Status: DISCONTINUED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
Master of Sardonic Wit
4.
March 5 1994
Walking through the streets of New York, James hoped he wouldn't get lost being out on his own. He wasn't exactly the best in knowing his way around New York, not even around his own neighborhood, but he knew where the most important things were, like the cinema, the local Starbucks and the supermarket and of course the park. Pushing his hands deeper in his pockets, James slightly trilled by the cold breeze passing him, when Mark had pushed him out of the door, he had forgotten to grab a coat along the way so now he was only in his sweater. Then again, he was too lazy to walk back to the apartment and get a coat so he would have to find another way of warming himself up.
Seeing that he had just passed the Starbucks, James halted in the middle of his walk and looked over his shoulder at the coffee shop, debating with himself if he should enter it and order one of the many flavors they have, just what they were famous for, or if he should just keep on walking and make coffee himself when he got home later. Biting his inner lip, James sighed and then smelled the warm air of his fresh coffee when someone walked out of the Starbucks.
“Screw this, I'm getting coffee,” James muttered to himself, pushing the door open and feeling much more comfortable in the warmness of the shop than outside. Looking around, several business people were talking into their cellphones, probably some of the newest models were visible as James waited in line to get his coffee. He rolled his eyes and muttered some profanities under his breath at the stiff men in suits standing in front of him when one of them pushed him.
Finally having a cup of coffee in his hands, James made his way towards one of the empty booths and sat down. His eyes scanned the people entering and leaving the Starbucks as he held his own coffee, not daring to take a drink from it yet as it was still too hot for him. He smiled a little to himself as he saw a young girl enter the shop, probably a few years younger than him but she had something about her that made him keep his eyes on her.
He tried to paste an age on her by just looking at her and not actually daring to talk to her in the first place. As she stood in line to order her coffee, James could not help but look at her ass and then back at the back of her head with a small blush creeping up his cheeks. He quickly directed his eyes to his cup of coffee as the girl looked behind her and smiled at the man behind her in the line. James hoped she hadn't seen him look at her and lifted up the cup to take a sip finally, refusing to look back at the girl except shooting a short glance at her from time to time.
James's cellphone vibrated in his pocket, making him jump up and hurrying him to get it out of his pocket before the rest of the people around him looked at him strangely at the first hearing of his ring tone.
"Oh hey Kayleigh," James said the moment he picked up. He saw the girl look at him from at the line but ignored her for the sake of the phone call.
“Where did you run off to now? Did you forget your key again when you went out and thought to worry the crap out of me?!”
"What? No, I! Mark kicked me out damn it," he complained, pouting a little and he could've sworn he saw the girl smile at him sadly before he sighed and shook his head.
“Well you're a grown man, couldn't you like protest against him? I mean, he's only a tiny bit taller than you,” Kayleigh said on the other side of the telephone, clearly annoyed by James' answers.
"Well of course I protested but he wouldn't hear it!"
James heard Kayleigh sigh on the other side of the line and he was almost sure that she was sitting on the couch or walking in circles in the kitchen, shaking her head at him and wondering how she got into the mess of living with him in the first place.
“Where are you now then?” she asked after a few moments of silence, James looked at the cup of coffee and then around the shop before opening his mouth to answer.
“I think somewhere where they sell coffee since I'm holding a cup. Does the name Starbucks sound familiar to you because I never heard of this place before,” James said, perhaps a little sarcastic and seeing that the answer got a reaction out of the girl in line, temporarily forgotten because of the phone call. They made eye contact for a moment and he rolled his eyes before turning his mind back to Kayleigh's voice talking to him.
“Well just, don't do anything that you might regret alright? And next time tell me where you're headed so I don't have to come home and worry my ass off.”
“I will, next time Mark kicks me out and practically forces me to go have a social life without me knowing where I'll end up in the end,” James answered, leaning back on the couch he was sitting on and smiling a little to himself.
“And why do you have my cellphone again? Don't you have your own to steal or something?”
“I did, I just don't want to use it because I don't like it, I'll buy myself one later but right now I'm enjoying it too much to steal yours and make you search for it all over the house,” James smirked.
“You are insufferable James Euringer,” Kayleigh sighed,” I'll talk to you later.”
