The first set of bills for the house came in on the third week of October, Thursday to be exact. I held them in my hand, saying a silent little prayer, hoping they weren't crazy expensive. I opened the oil bill first because I knew that it would be the most expensive one. To my relief, it wasn't as bad as I expected. And at least it was only once every three months. I opened the electricity bill with ease. Only to find out it was a little more than I'd expected. Dustin really had to start trying to remember to shut off the television in his room before he fell asleep.
"How was it?" Dustin asked as I ambled into the living room, ten minutes later. "Were they bad?"
"Nope, but you have to turn off that T.V," I informed him. "Believe it or not, that can add up."
He waved me off. "Yeah, yeah. I'll remember. So can we go to the coffee shop now? I want to meet this guy." His voice was eager, and he gave me his best puppy-dog look. "I have to meet the one friend you have."
Not sure whether he meant that as an insult or not, I pursed my lips. "I have other friends—"
"Not that you hang out with outside of school," he countered quickly.
"Dimitri is my friend."
"You're right. So you have two friends. Both work at the coffee shop. Now let's go."
Hesitating another moment, I glanced at the clock. It was just about five in the afternoon. Not a really weird time (no weirder than nine at night, in any case), and I could stop by the post office to send out the bills instead of paying online anyway... and why was I even debating? It wasn't like Dustin was purposely embarrassing. And it was Will. "Okay," I relented. "Let me grab the bills. We'll swing by the post office first and then head to the shop.'
"Okay," Dustin replied, and he actually sounded excited, and it made me smile. Usually, his nosiness into my slightly non-existent social life was annoying, but at the moment it was endearing. "I'm just going to run a comb through my hair first."
I rolled my eyes. "He's too old for you."
Dustin shot me an annoyed look. "I'm not gay. I just want to let him know our family isn't only made of slobs."
"Hey!"
"Joking," he responded with a smirk. "Maybe." Then he bounded away before I could retort.
Self-conscious, I checked my reflection in my cell phone screen. My hair seemed fine to me, but I attempted to smooth it down a few times anyway. Dustin appeared back in the living room a few moments later, ready to go. We headed out, and I tossed him my keys, allowing him to drive. His license test was soon, so the more practice the better.
To my surprise, when we arrived at the coffee shop, there was a stranger behind the counter. His back was toward us, so all I could make out about him was that he was extremely tall, and he had semi-curly black hair. Dustin raised an eyebrow at me, but I shook my head. I had no clue who this guy was. The stranger then turned toward us, a blinding smile plastered onto his face. I'm only half-joking when I say that. His teeth were incredibly white, and it almost seemed like his pale skin was glowing. "Welcome!" he called brightly. "How are you two this fine evening?"
"I'm good," Dustin replied easily, apparently unaffected by this guy's sunny attitude. But at least it matched with his bright appearance. "Is Will here?"
"Dustin!" I hissed.
The stranger blinked. I searched his name for a nametag, but he didn't have one. Figures. "Yes," he told Dustin. "Would you like to speak to him?"
Dustin nodded. "I would."
"Sure, I'll get him."
I shot Dustin a warning look when the worker disappeared into the back of the coffee shop. "You don't know that guy?" he asked.
"No. I've never seen him here before."
"Huh."
"He's cute though," I thought out loud and Dustin rolled his eyes.
The stranger came back with Will a few seconds later. Will was drying his hands off with a white towel, an annoyed expression on his face. My heart stuttered and I briefly wondered if he was irritated because we were interrupting him.
But when Will smiled at me, that concern disappeared and I found myself grinning back like an idiot. "Hey," I greeted him.
"Hey yourself," he said, tossing the towel over his shoulder. "What are you doing here?"
"Booty call?" the man standing next to Will joked, earning a sharp jab from the shorter man.
"Shut up, Matthew."
Matthew faked a pout. Well, he tried to fake a pout, but it didn't really work since he was still grinning. Giving up, he turned toward me, offering out a hand. "I'm Matt, this handsome guy's more handsome older brother."
"You're only a year older," Will muttered.
I blinked, switching my gaze between the two men. Now that I was looking more closely, I could see the resemblance. Aside from the midnight black hair, they shared the same nose, eyes, and jaw structure.
