Daydream Away #SContest2016

01

"In room full of art, I'd still stare at you." —unknown.

It all started with some spilled coffee and torn photographs.

A few summers ago, on a Saturday afternoon when the place was bustling with usual rush of the impatient customers, waiting to be served in the race for not last. You could hear the constant hollers of the cook—Fred, combined with loud chatters and the bell chiming in every few seconds.

It was a typical morning for Joey's. The place was known to be a second home to all who lived nearby, from the senior citizens that always ordered the same, to the loud teenagers with their caffeine addiction, the funny families that came on weekends to make memories and to share, or the infamous loners that sat alone and watched the crashing waves as time ticked by. It didn't matter. It was home to all.

But to anyone working there, it would merely be an headache, a tiring task after a few shifts, maybe even a one time thing. Although Natalie Carter got thrill out of it. Something in the art of loosing to find yourself with others, always gave her an unusual serenity and contentment. Something, she couldn't describe even if someone put the dictionary in front of her.

Maybe, because she never got the time to think about all venom her mind exhaled. It was better kill the mind, before it poisoned the rest of the soul.

And the diner did the job. It had been home to Natalie, like it was to any other. Well, at least for the last two weeks she had been spent there, and she really felt like it. Working at her aunt's diner did help her mind seek refuge and temporary sanity, but memories that would be enough for a lifetime.

Everything about coming here screamed welcome and caught her in a warm embrace. Natalie didn't knew the place would give her a much needed break from the cutting memories and vivid feel of the malice break up, she had been enduring for a month—heck, she didn't even imagine she'd be able to forget about it for a split second. But then here she was letting herself loose, talking and laughing and grinning all the time at the repeated jokes, the old guy Larry cracked every now and then.

Well, expect for a few times when the mind went to the dark places and smiles became hard and laughs came forced.

You couldn't really blame her. One cannot simply forget something or someone so easily, especially when your mind keeps haunting with the unchangeable memories and unanswerable questions of what could have been. But Natalie was grateful, she hadn't expected that when her mom told about her aunt's request, she was more than ready to help. Although she didn't know the favor was to get reciprocated.

But a rush of adrenaline like Natalie Carter couldn't be tamed by a measly break up. With laughter that could shake the whole world, wide green eyes that saw things from better perspective and the type of grin that showed the world she wasn't ever going to succumb. She wasn't ever going down without putting up a darn good fight. She was fighter, absolutely unstoppable, invincible and powerful. All she needed was someone to make her realize that.

Someone who happened to be seated at the far corner to the left, wrinkled shirt and unruly mop of brown hair falling on his tired ocean  orbs that were always ready to seize the moment.

He pushed the rim was his thick black glasses up his nose and sighed, surrounded by heaps and heads of Polaroid and camera rolls as his photographic gaze zoomed in and out around the diner, unsettling as he searched for something worth capturing, but nothing seemed to satisfy him today.