After Kayleigh hung up, James held the cellphone in his hand and frowned at it for a moment before shrugging and pocketing it again, muttering under his breath that sounded a lot like 'time of the month probably'. Reaching out for his cup of coffee, the man smiled slightly before taking a sip and feeling glad that he had the drink to get rid of the head ache he felt coming up already.
“Girlfriend?”
James looked up and saw the girl standing next to him with a medium sized cup of coffee clammed in her hands. He smiled at her and offered her a seat at the other side of the table which she gladly took before placing her cup carefully on the table so she wouldn't spill anything.
“More like worried friend living with me, and that friend just happens to be a girl,” James shrugged, smiling at the woman before taking a sip from his own half-full cup of coffee. The girl in front of him giggled slightly and leaned back in her own seat, not daring to drink of her hot coffee just yet.
“And where the fuck are my manners,” James smirked a little, “I'm James.”
“It's okay, James, I didn't really keep my manners either, I'm Chantal, nice to meet you, you look like you need a social life so I came and thought I'd talk to you.”
“You don't happen to know my brother do you? He said the exact same thing but with other words,” James said, looking suspicious at Chantal for a moment but letting her know he was only joking by showing her a small smirk.
“No but if he's as good looking as you I might not object in meeting him,” Chantal smirked, obviously liking the conversation with the man she had just met.
“Oh but why would you want to meet him if you can talk to a handsome man as me?”
Chantal smiled at James who drank the last bits of his coffee while Chantal herself had yet to start on her coffee. He frowned for a moment and then looked at the woman before looking at his wrist watch, a gift from Mark for his Christmas.
“I got some more time left,” he smirked before winking at Chantal and moving towards the counter again to get another coffee. The woman smiled at him and shook her head, wondering how she got it in her head to talk to him in the first place.
“So how did a beautiful woman such as yourself end up on the other side of New York?” James asked Chantal as he sat back down with a cup of coffee in his hands. The girl smiled at him and looked down to her cup of coffee.
“School work,” she blushed a little at his compliment, refusing to meet James' wide eyes at her answer.
“You don't look like you're still in school,” he admitted immediately, not really thinking about his answer first and making Chantal chuckle a little, finally looking up again.
“I don't get that one alot, most people think I'm younger and should still be in high school when I'm telling them in already in my last year at film school,” Chantal told him.
“Last year of film school and you haven't dropped out yet? That's a new one,” James said, looking impressed at her.
“So everyone is saying,” Chantal muttered under her breath, not really happy by that achievement herself but not planning on telling this to James,”so what are you doing these days? You don't look like you go to school either.”
“I mess around with my old-fashioned Atari and try to convince people that I can't sing while being asocial,” James smirked.
“That's quite the lifestyle,” Chantal complemented.
“I do try.”
“So if you're trying to be asocial, why are you in such a public place then?” Chantal inquired.
“My brother forced me out of my own apartment, how crazy is that?”
“Not as crazy as being in your last year in film school actually,” Chantal shrugged.
Talking on for a while longer, both James and Chantal enjoyed each other's company, not really caring their coffee turned cold in the end. Apparently, Chantal lived not too far away from James' apartment, and him being the gentleman that he was, walked her home just to make sure she got home safe. Since he knew that New York could be quite a dangerous place at the time they left their booth in Starbucks and made their way towards their own homes.
“So, can I have your cellphone number honey?” Chantal asked, smirking a little as she gave him a small piece of paper that had her own cellphone number on it.
“I'll give it to you the moment I get one, how about that?” James smirked, looking at the piece of paper before stuffing it in his wallet.
“You don't have a cellphone?” Chantal asked unbelievable, one of her eyebrows raised.
“I had one, I just don't use it anymore so I steal the one from the girl living with me, I need a new phone and number,” James muttered under his breath. Chantal sighed a little and shook her head, making her red hair fall over her shoulders for a moment before she quickly jerked her head back to make sure her soft curls fell back.
James smiled a little and then just wrapped his arms around Chantal's waist before pulling her in a hug. Chantal jumped up slightly by the hug before returning it, planting a kiss on James' cheek before entering her house and closing the door behind her after shooting the man another smile. James watched her with a tired smile and shook his head at her before putting his hands deep in his pockets and making his way back to his own apartment.
