Facade

Chapter 7- Pier Time.

I tap my foot on the wooden boards of the pier as I wait, wait for the no name guy. I look at the sea horizon over the midst of people that pass by me, waves remain calm as I feel the cold breeze come in. I can't believe that I actually came out. 

I looked down at my attire, a simple jeans and a hoodie. No one would look at this the wrong way. Right? I don't want as much as the wrong glance, it would just end in me being monitored. I calm myself down, this was just a two acquaintances that were getting to know each other.

I look around at the passerbys, they all seem to be having a good time, all couples. I feel myself getting more nervous by the second, maybe this was a mistake, maybe- I turn around to leave but just as I'm about to take a step I stop dead in my tracks.

I feel myself deflate, all my worries are gone at the mere sight of him. My breathing comes to a near stop as I hear the drumming of my escalating heart beat. Something I didn't notice the first, no apparently the second time I saw him before. He was stunning. He was tall, maybe half a foot taller than me. His tussled brown hair faintly bounces with every step he takes and his eyes glimmer with excitement. I push my erratic thought to the back of my head.

The guy was in plain sight, walking towards me, grinning. Why is he always smiling. What was there to be always happy about? I feel myself tense the distance between us decreases.

As he gets closer I see that he's dressed more casually than the last time I've seen him, t-shirt and jeans. Even with a shirt I could see the outline of his physique making me flush. He looks slightly more relaxed as he sees that I'm waiting and I twitch at the sight.

"Hey." He waves and gives me a wider grin that makes me fidget in my place, it isn't possible for his dimples to increase in size is it? He stands a little slanting, as he had no worries in the world, no fears. I shrug away the thought as I give a small smile to him.

"Come on, let's go." He waves me over as I hesitantly follow him, we slip into the crowd, moving in an agonizing slow speed that makes things more awkward. I turn my attention to the laughter below us, a little kid was playing with his dog, running parallel to waves. I watch as he runs from the tide and chases it, his dog mindlessly running around in the water barking.

My attention is still on the boy as he says something inaudible. "What?" I turn my head to him as he gives an amused expression. What did he say before? He's eager to reply as there's a hint of excitement in his eyes. Was he always this enthusiastic to everything?

He clears his throat, as if that would make me hear better. "Matthias Everette, that's my name." The words just slip out of his mouth all too smoothly. I raise his eyebrows as he waits for response, eyeing me with a hint of a smirk.

"That's uh... a nice name." I blurt out. I watch as his expression quickly turns, he cracks a smile and laughs. I feel myself slightly warm at the sight, his laughter is genuine, soft and pleasant that radiated his true personality.

"What's your name." He says as his laughter quickly dies down, he raises his eyebrows and I quickly realize that that was what he wanted to know before.

I feel a burst of heat rise to my cheeks as I choke out my name "Lilith," I take a quick breath before saying it more confidently "Lilith Hathway." That is so humiliating, I'm pretty sure my voice cracked.

"Lilith, Lilith Hathway..." he says as if he's getting a feel for the name and then grins, "nice to meet you Lilith." His makes my stomach do a mini flop and I try to ignore it. I honestly do not know what to say, the next few seconds are spent in silence until Matthias breaks it thankfully. I have no experience with this.

"Do you work?" He says, just trying to bring up a topic, any topic. I'm grateful for his attempt nonetheless.

"Yeah though it's just part time on Fridays, you know Dabelle's on Madison Avenue?" I ask, putting my hands in the pockets of my hoodie. I don't know what else to do with them, I can't just let them hang there.

"Yeah, I've passed there a few times. You work there? Wow, isn't it packed all the time?" He exclaims in disbelief. It was beyond packed sometimes but I had grown used to the crowds.

"Yeah, it gets stuffy but you get used to it." I shrug, we finally deter from the group as Matthias leads me off the route to a scenic view of the beach. "Wow." I let out. It's breathtakingly beautiful, in the middle of the day the ocean ranges from all the shades of blue. Clouds fill the sky, there are tiny little gaps where you could see the sky and when you did, sunlight occupied it to shine a ray of light onto the sea.

"What, you've never seen this? Haven't you lived here all your life?" He laughs as he looks as equally amazed.

"How would you know?" I ask with my eyebrows raised as he shrugs and smiles, "you're right though, I have lived here all my life but I don't know, it's usually not in my plans to go out to sight see. I've been here but I just never paid attention never been on the boardwalk that much." I sigh as I realize that I don't make time for things like this. Things like this were taken for granted sometimes, it's nice to just appreciate the nature of things. "So what's your excuse?" I ask, I feel myself relax more as conversations go on. I could talk normally now.

"I happen to have just recently moved here." He smiles as he leans onto the fence and looks up at me. I feel the air escape me and my heart tightens in my chest. Am I sick? Do I have a cold?

We are practically inches away. I can almost feel his breath and I step aside a little, moving the conversation along. "With your soul mate?"

His eyes widen just a bit and his face changes but quickly reverts back to his usual demeanor. He shifts a little in his place and looks back at the sea in front of him "No," he shakes his head "I moved here with my parents to Farris and Clark, I met her and I just haven't moved in with her yet." He shrugs.

"Hey did you hear about the cats the other day? I heard there was a horde of them." He says, changing the subject. I shouldn't tell him, he'll start asking questions and everything.

"Yeah," I nod "what happened?" I just need to ask questions, he'll tell me.

"Nobody knows," he shrugs but goes on "though there are rumors." He smiles, pushing me to ask him what those rumors are.

"And what do tell, are those rumors?" I say as I smile, leaning my arms on the fence.

He leans in, stopping just a few inches away as he looks around to see if anyones listening in. I hold my breath as I stare at him, too close. "Outsiders." He whispers.

Outsiders? Not him too, did everyone think this?

A playful and jumpy music starts to fill the air and Matthias whisks his head around "ice cream? Come one." He quickly grabs my hand, making me gasp but he doesn't notice and pulls me along, leaving my thoughts of outsiders behind. As we stroll along towards the cart, I feel myself blush a little. Good thing he isn't looking at me. It's probably because I've never held a guys hand before, I'm just surprised. His hands are bigger than mine, he has a firm grip on me as we halt.

He doesn't let go and I bite my lip. I anxious look around at the people that surround me, what if they think that we're in Unnaturali Infirmitate?

My thoughts are broken by a simple question, "chocolate or vanilla?" he raises his eyebrows, waiting for a response.

"Uh, chocolate?" I say unsure as his eyes twinkle in amusement.

He nods, smiling and looks at the ice-cream man, "two chocolates." As he hands me the ice cream, I again touch his hand which makes me rethink of what just happened before.

"Thanks, how much was it?" I say as I start to dig through my pants pockets.

"No need, it's just a little change." He shakes his head and smiles as we walk towards the bench.

It was nice, relaxing, to have someone to talk to. I guess to actually talk to a guy without worrying. I'm glad that he's taken, if he wasn't then I couldn't hang out with him.

whew, finally a date???? XD