Steven and Stephen... not confusing at all!

.

Layla had been noticing how less sleep Steven has been getting lately. After the whole disaster in Cairo, they decided it was best to stay in contact which lead to them all moving in with each other. They remained in London but bought a bigger house so Steven can have a room all to his books instead of cluttering the entire house. Some days he'd stay in there all night, getting a blink of sleep. Layla had became worried and urged him to get out more. He could probably use some sun on his face anyways.

After a lot of convincing, Layla brought him to a decent cafe that she regularly visits. The place was packed with college students glued to their laptops, leaving barely any seats open. Luckily, they found the last empty seats faced towards the windows.

They sat down as Layla showed him the menu from her phone. Steven explored the menu before deciding on French toast. She got up to go order their food and told Steven to stay and protect their seats. It's not like it mattered since there was an extra seat on his left that wasn't occupied.

He fiddled with the ends of his sweater as he waited for her. The sounds of keyboards typing, frustrated groans, and loud slurps of coffee was really starting to irk him now. Maybe he shouldn't have gone out.

Slight tapping on his shoulder yanked him out of his thoughts. He turned around and faced a girl with brown eyes and dark wavy hair. She was wearing a jean jacket with all sorts of patterns with a gray shirt. She was holding a laptop in her other hand and didn't look to be any older than 16.

"I'm sorry to bother you, is this seat taken?" She gestured to the empty seat on his left.

"Oh, not at all." Steven moved his chair a bit so she could sit down and place her laptop. He went back to fidgeting with random things while waiting for Layla. He was swiping on his phone and switching apps every 15 seconds.

Only a couple of minutes had passed until he could hear the girl's frustration. She was violently typing and searching things up, writing information down only to be deleted a few seconds later.

"You alright there, love?" Steven asked. She turned in surprise and apologized for being loud.

"Oh, crap. I'm so sorry for bothering you. I'm just having a hard time on school work. It's like they're asking for me to fail." She huffed. Steven couldn't help but be nosy and leaned a little closer to see her screen.

"It's alright, really. I don't mind it, we all have our moments here and there. If you don't mind me asking, what are you working on?"

"Oh, just an essay for history class. I'm uhh...- not really great at paying attention so I'm not sure what to write about." Something is Stevens mind dinged as he bit his tongue in an attempt to not bury this girl with all the Egyptian knowledge he knew.

"I am quite the nutter for Egyptian mythology, perhaps I could help you?" Steven offered as her face lit up.

"Woah, seriously? You'd seriously do that for me? Wait, wait- is this a trick?" She questioned.

"It's no worries, seriously. I mean I finally have an excuse to rant on about these things and you get to finish your work. The way I see it, it's a win win." He gave her a thumbs up as she smiled and returned the gesture.

"Well alright but just warning you, I have zero knowledge on that." She slid he laptop closer so Steven could see it better. He spent a few minutes talking about gods and their worshippers and explaining many hieroglyphs and ancient texts. She seemed interested and asked many questions which Steven couldn't help but smile to. No one besides Marc, Jake, and Layla cared about his little rants and others usually shut him down.

By the time Layla had come back with their food, they had already started typing and were deep in conversation.

"Whatcha talking about, Stevie?" Layla asked as she set down Stevens food.