March 29 1994
It's been almost a month and James had in the mean time, bought himself a new cellphone and got a new number. The first person he had called was Chantal to tell her that he finally had a number to give her and so gave it the moment she asked for it again. Kayleigh and Mark were the next two people to know about his new number and way to contact him whenever he was out again. Of course that didn't keep him from ignoring those calls whenever he was out with Chantal and he didn't exactly want them to know about it.
That didn't keep them from calling him anyway, just out of spite or actually trying to reach him, not that he really paid attention to the important calls or just the annoying calls and kept his eyes on Chantal sitting in front of him, once again with a cup of coffee in her hands and a smile making her eyes lit up. Her dark red hair was cut so it framed her face slightly but still hung in front of her sight and caused the girl to occasionally jerk her head back in the hope that her hair would finally fall from her eyes.
Chantal was 19 years old, yet that didn't stop James, who was 24, from loving her. What do years do to being in love anyway, at least, that's what both of them kept saying to the people questioning their current relationship and their age difference. They often joked that neither of them both could resist each other's awesome personality, hot body and beautiful eyes, which most of the time ended in one of them blushing severely.
If someone asked about their current relationship, they would only look at each other and shrug, telling the person that they weren't exactly an item yet acted like they were. 'It's complicated' would James say, or Chantal, depended on the person asking really. They weren't sure about their feelings for each other, yet they couldn't resist hugging and giving each other a kiss every now and then.
Mark often tried to bribe James into telling but the man kept his mouth shut and refused to spill the beans too early, but both Mark and Kayleigh noticed the change in the man, who kept going out more around 4 pm for coffee apparently, they even checked it once, just out of curiosity and he really was just sitting in the local Starbucks drinking coffee, only in the presence of Chantal or sometimes even alone.
“Thanks for the coffee...again,” Chantal blushed. James waved it away with his hand and leaned back in his seat relaxed before jerking his head to the side to get rid of the hair hanging in front of his eyes.
“Thanks for keeping me company.”
“So how's the messing around going?” the girl smirked a little, planning on teasing James a bit with the fact that he still refused to buy a new laptop and just get it all over with. Instead, he insisted to stay with his Atari and get it needlessly repaired whenever it was broken just because he couldn't part from it.
“Pretty fine, how is your plan to drop out of school going?”
Chantal glared at him slightly before chuckling and taking a sip from her coffee. James sighed happy but then pulled his shirt, getting annoyed by the fabric. The woman in front of him frowned and looked at him as he pulled the shirt away from his neck so he could breath better before letting it shoot back so it framed his chest slightly again.
“Not comfortable?” Chantal asked, perhaps a little bit worried as James sighed annoyed before pulling his shirt again.
“How did you guess?” James winced a little before taking up his coffee and taking a sip, trying to forget the uncomfortable feeling.
“You're squirming,” Chantal said, pointing at James' hands who were once again pulling his shirt every few minutes, “come on, let's go shopping!”
“...I'm a guy, I don't shop,” James said, looking at Chantal like she was stupid.
“Stop the stereotype and get your ass up, we're going shopping.”
“But I don't like shopping! I don't even do grocery shopping!” James complained as he was pulled up from the booth by Chantal and dragged out of the door.
“Too bad, you're going to buy new clothes, besides, you need some.”
“How did you?” James sighed before looking down to the pavement, “nevermind.”
“You've been meeting me since last week in the same clothes, either your wash machine is broke or you need new clothes, either way, we're going shopping.”
James sighed and let Chantal drag him through the busy street before reaching the shopping street. A wide grin appeared on her lips before stopping for a moment to think where to shop best for clothes that would fit James. Without warning, she took off in a rapid pace towards one of the shops, shocking the man who tried to keep up with her without loosing his arm.
“I don't think orange is your color,” Chantal sighed, shaking her head and putting the orange shirt back where she found it when she saw James look at her with wide eyes as she held the shirt in front of him.
“How about ... light blue?” the woman frowned, looking through the different shirts and ignoring James who was mouthing 'save me' to some bypassing people, “hey, pay attention here or I'm going to dress you up in bright pink!”
“Now that wouldn't be such a bad idea actually,” James said, finally turning his attention to Chantal who raised an eyebrow at him before nodding and dragging him out of the store.
“I know just the shop for you then.”
“More shops? Dear god, someone save me!”
“Stop whining,” Chantal said, looking over her shoulder at James who smirked, letting her know that he was just teasing her and enjoying it.
