How to be Forever Alone [#Wattys2020]

37.

"Okay, you have me officially scared," I respond back to Chase.

"You see what you did," he says, talking back to Tess.

I turn to her questioning, "Should I actually be scared?"

She sighs and shakes her head no.

I resettle myself in the seat before speaking again, "So where are we going?"

"It's a small café not too far away, "Tess replies nudging her head, "that's where I met Chase."

"It was just meant to be!" he butts in, "I was looking for a roommate and in walked in Tess."

I can see her roll her eyes, yet she smiles as she looks out the car window.

"You make it sound so much less dramatic than it actually was," she continues, "You were in the middle of doing slam poetry-"

"Wait!" I cut her off to stare at Chase, "Since when do you do slam poetry?"

"Did I not tell you?" he replies, questioning my question, "Anyways, I tried it and now I'm hooked."

"You hate speaking in front of people," I state.

He just brushes it off, "That was high school Chase. I guess I've changed."

"Getting back to the story," Tess goes on, "I didn't know anyone and I thought it would be a good event to meet people, so I went. Chase was in the middle of whatever he was doing when I walked through the door. He must have heard the little jingle of the bell hanging just above the door frame because the next thing I know he's yelling from the back of the place calling me out."

Together they both take a large breath, "And you weary traveller! Here is the moment you've waited for! I bring you coffee right at your feet!"

"He really did bring me a cup of coffee and placed it at my feet." she laughs, "I just had to stay and talk to him after he was done. I'm glad I did, cause if he hadn't mentioned he was looking for a roommate, I would still be living with my parents."

"Wow," I join in, "Maybe you should have studied theatre instead, Chase."

"Yeah, yeah, but then, how would I be Spiderman?" he quizzes me.

With that one eyebrow raised, Tess questions, "Spiderman?"

Spiderman...

"It's nothing," Chase gets back to her, not taking his gaze off the road.

"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you were," she mumbles to herself.

I barely caught her words, but I heard enough to reply, "It would explain a lot."

We all burst out into giggles as we turn a corner. The sun shines brightly through the windshield almost blinding us, but you can see the morning dew slowly melting away.

I hadn't realized it had gotten that cold last night. I would blame it on the alcohol, but that didn't seem like a reasonable excuse. Maybe I was too distracted by Tess.

She's beautiful and funny and I would probably never see her again in a few days. I can't just live off their couch for the rest of time. The only thing I can do for the time being is to enjoy this moment. Her hair reflects the sun like a golden crown and she peers outside with such a sense of wonder and tranquillity.

We get to the café and Chase parks the car in the farthest corner in the parking lot and he argued that it was to avoid his car getting scratched. I wasn't sure if he had noticed, but his car came with about twenty different marks when he bought it.

Chase wrapped his left arm around me, pulling me along towards the wall practically made out of glass with a hole for the door.

Tess opens the door first, letting the little rusted silver bell ring. I finally step inside with Chase by my side and we were hit by a waterfall of warm air, making me shutter for just a second.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't the loud crescendo of voices coming from everyone here.

"Hello, weary traveller! This is the moment you've waited for!" I hear shouted from every corner of the room.

"Hey, guys!" Chase says, waving his hand around.

Tess leans over to me, "He's become somewhat of a celebrity."

"I can see," I say still wide-eyed.

And all of a sudden I understood Tess' flinching from earlier.

The both of them drag me along towards the bar area where a girl, around our age, is pouring a cup of coffee for another customer. Her hair is tied up in a long ponytail and she wears a black apron over her clothes.

She comes over to us to take our order, but I had absolutely no idea what I wanted. There were about a million things written on the hanging chalkboards, all written in various fonts, and it made me incredibly kerfuffled.

Eventually, I kind of gave up and just ordered a tea. I didn't really care what kind, so I told her to give me her favourite.

Tess takes my hand without warning and brings me over to a small table near a slightly elevated stage area, where a small four-person band, the Six Robins, are playing. The ironic band name only helped the notion that we were amongst university students.

"They're all studying zoology," Tess tells me, "I'm glad someone finally told them that a song about Venezuelan poodle moths wasn't going to be a big hit, despite them being incredibly adorable. Now, they mostly stick to covers."

Chase finally catches up to us, balancing the three drinks in his hands, and eventually burning himself as he puts them down, getting a drop of my tea on his hand.

"Ouch!" he winces.

"Be careful," I advise him, cautiously.

He shakes his hand for a second before making his way to sit to my right.

Everyone was watching the band, who were playing soft calming music, but it didn't take long for Tess to look annoyed by the repetitive songs. And once they finished their current song, it took her no time to go up to the lead singer and whisper something in his ear.

The guy's reaction seemed mostly pleased and he quickly went back to his friends to explain something. They all retake their spots, but I see Tess still standing.

"Hit it Titus!" she shouts.

The long electrified descending notes start, and I couldn't remember the last time I listened to this song. It was Blame It by Jamie Foxx, and Tess seemed to be having the time of her life dancing around.

And everything was fine, that was until she reached her hand out to me.