Dead End

CHAPTER 4

9th of September 2015

Bobby debated that this had to be the most uncomfortable he's ever been. He was sitting awkwardly on green, very worn, leather chair in a coffee shop. He was waiting for Thea to arrive, she was ten minutes late. Bobby wouldn't have cared normally, but because he was wearing a bright blue button up and he the coffee shop was 100 degrees even though outside it was raining, the heat was becoming a considerable problem.

The waitress brought his Belgian hot chocolate over while he was fanning himself with a napkin, which wasn't making him feel any better. "Thank you!" He said, with a wide grin like he wasn't unbearably hot.

The waitress shared a grin too and noticing Bobby's discomfort she responded 'Boiling in here right? Its worse when you're by the machines.' She pointed towards the steaming coffee machines surrounded by a group of baristas making autumn related drinks.

'I see what you mean, can feel the heat from here.' Bobby was red faced and sweaty, but what made him redder was seeing Thea walk through the doors, holding a soaked umbrella and with a face that had a tint of rosiness from the odd cold outside.

The rosiness faded instantly once she was inside, to Bobby's disappointment, and instead her face was replaced with one of confusion while looking for him. She found him after a while, in the back of the coffee shop surrounded by a fog of steam; Bobby's face lit up when she noticed him like someone being noticed by their idol; an excited grin. Thea walked past the busy counter and towards the identical green leather chair, while doing this, Bobby watched her every movement until she reached the table; he decided to stop then as it might seem a bit, too much. Thea took her big red scarf off that previously covered up her mouth, along with her vintage jacket and mustard looking woolly hat. She was wearing her famous (and favourite in Bobby's opinion) denim skirt, with a pair of thick woolly tights considering the weather, and a stripy colourful tight sweater. Her round glasses had fogged up because of the cloud of steam above them, and she had hair that was tatted because of the yellow hat she wore while outside and very little remained of the rosy cheeks that Bobby loved.

'Hey.' she responded coolly and Bobby's heart picked up pace. It was only one word, right? Apparently not to Bobby's increasing heart rate and now further flushed face.

'I just had the weirdest experience on the train.' she put an emphasis on the 'the' 'I was reading a book, Jane Eyre to be exact-'

Bobby interrupted 'You've read that book a thousand times!' He laughed and Thea pulled a face of serious, but Bobby nodded to tell her to carry on.

'Before I was interrupted, by an uneducated swine' she gave Bobby a stern look, that softened very shortly after, 'I was saying, I was on the train, and I look out the window, and there's this man, and he's holding a kebab; and I shit you not a bird just jumped onto his kebab, the guy doesn't even notice!' her face was filled with enthusiasm, and Bobby felt himself fall harder. 'He was too busy on his phone,' she made sure to add a tone of disgust when mentioning the phone; as though it was a leach. 'And then the bird takes a slab of the meat then just flaps his wings, and goes. And the guy? He doesn't even notice! And proceed to just carry on eating this damn kebab.'

She paused for breath, like this story was the most important thing to ever happen to her. Bobby took a sip of his drink and proceeded to crack a joke about the weather than caused Thea to let out a tiny giggle. The heat almost disappeared, or in other words was replaced with Thea's presence. It was a new kind of heat, one that caused Bobby to blush and squirm and have a overwhelming feeling of content embarrassment. It was was an unfamiliar feeling to Bobby, usually he would feel just plain old embarrassed, but with Thea he didn't care. He was an open book, spelling out words and jokes without even hesitating.

The conversation moved to school. Much to Bobby's dismay. But Thea was always an academic and whatever they talked about he still enjoyed it because talking to Thea wasn't - talking to Thea - it was something he valued, a lot.

'How's taking Chemistry?' Thea asked, and took a sip of her iced tea, which was a good

choice considering the still lingering heat.

'Stressful I guess, I mean its a-lot to take on work wise but I want to go into chemical engineering so I just have to bear with the stress.' He took a sip of his drink that was a big contrast to Thea's; boiling hot.

'Same, as much as I love English Lit, taking it as a full blown course is just burning me out.'

Thea had always been a book fanatic, when they were little any party that both Thea and Bobby would go to Thea would lug around books like a traveller carried around their tent, it was a necessity. While all the other kids would be playing, in Bobby's opinion, an awesome game; Thea would be inside, reading. She would find little nooks and crannies within each kids parents house and just sit and really focus, concentrate on, from Bobby's perspective, irrelevant boring words.

Bobby was never good at focusing. That's until he discovered Chemistry. He would spend hours in the library, parents office, anywhere that would supply his obsession with anything relating to Chemistry. Everyone around him had such a distaste to it, when people in his grade talked about it, their words would slip out like poison. Like Chemistry was such a negative thing, like it was some sort of burden. Bobby felt a complete different way. But for him it was English and Math, those god awful lessons that seemed to haunt his report cards with b's and c's. At one point in 10th grade he got a tutor, but because he didn't want to spend money on some narcissist college student looking for some extra cash, he asked his teacher if he knew of any other ways; which lead to Thea becoming his tutor.

In the first lesson, Bobby thought Thea was an English machine. She got everything so right, she could look at a simple sentence and somehow be able to pull out of her ass some metaphorical response of the writer's feelings which left Bobby speechless. In the same start lesson Bobby felt a lingering feeling of embarrassment when he got something wrong, like something was wrong with him. But by the fourth lesson, he could say something related to the writing; whether it was stupid response or an intelligent one she still encouraged him to be resilient and try again. His grades went up like a rocket, quickly and with a bang. He moved up a set and by the end of the year, he didn't need a tutor anymore. He was achieving A's, and as planned Thea stopped tutoring him.

The coffee shop was emptying now, what surrounded them was less steam and noise, but more quiet and secretive conversations.

'I forgot to mention!' Thea said suddenly 'I got asked out on date, a date of all things!'

She took another sip of her tea, like her comment was a minor thing for her but her excitement said otherwise.

For Bobby it was he was on fire, the hot was seeping through every aspect of him, his hair felt burnt and his heart felt scorched and his breathing felt scalded. He unbuttoned his top button, and pushed his formerly blonde, but now burnt, hair back.

He was trying to convince himself that this was a minor thing, and held no proper value. Bobby had to remember the seeping hot feeling was just him, and he couldn't let Thea know.

'That's great!' He responded, with one of his initially; goofy grin, but now unbearable smile. 'Who's the lucky guy?' Bobby laughed.

'Just some lacrosse player, that's all. And trust be Bobs' the nickname make his face light up. 'I am nineteen, I have got to have some romantic involvement in my life.' Bobby's face turned purple 'I mean dating people in middle school for a month doesn't count. Nor does going to high-school football games with awkward boys. I've got to start somewhere.' she paused Bobby felt like this was something he desperately didn't want to talk about.

'I think you're forgetting I'm a boy!' Bobby responded, way too quickly and desperately.

'Yes, you spork. I noticed that a long time ago' she responded with an sarcastic face 'But you're my best friend so you don't count.'

Ouch, Bobby thought. He felt like he was being dragged from hell and back all with a few words.