Plain Janes

o n e

I hope this book inspires you all to do something that you wouldn't have ever dreamt of doing, or take that risk that you were too scared to take before.

Because for that simple action of just reaching out and grasping something outside of your comfort zone, you have become extraordinary.

I also hope that you accept my characters and their flaws just as I have, because it's so relatable. We all have flaws, but we all know people who are willing to look past them and see the beauty that we each possess.

I can't wait to begin and end this journey with all of you, and don't try to be anyone but yourselves.

You are all beautiful in your own individual ways.
***

My gaze swept across the coffee shop until my eyes landed on him for the umpteenth time.

I took another sip of my bitter drink as I kept my eyes on his form. He flipped another page of his book.

It was the same book that he had been reading since the first day I noticed him in the coffee shop; an autobiography I believe.

My hair fell around my face, a blanket of protection in case he caught me looking at him, which he never had. I gripped my ceramic coffee mug as looked out of the large window on my left.

Small white wisps of snow fell silently to the ground at their own pace. A few leisurely gathered at the base of the small window sill placed outside.

My eyes followed one in particular that maneuvered itself into going in many different directions until it finally travelled down and out of my sight.

My fuzzy mittens lay beside me on the table, those and my hat being my only companions in the store.

Soft and gentle Christmas music floated to my ears, the smooth voice of Bublé rang in my head as I sat alone in the small shop.

I honestly wasn't lonely, and I realized that I preferred coming to the coffee shop alone rather than with a chatty soul.

I preferred all of the little things I noticed in my isolation that I probably wouldn't have spared the time to notice otherwise.

His daily presence being one of those things.

He came into the coffee shop at the exact same time everyday, eight fifteen on the dot. He never failed to walk through the heavy door at that exact time, slipping off his mittens and hat once inside.

He then proceeded to wait in line and order whatever it is that he wanted and made his way to a table in the corner of the store on the opposite side of the one I always chose.

Then he would pull out his autobiography from his worn satchel that lounged on the side of the chair he sat in, and read a couple of pages until he finished his drink.

Then he cleared his area, put on his mittens and his hat, wrapped his neck in a thin red scarf, and make his way out of the store silently.

Everyday it was the same routine.

Everyday he continued to walk into the store without noticing my gaze.

And everyday he continued to walk out of the store with me sitting there, realizing that another day had passed without me knowing anything about him.

I'm not sure why I was so intrigued with him, with knowing him.

He was ordinary. His brown hair was short and laid flat against his ears, as he took his grey hat off upon entering the shop every morning.

If I had to use one word to describe him at first glance, maybe even second and third, it would be plain.

He was a plain Jane, and I mean, as plain as dear old Jane could get.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this as if I'm superior to him. In fact, I truly believed I was lacking as much attention as he was. Sure, I had friends, I'm not completely isolated from the would outside of my own imagination.

Just mostly.

He always came in and took off a few layers of his winter accessories only meant for the cold. Then after he found his little wooden table in the corner that was always open, he would read.

His clothes gained him no attention besides my own, as his wardrobe seemed to host nothing more than grey, black, and a dull red.

His facial features were honestly nothing special either. He had a set of eyes, seen through his transparent glasses that were the right size for his face. He had a long nose, and a mouth, just as every other human being did, so I honestly don't know why one glance was never enough for my wandering eyes.

They always travelled back for more, because I couldn't get his ordinary face out of my head.

Maybe it was the way he had always held himself. He had an admirable wave of confidence that enveloped his being, but didn't give off a drop of ugly arrogance. Everyday he walked in with his head high, and an enviable posture that my mom always bugged me about having.

His stance told me that he honestly didn't care that he walked in everyday with drab clothing on that was ten times less than fashionable. All he cared about was retrieving his coffee and then submerging himself in the life of another, only to suck himself back out and plopping back into his own reality.

Today and he were both ordinary things to other people, a trait they both seemed to share. But to me, they were far from.

I'm not sure what was so special about today, but it was the day I decided that I wasn't going to let him leave without knowing something, anything, about him.

I had a tendency to procrastinate on a daily basis, but had already gotten all of my Christmas shopping out of the way, so I, considering the fact that it was winter break, had nothing but time.

Except time didn't exactly like that, so it seemed to be flying by at the moment.

Time that was quickly being nipped away as the clock ticked on without a clue to my dilemma.

He was going to leave soon. I couldn't let him leave, I didn't want him to leave.

So with a courage that I had to dig around to find, I got up clutching my coffee in my hand as I took slow, tentative steps towards him.

He was too wrapped up in his book to notice me, but I definitely noticed him, or at least my pounding heart did.

My ears tend to get extremely sensitive when I get nervous, so the chatter around me increased by a tenfold. People easily talked away, unaware that their loud voices were causing me to have an mini mental break down.

Finally, after what felt like years and years of walking to get to the other side of the cozy shop, my feet stop short of his table.

I paused and wait for him to look up at me, but he didn't.

The blissful warmth of the store had long left me as I stood in front of this stranger, his inattentiveness chilling me to the bone.

After what felt like too long for me to go unnoticed, I turned around to leave, my winter boots squeaking on the floor from the melted snow I had trailed into the store from outside.

As I took my first squeaky step away from him, his words stopped my actions.

"I was waiting for you to move, but I was hoping it would be into the seat across from me, not walking away."

Little did I know that when I turned around, this one ordinary man would become an important piece of my life.

This chapter is dedicated to my favorite Wattpad author, one that has an extreme talent that someone can only be born with. <3