Colleen glanced over her shoulder at the growing distance between her and the exit before looking down at her watch. Well, she'd made it this far, it was too late to turn back now. Too late and almost impossible. A new wave of customers came squeezing through the doors, forcing another shift in the rowdy crowd. Colleen moved forward with her arms crossed, calm and collected amidst all the excitement. She could barely feel the breeze anymore and felt mildly constricted by the surrounding body heat and incompatible scents stewing around her. It was the price you had to pay when you willingly subjected yourself to this kind of madness--Colleen just hoped it was worth it.
This time Colleen looked at her phone and started to text Misty when she felt someone pushing against her back, though the power behind it was too much to have come from a single average person. Before she could see that it had been due to an unanticipated rush of more people, Colleen was pushed forward, nearly stumbling on her own feet and bumping into someone in front of her. Holding up her hands up, Colleen found her balance again and went on to text her friend and ask her what she wanted until she felt a hard couple of taps against her shoulder. Colleen looked over her shoulder. A pair of college students glared at her.
"You cut us."
It wasn't so much the accusation as it was the scathing tone that surprised her--Colleen jerked her head back and then cast the people in front of her a quick, identifying glance. No, she had been behind those people the entire time. Before she could open her mouth to reply, they came at her again with their fallacies, only this time a few surrounding others chimed in against her. What was this, grade school? "Look, I have been standing here like everyone else. This a total misunders--" Oh okay, it appeared they were aiming for a screaming match. Was it midterms? Test anxiety and sleep deprivation was the only way Colleen could see why they might find their hostility rational, and even then that was a bit of a stretch for her. She kept calm while trying to keep them calm, but decided that maybe midterms had nothing to do with it. Free coffee was one hell of a drug.