sleepless summers

iv

chapter 4

It was a usual day just like any other aside from the confirmation of making two new friends. I had pulled into the car park of our favourite coffee shop and quickly checked my phone for any new notifications, regrettably only to see it asking me to update some of my apps and that I needed to verify my Apple ID . The owners knew each of our orders off by heart and were grateful for our patronage as they were an independant family business. Any time we would go, usually two or three times a week, we made sure to tip as we considered the workers like our own family. Today all of us decided to tip £20 each as part of our earnings paid in from the performance the night before as a surprise as they were saving up for a better display piece for all their pastries.

As I set my phone away I walked into the cafe, went straight to the till and paid for my iced matcha latte, handing them their tip where they gave me a loving hug before I walked off, matcha to keep me sane and sitting with the rest of the band. "Riley! You're not late for once, what a surprise!" Bradley teased. I playfully rolled my eyes knowing he was in a joking mood and turned my attention to my phone when I felt it vibrate, hopeful that it was Theodore trying to keep our friendship going longer than one small interaction.

"Who are you texting?" Peter joined in on the teasing, his throat worse than yesterday's as the hoarse feeling was more prevalant. I didn't even have time to reply before Bradley stole the spotlight once more. "Probably that mega hot guy from last night. Does he have a big dick, then? That why you didn't message the group chat last night, huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows, Abigail lightly scolding him and telling him to knock it off, earning a laugh from Peter who then went into a composed coughing fit and sipped on some water he had beside his mocha.

"Him and his friend, actually. They're really nice. Great friends." I snarkily replied, not giving Bradley the satisfaction of being annoyed at his innuendos. "Oh? You mean the ones who were in the queue? I saw them at the front row, they really cheered us on. I didn't realise you were talking to them that much." Millie spoke up. "Oh, those? The girl with that ridiculously expensive looking coat?" Peter added, checking with Millie that they were on the same page. "Yeah, them! Theodore actually said we were the best act of the night. He genuinely meant it, too."

Bradley wiggled his eyebrows once more despite Abigail pleading him not to mess around, leaning his arms against the table and changing to perform fake kisses. "Bradley, that old lady is glaring at you. Please cut it out before she turns out to be a serial killer or something." She insisted, although her smug expression showed she secretly wanted him to mock me for longer. "I don't care, she can stare all she wants at my good looks. Back to the topic on hand, Riley- you know you can't escape me. You said Theodore's his name, huh?"
"Yeah, that's my name."

I whipped my head around so fast I felt my jaw almost lock and ache in pain. "You're here?" I breathed out, a painting of confusion on my face for Theodore to see and become highly amused by. "Yeah, you told me you were going here for breakfast so I thought I'd join you. I live closeby so it wasn't that big of a deal to check it out and get to know you all a bit better."

Theodore sat down beside me and offered me some of his flat white. I took a sip before sliding my own drink over and watching as Theodore gave a nod of approval. "It's nice to actually meet you. Riley was just on about how you liked our band the most. Thank you, we really appreciate it." Millie rambled on, taken aback by his sheer beauty. It was almost as if she didn't have such a crush on Peter, she would have fell hard for Theodore and the thought of that made me nervous. I had become pretty confident in my ability to read Millie, her tone of voice, body language, facial expressions. The way she sped up her words, she was definitely nervous about him and not because he was a stranger.