Howl

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The sun shone brightly, although just two minutes ago, it had been overcast. And perhaps in another five minutes, another heavy layer of clouds would cover the sun again. Or perhaps it would rain. Emma liked the rain, and as far as she was concerned, there was never enough. Thoughts like that made her almost want to move somewhere like Seattle, but she knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon. She liked Denver too much, even with the lack of rain.

Having nothing better to do between classes, Emma wandered around downtown Denver. She still had two hours to kill before her last class for the day. She had always thought her last year of college would keep her busy enough that she wouldn't resort to wandering down the 16th Street Mall. It was the first week, and she certainly hoped things would pick up soon.

Since she was a child, Emma had always known she needed to pay more attention to where she was going when she walked, but whenever she walked, she couldn't help but to let her mind wander. No matter how many people she accidentally ran into or how many times she'd almost been hit by the mall bus or even actually getting hit by vehicles, she could never force herself to pay attention for longer than a minute. Her mind always inevitably wandered off again.

Her body made contact with something hard, and the sound of ice and liquid falling on the ground let her know it was a person and not a wall she'd ran into. "I'm so sorry," she quickly apologized as she picked the now empty Starbucks cup from the ground. "I'll buy you a new drink."

"That's not necessary," Lukas said. "I should have paid more attention to where I was going." Having lived in such a small town for so long, he felt a bit overwhelmed by the city and had been looking all around him, except for right in front of him.

"Trust me; I'm the one who needs to pay more attention. This happens. A lot. What were you drinking?" She looked at the side of the cup to read the scribbles that identified the drink.

"It's no big deal, really. Besides, the place I got it was about a half mile back that way." He pointed back in the direction he had been coming from.

"Dude." Emma couldn't believe what she heard come from his mouth and stared at him like he was some sort of alien. "There's a Starbucks about every five feet. There is one right across the street from us right now. And I'm replacing the drink. Now let's go."

Lukas looked to the other side of the street, and sure enough, there was a Starbucks. He should have known that the distance was a lame excuse. Even though the closest Starbucks to his apartment was a good twenty minute drive, he was still aware that in most places that warranted a dot on a map, there were tons of the coffee shops. Before he could make any more protests - preferably a more logical one - Emma had taken him by the arm and was pulling him across the street.

"Where are you from?" Emma asked after ordering and paying for the drink.

"Is it that obvious?" Lukas asked. He had tried to blend in, even while looking all around his surroundings. 

"Uh, yeah. You acted like there was only one Starbucks in the entire city. So I figured you must be from Kansas or something."

"California, actually."

"Ew. Please tell me you're only visiting. I'm sick of all you Californians coming here and driving badly all over our streets. Then again, maybe you are from a better part of California. The part that doesn't have any Starbucks."

"You make it sound so terrible. I'm either a bad driver or from the middle of nowhere." The second was pretty much true, although the first was a matter of opinion. "But yeah, it is a pretty small town. I'm sure you've never heard of it."

"If it doesn't have a professional sports team, I haven't." That wasn't entirely true, but having never been to that state and having no desire to go, she couldn't name many cities unless she had seen one of their sports teams.

"There's one high school football team," Lukas said with a shrug. He took his drink from the counter and took a sip. Despite his insistence that there was no need to replace the spilled beverage, he was glad to have something cold to drink. It was too damn hot out.

"Thanks for this," he said, lifting the cup up a bit.

"No problem. If I'm going to go around crashing into people, it's the least I can do."

"I'm Lukas, by the way." He shifted his drink to his left hand so he could hold his right hand out to her.

"Uh, I'm Emma," she said, almost muttering as she shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you Emma. I'm going to be in town for a few days. Maybe I could get your number and we could go do something before I head back." He was a bit surprised at his words. He hadn't planned on asking her out. She was attractive but he had came to Colorado to break all ties he had in the state, not make new ones.

"I'd rather not," she said quietly, looking at the floor.

"How about I give you my number in case you change your mind?" He suggested, while silently berating himself for pushing the issue. He'd been rejected plenty of times in the past, and every other time, he'd been smart enough to just shrug it off and carry on.

"Look, I replaced your drink because I spilled it, so don't go reading into that. I'm sure you're a nice guy and all, but I'm really not interested, and even if I was, I simply don't have the time. Speaking of which, I need to get to class." That was a total lie as she still had over an hour and half before her class started, but it seemed like a good excuse to get him to leave her alone.

"Is this because I'm from California?" he asked as he followed her out of the Starbucks. He could tell she had a fairly strong dislike for California, and wondered if that was the reason for her rejection. "If it is, I'm not from there originally. I've only been there three years. And even if you hate every other place I've lived, I am originally from here, you know."

"It's not about where you're from." Partial lie - if he hadn't mentioned being from California, she might have considered the offer, assuming he wasn't from some place equally as bad, like Texas or Florida. Even then, the fact remained that she simply wasn't interested in him and she did plan on not having much time once she got into the semester. "Can't you just drop it?"

"Sorry," he apologized, a bit ashamed of how he had acted. He knew better than to continuously bother people over little things, but for some reason, he had trouble accepting her rejection.

"Damn straight, you are," she said angrily before storming off towards campus. Once she was certain she was out of his sight, she slowed her pace down. She was only ten minutes away from the campus, and she wanted to take as much time as possible getting there.

The only good point to the encounter with the annoying Californian was the fact that she was irritated enough by him that her mind was focused on angry thoughts and didn't wander, which meant she made it back to campus without any accidents or even near accidents.