Outcast

6 -Cafe

Bella and I walk into a small, and almost empty cafe. There are lots of windows covering every wall, the walls are a faint tan color, and the brownish menus are hung up.
We walk up to a young girl wearing an apron.

"Hello! Welcome to the Artsy Cafe! How can I help you today?" She says in a cheery tone.

I glance up at the menu and look over the frappes.

Vanilla bean, definitely.

"I'll please take a large vanilla bean frappe," I say anxiously.

"And I'll have a double chocolate chip mocha frappe," Bella says.

"Alright! I'll have those orders out in just a couple minutes," the worker states.

We walk over to a two-chaired table by a window and sit down.

"What if somebody sees us through the windows?" I ask Bella.

"Who cares at this point. There's not much left we can lose," Bella says, smiling a bit.

"Heh, yeah, I guess you're right," I say looking down.

We sit in awkward silence, with Bella staring out the window at the cars going by, and me looking at the decor of the cafe. There's paintings, and potted plants hanging from the walls. There's a few other people in the cafe, but I can tell this place never got much business. I never see more than five cars here, and that includes the workers.

"Frappes for Jamie!" I hear a voice yell.

I walk up to the counter and grab the drinks. I walk over to the table, where Bella is still staring out the window.
I set her frappe in front of her.

"Hey, uh, what's wrong?" I ask.

How does this 'friend' stuff work? I have no idea.

"Nothing, it's fine," she says, taking a sip.

"You seem really quite ever sense we came in."

"It's just..what are we gonna do for the rest of the year? It's obvious they heard me talking in the hallway, but if they didn't hear you, I don't wanna drag you down with me," she says.

I'm silent for a second.

"Bella, I can't go much deeper than what they've already put me in. I'm not gonna just stand to the sidelines while you're being tormented," I say.

"But now they have a reason. Before, they didn't have a very good reason to torture us, but now they do. I'm gay and you're questioning. There's no avoiding it. Now everyone in the school knows," Bella explains.

"I'm not gonna lose my only friend to something, or better yet someone, like Ashley," I say, drinking my frappe.

"But I'm not worth it."

"Yes you are! I haven't even known you for a full day and it's been the happiest day of all my years at that school! I'm not leaving you," I say, raising my voice.

She's taken by surprise at my tone. After she takes a sip of her chocolatey frappe, I see her start to laugh. And cry? She's laughing and crying at the same time. I find myself doing the same.

"We're made for each other," she says through laughs and tears.

"Yeah, we really are," I agree.

Should I tell her about Daniel?
I mean, even I don't know what the hell happened.
No, this friendship could still all be a trick. I should wait a couple days.

I keep my mouth shut about Daniel. What would I even say anyway? I don't know if he was flirting, messing with me, or just being a jerk. But it was kinda intriguing...