I stepped into the small cafe, my eyes running over the familiar booths located around it. I caught sight of Laurance's long, light brown hair and walked over to the booth that she was seated in, in the corner of the place, next to the window.
Her head was lowered her phone, her long brown locks falling over her face in a silky curtain.
"2 minutes late," she pointed out, looking up. Her entire face had lit up to slightly mocking smile.
I playfully rolled my eyes.
"Do you come here often?" I wondered out loud, ignoring her. She looked around as if to study the place for the first time. My eyes followed hers, and I took in the wood themed cafe, blue cushioned booths and glowing fairy lights that hung from the top of the shop. Blitzers brought aesthetic to another level.
"Sometimes. Mostly with Sands and Cole- Collin," she shrugged.
She tossed her phone onto her seat, then intertwined her fingers together and placed her hands on the table.
"Brandon, I'm such a creep," she stated. I laughed unable to hide my amusement.
"Why's that?" I quirked my brow.
"I've only known you two days, and here I am dragging you out," she smiled.
I was amused at her open, blunt manner.
"That's ok, I've met creepier people." I joked. "Also, its Bred."
An abrupt knocking caused both of us to turn towards the window, only to be greeted by Sandy's waving hand.
My eyes drifted from him to Collin who smiled and rolled his eyes at his friend before walking towards the entrance.
Collin slid into the seat next to me and raised his sharp eyebrows at Laurance, then shot me a half smile. His stunning ocean eyes pooled into my memory. I felt like I'd be sucked into them if I looked any longer.
So I turned away and pressed my lips together.
Sandy walked in too and slouched next to Laurance. "Hello again," he greeted, his hazel eyes were twinkling oddly, a never-ending mischievous glint that he carried around.
"Bred, did you know that Sandy here's a magician," Laurance said, out of the blue.
Sandy scoffed, "Pfft. She's high," he joked, teasingly holding the back of his hand to her forehead as if to see if she has a fever. Laurance swatted his hand away, rolling her eyes lightly.
"I only do little tricks" he grinned, then without warning leaned forwards and in one swift movement, he pulled a coin out from behind my ear and sat back in satisfaction.
My face settled into a frown crossed with an amused smirk. "Um..."
The three of them laughed at my mystified face.
"And Mr. Blue Rivers here is a guitarist" she nodded towards Collin.
Blue Rivers? More like Blue-green ocean, I thought. Ew.
He tilted his head to the side.
"Mhm. Are you done with the exposé?" He asked sarcastically.
She giggled and turned to Sandy, "come with me to get drinks? Or snacks?" she asked, then turned back, "Bred, what can I get for you?"
I combed my hand through my hair, "Just fries will be good, thanks."
"Okay fries then," she nodded and skipped over to the counter, Sandy hot on her trail. I was left sitting there, looking down at my hands.
Collin slid off the seat next to me and went and sat in front of me, then placed his hand on the table.
I'm not the shy type, so I wracked my brains to think of something to say.
... but he beat me to it.
"Hi."
"Hey."
I was drilling holes into my knuckles with my eyes as they bounced up and down, drumming against the table.
"Brandon right?"
"Yep."
"Nice"
"Yeah but, you can call me Bred."
"Bred?" he repeated, with a slight smile.
I shrugged, "uh huh yep."
"So... how is Darthway so far?"
"Nothing much. It's... good. It's ok. It's school."
It was uncomfortably quiet for a bit. I stopped hammering the table and now my fingers softly hit the solid surface, as I tapped lightly.
He studied my hand for a bit.
"Do you play?"
"Play?" I asked, looking up again.
"An instrument" He clarified.
"I used to play the-"
"-piano" he finished for me.
I stared at him, unsure what to say to that.
"Am I right?" he mused.
"Yep. Yeah, I used to play the piano. How'd you know, stalker?" I added at the end but It came out awkwardly and I inwardly facepalmed.
He held his hands up, as if to surrender, while his eyes shifted to my hands. "I could tell," he answered.
What gave it away?
"The way your fingers moved on the table. The posture," he noted.
I scrunched my eyes, an amused smile hovering over my lips. So many half amused smiles.
Sandy came back with two plates of fries and Laurance followed holding a large smoothie glass filled with thick pink liquid.
