SUNLIGHT SHONE BRILLIANTLY THROUGH my living room windows, blinding my eyes. It was 7:52am, Amira dragged me out of bed bright and early to get a head start on studying. Paris had to leave early as well but she didn't tell me why. Assuming it was probably another family emergency, I didn't question her, because lately she's been having a lot of those. Sitting in my living room, I try concentrating on my assignments that I was given. The timer ticks down the remainder of the 45 minutes I was given. Amira decided to start me on pre-calculus sheets to prepare me. Math was my worst subject by far, sophomore year I earned myself a 'C' on my first Calculus BC test and I worked my butt off ever since. I'm almost halfway through the sheets until I hear Amira yell.
"4 MINUTES!" She looks at her wristwatch and peers over my paper. She gives a disapproving look and shakes her head. "Are you stuck or are you just bored?"
I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping she wouldn't see the embarrassment on my face.
Right... because if you can't see her, she totally can't see you.
I look up to face her and flash a bashful grin. "Um...Both?" Amira gives a pronounced sigh and sits on the couch beside me. She stops the timer and observes my paper, she turns around with her back facing me, clicks her pen, and starts to correct the ones I've already done. I try to peep over her shoulder but I assume she notices because she walks away from me and grades my paper on the dinner table. My phone lights up with another text notification from Paris. Ever since last night, she wouldn't stop texting me with messages along the lines of
"Have you read it yet??" or "I will steal your phone if you won't tell me!!"
And every time I reply with "No." It's really not a big deal either but I just can't seem to open his message. I should just bite the bullet and see the message right? It's really rude to leave him on read too. I sigh and turn off my phone, letting Paris's text messages light up my lock screen. Just as I set down my phone, Amira calls me over.
"Alinna! Come over here!" She pats down to the seat next to her. Walking over, I get a good glimpse of my graded papers. Red marks scattered across them, with little notes in almost every margin. I sit down and take the papers to observe what I did wrong. Amira smiles at the discouraged expression on my face. Upon looking closer, I realized that the red marks weren't because the answers were incorrect. In fact, they were checkmarks, and the notes in the margins were comments of approval. Amira taps the paper. "I wrote everything in red to scare you HAHA!"
The ringtone from her phone interrupts her laughter, making her jolt in surprise. "Lukas Moreno" flashes on her screen and Amira quickly picks up. Holding the phone close to her ear, she quickly grabs my car keys and mouths "Get ready in five." Confused, I oblige anyways and grab my phone and a jacket. I quickly follow Amira as she hangs up the phone with a faint smile on her face and heads to my car. As she put the keys in the ignition, I take this as an opportunity to ask.
"So why are we in my car and where are we going?" I flip through the radio stations and she pulls a big binder underneath the driver's seat.
Since when did she leave a binder in my car?
"We're going to study elsewhere and no...I will not be telling you where." I cross my arms and huff. Well, if she got off the phone with Lukas then that means we're probably meeting up with Lukas...and Mason. Crap. God really does have perfect timing, doesn't he? My chest tightens and I get that familiar feeling of my throat closing up. I try to take my mind off of seeing him. It's not even confirmed that I'm going to see Lukas OR Mason. Maybe Amira wants a change in scenery? There's nothing to stress about, again this is probably just something I made up in my head–and if I do see Mason, it's not a big deal. I keep telling myself this until Amira finally pulls into her destination and parks the car. I look outside the window to see where we are. "The Candlewood Cafe" in an elegant wood carved sign grabs my attention. Amira hops out of the car and grabs her clunky binder and struggles to close the door. She notices my stares and groans.
"Are you just going to sit there and look dumb or are you going to get out of the car and help me?"
