Chapter 11- The Coffee Shop

AN: Here's a double update in celebration of 1k! ^^

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I instinctively reach up and pull the metal chain hanging from the ceiling to turn the light on.

"So, why are we in a closet Raven?"

"I don't know, you tell me. What did you want to ask me again?"

"To skip the last two classes, fast forward to the end of the day, so I can get out of here!"

"Why?"

"I don't know, I'm just so mad for some reason and I have already taken it out on you and Ashley and even sassed my teacher! I don't want to hurt anyone and I've already lost everyone I have ever loved. I just don't know how to stop." By this point I can feel a few warm wet tears stream down my cheeks and I quickly use the side of my hand to wipe them away. "I just- I just want-" I can't even finish my sentence as I am sliding down the door and covering my face with my hands, erupting into a whirlwind of sniffles and tears.

I can't find a source of all this emotion. But then I realise, it's me. I'm just a complete hurricane of disaster and anyone who comes close to me gets hurt. As these thoughts continue to viciously claw the inside of my brain, I feel a soft arm wrap around my shoulders and squeeze my arm reassuringly. I look up from my wrinkled hands to Raven who I can tell is trying to help me calm down, but she probably isn't good with that sort of thing. Even so, just the gesture makes the biggest difference in my eyes.

"You haven't lost everyone." Her voice is meek, barely a whisper.

"What?" I wipe my nose along the sleeve of my blue hoodie.

"Well, you haven't lost your brother." I look at her with slight confusion as she continues. "You haven't lost your family." Raven sighs and leans into my side. "You're lucky that you still at least have your family, some people don't have that."

"Raven, did you- are you okay?" She wipes a small tear from her left eye and smiles unconvincingly at me. "Raven, if you want to talk about, well anything then I'm here, okay? You're my best friend."

At this statement, she turns to me in disbelief, but then smiles, a small, but beautiful smile. We sit in silence for a while, leaning against each other in a small closet by the worst water fountain in the school. After a while, Raven breaks the silence.

"I've never really had a friend before, you know."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I've only had my brother until recently, and I never thought I could be happy again."

"Well, are you happy now?"

"Actually, I think I am. The first time in a really long while."

"I am too."

There is a pause before Raven speaks up again.

"Luna, I have to tell you somethi-" Suddenly the door behind us disappears and we both fall onto the cold tiled floor, as a man stands over us. Shit. I forgot to close the door when I came in and now the janitor has found two random teenage girls in his supply closet, right before Raven was going to tell me something! We scramble up to our feet to meet our doom.

"What are you doing?" The man standing before us has a rich accent, accompanied with a thick mustache and slicked back hair.

"Uh, just cleaning, or something." I quickly grab Raven's hand and pull her away from that awkward situation as fast as humanly possible. We round a corner and find an unused hallway, all doors are shut and have classes going on inside. We are both breathing heavily, reminding me that I should probably exercise more often.

"I don't usually have to run in situations like that, I always just make time fast forward!" Raven seems to be in as bad of shape as I am, as she is gasping for air. I let out a breathy laugh before settling down with deep inhales of air.

"Hey, what were you going to say before, you know, that guy barged in?" I question.

"Oh, nothing, doesn't really matter right now." I don't press forward on it, see, I'm trying this new thing called being kind.

"Ok. So, can you send me an hour into the future please?"

"Bet you're not used to asking that question often." Raven raises an eyebrow and laughs, her tongue slightly poking out between her teeth.

"No, I guess not." I laugh along with her, it feels good to laugh.

"Alright," Raven cracks her knuckles, "let's do this."

Raven pulls me into yet another closet, before shutting the door and locking it behind us.

"Won't be making that mistake again. Especially for this," She mutters.

"Why are we in a closet, again?"

"Because if we aren't, people might be a bit confused."

"Oh, right. So when are you gonna zap us forward?"

"I already did."

"What?" I unlock and open the door to find everyone leaving their last class as the bell rings.

"Wow, that was fa-" When I turn around I find that Raven is gone, as usual. Great. I walk through the halls and pass by the first closet I found myself in today. I quickly dart into the closet to pick up my backpack and speed through the halls, hoping no one saw my backpack in such an odd location. I am about to make my way out the door, into the cool of a budding autumn afternoon, when I am lurched backwards by the handle of my backpack.

"What the hell? Who-" I spin around in alarm to find a chocolate haired boy, smiling awkwardly towards me.

"Lucas?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you so much! I just didn't want my best buddy ditching me like that!"

"Ditching you? I wasn't- oh..." the realisation hits me like a ton of bricks.

"Remember? We said we were gonna hang out after school?" Lucas tries to jog my memory and I quickly respond.

"Yeah, sorry, I just forgot somehow," I admit guiltily.

"How could you forget about your favorite history pal, Luna?" He swings his arm around my shoulder goofily, causing my to cheeks redden as I let out a laugh. "So where do you want to go? We could go to the coffee shop in town, or the pizza place, or something else, whatever you want!"

"Well, pizza of course-" I then second guess myself. It kind of feels like I'm betraying Raven if I go to the pizza place with someone else. To me, now that I know that Raven likes pizza too and we are going together this weekend, it feels weird to be making plans to go with someone else.

"Ok. Pizza it is then!" Lucas starts leading me out the door, when I stop him, shrugging his arm off my shoulder.

"Actually, do you mind if we go to the coffee shop instead? I'm not really feeling up for pizza right now."

