all our stars, bench trio

chapter thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

june 11, 2021

ELIZABETH GOLD: Can you pick up a latte for me while you're there?

"Oh, um, sorry, and a medium-" The barista gives me a dirty look for wasting his time and my lack of latte terminology knowledge. "-iced latte with a pump of caramel and soy milk." The worker nods like I'm an imbecile. "Um. Thanks."

"Large hot chocolate with whipped cream and an iced latte with a pump of caramel and soy milk?" The guy is South Asian, I think, with a streak of purple in his buzzcut and a look on his face that says that he would rather be literally anywhere but in a Starbucks in Chesapeake, Virginia, serving a gay moron.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Mhm."

A pretty, familiar girl, hair dyed bleach blonde, runs in, grabs the barista's face, and kisses him. I flinch. He furrows his eyebrows, breaks away, and murmurs a couple sentences into her cheek, smiling. I stand frozen at the pick-up counter, staring. She stands starry-eyed at the counter as he makes her drink before mine. And, unfortunately, she's familiar for a reason.

Samantha Wiley is feet away from me. And there's nothing for me to do except stare.

I think she catches on, because she breaks eye contact and looks at me instead. Sam bites the inside of her cheek.

"Hey," I whisper, not even loud enough for her to hear.

She walks over, shaking in the knees a little bit. "Hi."

"Hey," I say again. There's an uneasy silence. "Uh, you look good." I cringe at myself.

"Erm, thanks. You too, June."

"It's uh- It's been awhile."

"Yeah. Guess it has."

"Um. Anything new going on?" I hate this. Why am I furthering this conversation? Why am I stupid?

She does not mention her boyfriend — I know this already. Instead, she says "I'm going to LCAD once the school year starts." I frown. I don't know what that stands for. Sam understands. "Laguna College of Art and Design," She clarifies.

"That doesn't sound like it's in Virginia."

She adjusts the strap of her tank-top. "California."

"Wow. That's... big."

"Yeah. It is." Am I supposed to be sharing? Is it my turn? I feel like it might be, but it's not like I'm going to college. Should I lie, just to keep the conversation going?

Samantha saves me by talking again. "Listen, I'm sorry, June. It shouldn't have ended the way it did, and that's completely my fault. You didn't deserve that."

My name curls off her tongue. I take a sharp breath. "No, it's okay. It's okay." We were... We were young. We didn't know what we were doing."

"No," She insists. "I was old enough that I should've known better. I'm sorry," She takes a deep breath. "Listen, I'm probably not gonna see you again, so... so I'm glad that I got to apologize. I bite my lip and nod.

"Yeah. Yeah, me too."

Another barista brushes green locs behind her ear before handing me my drinks.

I shift my weight back and forth between feet. "Um, well, I've... I've gotta go. Mum'll be waiting for me."

She bites her cheek again. "Tell her I said hi."

I nod and borderline-run out the door.

One of Wilbur's YCGMA songs plays over the aux speakers. I stare at the car in front of me. Its license plate reads "WASSUP".

I sigh for the billionth time this evening. No matter how long I wait, I will never not be stuck on Samantha Wiley. 

a/n: this is a short one but you deserved a quick update

also i know eating and sleeping and drinking water is hard! so i'm going to ask you to maybe take a tiny step today but if you can't do it today that's completely okay! you're important and worthy of being loved and beautiful and amazing, okay?

peace and fucking love, baby,

patchyshack