Crossing Lines

A Coffee Date With A Squirrel

          The coffee shop wasn’t hard to find. It was the only one on the boardwalk and had a massive billboard above it that read Need coffee?. I saw Evan waiting for me inside through the glass panels. He had reading glasses on and was studying some of the biology material our teacher had assigned us. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had noticed him.

    “Is that him?” asked Lucy.

    “He’s cuter in person!” gawked Avery.

    “Okay, shoo, go away!” I pushed.

    “Fine! Jeez.”

    I entered the store, the door ringing behind me, Evan looked up and smiled, his eyes crinkling in the corners. I was surprised to hear, though, four more rings of the door after me, delayed by only a few seconds. I cringed and made the shrewd decision to not look back but I still heard the giggles behind me, slowly moving to the back of the room.

     He flicked his hair to the side with a nod of his head and gestured for me to sit down. I got comfortable and ordered a tea.

    “Hey,” he said nonchalantly, “how are you?”

    “Good. You?”

    “Same. Warmer I guess.”

    I chuckled awkwardly.

    “Speaking of which,” he added as he reached into his bag, “here are your clothes.”

    “Thanks.” I replied shoving them into my bag.

    “So let’s get down to business, shall we? I have a plan. The question is, can you execute?”

    I examined his perfectly chiseled face carefully. He was dead serious about this revenge thing.

    “Wait. I’m going to need a little more than that. Why did Ryder choose you to pick on? I didn’t even think you knew each other. What’s your history? Really at this point, anything would be helpful because I honestly know nothing about you.”

    “Okay, well then, let’s get to know each other.” He pulled out a small, crinkled piece of paper from his pocket. “Write down one thing about yourself that no one else knows.”

    “Why? Isn’t that too -” I faltered, “personal?”

    “No. Well, yes, but that isn’t the point. The point is to be vulnerable. When you’re vulnerable, you are able to let yourself go and build trust. Once we know things about each other, we have shared secrets and have already made a personal connection to each other as individuals. From then on it feels like it’s us against the world.” He continued for a good five minutes, fiddling with the hem of his sleeves between sentences, biting his lip subconsciously and losing himself in the conversation. He had a voice that captivated and his words rolled off his tongue with ease. I found myself clinging to each and every word and falling into a daze. This daze was broken though, when he paused.

    “Am I rambling?” he asked. “I tend to talk a lot, sorry.”

    “No!” I replied, a little too enthusiastically. “It’s fine. I enjoyed it thoroughly!” Calm down, I said to myself. There was no reason for me to act so enlivened. I barely knew this guy.

     However, I failed to follow my own instructions and the words, “you have a gorgeous voice, Evan,” tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop them. I clapped a hand to my mouth in horror.

    “Oh my god, that’s not what I meant! I mean, it is because I don’t want to offend you or anything because um you do have a nice voice and all, but I didn’t mean to say it like that or um, why did I say that? I - um.” I stopped, exasperated. What was wrong with me? I mentally slapped myself about 50 times before realizing he was staring at me. I forced myself to meet his eyes and he smiled. I could see that he was amused by my nervousness and my awkward tendencies. Worst of all, I could hear the giggles of my friends in the back of the room.