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Fourteen

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Who cares? April asked herself several times as she struggled to justify her sitting there—on a date— despite having told herself against doing so without laying her cards on the table.

Cue the guilt.

"Earth to April," Shawn chuckled, waving in her face.

She swatted his hand lightly, willing her eyes to stop looking over his shoulder. She stretched her legs out under the table in an attempt to sink into the chair and avoid being spotted.

"What are you up to?"

She shook her head, diverting her eyes from them and to Shawn's face with an obviously pathetic smile. "Up to?"

Shawn narrowed his eyes, then leaned one elbow onto the table, twisting his body around to look behind his chair. Right there in plain sight, were Javier and his father, still approaching them.

April felt her bones getting colder. What if he called her out? Could he tell what had happened between Javier and her at the lake just by observing?

He can if you don't chill the fuck out, another voice reprimanded.

"That's your friend, isn't he?" Shawn asked.

"Who?" She asked a little too sharply, staring into her cup as if just trying to detect poison. Chill out. Now.

This was SO not working.

"Did I miss something? Are you not cool with being seen?" He asked. "Last I remember, he set us up for this."

She nodded absently. From where they were, it would take approximately One minute to get to their table, meaning one minute to figure out how to get out of the seat or figure out a way to turn invisible. Could she just ask Shawn if she could leave? How did these things work?

When she blinked, she caught Shawn staring at her with what looked like pity.

"What?"

"Nothing, just reading signs."

A roll of her eyes followed. "Cause you're what? A psychic?"

The waitress walked over to them again, this time, carrying a wide white tray of their orders, setting them down with the clinks of the ceramic plates. April couldn't wish her away quick enough, as she stood, obstructing her view.

She'd lost her time count before the girl finally left them alone. She quickly tossed another look over Shawn's shoulder and froze when she locked eyes with Javier's father.

Okay, you've been caught. There's no escape, so you have to be cool. Smile.

"Hi Mister Klein," she waved, crossing her noodle legs under the table and plastering a hopefully believable happy face.

He muttered a greeting back, then looked between Javier and her, as though wondering why they hadn't greeted each other, which was surprising, to say the least. Back then, he'd always had a sour expression just hearing them laugh together.

"Hey, guys," Javier said with as neutral a smile as possible, coming to a halt with his hands in pockets.

April almost glared. What was he trying to prove?

"Get our orders, Dad?" He asked his father, who shrugged and walked toward the area that served as the counter.

"Are you guys having fun?" Javier finally asked, as if on time to torture her. What she really wanted him to say was the story of how he became buddies with James Klein, who–according to her memory–did not even know his birthday.

"Yeah." It was Shawn who answered.

He turned to her, as if the answer hadn't satisfied him. "Having fun, April?"

She looked up at him. "Why do you care? measuring yourself?"

He scoffed. "I like to think it more as making sure I didn't set the bar too high."

"You guys dated?" Shawn cut in.

"Not exactly. We just —" Javier started, but cut his statement short when he received a wave over from his father. "Welp, there's my cue. I'll see you guys later." He gave a subtle wink, then walked ahead in the direction of his father.

Shawn waved him away while April said goodbye with a glare, with her nose almost touching the lid of her cup. How dare he deny their relationship in front of her?

"So...guessing you are exes?"

Fine, Javier Klein, two could play that game.

"You heard the guy, not exactly," she said, giving a half shrug, stirring her mango smoothie with her straw. Now that Javier had denied her, she felt she might as well have every permission to do same.

"What was it, then?" Shawn asked.

She made a gun with two fingers, pointed it to her temple and then mimicked an explosion. "Total bust. He's why I don't do this stuff."

"What stuff?"

It was the perfect opportunity to propose a casual hookup. "Relationships."

He chuckled. "So you don't do serious."

"Does it look like I do?"

"Gotcha." He winked, exchanging her empty smoothie cup with his untouched one.

She drew it closer, attaching her lips to the straw like a mosquito to skin. That had gone way smoother than she'd thought. Did it mean he'd never thought of her as the relationship kind? Somehow, the fact that she hadn't been considered as suitable for a relationship felt worse than being considered for one.

"Are you alright?"

She made eye contact. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged. "I feel like you're hiding something."

