Waves

Waves: Chapter 11

We walked the 10 minute walk to town and saw the decorations everywhere. I watched Aleah as she stared in awe. She spun in a circle smiling at all of the Christmas lights.

"It's so beautiful here" she stated. I looked around, happy to be around such a beautiful place with a beautiful girl. There wasn't any snow, sadly, but it was still beautiful. I saw the ice skating rink and looked at the time. 5:35 pm. I figured we'd get something to eat first.

"Hey, are you hungry?" She looked at me.

"Yes, are we getting food?" She asked. I smiled and nodded.

"Yes!" She raised her arms in victory. I laughed. We walked up to a small diner close to the rink and I opened the door for Aleah.

"Aw Max! What a gentleman" she said, smiling. I just laughed. We walked up to the counter. Aleah told me what she wanted and went to go find a booth.

"And would that be all?" The young looking guy asked me. I thought for a minute.

"Two hot chocolates please" he clicked a few buttons before looking at me.

"That's $10.82" I handed him a $20. He picked out my change, then something clicked inside of me. He closed the drawer.

"$9.18 is your cha-"

"Keep the change" he looked at me with wide eyes.

"Are you sure?" I nodded.

"Yeah" I smiled.

"Thank you so much"

"No problem" I smiled and walked away. I turned back to see him telling all of his co-workers. I turned forward to look for Aleah. I found her sitting at the far end of the cafe looking out the window. I sat down next to her and looked out the window as well.

"I want it to snow" she said, then turned to face me.

"Me too" I replied.

"I remember when I was younger, me and my parents would always play in the snow" I said, smiling at the memory. Aleah smiled softly.

"I bet it's hard" I looked at her with confusion etched on my face.

"Loosing your parents at a young age" she looked into my eyes. I looked down.

"Yeah"

"It is" she put her hand on my knee.

"I didn't mean to reopen an old wound" she frowned.

"It's fine. My aunt said that I'd feel better if I talked about it" I looked up at her and faked a smile. She believed me.

"Ok" after that came silence. After a moment Aleah's eyes lit up. I turned and saw that the guy was bringing us our hot chocolate. The cashier handed Aleah her hot cocoa first, then me. I thanked him as another waitress brought our food. Me and Aleah talked and laughed while we enjoyed our food. After I had finished, I saw that Aleah was still not done.

"So I was wondering if you would let me have a bite of your cinnamon roll" I said to her. She gave me a look while sipping her cup. I chuckled but she obliged.

"Fine" I smiled and tore off a piece.

"That was a really big piece" she said. I looked at her and noticed that she had a chocolate mustache. I tried to hold in my laughter.

"Do I have a mustache?" She asked and I burst out laughing. I nodded and she grabbed a napkin to wipe it off.

"Can I please take a picture?" I asked. She rolled her eyes playfully, but nodded, putting the napkin down. I quickly snapped a picture and posted it. She smiled and finished her food.

"Are you ready?" I asked. She nodded and stood up after me, throwing our trash away. We walked out the door and to the ice skating rink.

'Hopefully this ends well'