Orchard

3

We walked down the hall and out the front doors of the school. One of the front office ladies gave us a look, but we ignored it. "How long do we have?" Demitri asked. "About an hour," I said "What do you want to do?" He pondered for a moment and then shrugged. "Get coffee? It is kind of early." I suggested. "Sounds great!" He replied with a huge grin. Orchard has one small coffee shop on the east side of the town, it's called Pierre's Cafe and it smells like a grandma. I swear the owner sprays perfume on the tables, the walls, and seats. The outside looks like just another rustic cottage with a little sign that says Pierre's on it that sways and creaks in the wind.

"How.. Dull." Demitri said as we approached the cafe. "Exactly," I replied. I looked up at him and found those dark blue eyes directly on mine. He darted his eyes away. "Shall we?" He said, opening the creaking door. We walked in together and there were 4 small tables, 2 of which were taken, one by a frail elderly couple softly speaking in French, and the other was taken by my mother. I wanted to die. I felt my stomach drop to my toes. She was looking directly at us and I wanted to turn and bolt out the door for my life. "Celeste?!" She gasped, "What the hell are you doing?!" Her eyes turned to Demitri, who had his arm around me. "Tu es un putain!" She hollered. The old couple gasped. Demitri held me firmly, he didn't know this woman was my mother and he wanted to protect me. "Mother, please I can explain!" I begged. She got up and faced Demitri, "Brûle en enfer!" She yelled as she pushed us out of the way and stormed out the door.

"Are we still getting coffee?" Demitri asked, taking a sigh of relief. "Hell yes we are, fuck her." I said angrily and sat down with a thump at the table she had been sitting at. The old woman next to us looked over at me and said "Is that your mother?" in French. "Oui," I said, nodding. "Why does everyone speak French here?" Demitri said in a bothered tone. Did he not know Orchard was a French town? I mean come on dude, every single teacher with a French last name? All the signs in English and French? "It's a French community..." I said laughing.

A nice young woman with bright green eyes and dark hair worn in a bun approached our table, "Hi, I'm Cindy can I get anything for you?" She asked with a smile. "Two coffees please," Demitri replied, glancing over at me. "Of course!" Cindy said and then hurriedly went to the back. My mind was brought back to Demitri's unique accent. "Hey, where are you from?" I asked. He smirked at me, "So you finally ask the new kid where he came from, took you all day didn't it?" He said laughing. "My family is from Moscow but I was born in NYC and I lived there up until now." He continued. I gasped and my mouth dropped, New York to Orchard?! Who in their right mind would do that! "New York?!" I said shocked. "Why did you move to Orchard on your last year of high school?" I questioned. Cindy arrived with our coffees. "Personal reasons." Is all he said, avoiding eye contact. He poured cream into his coffee and then offered it to me, "No, I like it black" I said. "Damn, these French girls sure are tough."

We finished our coffees and I couldn't stop thinking about how he had said he moved out here for "personal reasons" it kind of bothered me. I'm a curious person. We walked out of Pierre's and headed back towards the school. "Are you worried about your mother?" He asked, looking down at me. "Honestly, yes but I'll deal." I replied. He took my hand in his. I yanked it away, out of instinct. "I'm sorry..." He said, and then shoved his hands in his pockets. "No, no I didn't meant to it just ... just shocked me" I said. Why is he being like this? We had just met this morning. It confused me but I also liked it. Demitri was tall, and extremely attractive, and had beautiful eyes. Who wouldn't want that to touch you?

We walked in awkward silence back to school after he tried to hold my hand. When we got back, he shuffled his feet and said, "Help me find my next class?" and I nodded. He pulled out his schedule, 3rd period AP Government, Oh hey, I had that class! "We have the same class," I smiled at him. "Cool." He said abruptly. What the fuck is his problem now? "Demitri, I told you-"

"No Celeste this isn't about you it's about me being a fucking dumb ass and trying to hold your hand when we just met! I always screw everything up."

"Demitri! You didn't screw anything up!"

"Then how come we walked in silence all the way here? God you weren't even think-" He stopped and his eyes widened like he had blurted out a secret.

I was confused. Demitri was a pretty confusing guy to be honest. I grabbed his hand and said, "See? Now let's go to Government." I marched him to the class.