~Narrated~
Cora didn't think it was possible for someone to be able to stare this hard, or this long.
But hey, first time for everything.....right?
She was that someone, by the way.
She tried, she really did try to look away. Maybe even remember her name and home address, but the object in front of her was quite the sight to behold and rapidly deleting all of her brain memory, starting with simple words like hello and lemon.
The object being the prettiest forest green eyes she'd ever seen, attached to a masculine and angular face, accompanied by plump pink lips and little black spots littered across the creature's defined cheek bones.
He was gorgeous.
Gorgeous and glaring at her.
"Umm, wow. I-hi?" She sputtered, trying but not really able to regain her composure. At least English was slowly coming back to her.
Not like it's the language she grew up speaking or anything.
His glare intensified.
"Hello to you too. Quick question-" He begun but she cut him off, her mouth moving faster than her brain, which apparantly was still short circuiting.
"Cora, my name is Cora." She said, sure that he was going to ask for her name.
He didn't.
Instead.
"I wasn't going to ask, but it's wonderful to put a name to the face of the girl who just drenched me in-" He sniffed his shirt, "What is this?" She couldn't think of a reply fast enough, she could only think of how rich and deep his voice was, and how curly the mop of black hair on his head was.
"Cinnamon, milk and chocolate. Blended together." She finally said.
"It was suposed to be resting comfy in my stomach by now."
"Unfortunately that atrocity, now resides on my shirt."
"Atrocity? That brown stain on your shirt is the best thing to ever hit my taste buds." Cora uttered defensively.
He snorted, "A tuna smoothie sounds more appealing." He said dryly.
"That's a bit far-fetched." She muttered, the man glanced at his shirt and then he looked back at her.
"Really?" He said, his tone mocking, so was his facial expression.
"Yep, I would happily get you one.....to prove it."
"Will you grab a new one? Or sample the leftovers that are currently and very uncomfortably dripping down my chest?" She could feel the heat spread across her cheeks when he finished his statement.
Thank God for her dark skin colour.
"The first option. I'm really sorry, I've got towels in my bag.." She dug through her sling bag, not noticing the way his green eyes twinkled with amusement.
Cora was absolutely mortified. I knew I should have stayed at home and finished rewatching Stranger Things, she thought to herself, she was unusually clumsy. Generally so, her pouring the contents of her 'smoothie' on some handsome stranger was proof enough. She was doing perfectly well hunting for those chocolate balls she adored so much and drinking her weird mixture of a smoothie.
Until she tripped.
Could have been the air that tripped her.
Her own shoe-lace.
Fucking aliens maybe?
It didn't really matter. She was going down, faster than Stephen fell for Elena. She was prepared to eat floor when something stopped her, two warm and very strong arms to be exact, wrapped securely around her waist. She had opened her eyes slowly, and was ready to kiss the unsuspecting human being. But she found him glaring, at her.
She was confused until he let her go and she noticed the very brown splotch sitting pretty on his very white tee-shirt.
She understood.
She probably would be mad too, if some curly headed clutz she saved from a two feet fall poured an odd- but delicious- beverage all over her shirt. And to add icing to the damn cake, she couldn't find those fucking towels.
Everything, was just peachy.
Especially the mocking expression coming from the male in front of her.
"Is there some of your umm- drink.. on my face, or something?" He had questioned her, Cora blinked.
"What?"
"Well, you've been staring at my left cheek for about forty seconds now." More heat creeped up her neck.
"I'm sorry, you're, well...I'm just, sorry." She managed to get out. Dear Lord, the first time a cute guy willingly talks to her and she's a blubbering mess.
He's only talking to her because her smoothie is, well- on his shirt, but still.
"Yeah, I gathered that you're sorry. Look, next time, try not to trip on-" He looked around, "Whatever you tripped on." He finished and her blush deepend.
"Right, got it." She really wasn't handling this very well.
"Bye, Cora." He muttered and walked away. She paused for a moment, at the mention of her name. She's heard it plenty times, but the way he said it, shocked her into action.
"Uh hey!" She called after his retreating figure. He stopped and turned to face her, he was looking at her with a curious expression.
Good sign.
She cheerfully walked up to him, "Let me buy you a new shirt and a smoothie.. to say sorry." She grinned up at him.
All she could see was his throat.
A good looking throat.
I might be a bit too close to him, she thought as she took a step back.
