Saturday 5 March 2016

The Watch – Part 55:

Amy and I walked out of the tent and headed towards the coffee stand that was parked in between a fancy milkshake stand that sold every flavour of milkshake imaginable, and a Coca-Cola stand that sold all the latest variants of their fizzy drink. The coffee stand smelt delicious.

‘Now would be a bad time to say that you don’t like coffee,’ Amy said as we stepped in line, waiting for the customers ahead of us to finish being served.

‘No, I like coffee,’ I said, ‘just don’t drink it as much, that’s all,’ I said truthfully. ‘I have had only one kind, though, and that’s the Tesco’s own brand,’ I added.

Amy smiled, ‘then prepare to have your mind blown. Your taste buds won’t know what hit them after you’ve tried a cup from here.’ I caught a glimpse of the prices and was a little shocked, but at the same time I kind of expected them to be that high considering that the stand is selling fancy coffee. Luckily, I had enough in my wallet to not worry about having to dart off to find a cash machine. Even though I appeared to be confident in that parallel universe, and I really want to appear to be in this universe as well, just so that I can impress Amy, but I don’t want to act somewhat uncharacteristically. What happened in that parallel universe, stays in that parallel universe.

My nerves are making my head a little full at the moment, so even if I wanted to be confident, I don’t think I would have done so as well as I was back there. I’m doing alright at the moment, I feel. Amy hasn’t walked off or said anything about how I’m acting, which means I must be doing a good job. Acting normal, they say.

The customers in front of us, satisfied with their purchase, headed off to somewhere else, letting us step up to the stand. Now that I’m in the front row, I was able to see the many kinds of coffee and was surprised with just how many there actually are. I knew there were a few from many places around the world, but not this many. All different colours, flavours, smells, textures, and of course, prices. The most expensive bean was £40.00 per cup and the cheapest was £4.00 per cup. I’m terrible when it comes to making these kind of decision – it takes me forever just to decide what cake I want down at the local bakery. Usually, whenever my mum or dad asks what cake I want, I let them choose for me just to save the embarrassment of standing there, silently, whilst picking what one I want. But if I do find myself having to choose by myself, I always play it safe and go for what I usually get anyway, which completely contradict the many minutes I’ve been standing there silently for. It does save a lot of time when my mum and dad are choosing the cake. But now, I’m the one picking what coffee I would like and instead of making myself look like a complete indecisive idiot in front of Amy, I decided to play it safe and go straight down the middle. I wasn’t worried about what the flavour was, the texture or anything about the bean except that it was the one I chose to make a quick decision.

‘Blimey, you’re trying something fancy,’ Amy said as I had just handed over a twenty to the person behind the stall. I looked over and saw that Amy was only getting the £4.00 per cup bean. Maybe I had made the wrong decision, but I was dedicated. She saw me make my decision and so I was not going to retract it. I let the twenty go and the person set about making the coffee by grinding the bean and adding the necessary ingredients to make a very nice smelling cup of coffee.

‘Thanks,’ I said, reaching out and taking the cup from the person’s hand. As I was doing so, my sleeve got twisted on my arm and so was pulled upwards, revealing my watch. Amy noticed it and made a comment about.

‘Where did you get that watch?’ she asked, curiously. This was the part where I absolutely had to make a quick decision. For a moment, I must change back to who I was back in that other universe just so that I would be able to decide upon a decent story.

‘It was a gift from my parents,’ I said a little too quickly after she asked. She looked at me with curiosity. What was going through her head? Oh, no, I think I should have stayed true to who I am in this universe.

The cup of coffee was hot to the touch, but the paper napkin protected my fingers from most of the heat and I was able to hold it for a long period of time whilst I waited for it to cool down a bit. I like my coffee, but I don’t drink it straight from the kettle.

‘That must have cost them a fortune. Look at that thing,’ she said, looking at my watch with a smile. To her, it was just an ordinary looking watch and I would like to keep it that way. One of the rules that I came up with was not to show what this watch is capable of as that might be problematic for me in the future.

‘I didn’t ask,’ I said, wondering just how long I was able to keep this conversation up before I say something that I shouldn’t. I decided to change the subject by taking my first sip of the coffee. It was still a little bit hot, but the extraordinary taste that pelted my taste buds the moment the liquid it my tongue really did blow me away.

