The Fall of a Star

Chapter One

I'm not big on change. So I was perfectly content sitting with my best friends at our usual table in our usual coffee shop, drinking my usual order. That is, until the world turned upside down.

I was taking a sip of my coffee and I looked up in the direction of the door as it opened, and all of a sudden I couldn't breathe.

In walked some redheaded guy, tall and thin, but not skinny. Thin in a muscular, lean way, like he was a runner or a swimmer or something. He had a smirk on his face like he just told the funniest joke ever heard, and for a split second, we made eye contact. I felt my face go red and I immediately looked down into my coffee cup, as he strode toward the counter to order.

"A french vanilla latte, please. Large."

His voice. I swear he could play a Newsie. He had that beautiful New York accent, deep but sort of sweet, like honey, or syrup, but really strong syrup, like what I imagine it would taste like right out of the tree.

"Luca?" I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Hmm?" I was still watching him, as he paid for his coffee and walked towards the tables, towards me. He sat in an empty booth by a window and stared out at the highway, watching the cars as they passed, I assumed.

"Luca," my best friend repeated, sterner that time. "Dude."

"What?" I finally tore my eyes away from the boy, in all his glory, as he got his phone out of the pocket of his very tight black skinny jeans and smiled at a message. His smile was beautiful.

"You good?" Maya asked as she waved her hand in front of my face. She glanced in the direction I had been staring, and it was only then that I realized how embarrassing that was and how much more it would've been if the boy had noticed.

"Mhm. Yeah. All good," I assured her a little too quickly, picking up my own coffee and taking a long sip.

"Wow," our other friend, Jax, simply said. "New guy in town, huh?"

I frantically shushed him, suddenly worried that the guy could hear us, and was aware of all of it. Jax and Maya shared a fleeting glance, with matching raised eyebrows.

Maya sighed. "Honey—" she started.

She was interrupted by her phone ringing, "Heat of the Moment" blaring a little too loudly for my liking. I mean, it wasn't even a Tuesday.

I groaned, knowing it would get stuck in my head. Maya grinned at me and answered it.

"Hello? Oh, uh, okay, okay, calm down, we're just—hold on. I'm at the coffee shop and I'll be right there, okay? Don't panic."
She hung up and quickly got up and gathered her stuff. "I have to go. Kenzie's water just broke."

"Oh, uh, do you want us to go with you?" Jax asked, looking a little pale.

"No, no, you don't have to. Just go on to class. Hey, take notes for me, okay? Make sure one of you does," she requested seriously, looking back and forth between the two of us, knowing she was usually the only one who actually took legible notes.

She rushed off before either of us could reply.

Maya's older sister Mackenzie was having twins, and Maya had been really excited about it. She decorated the nursery herself, making sure it was gender-neutral, and of course Jax and I pitched in.

"Well..." Jax sighed as he picked up Maya's neglected half-empty coffee cup. "It'd be a shame to waste this."

I rolled my eyes, fighting a smile, as he chugged it. "You're a child," I told him. He just shrugged, finishing off the drink with a satisfied smirk.

"Should we go?" They asked, pointing to their phone screen, which showed me that it was fifteen after eight.

"Yeah—oh, shit." I suddenly realized something; we had all taken one car, and now Maya had it. As I voiced this concern to Jax, he swore under his breath, patting his pockets.

"I don't think I have enough for a taxi," he said, throwing me an apologetic look. 

"I do. It's okay," I told him. We grabbed our backpacks, threw away our cups, and started to leave.

Just before I walked out the door, I glanced back to that window booth.

Whatever higher power was helping me out, I sincerely owed it, because somehow, for some reason, that beautiful redheaded boy was staring at me. When he saw me notice, he didn't quickly look away as I would have done, but instead the side of his mouth turned up into a crooked smile. We held eye contact once more, his greenish eyes glinting in the sunlight that was coming in through the door, before Jax was pulling me out of said door, saving me from blushing too hard.

Thirty minutes later, we were being dropped off at the university. We hurried to class just before we would've been marked late, earning a disapproving look from our history professor, and slid into our usual seats.

"Who's gonna take notes?" I whispered to Jax, who immediately looked nauseous at the simple prospect. I huffed and logged into my laptop and to the Google doc I hadn't opened in about a week, as Jax gave me a smug smile. I mockingly returned it, making them snort.

As I tried to pay attention and not laugh as Jax made sarcastic comments and remarks under his breath, Professor Higgins droned on. Of course, since it was history, I did have plenty of musicals to reference and therefore knew most of what he was talking about, but that didn't make it any less boring.

"And the year the colonists won the Battle of Yorktown, the last battle of the Revolutionary War, was...?" He glanced around the room for someone to answer, the combination of huge bags under his eyes and the exhausted look on his face making him look dead inside.

I sighed, about to give in and answer, when I heard a familiar accent from the back.

"1781."

I swiveled my head so fast I could've gotten whiplash, looking behind me, right into the sharp hazel eyes of one smirking redhead.

"Thank you, Mr. Summers," Professor Higgins said, sounding surprised.

Summers. His last name was Summers. Somehow that fit.

I was so confused. Was he new here? I knew I would've noticed him if he had ever been there before. Then, as the boy—Summers—winked at me, I realized I was staring again. Embarrassed, I quickly turned back towards the front, feeling my face heat up and the eyes of both the Summers guy and Jax staring at me, but I tried to focus on taking notes.

Jax nudged me with his elbow and gave me a questioning look. I just shook my head slightly and went back to my notes. I heard Jax scoff, but I didn't look back up at him.

This might be a problem.