"Did you just ask me out?" His voice sounded so appalled by the very idea. Her eyes widened, and she shook her head frantically.
"What? No, no I was just...you were-" She stopped when she noticed his lip twitch.
Wait- did he just- joke? She coudn't tell. His face was, serious. As if that mocking expression was permanently printed on his face.
It suited him.
"If the smoothie you are offering is anything like the one on my shirt. I may be forced to decline." The slight tease coming from his gruff voice made her giggle.
"I'm not investing a dime on tuna smoothies."
"Dang, really wanted one." He sounded serious, Cora couldn't tell if he was still kidding at this point.
"I'm concerned for your taste buds, the horrors those poor souls must go through."
"You're worried about mine? That blend is nothing short of insanity." He said gesturing to her empty bottle.
"You have no taste at all then, but I'm willing to compromise and get you a good old fashioned cup of coffee." She had reassured him, though his reluctant gaze wasn't very encouraging.
"I kind of have to be somewhere right now but, you could...give me your number? Or something." He had said, his tone a bit lower.
"Have to be somewhere? What, are you trying to ditch me in a nice way?" Cora joked, his lip twitched again.
She was going to get him to smile.
Somehow.
"Nah." He dug his phone out of his pocket, "I wanted to get chocolate for my grandma before this random chic dumped her-weird sounding but okay smeling-smoothie on me." He said as he handed his device to her.
"She sounds awesome." He rolled his eyes.
"Try that again." Cora rolled her eyes too.
"Oh no, the audacity of that chick. At least she has good taste in drinking choices." She stated in her most offended sounding voice, smiling goofily.
She wondered iddly if she sounded very convincing.
"I highly doubt that, but she was pretty."
Cora blinked, then blinked again. More blinking.
"My name is Lucas, by the way." He offered. She liked his name, a lot.
"You're pretty too, Lucas." He had actually chuckled at that one. His smile made him look even more handsome. She couldn't decide which one she liked best between his name and that faint but deep sound.
"Thanks Cora, I'll..call you?" He said to her as he retrieved his device, all she could do was nod. And That was it.
He was gone.
Leaving the scent of cinnamon, milk and chocolate behind.
~~~~
"Dude he ghosted you?" Sage's loud voice blared through Cora's cellphone, Callie snickered whilst plaiting her strawberry blonde hair into two french braids on the other line. Cora cringed at the truth in her friend's words.
"It depends, if by ghosted you mean that I haven't seen or heard from him since I not-so-gracefully dumped my cinnamon smoothie on him? You are correct."
Callie laughed.
Sage sighed.
Cora cringed some more.
It wasn't her best moment really.
Not that Cora had a lot of those.
This stung more than the others, she really thought that Lucas- the handsome guy from the store- was really going to take her up on her offer to get him a coffee. Maybe they would fall in love and have a gazillion kids and even more dogs.
Maybe she went a bit too far.
She couldn't help it.
Lucas was so damn cute.
She was really disappointed in all honesty and kind of mad too. It had been ten days since she gave him her number. Ten whole days of waiting for him to call, send a text, even blow a horn and send smoke signals to show that he hadn't forgotten about her.
Ten days, and absolutely nothing.
"It's not my fault anyway. What type of animal takes some random girl's number, promises to call her- and then...doesn't?" Cora said exasperated.
"Males...do that, sweetie. Not all, but some- maybe most." Callie said reassuringly.
"I mean, I did say sorry after drenching him."
"Yeah... that sorry didn't get him a new shirt though." Callie said, Cora rolled her eyes.
"We leave you alone for one second-" Sage muttered, Cora could see her dragging her palm across her face through the screen.
"Maybe he meant to call me and then dropped his phone down the toilet." Cora debated, pacing her room.
"Sure and maybe Chris Brown will come to his senses and marry me." Sage replied sarcastically.
Callie decided to keep it going, "Maybe my parents will let me have a pet pig."
"No! we do not need another one of you." Sage almost yelled at Callie through the screen.
"I'm pretty sure you're the pig here Sage, remember that all you can eat buffet and Stevie's?" Cora reminded her friend, Callie hummed in agreement.
"Right?" Callie said.
"I'm not a disgusting pig-" Sage stated defensively.
"You're not." Said Callie.
"You're a cute one." Said Cora.
"You know what- this isn't even about me. We were talking about the girl who got black-listed by some hot dude she met on isle four at the supermarket."
