Smoothie encounter

The way they met [Chapter 1]

August 14th. 11:00 a.m on a Sunday. Kelly was walking around a park with a fountain people flip coins into and trees easy for little kids to climb. She was pulled out of bed by her older sister who has to meet with someone for an interview. Her sister, Khalia, was a journalist. She wrote for a famous newspaper article and even if they aren't so popular any more, Khalia loves her job.

Kelly wanted to sleep in since it was the last day she got off until she started school. Tomorrow was the day she started. But Khalia wanted to get smoothies with her when she was done with her interview.
"That park has a little smoothie truck that comes by most of the days of the week. The smoothies that girl makes are delicious, better than a real shop." Khalia ranted on when they were getting ready together.

Kelly walked around for a bit, watching people wonder off onto trails or sit on benches, talking to their phones. And speaking of phones, it was a pretty big park so Khalia called Kelly to know where she was at.
"I'm around one of the playgrounds, Mr. Stevens has two daughters that he takes here every Sunday. That's why it was more convenient to meet here." Khalia spoke and Kelly could hear kids yelling in the background.

"I'm right next to the coin fountain with that weird water design on the top."

"Oh, perfect. That's right next to the smoothie truck. How about you go get the smoothies for us and I'll start walking to that willow tree with the tire swing on it. I'll wait for you there, okay?"

"What kind of smoothie do you want?" As Khalia told Kelly her order, Kelly wasn't really paying too much attention to her surroundings. There were many pennies and quarters in the fountain she could see and when Kelly was just about to speak back, she bumped into someone and she could feel a liquid splash all over her shirt.

"Oh, shit." A stranger spoke and Kelly grew frustrated.

"Oh, come on." Kelly put her phone to her side, ignoring her sister for a moment.

"Shit, my bad. I am so sorry, I didn't even mean to do that. I didn't see you that close to me."

"It's alright, it was my fault." Kelly wiped away some of the access smoothie on her arms.

"For real, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's alright. Don't worry about it, I got an extra shirt in the car."

"Damn, my bad, I hope that wasn't a new shirt." The stranger held the almost empty cup in their hands, not knowing what to do with it.

"Nah, it's pretty old, you're fine. I can wash it later, it's okay."

"Damn, now I'm gonna have to go buy a new smoothie." The stranger sighed. "Again, my bad, I'm really sorry."

"No, it's okay, really."

"Yeah, alright." The they walked away. Nothing else, they just walked away. Kelly thought that was weird but what else are you supposed to do? She watched the stranger walk away and notice their short, fluffy, black hair, with bangs that covered their forehead. They wore black clothing but had little colorful designs on the white soles of their tennis shoes.

"Shit." Kelly sighed and put the phone back up to her ear to tell her sister what happened.

Wire, the stranger Kelly encountered, was cursing to herself inside her head. He gets embarrassed easily and that was definitely a situation to shoot his anxiety through the roof.

Wire walked over to the closest parking lot, not looking behind him. He threw away his cup that previously held a smoothie and approached the smoothie truck.

"You're back for more?" The lady that ran the truck spoke.

"Yeah, I gotta replace the one I got. I spilled it on some random girl, it was so embarrassing."

"Oh no, what happened?" Wire was a regular customer at this smoothie truck, so the owner and her are pretty good friends.

"This girl, or whatever her pronouns are, she was on the phone and she walked right into me. I saw her coming but for some reason I just didn't move. My nerves were shot or something, I don't know. Ugh it was so stupid I wanna blow my brains out."

"Oh no, that's hilarious. How'd she react? Did she curse you out?" The owner had her arms crossed on the metal counter that separated them.

"She said it was her fault and told me not to worry but I hope I never see her again." Wire rubbed her temples.

"Wow, I'd run away if that was me." Samantha giggled.

"Trust me, I wanted to."

"I'll go ahead and make your smoothie again. Give me a minute, I gotta clean a mixer."

Wire told her it was fine and waited. After a few minutes, the mixer was clean and she started adding the ingredients in.
"What did the girl look like, maybe I've seen her before?"

"Um, she had dark hair that kind of looked like a stereotypical lesbian hair cut. Uh... She was shorter than me, sort of dark skinned, she was wearing a hoodie with a jacket over it until I ruined both of them. I don't know, I was too embarrassed to really look for a lot of details, you know?" Wire pulled out his wallet as Samantha placed the smoothie into the mixer.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's on the house." She spoke over the wiring of the machine.

"Oh, thanks." Samantha poured the smoothie into a cup and placed the lid on.

"If she's still around here, maybe you can point her out for me. Discretely, you know." She winked and put the smoothie on the metal counter.

"Um..." Wire turned to his left looking for the girl. He turned completely around and saw someone standing behind him waiting in line. It was her. Kelly was standing right behind Wire.

Wire stood still, frozen solid. His eyes were wide and Kelly lifted her eyebrows. They both just stayed there, silent for a moment until Wire quickly whipped around, grabbed the smoothie off of the counter, and speed walked away.

"Uh-" Samantha looked at Kelly. "Are you the girl she was talking about!?" She softly smiled.

"Yeah." Kelly spoke, also with a slight smirk on her face.

"Oh my gosh! I was wondering why she just walked away like that! Holy shit, what a coincidence."

"Tell me about it."

"Oh no, I feel so bad for her, that's so embarrassing." Samantha giggled and covered the bottom half of her face with her hand, elbows on the counter.

"Um, well..." She cleared her throat. "What can I get you?" She chuckled.

Kelly told her, her sisters order and continued, "and as for me..." She looked back on the direction Wire took off in. "I'll have whatever she had." She pointed in the direction.

"A strawberry-banana smoothie with more strawberries than banana?"

Kelly tilted her head slightly. "Is that what she ordered?"

"Every time she comes here."

"More strawberry than banana?" She repeated after the smoothie truck owner.

"Yup. The third time she came here, I asked her why she was being so specific and asked her exactly how much more strawberry than banana and she told me, '60-65% strawberry and 35-40% banana.' I've never met such a specific customer in my life." Samantha kept a smile on her face.

"Huh." Kelly wondered many things about this stranger.

"So you want that?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll get that."

-1,269 words :)