It had been a week since Carol had agreed to meet me in person, and today was the day I would finally do so. Alfie was off practising his science project, while Meg was enjoying her break from work for the weekend, and I was staring at myself in the mirror, (which was something I never do,) contemplating my final thoughts before I walk out that door. What if this actually does go horribly wrong? What if Carol is someone I would never expect to see? What if I'm not what she expects to see? Okay, stop asking yourself what ifs and just go... 

  For some reason, Carol had picked a coffee shop to meet up in somewhere far from here, rather than the one downtown. It took me 10 minutes to walk and an extra cautious three when walking through some sketchy alley way. I swore there was someone watching me but it ended being a stray cat crouched upon a garbage can. I wondered if there was another way to get to the coffee shop but I guess this was the only way I could find. But seriously, out of all the coffee shops in central DirnVille it had to be this one. 

  As I entered Holling Avenue, the sun reappeared from the grey sky and cars and people started to appear again. I walked closer to the very corner of the street and there I stood, right in front of my destination. I looked inside the coffee shop to see, surprisingly, a lot of people. The place seemed pretty legit aside from the walk I took to get there, and the sign lit up big letters that spelt "THE GREY COFFEE SHOP". As I walked through the steel door, the first thing I noticed was the loud individual voices from all the costumers, then the scent of the morning-filled lattes, and then her. 

  There she was, sitting alone in the table at the corner, sipping her coffee, her eyes scouting around the place; looking for me. Her fingers were impatiently tapping the table, and her foot was rolling her skate-board, back and forth. Maybe she was here long before I was. I knew it was her, there was no doubt. From her spunky coloured highlights on her dirty blonde hair that only reached at ear level, to her 8-bit heart t-shirt. She also had a pair of headphones, resting on her shoulder. She was exactly what she described herself as, but now that I'm seeing her in real life, she looked better. 

 It wasn't long before she was looking at my direction. And at that moment we were both gazing at each other. Then, for a sudden, the loud voices of the other people began to fade away, and it was only us. We both knew it now, she knew it was me, and I knew it was her, so I slowly raised my hand and awkwardly waved it to say hello, and she began to smile as she too, waved hers. She signaled me to walk forward and sit on the empty stool in front of hers, and as I approached her, I asked,

 "Carol, right? It's me, Ro-" 

 "Rowen, I know, it's not like it's the first time we talked to each other." She chuckled. 

 "Well, first time in person." I replied, sitting down on the stool.

 "You look a lot better in person, I must say."'     

 "I would say the same for you." Quick! I began to think. Something interesting to talk about! "Uhhh, what's up with the distant coffee shop?"

 "Oh, It's pretty close to me, I'm in a hurry so..." She took a bigger sip from her coffee, and she started rolling her skate-board even faster.     

 "Oh, God, Sorry! Am I ,like, buying your time? If today's not a good day to-"

 "No, It's fine, " She smiled, "it's totally fine." Well, to  me, she looked incredibly worried, but I decided to ignore it and tried to find ways to start a conversation.

 "What's keeping you in a hurry?"

 "Family things. When I'm gone for too long, or too far, things get really messed up. It's annoying." 

 "I. Can. Relate. I have an older sister who absolutely hates her job and rants about all of it, to me."

 "What's her job?"

 "Oh, yeah, that's the most unbelievable part: a game store." Carol had stopped tapping her fingers on the table, and she began to appear less worrying.

 "Weird, that seems like an awesome job to have. Well, for me."

 "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Carol began to roll her eyes,

 "Can't even count."

 "That's a lot of responsibility for your dad, since he's got ,like, a virtual reality to take care of, and all..." I joked.

 "You'll get used to it. Besides, I never really met a person who only cared who I am and not who my dad is." 

 "Yeah, It's still a bit hard to process that." We both share a laugh, then Carol brought up a question,

 "Now I want you to be completely honest with this, without being biased or anything, what is your favourite game?" My eyes widened as I tried to find an answer,

 "The heck type of question is that? I just can't pick one."

 "Just a conversation starter."

 "Ahaha, well..." And from that point on, we couldn't stop talking. For one conversation led to another, and each question got us to know even more about ourselves. I couldn't deny, I never thought things would go right after this. I sort of lost control of time and it seemed liked she did too, and at a random point in the conversation, she asked me,

 "What time is it?" I quickly checked my phone and said,

 "4:00, we've been talking for half an hour-" Carol slammed her empty cup on the table, 

 "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitake mushrooms I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" She quickly started to pack up her stuff and picked up her skate-board. "It was a nice - uh- date with you. Um..." She reached inside her coat pocket, "...Here's my number. Call me - whenever- or just talk to me on the game. We should do this again. I hope." She ran towards the door, and just when she was about to open the door, she looked back at me and waved good-bye. I waved back and she quickly walked out the door and hopped on her skate-board. It took me a few seconds to comprehend what had happened.

 "She's a real mystery isn't she?" Asked a coffee shop employee, seeing my puzzled face. I gave her a slow nod in return. "I've seen her 'round all the time, never stays for more than five minutes. You're a real handsome fellow, I bet you'll be seeing her more often. I can tell she really likes you." 

  As I was walking back, I couldn't help but think, so, that was a date. There was a weird feeling inside me which made me smile. Until my thoughts got distracted by a loud bang of a trash can near by. I then realized I was walking in the dark alley way again. My paranoia started to rise up, and I began to think of the worst conclusions. Maybe it was a murderer, maybe it was the paranormal, or maybe it was just that cat from before. I began to look around, being aware of my surroundings, then, I heard a loud flap of a giant wing. I quickly turned around, and at that moment, I stood there, frozen. 

 I couldn't believe what I saw.