Olivia's POV
"Why are you here?" Samuel asks from where he's still standing across the table from me. "Don't tell me he's your date." He nudges his head at the boyish-looking guy standing next to him.
I follow his movement and find myself looking at the guy I'm now sure is Samuel's other charge. He has his eyes focused on me, which finally reminds me that he's still waiting for my answer.
"You're Brooke's friend, right?" he asks while scratching the back of his neck.
"Yes, I'm her friend." I shake my head to get rid of the absurdity of the predicament I just found myself in. "You must be her cousin. She said... Wait, did you say I was interested in you?"
"That's what she said."
"She told me that you're the one who wanted to meet me. That you saw me at the hospital and asked her to set us up on a date."
"I've never seen you before and Brooke's the last person I'd ask to set me up."
"Oh." I glance from the stranger's uncomfortable grimace to Samuel's growing smirk and then quickly snap my eyes back. "I guess she'll have some explaining to do. Why don't you sit down?"
I motion at the chair he's standing behind and with a second of hesitation, he pulls the chair away from the table and sits. Samuel, in the meantime, takes the seat facing against the wall at the empty table beside us. He turns his body, so he is facing toward us, which creates less than a foot of space between his knees and my left thigh.
"I'm Olivia Han." I turn to Samuel's other charge, who is now sitting across the table.
"Nick Wright."
Right then the same waitress returns and pops a wide bubble with her gum. "He ain't as smart as he looks if he stayed. So, what's it gonna be?"
"I'll have a cinnamon roll and some orange juice," I say and then turn to Nick.
"Iced coffee and chocolate cake," Nick says and the waitress walks off without writing down a single letter.
"Isn't it a little late for coffee?" I ask.
"As if." Samuel scoffs. "He can have coffee atâ"
"Not for me," Nick interrupts Samuel without knowing. "Caffeine does nothing for me."
"Still so rude," Samuel says.
I glance over to Samuel and find him leaning with his side against the chair's back and with his arms crossed in front of his chest. The scowl on his face is as dark as it was during most of his afternoon with me before he left for his next charge. Then another realization hits me.
"He's next after me, isn't he?" After all, the fact that Samuel is here right now, can only mean that Nick is the charge in line right behind me.
Samuel opens his mouth to answer, but Nick beats him to it. "What?"
"Nothing." I shake my head and turn back to the table in front of me.
"O...Okay..." Nick drawls and scratches the back of his head while looking at anything other than me. "What happened?"
I follow his gaze and find myself looking at the crutches, which are still propped against the wall beside me. "I guess since you didn't see me at the hospital, Brooke also didn't mention anything about my foot." I lift my left foot out from under the table, so he can see the low cast. "I was in a car accident recently, but before you ask about what happened, I can't remember anything about it."
"Because it was your fault," Samuel murmurs.
"It wasn't my fault." I glare at him.
"I wasn't going to say it was your fault." Nick lifts his hands off the table at the cold edge in my voice.
Right then the waitress returns with a round tray and lays it onto the middle of the table. She positions a glass of apple juice and a cupcake in front of me and a cup of what smells like cacao and an egg tart in front of Nick.
"There you go."
She begins to lift the tray off our table, but I grab its plastic rim before she can. And I'm not the only one. Nick also wraps his hand around the tray's edge, and for a moment both of us stare at each other. Then Nick nudges his chin at the items the waitress laid out in front of me and I snap back to reality.
"I ordered orange juice and a cinnamon roll." I put the glass and the plate back onto the tray, while Nick does the same.
"And I an iced coffee and chocolate cake," he says.
With her nose upturned the waitress grabs the full tray and makes her way back to the counter, but not before muttering a string of curses under her breath.
"She could have easily written our order into the phone she's always looking at." I shake my head at her back and then turn to Nick. "I'm guessing you're not a high school student anymore."
"He looks like one," Samuel says, yet I force my eyes to remain on Nick.
"I'm a first-year college student studying Criminal Justice."
"Really? You want to become a police officer? Aren't police officers supposed to be more buff?"
"Not really," Nick shrugs, while the corners of his mouth stiffen into a small grimace. "Not everyone needs to have arms as big as trees to become a police officer."
