<3// Pen..Pals? //<> - (A DirkJake Fanfiction)

All At Your Local Starbucks After School - Chapter 2

The phone rings. 

"Jake! I think it's for you!" I hear from another room in the house. My this house is big - it's smaller than the last one - but it feels larger, as though America had a sort of presence that made the suburban house larger. Or maybe it was just the lack of my grandfather. 

"Thank you, nan!" I put my suitcase onto the floor of my room and leant onto the ground in order to pick up my incredibly green, iPhone 5S. Ahh! It's Dirk! Getting back up faster than you can say blueberry pie, I put it to my ear, but just before I answer it I shout out to my nan "Nan, could I go off to the Starbucks down the road." I can't honestly help it - I feel as though my legs are going to give way at any moment and I'll fall onto the floor not dead, but asleep, which is virtually dead. 

"Feel free to, of course!" 

"Thank you." I say, and now I immediately answer the phone. It thankfully hadn't stopped ringing. "Hello, Mr. Strider, how're you today?" The words spill out of me before I have any time whatsoever to rethink over them. 

"Oh, uh, wow, I forgot you sound like that." Came a voice from Dirk, sounding laced with the same exhaustion as mine. "You sound like William Shakespeare got reincarnated into a 1920s film." 

"Shut up, that can't honestly be the FIRST thing you have to say to me." I'm not inside the house anymore. I have 5 pou-dollars in my pocket, a watch that reads 4:30pm, and a very near tireless craving for caffeine. Or rather, completely tired craving. "I'm in the land of the free, Dirk, dollars, and Moms, and howdies." 

"Don't ever reutterrate those words." 

"Come on, Dirk, you're no better with your accent."

"My accent is completely natural." 

"Yes, well, so is mine. Anyways, enough with this jackanape behaviour, I suppose you have actual questions to ask me?" 

"Yeah, well, since when were you moving to America?"

"About 2 weeks now, but I only told you last week after I sent that last email." 

"Such short notice? It sounds like one of my brother's crazy business trips." 

"Well, my grandma, she was.. she was.." I couldn't help but look around in a surreptitious manner as though my nan could be around somewhere before lowering my voice. "pretty taken aback my grandpa's death and we Englishes like to think of ourselves as quite unpredictable so we put it into action, I suppose." 

"Ah." There was an interlude to our conversation. "So what're you upto then? I'm guessing you're not still sleeping like a rock after your flight." Sarcasm laced his words. 

"My sarcasm detector is going off like cracking fireworks off of you." I say, turning the corner FINALLY on the same block as Starbucks. I was used to suburban walks, but not suburban walks at this stage of fatigue. "The only reason I am not simply collapsing to the ground is because I have a striking about of coffee pumping through my bloodstream. In fact, I'm going to get some right at this moment, you see there's this Starbucks just a few large blocks away from my house and the people who work there already know me." 

"Whoa, isn't that a Sliding Door coincidence, I'm having a Starbucks as well." Comes an ironically deadpanned voice. I don't know if he ever loses his 'cool'. 

"You're right, that is a strange coincidence and slightly odd." I say, stepping into the Starbucks. "Well I'm here, shout HAMBURGERS if you see me stepping into your starbucks. Green button up, beige shorts, the 'English' look." 

"Damn, I guess we're just at different starbuckses. You see, I'm leaving mine." Dirk replies, and part of me falls with that reply. "Yep, school's over and I just felt like getting a Starbucks." 

"Smashing!" I say, and talking to him as I enter the starbucks makes me feel happy to at least know someone in the whole measure of what is the United States of America that could help me get around for now. It's so good to have a friend as soon as you land your flight. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~CHANGE OF POV~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ah." There was an pause the size of Europe. "So what're you upto then? I'm guessing you're not still sleeping like a rock after your flight." I added, able to make just about as much of a conversation as a plant. 

"My sarcasm detector is going off like cracking fireworks off of you." I can hear footsteps going off in the background of the phone call. "The only reason I am not simply collapsing to the ground is because I have a striking about of coffee pumping through my bloodstream. In fact, I'm going to get some right at this moment, you see there's this Starbucks just a few large blocks away from my house and the people who work there already know me." I'm not over his accent and how he speaks and I've known him for YEARS now. It's like I'm the personification of America whenever I talk to him. 

"Whoa, isn't that a Sliding Door coincidence, I'm having a Starbucks as well." What movie reference was that?? Sliding Doors? I can't handle this conversation. But it really WAS a Sliding Door coincidence. This whole EVENT of him MOVING TO ILLINOIS was such a Sliding Doors event I half expected Gwyneth Paltrow to walk into that Starbucks at that moment. 

Except no. I saw someone different and I knew immediately that it was him. "You're right, that is a strange coincidence and slightly odd." Jake said, fuck-fUCK he thinks this is creepy. Fuck, I think it's creepy. Quickly, I grab my skinny cappuccino. 

"Fuck, fuck fuck fuck fuck." I say to myself, gaining glares from random people all around. Slowly, but surely, I get up from one of the sofas where I was and run for the bathroom.

"Well I'm here, shout HAMBURGERS if you see me stepping into your starbucks. Green button up, beige shorts, the 'English' look." I look out of the bathroom and I see a tanned kid, my age and definitely a bit younger with messy, yet vaguely styled dark brown hair. Jake. He's tired? Tired? He doesn't even look tired, he looks amazing. Wait - did I just think that? 

I snatched my view away and I lock the door to the bathroom. 

"Damn, I guess we're just at different starbuckses. You see, I'm leaving mine."  I lie. I lie like Trump to the press and to the rest of the public. Hot boiled in oil double fried Jesus, it smelled like a sewer decided to go to the water park with a five year old landfill. The only thing that keeps me sane is the smell of coffee. Soon I'm breathing into and out of the half-filled cappuccino just to keep my skinny blueberry muffin down. "Yep, school's over and I just felt like getting Starbucks." That part of my conversation is at least true. Bro had asked me to come home early so I decided to stay out later than usual by at least half an hour. 

"Smashing!" God, he talks like there's a constant light bulb turning on and off in his head and whenever he speaks it turns on. Would he like it if I was actually in the Starbucks or would he find it weird? Thinking about it I breathe in and start gagging. 

"Dirk? Dirk! Are you okay?" Jake questions, and I swear I can hear his voice outside the bathroom door. The paranoia must be getting to me. He sounds like a distant car on the highway. 

"Yep, just." I try to come up with something to say so that I don't get exposed from my current situation. "choked on my skinny blueberry muffin. These things are as dry as a desert today." Dry as a desert? That is about the worst fucking simile I can come up with, I've done better in a shorter period of time, but damn I was nervous and trying not to inhale the smell of shit. 

"Well, I got to order some coffee now. I do hope you feel better." Comes a slightly rushed reply. 

"Yep." I say in just about the longest reply I can manage without coughing.

"Goodbye, chum!" Comes his quirky goodbye. 

"Bye." I say, and I just wonder two things.

a. How long I can continue breathing in here? 

b. When will he call me next?