Realizing Matt still had his hand out, I placed my hand into it. "I'm—"
"Katie, I know," he interjected, giving my hand a tight squeeze and shaking it vigorously. "I've heard about you."
"You have?" My eyes shifted over to Will, who was studying the floor diligently, the tips of his ears a little pink.
Dustin cleared his throat, stepping forward. "Well, I'm Dustin. Kate's little brother."
Will turned his attention to him, a small smile appearing on his face. He held out his hand toward my brother. "I'm Will."
"I know," he told him, his eyes wicked. "She talks about you all the time."
"Dustin!" I cried, feeling my cheeks heat up. "I do not!"
Will glanced at me, his expression amused. "Really? Am I that interesting?"
"No!" Then I realized that could be taken as an insult. "I mean, yes, but not... I mean..." Flustered, I shut my mouth and decided to glare at my brother instead. Maybe it'd been a bad idea to bring him along.
Will laughed, shaking his head at me. "It's fine, Katie. So this is your brother. He's older than I thought with the way you talk about him."
Dustin frowned. "How old did you think I was?"
"Maybe eight?"
I grimaced as Matt burst out laughing. "I would say more like twelve," I muttered defensively.
"Either way, it's obvious you care about your brother a great deal," Will continued with a kind smile. "Otherwise you wouldn't dote on him as you do."
"I don't dote," I began to protest, but it came out half-hearted. Although I tended to ignore it, it was fairly obvious I doted on my brother. When I wasn't picking on him.
Matt sent me a wicked smirk. "Right. Well, Dustin, why don't you come behind the counter and I'll let you make your own drink?"
Dustin's expression lit up. "Seriously?"
"As long as it's okay with the owner."
"It's fine by me," Will told him with a little flick of his hand. "Go for it. Just don't break anything, Matt."
"Me? Break things? Never!"
Will sent him a wary look and ran a hand through his short hair. "This'll cost me..."
I shifted slightly on my feet. "If it's too much trouble—"
"No, it's not, don't worry about it," he interjected, holding up a tan hand. "It'll keep Matt out of my hair for a little while. So," he continued before I could say anything. "What brings you here? Besides the obvious."
"The obvious being?"
"Me."
"Oh, um..." Wow. Real sophisticated. Grade A flirting there. I groaned internally, wondering how some girls could flirt as easily as eating. Eating was something I could do— flirting, not so much.
The sly expression slipped off Will's face and was replaced by a sheepish one. "Although I'm guessing it's the coffee."
"And the fact my brother wanted to meet you."
"He wanted to meet me?" There was a hint of a smile on Will's lips.
There was an awkward pause and I stared down at my shoes. "Yeah, I, um... Well, I don't talk about many people, so..."
"So of course he'd be interested in the one person you do talk about," he deduced reasonably.
"You're not the only one," I muttered.
"Oh?"
"There's Dimitri... and Sherlock."
Will cocked an eyebrow. "Sherlock? Do you know someone named Sherlock? That's brilliant. He's a Sherlock, and you're a Holmes. Sherlock Holmes. I bet you guys have a good friendship. Or more than friendship...?"
I sensed the question more than realized it was a question. "Well, Sherlock's my cat, so."
For a full minute, Will stared at me with a blank expression. Then his lips quivered, and a moment later he was full out laughing. "A cat? That's even better!" His hands moved to his sides, clutching at them as he continued to laugh.
For the life of me I couldn't figure out what was so humorous (even though for a brief second I believed he found my lack of socialization amusing), so I just half-smiled, waiting for him to laugh himself out. After a moment he finally died down to a soft chuckle, shaking his head. "So it really is Sherlock Holmes. Is your cat smart?"
"Yes," I said a bit defensively. "I'm happy you find my lack of social life so amusing."
This sobered him up instantly. "What? I don't—"
"Kidding." I flashed him a smirk. "Not about the lack of social life, though. I, um, don't have any friends." And that sounded a lot more depressing said out loud than said in my mind. Will probably thought I'm a loser now.
Will's brows furrowed and he gave me a pointed look. "Now that's not true. I'm your friend, aren't I?"
"Well, yes—"
"And Dimitri."
