Goooooooood Morning!

***Just noticed I hadn’t posted here in almost a month o.O It wasn’t an uneventful month, let me tell you. In other news, I also updated Samson&Delilah. Hope you enjoy both. Soul xo***

I was woken up by a loud, persistent banging on the front door. My house, though small, was double story. Who knew I’d be living in a house with another level no less, and not an apartment, and still have money left over for food?

The top floor housed the bedroom so I tried sleeping through the knocking. But then the yelling started, the calling of my name by two different voices, and I threw my pillow across my room. It was 7:30AM! I only need to write today which means I should only get up five minutes before I sit at the desk to start writing!

“Coming!” I threw my blanket back and scurried down the stairs, with my eyes barely open I was half-convinced a fall would be my saving grace.

“Anna!” one of them outstretched the ‘A’ at the end.

I opened the door to Katya saying, “whoa, nice pyjamas.”

“Don’t diss Peter Alexander,” I mumbled. I was wearing my super-baggy and cute Mr. Bear pyjamas.

“What are you doing?” Lucy asked, aghast.

“Saving my front door from shattering?”

“You’re late,” Katya said.

“I’m late?”

“For breakfast,” she finished.

Lucy shrugged. “We do it all the time.”

I furrowed my brows and looked around. “I did just move here didn’t I?” I muttered, mostly to myself thinking that when she meant ‘we’ she was including me.

Katya laughed. “She’s so inebriated right now.”

“Look,” Lucy said, “we have breakfast together almost every day, clearly you’re not a morning person and we didn’t give you the heads up, our bad, but we really want you to come.”

“Even if it’s in your purple and white bear pyjamas,” Katya added, smiling.

I popped the collar of my top. “This is styling, you know.”

Katya nodded seriously at my half-assed joke. “Duly noted.”

“We’ll wait,” Lucy grinned.

I gestured my head backwards and let the door go. “I’ll be a couple minutes,” I said, running up the stairs.

***

We sat at a diner with bright red, patent booths rimmed with shiny silver accents. All out of a 50s movie but with colour, even the waiters and cooks were super happy. I mean, I’ve seen people in hospitality be happy, but not like this. These guys looked like they were having the time of their lives. I wondered if it were a family owned business. Maybe that was the secret to happiness, keep it all in the family.

The waitress with the name tag Olivia propped down my pancake stack and eggs for Katya and Lucy. I dug in as soon as I could and man I’m I glad they woke me up. I think I was hangry and sleepy; so shlangry?

“Breathe? Maybe?” Katya laughed.

“These are really good?” I muffled. “Have you had these pancakes? They’re amazing!”

Lucy chuckled. “Man, small towners have the best food.”

“Really?”

Katya rolled her eyes. “No, but Buzz does.”

“Buzz?” I furrowed my brows.

“Mr. Buzz Lightyear himself, Bob Hannigan, the owner and chef.”

“You call him Buzz Lightyear?” I asked, confusedly.

“Everyone in town does,” Lucy said.

“Because with his food he takes everyone to infinity and beyond,” Katya said.

Lucy widened her eyes a fraction of a second. “On a journey.”

That may be the corniest thing I’d ever heard. Actually, Daniel has done some corny things but I think I enjoyed it because I loved him; here it was like I was like I was sharing the same fate as Reese Witherspoon and Toby Maguire in Pleasantville.

“Buzz!” a man called out smacking the bench, startling me. “Couple of coffees to go, please!”

“Jeesh,” I mumbled, “who the hell was that?”

Katya smiled. “You should know.”

“Shut up,” Lucy hissed.

“Umm, what’s the deal?”

“She’s going to find out sooner or later. My money’s on Ricky.”

“Find what out?” I asked.

“Thanks a lot, Katya,” Lucy rolled her eyes.

She shrugged and grinned. “You’re welcome.”

“That’s the, uh, guy we met at the party.”

I furrowed my brows and thought for a minute. “I don’t remember meeting anyone.”

“Oh, really? Oh. Oh well.”

I nudged Lucy. “Who is he? Tell me.”

Katya leaned in against Lucy’s reluctance to divulge any further information. “That’s Jasper.” I looked at Jasper and in the same moment he caught my eye. So I smiled. “He’s the guy you kissed.” I dropped my smile and he laughed.

“What?” I whispered. It was all coming together. “Oh, no, no, no…” Great, I’m that out-of-towner.

“Good morning, ladies,” Jasper grinned, baring his straight, pearly whites.

“Good morning, Jasper,” Katya and Lucy harmonised.

“Hi,” I said. Unable to look away from his brown eyes and his cocky disposition. He was wearing a leather jacket, black jeans and a white shirt. His hair coiffed up and pushed back. The kind of hair I saw on Wall Street types, so it didn’t surprise me when I was told he himself was a recent out-of-towner.

“Nice to see another one of my kind,” Jasper joked.

“Heeeey,” Katya pouted.

“Oh don’t worry,” Lucy said, “we all know you’re from another planet.”

I could only smile while both girls laughed. I was waiting for a moment to apologise for the spontaneous kiss from a stranger but it clearly wasn’t now. Especially when the diner door opened to a blonde woman decked out in an olive green suit making a beeline for us.

“There you are,” she said before taking us in. “What’s this?”

Jasper continued staring at me; I think he was waiting for a reaction.

“Oh, Julie, this Anna, she’s the new girl; Anna this is Julie—” Lucy eyed me— “Jasper’s girlfriend.”

I held my breath and then puffed out a deflated, “Oh…” Jasper looked down and laughed. I guess that was the reaction he was waiting for. I cleared my throat and made an effort to ignore him. “Nice to meet you.”

“Julie is our resident lawyer.”

Julie rolled her blue eyes. “Sort of. This town has nothing to offer a lawyer of my calibre. No offence.”

“None taken,” Katya said. “I guess you can run scams easier on New Yorkers.” She fluttered her eyes and smiled. Okay, that was good; Julie half-assed a smile and narrowed her eyes, and her reaction made it that much sweeter that I giggled.

“Well,” Jasper sighed. “I guess we should get going.”

“Finally,” Julie muttered the same time Katya said, “It’s about time.”

“Nice to meet you officially, Anna,” he said.

I nodded. “Sure.”

“Do you think she knows?” I asked as we watched them walk away. Julie wrapped her hand around Jasper’s waist, he abruptly shoved her clutch away.

“No way,” Lucy said.

“But if Ricky knows…” Katya shrugged, chewing on a strawberry.

“Ugh, God,” I planted my face into my palms.

“Who even cares?” Lucy asked. “Everyone knows they’re not going to last.”

“Yeah, Julie hates it here. Can you tell?”

I shook my head. “Places can grow on people.”

“I don’t think so. Shrubs have committed suicide by the sheer force of Julie’s presence,” Katya said.

“Either that or eventually she cuts them down,” Lucy added.