The Girl in the Corner (O2L Fanfic)

The beautiful aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the air, soft music was playing in the background – it was just one of those good days. Sydney Adam sat in the corner of a quiet Starbucks sipping on a warm mug of her favourite drink. Her blonde hair was swept into a ponytail; she wore a blue cardigan that fitted her well and she seemed comfortable cuddled up in the chair. Her eyes were focused on the screen of her laptop, whatever was playing on it seemed to make her smile. It was a genuine smile, one which contained a laughter that was about to erupt.

The morning has just begun with the morning rays of sunshine kissing his skin. He woke up early today to run some errands and he felt proud of his productivity. It was just one of those good days. Since he’s accomplished all the listed assignments, he decided to spoil himself with a little treat from Starbucks. He parked his car round the bend and turned off the engine. From the rearview mirror, he checked his appearance and combed his fingers through his hair. “Lookin’ good, Mr Caylen,” he said and let out a little laugh. Getting out of his car, he checked to see if it was locked then started walking down the sidewalk towards the ever so famous coffee shop. Chucking his keys into his pocket, he looked up and watched where he was walking. From the corner of his eye, he saw movements that caught his attention. It was something from the screen of a laptop; it was, his own face. Smiling to himself, he went closer to inspect the situation. It appears that a girl had a wide smile on her face as she watched the video from the rim of her coffee mug.

‘A Caylen cloud,’ he thought to himself.

Justin felt nervous all of a sudden, he wanted to surprise her. Hoping with all his heart that she wouldn’t look up when he came in, he tried his best to be discrete when he entered the shop. To his dismay, a bell was tied to the knob of the door and it tinkled when he opened the door. ‘Crap,’ he whispered as he kept his eyes on the blonde in the corner. It seemed like minutes passed (though it was only a few seconds) when he realized that it was safe and the volume on her headphones were probably too high for her to notice his presence. Stealthily, he walked over to the counter and greeted the cashier with wild fiery red hair.

“Hey,” he said to the cashier, “I’ll have a hot chocolate please. Thanks.” His eyes darted to where she sat; heart sinking a little when he thought she’d left. Confirming that she was still there, he looked back at the cashier, handed her the money and said, “Umm. Do you mind if I borrow your Sharpie?”

“Yeah, sure. Okay,” the cashier said as she handed him the black marker.

He smiled briefly and from the counter, he grabbed a piece of napkin and wrote:-

MIND IF I JOIN YOU? –JC

“Thanks,” he muttered as he handed the sharpie back to the cashier, “But uhh, I’m going to need another favour from you. Could you give this to the girl in the corner, the one with a laptop?”

The red head smiled cheekily with raised eyebrows. Without saying a word, she grabbed the napkin and went over to where Sydney sat. “Umm hi, excuse me?” she waved her hand trying to get Sydney’s attention. Realizing that the Starbucks employee was trying to catch her attention, she pulled out her headphones and inquired, “yeah?” “Some guy told me to give this to you,” the girl said chirpily, “between you and me, he’s pretty cute.” Sydney smiled sheepishly at the comment and took the napkin. Opening it, she began to read the words written clearly on them. As she realized what the content meant, the excitement and shock merged on her face; head bolted up to find the sender of the note.

She covered her mouth in shocked when her eyes caught sight of him. He waved with the most charming smile he could concoct. He loved this moment – watching the face of a fan light up and knowing how happy he could make them. Justin walked up to her table and greeted, “hey.” She had no words – the excitement keeping her mute. All she could do at the moment was to stand and accept his hug. Sydney had never expected this, to meet one of her inspirations like this. His embrace was warm and damn, he smelled really good. “Hi,” she finally said shakily, “I’m such a huge fan. You inspire me so much. I’m sorry but can I get a picture?” “Yeah, of course!” he replied, smiling at her reaction. She couldn’t help but notice how physically close he was to her. The blood rush up to her face where his cheek pressed into and she prayed in wouldn’t show on her complexion. “Thank you so much,” she said after the shutter sound and pushed a piece of non-existing stray hair away from her face. “Do you wanna sit?” she asked shyly hoping she didn’t sound too nervous. “Yeah sure,” he said and they took their seats.

For the next two hours, the two got to know each other. They talked and talked and ended up exchanging phone numbers. In those hours of conversation, Justin managed to gather that the girl he just met was an aspiring YouTuber. He learnt that his collab group has inspired her to initiate a group of her own – the group was called OverSeas due to the diversity in their group. This knowledge touched him as all he ever wanted in life was to inspire those who watched his videos to go after their dreams. And there she was, the product of his years of work.

She felt lucky. She felt an indescribable euphoria. Their conversation was smooth and two hours seemed to pass by too quickly. As they both caught a glimpse of the time, they came to the same conclusion that it was time to go their separate ways to complete the errands of the day. Sydney packed up her things as they exchanged goodbyes. Like a gentleman, he held the door open for her.

“So, I’ll see you around,” he said.

“Yeah, we have each other’s numbers anyway.”

They smiled and turned to walk away.

“Hey!” Justin called after her. “Maybe we should do a collab someday.”