By lunchtime, Claire found herself sitting in a nearby café, across Stephanie, the gorgeous Hispanic girl that she had met in the library a few hours back. She held her large cup of black iced tea with both hands and took a small sip. Despite her protests, Stephanie insisted to pay for her.
“How long have you been here?”
Claire placed her cup on the table before looking up to meet her eyes. Tilting her head in thought, she replied, “Not that long. We moved here when I was ten, and I’m seventeen now”
Stephanie nodded. She was about to respond when she was interrupted by the waiter with their lunch on a tray balanced with one hand. Both girls politely smiled as the waiter carefully set their utensils and plates on the table. When he was gone, Stephanie started eating her pasta, albeit, with poise.
Claire was suddenly conscious of her table manners. Trying her best to duplicate the elegance her companion is exuding, she carefully sliced a small portion of her chicken breast, enough for one small bite, before chewing self-consciously.
“I actually just arrived here yesterday”, Stephanie said, still in the midst of chewing her food, although she still managed to look chic. “I wanted to drive around town today, but it was boring as heck on my own”
“The roads here are kind of confusing for newcomers, too”, Claire added. “It felt like they just randomly built roads everywhere”
Stephanie chuckled. “Yeah, that, too”
They ate in silence for a while. But oddly, it was neither the awkward nor suffocating type— the café provided a calm background noise of people’s chatters, jazz music, and the mechanical churn of the coffee machine, so they were both comfortable. Claire then recalled that Stephanie had checked out a few art books earlier and thought that it would be a good thing to talk about.
“So…” she started and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I remember the books you checked out from the library today. Are you an artist?”
“Umm”, the other mumbled before mirroring her moves and wiping off sauce from her mouth with a napkin. “I’m not an artist, but I… have an interest in art”
“Oh”, she nodded in understanding. “I get that. I feel the same way about dancing”
“What do you mean?”
“I like watching people dance”, she explained, smiling, as images of her best friend, Jess, gracefully dancing filled her mind. “I appreciate it. But I can’t dance myself”
The corners of Stephanie’s lips slowly tugged upwards to form a smile. “Yes, exactly! It’s really hard to make people understand that”
“I know”, she nodded enthusiastically. “Most people just tend to think that to appreciate something, you have to practice it. But I don’t think that’s always the case, being a spectator can be fun, too”
“Ugh, tell me about it”, Stephanie rolled her eyes playfully.
After half an hour, which felt like a few minutes, Claire had to return to the library to finish her shift. They, much to her surprise, had actually quite a lot in common. They were both in high school, as Claire had suspected, although Stephanie had to take a break due to family affairs, and are planning to take up a business course in a prestigious university after graduation. They also happened to have read the same books, and share the same ideologies and interests.
Stephanie offered to drop her off at the library and by the time they were waving goodbye, they already had plans for their next lunch date.
---
“It’s okay. I have time after school”
“I’m fine, geez, Claire”
Jess skipped school today. Claire figured that she must be running late again but when lunch came and she found no Jess sitting on their usual spot, she got worried. Now, she’s on a phone call with her best friend, and turns out, she had a cold.
“You’re not fine”, she insisted. “I can visit after school and bring you some medicine”
“No, you are not doing that”
“Watch me”
With unfortunate timing, Jess’s parents were out of town to have a few days' break from work— which she thought they genuinely deserved— and won’t be back until Friday. What’s even worse is that Jess chose not to tell her parents about her getting sick since she didn’t want to spoil their vacation by worrying them and have them rush home to take care of her.
“Claire Nicole Miller”
“Jessica Kim”, she responded, playfully imitating her tone.
“I’m serious!”
“Well, so am I”, she replied before hanging up the call and stuffing her phone back in her jean pocket. She didn’t like arguing with Jess, it was the one fight she couldn’t win with wit. That’s how stubborn her best friend was.
