Seeing Shadows (7 page)

No matter how much Sarah wanted to hang out with Grant, I knew that making sure I was okay was a greater priority for her. I smiled at her warmly, happy in the fact that there was one person on this earth that truly cared about me. "No, it's okay. Stay. I'll go back with Marcus."

"And me," Simon added stubbornly.

As Grant opened his mouth to argue, Joel stopped by the table. "Hey guys," he said. "Happy to see the new band together."

"Hey Joel," Grant replied. "Can we go over some things for next Saturday? Simon has some new equipment and we want to make sure that you guys are equipped to handle it." Grant turned to Simon. "Let's go over this stuff now, man."

Simon frowned and glanced at me. "Can't we do this another time?"

I pushed Simon's arm gently, the past couple of hours making me more comfortable with him. "Stay. Marcus and I are fine. I promise to protect his reputation and make sure he gets home safely."

Simon smiled but still looked uncertain. "Well..."

"C'mon, Simon," Grant urged. "Better to do this now than wait, in case we have to jimmy the set-up."

"It's cool, Simon," Marcus said. "I'll make sure Caitlin gets home safely. It's a good idea for you to go over the equipment."

Simon relented and sat back down. Grant started talking about the new equipment as Marcus and I said our goodbyes and walked to the door, holding our breath as the cold air greeted us. I looked behind us as the door was closing and saw that Simon was still looking in our direction.

My shift the next day at Colette's was busy. It was a popular place for breakfast and I was balancing the demands of all the tables in my section. I had worked at Colette's since my freshman year, so it was a rhythm I was used to and did it with ease.

"Caitlin, can I get some more maple syrup?" called out a regular at one of my tables.

"Sure thing, Clive," I replied, swinging behind the counter and grabbing another bottle of maple syrup. Colette's blueberry pancakes were famous and a popular order at the cafe, although I'm not sure how they were French. As a result, we went through gallons of maple syrup.

I sat the syrup on the table and smiled. "Need anything else?"

"Nope," Clive said. "All I need is syrup and your beautiful smile."

I laughed easily. "Then you're easy to please."

I continued making my rounds, making sure that everyone had what they needed and refilling cups of coffee along the way. The cafe was small and we only needed two servers, even when it was busy. There was no hostess due to the limited size. Every time the door opened with a chime from the bells attached, one of the servers greeted the customers and seated them. Emily, the other waitress on duty this morning, and I seemed to instinctively know when the other was too busy to seat and took turns covering the new arrivals without having to speak.

I heard the bells and turned around to see who the new customers were. My insides quivered a little when I saw Grant and Simon standing there, grinning at me. Emily was busy taking an order so I made my way to the front of the cafe.

"Hi guys," I said, ignoring the quiver. "Don't I know you two from somewhere?" I wondered why Simon seemed to bring out the lame jokes in me.

"I was telling Simon that Colette's has the best blueberry pancakes, and wouldn't you know it - he's a sucker for blueberry pancakes," Grant said with a wink.

I laughed as I grabbed two menus from the front desk that served as an impromptu hostess station. "Well, you've come to the right place. And you're lucky because we have one table left."

I directed them to an empty table and laid the menus down in front of them. "Emily will be right with you," I said. "I'll try and stop by later to chat."

Simon frowned. "Won't you be waiting on us?"

"Nope, sorry," I replied breezily. "This is Emily's section." Inwardly, I thanked God that the only table available was in her section. Or so I told myself.

"She'll be right with you," I repeated and then made my getaway.

I busied myself with my tables but I was acutely aware of Simon. I could hear Emily laughing as she was taking their order and I forced myself not to try and make out what was being said.

I was behind the counter, grabbing a couple of extra napkins for a customer when Emily walked over.

"I think your presence is requested over at table eight," she laughed, nodding in the direction of Grant and Simon's table. "Your friend's cousin insists that he has to order from you."

"Uh, too bad," I replied, not looking over at their table. "That's your section and your tips."

"It's okay," Emily said. "I don't mind. Who am I to stand in the way of true love?" She laughed again.

I grimaced. "He's just trying to be funny, Em," I insisted. "I don't really feel like joking around today."

"Oh, come on," Emily said, widening her eyes. "He's so cute. Every girl in here is drooling over him. And he can't stop staring at you."

"Emily," I whined, knowing I was regressing into childish behavior but not being able to curb it. "I don't want to."