"Raspberry-banana," she said, sighing contently and sliding into the seat beside me, which Collin had occupied a few minutes ago, before taking a long sip out of the thick, clear straw pointing out of the drink.
We sat there for a while, chatting idly about this and that. I felt like it was a genuine conversation and it felt good to sit there and really talk. For once. At Lunch, on Lexi's table, it would just be mindless chatter, gossip, unimportant, unnecessary remarks or comments about people.
"Bred, have you been here before?" Sandy asked dipping a fry in ketchup. Great. Small talk... here we go.
"Sometimes. With my sister" I shrugged.
"How old is she?" He asked.
"17"
"Pamela? Right?" Laurance joined.
Collin eyes kept from me to the window, as he gazed at the beach beside us.
"Yep," I gave her a questioning look as if to ask her how she knew. Pan and I didn't really look alike. She was slightly taller than me and her hair was dark brown, here mine was raven, her eyes were almost grey, mine ice blue. Even our facial features didn't match. Besides that, we didn't even talk to each other in school... at least so far we haven't.
"I knew it," she said mysteriously, then rolled her eyes at my deepening frown.
"Saw you two get out of the same car this morning and then this guy was like: "Whitsben. Pamela Whitsen, where's the smile" she explained, mimicking a deep voice at the end, which made us all laugh.
My phone buzzed loudly, startling me and Laurance for a second, as the seat vibrated.
"Excuse me," I muttered, dragging the green icon across my iPhone screen to answer Lexi's call.
"Bred?" Her energetic voice questioned.
"No, it's Bred's mom," I joked drily, rolling my eyes, partly at how insanely lame that was, and at the questions she asked.
"Pfft, you're not funny. Anyways are you free right now?"
Laurance was watching me, her lips pressed against the smoothie straw, Sandy eating fries and Collins blue-green eyes drilling into mine. I almost forgot to breathe.
"Y-yh, I. Um. I'm kinda I'm the middle of something," I informed, "why, what is it?" Did I just stutter?
"Is Pan home?" I could practically hear her smiling into the phone.
"Why don't you ask her that?"
"Ugh, stop whining, she won't pick the phone up," she huffed.
"Um. not sure why she wouldn't be... but I don't know, I'm out."
"Ok, ok, have fun, bye!" with that she hung up on me.
"Bye," I muttered to my self.
"Sorry, Lexi." I explained, shoving my phone into my pocket.
Laurance shrugged, "S'ok, do you wanna go to the beach?" she asked. Despite the question being directed at me; Collin answered.
"Definitely, let's go I've been waiting," he sighed, practically shoving Sandy off the seat beside him so that he could stand up.
For the next few minutes, we had light conversations with each other, while Sandy and Laurance goofed about. Collin watched with an amused smile, but rarely joined in. Apparently, he (Collin), was 17 while Sandy and Larance were still 16. Laurance, however, was almost 17, with just one month to wait. Sandy was an adopted child and lived with an American-Italian family.
"They are honestly amazing parents though, and it doesn't affect me that I'm not their biological son," he said bluntly and shrugged, "just Marcia that pisses me off."
"She's not that bad," Laurance smiled, nudging Sandy's shoulder, "you know you love her."
Marcia was his adopted sister, his parent's biological daughter. According to Laurance and Collin, she didn't act or look anything like her age and had an extremely mature mind.
"She could really pass for a 16-year-old, no joke," Collin pointed out.
Sandy snorted, "hm, Yeah love her."
Laurance and Collin were the only children in their families.
"Spoilt brat," Sandy smirked nodding towards Laurance.
"I'm not," she scoffed, shoving him, "fuck off Sands."
Laurance's parents owned a huge farmhouse, by the countryside, which Sandy and Collin had once been to. It held over 20 rooms within 3 stories, aside from the two kitchens, 3 giant storerooms, 3 pantries and 10 toilets and bathrooms. Laurance was an amazing horse rider, she was a gold medalist before they moved to town; 5 years ago.
"I still go horse riding sometimes. Just not as often."
Collin only lived with his Mom. He didn't say what happened with his Dad and Laurance and Sandy didn't bring it up either.
"Mrs. Blue Rivers is a real angel," Laurance smiled,
"My second mom," Sandy laughed.
To that, Collin smiled, "she loves two too."
