Midnight Coffee

Chapter 2

Hi y'all,

just a quick note before the chapter starts:

This story may feel a bit slower than my other ones. I feel like most of the time, a lot of characters fall into the same roles in my fics. This time around, I want to change them up, include different characters, and just have more scenes focusing around different character interactions in general. For that reason, there's gonna be scenes between characters that don't end up together. I feel like this is more like real life, because we never end up with the first person we kiss (usually!), and we're always making mistakes/trying things out/getting confused.

 Feel free to let me know if it ever becomes boring, though!

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On the day of our journey to the estate in Kalos, I'm more than just nervous. My entire body is vibrating with anxious energy as I drive us there in the car I rented after arriving. The Sat Nav is somewhat dodgy, and I'm relying on Chloe, who's reading from an actual physical map, to keep me right. Travelling further into the supposed wilderness, I start to think she's taken me down a wrong turn.

"Are you sure you know where we are?" I ask her again, glancing over at the map, but I can't make anything out from here anyway.

"Yes, Goh," she sighs. "Do you want to be the map reader, and I'll drive?"

"No," I grumble, turning back to the road. I haven't seen another car for at least four miles. We're surrounded by dense woodland, so thick I'd never be able to see even the biggest of mansions. Plus, the sun is going down, casting a pink glow across the sky. If we don't arrive within the next hour, it'll be too dark to see anything.

"We're almost there anyway," she says, squinting at the paper. "It's the next right turn."

The turn is so hidden that I very nearly drive past it, until Chloe yells and I slam my foot on the brake, jerking the wheel to the right. We turn onto a dirt road, just wide enough for the SUV I'm driving, with branches hanging so low I'm scared they're going to scratch the paint on the roof. Chloe drops the map onto her lap and gawks around us while I focus on keeping the car on the road.

"We're in the middle of nowhere," I sigh. "I swear to God, if this car breaks down-"

The words die in my throat as the gothic-style estate comes into view. We break through the trees, and instead we're surrounded by well-kept gardens, and stretches of grass. Tucked against the trees is a huge pond, with its own built in waterfall, and stone paving slabs leading over the grass towards it. The road breaks off from the dirt road into beautiful stone paving, creating a huge driveway along the entire front of the house.

It really is a mansion. An archway leads to the wooden front door. Built into the side of the house are actual turret rooms, complete with pointy turret roofs. As I park the car beside someone's red car, I gawk up at the second floor, and the two balconies that the bedrooms on the front of the house lead onto.

"Oh my God," Chloe breathes, stepping out of the car. I follow her lead, staring up at the house, in complete awe of it. To our left is a glass conservatory, and to the right of the front door, through large ceiling-length windows, I see Serena. She spots us, and waves frantically, hurrying to the door.

Figuring I'll collect our luggage later, I make my way through the archway, which is surrounded by ivy, to the door. Serena throws it open the exact moment I raise my fist to knock, even though I know she's already spotted us.

"Hey guys!" she says enthusiastically. "Come in!"

Through the door is a wide entranceway, with a little living room, complete with a huge fireplace and several sofas, to our left. There are little reading chairs surrounding the bay window looking out onto the driveway that I already want to sit in. The open archway to our right seems to lead through to a high-ceilinged dining room.