"DO YOU THINK that I can get an ice cream cone when we get there, Dean?" Daphne askes, her mahogany eyes, big with curiosity as she waits for my answer.
"Yes, Daph, you can," I said while smoothing down her hair, and patting her head. She smiles and continues to sway from left to right as she sings the song, 'Under the Sea' from The Little Mermaid, her new favorite Disney movie from last weeks Tangled.
The streets of Manhattan have never been busier, with men and women alike making their way through the crowd of people trying to get to a certain destination. And the funny thing is, it's still not as busy as usual.
Taking a hold of Daphne's hand, I grip on to it tightly, not wanting her to get lost in the swarm of self-absorbed individuals.
"Is that the cafe, Dean?" Daphne points at a big blue sign that says, Macy's Cafe and Bakery.
"Yes, Daph, it is. Do you want to go inside?"
"Yes, please," she giggles trying to wiggle her hand out of my grip, but I only latch on tighter, "Calm down, sweet pea, we'll be there in a minute, just be patient."
"But we're so slow," she says exasperated, still trying to run away from me but eventually giving up when she realises that I wasn't going to let go.
Making our way to the cafe, I opened the door for Daphne to enter first, and when I do, the immediate smell of fresh baked pastries and coffee beans fill the air.
The restaurant is filled to the brim with hungry people, chowing down on one desert or the other. The expressions on their faces show how satisfied they are with their little Sunday snacks.
Looking down at Daphne, she looks like a ticking time bomb, just a few minutes away from exploding with an absolutely chaotic energy. Which only seems to appear when she is faced with an extraordinary amount of sugar or has eaten said sugar.
"Dean! Can we get the ice cream now? Please?" she looks at me pleadingly, wanting to go over to the long awaiting line where others stand to receive or give out their orders.
"Not yet, sweet pea, I'm looking for someone and when I do, I promise we'll go straight over to the counter and buy you your ice cream," I kneel in front of her, bringing myself closer to her height as I ensure her that I will keep my promise.
"Okay," she looks downcast but hopeful, wanting to believe what I said.
Getting back up on my feet, my entire body freezes when I catch a glimpse of the familiar blonde hair and striking green eyes. She's sitting next to the window, reading a book, while taking a sip of coffee out of her cup.
I can't seem to take my eyes off of her, my entire being seems to be lost in time as I stand there, not focusing on the world around me until, Daphne brings me back to the realm of the living by tapping my leg continuously, while repeating my name, in order to capture my attention, " . . . Dean . . . Dean . . . Dean," she continues.
"Yes, sweet pea?" I reluctantly force my eyes off of Juliette and to hers, wondering why it was so damn hard to do so.
"Is that Juliette? Is that the girl you were talking about on the way here, Dean? Is it, is it, is it?" Daphne practically screams at me, while simultaneously pointing at Juliette. Any hope that I would've wished for her not seeing us, was completely demolished by now.
Juliette looks our way, and I feel myself wanting to sink into the ground, she just had to embarrass me like that, didn't she? She waves at us, signaling us to come over as she rearranges the table.
Daphne, seeing this as her golden ticket to finally break free from my grasps, runs towards her, her hands opened wide in a motion that looked to be her asking for a hug.
"Hi," Juliette stumbles back a bit, because of the small yet mighty force that hit her in the legs, "and what's your name?" Juliette askes her, her lips in a continuous smile.
"Daphne!" Daphne yells out in a happy tone, a little bit too eager to find out more about the blonde girl that's currently beaming down at her.
"Well, hello Daphne, my name is Juliett-"
"I know, I know, I know, Dean told me! He has told me a lot of things about you when we were coming over here-isn't that right Dean?" Daphne looks at me, a flurry in her eyes, she's way too excited for this, I knew I should have never had brought her here.
"Uh . . . yeah, that's true-but only the things I knew," I pull my sister away from her legs before saying, "I'm sorry for her outbursts," I cradle Daphne in my arms while she smiles from ear to ear like a cheshire cat.
"No worries, after all, kids will be kids, there's no way to change that fact."
"I guess so," I smile at her as she does it back.
Sitting down, I beckon over a passing waiter and place I and Daphne's orders, making sure to order her chocolate and strawberry ice cream before anything else.
"Don't you feel weird?" Julie said after the waiter had left.