Swiftly, I hop out of the car and hold the binder for Amira. She locks my car and heads inside the cafe while I struggle to follow her. Holding the door open for me, Amira grabs the binder out of my hands and sits down at a table where Lukas is. Maybe I should trust my intuition more often. I look around the cafe to find Mason but I don't see him. I was instantly met with the familiar scent of pastries and sweets. The chatter of the filled restaurant made me feel cozy, the warm fireplace set the atmosphere. I follow Amira and pull out a chair next to Lukas and sit down, pulling out my phone to find 45 text messages with Paris spamming me about the Mason situation. I roll my eyes and reply to all of them with "No." hoping she'd take the hint. But knowing Paris, she's persistent. So maybe she won't take the hint.
"I went ahead and ordered for you." Lukas turns from Amira to me and apologizes. "Sorry I didn't know what you wanted to eat."
I shrug. "It's alright, just hand me the menu." He tosses the menu at me and I skim through the selection. Even though I only order the same few items, it was always a habit of mine to look through all of the options anyway. Just in case I ever wanted to change things up. I never do. Just as I place my menu down, the waitress brings back the drinks Lukas ordered. Two Sprites except one of the glasses had two lemon slices in it. The waitress notices me and pulls back out her notepad.
"Oh hi! I'm Mandy! Did you need anything to drink?" She asked. The waitress had shoulder-length locks of curly hair. Her bronze hair complimented her pale jade eyes. She squints her eyes, trying to get a closer look at me. She jumps up in excitement and says. "Hey wait! I know you! You're Alinna Windham right? I think Benny used to take your order here all the time when he worked here! You want your usual?"
I nod my head "Yeah..um my usual would be nice. Thank you!" She takes up my menu and walks away humming softly underneath her breath. I pull back out my phone and mindlessly scroll through social media. A familiar blue sweater passes the corner of my eye, I look around to see who's it was. It was just a stranger who had the same navy crewneck as Mason's. My shoulders slumped and I return to my phone until I hear a chair screech beside Amira.
"Sorry I'm a bit late I got caught up in traffic." Mason sits down and I glance from my phone to see him. He had a black sweater on with grey sweatpants. I didn't realize how long I was staring until the waitress came back to place my drink down.
"A pink lemonade for you and... Oh, Mason! It's been a while since you came back! Do you want anything to drink? She clicks her pen and waits for him to answer. He places his jacket down and he props his arms on the table, fidgeting with his thumbs. Looking up at her, he flashes a smile and says.
"Can I get a pink lemonade?" She writes that down and she then turns to me and asks.
"Do you want a straw with that?" I shyly nod. It's embarrassing to say you need a straw to drink something– but I always have one. Maybe it's because I have an urge to bite down on something whenever I have a drink. Mandy pulls out a straw and walks away to get Mason's drink. Lukas throws Mason an amused smile.
"So...pink lemonade?" He tries holding back a smile. Amira hits his elbow and he jerks it away. "Ow? What was that for!"
"You have no room to talk mister. Last year at a carnival you-" Lukas interrupts Amira by placing his hand over her mouth.
"We do not speak on that." Amira raises her hands defensively. As Lukas sits back down cautiously eyeing her. Mandy comes back with Masons' drink and slides it over to him.
"Thank you." He says. The waitress slides over another straw over to us and says.
"Just in case." She walks away to the table and serves the elderly couple behind us. I take my straw and slam it against the table to open the straw, causing a loud thump to resonate throughout the restaurant.
Really? Now everyone's looking at you.
Stares from strangers surrounded me and I throw a sheepish smile at them.
"Oops. Haha..." I peel the rest of the paper off of the straw and drop it into the glass. Biting down on the straw, I snap my eyes shut, hoping that the condescending stares were gone. When I open them back up, a slice of carrot cake was in front of me. I hastily dig into the cake, disregarding the awkward stares everyone gives me. Well...everyone besides Mason. Finishing up the last bits of the slice, I ask with my mouth full of cake. "So what are we gonna work on right now?"
Amira and Lukas give each other a knowing glance. She pulls a few worksheets out of her bulky binder and hands them to me and Mason. She folds her arms and leans back in her seat.
