Reach Out to Me

|Chapter 11|

Elías regretted drinking coffee with his breakfast. It was three hours later and his leg was continuously bouncing up and down. He tried his best to get the coffee out of his system by drinking three glasses of water, but all it led to was numerous trips to the bathroom and a stomach ache.

He peered nervously towards the door again, waiting until London walked through the double doors. Elías had asked for London's number from Ava and promptly texted her, asking her to meet him at the cafe down the street. London had responded with a short "kk" after Elías had specified the time and location.

His phone chirped with a notification. Elías flinched and dropped his phone, making a sickening thud sound as it hit the floor. He gingerly picked it up and unconsciously sighed when he saw it was only Minjoon texting him.

Look behind you.

Elías craned his neck around to look at Minjoon who sat a few booths back, looking nonchalantly at his phone. Everything about him was casual, his posture and facial expression and everything... except for his outfit. He was dressed in a black leather jacket, black tinted sunglasses, and a fake beard that he had pulled out from God knows where.

I told you to ditch the beard. It looks fake.

It completes the look.

Elías rolled his eyes. He was all for Minjoon coming into the cafe with him in the beginning, but now he wasn't so sure.

His phone chirped again

You're ten minutes early. Stop stressing so much.

Checking the time on his phone, Elías noticed that Minjoon was right. Truth was, he had actually come fifteen minutes early. He couldn't wait any longer.

He turned his phone face down on the counter and turned the ringer off. Elías inhaled deeply and remembered the poem he read. Dead Star, dead star, he chanted to himself internally. He moved his lips and closed his eyes in concentration.

"You okay there?" asked London, startling him.

He snapped his eyes open and saw London standing in front of him, her face way too close to comfort. Elías could see every beauty mark on her face and the line of freckles along the bridge of her nose. There was something so open about her face that made it so trusting. If only her words could convince him.

"Yeah, just thinking."

London hummed in response as she took a seat in front of him. "Didn't think I'd see you this early."

"Same." Elías observed.

"Yeah, guess we're both early birds." London chuckled nervously. "My mom was always an early bird too. I inherited them from her. Now my dad. He was always late. Was almost late to his own wedding."

She saw Elías's puzzled expression and trailed off her last sentence. Elías saw with surprise that London was pulling down the sleeve of her dress apprehensively. Her eyes flitted from Elías to the table. She seemed uncharacteristically nervous.

"Everything okay?" Elías asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I've just been worried about you," replied London.

Elías's heart warmed at her statement. "I'm doing good."

"Sorry about the scare at my apartment. I was just trying to play a prank on you," London said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, exposing the bright yellow hoops hanging from her ears.

"I wanted to talk to you about that actually," Elías said. London was obviously lying and there was no way that he was letting her lie to him this time. "Listen, London. I know you weren't pulling a prank on me. There's no way you could have tripped me and whispered something in my ear five feet away. Let me know what's going on and I can try to help."