Warm Sand

Chapter 6 - 'Olive Tree'

After a good night of sleep and a full Saturday doing nothing, Lea decides to go out after dinner to a bar near her house. She wears something nice but not too produced, and very natural makeup. She wants to go for a drink and come back home after, but she will have to do it by herself, as all her colleagues are hanging out with Ethan near to school.

Lea is in front of the place. There's a big wooden board saying 'Olive Tree', the name of the bar. She enters the big old door. The bar doesn't have many people. It's still early and people usually prefer to go to other places. It's a small and spacious place. There's a few tables occupied by adults and only one with a group of young people.

Lea asks for a drink. The bartender hands her a big cup of cider with ice cubes. She takes a sip. The young group is laughing and chatting a lot while playing drinking games. Lea looks at them for a while and then turns back to the bar and drinks a bit more of her cider while going through her instagram.

Two guys come from the bathroom and join the group. It's Ryan. He notices Lea at the counter and tells his friends he's gonna be back in a minute. He leaves his friends and walks closer to Lea. She is still looking at her phone and drinking so she doesn't see him coming.

"Hey, Lea!" He sits right next to her.

Lea almost spits out her drink. She's surprised to see him there.

"Ryan! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." He gives her a quick hug to greet her. "Why are you here alone?"

"Oh, don't worry. I just came to have a drink and I'll go home right after I finish this!" She shows the cider to Ryan.

"Next time you can ask me to come with you. I'll keep you company." He smiles. After a pause, he continues. "Do you want to join us? My friends are cool!"

"No, it's okay. I'm almost done anyways..." Lea sips almost all of the drink.

Ryan is watching her. He wants to say something but he's trying to find the right words.

"Look, Lea. I was wondering... Mmm... are you free tomorrow?"

She looks at the drink. "Mmm, I guess so. Why?"

"Would you like to go out with m-" Ryan gets interrupted by Ashley, who just arrived at the bar alone.

"Lea! It's so nice to see you here!" She giggles, sarcastically. She looks at Ryan. "I see you're over Ethan already!"

Ryan replies with a mad face. Lea is so done with her.

"Ashley, can you go be with your fake friends, and leave me alone?"

"I can't, darling! I have news for you" She giggles. "My dad went to Greece for business, so I will have to stay here with my mom all summer!" She slimes at Lea, sarcastically. "I guess we'll be seeing each other a lot..."

Lea is really mad. Ashley never stays in town for summer. She always goes somewhere expensive with her family. Lea drinks the rest of her cider and stands up. Face to face with Ashley, just a few centimetres away from each other, Lea burps and blows it to her cousin. She would never dare to do this with someone else, but Ashley was asking for it. Ryan laughs, impressed by Lea's audacity towards her cousin. Ashley is furious.

"Why are you so disgusting?!" Ashley steps back and covers her nose. "I'm so embarrassed to have you as my cousin!"

"One more reason to stay the hell away from me!" Lea walks to the door, after bumping into Ashley. "I'm sorry Ryan, I have to go home now." She leaves the bar.

Ryan, with a sad face, waves goodbye at the door and goes back to his group of friends. Ashley picks up a few drinks at the counter and goes to the tables outside to her friends.

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Lea arrives home.

"Mom?" She walks in the living room where her mom is watching TV on the couch.

"Hey Lea. Did you have fun?"

"I wanna go spend the whole summer with uncle Peter!"

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*All the places, names and characters are fictional.*