Not wanting to sit alone in the cafeteria and make herself look like a sad loser, she quickly grabbed a sandwich and a can of Coke, and headed out, not really knowing where to go.
She considered eating at one of the tables in the school courtyard but she figured a lot of students would be heading there, too, so it wasn’t an option. Fortunately, while she was wandering the campus, she spotted the door heading to the building’s rooftop ajar. It was usually locked to prevent students from loitering there, so she thought that perhaps one of the maintenance crew forgot to lock the door beforehand.
She craned her neck from side to side in order to check if anybody else was around. When she found that the coast was clear, she went up the stairs, closing the door behind her.
Claire found a good spot near the ledge and dusted off the dirt off the floor with her handkerchief before sitting down. The weather was great today, too. It was windy since she was on a rooftop of a five-story building but the warm sunlight nullified the quite cold breeze.
“Didn’t expect to see you here”
She shrieked and almost dropped her sandwich in surprise. Claire looked at her right and found Ethan leaning against a wall, smirking. Upon seeing him, she abruptly stood up and gathered her stuff to leave.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you were hanging out here”, she said and started to walk towards the exit. “And by the way, make sure you don’t get caught. Students aren’t allowed here”
“And here I thought you were a goody-two-shoes”
“I just don’t want to eat in the cafeteria today”, she huffed in annoyance, turning around to face him.
“Me too”, he replied before walking towards the ledge and sitting down next to the spot she had cleaned earlier. “Sit with me”
“I don’t really want to”
Claire was telling the truth. She hated how uncomfortable he makes her feel by flirting with her endlessly and acting innocent about it. She also hated how even though she knew it was just how he was, she kept on falling for it and embarrassing herself by stuttering or blushing.
All that she learned just by spending a few hours alone with him last week.
“I’m hurt, Claire”, he chuckled while feigning a heart attack by placing a hand on his chest and groaning dramatically.
“I’m leaving”
“Just…” he said when she turned around to leave once again. “I purposely didn’t sit on your spot and you’re just going to leave like this”
“I don’t care”
“Oh come on”, Ethan whined. She could literally hear the pout in his voice, which gave her more reason to not turn around to look at him, so she continued walking.
“Hey, Claire”, he called out. “I want your sandwich, can I have it?”
Ethan took another bite out of the chicken sandwich that she gave him, a satisfied smile dancing on his lips. For some reason, the boy managed to convince her to give him company. But she thought that it would be better to just stay put anyway rather than to aimlessly walk for the remaining minutes of the lunch break, looking for a secluded spot.“Why are you up here, anyway?” Claire asked. She then unwrapped the burrito that Ethan had given her in exchange for her sandwich. The familiar aroma told her that it was bought at the cafe across the campus. She had no idea why someone would give away a decent burrito for a cafeteria sandwich, but she was grateful for the lucky exchange.“Nothing”, he replied after swallowing. “I just feel like stepping away from the crowd today”“Cool”She did
“How did you get my number?”Then he laughed. In Claire’s memory, the familiar laughter brought warmth, but ten years later, it almost sounded frightening. She felt herself starting to shiver at the thought of being near her father— she grew to hate him more as each day passes, and she didn’t realize that until this moment.“It didn’t take long to convince your mother”She didn’t think that she could get even angrier than she already was, but she did, much to her surprise. She watched her father beat her mother senseless, but despite all that, her mother still loved him and a few buttered-up words from him can make her forget where her bruises and her scars came from.Claire hated that, too. She hated how much power a man has over her mother just because she loved him.
