This was the last thing I'd expected.
I had left the house crying, tears of anger, sadness, and frustration running down my face. Instead of taking the elevator, I ran down five flights of stairs and almost tripping over myself a few times, because taking the elevator would mean potentially dealing with neighbours asking me what the matter is and that wasn't the discussion I wanted to have. I finally arrived at the main door of the building. As I was rushing out the door, I saw Anna, a girl in my math class who was also my next door neighbour, coming in, so I turned my face and hid behind my hair.
It was cold out. It had just started raining hard and it was getting late. I didn't care though; I pulled my sweater tighter around myself and continued to walk towards a narrow alley behind the apartment complex, crying harder the farther I got from it.
I didn't really know why I was so upset. There was just so much going on; you can almost say I was overwhelmed. I was feeling as if my life was falling apart. I didn't know who I was, or who I wanted to be. The people I was hanging out around were all starting to act different, doing things I wouldn't want to be doing, saying things I didn't think were right. I didn't know if I wanted them around anymore, but I didn't know how to say it to them either. Oh, and there was also my family. They were always arguing with each other, and with me, and with others. They didn't know what was going on in my life, and probably didn't want to either. I stayed away from them as much as possible because I didn't want to be part of the arguments, but they'd get mad about that as well.
I suddenly regretted going through the alley. Though it provided me some shelter from the rain (which was now frozen), the alley reeked of lingering cigarette smoke and God knows what else. It was absolutely disgusting. The pavement was starting to become slippery. Great! I'd forgotten it was winter when I'd grabbed nothing but a $20 bill and my beat up Adidas, so I was soaked, cold and trying not to slip.
I finally arrived at a road. It was familiar. I kept walking for about another kilometer before I realized I'd come up to the café down the block to hang out with my so-called friends, and sometimes just alone to do my homework. I decided to go see if it was still open. My face felt puffy, my eyes were now dry of tears and I had an awful headache. I was shaking violently due to the coldness of winter.
I saw light coming from inside as I approached the building. When I arrived at the door, I saw a boy cleaning the top of the table. Two girls were sitting at the adjacent table chatting and laughing. I tried to pull the door open but I discovered it was locked. I turned to leave. Moments later, I heard a voice.
"Excuse me," it said. It was the guy who'd been cleaning the table top. There's no one else here, he's probably talking to me, I thought as I stopped. "You can come in. We're still open."
I stayed where I was. The boy's voice sounded very known to me... Almost like Liam's, I thought. I rolled my eyes at myself; I didn't need to be thinking about him right now. I found myself walking towards the café again. I pulled the door open and walked inside. There was a faint scent of coffee that filled the room, a slow pop song was playing in the background.
I hid my face behind my wet hair as I walked past the two girls as I made my way to the washroom to make myself look at least presentable. I locked the door behind me. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. Just as I'd thought, I was a mess; my eyes were puffy and bloodshot, my face was blotchy, mascara was running down my face. I turned on the tap and splashed cool water on my face. It took a while to wash away the black streaks of makeup. When I finished, there was a knock on the door.
"Your clothes must be soaked. I have some you can borrow for the night," a girl's voice said.
"No thanks, I'll be fine..." I say but she cuts me off.
"No you won't you'll catch a cold." I didn't have the energy to argue, so I opened the door just enough to stick my hand through and the girl handed me a hoodie, sweatpants and a pair of socks.
"Thank you so much," I say and shut the door as I wonder why she even had so many clothes with her. I changed and dried my hair under the hand dryer and I began to feel warmer. I put my hair in a bun, picked up my wet clothes and opened the door.
"Kelsey," someone says. I turned to look for whoever had said my name. My jaw dropped when I looked over at the table the girls were sitting at; the two girls were no other than Anna, who was waving me over, and Daniella, one of my closest friends.
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"I saw you leaving so I called up Dani who told me it was likely of you to come here, so I picked her up and we came right away," Anna replied. The same guy who had been cleaning up the café walked towards us with a drink holder and set it down on the table.
"Two cappuccinos; one regular and one iced... you know Anna, you really shouldn't be drinking this, its so cold! And one hot chocolate," he said. I looked up at him.
"Liam," I gasped.
"Oh, hey there, Kelsey!" He smiled and made me blush. "I'll be right back ladies, I just need to clean up in the back."
"When we got here, Liam was cleaning this place up since they were about to close. But because we're friends he decided to keep it open just for us. His family owns this place, you know?" Anna explained as she slid the cappuccino over to me. "That's for you by the way."
"Thank you so much, you guys!" I say. I was so grateful for them. I hugged them both. For the next hour, we just hung out, talking and laughing, and after a while Liam joined us. Suddenly, Daniella got a call from her parents telling her she needs to be home.
"I'm sorry guys, we should hang out again soon!" she said.
"Daniella, don't go alone, it's super late. I'll drop you home," Anna insisted. "I'll drive you guys too,"
"No, it's alright I'll manage. Thanks for everything though, honey,"I said.
"I'm fine, I drove here. And don't worry about Kelsey, I'll drop her home," Liam said. The thought of it set butterflies off in my stomach. I smiled at him. Anna and Daniella said their goodbyes and walked out of the building. I get up to leave as well. "Hold on, I'll grab my stuff from the back room and I'll be with you." He comes back after a minute with his jacket which he hands to me. "Put this on."
"No I'll be fine," I protested, but he wasn't having it, so I put it around myself. "Thank you."
He turned off the lights of the café. He then took my hand and led me outside to his blue Honda Civic. I was blushing so hard. We drove in a comfortable silence after I gave him directions to the apartment complex. After what felt like a long time even though it had been only ten minutes, he pulled over in front of my building.
"Thanks so much, Liam," I said before reaching out to open the door, but he stopped me from doing so when he touched my hand. I turned to look at him. There was a twinkle in his hazel eyes.
"Kelsey, I've always wanted to tell you that I've had a thing for you for a long time and I was wondering if you'd want to hang out maybe this weekend, like as a date, to the movies or someting," he asked, running his hand through his hair.
"I'd love to!" I grinned. His hand moved up to touch my face. He kissed me.
"Good night, Kelsey," he said.
"Good night, Liam," I replied as I opened the door and stepped out of the car. "See you soon!" I shut the door and walked towards the building. This was not how I'd expected the night to end at all.
