ice."
"I am fine." Shauna said through gritted teeth. She gave him a quick look. He wore a green trenchcoat -- a light olive color, dark denim jeans -- ripped, but the tears appeared to be from use, not because it was the new style, a yankees baseball cap, and bright pink rain boots.
"I like your earrings. The hoops. And the seahorses." Everyone in the cafe looked at them.
"Thank you.” She formed a circle with her lips and blew on the steaming coffee.
“A… and -- and your hair. It’s like… cool.”
“What can I do for you, sir? Do you need something?” She gave him another icy glare.
The idiot laughed. The laugh sent a shiver down Shauna’s spine. She didn’t know why. "You think you scare me, don't you? Honey, I am you."
Shauna was intrigued. “What do you mean exactly?” She took a sip of the hot coffee coolly. She didn’t want to seem too intrigued. She didn’t look at him.
“I mean I know you’re game. You’re scared of people, so instead you make them scared of you. It makes your life easier -- at least for a little while.”
“You don’t know the first thing about me,” Shauna responded. “Now I am trying to --”
“You’re trying to be invisible. You’re doing it wrong.”
“Stop telling me what I am doing and how I am doing it.” She paused. “And I am definitely not doing it wrong. I know what I’m doing.”
“If you want to be invisible,” he whispered in her pierced ear, “don’t make everyone look at you.”
Shauna looked up and realized that everyone was staring directly at her -- she was in the spotlight, she was the focus.
“M… maybe -- maybe you’re right,” Shauna said. She wanted to put her hands in front of her face. She wanted to shield herself from the the eyes glued to her flawed face. She wanted to hide. “...why don’t you sit down.”
She waited for a response, but then realized he was no longer standing behind her. With a quick twist of her torso she turned around, getting a quick flash of his pink boots as the glass door fluttered shut behind him.