bicycles

prologue

"May I please have one large coffee and one small hot chocolate?" Finley asked the barista at my favorite coffee shop. I felt childish trying to hide behind my best friend and having her order for me, but my depression had worsened immensely in the last week. 

We stepped aside and in a few moments, received our drinks. I dragged my feet across the floor while Finley carried our drinks to a table in the corner, hidden from the rest of the shop. All I could manage to do was stare at the steam rising from my mug. Despite the excessive sleep I'd been getting lately, my eyelids were heavy and threatening to close any second.

"Hey, you don't have to drink it. I'm just glad I got you out of the house." I looked up and gave Finley a small smile, but it was clearly fake. "I'm glad you've stopped crying too." I took a deep breath, to let her know I'm listening. "The next step is talking, right?"

I haven't said a word since the incident; I can't. Before today, I'd barely moved from my bed. The first shower I took in a week was this morning, with Finley sitting in the bathroom, making sure I didn't slip or anything. I could barely take the few steps from my bedroom to the bathroom, even with Finley supporting my body. I've felt so heavy lately, full of guilt. I've just been numb and unable to process anything that's happened. The only thing I know for sure is that she's gone, and not coming back.

"Oh, Lukey. No, it's okay, it's okay." Finley stood up from her seat and slid into the small booth next to me. My silent tears turned into sobs, simply from her minuscule action. "Hey," She gently turned my face towards hers and ran a hand through my quiff over and over. Finley knew that relaxed me. She wrapped me up in her arms, attempting to squeeze the last of the tears out of me. "I know you think everything that happened was your fault. It was not your fault, do you hear me?" She said after pulling away. I managed a small nod, telling her that I could hear her (nothing will change the fact that I know it was my fault).

Once she noticed I stopped crying, she went back to her seat. "Will visiting her help?"

I never thought about that. I haven't been to the graveyard since the funeral. Without even thinking, I nodded. I wasn't even sure if it was a good idea, I wasn't even sure why I nodded. To hide my emotions about the rash decision I just made, I slowly lifted my mug and took a sip. It tasted exactly like how she used to make it. In response, I poured the rest of the stupid hot chocolate all over my face and sprinted out of that coffee shop.

+++++++++++++++++

This coffee shop is well known for bicycles. It's a local place and very close to where a lot of people live, so walking or bicycling are more popular than driving here. Unluckily for me, the only bicycle people seem to ride nowadays are aqua Huffy's with baskets. Just like the one she had.

I only managed to run out of the coffee shop doors before coming to a screeching halt. I got trapped in a memory while staring at the bicycles parked limply in the rack.

a/n :

yeah, this was extremely short but i thought it gave good background information and i had a good stopping point. i really wanted to get something published too. i'm also keeping this 'she' a mystery until further notice ;) oh and btw, this is the luke hemmings you're reading about!

please feel free to comment or message me if you have any comments about this story, anything at all! (if i have mistakes that need to be fixed, if you have ideas to make it better, if you have tips, just want to tell me if you like it or not, etc. any feedback is appreciated!)