"Sure, if you want to, although I don't understand how you can not be up for pizza." He jogs to catch up with me, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his sweatshirt. We make our way through winding sidewalks of the city, making light conversation as a cool breeze swirls through our hair. Our noses are tinted pink from the sudden cold and cheeks aglow.

"Don't you think the sudden change of temperature will cause a tornado?" I ask, thinking of the blazing heat from yesterday.

"Maybe, but there hasn't been a tornado here in like a hundred years, so probably not."

"True. I kind of like the cooler weather better. It's better to curl up with hot cocoa than to burn alive outside while trying to suntan," I comment.

"Yeah, I wish it would be winter sooner, so I could go skiing again and build a snowman with my sister and all that fun stuff."

"Wouldn't it be fun to go sledding with our siblings sometime in the winter? I usually go with Aidan every year, but it would be nice to have some company with us for a change."

"Yeah! Sounds really fun!" His eyes are shining as he looks over at me with a smile the color of fresh snow. I smile warmly at the thought of the four of us together, having fun, something I don't get enough of. Soon we are standing before a rustic looking coffee shop and as we enter through the door, a small bell rings cheerily and warm air completely surrounds our slightly frozen faces. We walk over to a cozy looking booth and sit down at either side of the table. A friendly looking lady with her hair cut into a brownish-reddish bob and a pad of paper in her hand approaches our table, asking for our orders. No one really needs a menu in this cafe anymore, everyone is so familiar with it's sweet smells and scrumptious delights that menus are not an issue. Plus, most of the options are scrawled onto a large chalkboard above the front counter.

"I'll have a hot chocolate and a croissant please," I say politely, my voice reaching a higher pitch than usual.

"Could I have the same as her please, except I'll have a donut instead of a croissant please. Thanks." The waitress leaves the table and I start laughing.

"What?" Lucas puts his hands on his hips defensively.

"You could've just said that you wanted a donut and hot chocolate!" I giggle.

"Well pardon me for using the incorrect sentence structure for your liking. Would you like me to come to you first before asking for an ice water too?" He mocks. His smug face turns into a bright one as he erupts into laughter. I join him and we continue to laugh and tease each other over the matter until our food arrives.

"Thank you!" I dismiss the waitress as she finishes serving our delights.

"So I want to ask you something and you can say no if you want to, it's not necessary of you to come."

"What?" I ask curiously, eager to hear his question.

"Well my mom is making me go to this fancy dinner party thing and asked if I wanted to bring friends, so I decided to ask you." Lucas nervously scratches the back of his head, waiting for my answer.

"Sure! I'd love to come! When is it?" His face lights up when he hears my response and quickly answers my question.

"I'm pretty sure it's on the sixth of September, if that's alright with you."

"Yeah, should be fine, I'll have to check with my mom, but it should be okay."

"Okay, yay! I was sorta afraid you would say no and I would be forced to bring my disgusting cousin Jessica and her friend Becky along."

"Why both?"

"Well Jessica and Becky are basically inseparable even though Jessica just treats her like crap all the time."

"Wow, I would never be able to put up with an ignorant friend for that long!"

"Yeah, they've been friends for twelve years, I honestly don't know why Becky is still friends with that bi- uh stupid person." He catches himself before accidentally swearing, making me laugh at his politeness.

"Why is your mom making you go to this party thing anyways? I didn't think any fancy parties would want kids like us there." I take a long sip of hot chocolate and exhale a steaming breath.

"Yeah I guess she probably wants to show how she's teaching me to be a 'gentleman'," He uses air quotes to express the word, "and how I'm going to be some world class business man or something when I'm older."

"Is that what you want?"

"Well, of course not, who would want to be some business person when they could live life on the edge and be a professional skier or snowboarder‽"

"Then you should be a professional snowboarder or skier or whatever, your mom doesn't control your life."

"Well, clearly you've never had a controlling mom before!"

"No, I guess not, but it's your life, not her's! If you want to live life on the edge, then I say do it! If you don't, you will have some boring life as a business manager or whatever and won't have any fun or have any time to do things like this." I gesture to the cafe's interior with wooden walls and oak tables.

"Wow. Who knew you could be such an inspirational speaker, maybe you could be that when you grow up!" He laughs at this thought.

"Sure," I say sarcastically. "But really, I want to make video games, it just seems really fun."

"Wow, that's cool! Who knew you could be so interesting?"

"Hey! I don't know whether to be flattered or offended."

"Probably both," Lucas laughs and watches me as I stifle a giggle by covering my mouth with my sweatshirt sleeve. "So I'm gonna text my mom and let her know you're coming too."

"Too? Who else is going?"

He looks up from his phone and casually replies, "Ashley."

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AN: heyyyy! well...i hit 1k reads! thank you so much guys it's so cool! i decided to celebrate the occasion with a double update(wow! amazing!), so hope you liked it. by the way, it isn't a big deal, but i wanted to know how people felt if i used occasional swear words in this story cause i know some people can feel uncomfortable with that and i want you to be comfortable reading my story! thanks!

Q&A: now that i've hit 1k, I had promised to have a q&a but no one will ask any questions so that has been cancelled. Look forward to the next update though!

Shoutouts: i have a couple shoutouts. first is to Flutobff because i got the idea of a fancy dinner party from their story, so please check it out! second shoutout is to StarGalaxy8 because her story is absolutely stunning so far i would 100% recommend going to read it!

see ya l8r!

-MoonSpirit :)

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