Blue Kisses

Chapter 5

I arrive outside at StoneHart's Coffee, it's basically my second home. The dim lighting, calming jazz music, warm cozy air, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee all fill my senses as I open the familiar door. Alice is already inside waiting, she's bundled up in a blue scarf and a light coat, she's carrying her overstuffed backpack that looks like it's weighing her down.

"Have you been waiting long," I ask her.

"No, I just got here," she replies.

"C'mon let's find a table," I say concerningly before she hurts herself or someone else with her bookbag. We set our stuff down at the table by the window that perfectly fits four. "I need coffee." I say and we head our way to the ordering counter.

"Josephine?" Alice says my name and leans in closer to me, "What's the difference between a latte and a cappuccino?" she asks, squinting at the menu in front of us.

"A cappuccino has less milk than a latte and more foam." I reply

"But what if I'm lactose intolerant?" she whispers into my ear like it's a contagious disease that people could catch.

"You can get it with non-dairy milk or you can get what I'm getting, just a black coffee," I tell her.

Lucy comes up to us behind the counter, "Who's excited to study?" she asks.

"Lucy, I didn't know you worked here," Alice says.

"Hardly. My parents own the place, we live upstairs." Lucy replies. "The sole and only reason Josie is friends with me is for the free coffee," Lucy looks at me and laughs.

"No! It's not the only reason," I say jokingly with nothing else to add.

Lucy is already pouring me a cup of coffee "What do you want Alice?"

She looks at me like I would know the answer, "I guess a latte," she says with no confidence.

"With oat milk," I add, laughing at her.

We go sit at the table that we already claimed, Alice sits across from me and Lucy brings over Alice's oat milk latte, "Wow! Lucy, did you make this?" Alice asks, referring to the latte art shaped in a heart, "it's so pretty" she takes out her phone and takes a picture.

"Thanks, I came out of the womb being able to pour hearts" Lucy claims and sits down next to me. The seat next to Alice is empty and that means Joshua is going to sit there. Should I move to that spot, would that be weird? But then he would be sitting across from her, would that be any better, he would just be staring at her noticing how pretty she is and would want to make a move on her. Joshua comes over and puts his bag down on the chair next to Alice. It's too late now.
"Howdy," Joshua says and sits down.

"Hi!" Alice says excitedly and they smile at each other.

"Do you want a drink?" Lucy asks Joshua.

"Yes please, an iced caramel latte," he replies.

"Iced?" Lucy asks with a judgmental face. "But it's cold out."

"Yeah, I want something refreshing," he excuses. "Why are you judging my drink order, you're literally drinking something that looks like Shrek's butthole."

"It's a matcha latte," she refutes while she leaves to make his drink.

"How was your guy's day?" Joshua asks me and Alice. I don't reply.

"Mine was good, me and Lori went grocery shopping and she bought me some nice pens" Alice says like it was a present she opened on Christmas morning.

"Cool, did you get an ergonomic pen?" he asks.

"No but the ink glides really nice, you want to see?" she asks, pulling one out of her backpack following her notebook. She starts writing his name with the pen and my heart starts to hurt a little.

"Wow, can I try?" he asks.

"Yeah, you can have it if you want, grandma got me plenty" Alice says.

What am I watching? Are they falling in love over their shared feelings for pens?

Lucy interrupts their flirting, "here's your refreshing iced caramel latte," she says handing it to him.

"Thank you, you're an angel." he replies with an innocent smile.

I start pulling out my laptop and books and everyone else follows. I put on my headphones and start playing my studying music that only contains classical music to help me focus. Hopefully it helps me not think of Joshua and Alice flirting with each other.

I'm on my third cup of coffee and we're a few hours in already. Joshua and Alice have closed their books and are now talking to each other. Lucy closes her laptop, I take off my headphones to see what's going on, I thought we still had at least an hour left.

"I'm writing a play next month for the November play fest and I was wondering if you guys would star in it?" Lucy asks all of us.

"You already know I'm down, I was born to be a star." Joshua says with conviction.

"What's it about?" Alice asks.

"I don't know yet, it's the 24 hour fest so I can't start writing it until the first hour starts," Lucy says. "But if you're all in it, I'll write it just for you guys." she adds with her irresistible puppy eyes.

"Okay, I'll give it a try. I don't know if I'll be any good though." Alice adds.

"Yay, omg you're gonna be good no matter what because I'm going to be directing it too." Lucy says. "What about you, Josie?" she asks me as I avoid looking into her eyes. I can't say yes, I can't act. What if I say no, then Alice and Joshua would be in the play alone and what if it's a romance? "Josie?" she says again leaning her face into mine forcing me to see her puppy eyes. "Please," she begs.

"Fine." I sigh. How can I say no to her? She's dancing in her seat clapping, just seeing her excitement might've been worth it. Both Joshua and Alice are smiling at her too. It will be fun acting with my friends, what could go wrong?

Lucy went upstairs and Joshua had left already, It's just me and Alice now. We're inside waiting by the door because Alice doesn't want to wait for the bus out in the cold, despite her coat and scarf. I can't wait to see her when it's winter, I picture her wearing fluffy white earmuffs and a puffy coat.

"We should go, the bus will be here any second now." I tell alice.

"Okay," she says with her head down.

A cold gust of wind blows through us as we open the door. Alice lifts her head up and notices Christmas lights covering the trees that line the street. It illuminates the night with its blue and white dazzling bulbs.

"Oh my gosh, the lights are so pretty," she says, looking at them like candy. "And they're blue!" she spins around on the sidewalk with her nose in the sky. She stops spinning, and comes closer to me with her face lit up blue, "I can't help but feel like they were meant for me. Like this city is where I was always supposed to end up." I think the lights are just for her, every year they've chosen white lights to decorate the street trees but this year they chose blue.