Artwork [h.s]

fifty-five

Somehow, Ella and I ended up going out together that Wednesday afternoon. At the moment, we were sitting at a table in a cafe I'd never been to before, but that was in the way from my college to the park I usually went to.

I refrained from glancing around as soon as I sat down, knowing that we were surrounded by people around my age, that were chatting loudly to each other, generating a low but somewhat to me overpowering hum. I would've never gone to such a place, if I'd had a say in it. Unfortunately, though, I didn't, because Ella had dragged me there even before I could finish agreeing with her.

I took off my coat and draped it around the back of my chair, hesitating a bit before deciding to take my little notepad out of the pocket for safekeeping. I sighed, looking down at it and grazing the dark brown cover. It really was about to end, Harry had been attentive with his gift for my birthday. It felt like it had happened centuries ago, it was weird to realise that it had only been a couple of weeks since my birthday.

"Oh, hi!" Ella said all of sudden, beaming at the person that had just approached our table, shaking me out of my thoughts.

I glanced up, and I felt my heart drop almost instantly when I recognised the blonde hair. There was no way that he'd randomly stumbled towards our table. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, making sure that the sound was imperceptible, my eyes not being able to leave the person in front of us.

"He asked to join, I hope you don't mind!" Ella chirped next to me, and when Aiden smiled at me, sitting down next to me, I knew that that day had suddenly taken another turn for the worst. How was I supposed not to think of my issue with Harry, when another issue was staring in front of me? At that point, I just felt like leaving.

Aiden let out a chuckle at Ella's words. "Hey, Sierra" he said quietly to me under Ella's stare, before looking up to focus on the blonde-haired girl in front of him. "Well, as a treat for inviting me as well, I'll go order. What do you girls want?"

"Oh, just a sugar-free soy caramel latte, no foam" Ella said, shooting him a condescending smile.

He nodded, managing to hide his surprise at the specific order, and turned to look at me, standing up but waiting for me to reply as well.

"Just a cappuccino, please" I breathed, already feeling the need to end Ella. Why would she allow him to tag along with us? She had to know that I didn't like Aiden by that point - and that he definitely hadn't understood it yet.

He nodded, quickly disappearing towards the till, and I sighed again, putting the notepad that I was still holding tightly in my hands on the table and leaning against the back of the chair, shooting Ella a little glance.

"What? He asked, it would've been rude to say no!" She just said, giving me a little shrug, acting like she had no idea of the reason why her decision had left me unsettled. "Besides, I know you argued with Harry! It's time to stop wallowing in self pity."

I just shook my head at her words, and we spent the following couple of minutes in silence while we waited for Aiden to come back with our orders.

He finally did and sat down, putting a cup in front of everyone of us. He handed me mine quite roughly, but I managed to push away my notepad fast enough not to have cappuccino spill on its cover.

"Your cappuccino seemed a bit dry as an order, so I made them add caramel, hope you don't mind" he stated, side-glancing at me, taking his cup and softly blowing on it.

I took my cup, giving it a suspicious glance, before taking a little sip, my nose scrunching up at the excessive sweetness. "It's fine" I murmured, even though it wasn't true at all. If I'd ordered my cappuccino in a certain way, he was supposed to know I wanted to drink it in that way. But I would've never told him that, and considering that he'd paid for it anyway, it wasn't a big deal after all.