The Heart of it All

Chapter One

My life is normal.

I go to a school, sleep, eat and have friends. I do human things, and make human mistakes. I’m not special in any way. Out of anyone in the entire world, I’m the most ordinary.

The only thing that sets me apart is the fact I know someone, and that someone knows me and has acknowledged me as a part of their life. For some reason that has made all the difference to make me unique.

The day I met him, I was in a cafe near the Manchester Eye. It didn’t seem particularly odd that day, I was just doing my homework and sipping a mocha on a rainy Manchester evening.

My chemistry, maths and language homework had buried me in a six foot deep hole, and I was struggling to escape. I’d been going to University now for about a year, and it was stressing me out way too much… If I am supposed to go here for the next three years, how I am I going to able to maintain my sanity at the same time?

I had been lurking in a comfortable, plush, red chair, my face literally buried inside of a maths textbook, when the cafe door squeaked open. I didn’t look up as the tiny bell rang, but out of the corner of eye, I saw him at the counter.

To be honest, I judged him harshly at first. He wore a black shirt, on black jeans, on black shoes. Topping it off, he had dark brown hair. I could see that his ears were pierced with, also black, studs.

After ordering his vanilla frappuccino, he turned around, making eye contact with me. At first I was startled, because his clothes, in a strange way, were casual and not too trashy. But his eyes even from my seat, I could see, were a light brown. His face looked healthy and happy, his skin an almost translucent white. There was only one odd thing, he was carrying a video camera in his hand, filming everything.

He had a friend with him, dark black hair, and green eyes but he was wearing a purplish blue shirt with black jeans and black converse. Although his friend didn’t have piercings.

They looked so content in the others presence.

Anyways. Making eye contact, all of that flashed through my head in an instant. So before either one of us would look away, I smiled politely at him, and tucked my brown hair behind my ear before giving my attention to my books. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see him smile, returning his eyes to vlogging.

I knew very well what vlogging was. Having stalked Youtube for pretty much my entire high school career, I was aware what it looked like for a professional vlogger to be vlogging. Now either this guy was a professional vlogger, or he, just like me, had stalked Youtube and the internet in general, for a good amount of their time.

The two of them lounged against the cafe counter, awaiting their drinks. Laughing, talking, and taking turns videoing each other. Finally their frappuccinos arrive, and strategically, the one I had made eye contact with, chose the open table facing me. There was obviously other open spots where they could vlog in private, but no he had to sit right by me. How on earth was I to study in the racket of laughter?

Glancing up irritably at every loud noise, they finally quiet down, and surprised, I find them whispering in hushed tones. That’s perfectly fine with me, silence and serenity is all I needed at that exact moment.

A dreadfully long pause stretched to oblivion after that, and I almost forgot they were even there at all. Until I hear chairs scraping the floor, and see the one in black approaching me nervously.

His friend is still seated, the camera following the other boys back, as he took the seat in my booth.

Shyly, he fumbles out a hello. His accent is very light but he is obviously English. He must travel a lot.

“Hello… “ I answer, flicking my eyes towards him questioningly, “May I help you?”

“Um… Well you see, my friend has dared me to go ask you for your number… It’s for a- video… For Youtube.” He seems very socially awkward, and apprehensive as to how I will react to being videotaped.

“YouTube… If you put this video up, please blur my face.” I request simply.

Scrunching his eyebrows, but still understanding, he nods, “Of course.”

After flipping over to the next page in my book, and placing the bookmark tighlying into the pages spine, I set the book away gracefully, “Now listen. You’re a complete stranger. I should get to know you a little better before I even consider handing over my number.”

Biting his lip, he nods.

“So is there some kind of reward for getting it?”

“Well not exactly. If I don’t get your number I have to sit in the public fountain at midday.”

Chuckling, I continue, “Ah. What’s your name?”

“My name is Alex Jones. My friend videoing us is Carter Boyd.”

“Nice to meet you two. So if I give you my number, will you announce it to the internet, or constantly message me?” I was being precautious, people from the internet are peculiar at most times.

Dead serious, he shakes head vigorously, “We’re not like that.”

Smiling I give approval, “Sure I will give you my number, just don’t do anything bad with it… So, do you live around here?”

“We do live here, although we end up traveling a lot. Sometimes it feels like we don’t even belong here.” He sighs, “Some people are less fortunate than us though, so I like to think on the brightside. After all who doesn’t love living in one giant mass of rain?”

Glaring out the window I state with a hint of humour, “No kidding. Why is it that we get all the rain? Places are in drought, and here we are complaining at how much we receive. At least we have it.”

A commotion starts outside. We both crane our necks to see. Some idiot has decided to walk across the traffic jammed street. Now the driver has pulled to the side and is yelling at the young man on the pavement. Onlookers walk by quickly, wanting to avoid the drama.

Meanwhile Alex and I are coughing out our guts. I don’t think we even realised we were laughing as hard as were, or even that we were laughing together, but we were. Sighing, I gulp down the rest of my cold coffee, wiping small tears from my eyes.

The young man is now yelling back, but that is ignored now.

I look into his honey coloured eyes, trying to keep myself from laughing. My mouth still has some coffee in it, and when he accidentally snorts, some of it dribbles on my chin. Covering my mouth with my hand, the rest of it comes out as I laugh even harder, both Alex and Carter joining in. Clasping a napkin to my face, I am practically dry heaving.

Sucking in breaths, I look at both of them, my face red from laughing, “Okay, I have to get back to studying, but it was nice to meet you both.”

I jot down my name and number with a blue pen, and hand it to him on a napkin, “I swear if you do something with it… I’ve had experience with stuff like that before, and I just don’t want to go through that again.”

I see a flash of something behind his eyes, sadness, maybe relatability? It disappears instantly, as he replaces it with a smile, says thank you and sits back with his friend, Carter, who’s still cackling.

Alex, although also snickering, seemed to be slightly holding back, and wasn’t laughing as much Carter was.

I rolled my eyes, and opened my maths textbook again, delving into numbers and symbols.