‘Miss?’ she repeats. ‘Do you want any whipped cream for your coffee?’
I raised a hand and pressed hard on the throbbing vein above my right eyebrow, rubbing it. The throbbing had become intense. ‘No I like it fine without the whipped cream,’ I replied her softly and watch her take the change out to pass it over to me. I allowed her to drop the coins onto my hand before wandering towards the back of the counter where they give out the cups.
The alluring smell of coffee beans, the light chit-chat of the customers, the calm and peaceful atmosphere-this is where I want to be right now. This coffee shop with its friendly workers where they serve their top-notch coffee is where I want to stay for the rest of my life. But alas, I have somewhere to go to.
I certainly looked out of place as I ran a hand through my hair absentmindedly since I was wearing a tight black tank top and loose sweatpants. I was wearing the normal workout outfit I usually adorn during practice. Yes, the softball practices are back despite me having obvious injuries.
Henry had given us the green light apparently. I was more than happy. Hell, I shouted in happiness when Abby told me that we’re back on track during our shared classes. The team had started their practices, Mitchie was there supervising and I had left them temporarily to get my caffeine fix.
I was an addict.
I turned as a girl my age rattled of my order so I slid towards the counter top to grab my venti frappe before walking towards the table where it held the straws and everything. Humming a random song under my breath, I placed the cup on the table while I grabbed the straw and two pieces of serviette before leaving the calming coffee shop.
Actually, I didn’t even want to leave that place but my team needs me in school and I need to be the responsible Captain which is bullshit actually because my co-captain is there anyway. But I can’t let Mitchie down. I started singing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven under my breath while I made my way back to school slowly and sipped the coffee with a contented smile on my face.
Ten minutes later, I was standing beside Mitchie who was observing the team do their conditioning with a critical eye. Offering the large cup of coffee to my bestfriend without a word, I gave the team encouraging smiles as they all looked like they wanted to faint due to the harsh training.
I wished I was with them sweating it out but the doctor had told me not to strain myself for about a week or two because the elbow needs time to get used to the foreign object that had been substituted as the bone. It sounded like bull to me but then with an evil look from Mitchie, I had sulked by myself as I watched the team sweat it out.
‘White chocolate mocha frappe?’ he asked, recognizing the taste without sparing a glance at me after he had taken a huge gulp from my coffee. He had a steady scowl on his handsome face as he watched the team struggle under his instructions. ‘I thought you preferred caramel frappe instead.’
I rolled my eyes at him before snatching my coffee away from his hands, not wanting him to finish it. ‘None of your business,’ I retorted back at him, pouting at him since I didn’t forgive him for giving me the evil eye just now.
I could imagine him rolling his eyes at me but I pointedly ignored him as I stared at my team, watching their progress with a trained eye. They were panting but they looked determined as they shouted their numbers out, moving as a team as they did the usual sets Mitch had them doing for the past year.
Seeing them sweating and running quite sluggishly, I opened my mouth to tell them to take a break but then Mitch beat me to it. That smug bastard. ‘Alright team, take a fifteen minute break,’ he ordered them and gave them a satisfied smirk.
Watching the team leave with grateful smiles, I let out an almighty yawn and stretched my taut muscles quite dramatically. I didn’t care that I was attracting a lot of attention-I didn’t get much sleep for the past week and the only thing that’s making me stay awake is either music or coffee.
‘You didn’t sleep,’ Mitchie stated. I let out a snort at his words and didn’t reply him, just continued drinking my coffee because I knew he would get it without saying a thing to him. I heard him sigh and I imagined him curling his strong arms around his chest. ‘You’re still mad at me for not letting you join with the rest of the team right?’
I risked a glance at him and a smile crept onto my face for I imagined correctly but forced it off, letting them fall flat because I should be angry at him. ‘Maybe…’ I trailed off and turned to stare away from him, just wanting to rile him up a little because I knew he hated it when I’m mad at him.
