slowly drifting ★ circa waves

II.

emma shoots a surprised glance towards eleanor, who just rolls her eyes—she was in the middle of eating her ice cream. who do those rowdy boys think they are trying to interrupt her?

"hello," chimes the one with a lot of brown wavy hair.

"uh, hi," emma replies, rather politely in eleanor's opinion. or maybe it was nervously. eleanor couldn't really tell the difference, and didn't really try to.

"do you mind?" says eleanor outrageously. "we're really busy right now." she gestures around the empty shop before emphasising the tub of ice cream placed in front of her.

one of the boys with blonde/brown wavy hair and laughs. "of course, how inconsiderate of us." he closes the rest of the space between him and the counter, and stops in front of eleanor. "i'm—"

"eleanor," emma spits tensely. "i think dave is calling us." then she turns slightly towards the boys, but keeps her eyes glued to the floor. "our boss needs us. one second."

eleanor gives emma a 'really? but they're kind of hot' look, to which emma ignores, and then eleanor tries again with a 'but this ice cream tastes like heaven' look. emma shakes her head and drags eleanor into the back room.

"what the hell?"

"circa waves."

"yeah," eleanor rolls her eyes. "i get it. not circus caves. they have good music, whatever. was that so important that you had to take me away from my salted caramel ice cream? no. it wasn't," eleanor starts to turn around but emma grabs her hand again.

"no," emma says sternly. "those boys. they're circa waves. except i could've sworn there was one missing."

eleanor's eyes widen in shock before putting her hand over her mouth in disbelief. "you mean, you mean i just sassed circa waves? whoops."

emma laughs in response to her friend.

"we can't go back out there. no, i'll make a fool out of myself, i'll knock something over, or scare them away by my general awkwardness," eleanor explains, before waving her hands around and knocking over a bowl. she races to grab it just in time, and then throws it back on the table in fear. "see? i should not be allowed out of the house. like, ever."

"come on, let's get to know them, or something. you never know," hints emma.

"i don't even know their names," eleanor points out. "well, i was about to, until you decided to interrupt—"

"well, come on then!" emma exclaims, pulling eleanor back out to the counter. eleanor hesitantly follows.

"sorry, just business stuff, like work and boring things, you know? yeah. sorry. about that. yeah," rambles emma. eleanor leans on a ledge at the back wall and doesn't say anything or move at all. the boys were still standing where they left them, with one at the counter and the rest still stood by the door. they looked quite confused, if you asked emma.

another boy steps forward to meet the first. this one had blonde hair. "joe," he says, putting his hand out to shake emma's while nodding in eleanor's direction.

"emma. nice to meet you."

eleanor rolls her eyes at them, and doesn't notice colin still looking at her. slowly, each boy steps forward and shakes emma's hand.

"kieran," says the one who greeted them earlier, with brown wavy hair.

"sam," says another blonde, but with a quiff this time.

joe never stops smiling at emma, who's already reddened cheeks grow pinker. joe then looks at colin. "hey," he says, nudging colin in the shoulder. "don't be rude. say something."

colin takes his eyes off eleanor and nervously directs them to the menu board. "oh, uh, my name is...sALTED CARAMEL?! OH MY GOD GET IN MY BODY."

the boys look at him weirdly, while the girls exchange glances full of smiles. eleanor is the first to explode into giggles. she can't stop, and has to throw her head into her hands on the table to stifle her laughter. then she attempts to take another bite of her ice cream, which doesn't go down well. she starts choking, and everyone watches on in horror (except for emma, who's doing her best to keep her smiles normal-looking in front of joe).

"i think *cough* i'm dying *cough* of coughter." eleanor struggles to get each word out. she then stumbles off of the ledge she was perched on, then makes her way towards the swinging door in the back room. "i'm just going to *cough* leave."

and with that, she disappears.

"quite the friend, huh," joe starts, and the rest of the boys know he's only talking to start a conversation with emma.

emma replies, "you could say that."

"coughter. why isn't that a word?" colin asks thoughtfully.

"that's what she thinks," emma says in return.

"it's genius," colin nods his head. "well, could i please get a salted caramel ice cream? large? and a chocolate milkshake? thanks."

-

well ik this was SUCH a random chapter and idek where this story is going so to the 6 people who are reading it rn, you should probably go home and rethink your life. bc it's being wasted. ok? thx.