Too Young // Caspar Lee

Chapter 2

We arrive in London at 5:46pm, and I'm actually excited for dinner now knowing that Alfie and Joe are with us. At least I'll know two people other than Zoe out of the 10 of us going! As we walk into Nando's, which is typical for us, I see some familiar faces on a table not too far from us. I'm not wearing my glasses, so I can't them out exactly, but I recognise some of them.

"Sup guys! This is Elle, Zoe's friend." Joe says whilst gesturing at me. I get a range of hellos from everyone. I scan the table now that I'm closer, I can see Jack, Finn and Louis, whom I've met before. Thank god, some more people I know. Maybe this won't be too awkward for me to handle.

"Hi everyone." God why do I have to be so awkward around people?!

"Come on Ellie, sit next to me over here." Zoe says leading me to the end of the table.

I sit down with Joe to my left and Zoe on my right, which makes me feel more comfortable. Opposite me sits a attractive blonde boy with piercing blue eyes, wearing a tight crew neck top from Find The Nomads. It's the same one that Joe got for me a few weeks ago. I turn to Joe and give him 'the look'. Joe and I have secret codes to tell each other things without verbally saying it - 'the look' was when you thought someone was hot, and I wasn't going to lie and say this stranger wasn't a hotty.

"That's Caspar, he's also a YouTuber." Joe whispers in my ear.

"What are you whispering about?" Caspar says, with an accent I recognise immediately.

"Oh nothing" I giggle, "you have a beautiful South African accent by the way. My mother talks like that." Yes, Elle, compare him to your mother. That will really flatter him.

"Yeah I'm from there, I moved here last year. Are your parents from there then?" He asks while putting on a pair of reading glasses. Crap, I should probably put mine on too. I can't see a thing.

"Yeah they are, I moved from there to just down the road from Zoe when I was 4. I lost my accent obviously, it has been 16 years!" I say, trying my best to make him laugh.

"Oh yeah, of course." He laughs. I made him laugh, result.

"I'm Elora by the way, but you can call me Elle."

"I'm Caspar, it's a pleasure to meet you." Oh yes, a pleasure. This is going well.

During dinner, me and Caspar talk about everything we have in common, from South Africa to loving food and sleeping. I get a text from Alfie, who's sitting on the other side of Zoe, which confuses me seen as he could just talk to me.

From: Alfie

"You and Caspar seem to be getting along nicely, glad you came to dinner now? 😉"

I look over at Alfie with a smirk on my face, trying my hardest not to giggle. He gives me the same smirk back. Obviously Zoe had told him I was nervous about going.

"So Elle, what are you doing tomorrow?" Caspar asks cheekily.

"I'm available." I say, trying to play it cool and not burst out in excitement that Caspar was asking me out.

"Cool, you wanna hang or something, maybe? We could do something in London? You and Zoe and Joe can stay with me and Alfie so you won't have to drive back or get a hotel." He suggests.

"Already asking her to spend the night are we Caspar? A bit cheeky don't you think?" Jack says, nudging his friend in the arm and winking at me. Caspar looks down at the ground and smirks, trying not to laugh and beat Jack at the same time.

"I don't mind." I giggle in nervousness.

"Cool, then it's a date." We smile at each other before Zoe gestures me to go to the toilet with her to gossip.

As we enter the toilet Zoe lets out a "OH MY GOD!"

"Shhhh Zoe! They'll hear us!" I say whilst coving her mouth to stop her from shouting anymore.

"Caspar just asked you out after meeting him for 2 hours?! He doesn't normally do that!"

"Really? Joe said he was the 'slut' of YouTube."

"Yes that's his act, Ellie. He's actually only had 2 proper girlfriends in reality - and you might be his third!" She says with a wink.

"I doubt it Zo, we've only just met."

"Well, you know what they say, 'third times a charm'." What if I did end up being Caspar's girlfriend?

We reapply our lipstick and faff with our hair until we're ready to go back out and finish dinner. As we sit down, Jack randomly says to me "Your eyes, they're incredibly blue and twinkly in this light. They're fantastic, beautiful even." I thank Jack for the compliment and then look over at Caspar to see his reaction. He seems to be slightly jealous, but he's hiding it well. At least he's jealous, it means he likes me, which is good news as I like him too.