Petit Monde (Rye Beaumont)

UNEXPECTED

   “You probably have a lot of questions right now.” she says.

   I nod again, she smiles a little and tucks my hair behind my ear.

   “Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything later.” she reassures me and I just nod. “Let’s go?”

   “You go ahead, Mom, I’ll follow in a bit.” I give her a small smile.

   “Alright, sweetheart.” she says and leaves the comfort room.

   Later on, I go out of the comfort room and look over to the table; my Mom and Mrs. Beaumont sat across each other and there is a vacant seat next to my Mom, then Robbie whilst in front of the vacant seat is Sammie, then Shaun and Rye. I walk over to the table and sit next to my Mom, without looking at anyone across from us.

   “Hi.” Robbie says with a light chuckle, as I put the cloth on my lap.

   I look at him and just smile a little, before looking away.

   “How are you?” he asks. “I heard that you live in Manchester now.”

    “Yeah,” I look at him. “after my grandmother had a stroke; we thought that it would be better if we’re going to move in together.”

   “Oh, that’s why I never saw you again.” he says.

   “I am sorry, I was um.. busy with work and everything.” I sheepishly reply.

   “Work?” he furrows his eyebrows, as he looks at me.

   I nod, “I work at Starbucks near our house.”

   “Oh, I didn’t know.” he replies.

   I smile a little, just before our orders come and we all start to eat. Robbie keeps on giving me a serving of each dishes whilst saying ‘try this, it’s delicious’ which makes me smile and even giggle at some point. We are just quiet, as our Mom’s have their own conversation until Mrs. Beaumont changes their topic.

   “You know, when the two of you were little,” their Mom looks at me and Rye. “you two were inseparable, you wouldn’t go anywhere without each other.”

   I look over at Rye and he looks confused as I am right now.

   “Yeah, whenever Alexandria and I go out to the park or the mall without her best friend; she would want to go home already or otherwise, she’ll have a sad look on her face throughout the whole day.” my Mom says.

   “Rye’s like that too, he would even cry sometimes.” their Mom adds.

   “Yeah, I remember that!” Robbie laughs.

   My mom lets out a breath as she looks at me and strokes my hair, “Oh, those were the days.”

   “I know, time flies, doesn’t it?” their Mom replies.

   “Yeah.” Mom stops stroking my hair and I just smile at her, as we continue to eat our food.

   After having sobremesa, we go out of the restaurant and say goodbye to each other. I didn’t say goodbye to Rye cause I am still embarrassed about the other night, but I am kinda taken aback when he walks over to where I am standing.

   “Hey.” he says, smiling a little.

   “Uh, h–hi.” I stutter out and look away, that was really smooth Alexandria.

   “Are you okay?” he asks, the concern in his voice palpable.

   “Yeah, of course, I am okay.” I reply, but I know that he could tell that I am very anxious right now.

   I look at him and I almost melt right on where I am standing, as he looks straight into my eyes. I don’t know, but there’s just something different about it and I couldn’t quite figure it out.

   “Alexandria, about the other night –”

  “I – I am sorry, we have to go already.” I immediately say to interrupt him on purpose.

   He looks over to our Mom’s who are still talking to each other and looks back at me, “Alexandria..”

   “Sorry, Ryan, I – I am gonna go ahead.” I turn around and walk hastily towards my Mom. “I’ll be at the car.”

   “O–okay, sweetheart.” she stammers, looking at me curiously.

   I say goodbye to the boys’ Mom, before going to the parking lot and get onto the driver’s seat. I breathe out and just rest my hands on the steering wheel, as I wait for Mom so we could go home already.