❝London sat in a booth across from his lover girl while in the midst of a hormonal high. For never having been kissed, that was surely an experience he'd never forget. Quite frankly, he actually felt ashamed. He had no clue what he was doing, he only let nature guide him. And oh, did it guide him.

The boy's ocean eyes were filled with scenery of the revamped diner. It had a few minor changes since the first time he'd stepped foot through the doors, but for the most part everything looked as it did in his childhood. There were times where he and his parents would come over to the diner- which was then an ice cream parlor- and his little eyes would scramble amongst all of the colorful flavors he was able to choose from. And sure, up until a few months ago, this place was an ice cream parlor. Recently, the owners of the place had an idea the could bring in more business if they sold food and their specialty ice creams. London wasn't about to argue about getting a scrumptious burger along with his double-scooped cone.

Anxiously anticipating her milkshake, 103 leaned forward on the table- the only thing separating her from London. Resting her chin on her palm, she noticed how his forehead crinkled when he looked confused. His curious expression resembling a lost puppy, she happened to think it was kind of cute.

"So Londie, what do you do in your spare time? You know, besides stalk Delilah and talk to me."

"I do not stalk her! I just-" and he stopped mid-sentence as his face flared up to a shade of red. Unable to continue, his lips turned into a slight pout knowing that the girl before him had the upper hand. And even she knew that she had overpowered him as the devilish smirk she sent threw his heart into a frenzy.

"I like comic books. I read a lot of them. And I guess whenever I have a little extra time, I draw too."

"So you're into nerd art? That's cool."

And if it weren't because she knew his heart belonged to another, she would've intertwined her fingers with his. Temptation was poking and prying at her every second that she tried to resist, yet what was she to do? She had no choice but to compose herself.

Crossing his arms over his chest, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her. She knew where this conversation was heading.

"But being honest, you know a lot more about me than I do you. Care to share some about yourself?" He asked.

Clasping her hands on the table between them, she met his gaze and teased him with a flirty grin. "Ah," she said, bro-nodding at him. "So you want a real introduction. You want me to bare my heart and soul before you. You want me to finally tell you my name."

"Yeah, you pretty much hit it on the nail."

And as 103 took in a deep breath of air, she waited for the inaudible drumroll to begin. Taking her hand out from her side, she quickly admired her pink colored nails as she held it out for him to shake. "I think now's a good time then. Nice to meet you, London Calvin Watkins. My name is Sophie Genevieve Price. I'm eighteen years old, in a committed relationship with my bed, and I like coffee followed by morning cuddles that I never get. Happy to make out...I mean, happy to make your acquaintance."

He wasted no time as he quickly shook her hand. His voice deepened for a quick second as he shot her a look that made butterflies go on a wild safari within her stomach. "I see what you did there, Sophie. Happy to make out with you too."

The way her name rolled so softly, so sweetly, so attractively off his lips made Sophie uncomfortably shift in her seat. It seemed as if he almost purred her name and it made her very very weak before him. This boy was a hazard to her health and mental well being. He caused weird thoughts to mindlessly float in her mind, and she desperately wanted them to go away. Regret coursed within her veins, wishing she had given him some other false name to utter. But no, she just had to give him one more thing to make her absolutely, utterly, terrifically, madly in love with him. Unbeknownst to him, he was the one who had the real advantage here.

As for London, he just felt plain stupid. How could he not have guessed this before? What a soft, gentle name for a person who seemed quite the opposite. As his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose, he adjusted them while he shook his head at her.

"Wow, I never expected that. All this time I've been waiting to hear your name and," he chuckled to himself. "Wow...Sophie..." he stated as he quizzically glanced out of the window, pondering on the very six letters that composed her sweet name.

"This is coming from the boy who is named after the capital of England."

"Okay then, Sophie. Since you want to be like that, why don't you tell me a little about yourself."

"Like what?"

Shrugging, he studied her posture as she squirmed in the booth. "Anything really."

