Everest

Confession: I don't mind staying out as long as I possibly can, so don't have to go home.

I stopped by The Basement, but Mikey was leaving for his dad's house for the week. And now I'm even stopping by Bisklin street because I don't know where else to go. I drove around the street three times before I finally decided to go to the cafe.

Whether or not Beverly has a shift today doesn't even cross my mind as I approached the daunt coffee shop. The closer I approach the shop, the internal battle inside of my head increases. I know she invited me to come, but I don't think she meant so soon.

I walked across the wet pavement and pulled open the door. The warmth instantly surrounding me, I took in the place. The first thing that caught my eye was the girl singing softly on a stage and playing her guitar, people were sitting at tables alone either typing away on their laptops or having a cup of coffee with a friend. The place smelled like indescribable spices.

It was all calming.

"Whoa, who's the cutie?" I turned my head to face two girls that looked identical. They both shared the gene of red hair but it was obvious that one shade of the red was darker.

The darker haired twin walked over to me and smiled slyly. She was the fox and I was the chicken.

"Hey, I'm Rose."

The lighter redhead stayed behind and threw me a smile and a wave, before turning and tapping on a blonde that shared the same distinct features as the other two. A guy with a long beard, that was standing with her, turned to look at me.

The eyes and the stares bothered me. I felt as though I was being violated the right of ever being viewed as a normal person. The change from the gazes of admiration to judging is astonishing.

"Everest." I kept it simple and didn't even throw a fake smile like I usually do. My lip remained in it's thin line and I was sure that my eyebrows tightened together as well.

A small gasp entered the room, the gasp was so discreet that if the room wasn't so quiet, there would be no way that I would have heard it.

"You came." I turned behind me and seen Beverly smiling, even her eyes brightened up and I couldn't understand why.

She walked from behind the counter and towards me. She ventured through the triplets and bearded guy and wrapped her arms around my torso in a tight hug.

I immediately tensed.

"You know this guy?" the fox asked. Such a perplexing question due to the fact that Beverly doesn't actually know me.

"Yeah, he goes to my school and I invited him to come check the place out," she spoke after she released her arms from around me, her face a tad disappointed that I didn't hug her back.

The guy with the beard tapped her hard on the shoulder and chuckled loudly. "Good job Betty! Keep bringing in customers."

Betty?

Her face was slack as she murmured her actual name, but I think I was the only one who noticed.

"Hey, weren't you on the news? For—" the light red-haired girl began to say to me, her eyes searching for recognition.

"Poppy! You can't just ask people stuff like that. He couldn't have been the guy who—" Rose cut her off, giving me an apologetic look.

"Tried to kill himself? Yeah, that's me." I cut off the fox, my bluntness even shocking me.

Their mouths took the shape of circles, but Beverly just stared at me. I'm starting to notice that she does that a lot. But it doesn't really bother me as much as the other ones do, her eyes aren't judging but just curious.

"Wow, how did you do it? They didn't tell us on the news. Isn't your dad Frank Finley from Finley corporations? Dude, is there any way you could advertise our lil ol' place? It would really help—"

"Poppy!" The blonde spoke for the first time. She turned towards me with a sad smile, and I wanted to shut my eyes so I wouldn't have to see it.

"Twenty three years old and she still doesn't have a filter. I'm so sorry. You can order anything, it'll be on the house for whenever you're hungry." She tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Really Lily? He's filthy rich and we are giving him free food? That makes no s—" Rose wrapped her fingers around Poppy's mouth.

"Shut up," she scolded her and I looked over at Beverly who was now staring at the stage. She must have felt my gaze because she turned back towards me and nodded her head towards a table near the stage.

We sat at the small square table and she propped her head up, her chin laying upon her fist and her elbow grounded to the table. She did that weird staring thing again and I directed my eyes towards the stage.

"Sorry about Poppy, she's kind of—"

"It's cool." I shrugged it off and looked back at the stage.

"No it wasn't," she mumbled, and from the corner of my eye, I seen her take a bite from a muffin.

We sat in comfortable silence for a while until she started staring at me again. Her large brown eyes reading me.

"Did your mom ever tell you it's rude to stare?" I asked, turning to stare at her now.

