Carolina | H.S

2

The night after the club, I decide to go out to a cafe for breakfast so that I can read and just have a bit of time to myself that isn't spent in a crying mess on my couch at home.
"Hi there, welcome to the Beachwood Cafe," the waitress says as I walk in, a large welcoming smile across her face. "Would you like a table today?"

"Hiya, yes please. Just a table for one if you have one?" I look around curiously at the busy cafe, packed with people.

"Let me just have a look for you." The kind lady walks away and around the corner of the cafe, before coming back again. "Unfortunately I don't have any small tables available, but there is a table of 6 free so you are welcome to sit there. However, if anyone else comes in I will need to use up as much of the seats as I can so would you be okay with sharing a table?"

I nod with a smile, "Of course, thank you so much!".

"No problem honey, follow me this way." I follow the waitress to my table and sit down, pulling my bag off my shoulder and grabbing the book out of the bottom. She comes back minutes later. "What would you like today?"

"I'll just have an iced mocha with a shot of vanilla please." I reply.

She gives me a look of guilt. "I'm so sorry, I forgot to say! We've run out of coffee beans - there has been issues with our supplier recently and we haven't been delivered any yet this week."

"Oh! No worries, then. I'll take a..." I look at the menu, scanning the drinks. "I'll have one of the 'gold n'greens' smoothies then please."

"Coming right up!" She replies with a smile, before turning around and going back to the kitchen.

I start to read my book, opening it on the marked page.
"George Orwell, good choice." A man wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses sits down at my table. His British accent is immediately obvious. "Sorry to disturb you, the waitress told me this was the only table available and you said you didn't mind sharing."

"Yeah, of course. That's fine! You just scared me a bit is all," I say with humour in my voice. The waitress comes back with my smoothie.

"Here is the smoothie, honey. And for you sir?"

The man looks at the menu. "I'll just have a black..."

"The coffee's out." I interrupt before he can say it.

"Oh, right okay. Thanks. In that case I'll get an English Breakfast tea please."

"Perfect, I'll be right back." The waitress says, before walking away.

He speaks up again. "Is this your first time reading 1984?" I nod my head with a smile. "What do you think?"

"It's good so far, I haven't read much though. I've heard it gets quite disturbing." I reply.

"Definitely disturbing how some parts of the dystopian lifestyle mirror our lifestyle now. It really made me consider what the effects of social media are on our generation - that's why I've stopped using it so often." As he's talking, he takes his sunglasses off. He has a familiar face.

"Sounds interesting. I'm hoping I can finish it today."

"Ah, nothing like a good reading day." He says with a smile, before pulling out a notebook and a pen.

After about 45 minutes, the guy's phone starts to ring. "Hey mate," he says as he picks it up. "What's up?... mhm... Is she pretty?... Does she know who I am?... okay so she's not a fan. I guess I'll have to change that then!... yeah I'm free tonight... brill, okay thank you Ad, send me the name of the bar and then I'll let you know how it goes in the studio tomorrow... alright mate, cheers. Bye." He puts the phone down and catches me looking at him weirdly.

"What kind of word is 'cheers'?" I say, laughing.

"It's the British way to say thanks," he laughs. "I forget you Americans don't use some of our words."
I laugh and look back at my book, but I can feel his gaze stay on me. Slowly I move my eyes to meet his, and as soon as they do he looks away like a caught puppy. He's tapping his pen on the table to a beat.

"What are you writing?" I say curiously.

"Lyrics. I'm a music artist, actually." He says bashfully.

"That's so cool, would I know any of your stuff?"

"I don't have any of my own music out yet, but I used to be in a band. One Direction?"
Shut up. They were like, really famous a couple years ago right? Alivia is gonna flip when I tell her I met a member from One Direction.

"No way! My sister was a big fan."

"Oh really? Well, I could do a video message for her or something?"

"No, don't worry about it. I don't want to draw attention to you in here. You're here to work, not meet fans."

"I appreciate it, thank you..."

"Alaila. Alaila Townes." I say, introducing myself.

"Thank you Alaila. I'm Harry, by the way. Harry Styles."

"Nice to meet you, Harry Styles."

"Likewise, Alaila Townes."

Our smiles and gazes linger on each other before we go back to our individual things. He has pretty eyes.

***

"Nope, it's too formal." Jayde is at my apartment helping me get ready for this blind date I'm supposedly going to tonight. "You need something that says  'I'm too hot for you' and not 'I'm going to my great aunt's wedding', you know?"

I give her a blank stare, displaying that I clearly don't know what I'm doing. Jayde is an up-and-coming stylist, and I'm very lucky to have her talented stylist abilities for free as part of the best friend 'contract', but sometimes I have no idea what she's talking about. To me, a dress is a dress and jeans are jeans. I didn't know that different lengths were for different formalities!

"Okay, let me see what you've got," she says, before pushing past me and in to my closet. She starts flicking through the dresses on my rack. I'm definitely not short of dresses - grandma made sure of that - I'm just rubbish at choosing. I am the most indecisive person you can ever meet, and being the most self conscious person as well on top of that does not lead to much success when picking outfits. After about 2 minutes, she comes out of the closet (haha) with a dress and some heels in her hand. The dress is a deep red and reaches about mid thigh with a slit going up the left side. The whole of the mid section is made of a glittery mesh and the top is very low-cut. "This is perfect, Lai. Try it on."

"I don't know, J. It's so revealing." I say with an unsure tone in my voice.

"Exactly," she replies. "Perfect to show off your stunning figure!" She cups my face in her hands, squeezing my cheeks. "Aw look at my wittle best friend going on a date!" She says in a voice you would catch someone speaking to a puppy with.

I brush her off. "Shut up, J. I'll try it on." I take the dress out of her hands and go into my closet, closing the door behind me. As soon as it's on and I look in the mirror, a rush of confidence courses through me. I look so fucking good, this guy won't know what hit him. "Jayde Mackellis, you fucking genius! I love you!" I say, as I open the door of the closet.

"Fucking hell, Alaila! I just had the biggest bi-panic of my life." She says, breathing out a laugh and wrapping her arms around my neck. "I'm so proud of you for this. Fuck Nate... wait no, don't fuck Nate. Fuck the guy you are meeting tonight. Or anyone for that matter. Just use protection okay! I'm too young to be an aunt!" I push her away from me, laughing at her 'motherlyness'.

"I love you so much Jayde. You're the best," I say.

"I love you more."