Flutegirl's Revival

"Oh my God, she's back."

A collective gasp could be heard at a local coffee shop. People around the establishment looked up from their tablets and laptops, swiveling in their chairs to observe a young woman with headphones on as she hastily approached the counter to order her drink. Her entire body was slumped forward, her head hanging low like a wilted flower on a drying stem. Her eyes were downcast and distractedly focused on the screen of her phone as she navigated through the menu to order a latte.

"She's so young," somebody said. "What is she, 16?" Others nodded in agreement, whispering to one another in hushed voices. The girl was still engrossed in her screen when she reached the register and placed her order. Glancing up momentarily, she smiled politely to the barista and took out her wallet to pay for it as he prepared her drink.

"Do you think she'll talk to us?" somebody asked. "Maybe we could get some answers about what happened last year? I mean, it's been months since we've heard from @flutegirl2406 . . ."

"Hush!" someone else scolded them. "Let's not give ourselves away." The chatty patrons glanced at each other nervously before turning back to observe the girl who had begun texting again as soon as she got her drink. As if feeling their eyes upon her, Flutegirl looked up from her phone and turned towards the group of people observing her, looking at them with a curious gaze that quickly turned into a frown with pursed lips when she realized they were there to stare at her. She turned away again and continued walking towards an empty table in the corner of the room where she plopped down unceremoniously and began taking long, slow sips of her latte while scrolling through Instagram on her phone. Her hair was shoulder-length, a dirty blonde color streaked with light brown highlights that hung loosely around her face in a halo-like fashion. She wore makeup - much more than anybody else in this town would - with thick eyeliner that ran neatly up towards the bridge of her nose like an arrow pointing towards wide-set blue eyes rimmed with thick black eyeliner that had probably been applied by somebody else years ago because it looked so perfect that nobody would be able to achieve such precision these days without mechanical assistance. They all watched as she took another sip of her latte before closing out of Instagram and opening Facebook instead while sipping on whatever foam got stuck in between her teeth until it was half-gone before closing out of that app too and opening Twitter, briefly scanning over the feed before closing it out again in favor of playing Candy Crush instead while chomping on yet another piece foamy residue that dripped onto her chin like a cow chewing its cud.

"Oh my God," someone said definitively after having observed this for a few more minutes. "It really is . . . It really is . . ." Their eyes went wide and their mouth fell open slightly as they stared at each other with amazement. Then suddenly: "OMG SHE'S ON TWITTER AGAIN!" They pointed excitedly at Flutegirl's iPhone which glowed brightly under the overhead lights as it buzzed angrily on the table next to her half-drunk latte that had begun to grow cold during this time of observation while they watched her play Candy Crush while paying no mind whatsoever to them or whatever else might be going on around here despite being surrounded by other patrons who were staring coldly at each other over their laptops and tablet screens while waiting for their lattes or frappuccinos or whatever else they liked to drink these days because nothing had changed despite how different everything seemed outside now that it was 2024 and only Flutegirl knew why but nobody knew how or why or even if they did they didn't know how they knew or did not know or even if they knew anything but just knowing something was wrong with how everything was now so maybe they should ask an expert oh my God there's one right there!