From Low To High: Book 2

CHAPTER 6:

I looked up at Jax “I know I have to but I will say what I need to and you will not interrupt” he nods and we head back. When we came to the front door I held my hand up to tell him to stay out here, he obeyed and stayed while I entered the factory. To my surprise they were all sitting around the table… again. I quickly walked up to them and said “alright I have a idea on where our next target should be” they all just look at each other and as Spek tried to speak up one of them kicked him under the table so I continued “there is a bank called collection bank, they’re known for scamming people” everyone nodded as I continued Kye pulled out his computer and started to research it’s layout. Soon after I let out a sigh and Jax came in to join us around the table “so, what’s everyone up to?” Sam quickly filled him in on my idea and Jax agreed to it as long as it wasn’t too risky. Just as I was about to look at Kye’s computer I saw his bird sitting in his lap “hey guys, do you know where Sebastian is?” everyone looked around us and I heard a small chirp come from under some blankets “oh thank god!” I rushed over to the pile of blankets and he quickly grabbed onto my fingers “oh you must have been cold” I held him up to my shoulder and he hopped on and cuddled up to my neck.

A few weeks passed and I got back my old waitress job, my little buddy Sebastian has grown a lot, he is almost two feet long now and his red mark now shows even if he is just sits on my shoulder. It’s two days until our next mission and I work both those days, I just arrived at work and walked in the back of the cafe to hear Mr.woo “oh my dear Max! I’m so glad you’ve returned! And between you and me a couple customers are too!” I just roll my eyes at him and head out to the cafe front door. When I am done wiping off the tables I go to flick on the open sign, things finally seem normal again. I think that man with wings was my guardian angel or something but I haven’t seen him since that day at the factory. Only a few minutes pass by before our two regulars come in “hello, welcome!” we exchange a few words and then they go sit down at their spot in the back of the cafe, I quickly take their order and bring it to the counter for Mr.woo to make. After about an hour they leave the cafe and after two hours I hear a ding from the front door with a familiar voice call out “hey! Max! Are ya okay?” I turn away from the coffee maker and see Jack in the entry way waving at me “oh hey! Sorry life’s been crazy. What can I get for you?” I showed him to the seat next to the window and he orders “I’ll take a black coffee with a packet of honey aaaand what should I get to eat?” I suggest a couple things but he chooses the coffee cake in the end. I take my leave and give Mr.woo the order, before I leave to wipe down a table but Mr.woo stops me and whispers “That’s the man who was asking about you almost every monday, just a heads up” I look at Mr.woo with a look of disbelief but Mr.woo looks over my shoulder to point out Jack. When I look at Jack I see his head jolt down into his coffee cake then ask Mr.woo in a whispered voice “was he looking this way?” and he just nods at my question. I awkwardly make my way back to Jack with his coffee and small crumbly cake, after I set his food and drink down he speaks up to me “Can you sit down and talk for a minute?” as he spoke my mouth went dry and I started to question if he had found out anything about my criminal life or if my friends did anything stupid while I was gone. After I finish thinking for a split second I come up with a excuse off the top of my head “Sorry i’m at work, maybe next time” Jack just gives me a look like he was done with me then says “looks like I’m your only so I think it’ll be fine” then waves over to Mr.woo. As he waves I pray to god that he doesn’t say I can and in that moment Mr.woo nods his head saying yes, why? Why Mr.woo? I can’t help but think. I do as he asked and sat down in the seat across from Jack and with a small voice started to make conversation “soooooo what’d you want to talk about?” Jack quickly swallows the bite of cake he had been chewing on and says rather abruptly “I don’t think you should be hanging around sam, he might have a nice face but I can tell he is up to something” I gawk at his comment and defend Sam with a loud voice “excuse me?! You don’t even know him, how can you say he is bad for me? Hell you don’t even know what i’ve been through this past week!” I stop ranting to take a deep breath but before I could start again Jack looks at me with a serious face and explains “I shouldn’t be saying this to you but I feel like you might be in danger. I believe he is involved with the bank robbing that happened a few days ago, we found footage of him walking by the bank a couple hours before it got robbed” at that point I was more furious than angry and it wasn’t at Jack either. I couldn’t let Jack