Claire pushed the cart while quickly reading the signs attached at the top of the bookshelves, indicating each section. As someone who has been working at the library for almost half a year now, she was expected to have memorized the entire layout of the library and navigate through them easily. But for some reason, she still had to rely on the signs most of the time.When she got to the history section, she grabbed the stack of history books from her cart and proceeded to arrange them on the shelves. The head librarian had assigned Katie to work at the counter today, so much to her dismay, and so she was stuck with shelving.After arranging her stack of history books, she glanced at her wristwatch. Claire had an hour left before her shift is over.“Claire”She turned to look at Katie, waving at her from the counter. The l
Claire yawned as she made her way to the exit of the school building. The cold wind rushed past and she tightened her scarf around her neck. Autumn passes by quickly, and since it was undoubtedly her favorite season, she hated that. The leaves of the trees turning into different shades of rust, yellow and brown adorned the streets, and she loved the smell of Pumpkin Spice lattes from the coffee shop across the campus.Having been reminded of this, Claire then made a mental note to herself to pick up a cup for herself before going home.“Claire!”She looked up from examining the leaves on the ground to find her best friend Jess running towards her with a huge smile on her face. After class today, Jess told her that she was in a hurry and went ahead without her, so she was pleasantly surprised to see her.“Hey!”
“Do I really look okay in this costume?” Claire self-consciously tugged at the hem of her skirt as it was a lot shorter than what she was comfortable wearing. Ever since they decided to go to the Halloween party, Jess has been stoked about the costumes, so she didn’t want to let her down by refusing to wear what she came up with, which turned out to be a Japanese-style maid costume. Jess, being a cute Asian-American, had no trouble looking good in it. “Yeah, of course, you do”, Jess replied as she adjusted her headpiece. “I wouldn’t choose this if you wouldn’t look good wearing it” Two hours ago, Jess came over to her house with a ginormous gym bag filled with clothes, accessories, and makeup, and ever since then, the two have been preparing for the party. She was too excited that Claire didn’t have even a second of rest after a d
“How was the party?”Claire remained silent and continued to sip on her iced coffee. After the incident with Ethan in the backyard, she tried to act as how she normally would while casually ignoring him. Ethan might've found it amusing but she wasn't delighted at all. Worse, she wanted to slap herself for not disliking the fact that he touched her.Luckily, Jess was more than happy to answer.“It was fun!” she interjected, raising her arms for more effect. “Claire got drunk and I got to flirt with a guy!”“Wait”, Claire interrupted, abandoning her coffee. Upon hearing Jess, her ears perked up and her eyes went wide in shock. “What guy?”She tilted her head in confusion and looked at the ceiling, trying to remember as much as she could about last night’s events, which proved to be hard. After Ethan’s ridiculous antic, she couldn’t focus at all and kept on drinking to distr
Five minutes before 9 pm, Claire headed out. The playground that they agreed to meet at was actually in the neighborhood so it was a mere five-minute walk to get there. A block after, she realized that it was rather chilly tonight, and regretted not wearing a scarf, but she figured that it would be too late for her to go back to get one. The cold wind rushed by, causing a mini tornado of autumn leaves by her feet, and she hugged herself in an attempt to keep herself warm.When she arrived at the playground, five minutes later, it was deserted. She hopped over the chain that hung around the perimeter and settled into one of the swings. There were no other people around and cars rarely go through these streets so it was quiet, in a serene way rather than a terrifying one.“I’m not too early, aren’t I?” she mumbled to herself, craning her neck side to side in case she just didn’t spot Jay when she got there, but true enough, she was alone.
The school bell rang, signaling the end of the last period. As the students hurried towards the corridors, happily chatting along with their peers, Claire immediately slammed her forehead into her desk and she was tempted to sleep right then and there. Due to the unexpected turn of events on the previous night, she couldn’t sleep at all.“Yo”, she heard Jess say while poking her head with her index fingers. “Why so glum-glum, Claire?”“I just need a nap”, she groaned, closing her eyes. “You can go ahead without me”“A nap? Here?”“Yeah, I don’t really care”Jess fell silent but Claire could tell that she was still there, contemplating whether to leave her alone or not. She wasn’t able to tell her anything yet since she was still confused and didn’t really know how to do so. Even so, Jess knew that something was up and she had been obviously trying so har