"And you'd be surprised at the muscles he's hiding underneath that shirt," Samuel says.
"Can you stop interrupting us?" I glare at him.
"Who do you keep talking to?" Nick asks.
With a pointed glare at Samuel to let him know that this is all his fault, I turn back to my date. He's now leaning against the back of his chair, putting as much distance as possible between us. And I can't blame him. Two weeks ago I would have also done anything in my power to distance myself from a person who looks like they're talking to themselves.
The waitress chooses right that moment to return, and this time she manages to get our order right. Wordlessly she places the drinks and the pastry on the table and then leaves without as much as a backward glance.
"I know my behavior may seem a little strange, but I swear I'm not crazy. You can ask Brooke." I take a sip of my orange juice. "So, why do you want to become a police officer?"
"My old man." Nick grabs his iced coffee and finishes it in three big sips.
"His father's a cop," Samuel explains.
"What about you?" Nick lowers the empty glass and takes a big bite out of the piece of chocolate cake. "You're still in high school, right?"
"Yes, like Brooke I just finished my junior year. We're actually childhood friends, Brooke and I."
"Do you know what's up with her? She's been acting jumpy the entire week." Nick takes another bite, which amounts to half of the cake already finished.
"What do you mean?" I also dig into my cinnamon roll, but opposite to him, I allow myself to breathe in between each bite.
"A feeling." He shrugs and then shoots up. "Excuse me."
He heads to the bathroom, while I turn back to the table. Both his glass and the small white plate are completely empty; opposite to mine which are still half full.
"Is he always such a fast eater?" I turn to Samuel.
"No." He shakes his head with a slow smirk playing on his lips. "He just wants to get away from here as fast as possible."
"You don't know that." I glare at him and then take another bite of the cinnamon roll. "Maybe he's just starving."
"I bet he's going to make an excuse about a home emergency the moment he returns."
Before I can reply, Nick comes back, yet doesn't sit back onto his chair. "Sorry, but I got a call from my old man. He's on duty and doesn't want my younger brother to be home alone."
"Told you." Samuel snickers and then stands up. "His brother is still in the hospital, just so you know."
"It's okay." I stand as well and force myself to ignore Samuel's smirk. "I better head home as well."
I reach for the crutches, while Nick heads over to the counter and pays for the drinks and the pastry.
"Let me pay for my share," I say once I reach his side.
He shakes his head. "It's fine."
"Don't bother. He's one of those nice guys." Samuel stops beside me. "He knows he'll never see you again, so he thinks this is the least he can do."
"What is wrong with you?" I glare at him. All afternoon he did his best to ignore my existence and refused to answer any of my questions about Guardians. "Why are you now in such a talkative mood? Why not before?"
"What?" Nick glances at me with the same creeped-out expression he's been wearing all evening.
"Never mind." I make my way to the front entrance, now eager to leave both Samuel and Nick behind.
I only manage to hop down the three stairs when I bump into someone. And because my balance is still dependent on my one foot and two crutches, I manage to fall onto my butt while the person I ran into remains standing on his feet.
"Sorry," a teenager, who can't be more than sixteen, says. "I didn't see you there."
"Hugo!" a powerful female voice calls from inside the café, which causes the boy I bumped into to breathe out a long sigh and then walk around me without ever offering me his help to get back up.
"I know you think I'm crazy, but do you mind?" I turn to Nick as I know there's no way Samuel would be willing to help me in front of another human.
Nick drags his feet to my side and then helps me back up. The moment I'm on the crutches again he lets go of me and takes a huge step back.
"Well, I'll... see you around," he murmurs, without meeting my eyes.
"I doubt that. Say hello for Brooke for me."
With half a nod, Nick scurries down the street, while Samuel remains rooted to his spot beside me.
"What are you waiting for? Follow your charge."
"You going to be okay?" For the first time since Samuel entered the café, his eyes mold into a softer caramel.
"I've managed for seventeen years without your help, and I'll do so even after I'm no longer able to see you."
With one last glare, I head in the opposite direction. And while furthering the distance between us, I promise myself to find out why I'm able to see Guardians and then reverse the ability as soon as possible.
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- E