"Well," her eyes making contact with the bright red table between them. "My favorite color is oddly pink and I enjoy reading books a little too much. Oh, and one day I want to own my very own bookstore," she proudly grinned even though her eyes shyly avoided his direct gaze.

This really caught London by surprise. He'd never met someone who had such a realistic dream for their future. There were tons of people who said they wanted to be graphic designers, biochemical engineers, or even find a cure for cancer. For this girl to give such an easily attainable goal told him a lot about her character.

"A bookstore? Of all things you want to do, want to own, why would you pick a bookstore?"

Sophie fiddled with the sleeve of her jacket, mumbling beneath her breath as she avoided his eyes once again. "I don't know."

"But surely there has to be a reason why," he pressed onward, wanting a deeper answer. How could a girl who loved scrambling through the pages of different stories be such a closed book herself?

Her gaze shifting upward, he noticed the dark shadows behind her light irises. Sophie's fingers continued to fiddle with anything she could get ahold of, something that she clearly was unaware of. But London wasn't naive when it came to things like this. Wherever the conversation was leading, he sensed it was something that either held much value to her...or quite the opposite.

"Well, growing up I always wondered what it would be like to be the hero of a story. You know, the main character who gets to go on these great voyages and find out more about herself along the way."

"Okay," he encouraged.

"Yeah, and it really helped that mom used to read to me every night before I went to bed. Tales of brave heroes warding off evil dragons, of spies finding the stolen diamond and safely returning it." And for a brief second, London couldn't help but notice the nostalgic happiness that roamed freely within her irises. Clearly, her soul was illuminated by the mere thought of indulging herself into a good story. Plus, she was absolutely adorable when she was rambling about something that made her excited.

"Am I boring you?"

"No, no!" He stated as he grinned at her. "I want to know more about your books actually. Do you have one that holds extremely sentimental value to you?"

He'd hit a sour note. Sophie's face tensed a bit as all of her fiddling and fidgeting stopped. Her posture stiff as a board, a deep sigh escaping from her soul and out through her petaled lips.

"Yeah. It's a copy of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss."

London's brows met in the middle of his forehead. Why did she seem so sad about a Dr. Seuss book? Any person he'd ever talked to about those books would get excited at the mention of the author's name. Did she hate how he constantly made up nonexistent words? Was she allergic to cats in hats?

"Wait, what? Why that one?"

Avoiding his gaze, she twiddled her thumbs beneath the table. "It's the only book my dad ever wrote a personalized message in."

With one foot already in the water, London was being careful not to plunge directly in. "Oh, that's cool," was all he managed to utter.

"It makes sense he would give me one of the most glum children's books to ever exist. Have you ever read it before?" With a hint of sass in her voice, she cocked an eyebrow at the boy across from her.

"Can't say I remember the whole thing," London admitted as his heart rate rose with every second that silence lingered.

"Well the whole premise of the story is that there's this one man who is so greedy, he basically kills all the trees in The Lorax's forest. He literally takes the homes away from the animals that live there, just wrecking their village and leaving them with nothing!" Her voice rose in anger with every word uttered and London had no choice but to shoot her a reminding look that they were still in a public place. Seriously, what did she have against Dr. Seuss?

Shooting him an apologetic glance, her eyes averted to her Converse shoes- the tattered pair she possessed for about three years now. The laces were dirty and grungy, the white soles now stained a sandy brown color. She wasn't proud of them and she would've loved to have a new pair, but there was no way she could afford them at retail price.

"Kinda like what he did to us," she softly muttered, staring off into the distance where she saw a lady filling cups at the soda dispenser in the back kitchen.

Not knowing whether he should push forward or press pause, London cautiously raised an eyebrow at her.

"Well since I'm already halfway in I might as well finish the story, right?" Shrugging nonchalantly, she noticed that London sat up a little straighter while his leg bounced beneath the table. He seemed more nervous to hear her story than for her to even tell it.

"I live with my mom and my two younger siblings. Mom takes care of our grandma who also lives with us. It can be a bit stressful on her at times, but we're making it. That's all that matters, right?" She asked, shrugging away the tears that threatened to creep upon her. She was stronger than these emotions taking over her, she was stronger than the man she used to call father.

