JAMIE POV
'COME ON, LETS SIT HERE, BY THE window!' Lila dragged me over the window seat, overviewing the whole of Maidenhead. 'Now, have you thought of names?'
'No, why? Was I meant to?' I furrowed my eyebrows in, pretending to be confused.
'Oh my God, yes! Okay, so I'm going to be Olivia and you can be..... Lauren!' She grinned. 'Got that?'
'Got that.' I nodded. 'Come on, I'm really craving a caramel latte!'
Pulling Lila up to the counter, we both ordered our favourites then the barista asked for names.
'Can I have your names please?' She asked, ready with her Sharpie to scribble down our "names".
'Peach!' Lila blurted, taking the barista by surprise. She tended to blurt out things when she was nervous, usually her favourite fruit, peaches.
'I'm sorry, what was that?' The barista asked, all bright and cheery again.
'Peach, and I'm Cherry.' I told her, squeezing Lila's hand under the counter.
'Right.' She said, stretching the word, looking dubious.
Once she walked away to make the drinks, Lila turned to me, her face as red as a cherry. 'I completely messed that up, I'm sorry. Now they'll think we're weirdos. Urgh, I just made a fool of myself, and you!'
'It's okay.' I reassured her. 'They already though I was a weirdo, we can just be weirdos together, now!'
'Thanks, you know, for being a fruit too.' She giggled.
'Yeah, it was kinda funny.' I laughed.
'Umm... a caramel latte for Cherry and a peach fruit cooler for umm.. Peach!' Another barista called out.
'That's us!' I declare, ignoring the weird looks I was getting from other customers. 'Come on, Peach, you do still want that peach cooler, don't you?'
Lila shot me a glare as I grabbed her hand and we walked up to the end of the counter to take our drinks.
'Thanks for publicly embarrassing me!' Lila muttered, sucking on the end of her straw.
'Well, hey, don't give me too much credit. I only did a small amount, you did most of it!' I winked.
'Anyway, it's not like I'll have to see their faces again.' Lila sighed.
'What's that supposed to mean?' I asked, genuinely confused. There wasn't much that I couldn't understand about my best friend, but this was sure one of those things. 'Your sounding like a nutter now, Li!' I rubbed her hair.
'Hey! Your messing it up!' She laughed, trying to play off the weirdness in her tone from before. 'Come on, let's take the window seat before anyone else gets it!'
The window seat was our seat, we never sat on any other one. Except from that time when we came and Kayleigh Aikard and her squad had taken it up, shooting us death glares any time we walked in a four meter radius. I would have gone over and challenged them, if it weren't for Lila's constant pleading not to.
But today, we were all safe. Kayleigh and any of her squad members were nowhere to be seen.
I liked it when Lila and I were the only ones from school here, it felt like our place, not a shared one. But as soon as Kayleigh's squad or any other school squads came, the idea immediately dissolved and it turned back into Maidenhead's local Starbucks.
As if reading my thoughts out loud, Lila smiled softly. 'I way prefer it with just the two of us here, it's just more peaceful and quiet.' This wasn't strictly true, there were still Mothers begging their children to order a drink quickly and adults arguing over which brand of news paper is more officiant. But they just faded into the background buzz.
'Me too. No Kayleigh Aikard in sight!' I grinned, looking out the window. 'Speak of the devil, literally, the devil!' Kayleigh was strutting down the street, holding three shopping bags, Jessica and Mavis on her side.
'Oh God!' Lila groaned, face planting into her hand.
'Oh, look, she's brought her two guard dogs. How nice!' I announced loudly, accurately timing the moment the three came in.
'Excuse me,' Kayleigh smiled, fake politely, placing her bags down by the wall. "Accidentally" kicking our bags over. 'Oh silly me! If you don't mind, but this is our seat, specialist reserved.'
Lila turned pale, tucking her legs into her. 'Actually we do mind!' I stepped up.
'I'm pretty sure being popular doesn't mean you get a free reserve pass!' Lila smirked, coming out of her tucked up ball. I was super surprised, and shocked. Definitely shocked.
'You can check with Sophie, Jessica's sister. She's up at the till. But right now, we're going to take the seats, since their rightfully ours.' She raised an eyebrow, signalling us to move.
'Starbucks doesn't do reserves.' Quipped Li. 'I'm sorry, but if you don't mind, we're busy and don't want to be disturbed by you or your pack hounds.'
'Maybe if you through a stick, your two dogs will follow it and take you to the perfect seat. But for now, we're done. Have fun, biach!' I smiled, dumping my finished latte in the bin, walking off with Lila.
'Oh my God! That was hilarious!' Lila laughed once we'd run out.
'Yeah, did you see her face?! I've just got this feeling, that next school year will be the year. And we'll take Kayleigh and her squad down for good!' I told her my theory, looking at her every reaction.
She didn't look so sure, but nodded anyway. 'I think so too.' She smiled, looking down.
'Come on, we need to go to that sleepover, just forget the sleeping part! I grabbed her hand.
And we ran off, running down the pavement, hoping to make a grand escape. One day.
