Integrity & Melancholy

Interesting

Chris looks bewildered at her friend, eyes wide with excitement for her best friend.

"He is?" She whisper yells. "That's the guy?"

Malli nod her head in response, just staring at that guy standing just right behind that window.

"Go! Go talk to him!" Chris ushers her friend from her seat.

Malli just shakes her head 'no', feeling very nervous suddenly.

"No shaking of your head, just go!" Chris smiles brightly.

"No, I - I can't. I'm sca-"

"Scared? I know you are but goddamn it what are the odds?!" Chris yells. "If you don't go there, I will and you know that in the end I will probably just scare him away. You know I will."

Chris crosses her arms in a persistive matter, staring her friend down. Malli looks at her friend for a short second, not ready to just jump out and act all confident.

Chris shrugs her shoulders and starts heading to the exit.

"Alright then, I'll go and-"

"No!" Malli yells, "I'll go. Okey? Happy?" Malli asks over her shoulder feeling anxious about her decision.

"Yes, very happy indeed." She hears Chris call after her while she walks out the door, onto the street and rounding a corner to see him still standing there. She takes a deep breath in, looking at the window of that pizzeria to see Chris with her face against the window just staring at Malli to continue.

Malli Takes a breath in, putting her shaking hands into her sweater, looking around before striding towards the mystery man.

As she stands right by him she mumbles out a quiet 'hi', but as the man reacts to nothing she takes a small step closer, uttering a more audible 'hello'.

The man looks up from his phone, those green eyes looking straight at Malli and suddenly her anxious feelings go away with the blink of her eyes.

In his eyes she could see that he recognized her and she fumbled in her head for something to say, whatever, anything... except for-

"Your eyes are really gorgeous." The second those words left her mouth her eyes widened in shock and she blushed at the embarrassment overcoming her.

The man looks at her astonished by her choice of words and a small smile spreads across his lips.

"I- I'm sorry, I didn't-" She takes a deep breath. "I meant to say 'hello', but I-"

"But you blurted out the next best thing?" His voice was so deep and soft, with a rough edge to it, like he just woke up. It was utterly mesmerising to Malli.

"Yeah." She mumbles out, just looking at the guy in front of her with big eyes and red cheeks.

"I'm Sebastian." He smiles at her, extending his hand for her to take. She looks at the hand in hesitation, before throwing her own into his, feeling warm spread from her hand into her arm up to her head, feeling lightheaded just looking at that gorgeous man by the name of Sebastian.

She keeps looking at his bright green eyes, him staring right back, hands still intertwined. After a few moments of awkward silence between them, Sebastian clears his throat.

"So do you have a name too?" He asks, his hand falling away from hers as he tucks them into his jean pockets.

"what, no... I mean yes!" Malli almost yells. "Malli, My name- I mean... I'm- I'm Malli." She stutters out and Sebastian grins down at her.

"So, Malli, did you follow me or am I just lucky you happened to see me here?" Hearing her name uttered from his lips send a shiver up Malli's spine but she shakes it off, letting out a small laugh.

"No, me and my friend were ordering pizza when I saw you standing here and I was kind of pushed out of there to come talk to you." Malli embarrassedly looks down at her black vans, and hears Sebastian laugh.

"Your friend doesn't happen to be that girl there does it?" He smiles, pointing up at the window that indeed, Chris was pushed flat against with a goofy grin on her face.

"Yeah, actually that's her. That's Chris." Malli bites back a laugh.

Sebastian lets out a small laugh, waving at the friend in the window.

"She's kind of special, but that's why I keep her around. Someone has to brighten the mood." Malli smiles at her friend before turning to the gorgeous man once again.

"Really? Must be nice." Sebastian looks down at her.

"Yeah, I mean surely you either have that friend or you are that friend, right?" She smiles up at him, feeling the words come easier now than they did before.

Sebastian scratches the back of his head, looking embarrassed into the empty space.

"Well not really, at least not yet. I somewhat just moved here and so far the only people I have talked to are my boss and... well, you." He smiles awkwardly.

"So you just moved here? What do you work with?" Malli puts her weight onto one leg, burying her hands into the soft pockets of her sweater.

"Ah, I'm kind of trying to get into law school and so far it's not quite working because I don't have enough money to pay for college and my apartment so I'm working as a cashier and tourguide kind of. For the same place."

"That sounds kind of interesting though. So you want to become a lawyer?" Malli asks.

"Well, it's what was expected of me from my family, either law school or med school and I don't really feel comfortable around troubled people with diseases or mental illnesses. I don't really know how to handle that stuff." In his eyes Malli could see a glimpse of a shadow covering the bright green.

"Well then you won't like me." Malli jokes, letting out a small laugh.

"Not? How come?" Sebastian rubs his chin lightly, looking down at Malli with a small grin.

"Oh, just this and that you know. Anxiety can be a bitch. But that's not interesting." Malli laughs nervously, looking down and running wild in her head, feeling his eyes just burning holes into her.

"I find you interesting." Sebastian counters and Malli looks up, looking for humor in his eyes but they seemed utterly honest. She blushes down at him, noticing a Taxi stopping right by them.

"That's my ride." Sebastian points to the yellow car and taking out his phone. "Maybe I could call you?" Handing her the phone Malli takes it hesitantly, typing in her number and giving it back to him.

"Okey." She whispers out, handing the phone back to him. He smiles, tucking the phone away in his pocket and opening the cab door, stepping one foot inside before turning his head in her direction again.

"And besides, about your comment that I won't like you, I can make out myself, who and what I like and not." He grins at her, closing the door as the cab drives out onto the busy street. Malli looks after him, her cheeks burning up and her heart racing in her chest.

She looks up at the pizzeria and Chris is just standing by the window, the biggest grin on her face, just looking down at her friend.

Malli laughs out loud at the sight, a few heads turning in her direction.

Noticing the stares she got for just starting to laugh out of nowhere, she abruptly stops, looking down at her feet and hiding her face, walking back towards the pizzeria that Chris was already waiting at, with both of their pizzas on the table, ready to be hungrily eaten.

Before Chris got the chance to bombard her with questions, Malli could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket and she took it out, a new text message lighting up her screen.

*

Hi, I hope that some of you starts to find a liking to this story, I would love to get feedback, so send me a message or leave a comment, maybe even vote?

Just one click after all.

Alright thanks!