Coffee & Cola

This was mostly written this summer, laying on my belly in the grass in Norway.

 

She turned, looked at me, and suddenly I was lost. Kaia’s honey-brown eyes were like sunshine through a glass bottle of Coke, and they stared straight through me. I was melting in her cool warmth.

“Ethan?” My god, how strange and how new that word sounded coming out of her smile.

“Hey,” I said. Hey? Is that all I can think of? Really?

“Hey, didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, stopping to talk to me. Her friends kept going a few steps before loitering by a basketball hoop game. “What’s up?”

“Oh, we were just hanging at the carnival, you know.” Well, at least I’d found my voice.

“Yeah, us too,” She smiled. My heart somersaulted. “We should hang out,” she said.

I opened my mouth and one of her friends called her. Half-turned, she shouted,

“Half an hour, by the cotton candy? I want to hear about that volcano, ok?” I nodded, smiled, waved, and she was gone. Not quite sure what just happened, I turned and started back to my friends.

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey, sorry guys. That was Ethan.” I said

“Geez, Macy!” said Aya with a dramatic eye roll.

“What?” asked Macy, obliviously flustered at the sudden contempt coming her way.

“So, Ethan, huh?” asked Nina.

“Huh? Guys…” I looked each of them in the eyes. Their mischevious smiles were like mutinous sailors.

“Yes, Ethan,” I said, hoping to end this now. “I sit next to him in science. I guess we’re friends.”

“Uh-huh. Do you now?” Nina asked.

Something finally dawned on Macy. “Oh! You like Ethan? I didn’t mean to, like, interrupt and call you, I didn’t know who he was-- sorry!” Macy said, falling into a fit of giggles.

“No, guys, I don’t. Where are you getting this from?” I asked. We were just friends… right?

“Well, it was pretty obvious he likes you. If you ask me,” said Aya, smirking.

“You think so?” I asked, looking back down the carnival alley. I could just barely see his head over the crowd as he disappeared around the corner. “Ethan?”

“I think so,” said Nina.

“Ethan, huh?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“So, how did it go?” asked Max sarcastically dragging out each word.

“Oh shut up Max,” I snapped at him.

Ryan just looked at me with a question in his eyes.

“I’m meeting her in half an hour.”

Max erupted into laughter.

 

 

 

 

 

The sun was starting to sink low in the sky, throwing a red orange glow over the carnival. Many people had arrived in a short time, making the lanes so crowded it hard to find the cotton candy. He was standing there, holding a large, pink cloud.

“Why hello again,” he said. “Fancy meeting you here.” His face broke into a Grand Canyon grin, the lopsided, deep, disarming kind that could make anybody’s heart pound a little harder in their rib cage.

            We tried to take a walk, picking out way through the crowd as we let the fairy fluff slowly melt in our mouths. His dark hair was cut short, and the glowing sun danced around his familiar coffee colored face. And it was just coffee. Not a sickly-sweetened mocha, or an over priced espresso. He was the warm, familiar smell of an every day morning: wake up, toothbrush, cereal, newspaper, brown beans boiling away into that glass pot.

            “So, what happened with that volcano?” I asked.

“That disaster? Geez…” he smiled again. “Well, of course Max was even dumber in 2^nd grade, so he put in way too much baking powder, plus we ran out of time to do a practice eruption. So we presented, put it on out teacher’s desk. It foamed everywhere,” he said, motioning with his hands. “And the small sparklers we’d planed? I guess there was too much voltage. All of the papers on her desk that weren’t soaked by vinegar and baking soda caught on fire. Essays up in flames.” His smiles, gestures, and facial express made the story incredibly funny.

“Oh my god, what did you do?” I asked.

“Well, we mainly just madly shoveled the goop into a trash can. Somebody freaked and grabbed a fire extinguisher, so soon that was everywhere too. Needless to say, we didn’t get a very good grade.”

“That’s crazy,” I said, laughing myself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was fully dark now. The sunset had climaxed dramatically into a purple twilight, and the sky was kept from total darkness by the electric merriment of the carnival. Lights went on at all the booths and rides. Smells of cooking food: French fries, funnel cakes, and cotton candy sugar; mingled with the sounds of people shouting, waiting for rides, laughing with friends, sound effects in games, and tinny, catchy music.

“Want to ride the Ferris wheel?” I asked suddenly.

Kaia bit her lip and shook her head uncertainly. “I don’t like heights much,” she muttered.

“Oh come on,” I said, suprising both of us by taking her hand. “You’ve got me.”

She smiled, still unsure. I pulled her through the crowd, telling her all the time how safe it would be. She let me pull her along, nervously giggling all the while.

We paid our tickets and got on. The wheel turned around as it loaded on passengers.

Soon we were stuck at the top.

 “Wow, that’s a long way down,” she said, absent-mindedly scooting towards me to get away from the edge.

“You know,” she continued, “I’m really glad I ran into you today.”

“Me too.”

The wheel started turning. A cool breeze blew lazily across the passengers. Her hand suddenly slipped into mine. Muffled carnival music drifted up as if from another dimension. She leaned in and I realized we were kissing.

The Ferris wheel kept revolving under a silver moon, over the noise and chaos, but below coffee and cola quietly melted together.

 

Author's Note

Meant to be short, is it too improbable? mostly an experiment

Reviews

[John Stussy]

Really a well done down-to-earth story. I enjoyed the simpleness of it. You presented your imagery well. Keep up the awesome work, story writing treats you quite well.

[Drew Wade]

this was a great story!!!! I can see where you would say it's an experiment, because it's from two different perspectives in such a short period, but it's good nonetheless. you do a great job with dialogue, and have some of the best short descriptions I've seen in a while. 'fairy fluff' for cotton candy. the opening, as well, was beautiful. On the downside, I think the girl's character could have been a little more developed, and there was a misspelling. 'planed' when you meant 'planned,' I think. other than that, just perfect. thanks for letting me read it for the contest.