7ᵀᴴ CHAPTER
“Out of clutter, find simplicity”
There are only a few restricted things one can enjoy about summer when their brain actually gets a break from the awful heat and allows them to take in their surroundings.
One is definitely the sight of PJ sweating his skin off at the back of the room whilst cursing under his breath and sipping his Stella from time to time, slumped over some plastic chair with his hair sticking out all angles, his mouth opening and closing with a few suggestions for his article in between his breaks from drinking and complaining about the falling-to-pieces kitchen. To be quite honest, though, Elisha is paying close to zero attention to all of it (and yes she is aware he is probably directing the conversation towards her, but. Well.)
Two has to be the smell of upcoming summer rain from outside. The scent is peaking through the half-opened window right above the sink and left to the stove in the corner, a mixture of dust and ancient water (?), maybe smelling mildly of leaves, too. Is not like she can quite figure all the components of the aroma filling her nostrils, but the mere statement that it smells rain is enough. People are used to that smell. Her people are used to it, at the very least.
Three is the sight of the sky itself, blurred into several shades of blue, tinted with warm colours just above the horizon line, where the sun is halfway through sinking into. The mixture between tonalities of blue and pink, slowly melting into each other’s tones, feels as if the sky is igniting on fire slowly, starting from the bottom and disappearing somewhere above where no one can actually decipher. The wilderness above is beyond Leesh’s comprehension, an enigma she has still to figure.
But maybe the wonder is the fun of it, after all.
Elisha leans against the cabinet behind her back again, sighing heavily as she sips her own bottle of Stella and stares out the window, boring her gaze into the clouds beginning to be blown by the wind towards this side of the town. The previously darkening-blue sky turns into grey, the remaining tints of pink sinking all the way behind the sun.
And then there’s thing four. Probably the best out of it all: the smell of Friday’s tacos. Of Bridgit’s Friday’s tacos, more specifically.
And the thing is, Leesh doesn’t usually stay for dinner after her shifts; there’s nothing she craves more than the warmth (not literally, because warmth is basically everywhere) of her bed, and albeit it’s not officially hers, it’s still the same it’s been a few years, so she’s grown quite fond of it.
But tonight she needs desperately to plan something with PJ (he’s been bothering her throughout the whole entire week, and she knows they should have something done by now), moreover, there’s Harry-guy, too, and, according to what they’d talked earlier today, he should probably be here around 8p.m.
Leesha thinks she’s too much of a great soul, sometimes. Should probably stop offering her help so often, but then again, she’s not busy at all.
So she’s decided to stay and have dinner tonight, mostly because the beef in the pan smells heavenly already, and the tortillas baking on the oven rack bars for the past five minutes to make the shells assumed a golden-ish tone to their surface that makes Elisha feel her mouth starting to water.
“Whales!” Patrick shouts at some point, lifting his bottle of beer as if to make a toast to God-knows-what. Leesh wasn’t paying attention to any of his previous ideas, so he’s not all that surprised when she doesn’t move from her staring-out position against the cabinet. “Leesh, whales!” he repeats, this time straightening his position until he’s half leaning over the table. “Just think about it, how amazing would the pictures be. Giant mammals in an infinite wilderness of blue. Or maybe Manta rays, what about it, huh? I could manage a Nikon 10.5mm for the best fisheye lenses; the images would be impeccable, to say the least.”
Elisha turns to the side, sipping her Stella with a blank expression as she watches PJ’s clearly exaggerated excitement.
“And life underwater is always intriguing. It’s quite the brilliant idea, really. Both the article itself and the images would be perfect.” He taps his hand against the table a couple of times, gulps the rest of his beer in one go and tangles his hands behind his neck, feeling confident.
Leesh snorts. “Two little problems with your brilliant plan there, genius.”
Patrick sighs heavily and unclasps his fingers, turning to her with an annoyed expression already. “Always ruining the mood, aren’t we?” Leesha rolls her eyes. “Now, you tell me what’s wrong.”
Elisha finally moves from the cabinet, places her bottle on the table and goes to grab the oregano and the salt Bridgit had motioned for her to do so, still stirring the beef on the pan and remaining silent to not interrupt the conversation floating in the kitchen.
