Falling All The Way

Chapter 6

chapter 6

The downpour that had been forecasted that morning turned out to be a bit less accurate, instead of a heavy downpour there was a gigantic storm and the weather forecast forgot to remind mall owners to turn up their heat, or maybe it was a strategic plan by coffee shops to trick people into buying their coffees to warm themselves up in cold weathers. Everybody is out to get something right?

I didn't know anything about coffee, so I asked for anything sweet and creamy that looks and smells like coffee but tastes like bad decisions reprimanded by doctors. While munching on the extremely delicious chocolate chip cookies, an awkward teenage boy came up to savannah asking for a selfie. Apparently, he'd seen her at the fundraiser hosted by her mom's winery for children battling cancer in the eastern Caribbean; they had let kids compete through song and dance for the person who gets ten thousand dollars donated to charity in their name, savannah was predisposed to not win given she is in fact a Daniels but her act was out of this world and absolutely memorable. According to him, her solo freestyle was the best part of the event and I think he was right. As I watched him go away excitedly after he had declared himself the president of savannah's fan club, I couldn't help but compare the warmth from a hot cup of coffee and that from genuine praise. I preferred praise; well all average sixteen year olds should love praise more than coffee.

"you know, I could illustrate a comic book were 'coffee' and 'praise' fight with each other to see which one of them brings more warmth to people for the competition" I said knowing very well that I sounded dumb but then again I wasn't really expecting an answer from the duo seeing as Savannah's mood didn't improve since the tattoo parlor.

"it could go like; a lone girl goes to a tattoo shop to get her skin painted, but ends up leaving with a warm jumper and inspirational friends plus a warm cup of coffee, which turns out to be the best day of her life" Stephanie went ahead and narrated my dumb idea while representing every scene with a cookie, by the end of her narration, the table was littered with crumbs and a heart shape made of circular baked dough. I wondered, if the 'lone' in her description meant she thought I was lonely and whether that's why she was throwing the 'friend' vibes. She sounded and looked poetic; it made think she might get reincarnated as a Shakespeare in another life.

"In another life, would you be a writer?"

"In all my lives, I will always be an artist" both Steph and Savannah said in unison. "If I took a shot every time you said that line, I would be in need of a liver transplant by now" Savannah added. She caught with her mouth the crumb steph threw at her.

"That's not true" Steph countered, she sounded like the complete opposite of the decisive girl I have been seeing around school for years and never had the courage to approach. She actually sounded like she was going to question were babies came from next.

"I only lie when am getting paid for it, and you aren't even paying for my coffee, you shamelessly shifted the burden to crystal, got no reason to lie about your love for Art" savannah said while intentionally exposing the chewed content of her mouth to steph who shot her with another crumb that still got caught like the first one. See? She's hot and cool at the same time, maybe even super chill.

"That's right" I said more to myself. I wondered how much she could have been paid to lie to me. She really would run out of business if her lying skills were like the ones she exhibited on me, and I came close to telling her to stick to dancing and leave deceitfulness alone. She is a much better dancer than she is a liar.

"What's right?" Steph asked. And I knew she was prying because she smirked in a way that added me to the list of bad liars.

"If you haven't joined the competition, you should, you have a higher chance of making Mr. Gilbert proud more than any other student" I quickly said trying to use her obsession with art to distract her and it worked.