Lily stared at me intently over her flat white, her dark eyes narrowed. I developed a fascination with the little packets of sugar in the middle of the table. I picked one up, folding it between my fingers. "Ah, sugar. I don't have sugar. It's not a good thing to have – sugar, because of um- the toxic – refined – white sugar. I don't think it's vegan – do you, Lily? Something about bones – let me look at the back ..." I tried to read the ingredients list on the back of the sugar packet, with no success. "Ah, but of course – they don't put that sort of thing on the back of packets – hm." I trailed off. She continued to stare narrowly at me. I tried again. "Those ... tricky sugar companies. With their bones, and unhelpful packaging – shady business dealings – " I twisted the packet a bit too vigorously, and it tore.

"Your voice just went very high," observed Aiden.

"Honestly," Lily sighed, sweeping my sugar aside fastidiously. "Her voice goes high when she's nervous," she told Aiden, as though I'd suddenly gone invisible. 

I scowled at them both. "No it doesn't!"

They laughed at me.

"No it doesn't!" mimicked Aiden in a falsetto.

Jake suddenly materialised behind me, placing my flat white on the table with a thump. I flinched – I'd forgotten he was working here today – and grabbed hold of it. Jake stalked away. I wondered why he was serving customers. He was usually as far away from them as the manager could ... manage.

Lily seemed to be thinking the same thing. She watched him go with narrowed eyes. "He didn't serve me or Aiden our coffee."

"Bizarre – um – yep. That's bizzare –" I mumbled into my cup, taking a sip and burning my tongue.

"Are you over him, then?" she asked, waving a very obvious hand at Jake's broad departing back. "No more crush on hot coffee guy?"

From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Jake falter in his departure

"No – what – shut up – shh – no – there was never – it is now – be quiet – shh!" I hissed at Lily very fast.

"Who's hot coffee guy?" asked Aiden.

Jake continued walking for the counter – and I put my coffee cup down. "This is an invasive conversation which should stop right now."

"Him," Lily pointed at Jake again, and I grabbed her hand and shoved it beneath the table.

"Who?"

"No, no, no!" I said, "Be cool, be cool – don't look around Aiden – don't look –"

Aiden looked.

With my free hand, I grabbed his face, and turned it back towards me. "Be. Cool." I hissed menacingly – restraining them both with an effort.

"Anna, you are not being cool right now," said Lily, "You are being very obvious."

Jake moved behind the counter and started measuring out coffee. Aiden continued to attempt to turn his head towards him. I let go of Lily and grabbed Aiden's head with both hands – leaning across the coffee table to do so. "Aiden – Aiden, you're being a jerk – stop looking – Aiden ..."

"The dude with the tattoos?" said Aiden, still craning his neck.

"No!"

"Yes," said Lily.

Aiden leaned closer to me. "Really? Him?"

"Be cool, Aiden, be cool!" His words sank in and I stared at him. "What's wrong with him? Not that he's – I mean, um –"

Aiden ignored my stuttering. "He doesn't seem like your type."

"Get a room!" some horrible child outside the coffee shop yelled. I let go of Aiden's face as though it was red hot, and leaned back in my chair.

I glanced over at Jake – and saw that he was frowning at me. Since he spent most of his time frowning or scowling in my direction, I could almost delude myself that he hadn't heard anything, and was completely oblivious to the huge burning wreck of a situation that was currently surrounding me on this side of the cafe. I grabbed my coffee, took a sip, and then somehow spilled some on my own face.

"Oh, crap - "

Both Aiden and Lily ignored this regrettably commonplace example of clumsiness. They were both still looking at Jake. I resolutely refused to look at him again. "Stop. It." I gritted out.

They turned back to me.

"So. You have a boyfriend," said Lily. She started doing the steely contemplating over the coffee cup thing again. "Would we not approve?"

"Hm?" I said, slightly desperately – attempting to formulate plans in my head.

"It's not official, she told me," reported Aiden.

"Not official?" said Lily. "Why the secrecy, Anna?"

"Nothing! I mean, nothing. There is no – there is no – secrecy –"

"Is he married?" asked Lily.

"What? No!"

"Is he ... famous?"

"No –"

"Do we know him?"

"Um, well – not really, no ..."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean, maybe, um – no – you don't know him. At all. You don't know him," I said. "You don't know his name – or – anything. You know nothing about him."

"How old is he?" she asked.

"Twenty ... five," I said.

Aiden narrowed his eyes at me. I narrowed mine back at him.