I heard him move, his hard chest pressing onto mine as his arms curled around my waist tightly and I felt him leaning down so that his lips were next to my ears. ‘You know I don’t like it when you’re mad at me right? Or are you just doing this to tease me?’ he whispered at me softly.
His breath on my ear tickled me as he whispered so I let out a laugh despite the situation before shoving him off of me. ‘That tickles Mitchie!’ I whined at him, not caring that I sound like a five-year old at the moment but I only acted like this when I was with him and he knew it because he laughed at my antics. ‘You know me well enough you don’t have to ask actually.’
He broke into a genuine smile at my words-the one that makes his left dimple appear on his cheek, the one that was very rare and he stretched an arm out to ruffle my already messy hair. I let out a growl and slapped his hand away, glaring at him pointedly which made him laugh even more.
‘You don’t have to make my hair even messier!’
‘But you don’t even care!’
‘So what? You can’t just do that Mitchie, what if I mess up your hair? You’d skin me alive for even touching a strand of it!’ I exclaimed at him, jabbing a finger at his hair. I knew he spent some time gelling his hair up, making it fall nicely like that and I couldn’t resist not teasing him about it.
‘Hey I spent an hour to make it look like that! Don’t you ever dare touch it!’ he hissed back at me and had a scowl on his face. ‘Of course I can do that; you don’t even care about your hair like I do!’
I smirked. ‘Yeah well it’s because I didn’t need a comb and hair gel to make it look like this,’ I replied him sarcastically and raised an eyebrow as a challenge. ‘Besides it’s going to get messy anyway, I see no point actually combing it down.’
He let out a groan at my words and gave me an incredulous look which made me laugh aloud. We kept up the bickering between the two of us until the fifteen minute rest was over and we were still bickering like a married couple even when the whole team had come back to witness our humour-filled fight.
I think we were arguing about me wearing tank tops and sweats to practice. He said it made me look like a hobo which made me snort at his words and I swiftly retorted back by saying he too look like one since he’s wearing a pair of sweatpants which made us argue even more. He was about to strangle me thanks to my smartass words when someone interrupted us.
‘Er guys? As much as I’m enjoying this free show of you two arguing like a married couple, we still have an hour left of practice,’ Jared’s voice cut into our bickering, making the both of us glare at him at the same time.
‘Then what are you all waiting for? Get your asses back to conditioning!’ Mitchie snapped at them making the team jump at his sudden loud voice. I rolled my eyes at him and continued sipping my coffee, as if the argument I just had with Mitch was nothing to me. I mean it was, I’ve spent years with him arguing about some irrational thing.
We spent the rest of the hour watching the team lug it out. Well I watched the team calmly, quietly observing them while I sipped my coffee and telling Mitchie to shut the fuck up every now and then when he was being unreasonable to the team. I didn’t know why he was being very harsh with them but I think it’s due to the eighteen idiots who had done loads of hell to the team.
Maybe.
I don’t even know.
By the time the hour was up, I was humming another random song under my breath as I made my way out of the pitch and towards the benches where my bags were. I bid the rest goodbye and sat down comfortably as I watched them leave. I crossed my legs as I started singing another random song under my breath, my feet tapping along with the rhythm.
The rest of the team were still hanging about the benches, still talking and joking around as they lounged by the benches. Usually we will leave the school around seven, hanging about the benches because we were always too tired at first to leave and preferred to just hang out with the rest of the team members.
I was seated in the middle.
‘What song are you singing Ally?’ Mike asked me, trying to sound as if he wasn’t curious from where he was seated on the floor, a few feet away from me and he had a calculating look on his face as if he was trying his best to figure out what song I was half-singing and half-whispering.
‘It’s Jet’s Are You Gonna Be My Girl,’ I replied him easily. ‘Why?’