London saw the way her face contorted to a displeased expression, saw the twinkle in her eyes fade to a dark void. Sophie's voice faltered the slightest bit as she spoke. And seeing her mood morph tugged at his heartstrings so much that he just wanted to take all of her pain from her.

"What do you mean by 'we're'?"

Awkwardly avoiding his gaze, she seemed like she wanted to curl into a ball and huddle herself away from him. "Nevermind, maybe now's not the best time to go into this. I mean, we've only just met and I don't need to make things anymore weird than they already are."

"Sophie," London sternly replied as his ocean blue eyes began to peel away the first layer of her insecurities. She was hiding beneath a cool facade but he learned a lot about girls from her phone lessons. No matter how much they say they don't want you to listen, they really just want your undivided attention. And so he was going to gift his newest companion with his great listening skills. "Your secrets are safe with me. Promise."

Sophie's eyes frantically searched his face for any hint of a lie, where she surprisingly found nothing but the truth. "Well...the hotline...isn't exactly the most fun job you know. But I need the money...to help my mom."

Blankly blinking at her confession, London felt a pang of guilt arise within his heart. He'd always thought that she just had a love for money...but was there a possibility he had been wrong all along? Was there really more to the girl that hid behind a number?

A gloss covered Sophie's eyes as she continued to spill the contents of her heart. "When dad left, times got tough. Really tough. And we just weren't making it by. It was really, really rough." Tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but her will stayed strong. She wasn't about to break down in front of her crush, not today and not ever. She wasn't about to let her father take advantage of her emotions, take control of her building friendship with the only boy she'd be interested in for a long time. "If you think you've seen stuff, imagine living in a household where your mom is constantly stressed about what bill she's going to pay and which one she's going to have to live without for the month. I've seen a lot. Phone bills turned off, cable bills, even the water one time," she said as her frame stood unshaken. Her eyes became red as a single water droplet began to stream its way down her face. London was unsure what to do. This was the absolute last thing he expected to happen!

"She was doing what she could with what she had. And I always promised myself that when I was old enough, I was going to go straight to work. I mean, who else was going to take care of her? Obviously, he wasn't. So ever since I turned sixteen, I worked at the Heartbreak Hotline. Everyday I deal with people's complaints, with old geezers disgustingly hitting on me. All for her, for us. And it's like the more we think we're finally caught up, Grandma's medical bills catch up to us. Sometimes I'm shocked we even have money for rent," she said as she wiped a dripping tear away, her facial expression still as serious as it was before.

"And I'm not saying this so you have pity on me...matter of fact, I don't even know why I'm tel-"

And to her surprise, he leaned over the table and brushed her lips so softly, so gently, so tenderly that it left her craving more. The pain and heartache that she was feeling managed to wipe away for just a millisecond as he blushed and pulled away from her. Caught off guard, she blinked numerous times unable to utter a single word.

Both their faces the same bright shade of tomato red, he slowly wiped a single one of her tears away with his thumb. She pulled her sleeves up to her face, trying to conceal both the tears and the blush that had taken over.

"Just practicing," said London as he grinned like an idiot.

And she really did need that loving gesture, even if it was from a stranger she just met. For a second in time she wished to be a delicate Delilah, to be longed after by such a nice boy. But she had to remember that this was practice and like every other man in her life, he'd find another woman and run away. Just like her dad did.

Just then, a waiter came over with their milkshakes and Sophie's heart nearly took flight. As the tense atmosphere faded into a more flirtatious one, they sipped, they giggled, shared secrets (and even the occasional kiss!) before it was time for them to part ways.

Sophie went to her little home giddy as ever, feeling more in love than she'd ever been in her entire life. And for the rest of the night, it wasn't Delilah who occupied London's thoughts. It was a broken girl named Sophie Price who unexpectedly grabbed ahold of his heart.❞

© Lightning_Stryker 2020