Cinnaom Muffins Chapter 26: God's Least Favorite Fifteen-Year-Old Girl
Spoiler: sometimes a bitch is preternaturally intelligent but, unlike sherlock holmes, she does not have generational wealth or a penis and so it means nothing to her community
I hope y’all are having wonderful days! I went to a friend’s acappella group recital yesterday evening and it was so nice!! They did Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood and agh!! I want it on my Spotify!!
Reminder you can help me afford to buy my cool friends dinner to celebrate their acappella performances by clicking this nice little button:
Now! Onto the chapter!
Wes is extremely hesitant about letting Taylor come back to work with him at the shop on Wednesday, since Tuesday went so poorly, but Taylor says he's not letting Wes go alone and he also says he's saving the money for something "so shut the fuck up about it."
And what is Wes supposed to do? Admit that the only reason he's so insistent on opening the shop is so he can save the money to get his friends presents for Christmas? No way. Taylor would get obstinate immediately, and Wes would probably (because it's Taylor, and Wes can't seem to keep anything from Taylor) end up admitting that he has more than enough money for his planned gifts already, and then Taylor would insist Wes definitely stay safe at Todd's with everyone else instead of opening the shop, and then Wes would probably admit he really wants to but he also wants to try and save up enough to help Taylor get a security deposit on an apartment or something (because Wes knows, realistically, that Taylor can't sleep on his pullout couch forever, even if Wes is loving how close they get to be).
Everyone walked Taylor and Wes to work this morning and Wes let Taylor practice making drinks for them while he got the grinders turned on and baked some muffins and cookies and even lemon loaves for the day. Dalton must've remembered how bothered Taylor was by messing up that coffee yesterday, because he made a big deal about how the cup of hot chocolate Taylor made was the best he'd ever tasted, and he forced Todd and Collin and Jaxson to try some, and they all agreed it was some amazing hot chocolate, and Taylor had smiled that tiny, real smile that sent Wes's heart hammering.
Now the flow of customers is dripping in like a leaky faucet, slow and steady and kinda annoying. Some people are from town, some people are commuters on their way to Iowa City or Cedar Rapids or somewhere, some people seem to manifest from thin air.
Wes has been switching with Taylor on who makes the drinks and who takes the orders. Taylor hasn't yet messed up one order and he keeps glancing back at Wes with his mouth set in a serious line but a smile blooming from his eyes. He's proud of himself. He's looking for recognition, and Wes is not shy about giving it to him.
"You're doing great, Taylor! Even I didn't pick it up this quick." Which is true, it took Wes a few years to get any kind of proficiency in making coffee.
Taylor scoffs, "You started when you were six, Wes." Which is also true. Wes never did well with sitters, so it was easier for his parents to bring him to the shop with them.
"Taylor?" A voice follows the entry bell and Hellen Macready drops Juniper-Maisie Dixon's hand to run up to the counter and demand, "Since when are you working here!? And can you make hot chocolate!?"
"Since yesterday and sure."
"He makes better hot chocolate than I do," Wes cuts in. The part of him that was nervous to talk to Hellen Macready last week has been overridden by Wes's Customer Service Voice™. "He can make you and Juniper-Maisie some, on the house." Wes tells Taylor he'll handle the counter if they get any new orders, and he starts to walk away. Except he hears Hellen ask if Taylor can add cinnamon to hers, and Wes immediately turns on his heel to ask, "Wait, you like cinnamon?"
Juniper-Maisie thinks that's a stupid question, Wes can tell by the way she laughs. Hellen raises one eyebrow and smirks and says, "Yeah? What's it to you?"
Now Wes is kinda nervous again, but he soldiers on. "Taylor hates cinnamon." Hellen glances at Taylor, eyebrow still raised. "I- I uh, just thought it w-was interesting."
Juniper-Maisie leans on Hellen and says, "You know she won't eat you, right?"
