Deep Water [OuterBanks]

21: blood in the water

Blue Java was one of two cafe's in which Kildare island had to offer. The decently sized bistro, placed dead in the heart of Figure Eight was just beginning to liven up with its typical crowd of Kooks as time ticked past ten am. Alana Kessler, shifted in her wooden chair, feeling considerably out of place, as yet another pair of teenage girls strode in sporting their boutique sundresses and Tory Burch bags. Crossing one of her tanned legs over the other, she averted her cerulean eyed gaze forward and onto her (Kook by association) older sister, swallowing the urge to make some witty comment about how the twenty-four year old had interrupted her well established Alana time, to come and be surrounded by carbon copy's.

"Are you pregnant?" She tonelessly threw out instead.

"No." Mia's inherently raspy voice scaled up an octave; her facial expression twisting with bewilderment. "Trust me, you're enough to deal with already." She jested, though there was a twinge of truth hidden beneath her words.

"Please, go to hell." Alana gave a sarcastic, tight lipped smile. More times than she would like to admit, her older sister had been called by school authorities on instances when she'd gotten snappy with a classmate, or slipped out of the side door when she was supposed to be going to the bathroom. Other than that, Mia considered the girl to be a relatively good kid.

"What incited that question?" Mia asked, outwardly interested in the younger girls answer as she pushed her blonde waves over her shoulders, the tips just about dusting the hemline of her cropped tank.

Alana droned, giving a brief shrug of her shoulders. "It was just kind of suspicious that you asked if I wanted to get breakfast with you."

"Is it so hard to believe that I just wanted to spend time with my sister?"

"Yep."

"Well, you're right. I just didn't want to eat by myself." Mia quipped, prompting the corners of Alana's mouth to turn up as her blue eyes went rolling.

Cutting their banter, the young brunette woman who had taken their orders upon arrival, returned to their two-seater table, singlehandedly carrying a circular serving tray. "This is hands down the fanciest thing I've ever drank." Alana mused out as the waitress sat a vanilla latte in front of her along with a blueberry muffin.

The woman, whose badge read: Gia, simply chuckled in amusement as the teenage girl ogled the caffeinated drink, handing Mia her iced coffee and  everything bagel before digging into her apron for a straw. "Enjoy." She told the pair, and the older blonde articulated a chaste thank you, in which the waitress responded with a smile before working her way back towards the mahogany serving counter.

"Can you drop me at the Chateau once we're done here?" Alana asked, certain that the Pogue's were beginning to suspect her whereabouts. Especially since she would have been there already if she weren't with Mia. "Kiara will probably lose her shit if she catches wind that I didn't come straight there after I got up." She peeled the wrapper from her muffin.