Hayden Hayden

I decided to be nice today and secretly add a little bit of sweetener to that one coughing chick’s coffee. She won’t know I did it, but at least I won’t have to watch her lean figure contort every time she takes a sip. Seriously, I never knew coffee could be so despicable to some people. Personally, I was hooked on the stuff. However, I was still stumped as to why she came in every day if she didn’t even enjoy coffee. After all, this is a “coffee” café.

I figured it had something to do with that guitarist who nearly killed her from ‘Some Assembly Required’. With a sigh, I checked to see if the sugar was nearly dissolved yet. It was, so I grabbed the cup and headed toward the girl’s table.

“Here’s your coffee.” I said placing the ceramic down, noting a small chip on the rim.

“Thanks.” She murmured eying the glass warily.

“I’ve seen you a couple times before.” Whoa, I do not know why I just said that. I’m pretty sure my cheeks turned a few different shades of pink. Oh yes, pink…such a manly color. To my surprise she smiled showing off her flawless white teeth.

“Yeah, I’m Amber.” She said reaching out her hand. I politely shook it.

“Hayden.” I replied nodding my head as coolly as I could possibly manage. I was going for that whole ‘I just woke up but I’m still gorgeous’ look that guitarist seemed to hit dead on.

“Nice to meet you Hayden.” She said still smiling. I gave a final nod and then returned to the counter where I could adore from afar. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not some psycho stalker or anything. It’s just my eyes seem to flicker her way whenever I lift my head. Might as well appreciate “Amber” as long as I’m looking in that general direction, right?

Amber

God what was wrong with his head? He kept twitching it nervously, up down, up down. Crap, I think my eyes are following the motion. Oh no! I could get hypnotized. Quickly I looked away, shielding my eyes from his possible hypno powers.

Shit, no wonder I’m such a loner. I totally am a freak.

Well at least he seemed like he wouldn’t mind getting to know me. I glanced over to where he was wiping down the counter. He actually wasn’t half bad looking. Short blonde hair, light almost crystal blue eyes, tall with a lanky sort of build. He just seemed so negative all the time…

“Hayden” I rolled his name around in my mouth for a while before taking my first sip of the ‘revulsion serum’ as I have recently been calling it. To my surprise it didn’t seem as bad as it normally did. Thinking it was some freak of nature incident; I cautiously took another sip.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” I muttered to myself as I realized that I was maybe getting used to it. It was only my third time in the café, but I’ve been drinking it during my classes sometimes. The ‘only slightly repulsive drink’ as I have now renamed it, was actually somewhat tolerable for once.

Hayden

Fuck. I think she saw me staring at her. Maybe not, I turned my head fast enough to give me whiplash and picked up the rag when I realized she was going to look up. I covered my head with my hands as I recalled the embarrassing moment. Jeez, she probably thinks I’m some serial killer now. Smart one Hayden, real smart…

Finally I got the courage to look up again. A smile replaced the frown on my face as I saw her stare at her coffee in utter shock. I almost laughed when she hesitantly took another sip and jumped a bit. Squirming around for a few moments, she got comfortable and took a nice big gulp.

This day was actually going quite well. I somehow got up the courage to talk to Amber and that idiot guitarist wasn’t anywhere near here either. As I gave the counter another quick wash down the little bell on the door rang signaling someone’s entrance.

“Why the hell does this always happen to me?” I muttered under my breath as the guitarist from hell walked towards me. I was still cursing when he reached the counter.

“I would just like a coffee, black please.” He stated simply.

“Would you like that for here or to go?” I asked him automatically.

“Here please.” He responded, his dark brown hair tussled perfectly in his eyes. “And could you please bring it to that table over there?” I looked over to where he was pointing and quickly bit my tongue to keep from shouting.

“No problem.” I finally managed. “It’ll be up in just a moment.”

Ryan

I walked coolly over to where that crazy chick was sitting. At first I thought it might be a little rude to just walk right up there and invite myself to join her table, but then I remembered it was me who saved her life. Without me she could be dead right now. It’s a good thing I took that lifeguard training session last summer. Besides, she seemed pretty into me the last time we talked and everything so why not?

“Hi!” I said happily. “I don’t know if you remember me but-

“Of course I remember you!” She said jumping just enough to spill a little of her coffee, but still she was smiling. “You’re the guitarist who saved me!” Quickly she wiped up the spilt liquid.

“Yeah,” I said nodding my head casually. The girls always go for the head nod, it’s like, guaranteed. “Yeah, I didn’t really get a chance to talk to you or anything after that, so I was wondering if you minded me sitting down?”

“No, no of course not.” I didn’t think it was possible for her grin to get any larger. Half of her face seemed to be made up of shiny white teeth. Still, it was cute in an odd way… I don’t think this girl could not be cute.

“I’m Ryan by the way.” I said taking the chair opposite of her.

“Amber.” She replied suddenly becoming much more shy. Just then the waiter came by and handed me my drink. He didn’t seem too happy for some reason though; he kind of slammed it on the table.

“Here you are.” He said through gritted teeth. Man, what was with this guy?

“So you were in that band playing on stage when I started coughing right?” Amber interrupted my thoughts.

“Uh yep! That was me playing guitar for ‘Some Assembly Required’.”

“Ooo, cool name.” Amber said laughing. I watched as her light brown hair brushed her shoulder and then smiled.

“Yeah, I was actually the one who thought of it.” I added quickly

“Cool.”

“Mhm… so anyways… I know this is kind of fast and everything, but I have to meet the band in like five minutes and I was just wondering if you wanted to do something sometime?” I really didn’t have to meet the band but I figured conversation would flow easier between us when we went on an actual date. There was no chance she was going to say no…she seemed like she hadn’t had any contact with the guy species in awhile despite her obvious beauty.

“Uh, yeah I guess.”

“Cool.” I said winking. She smiled again and took a sip of her drink. I quickly put a ten down on the table to cover her order as well as mine and left. I don’t know why guys didn’t follow her around everywhere she went…maybe it was because she was so jumpy, I don’t know. But I do know that I am not going to let this one pass me by.