Wes actually jumps a little, face flushing, "I didn't mean to—"
"She's teasing you, Wes," Taylor says, nudging him. "Juniper-Maisie, whaddayou want in your hot chocolate— and don't ask for caffeine."
"But I like the jitters!" Juniper-Maisie insists. It's the first time Wes has heard her insist anything. Juniper-Maisie Dixon is about as quiet as it gets.
"Yeah, sure, but who has to go tell your brother that your allergies are acting up?" Taylor says. "That's right, me."
"She's allergic to caffeine?" Wes asks.
"Not a lot, but some. Just makes her stomach hurt, and gives her a migraine."
Hellen smiles the same way Taylor smiles when nobody's looking at him— they both got their teeth from their mom— and says, "Put some toffee syrup in there for her, Taylor."
He nods, wordless, and she makes a very particular face, and he makes it back, and then Taylor does the craziest thing and he laughs. Bright and loud enough to make half the coffee shop turn to look at him and a few people even smile with him because when Taylor laughs it's fucking infectious. Apparently. Not that anybody had the chance to know that before.
Wes actually forgets to breathe for a few seconds, register forgotten. He wants to lift Hellen up and spin her around for making Taylor laugh like that.
Taylor keeps smiling the whole time he's making those two hot chocolates because Hellen keeps talking to him, inside jokes, sibling stuff. Wes puts a cinnamon muffin and a chocolate chip cookie in the food warmer between customers.
Juniper-Maisie says something to Hellen, and Hellen kisses her cheek and Juniper-Maisie skips over to the other side of the counter where Wes is pretending to be busy reorganizing the food display so that Taylor and Hellen can have their time.
"She's been worried about him," Juniper-Maisie says, apropos of absolutely no prior conversation.
Wes almost thinks she's talking to someone else, because her expression doesn't match her tone of voice at all— maybe he's having auditory hallucinations and Juniper-Maisie was talking to someone else she knows in the coffee shop. But she's still looking right at him; she was definitely talking to him.
Wes Post has never spoken to Juniper-Maisie for the reason one doesn’t try to stare directly at the sun. She is quiet like the sun, and dangerous like the sun, and will burn you if she doesn’t blind you with her dollar-store glue-on acrylic nails. Unless she likes you, a privilege that only seems to extend to her brother, her girlfriend, and her girlfriend’s brother.
"Wes Post you listen to me and you listen good,” Juniper-Maisie says, and Wes stops pretending to reorganize the food display because he would prefer to keep his corporeal form. “My girlfriend loves her brother no matter what she says, and Taylor is just as much my big brother as Jaxson. If you hurt him they'll find your body in a shallow grave near the truck stop."
Wes's whole body seizes in a tic and he starts to stammer out a reply but Juniper-Maisie sighs.
"You're no fun,” she groans. “I'm kidding.” She probably was not kidding, but the sentiment of pretending to be kidding is nice. “Jeez, how did Taylor end up with a softie like you?" She giggles at Wes's face and adds, "That was a compliment. Taylor's needed a softie for probably about fifteen years."
Wes frowns now, watching Taylor and Hellen bicker across the shop. He's handed her one hot chocolate, and now he must be working on Juniper-Maisie's. "Taylor came in here for the first time in his entire life two years ago. With Hellen,” he tells Juniper-Maisie. He has no idea why he’s telling Juniper-Maisie any of this. She doesn’t need to know. But it seems like she might like to. “He bought her a hot chocolate and they sat at that table right there, in the corner." The corner is currently occupied by Annika Slate and Tia Rodriguez, who are having a conversation in hushed tones (probably about their husbands and potential ways to kill them, their weekly Post Family Coffee Discussion). At the far end of the counter, Taylor says something to Hellen that makes her mock-anger fall flat and dissolve into giggles again. Wes feels his expression, soft and happy, and he feels Juniper-Maisie studying him like a bug on a plate."I'd never seen him smile like that,” he tells her. “I made two hot chocolates on purpose instead of just one because it kinda blew my mind that he could smile like that."
