Be My Eyes

31. Coffee Shop Window

Iona was lying beside Jake in his bed...well she supposed it was 'their' bed now. She had agreed to move in with him, it was what everyone wanted. She couldnt help wondering if it was all moving too quickly and if she were far too young to be settling down already...

She had been moved in for about 2 days and she found it incredibly odd referring to this place as her home but she was happy. She enjoyed coming home to Jake, and she was cooking a lot more, trying out new recipes. Most of the new recipe's she tried, werent greatly recieved or liked by Jake but she kept trying.

She slowly edged her way out of the bed, showering quickly in the attatched shower room.

Once her hair was shoved up in a bun she popped into the kitchen and began cooking up some pancakes.

"What is that lovely smell?" Came Jakes's voice 10 minute later as he appesred at the door of the bedroom. Iona had just finished her last pancake and popped it under the warm plate where the others were so they didnt go cold.

"Just in time, i made pancakes!" She beamed and Jake laughed pleasently, fiddling with his ruffled hair. "It looks fine! Now put a shirt on and come over here to eat your breakfast!" She said to the boy who was only wearing boxers.

He said nothing and went back into his room, returning seconds later with a blue top on.

Iona served up the pancakes, covering hers in maple syrup while Jake squirted his with whipped cream and decorated them with strawberry's.

They ate in comfortable silence and Jake washed up afterward. It was a Saturday so neither of them had work.

"So what do you want to do today?" Jake called from the kitchen as he washed up.

"I dont mind! We could go into town to get a new hover since yours makes the carpet dirtier!" Iona scoffed from the bedroom where she was dressing ptoperly, slight irritation in her voice as she had been bugging him about getting one for a while. His house was tidy but filthy.

"I cant be bothered!" He moaned.

"Jake i refuse to hover the entire house with that godforsaken mini hover!" Iona exclaimed, appearing from the bedroom wearing a loose shirt and black jeans.

Jake frowned and continued washing up the remaining dishes.

"Fine! I will go get a hover by myself!" Iona eventually ended up saying. She threw on a jacket and made her way outside. The house was quite far out of the town and Iona hadnt realised how much bigger the town was than she had first thought upon moving here.

As she trudged along the side of the road, the chilly breeze nipping at her cheeks and turning them pink, she realised how long she had lived there! The time had flown by and she suddenly felt very old! Like her youth had already been whipped away from her....even though she was barely a day over 20!

The streets grew louder and busier as she neared the town. Iona simply, shoved her hands further in her pockets and tried to stay out of peoples way.

She didnt really know where she was going to get a hover! Or what hover she wanted! This seemed all adult like and when she finally entered a shop she felt instantly overwhelmed.

The shop was huge! Shelves upon shelves lined with paints, housing things, technology of all kinds.

She slowly walked down each isle examining the shelves closely until she found the section for hovers. Feeling relieved that she hadnt come so far into the shop for nothing, she calmed down incredibly.

But then there was the choice of hover. It all seemed so mundane and simple yet for some reason she spent god knows how long just carefully looking at each one individually.

After what Iona found to be a long and stressful time in the shop sje eventually chose a considerably cheap one that looked better than Jake's current hover and she bought it.

She asked for it to be delivered to her house which was a lengthy ordeal im itself. It probably didnt take as long as it felt but by the time Iona had left the store she was knackered.

She didnt feel like walking all the way home and the wind had picked up, the warmth of the shop fading as soon as she stepped outside.

So Iona hurried to a coffee shop, ordered a hotchocolate and sat by the window, her legs drawn up to her chest as she watched the people on the street.

She realised how long it had been since she had just done something alone and it was the first time she had relaxed. She had been so focused on work and now that she had moved out of her dads house she had bills to pay and needed the money desperately.

She started to wish she hadnt decided to grow up so quickly and that her life wasnt passing in fast foward...but wasnt it too late to change that now. She was interrupted by the arrival of her hotchocolate.

The waiter was young, perhaps 15 and he looked even younger when he smiled. "thank you!" Iona said greatfully, taking the warm cup.

"You look thoughtful, i almost hesitated about disturbing you...then i remembered this is my job!" The boy said bashfully, with a friendly laugh.

"Yes, things get complicated when you get older...and i dont thinking have ever sounded older in my entire life i cannot believe i just said that!" Iona laughed, feeling idiotic at the whole business but the boy just smiled, almost sympathetically.

after while he left Iona to her brooding and she slumped against the chair, ignoring the chatter of the other customers around her.

She sent Jake a quick messege to let him know she had bought a hover. He didnt reply and Iona could imagine him sat at home either sat at his desk marking papers and doing research, or playing video games. When it came to Jake he had no inbetween! It was either work hard or play hard and Iona found it hard to get her head around his lifestyle sometimes.

She had been staring fixedly into space for several minutes, her mug of now cold hotchocolate, now lolling dully in her hand, when suddenly her eyes focused.

They focused on a single person stood outside the window, accross the road. They were a little distance away but Iona recognised them instantly.

Parker.