Make Me Stay

Chapter Two

A few weeks later, Atlantis has settled in and started taking classes in art at the local university, which is a few minutes walk from the hotel. The hotel staff know the young girl and they kind of have a idea that she, in a sense, lives there. Her nightly pay reduced by fifty dollars and she, as one could say, has made herself at home. If her parents were looking for her, they hadn't yet tracked her or locked the debit card that she has been using. Or they just don't care, that could be a very valid option as well.
She walks along the busy street at Corway, looking at her phone for directions to a small coffee shop that is said to have the best year-round peppermint mochas. Large crowds of people litter the side walk, and it makes sense seen as its nearly five in the after noon, a common time for people to get off work. She spots the small coffee shop at the end of the street, and once she arrived at it, she enters.
The first noticeable thing is the comfortable feel of the room. Sofas and chairs sit nestled throughout tables around the room. The ordering counter and kitchen sit at the back, the employees sitting with small smiles on their faces. Atlantis, being someone who doesn't like to waste time, goes right up to the counter and orders her peppermint mocha. The first sip is always the most important and the moment that felt like forever, was actually four seconds with a drop of hot liquid on her tongue. She smiles and begins to walk out of the shop when something catches her eye. A book in the hands of a man, one of which she had read numerous times before. She steadily walks over to the man who holds the book in his hands.
"1984 by George Orwell?" She questions, her head tilting to the side to get a better view of the mans face. He looks up, a smirk resting on his lips, as relatively familiar smirk.
"Yeah, it's pretty good, do you enjoy his work?" She blinks a couple of times and smiles.
"Yeah I do. He had quite the mind." The man that sits before her wears a suit that looks long too out of his era but that's no matter, it suits him none the less. His hair is long and is in need of a haircut. His face is unshaven and his eyes look at her with a golden curiosity.
"That he had.." He stands abruptly, taking his hand in hers and shaking it. The motion surprises the young girl, but she shakes his hand with comfort.
"My names Aaron Moore," his eyes are set firmly to her own and unmoving. Atlantis takes a deep, and nervous breath at the contact.
"Atlantis Porter." He releases her hand and tilts the hat upon his head, down at her.
"Have we met before, Aaron?" She questions, her hands now fiddling with the hem of her jacket. Aaron looks off into the distance and then back to her face.
"Might have, you been here long?" He takes a seat, gesturing for the girl to sit across from him. Atlantis complies, her hands running along the smooth surface of the table as she doesn't so.
"A few weeks, maybe." She rests chin on her hand, peering up at him through her long eyelashes.
"How old are you? If you don't mind me asking?" He takes a sip from his almost empty cup of coffee. The words seem awfully familiar on his tongue but Atlantis can't seem to picture where from.
"I'm nineteen. And you?" He coughs a little as though he's choking and looks at her with wide eyes.
"Twenty- four." She nods and, out of nerves for being in front of a much older man, checks her phone. The time reads four thirty, she has classes at five.
"Oh! I must be going." She exclaims as she shoves her phone in her jacket pocket. She stands up quickly and goes to walk out of the shop but he catches her wrist, keeping her back.
"At least let me give you my card so we can talk again." He places a small card in her hand and let's her go. She smiles at him before quickly rushing out of the door. Her hands fiddle with the small piece of cardboard in her hand and her heart beats fast. Had she just gotten the number of a man five years older than her? She hadn't even remembered speaking to a man that much older than her, other than her own father. To many, the ordeal wouldn't seem like much, but to her, it was something she hadn't experienced before. She rushes off to her evening class, a lesson in proportion, or as she likes to call it, a lesson in romantics. Atlantis' professor goes on and on each day about her love life, and about what the young adults should, and should not do while falling in love. Of course, many of the things she talks about are completely absurd and nothing the kids in the class would ever do. It's a professor thing, one of the boys in her class had said before. She shakes her head as the large glass doors of the art institute looms before her. Atlantis runs a hand through her already messy hair and continues through the doors, hoping she's not late. She nearly runs to her classroom and pushes open the doors.
Three hours later, she is covered in charcoal and has a mind full of love, or what's what her professor said it should be filled with. She treks back to her hotel, phone in hand. The hand in her other packet touches a sharp piece of paper and she pulls it out, recognizing it as the card the man, Aaron gave her earlier. She pulls up the dialling pad ok her phone and, with hesitation, dials the number written on the card. She presses the phone to her ear, listening to the steady rings.
"Hello?" A voice fills her ear, the same voice she had heard earlier that day.
"Hi," she clears her throat. "It's um, Atlantis, I met you earlier at the coffee shop. This is Aaron, right?" She heard a chuckle on the other end.
"Yes, you have the right person. I presume your out of class?" She smiles, even though he can't see it.
"Yes, and covered in charcoal at that." They both laugh.
"Say, Atlantis, we should get coffee sometime soon." She pauses as she crosses a street, her hotel in sight.
"Yes, yes. I would like that very much."

Woooooo she met Aaron! But where does she feel like she knows him from? Yeah that's all! Hope you all enjoyed!
Uneditedddd.