Away: A Prequel

Chapter 2

After that, he progressively came into the shop more and more - ordering the same thing almost all the time -; he sat across from the counter, looking down at the cheap Nokia he held onto every so often. He also kept a small notebook in the pocket of his suede jacket, jotting down in that every few minutes. In this time, I noted a few things about him in my mind: he always came alone, he must've been at least 5'10 - a few inches taller than me as I'm 5'6 -, he had a bit of stubble on his chin, and his physique was quite average, with a little bit toned to it. I also noticed that he came in around 1:00 in the afternoon.

He tended to sit in the same seat, unless it was taken. I noticed a few times he had been a bit... moody, so I guessed he must've had a bad day before coming in. I tried to keep a conversation with him going, as I or one of the other baristas completed his order, but once getting his order, he just went over to that table. Eventually, I got the courage to go up to him at the end of my shift.

"Mind if I sit?" I asked, hinting toward the chair across from him; he nodded, and I joined him.

"You not meant to be behind the counter?" He gave a rather cheeky half smile; he stirred his drink as he did, "Or I am good enough to risk your job?"

I giggled, "Nah, I finished my shift, and thought I could come over and thank you again for basically saving me that one time."

"Hey, once is enough for me." He laughed slightly, "Kayla, right?"

"Yup." I smiled sweetly at him, "Didn't catch your name though?"

"Dex." He simply said, before taking a sip of his drink - just a simple coffee this time -.

"Is that short for Dexter or...?"

"I'd rather not say," He chuckled, finally giving a proper smile, "It's kinda embarrassing."

"Ah, c'mon, can't be that bad."

He was silent for a few minutes, before giving a few quick head nods, "Yeah, okay.. It's David Alexander."

"See, it's not that bad." I thought on it for a second, "It's actually kinda nice, but for reasons of keeping it short and sweet, I'll stick with Dex."

He smiled, taking another sip of his drink, "So, Kayla, tell me...what was the old git's beef with you? Why'd he over react like that?"

I went quiet, "I dunno... Some of my colleagues think it's 'cause he fancies me, and has overheard lads that are actually my age try to talk or flirt with me or something... Me, on the other hand, I have no idea."

"Hmm, I see.." He paused, before laughing, "I kinda agree with your workmates... It did seem like that."

I gave a light laugh, before he asked, "He been back?"

"No. He's been banned - my boss made sure of that."

"Good. The twat deserves worse though."

I giggled, "You gave him at least a broken nose and a few bruises, so it's fine. I think."

"No, he shouldn't get away with that." He glanced down; I was wearing my work skirt due to the autumn day being particularly hot that day, so he ended up spotting my tattoo, "That tattoo near your ankle, had it for long?"

I glanced down myself to see what he was looking at - just to remind myself -, "My pentagram one? Umm, since I was 20 - took me awhile to get the balls to do it, I used to be deathly afraid of needles."

"Ah, so a fan of the supernatural, are you?" He smirked, "And you don't look older than 20."

"Yes, way too much according to my mother and sister." I giggled again - note to self, I giggle a lot around people I have crushes on -, "And I'm 25."

"Really?" He genuinely sounded shocked, "You really don't look it."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Must be."

From that point, we met up outside of work after chatting some more. We found that we both liked animals - him especially birds - and rock music. We were both huge Disney nerds - specifically for Moana and Brave - and would often fangirl over the movies. We often had movie nights - some of which he moaned about if he found he needed to do something, though he did keep to it - and often sang along to the many songs. One song he would get particularly involved with - belting out the lyrics - was 'I Just Can't Wait To Be King' from Lion King. It was entertaining to say the least.