‘Oh you can sing? I brought my guitar along!’ Jared cut in somewhat excitedly and he leaned to his left, dug out his guitar case from amongst the pile of bags behind the benches. With a huge smile on his face, he opened the case and pulled the acoustic guitar out. ‘What song you want to sing? I can play it.’
‘Play something by Lady Antebellum!’
I rolled my eyes at them and shrugged nonchalantly. Jared just laughed at the team’s eagerness and started strumming, closing his eyes as he did so. I gave off a laugh as I recognized the chords, a huge smile framing my lips and I took a deep breath before singing, letting my emotions pour into the song.
I forgot for a moment that I was seated in the middle of my team. I forgot that I didn’t sleep for a week; I forgot that Mum was kidnapped. As I sang with all my heart poured into it, I temporarily forgot my problems and my worries. The headache that had been pounding at the back of my head receded and I opened my eyes when I heard Jared singing as backup vocals with me.
Grinning Jared kept up with the progression and we sang our hearts out, the both of us singing at the same time. Sometimes Jared kept quiet, letting me sing solo but I could see the chemistry that we shared when we sang. It’s like as if I knew what he was thinking and vice versa.
Jared’s voice was a little rough and raspy but it matches with my own husky voice. Without even seeing the others and judging by the silence, I knew we had their attention. As soon as the last chord rang out, I had a huge grin on my face. ‘That was awesome,’ Jared commented dryly.
After that comment, the rest of the team suddenly burst into loud cheers and they started screaming for encores. I just laughed at their eagerness. Mitchie was laughing along with the rest as they requested for songs, I think he had arrived while we were singing so that was why I didn’t even notice.
I tend to do that whenever I sing.
‘Know any Pierce the Veil songs?’ Jared asked me, tilting an eyebrow at me which made me do a double take before I nodded at him, apparently shocked that he knew that band. I didn’t know he knew that band, which was brilliant! He just grinned at me, his teeth flashing under the light. ‘Bulletproof love?’
Without even waiting for anything I sang first before he came in with the chords, closing my eyes as I let the sound wrap around me in a tight cocoon. Jared and Mitchie sang as back-up vocals, softly singing behind me as I made my voice a little raspier to match with the theme of the song.
I bobbed my head and tapped my feet along with the song, letting my whole body loose as I sang along with my heart. Since I knew the lyrics like the back of my hand and knowing the meaning, I was able to pour my emotion into the song as I sang because the lyrics were somewhat similar to how I felt.
With a smile on my face, I leaned against Mitch as I sang and the two boys providing the back-up choir. When Jared came towards the tougher guitar riffs, he had this frown plastered on his face as he paid attention to his guitar, leaning down so that his hair covered his face. I could only see his fingers as they ran quickly over the strings. He had this peaceful and contented expression on his face as he played.
And I knew he loved playing.
Every good song has to end sometime and I felt sad that it had to end but I could feel the euphoria leaving me as soon as the last guitar riff echoed out of the hallway. By that time, we had a bigger crowd than usual and all of them were watching me with bated breath. I just stared at them, feeling bewildered.
I could see some holding onto their phones, obviously recording the little free show just now and I could feel the blush creeping onto my face as I registered that they were all in fact staring at me.
‘Wow that was amazing! You three had so much chemistry! Were you guys practicing or something?’ someone eagerly asked.
Jared let out a laugh. I just raised my eyebrows at him. We weren’t expecting that. ‘No we weren’t, we were just goofing off,’ Mitchie replied for us, looking amused at the crowd that had settled around us. ‘Well it’s late so we’re heading back home. You guys need to get your asses back to your houses.’
I rolled my eyes at him and reached forwards to grab my bag as the crowd around me began to dissipate as they left one by one. They were all whispering about the performance they had witnessed and some congratulated me, saying that I had a nice voice and that they enjoyed it. I just gave them an amused look before thanking them.
‘We should do this more often,’ Jared commented dryly before he left.
‘Yeah we should,’ Mitchie replied.
I just rolled my eyes.
…