It was obvious that Collin loved his Mom very much. When he talked about her, his eyes shone like a million diamonds floated within those mesmerizing ocean-blue orbs. Ugh, I'm turning into real cheese. Fucking great.
"Hey, Laur... where's your other shoe?" Sandy questioned.
Laurance's eyes fell to her barefoot, her other flip-flop gone.
"Give it back!" she demanded, immediately assuming he had it. Sandy's mischevious eyes twinkled and in the next second, he had taken off, running toward the raging ocean, Laurance right behind him.
"You make me work too fucking much, Stanley," she called, taught up with laughter.
I couldn't help but smile, even Demi didn't run around like that. Actually Whitsben, you wouldn't know because you never spend time with your little sister.
Collin stood up and dusted the sand off his trousers.
"Walk with me."
Is that a question or a command?
I didn't really care, so I got up anyways, following his motion and dusting my own trousers.
We turned right and walked around the shore, a safe distance away from the water. The sun was just about perfect: it didn't glare down with heat or just sit there only lighting everything up, yet not radiating any warmth. There were a few people here and there, but not much. Some tanning, some talking, some jogging. Some kids were even waving kites in the distance.
"Is his real name Sandy?" I broke the silence.
"No, its Steve, but the color of his hair earned him Sandy."
Silence
"Don't you love the Ocean?" Collin muttered, halting and letting his eyes glaze over the wild waters.
Not as much as you do.
"Do you come to the beach often?" he asked.
"You could say that... I'm usually here with my sister and Lexi if they go surfing."
"So... do you?" he pressed, "surf?"
"Yeah... sometimes. I'm not as good as the girls though," I shrugged and shoved my hands in my pocket.
He gave me a half smile, "you don't talk much. Didn't take to you for the shy type Whitsben," he informed, starting to walk again.
"I'm not"
"Ok..."
Suddenly, he stepped back and took a hand full of wet sand into his palm, and before I knew it, he shot it at me. I gaped and scrapped it off my shirt, with one hand, to look up to a cheeky smile.
"You..." I started but bent down faster than he could process what I was doing and I threw own mold of sand, against his trouser.
Before I knew it, we were running around like 5-year-olds, smiling and shooting sand at each other. The nerve of this boy I thought, watching him swing at me, ducking just in time. He hit several times and rarely missed. We were getting dangerously close to the water line.
"Ow shit," he suddenly cried, his right hand over his right eye, "ugh, think something got in my eye," he muttered, grimacing.
I cautiously approached him, dusting my hands on my pants, to remove the sand. "Hey, let me see,"
We were at arm's length, he didn't lower the hand in front of his eye though, he only winced harder. I inched closer, concerned that something really bad happened to his eye, then gasped as the cold sand hit my scalp, he practically massaged sand into my hair with his left hand and broke away laughing to himself.
"Idiot! I have to go home soon!" I grunted, stating the obvious while shaking my head, sending sand everywhere.
He held his hand over his face to shield himself from the sand that was flying in all directions, off my dirty hair.
"You look like a puppy," he chortled.
I frowned at him and shoved him, harder than I intended to, sending us both down, only to be enveloped by the cold ocean water, as a wave crashed in.
I rolled off him, properly groaning now.
"Hah, now you can wash your hair."
"Haha, your funny" I muttered, uselessly wiping sand and water away.
We both sat up, I was fully aware of my jeans being soaked in the salty water, but I sat there, my eyes melting into his. Fuck. I'm never getting tired of those turquoise eyes... am I.
My phone rang loudly and I scrambled to my feet, fishing it out of my pocket, responding with a string of profanities. How could I forget? My phone was always in my pocket.
Collin's eyes slid to my hands as I fiddled with my phone, an anxious look of worry stitched on to his face.
2 missed calls from Pan.
How did I miss them?
Ring Ring Ring
I answered, sighing in relief (because the screen worked). Collin sighed too, and then walked away from the shore leaving me standing there, drenched in salt water and coated in sand.
__
A/N
Eek... these chapters... they'll get longer promise.
Okay, so that took a while, sorry for the wait! Ty so much for the read, every view makes me so happy! Please comment and vote if you liked this chapter :)
Have an amazing day and hope u enjoy the read <3
xxx- Sam