Taken Away

Ditch

"I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't we have the power to choose." - Perks of Being a Wallflower 

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Hayden threw a towel in my face, momentarily blinding me. 

"Hey!" I yelped, pulling the towel of my face. 

"Now that was fun," Hayden mused, shaking water out of his hair like a dog. 

I smiled over at him as I wrapped the towel around my body. This was definitely worth ditching for: a day with Hayden.

We spent a further two hours in the sea, our fingers looked shrivelled like raisins, our skin was numb from the icy temperature of the ocean and we both had grins plastered across our faces. I was happy, I felt happier than I had been in months. I realized that when I was with Hayden, all my worries and troubles disappeared, as if they were never there in the first place. Spending time with Hayden forced me to forget about my mom, school and my aching stomach. 

"Are you coming or what?" I heard Hayden shout over from the car. 

Had I really been standing here, romanticizing for so long that I hadn't realized Hayden move back to the car? 

 "I’m coming!" I shouted back, jogging back up to the car.

I climbed into the car a released a lungful of air. Damn, that tired me out.

"Wanna go for pancakes?" 

My stomach growled, I hadn't eaten this morning. I hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon, actually. 

"Most definitely," I grinned. 

Hayden sent a knowing smile over to me. It was no secret that I loved pancakes, it didn't matter what way they were served. 

We pulled up into the parking lot of a quiet cafe five minutes later. Jumping out of the car, we both made our way to the entrance.

"After you, M'lady," Hayden said in a fake British accent, holding the door open for me. 

"Thank you, kind sir," I replied, doing a small curtsey. 

We made our way to a small table at the back of the cafe. After taking a seat, I looked around the cafe. There were red and white checked tiles covering the floor with white walls to match. Small pictures covered the walls of people that I assumed had been previous customers or family members of the owners.

My thoughts were interrupted by a small, dumpy waitress. 

"Here are your menus," she said in a strong Texan accent. "Can I get ya'll anything to drink?" 

"Two coffees, please." Hayden replied, not even looking up from the menu. 

I smiled up at the waitress, a feeble attempt of making up for Hayden's ignorance. 

"Well that was rude,"

"What was?" Hayden asked looking up from his menu. . 

"You're supposed to look at someone when they speak to you," 

Hayden laughed, as if he thought I was joking. My face told him I wasn't. 

"Fine, I'll be sure to make eye-contact when she comes back," he continued, still laughing. 

As if on cue, the waitress came back with our two coffees, with sachets of sugar and some milk. 

"Ready to order?" she inquired, after setting down our things.