I sat on the bar stool table against the window at the local café with a mug of coffee in my hands, and watched as hundreds of raindrops raced down to the bottom of the windowsill, silently cheering on the small rice-sized droplet to win. It surprised everyone that it was raining in the middle of the summer.

Unusual Australian weather, I thought to myself.

I had two weeks of my summer break left before I had to be dragged into my last year of high school. The idea frightened me. High school was the one of the causes of my… sickness.

I had suffered from a mental illness called seasonal affective disorder. It's basically where every winter or summer, maybe even both, which was the case for me, the lack of sunlight caused your brain to stop synthesizing 'happy' hormones. Now, don't laugh cause I lacked sunlight in the summer, where it's all about fun in the sun and all that jazz. I typically am just less active in the summer and winter, which results to me staying inside all the time and therefore, the reason why I had S.A.D. I was diagnosed by a doctor two years ago when I was 16, but it began in 9th grade. I was just too afraid to tell my parents for two whole years, so at the time I just self-diagnosed myself. School had been a huge factor in the mess and it made my brain turn to hell. They found out when I attempted to kill myself two winters ago. I mean, I had done it one time before, taking a shitload of pills before bed, but too bad I woke up the next morning feeling like crap and pissed off cause my resolution didn't work. My parents didn't think much of it; they simply thought I was just sleeping in and woke up cranky and shitfaced. It wasn't until my parents caught me trying to OD and then "Hello hospital bed" for me. Now, I have to take these dumb anti-depressants and my parents basically force me out of the house to absorb some sun, and I've slowly been getting better.

Anyways, let's move on to the story. This isn't a pity party.

With a sigh, I slowly took the last sip of my coffee, finishing the strong taste of my now cold latte, and looked down at my journal to continue working on a design for the house my mother was working on. She worked as an architect, and was known for her amazing work by many people in Sydney but recently, she's been needing my help on her most recent project since she had been extremely busy, so uses me as help. I guess you could call my her little intern. Luckily, her talent was passed down to me.

"Damnit," I heard a voice mutter behind me.

I turned around on my chair to find that the café was almost empty. The only people in the room were Barbara, a woman in her late 50s that owned the place, and a boy about my age sitting in the corner booth with a guitar in his hands. My eyes fixed on him; he sat with multiple pieces of paper laid out in front of him and a cup of coffee to the side. I watched as he strummed the guitar with a pencil between his teeth, occasionally stopping to write something down. His dirty blonde hair was pushed up into a quiff with a couple strands of hair hanging moodily onto his forehead and dipping into his eyes. They looked tired but mysterious and warm, and his eyebrows squinted in concentration as he continued to fill the room with his quiet music, which I had to say was pretty good. He wore a tight ripped Nirvana t-shirt similar to one I owned, and tight denim jeans rolled up at the bottom and on his feet; he wore black vans, and one shoe, from what I could notice, was untied.

Huh. He's got good taste in bands, I thought to myself. I thought about saying something to him about his shoelace but I'm sure he would notice sooner or later.

After a few moments passed, I looked back to the window in front of me, growing uninterested of watching the mysterious boy. The rain had stopped shortly and I looked at the clock nearby. It was half past seven o'clock in the evening. I decided it was time to walk back home, so I grabbed my journal and pushed it into my bag, hopped off the stool, then walked to the door, swinging the strap over my shoulder. When I opened the door, the bell on the handle jingled and I began my journey home.

• • •

The next day, I strolled into the semi-crowded café around 3 o'clock and walked up to the counter to get my order. As usual, a big warm smile and young brown eyes greeted me.

"Hi, Dylan."

"Hello, Kris," he replied. "The usual, I'm guessing?"

I answered with a smile and nod.

"How come everyday you always seem to be okay eating and drinking the same thing over and over again?" he asked as he worked on my order, pushing up his glasses every so often. Dylan knew very well by now what I wanted: a simple caramel latte and a glazed cinnamon roll. I've come into the café everyday this summer, ordering the same drink and sitting in the same spot on the bar next to the window.