"That would be a fantastic movie." Callie said giddily.
"Yeah sure- we could even name it, Heatbreak On Isle Four." Cora said sarcastically.
Unfortunately her two idiotic friends took her seriously.
Well, Callie did.
Sage just wanted to be downright annoying.
"That's the corniest movie name I've ever heard."
"Come on Sage, I think it's awesome and cute-"
"And cliche." Cora finished.
"Agreed." Said Sage. Finally, someone her side.
"It would make a fantastic movie." Sage added to her previous statement.
"Wha- Hey! I thought you were with me on this Sage." The betrayal was evident in Cora's voice, all her bestfriends could do was laugh at her.
"I should seriously consider throwing you guys away." Cora muttered.
"Don't forget to recycle me!" Callie chirped the same time that Sage said, "I'll throw you out first." Cora groaned.
"You guys really aren't helping here."
"What should we do? Call Harry Potter and make him cast a locating spell on him?" Sage questioned sarcastically.
"Sage, do locating spells even exist in Harry Potter? That's probably more of the Originals, or The Vampire Diaries." Callie said.
"I don't care, all I know is that where Harry goes, Weasley follows. Mama wants a piece." Sage bit her lip and fanned her face dramatically.
"Gross Sage." Cora gagged.
"Eww, the weird red-headed twins?" Callie asked, appalled.
"No hairbrains, Ron." Sage said it as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
"Oh thank cheese, I was beginning to question your taste in fictional men." Callie said, relieved.
"Guys!"
"Oh right, the Lucas situation." Sage nodded sternly, her raven hair shook in response, Callie did the same, she had just finished braiding her hair.
"It doesn't really matter, I probably will never see him again. So we should stop talking about him." Cora said.
"Are you sure?" Sage questioned, concern evident in her voice. Cora was emotional and not one to let go of something so easily.
This was shocking.
"Totally, maybe I imagined the whole thing." Callie snorted at Cora's statement.
"Yeah right.... you've been single for so long, you conjured up some imaginary hot guy?"
"Callie, be nice." The two girls looked as if they saw a ghost, Sage was confused.
"What?" She snapped.
"Sage....Did you just tell me, to be nice?" Callie was befuddled, So was Cora.
"Yes, I did. Your point?"
"Wow. I've officially seen and heard it all this summer. I can start our last year of highschool at peace." Cora stated with conviction, Sage rolled her grey eyes so hard they could have fallen out of their sockets.
"You have spoken well brother." Callie said in the same tone.
"I don't have time for this. We have school tomorrow and I should be dreaming of Eren Jaeger right now." Sage muttered.
"Sage, darling, we talked about this-" Callie started.
"Friends are more important than anime...." Cora finished, Sage laughed out loud.
"No, you guys talked, I zoned out the moment Levi was mentioned."
"Sage, we're your bestfr-"
"Wait, school is in two day-"
"Night assholes." Sage said before she cut the call on her line.
Cora and Callie looked at their screens in silence for a few seconds.
"She does like us...right?" Cora asked, unsure of the answer.
"I think so? It's hard to tell when she goes from a fire-breathing dragon to a caring princess within nanoseconds." Callie said, Cora laughed.
"Either way she's stuck with us." Cora concluded.
"Totally, I'll see you in two days Cora."
"Yeah, two whole days."
"Chear up grumpy, there are plenty more hot guys named Lucas out there."
"I'm cutting the call now Callie."
"Hey wai-" Cora didn't let her finish.
She smiled as she placed her phone on her bedside table and settled into her almost bare bed. Everything she needed for boarding school was ready and packed into her suitcase and trunk.
She was excited for this year, mostly because she was going to be able to see her friends again. They didn't live as close as she would have liked, so she could only see them during school terms. She made sure to treasure every moment she had with them.
They told each other everything, including the embarrassing and less than pretty details. And even though she didn't go to wild parties in New York like Callie, or go surfing in California like Sage. She still had a pretty amazing summer holiday.
Would have been better if a certain green-eyed someone she bumped into a week ago had actually called her.
But you know what? Fuck being sorry for herself.
She was fine without a Lucas before.
She'd be even better without one now.
Screw Lucas.
And his gorgeous face.
And his strong arms.
And his cute scowl.
And screw her for thinking about him this much.
******
First chapter. Hope our audience expandssss ... next one will be in Cora's POV.
Bye<3