“The first problem is: you don’t have enough money to buy a fisheye Nikon, so, obviously, neither have I.” She keeps bustling around, this time grabbing some plates and placing them down next to her beer. Then grabs it again. “Second problem, which you should probably have considered before, is the fact that you’re terrified of water.”
PJ shrugs and tries his best to fake nonchalance, playing with the rim of his empty bottle. “I’m not terrified, okay?” Leesha coughs a laugh into her fist and pretends to agree. Very sarcastically, if she may say so. “S’just that I’m not fond of the idea of staying in high seas, liable to shark attacks and painful possibilities of death.”
She rolls her eyes again before she arches an eyebrow at him. “Sounds just like the same to me. Anyway. It’s not like we have high seas anywhere nearer than a good few hours away, so I suppose the idea is completely dismissed.”
Patrick huffs out something like ‘dream killer’ under his breath, but doesn’t argue any further.
Half a minute later, Dorothea walks in, her signature smile plastered to her face as she mutters a ‘hello’ and settles down on the stool next to Leesha. It’s not longer until she’s up again, though, scrunching up her nose at the sight of Elisha and PJ’s beers, mumbling something like ‘too old for this’ before opening the fridge and bringing out a box of orange juice.
“You kids won’t make me damage my liver.” She scowls with a smile and a wink, and Leesh has to physically bite on her inner cheek to stop her from smiling big at something so pathetic. She’s so endeared by this woman, she can’t quite fathom why – except she probably does.
“Leesh, please set the shells on a baking sheet and put them back in the oven, will you?” Bridgit asks whilst pulling her apron out, leaving the pan on the stove so the excess water evaporates. “Need to take a piss.” She announces with a giggle and walks out a second later.
“Such ladylike-y, isn’t she?” Leesha mocks, starting to stand to do just what Bridgit had asked for, when Dorothy pats her hand gently and stands up first.
“I’ll take care of it.” The old woman announces as Elisha settles back down and brings her bottle to her lips again.
“I blame it on the amount of time she’s been spending with you,” PJ speaks from his seat again, shooting Leesh a sickening grin as well as a roll of his shoulders, as if to say he doesn’t regret at all the implications of his statement. “Now, seriously. Leesh we need something. Throwing my ideas to the bin doesn’t help much.”
Elisha snorts once more, looks at him amusedly before speaking: “Not my fault your ideas are shit. Get it together, Patrick. You can do better.”
He pushes himself out of his seat, putting his empty bottle on the countertop next to the sink, amongst other empty recipients. “Enlighten me with your geniality, then, Mr. Cromwell’s biggest ass licker,” Leesha shrinks at the mention of their last teacher at university (a hell of a teacher, if she allows herself to even think about his classes again), and feels like she should defend herself like she’s done thousands of times before, because she did not lick his ass. It was not her fault he liked her that much despite her clear neglect toward the man.
She stays silent, though, because PJ is just teasing her, and he needs her ideas, so she won’t let the teasing get too far, since she masters the art of blackmailing.
“Well, once you asked so politely,” she makes a pause to flutter her eyelashes adorably, handing him her now empty bottle of Stella, too, so he can place it next to his. “Okay, so I was thinking. Maybe bird watching?” she prompts, scrutinising his features to catch his reaction. Confusion and doubt; a bit of challenge, possibly. “Don’t look at me that way, PJ,” she points a finger at him, waving it in front of his face as much as she can master. “It’s way easier to find birds in the UK than it is to find whales and rays, and there’re also amazing parks we can visit.”
PJ sighs as if in defeat, accepting his idea was nowhere plausible, to say the least. Leesha grins with the victory, pulling out of her back pocket a little note she had scribbled the night before whilst doing some research.
“Okay. So the best I could find was this Birdfair thing in Rutland, only a two-hour drive away from here. The event will be open for three days, so I was thinking we could maybe go on Friday and find somewhere to stay for the whole three days. The more we get, the better.”
PJ stares at the paper between his fingers for a while, analysing little notes like “Egleton, Oakham, Leicestershire; Oakham, Midlands LE15 8BT” and dates scribbled in cursive letters, plus some other things about birds he doesn’t even recognise. Might as well save that for his own research when he gets home.
“Well, that’s the best we’ve got,” he shrugs and looks up back at Leesha, smiling weakly at her. “You’re an angel, you know that, right?”
