caffeine scars ↛ larry au

o n e

Lou

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I walked into the café shaking off the usual London rain. "Hey Ni," I greeted the chirpy blonde waiter and also my best friend. "Heyyy Tommo! What are you up to? It's an hour before you usually get here." I shrugged, giving him a sad glance hoping he would drop the subject.

I didn't really want to talk about my break up. "Erm... yeah.... something happened and I'm free now so I thought I'd, you know um, drop by." I stumbled around my words.

Niall nodded understandingly and went back to the game he was playing on his phone. Coffee Crave was small and the customers were mostly just regulars who came daily for their caffeine fix.

Niall put my usual, a chocolate macchiato with whipped cream and chocolate syrup & a blueberry muffin, in front of me, sitting down to talk.

I glanced around the tiny room and noticed the boy in the corner instantly. Wow, good set of curls.

I laughed at myself and my weird kink for curly hair before turning back to the intriguing boy. Everything he did captured my attention and was mysterious.

The way his sad green eyes scanned the menu. His long nimble fingers nervously drummed on the table. The beaten boots that shuffled on the ground. That sinful tongue of his would swipe across lips wetting them slightly and making my stomach flip. His jawline that flexed every time he made a slight movement. He was wearing tight jeans that were practically leggings, which showed off his legs quite nicely. Every few minutes he would reach up to shake out his hair and move it away from his face.

That's when I saw them. Little pink scars that lined his otherwise milky white wrist.

I wonder why he's sad. I want to fix him. I want to hold him and kiss away his tears. How could such perfection feel the need to harm themselves. I mean, I don't even know him but I can tell Mystery Boy deserves the world and I intend to give it to him.

My thoughts caught me off guard at their sincerity and snapped me back to attention. I noticed him looking at me now. Eyebrows furrowed and confusion masked on his features. A heated blush crept onto my face and I quickly turned around realizing he caught me staring.

"Mate, why don't you go talk to him and stop eye-raping the poor guy."

"I..I wasn't eye-raping him... I just broke up with Eleanor, Ni. I was just taking notice on his new appearance. It's not everyday someone comes in," I lied, still confused myself why I was already interested in this bloke when I had a break up not even an hour ago.

I wasn't even thinking about El and we were dating for 2 years... Hell, I even thought I was going to marry her.

"Lou, you were staring at him for the past 10 minutes. I was telling you about this stupid app Flappy Bird; were you even listening?" I shrugged and apologized but he just laughed, patting me on the back before going to his job in the kitchen.

Always the happy little leprechaun. I laughed lightly at his cheerfulness but stopped when I felt eyes on me. You know that feeling when you can tell someone's staring at you, well that's what I felt.

It's probably Mystery Boy shooting daggers into my back for staring at him. What if he hates gays. Wait, what?

Since when am I gay? For fucks sake, I just called myself gay and I just broke up with a girl. What's happening to me.

I huffed in annoyance at myself. Could this day get any worse? My girlfriend and I broke up and now I'm gay.... No I'm not gay, I just fancy the boy in the corner. Mystery Boy. Okay this is ridiculous I should get the guy's name.

I turned around and was met with a deep forest green gaze. We stared at each other for a few seconds. Blue and green. Green and blue. And I knew that his shade of eyes was now my favorite color. They were so intense and held so many secrets. Just by looking into his eyes you could tell that he's been through a lot.

I could stare into his beautiful eyes forever but I guess he had other plans because his eyes then darted to his coffee.

"Finally, you and Curly done staring into each other's souls?" Niall's voice dripping with sarcasm at the end. "Oi, shut up leprechaun. I'll probably never see him again," I laughed and playfully pushed his shoulder. My heart instantly dropping at the possibility of never seeing the stranger again. "And if you do?"

"Um, if I do see him again then I'll go talk to the lad, now stop being an arse and go back to work." Niall just beamed and held up his pinky. I narrowed my eyes at him and hooked our pinkies.

Yeah its childish but pinky promises are sacred in this friendship.

I turned back to my coffee taking a sip. Hopefully Mystery Boy will become a regular. Not many, people can taste the goodness that is Coffee Crave and NOT come back. Pleeeeaaassseeeee come back stranger, please please please please. How pathetic of me i'm mentally begging. He's making me a mess.

I rubbed my temples and I just knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep. Even if Mystery Boy doesn't show up, I will probably go to the ends of the Earth to find him again. I wouldn't get very far as I didn't even know his name.

I cursed myself for being a coward and not being able to go right now but if he doesn't show up tomorrow then you know what they say: everything happens for a reason.

Sighing, I started to pick at my muffin, my appetite was gone and all I wanted was the secretive curly-headed boy in the corner.

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i'm gonna try and make every chapter at least 1,000 words (not including the author notes) and in case you didn't notice the italicized words like this are thoughts.

thanks for reading :)

xx Kayla