13th of February (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter XII

The meeting was arranged to be at a casual place, Nothing fancy, and as it was convenient for both of them, they decided to meet at the same cafe. James, entering the cafe, saw an overly excited brunette waving him over. Just to double check, he looked around, and seeing no one else, he gestured to himself, as if to ask if she was waving to him. Recieving an affirmative nod, he walked up to the booth.

"Karen?"
"That would be me, good evening!" she replied, shaking hands with him. "Wait a moment, aren't you the girl who was here the other day? With your blonde friend?" asked James, suddenly having realised the fact.
"Oh....yeah, that was us. Please tell me you didn't hear us talking, Sir." said the girl, now looking down at the table and fidgeting with her hair to hide her embarrassment.
"Actually, I did. And I'm sort of awkward around people, so I panicked and ran when you told your friend to approach me. I was hoping for another chance to talk to you both because I wanted to apologise." chuckled James. "Also, drop the formalities, just call me James."

They spent about half an hour talking about how Karen admired James writing, how Karen's writing was beautiful, and how she could improve it, make it more professional. But they stayed in the cafe for about an hour more, just casually talking about random things, somehow feeling very comfortable with each other. That was until Karen dropped something, and when she bent to pick it up, something caught James' eye.

All of a sudden, he didn't know how to speak. Everything around him was tuned out by the sudden rush of a million emotions. The first thing he registered was disbelief and shock, which eventually turned into happiness, immense happiness, so much that he couldn't believe it. But then his heart sank back into disbelief, and everything else was numbed out by plain fear. Fear of hope. He was sure he could never mistake what he saw for anything else, but he still didn't want his hopes to be brought up and crashed right back down. After all, despite what he saw, it may not be what he thinks it is.

"James? Hello?" said a voice, bringing him back to reality, coming face to face with Karen's waving hand. "Are you okay? You spaced out for a bit there. Everything good?"
"Huh? Y-yeah, I'm good, no problem."
"Okay, that's good. So, tell me something about your family."

That question triggered so many more emotions that were already lurking, but somehow James seemed to be extremely good at holding his mask in place. "Oh, I....don't have a family, I lost them some years ago." he said, just sipping his coffee and not making eye contact.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't know, I'm sorry." Karen said, feeling bad for him and not knowing how to comfort him.

"It's alright, you wouldn't have known, it's ok. Karen, tell me something about your family." James replied, but the question seemed to trigger a spark of sorrow in Karen's eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise it would be a touchy topic for you. You don't need to answer! It's ok, let's talk about something else."

"No it would only be fair if I told you, I don't know anything about my biological family. I don't remember any of my life before I turned ten. My adoptive family is amazing, really, but I wish I'd known more about my biological family than I do, and why they left me." said Karen, a sad look in her eyes, but it was quickly replaced with happiness. James could see clearly through her mask, he wore the exact same one everyday, even now he was.

"I'm sorry, Karen. I have to leave now, but we can exchange numbers and hangout sometime?" James offered, hoping to cheer her up and get out of the place quickly. Karen looked at him like he was offering her bars of gold for free. "Are you sure? I'm just a fan of your writing, we just met today. Wouldn't you be worried about me leaking your number or something like that?" Karen asked, bewildered yet super happy.

"Well, I think you're a cool person, and I don't really have any friends. I would love to make a friend like you. Besides, you don't seem like the kind of person who would spread my number or anything, I'll give you personal number though, not work number. I don't really use it for anything, now I'll have a reason to."

After a short exchange between the extremely happy girl and the guy drowning in fear, both of them parted ways. James walked home, honestly wishing he had the confidence to ask about what he saw, but he feared the answer too much. He didn't care for friends, but he needed those answers, no matter how much he feared it. He hoped the next time he saw Karen, he would be able to talk to her about it.

If only he had asked for those answers, if only he'd known. . . . .
If only. . . . .

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Unedited.

Thanks for reading!
-Tristophobic

Published: 17/09/20