A laugh escaped her and she shrugged. "I have nothing to hide."

"Are you sure?"

"Is this a test?"

He smiled again and literally handed-off the case, holding his hands up on either side of him like Dexter had done earlier. She tried her best to ignore his presence for the next few seconds, as she downed the rest of his drink in silence.

"Shawn, I'm taking my break!" The blonde from earlier announced, walking away with a surfboard in hand. Now that she noticed, all the other wait staff had gone, and some of the customers too.

"Who's gonna make the next smoothie then?" April asked. "Trust me, I would, but I'm a disaster in the kitchen."

"Especially when drunk, I'm guessing?"

Her eyes widened. "Is this thing alcoholic?" He barked a laugh. She chuckled along, but in honest confusion, then stopped to ask again. "Seriously...is it?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, thirty five percent."

"Oh wow!" She laughed along. "No wonder I feel like my stepmother, and she's pregnant."

"Step mother?"

"Yeah, you know that friend of mine, the blonde one?" She asked, using the straw to scavenge what was left, slurping it up loudly.

"The one with the concert hair?"

She laughed. "Yes, exactly. She's my stepsister, and her mom is pregnant for my dad."

"Wow, how's that?"

She shrugged. "Exciting I guess," she replied, remembering that she still didn't know the child's name. She positioned the straw again, ready to take another slurp.

"You guessed, meaning you're not sure or that it's not good?" He asked, swiping the cup out of her grasp before she could. "I'll make you a new one," he whispered.

She couldn't help but giggle, getting up after him to follow him towards the counter, where the food came from. "It's great. We're all happy."

"So new baby huh?" He asked. "How's that?"

"It's okay, I mean it'll be great having someone to distract my dad from shoving his fist down my throat all the time."

"Can I ask?"

She bit her lip. She liked how polite he was being, although she didn't exactly need it. Sure, on one hand, he was practically a stranger but on the other, she needed someone else to assure her of her own sanity. So for the next few minutes (in the presence of cup upon cup of alcoholic smoothies), she broke down the whole ordeal, leaving out anything to do with Javier. She could tell he was listening as she started on what she'd sworn to be her last cup, as they stood on opposite sides of the counter.

"I... I don't think you're crazy," he finally said when she finished.

She looked at him from above the cup, leaving her eyes to linger before tearing them down. "I know I'm not, but-"

"Your dad probably just needs to see for himself that he isn't raising an aimless daughter... He won't be okay till you prove you are."

She smiled and nodded. Shawn was indeed attractive, and the only thing now preventing her from swinging him over to the fling side was the fact that she'd actually opened up to him, meaning he knew too much to be a fling.

"Hey, your boss wouldn't be mad I drank your whole tank of this thing, would he?" She asked, wagging the near empty cup from side to side while hoping he didn't notice her attempt at a change in topic.

He paused as if in thought, then smiled and shook his head. "My boss wouldn't be mad because my boss is me."

"Mhm yeah, I toootally believe that," she chuckled with a slow, sarcastic nod.

"I'm serious."

She chuckled and looked round, as though accessing the possibility of Shawn owning an establishment like that. Everything was starting to blur, so she abandoned trying to reason with it.

"Actually, I believe you own this place now... so I can sue your ass for adding alcohol to smoothies!" She said with a laugh, giving in and letting him push her to wherever they were going.

"Was that an actual law threat?"

"It would be, but I'll probably not be able to get an actual lawyer on my own. Just ask my dad, who got me a professional editor to write my college essay for me."

They reached the tables outside again, stepping into the faint peach-orange glow that represented the sun's shift being over.

"After this, you've gotta walk around, you know." He handed her her eight cup of the day, only it was filled with water.

She wrinkled her brows, asking him a silent question as she placed her mouth over the straw.

"To clear your eyes before you have to go back home."

"Alone?"

He held her shoulder and smirked. "Definitely not. For now though, till you're stable enough to walk, why don't you tell me about him?"

"Who? My Dad?"

"No, your ex boyfriend."

She took the straw out of her mouth slowly. She was a little tipsy, but her head was clear enough to understand what he was asking. "You're a joker."

He beamed as if for a picture, and the thin ends of his hair that stuck up looked illuminated due to the sunlight behind him. "Maybe, but I'm also a good listener, O'Neil."