"What's his name?" asked Lily.

I looked at them. Opened my mouth. Closed it. My brain drew a blank. I stared at the packer of caster sugar in front of me. Caster sugar. "Ca –" I began. "Ca – s ..." I bit my lip, and my brain finally ground into gear. "Casper," I said. "His name is Casper."

"His whole name?" asked Aiden.

"Uh – no," I said. "You will Facebook stalk. No Facebook stalking."

Lily grabbed her phone. "Are your friends with him on Facebook?!"

"No! No. No." I said. "Nothing official – nothing –"

Aiden was already tapping away on his phone. "She has no Facebook friends called Casper."

"Let's stop interrogating," I said weakly. "That's enough."

There was a brief silence. I considered crawling for the door.

"I need another coffee," said Lily.

I looked around. For some bizarre reason, Jake was on the cash register. They must have been short a staff member. This was very bad.

"No. You. Don't." I gritted out.

"Yes, I do," she replied, confused.

"I'll get it for you," I said. "I – uh – I want another one too."

"Me too," said Aiden, jumping to his feet.

"I'll get it!" I exclaimed. "I am very happy to get it – you both just sit here. Without moving."

I got up and walked to the counter. Behind it, Jake looked like he was trying to scowl, but a smile seemed to be twitching at the corner of his mouth. I scowled at him. "You never do the cash register!" I hissed accusingly.

Suddenly, Aiden popped up at my side. He pretended to peruse the muffin selection, but I could tell he was looking at Jake. Jake appeared to be covertly observing him too.

I cleared my throat. "Um. Um. One soy flat white, one double shot latte with one sugar, and one skim flat white, double shot – extra hot. Please. Thank you."

Jake started poking tentatively at the computer screen attached to the till. Clearly he'd wasn't used to using it. In the eons it took him to key the order in, Aiden sidled up to my side.

"We're your friends, Anna – I don't know why you kept it secret," he said.

I glared at him, then at Jake – who was still studiously bent over the till. He was definitely listening.

"I'm not twelve," I said. "I don't need to tell everyone every detail of – my – my –"

"Romantic pursuits?" Aiden finished for me.

Jake's hand slipped, and he hit three buttons at once. The computer made a sad beeping sound. He swore – still resolutely not looking at me.

"Um. Yes," I said.

"It's just not like you," Aiden said. "Where did you meet him?"

"At – ah – um – a – um – I've forgotten," I said.

Jake glanced up at me, then away. He hit another button on the register. It clanked open, and I jumped.

"You've forgotten. Where you met your new boyfriend," said Aiden.

"He's not my boyfriend," I muttered.

"Your new 'non-official' mystery man – who you've been staying nights with and disappearing on your friends for," continued Aiden relentlessly.

"Hypocrite!"

Aiden cut me off. "Don't try to distract me. You're Anna. You're reliable. You're not like me. You don't just –"

"At a party!" I exclaimed. "I definitely met him at a party."

"At a party," said Aiden flatly. "What party? You don't go to parties!

"An ... um. English party. For English Majors."

"You met 'Casper' the invisible man at a party for English Majors," said Aiden. "You know what, Anna? I think maybe you're lying."

"That's thirteen dollars," Jake interrupted, glaring at Aiden.

I dug around for my wallet, but Aiden beat me to it. He handed Jake his credit card. "Here," he said rudely.

"Thank you," I said to Jake – attempting to smooth over the weird tension between the two of them.

After putting it through the machine, Jake handed the card back to Aiden. They glared at each other. It was one of the most aggressive money exchanges I've ever seen outside of a mafia movie.

After we took a new table number, Aiden and I sat back down with Lily. Aiden continued to frown in Jake's direction.

Lily turned towards me and started speaking. But I completely and utterly missed what she was saying – because that was when the café caught on fire. 

^^^

Author's Note

Hi everyone! I'm back! Thank you so much for keeping on reading and supporting 'Awake', despite the break I've had. I've been very busy doing a VERY intense screenwriting course this year; but this is my first holidays! I'm going to try to write as much as I can over the next two weeks. This book is drawing to a close, but I have plans to continue the series on Wattpad - so I'll keep going, I promise! It might be a little erratic, but the chapters will keep being updated, and I WILL finish book one over the next few months, I'm sure of it!

As always, check out Anna's official tumblr  (in the external link)- new content might pop up there - and thank you again for all your lovely comments and support - I wish I could reply to everything; and as soon as I have a bit more room to breathe, I will! 

xxx El.