Take a Sip

Chapter Three

‘Deep shit, Kyle,’  Riley rolled her eyes and stood up straight. She stretched her arms before walking back over to Jake and AJ. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and Jake turned his head to kiss her on the cheek. She shut her eyes and giggled, and buried her face into his neck. He swung her around so that they were facing each other, then he leant forward and whispered something into her ear. She burst into another fit of giggles and nodded her head. She turned back around to face where she just was.

‘See you Elise, later Kyle!’ She called back, waving.

‘Leaving so soon, Preston?’ he asked in reply. She scowled at him.

‘Riley.’ she said firmly. ‘But yeah,’ she smiled looking back at Jake. ‘I’ll call you later, yeah?’

Elise nodded once ‘Bye,’

‘Later, AJ,’ Jake turned to his friend.

‘Nice. Bye Jake,’

As the couple walked away, huddled close together, AJ came over next to Kyle.

‘You must be disappointed,’ AJ leant back on to the wall.

‘Yeah, I threw away my smoke telling Riley some deep shit thingie. Dramatic effect and whatnot,’

‘Not about the cigarette dumbass, and if your so upset about that you can bum one off me,’ Aj pulled out a pack from his back pocket.

‘You don’t smoke,’ Kyle said, hesitantly taking one from the packet. AJ looked away for a moment before taking one himself. Elise silently offered her lighter again.

‘Thanks,’ Kyle quickly lit his and AJ’s, not trusting him to do his own, before dropping the lighter back into the pocket of Elise’s oversized coat.

‘Now, what were you saying?’ He asked AJ.

‘Oh, right, about Riley and Jake. You can’t be happy, right?’

‘Why not? She’s my friend and I want her to be happy,’ He took breath from his cigarette.

‘Don’t try to pull this shit with me, Kyle,’

‘What shit?! I wouldn’t want to take this away from her,’

‘Yes you would,’

‘What’s that meant to mean?’

‘It’s no secret, shithead, you’re pretty fucking obvious,’

‘Am not!’

‘Ah! So you admit it!’

‘I-’ He stopped and hung his head. He took a second before straightening up again and taking another smoke. ‘Yeah, ok, you got me,’

‘I knew it-’ Elise interrupted whatever AJ was going to say with a cough. She flicked her cigarette butt away and took a small silver flask out of another pocket.

‘Elise what are you doing?’

She took a long drink before replying softly ‘I smoke to remember. I drink to forget,’ She screwed the lid back on and slipped it back into her pocket. She stood up off the wall and began to walk away. ‘Bye,’ She said without even looking back. The two boys watched her leave and as soon as she was out of sight, AJ sighed and threw away his cigarette onto the concrete below.

‘What the fuck man, you didn’t even touch it! That’s such a waste!’

‘What do you care?’

‘Why’d you even get it out?’

AJ sighed. ‘You’re right. I don’t smoke, but Elise was there,’

‘What’s Elise got to- ohh...’ Kyle’s eyes widened and he nodded slowly.

‘Yeah,’

‘Hah,’ Kyle smiled. ‘Nice. But how do you know? I mean she never talks,’

‘She’s so... beautiful, I guess. And not just in her looks, because she is really pretty, but she’s beautiful in the way when her favourite music plays she lets down her guard and her head nods, and her frown fades, and she’s beautiful in when she reads and she brushes her hair back, and she’s beautiful in her writing, not only the product, but the way she works, and her face of concentration,’

‘She writes?’

‘Yeah, music,’ 

‘Music?’

‘Mhm, she’s a composer. You should see her notebooks, it’s pages and pages of scores. One time, I was sitting with her behind the school. It was really loud and there must’ve been twenty other people there. She was sitting on top of one of the huge bins, alone, with a book. I asked her what she was writing, and she told me to come up and look. Have you ever seen a hand written score?’

Kyle shook his head.

‘Oh, well, they look amazing. Anyway i told her I couldn’t read music, and...’

‘And? And what?’

‘And she laughed, and she sung it for me,’

‘What?!’

‘Yeah, if that wasn’t amazing enough, he laugh is the cutest thing, and her voice... It’s- It’s like a kitten,’

‘A what now?’ Kyle began to laugh.

‘Well, well because,’ AJ had begun to blush. ‘It’s soft and high and cute and warm and I want one,’

Kyle stared at him, lips pressed together to try and stop his laughter.

‘Th-That came out wrong, I-’

‘Ahahaha!’

‘Shut up!’ He was bright red.

‘You want one? Hahaha!’

‘That’s not what I meant, I mean- Because- Ugh!’

‘Aw, I’m sorry AJ,’ He gave him a soft punch on the shoulder. ‘You know I’m just messing around. You should ask her out!’

‘What?! No, no, I could never do that, I- Well- No!’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I know what she’d say,’ he grew quiet.

‘How could you know that?’

‘Because I know she likes someone. And it’s not me,’

‘Well, you should still try to hang out with her more. Ask her about her music more or something,’

AJ sighed and ran his hand through his hair. ‘Yeah, maybe,’

‘What’ve you got to lose?’ Kyle’s smile fell and he looked forward. The sky was now nearly black, the last few bits of orange slowly sinking down into the horizon. 

‘Why’d you just get... weird?’

‘Well, I just realised something. I never had a future, I don’t do good in school, I’m not good at music, or art, and the girl I like got a boyfriend,’ He took a long breathe from his cigarette.

‘I don’t know about you, but I’ve got nothing to lose.’