My silver lining // jawsten

chapter three

Today is the day.

My first day meeting up with that stranger I met yesterday. I was so nervous, yet so exited. I'm not usually the type of person to be exited by small things such as meeting up with a guy, but Awsten has this affect on me for some odd reason.

I got dressed in my usual hoodie and black skinny jeans, then headed out. Once I headed to the bus stop and hopped on the bus, to my surprise, Awsten wasn't on it. We never exchanged numbers or set a time for when we would meet up, but I decided I'd go pretty early in the day to maybe take some pictures for my classes. It was about 6 when I woke up and only 6:30 when I got off of the bus.

"Hey, stranger." I heard a familiar voice say as I stepped off of the last stair. Awsten was walking towards me, waving as he showed off the most perfect smile.

"Howdy." I smiled back, mimicking the country twang that had snuck it's way into his voice. Awsten giggled and put his arm around me once he got close enough. I blushed a little and we walked inside the coffee shop, exchanging small talk about how our day had been so far.

It struck me as odd that he knew exactly when I had gotten there, but I didn't think too much of it and just wrote it off as a coincidence. Once we were standing at the baristas desk, Awsten ordered a hot mocha latte with extra cream. I ordered a black coffee and added my own sugar and cream to it off to the side. Once we were seated, Awsten didn't hesitate to strike up conversation.

"Soooo, how did your night go?" He asked me in a flirtatious tone. I snickered a bit and answered truthfully, that the night had been rough.

"Not great. I have really bad dreams most of the time, causing me to avoid going back to sleep Incase I have another." He frowned a bit but his face lit up again once he thought of another question to ask me.

"Would you like to talk about the dream you had last night?" He wasn't smiling but his face seemed to be glowing almost. Almost.

"No, not really. But Stella stayed up all night with me, watching a movie that I was finally able to fall asleep to." I replied again, but then got a bit nervous as I had forgotten to mention Stella earlier.

"Stella?" He questioned once more.

"Shes my boarder Collie." I was so exited to tell him about my baby, and hoped he would also like her.

"What? You never told me you had a dog!" He said with a huge grin on his face. I smiled back.

"Well, I wasn't sure if you liked dogs or not"

"Dude, I'm literally- how could I not love dogs?!" He cut himself off mid sentence. Heads turned to us again, Awsten was very loud for living in this small town. Maybe he was from LA or something where everyone had to yell to hear each other.

"Yeah well, I just met you" I replied playfully. It felt like I'd known him for a while although I knew nothing about him yet.

"Well then, we will have to get to know each other more then, won't we?" He winked and stood up. He walked out of the coffee shop, leaving me there for a bit before I got up and scrambled after him.

"So, when can I meet this 'stella' you mentioned earlier?" Man, was he full of questions. I liked it though, I don't like talking about myself usually, but I was willing to be completely vulnerable around him.

"We could head to my place now if you want to" I said and he rolled his eyes. I couldn't tell if it was playfully, but knowing Awsten so far, it was.

"I'm taking you somewhere to eat, dingus. But we can on the way back" he said and grabbed my hand, speed-walking a couple blocks down the strip. I didn't reply and just let it happen.

Once we arrived at a small diner, he opened the door for me. I smiled and walked towards the desk with Awsten fallowing behind me.

"What can I get for you?" The lady at the desk asked. I ordered a bacon and egg croissant and payed, then Awsten ordered the same thing and we sat down.

"So," I began to think of a question "what's the deal with us?" I blushed and Awsten grabbed my hand.

"Well, I think that we should get to know each other and become friends. And later, hopefully we can move to casual dating and so on?" He was so straight forward and I loved it. I hated beating around the bush.

"Sounds great. I love that you're so straight up with things." I complimented and he nodded.

"Yeah, well, I don't really like taking things so slow that I come off as uninterested. Becaus I am interested...in you." He said and smiled sheepishly. I blushed a little more and looked him in the eyes. A calm silence washed over us both until we got our food from a man who walked over and delivered it to us. 

Once we finished eating and making small talk, I took him back to my house. Stella was sitting on the couch and as soon as he seen her he sprinted towards the black and white collie.

"Ohh! Look at you! Sweet girl. Yes you are. You're a sweet puppy duppy wuppy doggggg." I giggled and sat next to the big goofball playing with my pup. He was adorable playing with Stella. I loved his smile as he pet her belly and rubbed behind her ears.

"That's Stella, she's the best dog ever" I said and gave her a kiss in the head. Stella was enjoying all the attention. She wasn't a huge fan of my ex boyfriend but she definitely had taken a liking to Awsten.

"Hey, I just thought of another question." I said unprompted. He looked up and nodded.

"What's up?" He asked.

"What's your last name?" I asked and he smiled.

"Oh yeah, I never really told you anything, huh?" I shook my head 'no' and he opened his mouth to reply.

"The names knight. Awsten knight." I giggled and he asked me my last name.

"It's Rocha. Spelled like roach with a misplaced 'a'" I said and he giggled.

"Oh, I also never gave you my number, huh?" He asked again and I shook my head once more. He wrote it down on a piece of paper I had laying on my coffee table with a pen he had in his pocket and left it there.

"Thanks" I smiled and he stood up.

"Of course. Text me some time" and he began to walk to the door.

"Hey wait," I said and stood up as well. "Did you want me to walk you home?" Awsten shook his head.

"Nah, I gotta run a few errands. Thanks though" he said and hugged me. He looked over to Stella and waved "bye pupper"

I hugged Awsten and he kissed my cheek and left.

I like him