The Look Of Knowledge

6. Barely Legal

Mika

I came out of the tent and found the guy sitting on the grass a few meters away. I walked up there and stood in front of him. He spotted my ugly black boots and looked up at me.

"Can I help you?" He said staring, giving me a 'the fuck you want' look with his eyebrow rised and all. I took a deep breath and sat right there.

"Your friends are worried about you" I stated directly.

"Okay?" Still the same face.

"So what's up?" I asked, then noticed the dark bags under his eyes. His hair was dirty too. "Are you completely wasted or is that just your face?" I added.

"Both. And nothing's up. As you may sense" he replied staring at my ugly, mug covered boots once again.

"Look, I.. kinda offered myself to talk to you because your friends think something's up with you. And they're afraid you might punch them, so..." I decided I should just put the cards on the table and go to the point.

"You can tell me why you stormed out like that, not like I care. Or you can walk me to the bar right there across the field and buy me a drink. Your call" I said pointing to a tiny bar in between the hot dog and the pretzel stands.

"Like, seriously... why would I do any of those things?" He asked amused.

"Those are your options, man" i said shrugging. "Otherwise your friends are gonna keep asking" he looked at me once again.

"Alright, I think you're just strange but something tells me you're not going to leave me alone, are you?" He said standing up and started walking as my answer wasn't really any of his interest, so I followed him.
- -

We got to the stand and he gazed at me, then looked away.

"What?" I asked. He sighed and ignored me, looking at the big letter with all the drinks written on it in yellow chalk.

"Beer... is it alright for y-" he began before I cut him off.

"Scotch, neat please" I smiled and then turned to the bartender. "Do you have Yamazaki?" He nodded and Julian looked at me confused, then rushed to order something for him.

"Two Yamazakis then I guess...?" He said giving a short glance at me.
The bartender prepared our drinks.

"It's on me" I said taking out some money from my pocket but he chuckled and handed the guy with our drinks a $50.

"I'm not ready to be emasculated yet" Julian stated, taking the money I had on my hand and putting it into the front pocket of my jeans. Don't ask me why but that made me fucking blush. Then he took our drinks and started walking so I followed again.

Julian

I sat on a thing that sort of looked like an artificial stone but it was pink, so that's why the 'sort of'.

I saw the girl walking slowly towards me and sat by my side. I gave her the drink and observed in silence as she emptied half of it. She looked at me then.

"You okay?" She asked with a low key voice. It was pretty much like a singing bird without the high-pitched annoyance. How nice I thought to myself. I tend to hate conversations tho.

I made a shot out of my glass and drank it all up.

"Fine, and you?" I replied still feeling the fire in my throat. She was constantly looking at me the entire time which made me feel kinda uncomfortable.

"Julian, right?" She said and I nodded, then I tried very hard to remember her name and luckily I did. She smiled to herself and took another sip from her glass.

"Very cute name" she told me as she scratched her wrist and looked at the people passing by. I thought about how all the girls look cute when they say 'cute'.

"You know, you can go back if you want" she said as I carefully placed my empty glass on the grass. "I wasn't actually gonna make you tell me your problems" she added with a soft chuckle and finished her drink. I think I smiled a bit. I didn't really felt like going back. Few of the people who passed by stared or pointed at me but no one was actually bothering me or anything.

I caught her scratching her wrist again. It was like, a soft scratch, more like she unconsciously stroked herself with her fingertips, you know what I mean? I don't know why she caught my eye with that but it like made me feel sympathetic.

"I'm cool" I just said. I seriously didn't know what else to add so I just told her to go back to her friends if she wanted to.

"No, it's okay. I gave up finding Jared. Plus the sun is setting right there, behind those bushes, you see?" She said squinting as she pointed out to the last rays of the sun. "It's really pretty, I want to stay and watch it" added still looking straight at it. I wondered how her eyes didn't hurt. I felt kind of relieved that she wanted to stay, dunno why.

"We can give you a ride home if you want." I offered. "There's this after party thing but I don't think we're going.. I mean, we are, but like, tomorrow. There's another one tomorrow"

She smiled at me and nodded.
"Thank you, that's very nice of you"

We sat in silence for a few minutes in which I remembered about that time I wanted to take my two young brothers to the cinema, I think it was Jurassic Park or some shit like that. My father wouldn't let me because "it might get bloody", that's what he said. The thing is I didn't take them, and yes, the movie was kinda bloody. But I just spent the whole screening wondering about why the fuck we forbid kids to watch a dinosaur eat a person, something that's obviously never gonna happen., when they actually live around far too many scarier things every single day. Like adults forget about the scary things because we're used to them but kids.. they're completely fucking clueless.

When I snapped out of my string of thoughts, I spotted a blonde guy talking to Mika. He looked like a tennis player and was so tanned, like orange tanned, it was just strange. He hugged her like really touching her and left. It kinda made me feel sort of... angry? like, that moron being with someone like her seemed just pathetic. Then I remembered I had to stop judging people by their looks. But still I was annoyed.

She looked back at me and said he was a friend from school.

"I finish high school in 3 months" she said. I thought it was impossible.

"Wow, really? I thought you were older, like, not older but uhh... mature, yes, like you look mature for your age" I said feeling rather moronic. She just laughed.

"I know, I've been told. It's okay." she said patting my knee lightly.

When the sun was completely gone we stood up and went back to the tent with the rest of the guys.

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Soo... Kinda long chapter, I'm sorryyyy. I don't know if you guys like them like this or shorter. Please let me know :)
Xxx