All Because of You

Chapter 3

It took me a long time to get myself up the next morning. My joints were slightly stiff and my head was foggy, but that's what happens when all of my regular crash sites are taken and I'm forced to sleep outside in the rain.

Shivering, I walked into a public bathroom, drying myself off the best that I could before heading off to my regular spot.

To my surprise, there was a small box sitting on the sidewalk when I got there. I knew leaving it alone was probably my best option, but curiosity got the best of me, and instead of walking away, I wandered over to the box and peered down at it. 'Troye', it said, in fancy, cursive handwriting. Surprised, I sat down and pulled the box into my lap, shaking it curiously. Finally, I peeled the box open and smiled when I realized what it was: a new string for my guitar. Maybe Connor's sweeter than I'm giving him credit for.

I tucked the guitar string down into my case and made a mental note to stop by the library at the end of the day to fix my guitar before settling down and beginning my day.

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"Did you get my package?" I looked up, surprised.

"What?" Connor smiled.

"The package I left you. Was it still here? I didn't know how else to get it to you, and I wasn't sure if I'd have time to spin by today." I smiled back at Connor as I reached into my guitar case to get the string.

"I got it. I'm gonna spin by the library later to put it on."

"Or I could just do it for you right now? I mean, I'm already here. Think of it as an 'I'm sorry for being so nosy yesterday' thing." I turned my head slightly so that Connor couldn't see me blushing as my smile grew.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay."

Connor sat down next to me and cautiously pulled my guitar into his lap. I watched, intrigued, as his hands flew gently over the strings, tweaking different things and replacing the broken string. In less than five minutes, my guitar was fixed.

"Wow. Thanks," I said as Connor handed me back my guitar, mentally slapping myself. Seriously, Troye? You couldn't come up with anything better than that?

"No problem," He said, smiling. "Can I buy you coffee or something? We've missed lunch, so..."

"You've already done so much for me, that's 100% not necessary. I won't allow it."

"Please? You seem like a cool person, someone who I want to get to know. Coffee's good at that." He looked at me with sad puppy dog eyes, and it was so cute that I couldn't say no.

"Fine," I relented, letting out a sigh. "But I swear I'm gonna pay you back for all of this one day."

"I'm sure you will," Connor reassured me as he pulled me to my feet and led me across the street to Starbucks.

I let Connor order first as I scoured the menu, trying to decide what I was going to get. It had been so long since I had had coffee that I wasn't really even sure what I would like any more. Sensing my hesitation, Connor jumped in and ordered for me, some iced latte thing that sounded good, but fairly basic. I frowned, nudging him slightly.

"I could've ordered for myself, you know."

"Yeah, but it would've taken you twenty years," he teased. "Besides, this is good, and I want you to try it." I huffed a sigh of defeat as I leaned against the counter, tapping my fingers gently on the countertop to the beat of the music softly playing from the speakers overhead.

Lost in thought, I jumped when Connor nudged me slightly to hand me my coffee.

"Oh! Sorry," I said, grabbing the cold glass from his hands and taking a long sip. I felt myself immediately melt into the creaminess and not-sweet-not-bitterness of the coffee. "Okay, fine, you were right. This is fantastic." Connor smiled, satisfied.

"I told you." Grabbing my hand, he led me out of the small cafe and started pulling me down the street.

"Where are we going?" I asked, trying not to laugh at how alike he was to a small puppy.

"The park! It's the only good place to drink coffee, plus it's a nice day out today, and I know there won't be, like, anyone there."

We walked down the street in a comfortable silence, both of us sipping our coffee and watching the world around us as life moved. For the first time in years, I felt like a regular person again, and the feeling amazed me.

The park that Connor led to me was very uncrowded, just like he said it would be. It helped that it wasn't a big park, more like a smaller, private one that somehow ended up becoming free for visitors. It was beautiful there; trees cast just the right amount of shade down on the paths, and flowers grew, scattered seemingly randomly throughout the park. All of the benches were wooden and made to seem older than they actually were. It added to the charm of the place, and I immediately fell in love.

"This is beautiful," I sighed, plopping down in the soft grass.

"Yeah," Connor agreed, sitting down across from me and closing his eyes as he lay back into the grass. "This is one of my favorite places to come. It's always peaceful here, plus it's a fantastic place to shoot some photos." We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, enjoying our coffee and the sunshine. Finally, Connor sat up and turned to face me and held out his hand. I stared at it, confused.

"Hi. I'm Connor Franta."

"Yeah. I already knew that." Using his other hand, he guided my hand up to shake his. "What are you doing?"

"I know a bit about you, but all you know about me is my name and that I can restring a guitar, which is totally unfair. So I'm being a gentleman and introducing myself properly." I giggled and sat back on my hands, watching Connor with an intrigued look on my face.

"So then tell me about yourself, Mr. Franta." A small smile appeared on Connors' face, and I could tell he was trying to hold back a laugh.

"Well, I'm a coffee addicted professional photographer with an obsession with artsy photos and apparently with helping random strangers on the side of the street when their guitars break."

"Ooohh, a professional photographer. How fancy!"

"Not as fancy as you may think," Connor said, the hint of a smile showing in his voice. "I mean, yeah sure, it's fancy, but they're not art photos or anything. I photograph fashion shows and do commissioned photos and things like that." I shrugged.

"Still sounds pretty fancy to me."

We sat and chatted for almost an hour, enjoying each others' company before Connor had to leave to go back to work. Thanking him profusely for the coffee, I started to give him a hug before I realized what I was doing. Carefully, I took a step back, making sure I wouldn't do something else stupid.

"See ya... See you," I said awkwardly, waving at him as he turned to leave.

"Bye, Troye. Have a good rest of your day!" Connor disappeared into the thin covering of trees.

As soon as he had disappeared, I let my arm fall down to my side as I collapsed against the ground. Stupid, I thought to myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid! You can't start falling for him, that's what got you into this whole mess in the first place! Shaking my head, I took a moment to just sit quietly in the park with no people or thoughts to distract me. I won't, I promised myself. But I've made it this far; there's no going back now.

With that thought in my head, I set off back to my job, convincing myself that this was the start of something new, that for once, my life would take a turn for the better.

A/N: 100 veiws? Thank you guys!! Sure, 100 isn't a ton to many people, but to me it's amazing that y'all would like this that much, and it made me hella happy to see. Sorry this chapter was a day late, but I hope you enjoyed nonetheless