"We're going to test something, just try to follow along. Alright?" Lukas chimes in.
"We have a timer set for 35 minutes. We want to see if you can finish your papers in time. Clear?"
Mason and I nod our heads, our eyes met, with that same recognizable glint of competitiveness. Even though both Lukas and Amira didn't say it was a competition, It was the only way Mason and I registered it. Everything was a competition for us, especially if we were together. Lukas had a shiny black timer in his hands. Amira tossed two #2 pencils towards us. I catch it in mid-air and harshly grip the pencil. Right before the timer starts, I catch a glimpse of Mason, only to find him looking at me too.
As soon as I hear the timer beep, I quickly work through the sheets with ease. Everything seemed a bit easier than it did working at home. The problems didn't seem so foreign anymore, almost everything came to me naturally. In under seven minutes, I'm already on my second page out of three. Either Amira gave me a much easier sheet or maybe I just needed a new change in scenery. Scenery right? What else would it be?
I'm just not gonna say anything.
...What?
I quickly flip over to page three, I glance over at Mason realizing he's almost on page three I pick up my pace. In the corner of my eye, I see Lukas and Amira whispering, I don't let that distract me though, I'll just ask about that later. I drop my pencil down, completing three precalculus worksheets in under 16 minutes. As soon as I dropped my pencil, not even a millisecond later, Mason does too. Amira smirks and grabs our sheets to grade. She hands Mason's sheet to Lukas and they swiftly got to work. I twiddle with my thumbs impatiently as I wait for them to finish up. I hear tapping underneath the table, knowing it's Mason, I give him a cold stare for him to stop. But him being Mason, he continues to do it anyways. He taps his foot loudly whenever he's impatient.
"Alright! This was really impressive. Since both of you couldn't concentrate alone, I'm very pleased to see these kinds of results." Amira beamed. She shuffles the papers and taps them onto the table. "I guess for you guys to work, we'll have to study together more often." Lukas agrees.
"Yup! So get comfortable, because you will be seeing this face more often." I roll my eyes and see Mandy helping out a table beside us, after she was done I called her over.
"Hey Mandy!" She turns around and rushed towards us. She fixes her hair and chirps.
"Yeah?" I ask for another lemonade and a basket of fries. She scrawls that down on her notepad and asks. "Is that all for y'all tonight?" We all nod and she turns away to grab my food. After Mandy brings my food, we began talking and joking around at the table until we finally came to a stop. Amira stands up to pack her bags and grabs her clunky binder, clutching it in her hands she says.
"Okay well, I think we've had enough of you people. I'm going to call a cab and head home." Lukas quickly protests.
"No you can't take a cab it's dark out. Let me drive you home." His demeanor left no room for backtalk. Amira sighs and agrees. Before the pair leaves, Amira hugs me and whispers into my ear.
"Good luck."
I didn't question it, but instead I hug her tighter and let her go. Leaving me and Mason alone. The basket of fries still a bit full, I sit back down and finish the food. I always felt a bit guilty whenever I wasted food. Mason notices and sits back down to help me finish my fries. We just sat there acknowledging each other, in silence, sharing fries.
Since when do I share a basket of fries with Mason Cantley?
When we were finished, I forced out a "Thank you." and briskly left the restaurant. I drove home in silence just reflecting on what had happened. As soon as I came home, I ran up the stairs and burst into my room, jumping onto my bed. I hug my pillow just, faintly reminiscing on the events of today. Finally, I grab my phone and took a deep breath.
Just open it, it's literally not a big deal.
I go into the Messages app and tap on his contact name. My heart dropped reading his words.
>>>I miss you too.
authors note: not sure how i feel abt this but lmk! i kinda have a love hate relationship with this chapter. but then again i always will end up hating everything i make. but oOOoo alinna finally opened up the message. maybe she'll finally text Paris back LOL