Elisha winks at him just when Edwin comes in next to Bridgit, both of them engaged in some conversation they’d started previously, and once they’re all settled around the table, fighting over the salsa and shredded cheese, slapping each other’s hands and stretching over the table to get it first, they still manage to chat distractively about the new employed guy at the carwash.
It’s loud and it’s confusing, and they go back and forth between several other topics; the heat still eats them alive, but Leesha thinks she quite likes it all. She most certainly does.
--
“See you guys tomorrow, then,” Elisha says whilst grabbing her phone and stocking it in her back pocket, drinking the last of her (third) beer and gobbling down the last remaining piece of a taco shell on her way.
PJ frowns at her as he burps into his fist (she really shouldn’t find it as amusing as she does), before raising his hand in the air as if to make her stop. “Wait up, I’ll give you a ride.”
Leesha shakes her head in dismissal and motions for him to just keep sitting. “Nah, I’m not going on my own,” she says nonchalantly, and laughs quietly once every single one in the room raises an eyebrow at her. “I’m taking the new guy to meet the trashy room I live in.” By now, their eyebrows are certainly close enough to fading into their fringe. “You guys have perverted minds, don’t you?” she laughs again, shakes her head. “He asked for help not only with the job, but apparently he’s looking for somewhere to live. And as you know, the moping-old-man who lived next to me died last month, so.”
Bridgit chortles before swallowing what she was chewing, her Adam’s apple moving slightly. “Don’t talk about him like that, God. Poor man.”
Elisha rolls her eyes, waves a hand in the air. “I quite liked him, though.”
PJ snorts. “I don’t think you’ve ever talked to the guy; nor heard him.”
She smiles widely. “Exactly. Anyway. I’m a good citizen and all, and the guy should be here anytime soon, so I’ll see y’all tomorrow.”
Edwin winks at Leesh, laughs soundly at her. “Not losing any time, I see.”
She shrugs at him with a smile of her own, playing into his game as well. “Rarities like that we gotta keep close. Not many good-looking guys with wool sweaters on summer show up in this café.” Besides Dorothea, no one else is laughing, instead just looking confused. “Dora, explain it to them. I’m leaving. Bye.” She stretches out the ‘e’ of the word, sing-singing it as she leaves through the door.
Just as the expected, Harry-guy is waiting for her with his hands shoved into his jeans pockets (she really doesn’t know how they even fit into such tight jeans, but), plaid shirt unbuttoned over a plain white one, his gaze fixed on the paintings on the wall. He’s swinging on his heels, the scene quite similar to the one less than a week ago, when he first showed up.
“Hey,” she cheers, shutting the kitchen door behind her. “How long have you been here?”
Harry shoots her a half smile, looking misplaced and quite uncomfortable, just as if he was caught doing something he shouldn’t. She bites back the urge to laugh.
“Ten minutes, I think?”
His voice is low and lost, apologetic, almost. Leesha is really having a hard time at not laughing at him. Nothing personal, really, but he is simply adorable.
“Sorry. I was having some tacos with a few friends. You could’ve called, though, you know?” Harry shrugged in response, standing in the middle of the shop waiting for Leesha’s following actions. She just moved on. “Okay. So I hope you don’t mind a fifteen minutes walk?”
He shakes his head politely, and Leesh feels like punching a few words out of him. She’s definitely having to make him talk if there’s a slight possibility he may become her neighbour. But those are details she’s going to solve later.
Coming out from behind the counter, she walks past him, pushing the door open and looking back briefly to make sure he’s following – which he is, in pure silence, indeed.
Just when the door is about to close, though, she hears someone (probably Dorothy, that lady) yelling a ‘go Leesh’, followed by a fit of laughter – from all of the rest, as well – and smiles despite herself.
Her people – how she likes to call them – are definitely a clutter, but there’s nothing in the world she would change for the simplicity she finds within their company.
--
Author's Mind (?)
Comments: 1. There you are, they're starting to create connections. 2. You can see how I picture Bridgit on the multimedia
Dedication (to the best comment): {@1D_THGlover} thank you so much! I'm so glad you're getting to connect with this, and, hopefully, when DMG is over, this story will help you to get over that one haha xx
Next Update: Wednesday; January 29th
Early Update: 500 votes