“But I like whining!”
“Still whining,” the woman said, looking at James as if it was his last warning before she would hit him on the head. James looked alarmed and closed his mouth before inching away from Chantal who still had her grip on his wrist before she pulled him towards the next shop.
“Where are those shirts,” Chantal muttered before grabbing one of the bright pink shirts, shoving it into James' hands and then forcing him into one of the cabins so he could fit it.
“Hey! This actually fits!” James yelled to Chantal who was still on the other side of the curtain. He pulled the grey curtain aside and looked at Chantal who looked in surprise at the change the shirt had on James.
“And makes you look kind of cute too,” Chantal bit her lip as she looked at James who twirled around in the shirt in front of the mirror, “are you sure it fits?”
“I look cute in everything darling, I thought you figured that out by now, besides, everything fits me.,” James said, stopping with his turning around on one spot for a moment and raising his eyebrow at Chantal before winking.
“Well that's because you're a stick,” Chantal shot back, smirking slightly.
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Why are we having this conversation in a dressing cabin?” James asked suddenly.
“Uh, I don't know,” Chantal shrugged, “because we're shopping for clothes for you?”
“Fair enough,” James closed the curtain a little before pulling off the shirt of his head, not really caring if Chantal was still in the cabin or not.
“Enjoying the view are you?” James looked at Chantal who was standing behind him with a smirk on his lips before Chantal shook her head and wrapped her arms around his waist and placed her chin on his shoulder.
“Oh I don't know, you're still a stick,” Chantal said before planting a peck on his cheek and then walking out of the cabin.
“Well this stick, is buying this shirt,” James shouted back at her before putting on his own shirt again and sighing at it, apparently wishing he could keep that pink shirt on and just walk out of the store.
“What about a black one?” Chantal said as they passed the shirts again and she was the same one but in black. James shrugged and searched for the right size before holding it in front of his chest and nodding, tossing it over his arm together with the pink one. Paying for both shirts proved harder than it seemed since James was whispering some remarks about the people behind them and the cashier in Chantal's ear until they were out of the store.
“See, that wasn't that bad,” Chantal giggled while James grumbled under his breath while carrying a plastic white bag with the name of the store on it.
“I hate shopping.”
Walking through the streets of New York, James hoped he wouldn't get lost being out on his own. He wasn't exactly the best in knowing his way around New York, not even around his own neighborhood, but he knew where the most important things were, like the cinema, the local Starbucks and the supermarket and of course the park. Pushing his hands deeper in his pockets, James slightly trilled by the cold breeze passing him, when Mark had pushed him out of the door, he had forgotten to grab a coat along the way so now he was only in his sweater. Then again, he was too lazy to walk back to the apartment and get a coat so he would have to find another way of warming himself up.
Seeing that he had just passed the Starbucks, James halted in the middle of his walk and looked over his shoulder at the coffee shop, debating with himself if he should enter it and order one of the many flavors they have, just what they were famous for, or if he should just keep on walking and make coffee himself when he got home later. Biting his inner lip, James sighed and then smelled the warm air of his fresh coffee when someone walked out of the Starbucks.
“Screw this, I'm getting coffee,” James muttered to himself, pushing the door open and feeling much more comfortable in the warmness of the shop than outside. Looking around, several business people were talking into their cellphones, probably some of the newest models were visible as James waited in line to get his coffee. He rolled his eyes and muttered some profanities under his breath at the stiff men in suits standing in front of him when one of them pushed him.
Finally having a cup of coffee in his hands, James made his way towards one of the empty booths and sat down. His eyes scanned the people entering and leaving the Starbucks as he held his own coffee, not daring to take a drink from it yet as it was still too hot for him. He smiled a little to himself as he saw a young girl enter the shop, probably a few years younger than him but she had something about her that made him keep his eyes on her.
He tried to paste an age on her by just looking at her and not actually daring to talk to her in the first place. As she stood in line to order her coffee, James could not help but look at her ass and then back at the back of her head with a small blush creeping up his cheeks. He quickly directed his eyes to his cup of coffee as the girl looked behind her and smiled at the man behind her in the line. James hoped she hadn't seen him look at her and lifted up the cup to take a sip finally, refusing to look back at the girl except shooting a short glance at her from time to time.