"Yes, but—"
"And you can probably count Matthew too because you'll be seeing more of him since I've been forced to offer him a job here. So there you go. There are three friends right off the bat."
My mouth opened to protest, but I shut it abruptly. What was there to protest? Will had a point. I had friends now. Why would I want to protest it anyway? A warm feeling spread in my chest, and I couldn't stop an idiotic grin from spreading across my face. "You're right. Thanks, Will."
"Nothing to thank me for." He smiled back at me, his handsome smile. As he lifted up his arm to brush his hair out of his face, I caught a glimpse of the pale scar on his wrist. Which reminded me of the other night.
"Will," I began, wondering how I should go about the subject. "About the other night—"
"It was a joke," he replied quickly, plastering on a wide smile. "My friends pulling a prank."
I stared at him skeptically. "Some prank. With a knife and all."
His jovial facial expression didn't waver. "Sometimes they tend to take it too far. A bit funny, really."
"Uh-huh..." Not sure how to proceed without sounding too prying, I let the subject drop. Apparently he still didn't want to talk about.
Then he began to say something else but got cut off by the sound of something crashing in the back. Grimacing, he shook his head. "Break things? Never!" he mimicked under his breath before marching into the back.
A few seconds later I heard him shouting at his brother and I couldn't stop myself from chuckling quietly. Dustin slunk out of the backroom a few seconds later, his lips pursed together tightly to keep himself from laughing. "There is powdered sugar everywhere back there," he laughed as he ducked under the counter. "Not even five seconds in the back and that guy spills two things of powdered sugar..."
"So he makes messes. Seems like you two have something in common."
Dustin rolled his eyes at me. "Shut up. Buy me a slice of that cinnamon coffee cake. I want to see if this place is as good as you claim it is."
I raised an eyebrow. "Please?"
"No need to beg me," he replied, sauntering off to sit at one of the tall tables.
"Brat," I mumbled, placing my elbows on the counter as I waited for Will to reappear. After a few moments he did, Matt in tow. Both of them had white powder in their hair, Will more so than Matt. "Nice look," I commented with a grin.
Matt grinned back at me, winking. "I know, right?"
Will pursed his lips at his brother. "Why don't you go sit down and occupy Dustin? And don't touch anything. Especially the candle. Knowing you, you'll set this place on fire."
"I wouldn't!"
Will gave Matt a flat look and Matt laughed, sliding under the counter to join my brother at the table. He patted my shoulder as he went by. "You deal with grumpy."
Raising an eyebrow, I turned to Will. "So I take it you have a good relationship with your brother?"
"Oh yeah," he replied, scoffing. "He's the elder sibling, so he's bound to be annoying."
"I'm the older sibling in my family."
"And Dustin probably thinks you're annoying."
I tried to go for an offended look, but it didn't work. Instead, I shrugged, smiling again. "Yeah, probably. But it's our job to be annoying."
Will gave me a weary look. "Awesome. Are you hungry? We're going to have extras today, so it's free of charge."
"You keep giving me free stuff, I'll get fat, and you'll go bankrupt."
For a moment, Will gazed at me, as if debating whether or not that was a bad thing. Eventually, he grinned. "Well, it's worth it if you praise my baking."
And since that hadn't been the response I was expecting, I couldn't hold back my stupid blush.
"Why, you've become quite the flirt, haven't you, Will?" Matt drawled, slinging an arm around my shoulder.
Will's expression automatically soured. "I thought I told you to sit."
"And then I heard the growling of the beast." He hooked a thumb over at Dustin who was frowning over at us. "Some food would be nice."
"You have to pay."
I tried to shimmy out of Matt's hold, but he just squeezed me tighter. "But you just told Katie that she could have stuff for free," he complained loudly.
Will rolled his eyes. "She's different."
"I'm family!"
"Reluctantly," Will muttered causing me to laugh.
Matt pursed his lips, dramatically tossing his dark hair back. Not that there was much to toss back, so it kind of just looked like he had a twitch. "Fine. I see how it is. You don't love me."
"Only took you twenty-eight years to realize it."
"Katie, how can you be friends with this monster?" Matt said to me, eyes wide. "He doesn't care about anyone!"
I laughed as Will muttered under his breath. "Maybe it's just you," I told him.
