It was about a month into the semester when things changed on a Thursday morning. Michael had found his place in line going to order his drink per usual behind the handsome stranger. For once his eyes weren't actually on him though, they were scrolling the menu.

You see, Michael typically alternated between two frozen drinks. Somedays he ordered S'mores and other days he would order Vanilla Bean. He enjoyed them both, but he began to realize that he was getting tired of his two favorite flavors. He wanted to switch it up, but he had no clue what was good. The menu was so big and before he just stuck with what he knew he would like, so he never really took the time to think about any other options.

Unfortunately, the line ended up being really small that morning, leaving him with very little time to figure out what he wanted. By the time the cute boy in front of him finished placing his order, his anxiety had peaked.

"Vanilla Bean or S'mores?" The barista asked him, memorizing his order as a regular by now.

"Uhm..." He blushed while bouncing his leg and giving the menu a blank stare. "Sorry, I kind of want something different today."

"Okay, what would you like?" She asked nicely, although he knew she was probably going to grow impatient with him as the line behind him was extending.

He glanced over the different drink options for what felt like the tenth time before he got distracted, seeing the other barista finishing up the brunette's drink. One thing Michael had observed over time about the boy was that he almost always ordered something different every day, but all of it usually looked good. And whatever he had gotten just then looked like no exception.

He didn't know if it was out of anxiety or because of the tiny inner voice of hope whispering to him that maybe the boy would notice him that made him go through with the unplanned move he had come up with at that moment. "Uhm... I guess I'll just take whatever he got." He said hesitantly, mumbling, "Looks good."

He avoided making eye contact, but he knew he had another pair of eyes now looking at him curiously.

"Same size?"

"Yes please." He answered the barista before handing over his card as she rang up the total.

"Thank you." He heard the boy next to him say sweetly and finally looked up to see him taking his drink from the other worker behind the counter. The boy immediately noticed and glanced over at Michael, giving him a small smile before going to walk off.

Michael shyly smiled at him in return before he was brought back to reality by the girl checking him out clearing her throat and handing him his card back, saying, "Here you go."

He then moved over to the side and waited for his own drink to be made.

Michael wasn't some teenage girl obsessed with her Starbucks coffee aesthetic, but he could admit the way the swirls of caramel were perfectly layered made him almost want to take a picture of the pretty drink he was handed a minute later.

"MMhM... Oh my god, what is this?" He asked after taking the first sip. Why had he never strayed before when they had things this good on the menu?

"Caramel Crunch, Love." The barista replied with a smile before turning around to work on her next order.

He nodded and walked away to find a seat. He found one shortly after, conveniently with a nice view of his coffeeshop crush.

He spent the rest of his spare time sneaking glances and trying not to suck down his delicious drink too fast.

This definitely wouldn't be the last time he did this, he decided.