"...and he smells sooooooooooo good just like....," I paused as a wave of Sean's cologne hit me. I was in the Starbucks of Barnes&Noble with friends from my Freshman and Sophomore year. We'd still been really close after I'd gone to boarding school and consequently college.
"...just like that," I frowned. They all looked at me confused. "I swear, that's the cologne he wears. Isn't that super weird?" I questioned as I looked around.
"Hey y'all look who's here!" screeched Crystal in a soft southern accent, looking to her left She was black, very Christian, and extremely innocent. Her innocence had begun to grace Yale's halls earlier this year. Unsurprisingly enough, she'd been the center of attention during the Lucas years. She was the one with the biggest crush on him.
We all looked up, and my eyes widened. Standing in front of me was Lucas, my ex-best friend, and three guys who had also gone to my school. Talk about awkward.
Aarti was a competetive and manipulative person who thought she was queen of the world. Every year she had picked a new best friend and she ALWAYS hit on guys that her friends liked. She carried herself with an air of sarcastic superiority and lacked any sort of moral compass though she constantly focused on feelings. By definition she was a hypocrite, something all of us had agreed on. The year I'd transferred into the prep school, she'd decided I'd be the one. Eventually she had turned against me because the guy she had liked liked me. Old grudges can last a long time.
Finding her with Lucas and the other guys (WoW nerds who were nice people though slightly arrogant and somewhat socially inept) was definitely not a pleasant surprised. Aarti smiled at everyone, and her smile wilted and turned somewhat malicious when it reached me.
"Lucas just HAD to have some coffee," she said. Lucas shrugged, "I don't know. I just kind of wanted to come to the cafe. Everyone was up for it." Aarti shot a glance at him, "Yeah....we were. But then we decided we didn't want coffee," she said looking at me, "but he insisted." She shrugged. Talk about awkward. Crystal cleared the tension, "Yeah, so I'm glad you did!" She stood up and hugged Aarti. This began a hugging sessino during whichI stood a little awkwardly to the side and shook hands with the WoW guys, staying away from Aarti and Luke on purpose
I finally risked a glance at Lucas during this exchange. Shockingly enough, he was looking at me with a puzzled expression in his molten eyes. It looked as if he were solving a riddle, and suddenly as we shared a glance, his eyes flared as if he'd realized something. I quickly looked away and took a sip of my coffee.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Avoiding Lucas was unusually hard. He had changed from his highschool days as a quiet boy who let people come to him into a man of persistence and pursuit. Though he let everyone else come to him, he attempted to get me alone to speak to me. We had decided to walk around the small Italian-themed shopping centre accross from our old school and near most of our houses. We were window-shopping "just like old times." When everyone else was talking about something I was uninterested in, he'd drop back and try to speak to me. Most people didn't notice because Lucas had always been somewhat disjoint from the group (which he didn't join until I left). It didn't help that the only person who noticed was Aarti. So of course, she'd drop back and completely ignore me while generating conversation with Lucas.
He finally cornered me when everyone had gone into Anthropologie and the girls and guys were all hurrying around finding clothes for eachother. I'd decided to opt out and went to the Sales section to find some cute sweaters to take back to college. The sales section was a separate room in a back corner of the store with a small door entrance. I guess at stores where everything cost more than 100 bucks while being insanely cute, they had to shield their sales clothes. Lucas, of course, found me a few minutes later despite the size of the store. It was like we had a magnetic attraction, or that was what i thought.
YOU ARE READING
A Little Coffee, a Little Love, and a Lot of Work
RomanceLena likes to think that she has experienced every aspect of life. She's lived in the country and the city. She's been friends with people on all parts of the political and life spectrum. She has been to different high schools with different kind...
