Masks

Chapter 29

For you returned it to me,
The bright light of hope.

~~~

  "I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Quinn panted, just arriving to the park. "Let's go?"

  Violet nodded eagerly. "Yup!"

  The beginning of summer that year was definitely warmer than the last. Violet left the house wearing a baby blue t-shirt over a sleeveless white collared shirt, a navy blue skirt and black thigh high socks. She had abandoned her stockings when the weather had gotten warmer, but found herself wanting to keep her legs covered anyway.

  Quinn was simply wearing a white dress shirt and black jeans. Since it was warm, he rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. He was thankful of all the times Violet came over to help improve is sense of fashion at an attempt to help him find some hobbies.

  "So, where are we going today?" She asked. 

  "I told you it's a secret."

  "Still gonna play that game till the very end, huh?" She pouted.

"All I can say is, I did a great deal of research on this, so you'd better appreciate it." He demanded jokingly.

"You're okay with not going somewhere you want?" She asked.

"It's nearly the end of your stay." He reminded. "I can go around Scarlettview any time I want, but I admit I've never been to a lot of places in town anyway, including the one we're about to head to."

"Guess we'll both have to find out for ourselves." She smiled. "But I'm glad to hear you put thought into it."

  ~~~

  "You know me all too well."

  Quinn rubbed the back of his head. "I heard this place has a lot of different types of Chinese tea. I figured you might want to compare another flavor or order something you haven't tried yet."

  "You'd be surprised to know just how many flavors I've already gone through." Violet glanced over to the menu. "We'll see."

Even if chamomile, the shop's most popular tea, was the first on the list, Violet decided to try something new. It took her a bit longer to think, considering the store's very specific flavors, but she soon settled on one she never heard of before.

"What kind of tea did you order again?" Quinn asked.

"Yellow tea." She answered. "They seem to only have one type of yellow tea here, but I guess that's reasonable considering that it's quite rare. It was actually a bit more expensive than the other ones, but it's even more pricy in the cafe I usually go to back home, so I decided to give it a try. Which one did you order?"

"The Si—Xin—Xinya—ugh, the third one on the list of green tea." He said in defeat.

Her gaze returned to the menu, finding what he was trying to tell her before laughing. "I'm not even gonna try pronouncing that. How'd you even ask for it?"

"Green tea number 3."

She giggled. "Now that I think about it, I never knew there were so many varieties of green tea. I've only really tried two types."

"It honestly surprised me too." He agreed. "Although I'm not some tea expert like you are, so I only referred to all kinds of tea as, well, tea."

"Then maybe you can get into the habit of trying different tea flavors too." She suggested. "Like I've said before, it can be a huge stress reliever."