Friends and Coffee
Remy sat in the café, drumming her fingers on the table. Tracing the vague shape of a pterosaur in the grain of the wood, she thought back to the sauropod she had traced on her dining room table almost two hours ago. Just as she finished sliding her finger along the pterosaur's right wing, she spied the vaguest shape of a hadrosaur. If she squinted, she could make out the tail, powerful hind legs, arms curled to its chest, and head adorned with a small crest.
"I found Littlefoot, Petrie, and Ducky. Now, where are Cera and Spike hiding?"
When Remy couldn't find anything remotely shaped like a dinosaur in the wood grain, she moved to the empty table next to her. She almost missed the rather obvious but tiny stegosaurus in the very left corner of the table. The door jiggled as someone entered the cozy, coffee-scented café the moment Remy pressed her finger to a triceratops head.
"Found them all."
"Found who?"
Remy nearly jumped out of her seat.
Another teenaged girl leaned over Remy, her long frizzy black hair nearly brushing Remy's arm while her glossy lips were pulled in a grin. With a flick of her black hair over her shoulder, she glanced up at the large menu at the front of the café. "You haven't ordered anything yet?"
"Not yet. I was waiting for you and Heather. I wanted us to order everything at the same time." Remy traced the triceratops head. "I didn't want to be finished with my mocha by the time you two showed up."
"Well, Heather better show up soon. I'm itching to try this place's specialty." Felicity planted a hand on her hip, pouting at the door as if it would make their other friend arrive faster. And it seemed to work, the door opening to reveal another teenaged girl. She barely needed to look for her friends, Felicity already waving frantically at her.
"Hi. I'm here." Heather approached them, tucking away a strand of strawberry blonde hair that had escaped her neat bun. "Let's get some drinks before Felicity spills all her juicy gossip." Her bright aquamarine eyes were alight with mischief as she smiled at the darker-skinned girl.
"Why do you assume I'm the only one with gossip?" Felicity asked as they walked to the front of the café. "You have to have something about your new college life too. Or maybe Remy's run into something interesting during the past two months that she hasn't told us about." She raised an eyebrow at Remy as she adjusted her dark-framed glasses.
Heather shrugged. "The only thing I can give you is that I've joined the biology club. I won the opening trivia twice in a row, but then Lorenzo stole the title from me."
"Lorenzo," Remy and Felicity mimicked at the same time, bursting into giggles a second later.
Heather rolled her eyes. "It's not like that. He's just a guy in the club."
"Sure," Felicity drawled, fluttering her dark brown eyes. They were the same color as the black coffee being passed to the customer in front of them.
Before Heather could argue further, Felicity turned to the cashier, ordering the specialty drink. Heather and Remy also ordered. Soon enough, the girls had their caffeinated drinks and were once more seated at the table Remy had claimed earlier. Felicity swirled a spoon in her smooth, milky brown drink, dark red painted fingers tapping on the table. Remy casually sipped her mocha, eyes darting between her two friends, waiting for one to speak.
"What gossip do you have, Felicity?" Heather finally asked after running the edge of her fingernail through the carefully crafted cream leaf in her latte. When the darker-haired girl did not answer, she leaned forward. The large silver Tyrannosaurus rex earrings, which looked as if they were bursting from her ear lobes, gleamed in the fluorescent lights. A pair of flat, gold pterosaur earrings sat above the rexes' heads, appearing as if they were flying away from the deadly jaws.
"Oh, you know. Theater practice, lots of cute guys, parties, the usual. Though, I do have a small part in one of the college plays. You two have to come up next month and see me perform." She fluttered her thick lashes and pursed her glossy lips.
"I remember you mentioning something about getting a part in the play. That's awesome. I have to make sure to take that day off of work." Remy smiled, internally thinking that she might also have to plan around her visit to the dinosaur realm. If it wasn't so crazy, she would have told Heather and Felicity right there and then about her adventures in the foreign magical realm.
"How's your job going for you anyway?" Felicity asked, sipping her drink off the spoon she had been stirring with. "You're a phlebotomist, right?"
"Yep, and it's going well—nothing special to report other than a few not-so-great patients from time to time. I work an entire week, ten hours a day, but then I have an entire week off. It's kind of nice being able to relax for an entire week at a time." Remy swirled her drink. The glint of her gold bracelet reflected off the side of the glass. She would visit the realm later if her friends didn't keep her at the café all day.
"You found that bracelet and necklace in your attic, right?" Heather asked, pale brows furrowed as she stared hard at the new jewelry adorning Remy's wrist and neck. "You said they were from your grandma?"
"Yep. I was digging in the attic at the end of summer and found these. They are from my grandma, Selah. She passed away before I turned a year old. It's kind of cool having these as mementos of her since I never got to know her." Remy picked the blue crystal off her neck, a phantom heat radiating from it as the frozen flame within it danced in the harsh lights of the café.
"You know…" Felicity started, staring off into space as she swirled her still steaming drink. "For some reason, that necklace reminds me of something my older brother mentioned to me a few days ago. He saw that Shane guy in town last week. You know, the dude that went to our high school who always got into fights, stole stuff and dropped out half-way through his senior year. He was in the same grade as my brother. We heard all about the crap he did when we were in middle school. That guy kind of became a legend in our school."
"Oh yeah!" Heather piped up, nearly spilling her drink. "He was the weird, mysterious guy that no one knew anything about. He didn't really have any close friends and would constantly get in trouble with the teachers. I can't believe he's back in our hometown. I thought he left or got in trouble with the law or something."