"Nope," she answered innocently, sincerely.

"Well it is," I replied, slightly annoyed.

"Sorry," she apologized and looked away at the stage. Oblivious, to the little crumbs that took home on her cheeks. She even had bits of the crumbs in her curly black hair, I wanted to remove them but I ignored that feeling. Now that I'm looking at her hair, it's oddly distracting, the large kinky spirals that covered her head were almost hypnotic.

"Did your mom ever tell you it's rude to stare?" she threw my words back at me in a teasing smile.

"I... you... uh, the crumbs." I gestured to my cheek. She brushed them off her cheek and missed a spot, but I didn't say anything. I already made myself look stupid, and thought it would be best if I didn't say anything else.

"You know what I've realized about you?" She chuckled softly, eyes bright and knowing.

"What?"

"You've turned into like this... dark cloud," she voiced and took another bite from her muffin.

"Excuse me?"

She looked quickly at the ceiling and visibly thought for a second while she chewed. "You're like this gloomy shadow, just floating around, ready to explode."

"Sorry?" I didn't really know what else to say.

"No, don't be. Because without those clouds, we wouldn't have rain."

"But rain ruins," I added thinking about the topic. We all seek shelter away from the storm.

She looked at me with the sincerest eyes and shook her head like she knew something I didn't.

Beverly was an interesting person. Weird, but nonetheless intriguing. In less than twenty-four hours, she's been nothing but nice to me. Even when everyone else wasn't. Even after I was a jerk. Even after knowing I tried to kill myself.

"You know what I realized?" I asked her.

She looked at me curiously, her left eyebrow arching upwards.

"You are too positive." I watched as she started laughing.

"W-what?" she asked reeling from her laugh, her large smile, causing my lips to twitch slightly.

"I don't know. You're just too rainbows and butterflies. I could take a dump on this table right now, and you'd call it art." She laughed again but louder this time, and I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped from my mouth.

"You can't be too positive," she argued, smile still evident.

"You're too positive, it's nice to know destruction sometimes," I added.

"You hold too much destruction, it's good to have positivity too." she replied.

I eyed her half-eaten muffin and she rolled her eyes before pushing it towards me. I bit into the muffin while she stared up at the performance taking place on stage.

"This muffin has made a positive impact on my taste buds," I caught myself cracking a joke and a feeling hit me right in the gut. I can't even remember how long ago it was since I was genuinely amused.

She chuckled at my words, her eyes diverting away from the stage, downwards, and then finally meeting my eyes.

"Why don't you go home, Betty? We got it from here," Poppy yelled across the cafe.

Beverly looked up from her screen and glanced around me. "You sure?"

"Yeah, go spend time with your boyfriend." Beverly's eyes grew huge, and she fumbled over her words.

"We aren't together," she finally got out and looked at me in an embarrassed fashion. She uncoordinatedly got up from the chair and made her way behind the counter to get her bag.

I followed her and stuck my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, unsure of what to do next.

I watched as she pulled on a jacket. when she turned to grab her bag, our eyes connected.

"Do you need a ride?" I asked swinging my keys on my ring finger.

"Nice car," she commented, as she climbed into the passenger seat.

I got this car on my sixteenth birthday. Nash had spent the night when my parents 'surprised' me first thing in the morning on my birthday. I used the word 'surprised' freely because it wasn't a surprise at all. The only thing surprising that day, was when I caught Nash kissing Jacob Riley, our rival team's quarterback.

"Yeah it's alright," I answered absentmindedly, as I remembered that birthday.

The car ride consisted of awkward eye contact, September night air passing through our hair, and laughing at stupid random things.

"You can drop me off right here," she spoke. I looked around the area and there weren't any houses.

"Live at a secret location?" 

She chuckled quietly and looked at me.

"Something like that, bye Ev." She used a nickname and I found myself kind of liking it. Everyone used to refer to my name formally. Now, after my attempt, it's nothing but nicknames and horrible names. And this is the first new nickname that I've liked.

"Bye Bev." I smiled as she climbed from out of my truck.

As I drove off, I realized that Beverly was the first person who treated me like a normal person after my attempt.

A normal person.