Down But Not Out

Chapter 15

Josh sighed when he'd finished drinking his coffee and I grinned up at him from doodling in the sketchpad that I'd shoved into my bag last night, just to have something to do. He smiled back.

"Honestly, how did you manage without me?" I asked him, referring to the fact that before I'd been here he was on his own, and had to close the shop just so that he could get coffee. Although Marie had brought him coffees every now and then.

"I really don't know. I can't imagine working here without you now, since things are so much easier for me" he replied and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Yeah I'm sure they're much easier for you" I replied before standing up- deciding to be brave and discard my jacket and bag- and walking into the employee's room to hang up my jacket in the cupboard where Josh and I usually stashed our stuff. For some reason though I placed my phone in my pocket- which I always do in case someone needs to get a hold of me- as well as my iPod, which I usually leave in my bag.

I ran a hand through my hair, before holding some strands between my fingers to see that the colour was washing out. I really needed to dye my hair again, and was thinking about going purple, or blue, or maybe even both this time around. I sighed before I heard voices coming from the shop. Frowning I glanced at my watch to see that it wasn't time to open up yet, so why were there voices in the shop? I knew that the voices belonged to Josh, but who else? I was sure it wasn't Marie. Well I wouldn't find out by standing around in here.

I walked back through the door and emerged behind the counter once again, to see that there were two guys standing next to Josh. They looked engrossed in their conversation. Rolling my eyes at them I returned to my stool to see that, luckily, Josh hadn't flicked through my sketchpad. It would be really awkward if he had. I continued sketching the piece that I was working on while I waited for Josh and his friends to finish their conversation.

"Lizzie where did you come from?" Josh asked and I looked up at him to see that he was looking at me. I saw his friends poke him and he slapped their hands away as they sniggered behind his back. Wow, some guys were just so childish. I smiled at Josh.

"Well if you're really that unsure I'll let you in on a secret. I was conceived when my parents-"

"Yeah, you know I didn't mean it in that way" Josh interrupted and I cocked my head at him. He shuck his head at me and I giggled.

"I saw that you were busy with your conversation so I just sat back down until you'd finished" I said, actually answering his question this time around. He smiled and nodded at me before I stood up, shutting my sketchpad as I did so and sliding it onto the shelf beneath the counter.

"So Josh, aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?" one of the guys asked and I heard that he had a similar accent to Josh.

I leaned against the counter, crossing my right leg over my left and looked over at the three guys. Josh was rubbing his jaw and I smiled at him before looking at his friends. Both of them were wearing sunglasses as well- what was with these people?- except one was wearing a blue beanie and the other wore a brownish coloured cap. The one standing on the left hand side- with the blue beanie- was slightly taller than the other. Josh sighed and I looked at him to see that he'd hung his head in his hands.

"Lizzie, these are my friends. This is Matthew" Josh said, gesturing to the guy on his left, "-and this is David" he said gesturing to the guy in the brownish cap on his right. I smiled and nodded at them. They smiled back.

"Guys this is Lizzie" Josh finished and David whistled before sending me a flirty grin. I smiled back, but looked at Josh to see that he was looking at David over his shoulder. I watched David's mouth move in response to something Josh had said, before Josh turned around, pushing his sunglasses back onto his face. Unfortunately I was too late to see what colour his eyes were. I felt slightly sad about that fact.