The Beginning of the Two

A Story by fallenskies

Some light coffeeshop fiction consisting of my two characters, Hazel and Kat, meeting for their first time. Contains New Girl quotes.

The open sign to the coffeeshop gleamed brightly in the distance. You could be a mile away and still see it, radiating luminously through the woods of Lost Hollow. A small town if you could call it small, though it might be degraded to less than that. It consists of a few houses, surrounding a cement circle in the middle of the whole place. The circle is broken off into small sidewalks, pointing into different endless directions to the small shops and diners. A few people walk down the sidewalks, going on with their daily affairs and to-do’s.

The soft air-conditioning that hadn't been replaced in over a decade cooled my skin, creating chill bumps riding up my arm. Earplugs in my ear, my computer in front of me, I felt slightly calm. The never ending anxiety resided under me of course, it always does. It never leaves and though this thought almost petrified me I chose to ignore it, move on with my life and forget it. There was a girl in the corner of the coffee shop, who sat. She watched the wall, wishing for inspiration but receiving none. I looked at her, she was strange with her black hair long down her back, her soft brown eyes staring at this wall the seemed to be a source of boredom much less creativity, and her piercings clumsily hung on her ear and her nose. She was beautiful nonetheless, but I was sure she was not my type. So I looked back at my computer, attempting at writing but my never ending thoughts about her filled up my mind so that I couldn’t think about anything else. She got up, I guess finally realizing nothing was going to come of the wall, and headed towards the exit.

I panicked, unsure why but I felt as though I needed to go after her. What the hell am I doing? I thought to myself as a stumbled out of my seat and hastily walked towards the door. She jumped onto her bike and before she got far, still confused by my actions, I shouted, “Wait!”

It scared her to the point where she fell off her bike and looked at me blankly. I looked back at her, unsure of what to say or do. She was gorgeous, her face, her simplicity, everything about her. She’s small too, maybe around five foot. “I’m sorry!” I shouted, letting out a slight laugh at the thought of my meager voice scaring her as I walked down the ramp to reach her. “I honestly didn’t mean to scare you,” I smiled, reaching out my hand to help her up.

“It’s fine,” she responded, not accepting my hand of offering as she got up on her own.

“It’s really not,” I argued, tucking my ginger hair behind my ears, the way I do to make me slightly more comfortable, “I made you fall.” I looked her over, trying to not look like a freak though I already did. “You’re bleeding,” I said finally after a few uncomfortable seconds.

“What?” She wondered, looking down at her knee, “Oh.., I’m alright. Don’t worry.”

I looked around, then back at her and gestured for a hand-shake, “I’m Hazel. Hazel Emerson,” I smiled politely, remembering all of my tired years in Catholic school.

“Kat,” she smiled back, shaking my hand, “But did you have a reason for injuring me or is it just… like a thing you do to strangers?” She laughed, looking at me funny.

“Oh,” I laughed with her, trying to find the right thing to say, “I didn’t mean too. I, uh- well I thought you looked interesting.”

“Oh?” She said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” I responded, running a hand through my hair, “That sounded weird.”

“Mhm,” she grinned, looking at me. I blushed lightly and looked down. I felt all weird, tingly even. It was very strange, it’s a strange feeling. I’m not all for unfamiliar feelings, I prefer to stick with things I know. The tingly feeling was not one of them. “Did I fluster you?” She laughed, still looking at me.

I observed the sky and tucked my hair out of my face again, “What no, I-,” I laughed partially embarrassed, well, completely embarrassed, “Can we grab lunch?” Where the hell did that come from? You don’t just go up to a stranger you injured and ask them out for lunch. Jesus Christ Hazel. “Wait,” I said, “Forget the lunch thing.”

“Well s**t,” she grinned, “I was hoping to go out to lunch with you, I’ve got two perfectly good forks at the end of my arms.”

I laughed again and look at her, “New Girl? Is that your pickup line?”

“I thought I might as well try,” she winked.

“Well it wasn’t the most romantic but I guess I’ll take it,” I smiled, my lost confidence slowly coming back. Honestly I’ve never been much of a confident girl, but Kat, well, she made me think differently for some reason.

"So lunch, where might that be?"

"Hmm, well there is this cute little Italian place not a hop skip and a jump from here," I said, quoting a line from a musical.

"I don't know that one," she said, picking up on my reference.

"You don't know Nine to Five?" I gasped which had eventually turned into giggling.

"No! And don't make fun of me, it's rude."

"I will be rude all I like, you just have to put up with it," I took a pause, then looked behind me at the shop once more, "I left my stuff inside, wait here," I stated, motioning my hands in a stop manner and began to walk inside.

As I reached the door and opened it I heard her shout,"No promises I'll be here when you get back!"

I looked at her and she was gone, her bike and everything. Part of me collapsed then, because there was no girl to come back for. "Kat?" I shouted as rain began to pour, "C'mon this isn't funny." I looked around, there weren't many places to hide and it would take five minutes to get to the woods. She had left. She had gone somewhere, though I didn't know where, she had still left.

I opened the door and sorrowfully wondered in, standing over my table and packing my things into my computer bag. I waved a goodbye at the barista and headed out, a large part of me wished Kat would be there in the rain waiting for me, how it was a trick and she would still be there. I didn't see her for two years after that, the ‘mystery girl’, I would later call her. She had been a turning point in my life, and when she had vanished I reverted to being normal. At least it was something I was familiar with, though it always seemed too regular that sometimes, I began to think about if I really existed. If I was just a shadow in this world, or if she was the shadow and I was the nothing. I would never know till I saw her again. My beloved Kat.