In a way that could be accidental, if anything Juniper-Maisie does has ever been accidental, she shatters the calm atmosphere, "Listen, I know he had a breakdown last night—"
"H-h-how could you possibly know that!?"
She rolls her eyes. "Don't yell. I'm trying to give you important advice and Taylor'll try to make me shut up if he knows what I'm trying to tell you— and it's Taylor, so he'll know. Wes, I've been watching Taylor for the last ten years. He's quiet, and he's soft, and he's scared all the time. The things I would do to their parents if it were legal are only eclipsed by the things I would do to my own parents. I know what it looks like when he has a breakdown. His hands are clenched and his shoulders ride up and his hair's matted under the hat and his jaw is set and his eyes are just a little red and I can see the edges of his bruises when he lifts his arms. I can tell you were there with him because there's nail bites in your arm and Taylor digs his nails into things when he's stressed." She’s talking so fast Wes can barely make out the words.
He starts to speak, "Wha—"
"No, you still need to be listening right now, Wes. Are you understanding my advice?"
Wes's face must answer for him because Juniper-Maisie sighs heavily and scrapes a hand through her hair before answering. "Okay, I'll slow it down: you need to notice these things before it gets bad.” She leans over the counter to get in his face. “He doesn't know how to ask for help, Wes,” she says. “He acts out because he doesn't know how to tell you he's hurting." Without warning, Juniper-Maisie's eyes well with tears and she sniffles. She holds up a finger to stop Wes from hovering before he can start. "Help him," she says, "please, Wes. Just—" she sniffles again and scrubs at her eyes, "Just keep him away from his parents."
The food warmer goes off behind Wes, and Juniper-Maisie points at it so Wes doesn't continue gawking at her. A customer has come in at some point and Taylor is taking their order. When Wes turns around with the food, Juniper-Maisie has resumed her smile-and-wave exterior. "Ya know, when Hellen and I were, like, ten, we ran away from home. Nobody even knew we were gone except Taylor. He looked for us for something like 6 hours. Didn't tell nobody, just looked all over by himself.” That sounds about right. Even with the seismic shock of the discussion he’s just speedrun with her, Wes can’t stop himself from smiling, a little sweet and a little sad. “He found us hiding in a tree and got us to go home under the condition he'd build us a tree house. Mostly Jaxson and Collin go there now, but it's a nice tree house."
There’s no way to discern why Juniper-Maisie is telling him this. She seems to have a very specific point, but Wes is clearly too stupid to get it. He hands her the cinnamon muffin and the cookie from the food warmer, and she takes them. He says, "Thanks," without really understanding what he's been given. Juniper-Maisie says thanks too, and she takes the food back over to Hellen, who has found them a table by the window with their hot chocolates. Juniper-Maisie gives her a kiss on the cheek and Hellen beams at the free food.
Once the customer has left the register, Taylor comes over and stands next to Wes. "Juniper-Maisie does that sometimes," he says.
"Huh?"
"Just, like, says something absolutely crazy and walks away like she didn't get halfway to solving Fermat's last theorem."
Wes watches the girls for a few minutes. "I gave them a cinnamon muffin."
"Cinnamon is Hellen's favorite."
When the girls are done with their food and drinks, a little over an hour later, they come back up to the counter to say bye. Taylor actually goes around the counter to give Hellen a hug, and then Juniper-Maisie too. "I'm coming back here tomorrow," Hellen says. Before Taylor can say anything, she says, "I fucking miss you, dude."
Taylor looks like he might cry, but he doesn't.
SOMETIMES, you have to SHAKE YOUR BROTHER BY THE SHOULDERS or he doesn’t understand you miss him (« this bitch misses her brother, who lives across the country and has not returned her calls in months)
Scream at me in the comments! Nothing brings me more joy!!!