Skinny Love

Chapter 3

I wasn't sure how to approach the coffee shop so I waited outside for Francesca to arrive. She was running a little late but I didn't mind. The cold air felt good on my face and at least the vacancy of the sidewalk was somewhat settling. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the grey brick. letting out a deep breath, I felt a lot of tension escape me. Not all of it could leave in that little gesture but being outside and away from my house for once made me feel good. School wasn't my favorite place in the world either, so being somewhere other than that, and somewhere new for that matter, made me feeling oddly comfortable. It should usually be the other way around.

My hair would probably be wind blown by the time she showed up. The muss of curls I kept weren't exactly hard to keep, but they looked that way. The dark brown color just made it worse. My cheeks I absolutely knew would be beat red. If Francesca was pale I was just a shade darker and that wasn't from not being in the sun. I just didn't tan. That was bad for hiding my scars. You would think on the football field would be the hardest place to hide my flesh wounds but really it was the easiest. I could tape up my whole arm and pass it off as a ritual. But if I went around with tape on my arms on the regular basis, people would start to worry. So at places like this, I settled for the protection of my hoody or a jacket.it's worked for me so far.

It seemed as if she popped up just in time. As much as I liked the chill of the air, my ears were beginning to hurt. As she approached me with her small shoulders hunched close to her ears and her long hair blowing sideways in the wind, I almost let a ghost of a smile cross over my face. I stopped myself before it could surface, unsure of why I was smiling. Probably just the company.

"Hey," I said as I pulled the cafe door open and let her step through before me, watching as she swung to the right immediately, almost without thinking. She only passed one booth before swinging herself into the next available one. She sat and laced her fingers together and just waited for a server. I'd barely gotten to the table before she was pulling out a notebook. It was big and black and noticeably worn. There were stickers plastered all across the front and as she began to open it I recognized bunches of sticky notes strategically placed throughout the pages.

Rounding the table I glanced down at the notebook in a kind of amazement. "That's some book you go there."

She smiled up at me halfheartedly but was really focused on writing in her book. I just sat and watched for a little while, surprisingly engrossed by the way her hand flew across the paper. Her penmanship was awful but boy could she could get words down. She'd covered three pages in just the first fifteen minutes we'd been sitting there together. And just when I'd gotten comfortable with the fact that this is how we were going to be spending the afternoon, she dropped the pen, stretched her hand and closed her notebook.

Looking up at me she smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I just get really panicky about my journals. I thought I had enough time to do one before I came here so I started but I didn't want to be late so I stopped short."

I just looked at her, not sure what to say to this. That probably wasn't the best way to respond but at least she didn't get offended. She just explained further.

"I hate stopping short on my journals--or anything I'm writing." She said. She sighed and closed her eyes. Leaning her back against the seat she stretched her long arms above her head. I watched as she seemed to stretch taller for a split second before returning to normal size. She let out a soft whimpering sound at the release of her muscles before letting her arms collapse back onto the table. Still not knowing what to say I stayed quiet and just watched her. She watched me too this time. It was like we were having a friendly but not friendly staring contest. Like we were feeling each other out, sizing each other up, and contemplating how to work with what we'd got.