Coffee and Awkward Hellos

A Story by Anthony R

A very short thing I wrote a little while ago. It's writing, I think shows how awkward it is to meet new people. Especially if they're attractive.

He was too handsome to be believed. He was tall and slender with blond hair that was long and combed back on top and shaved short on the sides. His eyes were a bright yellow tone with small shimmering flecks of green. “He’s inhuman.” Luke thought to himself. His lower lip was pierced slightly left of the center, and his nose and ears were pierced as well. He was wearing a black shirt, and a snuggle fit blue jean jacket, and skinny red jeans. His clothes weren't functional in this cold December weather, but one couldn't blame him too much. Luke had spotted him as he walked into the coffee shop, and as he walked away from the counter he had noticed Luke. He caught eyes with Luke and for a second didn't recognize him, but a smile crept over his mouth. When he smiled his white teeth showed, and two perfect dimples appeared on his cheeks. The young girl at the counter called to him. The beautiful man spun around and grabbed the coffee thanked the girl, and heading for Luke's table.

"Hi, can I join you?" He asked politely. Luke pulled the white headphones out of his ears, pulled his old faded green bag off the table, and shoved the novel he had been reading into it.

"Sure." Luke answered. Luke knew the man from one of the math classes he was taking. This wasn't his first time talking with him either. They had spoken before. He had asked him for a pen during a lecture two weeks ago. Luke had only the one pen, but dumbstruck by his beauty he handed him the one he was using. A mistake he regretted later when he had no notes to help with his homework. He found himself very nervous.

"So what do you think of the class so far?" The beautiful man asked. Luke stumbled with the words in his mouth. The problem wasn't the words themselves the real problem was getting them to line up single file, and form a sentence.

"Really good so far hard but good you" He blurted out. He realized that with all his fussing over the words themselves he had forgotten punctuation. He felt stupid, and embarrassed. He took a drink of hot coffee from his comically over sized mug trying to hide his face. The beautiful man smiled and poured milk into his coffee cup, and four spoons of sugar, dipped his wooden stick into the cup and stirred gently. His eyes looked up and meet Luke's as he continued to stir.

"It okay I guess. I'm terrible at math, so I feel lost most of the time. And the homework is killer. I'll spend almost two hours on one worksheet, and I still have all the homework from my other classes, then I have to wake up early to be at work." For a second he looked away, and Luke could see the tired in his face. Luke wanted to help him. Of course he wanted to do other things with him, but he felt that it was a bit early for that. He thought that he might learn his name first.

"You know, I'm pretty good at math." He could feel a cold sweat on his head starting to appear. Luke whipped it away with his hand. "I could maybe help you." Luke was suddenly very aware of himself. The sweat was coming back, and his smile was definitely noticeably nervous. His clothes didn't fit him like he wanted. He felt stupid for wearing shorts when it was so cold out. He took another drink from his coffee, this time taking to much in, and burning his tongue. He flinched and bit his lower lip hiding the pain. "If you wanted help." He quickly added.

His eyes got wide and his white teeth showing as he smiled. He was touching Luke’s arm as he asked. "Really?" Luke smiled back, shrugging.

"Why not?" Luke thought of several reasons why not. He thought of the inconvenience to himself. He thought of all the stupid things he could say to him. He thought of how he was mediocre at best in math. But he also knew that if he had a reason to spend any time at all with this Apollo like creature, it would be worth it in the long run.

“You don’t know how helpful that would be for me...” The blond man paused searching his memory for Luke’s name, finding nothing. His coffee mug was halfway to his mouth when he realized he didn't know it. He tilted his head slightly, placed his mug on the table before it reached his mouth. He looked almost upset at himself.

“I don’t know your name.” He said with genuine regret. “I just sit down with you. I make you stop reading your book, and complain about all my problems. Then you offer to help me. All that, and I haven’t even asked you your name.” He paused for a moment. “That was super rude of me.” He extended his arm. “Hi. My name is Foster.” Luke shook Fosters hand and felt his strong grip. He smiled as he did so, wondering if his hand felt sweaty.

“If it makes you feel any better I never asked your name either.” Luke said starting to feel a little more comfortable.

“That's it then. We're both a******s.” Foster laughed as he leaned back in his chair, and took his first drink of his coffee. He made a face as he swallowed.

“What’s wrong? Does the coffee taste bad?” Luke asked.

“All coffee tastes bad.” Foster smiled, and looked down at his mug disapprovingly. “I can’t stand coffee, but my next class is two hours of straight lecture, and I need to be awake to pass the class.”

“I find staying conscious is the hardest thing to do sometimes.” Luke joked. Foster was showing his dimples again. That made Luke smile. “Luckily I have an unnatural taste for coffee. I have to stop myself from drinking the stuff. It’s an actual addiction now. I don’t think I could stop if I wanted to.” Foster laughed, and Luke wonder if he was being polite or if he was attracted to him. Luke wasn’t even sure Foster was gay. He had made that mistake before. Making a move on a guy thinking they were hitting it off only to be embarrassed when they rejected him. He had even been beaten up for it once in high school. Luke wanted to avoid that if he could. His sister and brother would often make fun of him for being oblivious to other men hitting on him.

Foster pulled his phone out of his front jacket pocket, and checked the time. The phone was an older model of the newest smart phone. The phone was covered in a light blue phone case with a white peace symbol on the back. He looked a little upset at what he saw.

“Well, I should probably head to class now.” Foster stood up his eyes not leaving the phone screen. He poked at his phone, and it made little clicking noises. When the clicking stopped Foster looked up from his phone at Luke. “Can I get your phone number?” Foster held the phone in his left hand, and pushed a few strands of loose hairs back with his finger. “So you can help me with the math homework.” He added.

“Oh, yeah.” Luke had already forgotten about offering to help him. Luke gave him his number. Before leaving Foster took three large gulps of his coffee made a noise, said goodbye to Luke, and left the coffee shop. Luke watched beautiful Foster walk away in his tight red jeans. Luke decided that he would finish the chapter in the novel he had been reading at home. Instead he pulled out his math book, and scratch paper and started studying. Wondering how long it would be till Foster called him.