Turning around, I take in the mostly empty café, noticing that only a few of the tables are occupied, before choosing a booth at the back of the room. I am hidden from the door and the main street, but can view most of the café and people watch those on a quieter side street as they wander by, perusing shop fronts and just enjoying their Saturday.
I set my bag down beside me and relax into my seat, taking in the decor of the café. There’s only one word to describe the place - quirky. There are shelves and bookcases placed around the room containing an eclectic range of trinkets, including photo frames containing black and white photos that look like they were taken back when photography first became a thing.
Among the old knick knacks are modern pieces of art. Lanterns and fairy lights have been hung up across the ceiling and down the walls. I can picture them giving the place a serene feeling at night-time, when it's dark out. I will definitely have to come back some evening to see what the café is like then.
I’m still taking in the place when the waitress comes over to my table with my order. Thanking her, I take in the huge portion of soup and bread, and the massive slice of pie in front of me. Damn, it looks and smells amazing.
Just as I’m about to tuck in, the bell above the door rings signifying a new customer. Glancing up, I see the three Barbies, along with several other girls I recognise from school as those that hang on the fringes of the one-percenters - not really accepted but flock around in hopes of gaining some attention - have stepped into the coffee shop.
Internally groaning, I pat myself on the back for choosing a seat at the back of the café where they hopefully won’t notice me. They all order coffee without even looking at the woman behind the till or thanking her. Rude much. Then, they make their way as a group to the far end of the café, well away from where I am sitting.
While I am eating my soup, I can’t help but listen to their conversation. Ok, it’s not like I’m making any effort to not listen in, but it’s not my fault they are talking loud enough to be overheard.
“You and Preston looked so cute together at the party last night, Meaghan,” one of the girls, Lindsay, I think her name is, coos to one of the other Barbies.
Laughing, Barbie, I mean, Meaghan, responds, “We have always looked good together Lizzie” – oops, I guess her name is Lizzie. Meh close enough - “Preston just needed time to see how great of a couple we make. But he’s finally starting to realise that he can’t live the bachelor life forever.
“If I have my way - and I always get my way -,” she adds on smugly, and I have no doubt that woman has never heard the word ‘no’ in her life, “he will have proposed by the end of the school year.” She boldly states, followed by a bunch of ear-piercing shrieks as the girls around her go mad with excitement.
Are they for real? Are they seriously talking about wedding proposals? We are seventeen for Christ’s sake. Why anyone would want to be tied down to someone so young is beyond me. These people have the money and means to do anything they want, but the girls don’t seem to have any greater ambitions than marrying someone they went to school with.
I will never understand these people.
Good luck to her with Preston, she’s going to need it. He doesn’t strike me as the type to give in to anyone’s whims. Barbie Meaghan, may think she always gets what she wants, but something tells me Preston always gets his way too.
The girls continue to talk about this supposed future proposal, the ring, hell, even the wedding. Meaghan sounds like she has her whole wedding planned out already. It's laughable. Frustratingly, it makes me think about my current situation, and I can’t help but wish that planning a wedding, even if it is a fake future wedding, was the most pressing concern I had.
Before I can spiral too far into those depressing thoughts, I catch movement out of the side of my eye. Turning around to look out the café window, I notice two boys wandering up the sidewalk on the other side of the road. Both are tall, built boys - well they look more like men – wearing collared shirts and chinos. They both have tanned skin from being outdoors and walk with a swagger, as though they own the world.
The one on the left has longish dark hair that tickles the collar of his shirt. It has been gelled to sit up in every which direction, and dark stubble is coated over his chin. The man on the right has reddish-brown hair pulled back in a man bun at the back of his head and similar coloured stubble dotted over his chin and around his mouth.
Looking at them, something tells me that they don’t belong here, even though they have clearly made an effort to try and fit in with the way they are dressed. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but they have an air of danger around them that doesn’t fit in with the usual rick pricks that live in this town.
It’s only when the man on the left raises his arm to run his hand through his hair and his sleeve falls up his arm, showing off the edges of a tattoo on his wrist, that recognition sinks in. I know who these two are - Tyler and Aiden.
Just seeing them causes a tingle of fear to race up my spine, as my breaths become shallow and I struggle to swallow past the lump in my throat. These men helped murder a man last night, and today they are walking down the street like nothing ever happened, like it is just another day to them. Snorting at my own naivety, of course it was just another day for them. They live in a dark, cut-throat world filled with violence and death. Hell, they probably enjoyed what happened last night.
Now they are following me around. What the hell will they do to me if they catch me doing something I shouldn’t, or, even worse, what will my father do to me? After his display of butchery last night, I’m pretty fucking sure I never want to find out.
I hadn’t seen either of them all morning, so I had hoped they didn’t know I had left the mansion, or better yet, that they maybe weren’t going to do my fathers bidding. I guess that was hopeful thinking.
One thing is for sure, they cannot find me. If they report back to Robert that not only was I not hanging out with the girls from school, but that the girls from school were in the same coffee shop as me and I was choosing not to sit with them, or make an effort, I would be in so much trouble. Now more than ever, I really do not want to find out what my father keeps referring to when he threatens me with consequences.
Ducking down, doing my best to keep an eye on the two men out front and hide from their view, I watch as they peer through every shop window they pass, clearly looking for someone; for me.
A few minutes later, the girls from school all start to gather their things and get up. Making a split-second decision, I grab my bag and start to follow them out of the coffee shop, hoping none of them recognise me.
I think as long as I avoid being spotted by The Barbies, the other girls wouldn’t know who I am, after all, it’s not like they have talked to me or paid me any attention since I moved here.
By the time they make it to the front door, Tyler and Aiden are coming up on the coffee shop and I can see them looking through the large front window to see who all is inside. Crapsticks.
Following closely behind the girls as they step outside onto the footpath, I move to close the shop door behind myself. As I turn back around, I walk right into a solid wall. No wait, not a solid wall, a deliciously hard chest. I can feel his abdominal and pec muscles twitch where I have collided with him, and his arms come up to grip my waist, stopping me from banging off him and falling. Twisting my head back I look up, up, up - God how tall is this guy - into the face that I had just been admiring from inside the coffee shop. I’m not sure who is who out of the two, but I’m currently in the incredibly delicious arms of the red-headed man, and goddamn he’s so much hotter up close.