short stories

the one - pt1

AN// so this one was heavily inspired by taylor swift's album folklore? its mostly based off the characters from the trilogy of cardigan, betty and august, bUt i did take other aspects and lyrics from the rest of the album and incorporated it in. im not trying to steal taylor swift's idea and use it as my own- full credit to her for coming up with the little plot for this. i just wanted to write the story out, with my own few twists, to tell it like this rather than through music. i have a lot of respect for her and i would never steal her idea- full credit to her, once again. you dont have to listen to the album to understand this story but its really nice and i'd highly recommend it, if you haven't heard it already :)

-

"Kiwi please," she said nicely, rocking on her heels. James nodded slowly, reaching to scoop some kiwi flavoured frozen yogurt into a cup. "Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem. He looked up at her again and she thought.

"Um, no toppings." He nodded as he stuck a plastic spoon into her cup and handed it over. She shook her head. "I don't use plastic spoons," she said, reaching into her little purse for a retractable reusable spoon.

James nodded, trying to fix the collar of his teal uniform polo shirt as he threw her spoon out. "Why not?"

"All plastic ends up in oceans, not just straws," she said, shaking her head. "I like yogurt but you should really consider promoting the use of reusable spoons, or at least handing out biodegradable ones."

James stared at her for a moment, nodding slowly. "Uh- that sounds like a good idea." She nodded and took her cup. "That's four sixty."

"Thank you," Betty said with a smile, handing him her coins. She turned to lead, the bells at the door of the shop just ringing as he called after her.

"Hey!" he called. She turned, back pressed against ht door as she pushed it slowly to leave. "My- my shift ends in a few minutes," he said. She looked down at his name tag. "We can- go out for coffee or something?"

She held up her paper cup. "I have yogurt," she said with a smile. He ran a hand through his hair, turning a little red.

"Oh, well, right-"

"But we can go for a walk if you want."

And the second James was done, he headed back to change into his sweatshirt and ran into the store, thankfully, to see Betty waiting for him. "Thanks for waiting," he said with a smile as he held the door open for her. His coworker held up a few fingers, waving and mouthing for him to have fun.

He stepped in place next to Betty as they turned the corner. "So, I'm Betty," she said, kicking a rock as she ate her yogurt.

"James."

"I saw your name tag," she said with a smile, looking up at him. He grinned, hands in his sweat pockets.

"Where are we goin', Betty?" She sighed, looking around.

"Have you ever walked around Centennial Park?" He shook his head. "It's really pretty this time around, the leaves are like gold."

"Well, you can show me around then."

She smiled. "What school do you go to?" He let out a sigh.

"I'm moving soon," he said. She nodded. "My parents got a divorce so I just moved here."

"And you already got a job?" He chuckled.

"Guess my resume's on point, hm?" She smiled. "So yeah, I'm moving- which sucks because it's senior year and there's some end of school year dance and I jsut moved and I won't have a date because I won't know anyone."