Paint You Wings.

⊱⊱ Riley Van Acker ⊰⊰

It's been about a week and a half since he walked into the café and he's been coming in every other day since then.

He intrigued me.

He never really did anything other than order a cup of plain black coffee and the occasional piece of cake. Sometimes it was red velvet, other times it was a dark forest chocolate. He looked friendly, always smiling at me and anyone else that smiled at him.

He always had a book with him, too. A simple, A5-lined notebook, and a ballpoint pen that I'd seen him use to scribble furiously across the page many a time, before he ended up cancelling whatever he'd just wrote down.

Alex.

That was his name. I admit, it was rather stalker-esque for me to know that but the brown-haired male had captured my attention. Maybe it was the way he'd pen something down with the tip of his tongue poking out of the corner of his lip, or maybe it was the way he'd unconsciously pout his bottom lip as he cancelled out whatever he'd written down as he sighed in defeat and then reached for his coffee.

A nudge on my shoulder made me stumble a little bit. I spun around, immediately shooting a glare at the black-haired male with a knowing look on his face. Rolling my eyes, I turned back around; grabbing a washcloth before making a move to go clean up a table that was now vacant.

Linc grabbed the washcloth from me, nodding over in Alex's direction. "Go give your lover boy a refill."

I shot him a flat look, shaking my head. Linc snickered as I tried to get the washcloth from him, holding it way above his head, making it impossible for me to reach. It wasn't that I was short or anything - I was about 5'7", last I checked - but Linc stood at about 6 foot and he had his knees on the stool behind the counter. With a final jump, I gave up, sighing in defeat.

Linc smirked in victory, making 'shoo-ing' gestures with his hands as someone came up to the counter. I grabbed the pot of coffee, walking over to him.

He had his head ducked down, hair tucked into a snapback today, and his hand moved fluently as he wrote out stanza after stanza.

Perhaps he was writing poetry, or maybe a song.

I gingerly reached out to tap him on the shoulder, effectively making him jump as he swung his neck 'round to face me with bug eyes and thick eyebrows raised high on his forehead. I shot him the most apologetic look I could muster, biting down on my bottom lip so as to refrain myself from laughing. The look on his face was absolutely priceless.

I offered him a crooked grin, pointing to the pot of coffee in my other hand, and then gesturing towards his now-empty mug.

He let out a small breath, nodding as he broke out into a small but grateful smile. His brown eyes watched me as I refilled his mug, and then pushed it back to where it originally was, careful not to spill it on his book. Or hands.

"Thank you." He smiled gratefully.

I nodded, giving him a two-fingered salute before I walked away, going to refill other patrons' empty pieces of porcelain. Most of them were regulars, so they gave me warm smiles and nods of acknowledgements. As I walked by the table that he always sat at, though, his book fell to the ground, as did his pen.

Bending down, I retrieved his items, handing it back to him as he gave me another grateful smile. I liked his smile. He had a really nice smile. It was a little lopsided, but you could see a small sparkle in his warm brown eyes as his lips curled up at the corners.

"Sorry 'bout that. My friends say that I shouldn't be allowed out because of how clumsy I am." He joked, adjusting his snapback on his head. "I'm Alex, by the way."

I accepted his outstretched hand, smiling back at him. Once I'd released his hand, I dug inside the back pocket of my jeans for the Sharpie I always had with me. Knowing that he was probably confused about what I was doing, I decided it'd be best to just tell him my name and then make my escape. Penning down my name on the wooden table, I screwed the cap of the Sharpie back on and offered him a one-shouldered shrug before walking away.

He'd probably think I was a freak now, just because I didn't speak. And truth be told, even though I didn't know a single thing about the guy, that kinda made me feel rather disappointed.