Matt grimaced. "Well, you don't need to state it so bluntly. Especially because we've only just met..."
"Oh, right... sorry?"
"Forget it." Pausing, he narrowed his eyes at me, and then they lit up with wickedness. Leaning down, his lips hovered by my ear. "I got it. You order the pastries, and bring them to me. I'll repay you with my body, he'll never know—"
"I'm standing right here, and you suck at whispering," Will said flatly. "Stop being a creep acting and go sit down. You're scaring away my only regular. I'll get you some damn pastries."
The moment Will had his back to us, Matt smirked evilly. "Knew that would work. Thanks, Katie." Patting me on my head, he left and returned to where Dustin was sitting.
I stared after him for a moment, confused. He was a very interesting person. Then I turned back to Will, who was giving the death glare to his unsuspecting pastries. "I'm you're only regular?" I asked him, just to try to break him out of his stupor.
"Pretty much," he responded, brows smoothing out and his expression softening. "There's a lot of competition for coffee shops these days. So hopefully Matthew won't scare you away."
"Oh, he won't," I promised him, smiling. "I like him. He's in good humor."
Will sent me a pitying look. "Well, like him while you can. You'll start to want to punch him every time he opens his mouth."
I laughed again, waving my hand in dismissal. "It takes a lot to make me dislike someone. Generally, I'm a nice person."
"I know that already."
"Yeah?"
Will nodded. "I've seen you leave tips in the tip jar. You're not really that inconspicuous."
My cheeks tinged pink as he smirked at me. "Right... well..."
"Your brother seems nice too," he continued, saving me from looking like an idiot. "Not too annoying."
"Oh, he's annoying."
Will chuckled, placing a few slices of the cinnamon crumb cake on a platter. "In any case, I'm glad you two stopped by and I got to meet him. It's nice putting a face to a name."
"Well, he really was excited to meet you," I admitted. "Like I said... I don't talk about many people. I think he's glad I've started a few new friendships."
"I'm glad too," Will responded with a smile, lifting the tray up with one hand, once again attracting my attention to the pale, white scar on his skin.
"What's that from?" I asked him before I realized I was speaking. Silently, I cursed myself. Even more, when his face hardened. "Sorry—"
Shaking his head, Will switched hands so that his scarred forearm pressed against his shirt, hidden from my view. "It's nothing... burned myself on a stove when I was younger."
Somehow, I felt disappointed by his answer. Maybe because I'd been hoping for some awesome story of valor, but that sounded idiotic so I quickly forced it away. "Oh."
"But if it sounds cooler, I can tell you I got it by saving a ninety-year-old woman out from a house fire and a burning plank fell on me."
I rolled my eyes, trying to hold back a grin. "That's just showing off."
"A guy's gotta do it once in a while," he informed me, heading toward the table where our brothers sat. "That or we spontaneously combust."
"That might actually be cool..." The horrified look I received from my comment was enough to set me over the edge. I cracked up immediately, doubling over and holding my ribs. "Oh, God, I wish I took a picture... I was joking, Will."
Embarrassed, Will brushed by me. "I know that. Shut up."
"Do they ever stop flirting?" Dustin asked Matt in a carrying whisper.
"I'm gunna guess no."
This sent me back to my senses and I shot them dirty looks. "We're not flirting." Or we were. I didn't know. All I knew was I didn't want to take it the wrong way, so it was best to choose the more lowkey choice, right?
What I got in return is two skeptical expressions. "Mhm."
"Shut up and eat," Will ordered as he placed the platter on the table between the two. "And if you want anything else, just tell me."
Matt's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Not you. Only Dustin."
Dustin smirked triumphantly while Matt sulked. Smiling again, I took a seat with the boys, having a slice of the cake as well. As usual, it was delicious, but that had come to be expected. It was nice to see how well Dustin and Matt got along, but it wasn't a surprise because Dustin was able to get along with everyone anyway.
"Ah, Katie," Will said suddenly, a hint of amusement on his lips and in his eyes. "You have a little cake..." Reaching over, he ran his forefinger along the bottom edge of my lip, brushing off a crumb. "There you go."
And once again, color flooded my cheeks, and I couldn't hold it back.