"Weird about what?" I questioned, while adjusting Daphne in her seat so that she could sit properly and comfortably.
"All the stares and looks from people, the silent whispers, the constant attention, almost stalker like?"
"Don't be worried, Julie. No one gives two fucks-"
"Language," Daphne interrupts.
"Sorry," I looked at her. "No one gives two flying flamingos about who you are and what you're doing in New York. The only people that might care are the press, and even at that, they are only there when there's a scandal or something like that."
"Besides," I smile at her, bringing my body closer to hers by leaning on the table, "I'm used to it."
"Well if you're okay with it," she brushes away the hair follicles that latch unto her skin with assistance from the sweat that trickles down her face, not even a cold room could battle off the New York heat, "then I am too."
"So, what are we doing first?" I rested my back, back on the chair before crossing my arms around my chest.
"Your test of course, it's on Wednesday, that's three days away."
"What test?" Daphne looks at us, her head tilted to the right side of her face, curiosity written all over it.
"Midterms sweet pea," I pinch her left cheek.
"But aren't midterms for everyone?" she questions.
"Yes, it is Daphne," Juliette responds before I could.
"Then why is it only Dean that's writing the test?"
"It's not only me," I could feel myself starting to go wild, if Daphne finds out she might tell mum, even if she didn't intend to, it'll still come out one way or the other.
"Daphne, sweetheart, Dean is the only one writing the test because he's doing it for an extra grade. He wants to make sure that he gets a high score for mummy and daddy, so that he can make them proud," Juliette brings me out of the corner I so happened to find myself in, by not necessarily lying but by also not telling the full truth.
"And you're helping him to do that?" her eyes start twinkling, four-year-olds are easily amused.
"Yes, baby," Juliette smiles, "but I'm afraid this place is starting to get rowdy," she says after a group of sweaty bikers come inside the Cafe and start looking for a place to sit, in the already packed building.
"Yeah, you're right," I gave her look, my eyes thanking her for saving my ass, she notices it, "I think we should be heading out now," I start to stand up, but Daphne pushes me back down.
"No!" she screams, "What about my ice cream? You promised!" her eyes start filling up in tears, as her faces scrunches up in a very cute way.
"Don't worry baby, we can wait till our food arrives, okay?"
"Okay," the sweet smile back on her adorable face.
It wasn't long until our food arrived, and I paid the bill. Getting up, we started to walk outside, when Juliette realises that she had left one of her pens inside and goes back in to get it.
"I'm back!" she announces herself as she walks towards us, a pen and paper in her hand.
"What's that?" Daphne said in between licks of her ice cream, while pointing up towards the paper in Juliette's hand.
"Oh, this is just a paper I used to take notes in-nothing too important," Juliette makes up an elaborate excuse that Daphne buys, but I don't.
What's in that paper that she doesn't want to tell Daphne about? I think to myself, what's so important that it has to stay hidden?
"Where are we going?" Juliette says after a minute or two of walking away from Macy's.
"Our house; I and Daphne's," I turn my head to face her, before smiling and looking away.
"Really!?" Juliette looks surprised.
"Yes, I figured since I wasn't allowed into your house, I'll let you into mine," she cringed back at the thought of herself being rude to me and not letting me in.
"Okay, is it only you guys there? Or has everyone left?"
"It's just us, Daphne's nanny and all the other staff don't come in on Sunday's, Diana-you know, Diana, she was the one you saw when I had my little problem-she's at her friend Luna's house, won't come back until the evening, and finally our parents went out for brunch with a few friends, and they won't be back until around eleven or so," I continue to fill her in on all the events my family are on today as we walk towards the traffic stop.
We continue walking past the tall skyscrapers and the food vendors that scatter themselves around the streets of New York City before hitching a cab ride to I and Daphne's home a little bit outside of the city.
"Your house is amazing, god," Juliette stared in awe at the modern yet cozy house that lays at the outskirts of town.
"Thank you! my daddy bought it!" Daphne smiles happily as she starts removing her shoes and running everywhere, "Juliette, let's go play dolls! come on," she gets a hold of Juliette's hand and starts heading towards the direction of her playroom upstairs.
"Woah there, tiger. Juliette can't go anywhere," I remove Juliette's hand from Daphne's, and she starts to frown.
"Well, why not?" she says, pouting.