James's cellphone vibrated in his pocket, making him jump up and hurrying him to get it out of his pocket before the rest of the people around him looked at him strangely at the first hearing of his ring tone.
"Oh hey Kayleigh," James said the moment he picked up. He saw the girl look at him from at the line but ignored her for the sake of the phone call.
“Where did you run off to now? Did you forget your key again when you went out and thought to worry the crap out of me?!”
"What? No, I! Mark kicked me out damn it," he complained, pouting a little and he could've sworn he saw the girl smile at him sadly before he sighed and shook his head.
“Well you're a grown man, couldn't you like protest against him? I mean, he's only a tiny bit taller than you,” Kayleigh said on the other side of the telephone, clearly annoyed by James' answers.
"Well of course I protested but he wouldn't hear it!"
James heard Kayleigh sigh on the other side of the line and he was almost sure that she was sitting on the couch or walking in circles in the kitchen, shaking her head at him and wondering how she got into the mess of living with him in the first place.
“Where are you now then?” she asked after a few moments of silence, James looked at the cup of coffee and then around the shop before opening his mouth to answer.
“I think somewhere where they sell coffee since I'm holding a cup. Does the name Starbucks sound familiar to you because I never heard of this place before,” James said, perhaps a little sarcastic and seeing that the answer got a reaction out of the girl in line, temporarily forgotten because of the phone call. They made eye contact for a moment and he rolled his eyes before turning his mind back to Kayleigh's voice talking to him.
“Well just, don't do anything that you might regret alright? And next time tell me where you're headed so I don't have to come home and worry my ass off.”
“I will, next time Mark kicks me out and practically forces me to go have a social life without me knowing where I'll end up in the end,” James answered, leaning back on the couch he was sitting on and smiling a little to himself.
“And why do you have my cellphone again? Don't you have your own to steal or something?”
“I did, I just don't want to use it because I don't like it, I'll buy myself one later but right now I'm enjoying it too much to steal yours and make you search for it all over the house,” James smirked.
“You are insufferable James Euringer,” Kayleigh sighed,” I'll talk to you later.”
After Kayleigh hung up, James held the cellphone in his hand and frowned at it for a moment before shrugging and pocketing it again, muttering under his breath that sounded a lot like 'time of the month probably'. Reaching out for his cup of coffee, the man smiled slightly before taking a sip and feeling glad that he had the drink to get rid of the head ache he felt coming up already.
“Girlfriend?”
James looked up and saw the girl standing next to him with a medium sized cup of coffee clammed in her hands. He smiled at her and offered her a seat at the other side of the table which she gladly took before placing her cup carefully on the table so she wouldn't spill anything.
“More like worried friend living with me, and that friend just happens to be a girl,” James shrugged, smiling at the woman before taking a sip from his own half-full cup of coffee. The girl in front of him giggled slightly and leaned back in her own seat, not daring to drink of her hot coffee just yet.
“And where the fuck are my manners,” James smirked a little, “I'm James.”
“It's okay, James, I didn't really keep my manners either, I'm Chantal, nice to meet you, you look like you need a social life so I came and thought I'd talk to you.”
“You don't happen to know my brother do you? He said the exact same thing but with other words,” James said, looking suspicious at Chantal for a moment but letting her know he was only joking by showing her a small smirk.
“No but if he's as good looking as you I might not object in meeting him,” Chantal smirked, obviously liking the conversation with the man she had just met.
“Oh but why would you want to meet him if you can talk to a handsome man as me?”
Chantal smiled at James who drank the last bits of his coffee while Chantal herself had yet to start on her coffee. He frowned for a moment and then looked at the woman before looking at his wrist watch, a gift from Mark for his Christmas.
“I got some more time left,” he smirked before winking at Chantal and moving towards the counter again to get another coffee. The woman smiled at him and shook her head, wondering how she got it in her head to talk to him in the first place.
“So how did a beautiful woman such as yourself end up on the other side of New York?” James asked Chantal as he sat back down with a cup of coffee in his hands. The girl smiled at him and looked down to her cup of coffee.
“School work,” she blushed a little at his compliment, refusing to meet James' wide eyes at her answer.
“You don't look like you're still in school,” he admitted immediately, not really thinking about his answer first and making Chantal chuckle a little, finally looking up again.
“I don't get that one alot, most people think I'm younger and should still be in high school when I'm telling them in already in my last year at film school,” Chantal told him.
