Change

Chapter One

     "Stay here and don't make eye contact with anyone," Frank said to me softly, his eyes darting from my shaking hands to my blank expression. When I didn't respond, he sighed and stood up straighter. "I'll get us coffee and then you can tell me what you were doing at the park while it's raining this heavily." 

     Without another word, he made his way over to the coffee machine after putting on his barista apron. 

     The soft music playing from the speakers situated at the four corners of this coffee shop, the little jingle that came whenever a customer walked in, and the warm smiles of almost every customer in the shop. I tuned it all out as I focused on getting my hands to stop shaking but the effort was futile. 

     My clothes were soaked from the rain and so was my hair. I made sure to keep my head down to hide my identity just in case some nosy customer just happened to glance at my direction. 

     A moment later, Frank reappeared with two steaming mugs of coffee. He nodded towards Meredith who was covering for him behind the counter and she offered a small smile. 

     Frank pulled a chair next to me and sat down. "Are you warm enough?" He asked me, while he stared at my shaking hands. Despite the warm towel wrapped around my cold body, I still felt cold. I didn't tell Frank this, instead I just tried to muster up a convincing smile and forced a mechanical nod. 

     "What were you doing out there, Lei?" 

     I took a sip of coffee and enjoyed the warmth of it spreading across my body. "I was at the park before it rained," I told him. "I was with Ty..." Memories of Ty from earlier brought fresh tears to my eyes. The way his face morphed into a blank expression as he watched me going on and on about my plans of preparing this year's school dance. 

     Ty had been my friend since I was little. His parents would send him over to my house for play dates when we were kids. It didn't really come as a surprise to anyone in Glelen Bay when we started a relationship together at the age of sixteen. He was always kind, understanding and we shared the same sense of humour. A marriage was even expected of us in the future. 

     I supposed that was why I didn't see it coming. Ty had grabbed me by the shoulders and made me look straight at him. "Lori, I have to tell you something," he started, "I can't do this anymore." He didn't even look sorry or sad, his face just remained blank while I was close to tears. My hands clenched into fists, grabbing a fistful of the hem of my skirt in the process. I heard his phone's message alert tone and he had the audacity to take a peek before looking back at me.

     At that point, I'd stopped talking about the dance and focused entirely on what he was trying to say. "What do you mean?" I had asked him. 

     He moved his hands from my shoulders to my hands, holding them gently. "I need a break, Lori. I can't keep being with you for the sake of appearances anymore." He said, tone flat. "Aren't you tired of keeping up this whole 'Lorelei and Tyler: Sweethearts of Glelen High' act? We can keep on being friends, but I can't be your boyfriend." He slowly let go of my hands and I felt my stomach dropped. 

     "Act? You think that I was acting?" my voice came out like a whisper. "I really love you, Ty." 

     Ty just sighed and crossed his arms. "I like someone else, Lori. I want to be with her so I can't keep this 'thing' going on with you anymore. Remember when we first started this? You told me what a wonderful story it would be if two childhood friends ended up loving each other. You said we would be the best love story to ever happen in Glelen Bay and I thought so too at that time." I watched him rake a hand through his hair, messing up his blonde hair. "It's not the same now." 

     "How could you say that?" At that point, tears were freely flowing down my cheeks. "I thought you dated me because you actually had feelings for me!" I was trying my best to not raise my voice. A couple of old ladies looked over with  concerned expressions but I ignored them and instead, I desperately searched for any trace of the Ty who I had spent the last year supposedly being in love with. 

     "I'm sorry, Lorelei." I flinched when called me by my first name. He only did that when he was being completely serious. "We can still be friends, Lori. But I'll give you space for now." He looked at me one last time before turning his back to me and started down the pathway towards the park's exit. 

     I wasn't sure how long I had sat at that bench, just going through my memories, desperately trying to find any signs. Had there been signs of Ty liking someone else? When did he stopped being satisfied just by being with me? As I tried to recall every memory of us together, I felt the pain in my chest growing. 

     There had been signs. I was just too absorbed in my fantasy love life to see it.

     It had been going on for months. Ty would spend his time after photography club at the library to do some studying while he waited for me to finish up at cheer practice. When I'd asked him if he lonely being in the library, he had shrugged and smiled, saying that a friend was there to keep me company. 

     Then two months ago when I got off practice early to meet him, I found a girl with curly blonde hair and black full-rimmed glasses sitting with him at a table. They were smiling and laughing with each other. Somehow, I hadn't felt any jealousy towards her because I was confident that Ty only had feelings for me and me alone. Obviously, I was wrong. 

     A drop of rain fell onto the tip of my nose, making me snap out of my thoughts. 

     The clear blue sky was replaced with stormy grey clouds, I could even hear the distant rumbling of thunder. The playground was empty, all the children had already left the park, it seemed. The joggers started running towards their cars, situated at the other side of the park. Someone had shouted at me to get out of the rain but I couldn't bring myself to get up from the bench. 

     Rain started to pour and I let myself be caught in it. At least it masked my tears, I had thought to myself. 

     I must've sat there for at least ten minutes when my phone started to ring. Without thinking logically, I answered my phone in the middle of a thunderstorm. It turned out to be Frank who was calling to ask if I wanted to drop by at the coffee shop because apparently Ty had walked in, bought two cups of coffee and left but had forgotten his wallet at the counter. Hearing his name just made me choke on a sob and Frank had immediately grilled me for my location. Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in the staff room of Frank's workplace with a hot coffee. 

     "What a prick," Frank spat. He looked absolutely livid as I told him what happened. 

     "He's been in love with some other girl this whole time, Frank." I kept my eyes focused on the little ripples on the surface of the coffee. "I was too blind to see it." 

     Frank placed an arm around me and shared some of his body heat. "No, you loved him. You thought he loved you back. You couldn't have seen it coming, Lei." Then, he scoffed. "I mean, come on, everyone in Glelen Bay thought the two of you would end up getting married in the future since we were little." 

     I sighed and took another sip of coffee. "I'm really tired, Frank." 

     He patted my shoulder twice before standing up. "I'll send you home. Put on my jacket and wait in the car, I'll just go tell Meredith that I'll be back later." I didn't reply to that.  All I wanted was a warm bath and then bury myself under the blankets until tomorrow comes.