"Because we didn't come here to play, Daph. We came here to study, and that's what we're going to do."
"But-"
"If we finish early, Daphne, I promise to come play dolls with you," Juliette interrupts her with a smile.
"Pinky promise," Daphne holds up her pinky finger, placing it in front of Juliette.
"Pinky promise," Juliette intertwines her pinky with Daphne's before the little girl finally ran away upstairs to her playroom by herself.
"Now I understand what you meant by her being one hell of a troublemaker."
"Thank you! Someone finally sees it, I swear, every single person says I'm lying."
"I can see why, she's so cute, no one will believe that anything's wrong with her."
" 'She's a sweet angel,' they'll say," I sat down on the floor and started removing my shoes before picking them back up in my hands and laying it beside the wall. When I'm done, I do the same thing to Daphne's shoes. "They just don't see it."
Staring back at Juliette, I see that she's shoeless, and her shoes lined up neatly against the wall.
Smiling at her, I asked, "Do you want a tour of the house?"
"No, it's fine."
"Okay then, follow me," leading her upstairs, I walk her through the corridors and the long halls of the estate before stopping in front of a door. "Juliette, may I present to you, the room where the Dean Jonathon Hawthorne sleeps in," and with that I open up the door.
"Wow! This is such a masterpiece," she says in a sarcastic manner, while walking into the room and looking around.
"Do you like it?" I lean the left side of my body on the wall and stare down at her as she walks around my room.
Why did I do this? I think to myself. I don't let people into my room, especially on the first day of them being in my house. But yet, here she is, flipping through the collection of record players I have sitting in a shelf in my room.
"No way," Juliette mutters, "you listen to Arctic Monkeys?" she holds out the 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' record and I nod my head to answer her question.
"I also have the 'AM' and 'Suck It and See' record," I fold my hands against my chest and smile at her. She smiles back. She smiles back.
Juliette stares intently at the record before saying, "My favourite song from this album is 505," she says, still looking at it, "I'm going back to 505," she starts to sing, "if it's a seven-hour flight, or a forty-five-minute drive, in my imagination, you're waitin' lyin' on your side—"
"With your hands between your thighs," I cut in, completing the lyrics of the erotic song.
"I never thought you to be a fan of them," she says while dropping the record back on the shelf and moving towards the electric guitar that sits idly at his stand.
"You play?" she touches the head of the guitar, before using her index finger and tracing the body of it, "I think guys who play the electric guitar are sexy," she pauses her hand midway through the guitar and stares at me.
"Did I say that aloud?"
"Yes, I believe you did," I made my way towards her, my body relaxed yet tense. What she did to that guitar is sexy. In a weird way, it was. In a weird way, it was. In a weird way, I wished it was me?
"His name is Zade," I'm standing right beside her, her shoulder brushes against mine, my body turns rock solid, i'm frozen. What the fuck is happening to me?
"You named your guitar?" she stares up at me, and I look down at her. I'm a whole head taller than her, I noticed.
"I did. Do you want me to play something?" I asked while picking up my guitar, and sauntering towards my bed, I sat down on it.
"Mhm," she follows me towards the bed and sits on the other side of it, opposite me. "Do you know the song 'Meddle About' by Chase Atlantic?"
I smirked, adjusting my guitar, I plugged in the amp and started playing the beginning intro of the song.
I'm fully engrossed in the song, my body is shivering, I'm really feeling some type of way. It's me, her, with this song, in a dimly lit room. The possibilities are endless!
I'm trying to remind myself that i don't like this girl, that it's just the song. But everything is telling me that I'm lying. That there's a deeper meaning behind all of this. And I'm trying to listen to my brain and be civil.
The song goes on and on, and each time it ends I just play it again, none of us wants it to stop, like we just opened up a new door and we're trying to see what's in it.
Regardless of what I'm feeling, it's just two friends hanging out, what more could possibly come from this?
‧˚₊•┈┈┈┈୨୧┈┈┈┈•‧₊˚⊹
guys who play the electric guitar >>>>>> you
their relationship is making progress, i'm glad
because i really didn't know how i was going to do it.
also, chapter 18, 19, and soon to be chapter 20 are
all focused on the same day, sunday. because, when
i was writing chapter 18, i realised it's going to be too long.
so, i split it up into 3 parts.
comment and vote 🤍
love youu