Breaking the ice

I met a boy

A week has gone by and Nash and Kris have hung out more and more. Somedays at school but most times at a coffee shop or in a park. Kris loved the smell of coffee and Nash loved the outdoors. They talked about the future and school and friends, funny stories and memories. Most of Kris stories were when she was younger. Kris wouldn't say anything recent , or about her old school but Nash didn't mind. She wished she could tell him everything about her but she couldn't. Not once did Nash ask her name. Both tattoos were clean and healthy. Nash had gotten the Chinese symbols for loyalty, honesty and love, all three in a vertical line down his inner forearm .

Today , Nash and Kris sat in the school field , pitching ideas for the layout for their presentation. Nash had the laptop because he was better with computers while Kris was pitching ideas aloud and writing them down in a blue notebook against her knees. After the layout was finished, Nash closed his laptop and then packed up to walk home. Kris stood up and stretched out from being in the same position for so long. Nash asked if they wanted to pick up a snack and Kris was up for anything . She told him she just had to run back inside to her locker.

" I'll meet you in the front ." He replied.

Kris walked through the field then through the nearly empty parking lot with an old Ford F-150, two mini vans , a pt cruiser and a black Honda Accord . She turned around and saw Nash just faintly in the distance heading to the front of the school. She stopped when she recognized the plate on the Honda . AE7014F2. The same car who pulled its odd stunt last week walking home from Nash's house. The windows , she could see now were in fact tinted, the drivers face still invisible. Was the driver a student ? She adjusted her purse , as if some how it'd hide her. Now at her locker, Kris put the notebook on the locker shelf and shut the lock. Crazy scenarios and possibilities swarmed around her head . Questions and no answers.

What if texting Ashleigh was too risky? What if he found me ? Is someone following me?

The thoughts overwhelmed her and she knew she was just paranoid but the terrifying feeling wouldn't go away. No way it's him, Kris thought, That's not his car. Before she knew it , she was outside again standing in front of Nash. His handsome smile faded when he saw her.

" You okay ? You Look like you saw a ghost !" He said.

Kris weakly nodded . Nash knew if something was wrong with her, she'd never tell him. He wished she would. He wished she trusted him but something happend to her in the past that made her unable to trust anyone, to be secretive and hidden from everyone else and everyone hidden from her . Nash wondered if they'd ever be close enough to tell each other's secrets, their pasts. Kris was a code he couldn't crack . A door she kept locked. He would just have to let her unlock it for him.

At mochaberry , a cute rustic looking cafe downtown, Nash and Kris sat at a table in the back drinking coffee from white mugs. The cafe was always full of people but with their back booth in total isolation made Nash and Kris seem they were the only ones there. The barista took an older mans order then handed him his coffee. Soft jazz music played in the background. The same barista, a blonde girl in her twenties brought a plate over with Nash's Tuscan chicken panini over. Nash thanked her and she quietly walked away blushing. Probably because she'd just served a guy " hotter than the sun", as Casey described him. Nash didn't quite seem to realize just how beautiful he was . He took a bite of his panini and Kris studied the way he ate. Even that was perfection. Kris completely hated that she liked him . The way he talks and eats, his humor and charm. The way she was starting to feel about him, Nash felt the same way. It was terrifying only because love made her vulnerable. Anxiety rose in her chest and she took a shaky hand to her coffee cup. Nash eyed her worriedly as he chewed. Kris was reminded the last time she developed feelings for someone, how it ended up a disaster. And not just heart break disaster.Her breathes starting coming in heavier and heat burned her face.