On the Town

The door jingled with the sound of bells over its metal frame. Logan walked into the café with the idea of getting some tea to go, maybe a cake or something. He had heard a lot about this place, from murmurs in class to small papers on bulletin boards. It was a Wednesday afternoon; why not try some?
He nodded hello to the waitress with a smile, and took his own seat, ordering what they advertised as Summer Tea, whatever that was. He stared at the empty chair in front of him. It didn't bother him that he was alone; Logan valued riding solo every now and again. Still, he felt awkward. The boy looked out the window, at the trees violently shaking in the wind.

"Hey there," a mock scolding voice called from the other side of the room. A girl with windblown dirty blonde hair and a ruffled school uniform stood up from an empty table and walked toward where Logan was sitting, sliding into the booth on the other side of him with a small cup in her hand. The smell of coffee wafted up from the mug, and Jane brought it to her lips, staring at him over the drink. She brought it down with a slight bang; delicate enough not to catch anyone's attention, but just hard enough to hint annoyance.

Her smile betrayed her fake anger. "Gonna walk in and not even say hi? I'm hurt. Are you trying that hard to get away from me?"

The voice was all too familiar. He'd be lying if he said it wasn't the first person he wanted to see. Nevertheless, he put on a mask, blinking cluelessly. "I'm sorry. Who are you?" Just then, the waitress brought back his own drink, sliding it in for him to stop with an outstretched hand.
"What are you doing here?" he sipped it and flinched. Damn, that was hot. He tried his best to be fluid, and pretended to drink it longer than he actually did. "I didn't take you as a coffee person." He gripped the warm cup in both hands. fingers tingling over the hot corners of the tea. He kept them firm.

She put a hand over her heart, sniffling in feigned betrayal. "Typical men. Just forgetting everything we ever had together and moving onto to next big thing. I thought you were different." Jane grinned wider and set her elbows on the table, resting her chin on her hands. It wasn't really proper manners, but she had never considered herself very proper to begin with. "I thought I'd check out the town. And sometimes you just need a stronger drink. Tea's never done it for me."

"And coffee's never done it for me either." He unconsciously did the same thing with his own elbows. "I don't want to drink shit to get my caffeine high." He sipped his tea, almost demonstrating his devotion, letting out an emphasized aaah! "Maybe we're just really different people." He leaned back, letting his back fall to his seat. Logan's eyes strayed, as if in thought for a moment, and he continued the conversation with a blatant: "Have you ever been to France?"

Different people? Maybe that's one way you could divide the world, between tea and coffee lovers. Little things like that could say a lot about a person. The most important thing to Jane was that it was a good hangover remedy, even if that wasn't why she was drinking right now. She'd just spotted a quaint snack bar on the side of the road and decided she could use a small caffeine pick-me-up.

The question took her off guard. Jane raised an eyebrow. "France?" she repeated. "No, can't say that I have." She had a crazy uncle who lived near the northern border. There wasn't anything around for hundreds of miles there except bears, trees, and the occasional backwoods French-speaking Canadian. That was unfortunately about as exotic as Maine got. "Why?"

"I don't know..." He looked into his tea, the swirling golden brown, aroma wafting to his face in hot steam. "I've been content with where I was for a while. I don't know, I never thought about it, but suddenly, I did. And now I wanna go to France." He looked up at her with a guilty smirk. "I sound weird, don't I?"

"Now that's bold," she teased. "I think it's good to shake up your life like that every once and awhile. Doing something you've never done before, or going somewhere you've never been. Or even if it's something small, like tasting new food." Jane's smile widened. "Can't say you're not sounding weird though. Why France?"

"I don't know." He was very matter-of-fact with his response, chin in palm. "A lot of places would be cool, I guess. It's just France is cool, beautiful, and I don't have to squat to use the bathroom." He took another sip. "Why, what do you think tops France?"

Jane snorted in response. Don't have to squat to use the bathroom...? What was that supposed to mean? She didn't dwell on it long. "I guess France is as good a place as any," she responded. "Eiffel Tower, the City of Love, Versailles... And now you're gonna go to France?"

Logan thought for a moment, and the corners of his mouth went up. He slapped the table and pointed. "Maybe I will!" he said this before catching the stares he got, and shrunk. Damn, he was crazy. Hopefully, Jane liked impulsiveness. Logan didn't give much thought behind that, but froze. Why did he care what Jane liked?

This seemed like a big shift from the conversation they'd had when they'd first met. Had he taken her words to heart, or had she just misjudged him entirely? The latter seemed more likely. "That's the spirit," she said with a small teasing smile, not bothering with the stares. It didn't matter what other people thought. That had been her mantra to live by, even if she didn't always follow her own code. "You look excited already. Not a little drunk still, are you?" She grinned, remembering how he'd stumbled out of her little 'get-together' while talking complete nonsense. It'd been endearing. "If you are, don't worry. Your best decisions come from having a drink or two."

Logan gave a groan into his cup. Yeah, that's right, he was all over her when he was drunk. "My head still hurts from the last time." He said, and rubbed his temple, almost as if talking about it brought it back. The boy took one last drink of his tea, the final sip he could before the bottom met the air. It was getting cold anyway. "At least I didn't embarrass myself like Wolf Boy. Did you know he wasn't actually drunk?"

"Huh, really?" She hadn't heard from Montare since his not-so-dignified exit from her dorm room. There were lots of rumors floating around about him now, so she wasn't sure if she was supposed to surprise that it had all ended like it did. She'd spotted his abandoned bottle after he got thrown out, barely touched, but she'd never put any thought into it. "Maybe the guy just knows how to party." Jane slid her coffee forward. The mug was a quarter empty. "Here. Coffee's the tried-and-true hangover cure. Take it from an expert."

Logan stared into it for a while. God, he hated coffee. It was an acquired taste that he never bothered to acquire, and now it seemed he was too far gone to like it. Nevertheless, he looked up at her with a long gaze. "And you're sure it will cure my headache?" He figured it was more than just a hangover; they'd been bothering him the last two mornings since the party. It was still worth a shot.