“Last year of film school and you haven't dropped out yet? That's a new one,” James said, looking impressed at her.
“So everyone is saying,” Chantal muttered under her breath, not really happy by that achievement herself but not planning on telling this to James,”so what are you doing these days? You don't look like you go to school either.”
“I mess around with my old-fashioned Atari and try to convince people that I can't sing while being asocial,” James smirked.
“That's quite the lifestyle,” Chantal complemented.
“I do try.”
“So if you're trying to be asocial, why are you in such a public place then?” Chantal inquired.
“My brother forced me out of my own apartment, how crazy is that?”
“Not as crazy as being in your last year in film school actually,” Chantal shrugged.
Talking on for a while longer, both James and Chantal enjoyed each other's company, not really caring their coffee turned cold in the end. Apparently, Chantal lived not too far away from James' apartment, and him being the gentleman that he was, walked her home just to make sure she got home safe. Since he knew that New York could be quite a dangerous place at the time they left their booth in Starbucks and made their way towards their own homes.
“So, can I have your cellphone number honey?” Chantal asked, smirking a little as she gave him a small piece of paper that had her own cellphone number on it.
“I'll give it to you the moment I get one, how about that?” James smirked, looking at the piece of paper before stuffing it in his wallet.
“You don't have a cellphone?” Chantal asked unbelievable, one of her eyebrows raised.
“I had one, I just don't use it anymore so I steal the one from the girl living with me, I need a new phone and number,” James muttered under his breath. Chantal sighed a little and shook her head, making her red hair fall over her shoulders for a moment before she quickly jerked her head back to make sure her soft curls fell back.
James smiled a little and then just wrapped his arms around Chantal's waist before pulling her in a hug. Chantal jumped up slightly by the hug before returning it, planting a kiss on James' cheek before entering her house and closing the door behind her after shooting the man another smile. James watched her with a tired smile and shook his head at her before putting his hands deep in his pockets and making his way back to his own apartment.
March 29 1994
It's been almost a month and James had in the mean time, bought himself a new cellphone and got a new number. The first person he had called was Chantal to tell her that he finally had a number to give her and so gave it the moment she asked for it again. Kayleigh and Mark were the next two people to know about his new number and way to contact him whenever he was out again. Of course that didn't keep him from ignoring those calls whenever he was out with Chantal and he didn't exactly want them to know about it.
That didn't keep them from calling him anyway, just out of spite or actually trying to reach him, not that he really paid attention to the important calls or just the annoying calls and kept his eyes on Chantal sitting in front of him, once again with a cup of coffee in her hands and a smile making her eyes lit up. Her dark red hair was cut so it framed her face slightly but still hung in front of her sight and caused the girl to occasionally jerk her head back in the hope that her hair would finally fall from her eyes.
Chantal was 19 years old, yet that didn't stop James, who was 24, from loving her. What do years do to being in love anyway, at least, that's what both of them kept saying to the people questioning their current relationship and their age difference. They often joked that neither of them both could resist each other's awesome personality, hot body and beautiful eyes, which most of the time ended in one of them blushing severely.
If someone asked about their current relationship, they would only look at each other and shrug, telling the person that they weren't exactly an item yet acted like they were. 'It's complicated' would James say, or Chantal, depended on the person asking really. They weren't sure about their feelings for each other, yet they couldn't resist hugging and giving each other a kiss every now and then.
Mark often tried to bribe James into telling but the man kept his mouth shut and refused to spill the beans too early, but both Mark and Kayleigh noticed the change in the man, who kept going out more around 4 pm for coffee apparently, they even checked it once, just out of curiosity and he really was just sitting in the local Starbucks drinking coffee, only in the presence of Chantal or sometimes even alone.
“Thanks for the coffee...again,” Chantal blushed. James waved it away with his hand and leaned back in his seat relaxed before jerking his head to the side to get rid of the hair hanging in front of his eyes.
“Thanks for keeping me company.”
“So how's the messing around going?” the girl smirked a little, planning on teasing James a bit with the fact that he still refused to buy a new laptop and just get it all over with. Instead, he insisted to stay with his Atari and get it needlessly repaired whenever it was broken just because he couldn't part from it.
“Pretty fine, how is your plan to drop out of school going?”