"He probably doesn't have much of a life," Remy mused, toying with the blue crystal, the flame-like illusion trapped within it flickering as she tilted it back and forth. "Didn't he return to school one day all battered and bruised? He even walked with a really bad limp for a whole two weeks and then just disappeared."
A memory from her middle school days resurfaced. Belonging to a small school, the middle school and high school were combined in one building. Remy and her friends had been eating lunch in the cafeteria when Shane had walked in. The dark-haired boy had a black eye and many cuts and scrapes on his arms. When a teacher approached him, he brushed them off, heading somewhere else, clearly not wanting to talk about the injuries.
Felicity slapped her hand on the table. "Now I remember why Shane suddenly came to mind. He was wearing a bracelet with some blue crystal the day he came back to school beaten up. That crystal kind of looked like your necklace. I remember it vividly now. He had walked past me in the halls, and it caught my eye. It looked like there was a flame trapped inside it, just like yours."
"Kind of makes me wonder how the manufacture of that jewelry got that flame-like design inside the crystal," Heather mused, but Remy had barely heard her.
It took a moment for Remy to process what Felicity had said. Shane had a Shard. The aggressive, cliché bad-boy from her high school had the same type of crystal that she was currently wearing. A crystal that was magical in a different realm. Did he know how to use it? Had he ever visited the realm of dinosaurs and magic? Remy silently shook away the thought. He had to have a realm-charm and an access point to get into the realm. There was no way a guy like him would have found a way into that realm and enjoy it. It was too much of a coincidence. He had probably just stolen it from an antique shop.
Before she could space out any further and have her friends question her, Remy sipped on her drink. "So, did Shane have any new tattoos or piercings? I remember he had a bunch of piercings and one or two tattoos that may or may not have been legally done."
Felicity shrugged. "My brother said he was full of tattoos, but I can't tell you what any of them looked like. It seems like he's staying out of trouble, though. We would have already heard about some stupid crime he did. You know how quickly gossip gets around in our small town." She finally took a sip of her drink, savoring the taste for a moment before continuing. "I'm not sure what Shane's doing with his life. It seems all he does is walk the streets and then disappears for a month. Then, he's back for a few days and disappears again. At least, that's what I've heard from some people."
"Hey!" Heather interrupted, phone in hand. "Look at this awesome picture of a Bajadasaurus and Ekrixinatosaurus someone drew." She leaned over the table to show Felicity and Remy the artistic rendition of the sauropod and theropod. "Aren't they super cool looking? It's for a comic someone's drawing. They did a really good job making them accurate." She swiped to another picture. "Or how about this Styracosaurus with all those quill-like feathers all over it?"
"What?" Felicity leaned closer to the picture on Heather's phone, flipping it to the first picture. "What the heck did you say?"
Heather pointed to the first dinosaur, a sauropod with long spines protruding from its neck. "That is Bajadasaurus. They are closely related to Amargasaurus. Both have these super cool neural spines. Then there's Ekrixinatosaurus, they are a type of abelisaurid theropod. Abelisaurid are known for their vestigial forelimbs, stocky heads, and bony crests above their eyes. Ekrixinatosaurus means explosion-born lizard. Isn't that cool? And it's just as cool that the artist tried to make an explosion effect on its scales. Look at all those pretty oranges, reds, and yellows."
"I'm honestly not sure what you just said, Heather." Felicity leaned back, brows furrowed as she stared at the pictures. "I'm a theater major, not a biology-geology double major like you."
Heather pouted, setting her phone down and taking a sip of her latte. "You never were good at science, Felicity. I remember you always asked for help on every single assignment in high school. How will you survive that one biology class that you'll have to take for college? You're going to have to take one, and there's no way out of it. It's a required GED credit."
"Well, if I can't take an easy one, I'll just find some cute guy to tutor me. If I can't do that, I can always ask for your help.
Remy passively listened to their conversation, quietly sipping her mocha, enjoying its chocolate flavor. She didn't want to bring up her curiosity for the dinosaurs Heather had been talking about. Being that she was now exploring a world of dinosaurs, that information might come in handy at some point. Then again, if Remy's realm of dinosaurs was already different from the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures Heather knew, maybe it was best to stay quiet and learn about them from her personal encounters within the magical realm.
"Speaking about boys…" Felicity turned to Remy, her chin planted in her hand. "Have you heard from Quintin lately? You must have seen your archery rival at least once during the past two months." She fluttered her long black lashes at Remy in mock flirtation.
Remy sighed, but she couldn't help the smile creeping on her lips. "We're just friends, Felicity. Even if I wanted to date Quintin, neither of us have the time. Besides, I'm not interested in him. He's more like a brother. And I'm sure he has lots of girls interested in him at college. I don't need that drama." She swirled her half-finished drink. "Anyway, I've already shot at a couple archery tournaments with Quintin that were held near his college. We both did really well."
Felicity sighed dramatically, pushing her frizzy hair out of her face and adjusting her glasses. "Oh well, a girl's got to try. It's so hard to play match-maker for either of you two. Good thing I got all my theater friends who are a little more willing."
The three friends continued talking for nearly two more hours about everything and nothing. Heather mixed in conversation about dinosaurs here and there. At the same time, Felicity continued to throw bits and pieces of gossip she had heard around her campus, including the parties she attended. She even exposed some dirt she had managed to dig up on their former high school classmates during their college experiences.
The friends had a great time chatting, but after a few hours, they decided it was best to depart from the café. Remy hugged her friends goodbye and wished them well, hoping to see them again soon. Remy watched Heather and Felicity leave before she turned to her van, giddiness taking over. As soon as she stepped foot in her cabin, she would be ready for another adventure in the realm of dinosaurs and magic.