“Busy with what? Come on, you don’t study that hard.”
“I don’t want to lead her on,” I say.
“What I don’t understand,” Ethan begins, “is why you won’t even give her a chance. Do you think you’re too good for her?”
“No! No, it’s not that. At all.” I don’t want Ethan to get the wrong idea. “I just…”
He sighs, and I can practically see him rolling his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. It’s not like you have to kiss her or anything. Hell, spend the whole time studying. I don’t care. I’m just saying the rest of us can’t make it. Bye.”
He hangs up. I stare at my phone.
Eventually, I make my feet move and arrive at the cafe. Half the tables are filled, and Lily sits at the back, looking anxiously at her phone. When I approach, she looks up, and the worry melts from her face.
“Aaron!” She jumps up and gives me a quick hug. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the others cancelled at the last minute.”
“Yeah, Ethan called me.”
Lily grimaces. “It’s not like them to flake. But it’s okay. We can make the most of it.”
“Sure.” I try to look as happy as I can. “Have you already ordered?”
“Yep. I got us both a sakura latte. They’re making it now.”
She nods at the counter, where a barista is working the coffee machine. I take the chance to look around the cafe, which is all wooden panels and hanging plants. The menu looks somewhat Japanese-inspired, with matcha lattes, mochi, and red bean desserts, but they also have the usual stuff like sandwiches and salads.
The waitress comes over and hands us our lattes, a vaguely pink-brown colour with white latte art. We both thank her, and after she leaves, I take out my wallet.
“Thanks for ordering for me,” I say, handing Lily a fiver. Her eyes jump up, and she doesn’t speak for a moment. I pray for her to take it, and to my relief, she does.
“No worries.”
I take out my books, and Lily does the same. We sip on the lattes, and it’s surprisingly more tasty than I expected. I thought the cherry flavour might be overwhelming or sickly sweet, but it’s subtle and refreshing.
We take out our folders and spread them out across the table.
“What are you going to study?” Lily asks.
“Maths,” I say. “I’ve got a test coming up this week. What about you?”
“I think I’ll focus on English.”
“I need to study for that too. English is definitely one of my worst subjects. I remember it used to be so easy back in Year 7.”
She giggles. “It’s actually my best subject.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I…” she hesitates. “I could give you a few pointers if you’re struggling.” She pulls out a bunch of paper from her notebook, stapled together. “This is a practice essay I wrote.”
I take it from her. “Oh, wow,” I say after a minute. “I’ve only read the intro, and I can tell this is really good.”
She spends the next fifteen minutes giving me tips on improving in English, and I can tell she genuinely wants to help. She really is super sweet.
If only I liked girls.
Afterwards, we work in silence for a bit, and I study maths. As I work through problems in a practice test, my mind wanders. Sure, I can’t date Lily. But maybe we could be close friends — closer than we already are.
After a while, she leans back and stretches her arms. “I’m going to get a snack. Do you want anything?”
