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Purple Pills

Chapter 4

The next morning I wake up and get dressed. Austin called and said he was waiting for me at the shop. I rush and get into my car and drive off. Austin was standing outside of the new coffee shop. With a sophisticated looking guy. "Hi, I'm Josephine. And you are?" I ask the guy. "Charles. I'm the building inspector." He said and I unlocked the door.

He walked in and inspected every room to the last speck of dirt. "Everything looks good. The water's already turned on. You might want to hire some people to help you put those in though." He said and pointed at the coffee things. I smiled and thanked him. He handed me a sheet of paper and left.

I make a call to the plumbers I had to use when we remodeled the shop in Marysville. They were going to be here in a few minutes. Once they get here, it takes them about 4 hours to put the stuff in, so Austin and I decided to see if there was anything else we needed. I hissed. "Cups." I groaned and rolled my eyes. "Internet!" he shouted.

I get in my car and drive to the supply store I get glass cups and then I pick out my own custom cups and design them with the name of the shop "Katephine" (pronounced Kate-a-phine) sounds like a drug, I know. But that's the name of the one in Marysville. They make the cups right there in store so I wait for about an hour or two. I had 10,000 to-go cups made. That should be enough, right?

Austin texts and tells me that they're finished with the plumbing. But then another number calls me and tells me they need something. I felt like something was off with this one though so I said they had the wrong number.

I go back to the store and all of the guys from yesterday are there. They were putting in the brown flooring and washing all of the cups. I put all of the to-go cups and the clear frappe cups in containers made for them. "When's your next show Austin?" I ask, panting from heavy lifting. "Friday!" He smiled. Today's Wednesday. "We have to get this done by Friday!" I shout.

Everyone begins working a little harder. Hannah walks up to me again. "Josephine!" She says and I wave. She asks if she could help and I tell her she can wash cups with Oli. So she goes over there and does that. Then Ricky walks up to me. "Hello Josephine." He says sweeping. "Hello Ricky." I say sitting down. "How are you?" he asks and I tell him I'm alright. I get annoyed and get up and walk off to the bathroom and start painting the walls a purple.

I finish painting, with paint all over my clothes, and clean the toilet, sink, and mop the floors. When I get back in there they're setting up furniture. "Guys it's late… we shouldn't be working this late… you should all go home." "We've got to get it done by Friday! We're going to get it done by Thursday!" Hannah shouts and I smile.

Everybody claps after Hannah's stuff and then they get back to work. We finish the final touches of furniture and we clean everything off. I know how to make coffee. I am an amazing coffee maker. Plus, I grind my own coffee, so… everyone's going to love it here! "If you stay open all night Friday night then I'll tell everyone to come over after the show." Austin said and I nodded my head.

~Friday night~

It was about 30 minutes until the show ended. Me and my recently hired coffee master-makers were preparing. I got a video message on my phone from Ricky. It was a video of Austin and it said, "If you want to meet me, go to Katephine Coffee Shop after the show! It's new! You have to buy a coffee though, it's cheap! Not overpriced like Starbucks!" He said and then told them the address. I smiled.

About 45 minutes later Austin showed up and got a Turtle Josephinno (It's a frappe). I had a table sat up for him to sign, and had a person taking pictures. The crowd soon began piling inside. I grabbed a megaphone. "Everyone! Form a single file line! We have regular coffee for $.50! Buy one to get to meet Austin Carlile!" I said and they formed a single file line and everything.

Some of them got the $.50 coffee, then some got the more expensive coffee, some I knew from the store in Marysville. "We'll have food out soon guys! Free of charge!" I said and they shouted. I smiled. I was booming already. Austin had paid for the food in advance for everyone.

"I'll be right back." I said to one of my workers and went back into my office. I took out a little baggy of coke and split it on my mirror. Using a rolled up piece of printer paper I snorted the 4 lines of cocaine. With the buzz I walked back out and continued making coffee.

Pretty soon the costumers dwindled down and it was just me, my workers, Austin, Hannah, Oli, and Ricky. I high fived them all and Austin looked at me. "I hope that's sugar." He said and cleaned the dust from my nose. "Yeah…" I laughed awkwardly. "I've got some stuff to do. You guys can leave. I've got to clean up." I said and rushed them out. But Austin refused to leave.

"You can't run a business like this Josephine." He said and I rolled my eyes, "I've been doing it for years Austin." I scoffed. "Well it needs to fucking stop." He hissed and I shot a look to him. "If it doesn't I'm sending you a treatment center. Or jail. You can't have coke on your nose when you've got customers here."