"I don't know, really. It's just what I do," I answered with a small smile. I noticed he was wearing a beanie today, which was something he never usually wore. I swear, working as a barista was slowly turning Dylan into a hipster; the blue beanie, the glasses, the cardigan, and his brown hair spiking up in front clearly proved my theory.

"I've known you for so long, and I still don't understand you… Here you go," he laughed, handing me my drink. "Hold on. I'll be right back. I've got to go get the cinnamon rolls from the oven in the back."

I nodded and silently waited for him to get my rolls, looking around the café to observe the customers. A couple sat at a booth chatting and having lunch while a businessman stood near the pick-up area waiting for his order. A college student sat at the stools with a laptop in front of him and a woman wearing gym clothes sat in the lounge area with headphones in her ears and coffee in her hand. At the far corner, the same boy from the day before sat in the booth with a guitar by his side. However, this time, he wasn't playing it, and today he had a different band shirt on: a Misfits band tee. His back was to me and across from him sat another boy with brown hair styled into something like a mohawk, and he was looking right at me with a big smile on his face, turning back to the blonde haired boy when he realized I noticed him watching me.

"Here it is," a deep voice interrupted my thoughts. I turned around to see Dylan holding out my drink and cinnamon roll.

"Thank you, Dylan," I said with a smile.

I grabbed it and walked over to my usual seat and sat down, looking out of the window. I could still feel the mohawk boy eyes burning into my back, and I began to feel self-conscious and extremely curious. I quickly glanced back to the booth where he and the other boy were sitting. Mohawk boy gave me a quick smile and wink before returning his conversation with Nirvana boy.

What the fuck was that all about? I thought to myself. Honestly, both were cute, but I wasn't that interested into talking to them. I didn't think they would like me since I wasn't anything special and kept to myself a lot.

Quickly forgetting about the awkward eye contact with the mysterious boy, I looked through the window in front of me and watched the busy rush of people outside. The sky was filled with gray clouds and the sun's rays barely peeked through. I sighed. I hated this rainy weather. I wanted the sun to come out again soon before summer ended. I watched a man across the street in his early twenties with his arms covered in tattoos walking hand in hand with a pretty blonde girl. The girl was petite and way too innocent looking for the guy and the sight made me chuckle.

I wonder how that happened, I laughed to myself.

I took a sip of my coffee and prepared to begin eating my cinnamon roll, but then realized I had forgotten to grab a fork. Hopping out of my seat, I strolled over to the front counter where the utensils were located and grabbed a fork and a couple napkins.

"Kris! Can you do me a favor please?" Dylan's voice shouted at me from the entrance of the back room.

"Uhh… sure, why not?" I said.

"I'm sorry I don't usually do this but Barbara needs me in the back room. There's something going on with the air vent in the ice room. Can you hand these two drinks to those two boys over there?" he asked in a hurried voice.

"Yeah! Um… where again?"

"Over there in the corner booth," he said, pointing at the other side of the room.

I looked over to where he had pointed. The two drinks belonged to the Nirvana boy and the mohawk boy. Once I realized this, I panicked. I wasn't really into the idea of walking over there and handing them their drinks because that meant I had to talk to them and explain why I was giving them their drinks instead of the barista that worked here.

"Wait, Dylan-" I tried to say, but when I turned around, Dylan had already slipped around the back to help Barbara with whatever she needed.

Fuck.

I walked slowly to the corner booth where the two boys sat talking. When I reached the side of the table, both looked up at me with curious and surprised faces.

"Umm… here are your guys' drinks… Dylan- I mean, the uh... barista was busy out in the back 'cause Barbara needed him and he asked me to give this to you guys and well… here I am. So here are your drinks. I'm not sure which one is which and which one is belongs to who but-"

"What's your name, beautiful?" the mohawk boy said with a smirk on his face, making me realize that I had been rambling and my face turned bright red.

"Uhhh… what... tell me your name first?" I answered, refusing to give up my name so easily.

"I'm Luke and this is Calum. I'm sorry for his rudeness. Thank you for bringing us our drinks," Nirvana boy replied, looking at me in the eyes with a sweet apologetic smile. Oh God, I just realized how blue and beautiful his eyes were.

"Yeah, thanks. So… are you gonna tell us your name now, sweetheart?" the guy named Calum asked.

