Teach Her | Cillian Murphy x Reader

5. Cigarettes

September 8

6:39 PM

The fresh scent of rain lingered throughout the night air as Sam, her friends, and I walked down the crowded sidewalks, bars, small restaurants and shops littered the strip. Sam had only told me last minute that she had invited her two friends to join us; Jude and Grace. Jude was tall and slim, his black hair curly seemed to always fall in front of his eyes yet I didn't quite catch his eye colour. I noticed this as he shook my hand when he greeted me for the first time, never making eye contact with me. Grace on the other hand had greeted me enthusiastically; her blue eyes, warm smile, and bubbly personality made me feel much more welcome than Jude did.

"Are we almost there yet?" Grace asked, balancing along the curb, her blonde ponytail swaying as she kept losing her balance. I noticed Jude constantly looking at her, making sure she wasn't about to take a fall.

"Grace, you literally know where we're going, you know the distance. We also used to go last year." Sam said, laughing to herself as Grace just nodded, admitting defeat. But I still didn't know where we were going. I just knew that we had walked to the closest town and we're headed to somewhere.. thankfully not another bar.

"Where are we going?" I asked out of curiosity, looking at Sam who seemed to be eyeing at Jude who was just staring down at his phone as he walked, occasionally taking glances at Grace. I really hope this isn't some love triangle.

"You haven't told her yet?" Grace asked, quickly hopping off of the curb and cutting across Jude, now standing in between Sam and I. "We're going to this Cafe..? I'm not sure what to call it, but they always have live entertainment and drinks. My friend works there." She gave me a reassuring smile.

"Drinks?" I asked, praying to god that I wasn't going to have to be some designated driver tonight, yet we had walked to this place. No way was I going to be responsible for three drunk adults.

"Not those kind." Jude cut in, looking up from his phone and at me. Green. His eye colour was green. I gave a simple nod and continued walking along the sidewalk.

After what felt like forever, we soon arrived at the.. place? It was a small place, tucked in between a bar and a small restaurant. Along the outside stood a few people, performers I was guessing, smoking and talking to each other. Strands of random lights hung around, lighting up the entrance, making it look much more welcoming than the bar we went to before. Sam took the lead and lead us inside. It was dim, except a few warm lights that lit the tiny stage. People sat at the many tables scattered around, drinks in hand, and laughing to each other. It was quite busy, and loud from the live music. Waitresses holding copious amount of alcohol swerving in between the groups of people that stood around, swiftly and quickly placing them on tables, and leaving even faster than they came. Jude lied. There was alcohol.

Grace managed to snag us a table. It was quite close to the stage, but far enough to the side that we weren't directly in front of it. I sat beside Sam and Grace who immediately ordered the table a few drinks, I rolled my eyes playfully in return. I glanced around the crowded room, but narrowed my attention to the band playing. It was a college group, definitely a garage band, mixed with girls and guys. They did covers of classics; Radiohead, The Smashing Pumpkins, and other bands from the popular 90s scene. Sam seemed to be having the time of her life, lip syncing every single lyric, which I followed because Radiohead was one my favourite bands after all.

After a few minutes a lady took the stage, resulting in the crowd clapping extremely loud and cheering, including Sam, Jude and Grace. It was pretty obvious that they came here often.