Chemistry - A Sander's Sides Fanfiction

- 27 -

This one's a long one! For anyone out there who lives in America, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving this past Thursday. If you didn't celebrate it, then I hope you had a good week anyway.

Please enjoy!

After ten or so more minutes with Reina, five minutes of putting her away, and a good amount of walking, Patton found himself sitting in a small coffee shop called Collatina's Coffee. It was a cute place -- fairly new, for he had never been there -- with a covered patio and large front glass walls that led into a deep-set, high-ceilinged cafe, painted golden-yellow and filled with black and wooden furniture, hanging lights, and a few dark couches.

Patton was waiting for Andrew, who stood at the counter ordering coffees for the two of them. Patton was interested in the blond boy, who looked Patton's age but was ultimately unfamiliar -- especially because of how willing he was to buy Patton something to drink despite not knowing him. Not many people like that left in the world, Patton noted.

Andrew soon returned to their seat on the patio with drinks in hand. He wore a gray sweater, with a sort of braided, knit texture, and a black and white checkered scarf. His corduroy pants were a dark rusty red and his leather shoes were a dark chocolate brown. He was much more stylishly dressed than Patton, who merely wore a bluish-turquoise button-up with long sleeves for the chill and his khakis.

Andrew gave him a smile and sat down, pausing for a moment -- likely to look for something to begin the conversation with. "So Patton," he began, "are you still in school?"

Patton nodded, for he enjoyed small talk. "Yep!" he replied. "I haven't graduated quite yet. I go to Sidebay High."

Andrew nodded politely and took a sip of whatever steaming latte he had gotten. "What a coincidence." He smiled, though he said it like he had already known -- which made a lot of sense, considering that Sidebay only had one high school. "You know, I went there for a little while last year."

"Really?" Patton frowned, wondering why he had never seen Andrew before. He was sure he didn't recognize him and it was strange to Patton that he'd never seen last year's new student; Sidebay was so small he should've been hard to miss.

"Yeah," Andrew said, smiling lightly as if remembering something pleasant. "Just for the last quarter. I stayed here over summer with my dad until spending this year's first quarter in London."

"London?" Patton asked, intrigued. "Are you in college or something?"

Andrew laughed. "No, no. I'm a senior this year. My mom found me this opportunity to go abroad with an exchange program for a quarter. It was super cool."

"I'll bet." Patton was sort of awed, wishing he'd found an exchange program. Even though London wasn't the most exotic place, it still would have been super fun to spend a couple of months in another country. "What were you doing over there?"

"I was just taking classes and stuff -- basically the ones I'm signed up for this year -- but I was in England." Andrew smiled with his eyebrows raised, seemingly in shock as well by the fact that he was able to travel to London, of all things, for part of his senior year.

Patton nodded. "Wow! That must have been awesome. But you're back at Sidebay this year then?"

"Yep," Andrew confirmed, nodding. "It'll be nice to see all the people I became friends with last year." His eyes got a little foggy as he most likely remembered faces and names that he'd forgotten since summer. His carefree facial expression faltered for an instant -- so infinitesimal that Patton nearly thought he'd imagined it.