catch on though so I played the part “oh my god… your saying he might have robbed the bank? Wait but he just walked by nothing else right?” Jack nods at my reply and takes a sip of his coffee and continues to talk “I know he only walked by but-” I cut him off right there “So you think he robbed the bank just because he walked by it?! What kind of fucking theory is that?!” at that point I was steaming with anger. I quickly got up from my seat only to be stopped by a loud thud come from the window next to us, when I look over I see a big black feather stuck to the window and Jack just whispers “what the hell” after the feathery figure falls to the ground. All I could think was that a crow had hit out window but crows don’t normally fly this low and that second I realize what had hit the window and I couldn’t help but whisper “oh god” and Ran outside. When I got to the sidewalk I saw Sebatian sitting there content looking up at me “really? I know you can break out of your cage but… you broke out of the house too!” I was soon joined by Jack and Mr.woo. When I turned around to tell them what had happened Sebastian was already on my shoulder. The whole time I explained how he had been getting out and tried to find me everytime Jack was staring at Sebastian with bugged out eyes so I ask “um Jack you okay?” and wave my hand in his face only to be climbed by Sebastian. The closer Sebastian got to Jack the more Jack backed up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing so I shouted out my first thoughts without speaking “YOUR AFRAID OF BIRDS!” and Jack turned as red as a tomato while trying to think of something to say back not having any luck. All of a sudden Mr.woo pulls out a small grahm cracker from his pocket and gives it to Sebatian and I try to warn him “I don’t know if he likes that kind of thing” but to my surprise he takes the cracker and lets Mr.woo pat him on the head while saying “there there” I can’t help but stare in amazement until someone in the distance catches my eye. I stare at the person until I realize it’s Sam “Okay how about we take this inside guys?” and Mr.woo looks as happy as can be when I say that so we walk in Jack following a bit aways away behind us. When we get back to the table I finally ask Mr.woo about that “do you like birds Mr.woo?” and with the biggest smile i’ve ever seen he says loudly “oh yes! They are wonderful creatures! If your bird doesn’t like to be away from you feel free to have him come in with you miss Max” I can’t take it anymore I burst out into laughter, while we were talking Jack slowly circled around us back to his seat and timidly says “so that bird is going to be here a while?” before I could say anything Mr.woo steps in “Yes! He is our new mascot! He will be here whenever miss Max is” with that Sebastian started bobbing up and down making my arm shake but to all our surprise Sebatian speaks “oh man this will be fun” it almost sounded like he was a human too, We all just stare at the bobbing bird speechless. After a little more chatting with Mr.woo about the whole bringing my bird to work thing he agrees to pay a little extra and take care of the bird bathroom issue. After Jack left we got a whole lot buisier than normal and people kept asking about Sebastian, which the little punk seemed to enjoy. By the end of the day we had over triple our usual customers, most likely because the word of a bird cafe got out. That night I walked out of the cafe and made my walk to the main street and started to talk to Sebastian “Hey, I know you talked earlier. What the hell? I mean you’ve never talked before, you just chirped or kept quite. So why did you talk back then huh?” with a disheartened sigh I turn around to go to the factory. Just as I step off the side walk into a less busy area I hear something behind me, after I heard the noise Sebastian used my shirt as a rope and fell backward onto my back. Not long after he had turned upside down I hear someone talking quietly “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to scare you” with that I pivoted to turn around knocking Sebastian off my back shouting “woooaaahh” and he thuds on the ground. I turn back to my poor bird and stare at him for a second before talking “did you just talk back to me? I-I mean like you understood what I meant?” not a second after Sebastian opens his beak to speak again “yeah, this is what I was afraid of” and he prepares to fly off but I wrap my arms around him in a hug and whisper into his feathers “oh my god i’m so happy… I have a friend, a friend I can trust” as soon as I let him go and sit up his beak is wide open and his wings dropped to the ground. For some reason I had started to cry and the tears flowed down my cheeks with pure joy I cover my face with my hands, my arm is suddenly pulled down and a warm beak rubs against my face. When I finished my little tear fest we got up and started walking back but this time I had someone to talk to.