Bittersweet Coffee [A 5SOS, Luke Hemmings Fanfiction]

Chapter 10: Her Smile

"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." - Bruce Lee

// Important author's note after this chapter. Please make sure to read it! //

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Last night, Annie and Mike went to have some sibling fun. They both rode almost all the rides in the amusement park, and played a lot of games from random stalls. Mike even won his sister a large pink bear from one of the games, to which Annie almost died from embarassment from how childish it seemed, but nonetheless, she accepted the gift wholeheartedly.

That night, Annie didn't hesitate to hide her smiles. In fact, she was smiling althoughout the night. She couldn't help it.

They got home at 11:50 p.m. Although they went home too late, no regrets were found since they enjoyed their time together. There was no doubt that the Clifford siblings were getting closer like how close they were originally in the past, and Mike was sure that her ice was slowly melting, and was happy for that.

The next morning, Annie did her daily routine, though she wore an unusual smile on her face while doing so. She took a shower and picked her clothes from her walk-in closet. She decided to wear a pink floral dress matched with her pink flats since it's summer, making sure that they were matching, yet warm in the eyes. The color didn't seem to stand out like the typical Barbie-colored dresses on malls. It only had a normal tint of pink: not too much, and not too shabby.

After that, she decided to curl her hair -- only the ends of her hair -- and wore a white headband. She looked at her reflection and the mirror and felt satisfied with herself.

It was unusual though, because the smile plastered in her face seemed to be unremovable. She couldn't help but remember what happened last night at the amusement park. She definitely missed hanging out with her brother. 

Annie was thirty minutes early when she arrived at her college, so she decided to go to and buy some frap from Starbucks. She started walking to the cafe and when she entered, she noticed that Ashton and Calum were sitting at the table they sat on yesterday. They haven't noticed her yet. She ordered her frap and went to sit next to them while waiting for her drink to come.

She greeted them as she sat down. "Hi. What are you guys doing here?"

Both boys weren't answering her and were just staring. She was confused. She then realized that almost all of the boys at the cafe were staring at her as usual.

"Is something wrong with my face?" She started touching her face and Calum soon broke his trance and stopped her. He started pinching her cheeks.

"You're so beautiful today! I told you to smile more often!" He laughed while pinching her cheeks.

Annie swatted his hands and laughed lightly.

"Wa! You're even laughing! Is the world going to end now?!" Ashton exclaimed but Annie continued laughing. The boys at the cafe were awestruck since it was rare that the ice princess was smiling and laughing, but it was a really good sight.

Soon her frap arrived and she immediately started drinking it. "You guys haven't answered my question yet."

"Oh. Well we're kind of craving for coffee since you took us here yesterday, and we kind of figured that you'd be here this morning. Last time, you came at English class holding a coffee with you," Ashton explained.