How we met

18. Or something?

"Hey, do you maybe want to go for a coffee or something?"

"Or something?"

"Shut up. Let me rephrase that. I know a great café down the road and you're welcome to join me there."

"I'd love to."

***

"Piper? Can I ask you more about your old school? I'm not sure if that's taking it too far."

"It's not like I was holding back with my questions, so sure."

"You said people were using you?"

"Yeah. I was pretty quiet when I started high school. Apparently, the boys thought I was pretty. They found out that a quiet girl that doesn't want to cause a scene is pretty easy. They flirted with me, wanted to do things, but never meant it. Girls started being my friends just to get close to the boys."

"Sounds rough."

"That isn't even the worst part yet. People asked me to help them with their homework, once they figured out I was pretty smart too. First it was helping, then it turned into just copying mine. They wanted to do projects with me and let me do all the work. I never said a word."

"But that's just cheating."

"I know. And I knew back then too. So, one day I decided that I'd had enough. I stopped being that quiet girl and talked back to all of them. They didn't like it very much. Some people did like it though. I made some friends that helped me being myself and being confident that way. Now I'm never going back."

"There's nothing wrong with being confident. I admire that."

"Yeah, that was good. The bad thing was that I started putting up walls around myself. I felt like everyone would just use me once I let them come close, so I didn't let them. When I had to move here I told myself that I would do better. Then that first day I was already trying to scare you off, to not get attached. I hated that."

"I understand you, but look at you. You did change. You apologised as soon as you realised what you were doing and you're here now, opening up. You dare to say what you think, you wear whatever you like, you changed when you wanted to, even though others didn't want you to. You're going to be fine, I'm sure of that."

"When you put it that way..."

"You sound pretty amazing, huh?"

"Thank you, Ella. Really."

"Anytime."

"Anyway, I'm just going to ask you what your favourite colour is, because I'm running out of questions."

"Yellow. I like how happy it looks. It just makes me want to smile."

"I like that."

"Did I see a smile there?"

"Maybe."