Chantal glared at him slightly before chuckling and taking a sip from her coffee. James sighed happy but then pulled his shirt, getting annoyed by the fabric. The woman in front of him frowned and looked at him as he pulled the shirt away from his neck so he could breath better before letting it shoot back so it framed his chest slightly again.
“Not comfortable?” Chantal asked, perhaps a little bit worried as James sighed annoyed before pulling his shirt again.
“How did you guess?” James winced a little before taking up his coffee and taking a sip, trying to forget the uncomfortable feeling.
“You're squirming,” Chantal said, pointing at James' hands who were once again pulling his shirt every few minutes, “come on, let's go shopping!”
“...I'm a guy, I don't shop,” James said, looking at Chantal like she was stupid.
“Stop the stereotype and get your ass up, we're going shopping.”
“But I don't like shopping! I don't even do grocery shopping!” James complained as he was pulled up from the booth by Chantal and dragged out of the door.
“Too bad, you're going to buy new clothes, besides, you need some.”
“How did you?” James sighed before looking down to the pavement, “nevermind.”
“You've been meeting me since last week in the same clothes, either your wash machine is broke or you need new clothes, either way, we're going shopping.”
James sighed and let Chantal drag him through the busy street before reaching the shopping street. A wide grin appeared on her lips before stopping for a moment to think where to shop best for clothes that would fit James. Without warning, she took off in a rapid pace towards one of the shops, shocking the man who tried to keep up with her without loosing his arm.
“I don't think orange is your color,” Chantal sighed, shaking her head and putting the orange shirt back where she found it when she saw James look at her with wide eyes as she held the shirt in front of him.
“How about ... light blue?” the woman frowned, looking through the different shirts and ignoring James who was mouthing 'save me' to some bypassing people, “hey, pay attention here or I'm going to dress you up in bright pink!”
“Now that wouldn't be such a bad idea actually,” James said, finally turning his attention to Chantal who raised an eyebrow at him before nodding and dragging him out of the store.
“I know just the shop for you then.”
“More shops? Dear god, someone save me!”
“Stop whining,” Chantal said, looking over her shoulder at James who smirked, letting her know that he was just teasing her and enjoying it.
“But I like whining!”
“Still whining,” the woman said, looking at James as if it was his last warning before she would hit him on the head. James looked alarmed and closed his mouth before inching away from Chantal who still had her grip on his wrist before she pulled him towards the next shop.
“Where are those shirts,” Chantal muttered before grabbing one of the bright pink shirts, shoving it into James' hands and then forcing him into one of the cabins so he could fit it.
“Hey! This actually fits!” James yelled to Chantal who was still on the other side of the curtain. He pulled the grey curtain aside and looked at Chantal who looked in surprise at the change the shirt had on James.
“And makes you look kind of cute too,” Chantal bit her lip as she looked at James who twirled around in the shirt in front of the mirror, “are you sure it fits?”
“I look cute in everything darling, I thought you figured that out by now, besides, everything fits me.,” James said, stopping with his turning around on one spot for a moment and raising his eyebrow at Chantal before winking.
“Well that's because you're a stick,” Chantal shot back, smirking slightly.
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Why are we having this conversation in a dressing cabin?” James asked suddenly.
“Uh, I don't know,” Chantal shrugged, “because we're shopping for clothes for you?”
“Fair enough,” James closed the curtain a little before pulling off the shirt of his head, not really caring if Chantal was still in the cabin or not.
“Enjoying the view are you?” James looked at Chantal who was standing behind him with a smirk on his lips before Chantal shook her head and wrapped her arms around his waist and placed her chin on his shoulder.
“Oh I don't know, you're still a stick,” Chantal said before planting a peck on his cheek and then walking out of the cabin.
“Well this stick, is buying this shirt,” James shouted back at her before putting on his own shirt again and sighing at it, apparently wishing he could keep that pink shirt on and just walk out of the store.
“What about a black one?” Chantal said as they passed the shirts again and she was the same one but in black. James shrugged and searched for the right size before holding it in front of his chest and nodding, tossing it over his arm together with the pink one. Paying for both shirts proved harder than it seemed since James was whispering some remarks about the people behind them and the cashier in Chantal's ear until they were out of the store.
“See, that wasn't that bad,” Chantal giggled while James grumbled under his breath while carrying a plastic white bag with the name of the store on it.
“I hate shopping.”