‘Wow,’ I exclaimed.

‘I know, right,’ she said, taking a sip from hers. ‘For someone who doesn’t drink coffee that much, you certainly pushed to boat out on this occasion,’ she said.

‘Well, you know what they say, you only live one and all that jazz,’ I said.

‘True,’ she nodded in agreement. I was beginning to feel a little embarrassed from my decision. I know I shouldn’t be, but I couldn’t help it. All I want to do is not make myself look like a total idiot, and so far, I’ve done nothing except that. Amy has just shrugged or laughed it off. Maybe she’s only staying with me to get as many stories as she can off of me before she tells them to her friends who’ll then spread them about the school where I will then become a laughing stock…

No, I can’t think about that because I can’t be sure if that is true or not.

As we walked through the fair, a question at the back of my head that kept repeating itself over and over again the moment that I sat down next to Amy made me wonder if this was all a ruse. What on Earth did Tom say to Amy to allow me to sit next to her, let alone actually allow me to talk to her? Tom is my best friend and would never set this up as a dare or something. Did he say that I liked her? I’m not going to get the answer unless I ask Amy, and I’m not sure that’s the best thing to do for that might spoil the entire evening. But, you can’t deny that I’ve been struggling to even make a single word in front of Amy and here I am having full conversations and drinking coffee with her. I’m not going to get the answer if I don’t ask the question.

After we finished our coffee and disposed of the cups, I decided to go for it. One half of my brain was shouting at me to just do it, whilst the other half was shouting at me to not for I will ruin this moment and may never get it back ever again.

‘Amy, can I ask you something?’

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘What’s up?’

‘What did Tom say to you before he left earlier?’ I asked slowly so to not flub any of my words and make the tension last longer than necessary. That side of my brain that was shouting at me to not ask the question gave up trying to help and left.

‘Oh, um,’ she said, ‘he just said that you wanted to have a word with you, but you are a bit nervous, so I’m here to break the tension a bit,’ she said, her eyes were darting all over the place telling me that that wasn’t the whole truth.

‘Did he say anything about…’ I stopped myself before I went too far, but I’ve started the sentence and so I have to finish it, but how do I finish a sentence like that and keep it relevant to the topic at hand. I’m in very deep waters now, and there is no way that I’m going to keep my head above the surface. I might as well accept my fate and drown. At least I won’t be able to repeat this incredibly bad performance again if it is never going to happen again. My entire body shook with nerves. The coffee in my stomach rolled over as violently as the sea in a storm. I’m going to get it over and done with. There’s no way out but up.

‘… My having…’ I paused as I forced my mouth to make the words. My brain was working overtime to create the words I needed to say. I concentrated so hard to make sure that I wasn’t going to pronounce a single word wrong. ‘… Feelings for you.’ That was it, I had done it. It was now up to Amy to react accordingly. What is about to happen will happen and there is nothing that I can do about it.

She stared back at me, taking in the words that I had just said, obviously struggling to deal with them properly. A long pregnant silence followed whilst she stood, waiting for her mind to come up with something to say in response.

‘I’ve had feelings for you as well,’ Amy said, answering my question before I asked them, which saved the pressure, then, one she started she couldn’t stop the words from pouring out. ‘I never said anything because I’ve been nervous just as much as you did. Truth be told, I didn’t know you had feelings for me until Tom said that you did. I jumped at the chance of meeting with you when Tom wanted to arrange a meeting.’ She then stopped herself.

She had gone as red as an apple. Was she as nervous as I am? Either that or she is incredibly embarrassed? Or both? This doesn’t make any sense. I’m waiting for her to walk away and say that she had completed the dare her friends had challenged her to do. But that would mean Tom was in on it, and that would be a betrayal of trust if that is true. He wouldn’t do that. I think that means only one thing. Does it? I think it does. But it still doesn’t make any sense. It just doesn’t. Does it? Stop going around in circles, you’re making yourself look like an idiot, I mean more of an idiot, I mean… I don’t know what I mean anymore. All states of logic have gone out of the window. No, I think that might be taking it too far, but it still doesn’t make any sense.


TO BE CONTINUED…


Thanks for reading
Antony Hudson
(TonyHadNouns)

My book, Sector 22: Zoey, is now available on Amazon, eBay, and SkyCat Publications' website:

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