"I… uhh…. it's Kristin, but call my Kris," I finally gave in.

"It's nice to meet you Kristin. Do you come in here everyday?" Calum continued to ask in a deep humorous voice, completely ignoring the fact that I wanted to be called Kris, rather than my real name. He was clearly flirting with me and trying to make me laugh and it was adorable but he absolutely terrible at it. I had to hold in my laugh and try to keep a straight face.

"Y-yeah, I guess. Everyday in the summer. Every other day the rest of the year," I said, finally breaking my serious face, and cracking a small smile.

"Did you know that you are probably the most beautiful girl I've ever-" Calum began but was interrupted by Luke. I knew what he was going to say and I started to blush. Thankfully, Luke stopped him before he could say any more.

"Okay, Calum, that's enough," he said with a smile, but it didn't look real. It looked like something was bothering him.

"Oh, come on, you have to admit that she's-"

I turned my head away, embarrassed to hear what he was going to say. I didn't think I was that pretty but the things Calum was saying made me blush bright red. As I could hear Luke whisper-fighting with Calum and telling him to stop, I turned to look at the counter to see that Dylan was back to work again. He was looking at me with a curious face and I could read his lips saying, what are you doing? He had a smirk on his face and I'm sure he knew exactly what was going on, so I just shrugged in return with a grin on my face.

"You come in here everyday?" Luke spoke out again. "Were you here yesterday? I don't think I saw you, and I was here all day yesterday." Calum gave him the evil eye before looking back up at me, waiting for an answer.

"Yeah. I was here yesterday. All afternoon actually. I saw you, but not until it got dark. I get a little carried away in what I do, I guess. You were working on something with your guitar. It sounded really nice," I said, happy that I had grown a bit of confidence and talked without having to stutter in every sentence.

"Really? You were here? I wonder why I didn't see you… I must've been so into what I was doing…" he said, his voice lowering at the last sentence.

"Ahhh. Lucas and his songwriting…" Calum muttered, with a smirk.

Suddenly, the sound of a phone ringing was heard, and Calum quickly reached into his back pocket and grabbed his phone, answering it.

"Hello? Yeah…. Uh huh. Oh right? Right now? Okay… we're on our way. Don't worry. Yeah. Totally we're driving in the car right now. Ok. Bye," he said, hanging up. "Luke, that was the boys. We have to go right now."

"What? Shit. I totally lost track of the time," he said, getting out of the booth seat. Calum scooted out from the booth also, and grabbed their drinks. I was innerly dying. I was so sad that these two cute guys were leaving and I wouldn't be able to talk to them anymore.

"Well, we gotta go," Luke said. He looked sad that he was leaving. Why would he be sad? Did he have fun talking to me? I hope he did.

"It was nice meeting you, my beautiful lady. We'll see you," Calum said with a smirk on his face.

"Haha, yeah... I'll see you guys, I guess," I replied, trying not to look sad.

"Are you going to be here tomorrow?" Luke asked.

"Yeah. I'm always here," I smiled.

"Good. I'll see you tomorrow then," Luke said, opening the door of the café and waiting for Calum

Calum stayed behind a little longer. He looked at me with a smile on his face for a long moment before saying, "I still think you're one of the most beautiful girls that I've ever laid eyes-"

"Oh, come on, Calum!" Luke yelled, yanking Calum's arm and lightly pushing him outside the café.

"Wait, Luke," I called out, forgetting to tell him something.

He whipped his head to me just as he was just about to step out of the café behind Calum.

"You have good taste in bands," I said with a smile, pointing to his shirt.

He looked down and realized what I was talking about, looking back up with bright eyes and a wide smile.

"You like the Misfits?! Alright, I'm definitely going to see you soon!" he said with a laugh.

I laughed and he walked out of the café, never breaking eye contact with me until I was out of his sight. I was left with the biggest smile on my face as I skipped over to Dylan to tell him what had happened.

YAYYY. First fanfic ever posted. Hopefully, it'll get bigger! Please favourite if you like :) It'll let me know to post more.

COMMENT IF YOU CAUGHT THAT 'AFTER' REFERENCE ;D