Music is a part of life, a part of who we are. You can go anywhere in the world and music will follow you. You can't escape it. Whenever you hear a song, it makes you wonder, is this song meant for me? Is this the song that represents who I am, shar...
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
Finally, it was the weekend! For most people, that would mean lie ins, hanging out with friends or just chilling at home binge watching shows on Netflix. For me, this meant spending many hours working at the café. Not that I minded. I never had anything to do on the weekends. Ethan was always busy with training and hanging out with his friends and I never had any friends to hang out with. With all the free time I had, it was better spent doing something productive.
It felt good to finally get away from the stares and whispers that had followed me around yesterday. It appears that multiple people had videoed our little busking session on the promenade and now it was one of the hot topics flying through the school. I couldn't be mad though, as much as it scared me, this is what I signed up for when I joined the band.
Saturday afternoons were actually one of my favourite times to work. People were always coming and going, supplying me with a constant stream of customers to serve. Keeping busy helped me to stop thinking about everything going on in my life and just focus on the task at hand. The free lunch that came with the afternoon shift was definitely an added bonus though.
Today was the same as any other Saturday. Lost of familiar faces, polite conversations and lots of tables to serve and clean. There were many regulars among the throng of customers, which always makes me happy. Regulars were the best as you pretty much knew what they would order, and conversations were always interesting.
Currently I was working with Naomi Feng, a university student studying to be a doctor who loved to dance. She'd moved here from Asia in her last year of primary school, and lived in this town ever since. I guess you could count her as my friend. We had been working together for a few years now and got along pretty well. The only times we would hang out and talk were during work, one of the reasons I counted her as sort of my friend. The other waitress was older than us, maybe in her thirties. She tended to keep to herself, never really interacting with anyone unless she had to.
The flow of customers had started to slow down, allowing me to clean up some of the tables without getting called away every second. Walking balk to the kitchen, I noticed a girl around my age sitting on her own in one of the booths by the window, keenly reading over the menu. Dropping off the plates by the sink, I fish my notebook out of my apron pocket and make my over to her.
"Hi there! Welcome to The Shell Bay Café. What can I get for you?" I say in a bright voice, hoping I didn't scare her off.
"Hey," she says back, giving me a small smile. "I'm actually new around here so what would you recommend?"
Ah, that's why I didn't recognise her. "Well all of the food here is pretty amazing, but my personal favourite is the cheeseburger and fries with a milkshake. It may be a classic but it's delicious all the same."
"Sounds great! I'll take two cheeseburgers with fries and two vanilla milkshakes then please," she says enthusiastically, folding the menu up and putting it back in the stand.
"Will that be everything for you?" I ask whilst writing down her order.
"Unless I'm able to order a tour guide, yes thank you," she says jokingly.
I laugh along with her, thinking about ways in which I could help. "My shift finishes in twenty minutes. I could show you around when we're both ready?" I suggest.
Her eyes widen in surprise. "You would be OK doing that?"
"Of course," I say, sending a smile her way. "I've lived here all my life so I know the place like the back of my hand, and I don't have anything I need to do today."
"You are amazing!" she says with a huge grin. I could see how grateful she was by the way she seemed to relax slightly.
"It's not a problem. I'll be back with your order." I walk through to the kitchen, dropping off the tables order and picking up the food for another table.
The next twenty minutes seem to fly by, as a few more customers come and go. After bringing the order to her table, the new girl tells me her name is Azura, and introduces me to her brother, Hisashi. After clearing their table and collecting my jacket, I say a quick goodbye to Rosa and meet Azura and Hisashi outside.
"Are you guys ready?" I ask as I walk up to them.
"Definitely!" Azura replies eagerly. She seemed really excited about this, practically jumping on up and down on the spot.
I let out a laugh at her enthusiasm, turning to look at her brother. "Is she always this excited?"
"Pretty much," he says with a small smile.
I laugh even more at that. I love the way she just seems to be a small ball of energy, excited about everything around her. She may be small in size, but I could tell she was the sort of girl who didn't take crap from anyone.
"I don't want to sound like a creep, but could you tell me where you live? It will be easier to work around that."
Azura lets out a laugh at that. "Don't worry. I can tell you are someone trustworthy. And anyway, I could knock you straight on your ass if you tried anything."
I look at her in surprise. I did not expect all that to come from someone who looks so innocent. "Well then," I say, clearing my throat. "I'll make sure to never get on your bad side."
She smirks at my slightly uncomfortable state. "We live at 13 Crescent View Lane."
"Oh wow. You live a couple of streets down from me," I tell her.
"Now that that's cleared up, let's get going shall we?" Azura basically demands, grabbing both mine and Hisashi's arms and leading us forwards.
***
We had spent the last few hours walking around town, visiting all the best places such as the arcade, the library and bookstore, my favourite clothing stores, the centre, the park and my secret alcove on the beach. I may have only met Azura four hours ago but I felt I had known her for years. I learned all about her life in Japan, how she is an art student as well as basically a master at Judo (she had been doing it since she was six years old, master may have been an exaggeration but she does hold a black belt in the sport).
Hisashi didn't speak much. He seemed like the sort of person who was quiet around people he didn't know but if he really got to know him then he would come out of his shell. He did say he was going to be trying out for the local football team, and Azura wouldn't stop bragging about how smart he was, especially when it came to the sciences.
She told me the reason they moved out to Scotland. Their parents had recently divorced, their dad with his new girlfriend back in Japan. Their mum brought them out her for a fresh start. We didn't spend a lot of time on that topic. I could tell it was still too fresh to go into much detail about.
Instead, she started grilling me about my life, the things I enjoy, who my friends were, what sort of activities I did and so on. I answered as honestly as I could, a little embarrassed when I told her that I didn't really have any friends. She just laughed and told me that wasn't possible, the statement making me blush and smile.
I walked them home after a fun afternoon out, swapping numbers with the both of them and promising to text Azura as soon as I got home. "I want to make plans ASAP with my new BFF!" were her exact words. I basically skipped home with happiness after that. The thought of having an actual friend after all these years being alone made me giddy inside.
Who would have thought that in my last year at high school I would finally be stepping out from behind the curtain?
