The Boy in Love With a Witch

Chapter 16

Elise

After school, first I went home to eat something and take my medicine. After that, I went to the coffee shop. When I was at work, Harry and his friends entered the shop. Butterflies erupted in my stomach when he gave me that sweet smile of his. I bit my lower lip after he had seated himself in his usual place with his friends.

I went to take their order and noted it down in my mini notepad. Preparing their drinks, I gave the tray to Lily, my co-worker, to serve them. It was 5 PM and the shop was not crowded. There were only two old women, chatting and drinking their favourite caffeine drink, and Harry and his friends.

A man entered the shop. He looked somewhere in between thirty-five to forty. He was wearing a hat that shadowed his face, which had a stubble. He was wearing a beige T-shirt with a taupe quilted shell jacket over it. 

"I would like to have a soy latte." He said and the hair on my arms stood on edge. 

His voice was raspy and low, like that of a whisper of a ghost's voice. I turned around to make his drink. When I was done, I turned back towards the counter but he was not there. I leaned over the counter to see if he had seated himself somewhere but he was nowhere to be found. Where did he go?

"Hey, Lily? Where did that man go who was standing here a few minutes ago?" I asked Lily who was also standing there, scrolling through her phone.

"What man?" She asked looking up from her phone.

"The one who ordered a soy latte." I told her.

"There was no man here who ordered a soy latte, Elise." She said.

"Yes, there was. He was standing here. He had a hat on." I tried to give her details.

"Elise, there was no one here. No one has entered this shop since those group of extremely hot boys." She said referring to Harry and the boys.

"What?" I was confused. 

"It must be your fever getting to your head." She mocked me.

"I'm totally fine and in my senses." I told her and put the cup of soy latte down.

Lily went into the back room behind the counter. Just then, another young looking man entered. He was wearing a denim jacket and had ocean blue eyes while his hair were in a quiff.

"Hi, there. What would you like to have?" I asked him.

"Oh, I would like to have soy latte that you just made." He said smiling widely. 

"What?" I asked.

"That one you placed there." He pointed towards the drink that I made for the previous customer. 

Without asking any questions, I turned around to fetch the cup but when I turned back, like the previous man, he was also gone. What in the world was happening to me? My head started spinning. I placed the cup on the counter, leaning against it to get some support but failed and sank towards the floor, blackness covering my eyes.

I was running. I was running from someone. I did not know who I was running from and I did not look back to see who it was. I was running through the dense jungle, dodging every branch that came in my way. 

"Harry!" I screamed for help. My breathing was heavy and my heart thumped loudly in my chest. Then I tripped over a propped up root of a tree and fell.

"Elise." I heard his voice. He was softly calling my name.

"Elise."

I opened up my eyes to see his jade ones, which were full of concern, staring at my face. 

"What happened? Are you okay?" He asked placing his hand on my cheek. 

I looked around to see everyone staring at me. Feeling embarrassed and scared, I removed his hand from my face, got up and ran towards the back room. I sat on a chair in the small room and buried my face in my hands. One after another, tears started rolling down my cheeks and I sobbed softly. Just then, I felt a hand softly touched my shoulder and I did not need to look up to see who it was.

"Hey." He spoke softly.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He asked politely.

Well, I'm having nightmares about that woman and I'm sick and some random men come and order their drinks and then disappear and then I loose consciousness and start having visions of me running away from someone. That's what's wrong. I said it in my head. I wanted to tell him everything  but was scared about what he will think about me? He would probably think I'm a freak.

"It's okay. You can tell me, I won't judge you." I heard him say and then I hugged him tightly and started crying in his chest.

He placed one of his hand on my lower back while his other hand on my head and he started soothing out my hair. We stayed like this for a solid ten minutes and then I pulled away. He gently wiped away my tears with his thumbs and held my face in his hands.

"You can always tell me. I'll always be here for you." He said and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. 

The butterflies in my stomach came back and I felt energy pour into me. I was shocked at his gesture. Why did he kiss my forehead and not my cheek? You know there are different meanings of kissing on the cheek and kissing on the forehead, but I did not want to think about that at the moment.

"Thank you." I said.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" He asked and I nodded my head.

I told him everything. From the night of the incident til today. I told him about the power that I felt when that woman was shaking me. I told him about the dream that I had that night, leaving his part out. I told him about the men that came in today and disappeared after ordering their drinks. I told him about the vision that I had while I was unconscious. He listened to every word carefully.

"It felt like that woman is trying to indicate something." I said after I had told him everything.

"Like what? " He asked.

"Or maybe I'm just overreacting." I immediately felt stupid for acting like this. I was for sure overreacting.

"Maybe you are thinking about it too much and that's why you are having dreams about her." He said.

"Yeah. I'm just stupid." I said.

"No, you are not." He said taking my face into his hands again. " You need to give your mind a rest. I can totally understand. I would have also over thought these incidents if it was happening to me. I, sometimes, see the same dream for two to three consecutive days and overthink about it. Everyone does. It's totally normal, Elise. That doesn't mean you are stupid." He told me firmly.

"You need to rest. Physically and mentally, both." He said.

"And if you see that dream again, we can go to someone who can help us figure out it's meaning." He said.

"Do you believe that dreams have meanings?" I asked.

"Some do. But I never tried to find out." He said. "But if it bothers you, we can go find out about it." He smiled warmly and my heart melted.

"Thank you." I said.

"Stop saying thank you. You are embarrassing me." He blushed. 

"I'll drop you home." He said looking at his watch. "It's almost 8."

"How long have I been out?" I asked.

"Two hours." He told me.

TWO HOURS?? I have been out for TWO HOURS??

"Take care of yourself." He told me as we stopped a few houses away from mine.

"I will." I said and walked away.