Insouciance

Chapter 3

"They're all here." Juniper mumbled, pointing to the group of people standing together.

From the distance, Torquil had to say that there was quite a variety of characters standing ahead. He was somewhat scared, but excited, to meet them.

By the looks of it, Leif didn't seem so keen. He winced his eyes, obviously nervous.

"Hey, don't be a wuss." Torquil mumbled, trying to cheer him up. "They're just people, right? Nothing to be afraid of."

Leif scowled, obviously keeping his words to himself. He couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Come on." June said, trying to encourage them to follow as best she could.

Leif perked up, and quickly began to catch up to his crush. Torquil couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course he's rather be around the girl of his dreams. Of. Course. Tori couldn't help but feel a sense of loneliness and as if he had been abandoned.

Nevertheless, he walked at the same pace as them, making sure to keep his distance. After all, he didn't want to disturb the lovebirds, did he? He let out an annoyed huff as they neared the crowd.

"You're late." An older man, in about his mid 30s, muttered with a frown, glaring at Juniper. He had dark brown spiky hair, and was rather tanned. It was clear that he hadn't shaved for at least a day. His eyes were a deep green, and he had glasses that had a thinner brim and more rectangular shape than the ones Leif was wearing. He wore a dark red hoodie with dark blue jeans, and grey sneakers. Despite his gruff tone, he seemed calm.

A little girl was standing beside him, tugging his hoodie sleeve. She was gazing at Torquil and Leif with some fear in her eyes. The older man hadn't appeared to have seen the terror in her eyes.

"S-sorry. I found these two during my, um, search." Juniper mumbled, gazing to the side.

The older man gazed at the two of them. "Well? Care to give us your names, gentlemen?"

"I'm Torquil. That's Leif." Tori pointed to Leif. "I don't think saying our last names will be all that necessary, do you?"

"No." The older man agreed, unbothered. "Well, my name is Jake. This young one here is my daughter, Ashley. She likes to be called Ash, though."

The young girl would not step away from her father. In fact, she seemed to be gripping his sleeve tighter than before.

Finally noticing, Jake frowned. "Something wrong, sweets?"

She nodded, and pointed a finger. "Him."

Ash was pointing at Leif. His reaction showed obvious bewilderment, which Tori couldn't blame him for. What had Leif done wrong? All he was doing was acting nervous.

"Um..." That was the only noise the confused Leif could make.

Jake was also puzzled by his daughter's behaviour. "Hm? What's wrong with Leif?"

"He's... he's scary." Ashley whimpered, trying to hide behind her father's leg.

This had just seemed to have confused Leif even more, as well as Torquil. Leif was nowhere near scary, so why was he being accused to being frightening?

Jake squinted his eyes as he tried to figure out a reason for this. "She's a strange girl." He responded with a smirk, gazing at Leif.

Leif put a hand in his pocket, letting out a nervous laugh. "Y-yeah..."

"Alright, Mr Nervous British man. Settle down."

This new voice came from yet another man, who was slightly smaller than Leif, but taller than Torquil. He had light blue hair which could be considered as being messy, but it looked somewhat decent. Except for one part, that was tightly braided and sticking up, which was definitely strange. He was somewhat pale, but definitely more tanned than Leif. He was wearing a black vest, that had a white padlock on it, with bold writing above it saying 'LOCKED'. He was wearing tracksuit bottoms that were dark grey, as were his sneakers.