Emily laughed even harder. "C'mon kiddo, it's not going to kill you to live a little." She then walked away, clearly not intending to wait on them.

I just barely suppressed the urge to stomp over like a kid having a temper tantrum and tried to regain a little self-control. They were just trying to be funny, that's all. I convinced myself of this as I walked over to them, dropping the extra napkins on the customer's table who had requested them on the way there. By the time I approached Grant and Simon's table I was able to smile, if a little tightly.

"You guys sure are pushy," I joked. I pulled out my pad and poised my pen over it, ready to write down their order. "Do you guys know what you want?"

"I'll have a coffee and blueberry pancakes with a side of bacon," Grant said. "And you already know how I like my bacon."

"Burnt to a crisp," I said, quirking my mouth. "Those carcinogens will kill ya."

Grant clutched his hand to his heart. "But what a way to go."

"What about you, Simon?' I asked, keeping my eyes on my pad, not wanting to see him up close this early in the morning. I didn't think my constitution could take looking into his beautiful blue eyes until at least noon.

"I guess I'll have to try the famous blueberry pancakes. And I'll take a coffee, too," I heard his deep voice rumble. "What's this?" he asked.

I automatically looked up at him at his question. "What?" I asked, confused.

"Ah, I was afraid you were already tired of looking at my ugly mug," Simon joked with a smile, his blue eyes penetrating me.

"Whatever. You're so lame," I said rolling my eyes but with a smile, unable to resist his charm. "I'll be right back with your coffees."

When I came back with their two cups of coffee, I heard the end of Grant's sentence "...it's a lost cause."

Grant started and looked up at me guiltily when I set the cups on their table, along with a small pitcher of milk. He seemed to be surprised by my presence, although he smiled up at me. "You sure can creep up on someone. You startled me."

"What?" I said indignantly. "I wasn't creeping, you just weren't paying attention." It was probably the volume of the restaurant, more than anything, that had masked the sound of my return. Colette's was a boisterous place, especially when it was busy.

"How was the rest of last night?" I asked, scanning my tables to make sure no one needed anything. "I didn't even hear Sarah come home." I didn't add that I had been relieved that I had slept through the night without any visions. I had been terrified that seeing Simon would trigger a vision, which often happened after I saw the person in real life. I had laid in bed, physically exhausted but my fear had kept my eyes open, until eventually the last thing I remember was looking at my clock and seeing it was past two o'clock in the morning. Fortunately, the next thing I saw was my alarm clock going off at seven o'clock.

"It was good," Grant said enthusiastically. "We have our practices scheduled at the East End for tomorrow and next week. We're going kill it next Saturday!"

I laughed at his enthusiasm. "I'm glad to see the Henchmen are living on."

"We're practicing tomorrow at noon if you want to stop by," Simon offered, forcing me to turn my attention to him.

"I can't," I lied. Simon didn't need to know that I only had one thing scheduled for Sunday - laundry. "I've got a ton of homework to get through. Just my Economics homework alone is going to take hours. I seem to be missing the Economics gene."

"I've taken Economics," Simon said, grinning. "I can help you." He leaned back in his chair, looking satisfied with himself. "Would it be immodest to say I'm an Economics whiz?"

"Yes, it would," I replied lightly, with a smile. "Anyways, you have rehearsal, remember? Far be it from me to prevent the throngs of fans from missing out on a spectacular well-practiced debut."

"I can help you after-" Simon started but I cut him off.

"Your food is probably up," I said. "I'll be back."

I escaped behind the counter, clearly seeing that their order wasn't ready since Devi, the cook, hadn't rang the bell and slid the plates onto the pick-up window. Instead, I busied myself by refilling cups of coffee for the customers sitting at the counter and making small talk.

I finally heard the bell to pick up an order as Devi yelled out "Order up. Table eight." I turned around, grabbing the two plates of pancakes, the side of bacon and a pitcher of syrup. I made my way over to Grant and Simon's table.

"Here you go," I announced, sliding their respective plates in front of them and placing the syrup between them. "Two orders of Colette's famous pancakes, plus one side of incinerated bacon." I turned to Simon. "This'll ruin all other pancakes for you."

See,
I thought to myself.
I can be friendly. We can be friends.

Simon grinned. "I hope you're right."

"What are you guys up to tonight?" Grant asked, pouring syrup over his pancakes and bacon. "Wanna come over and barbecue? We can grill up some hamburgers and Simon is going to make his seven-layer chili dip."

Grant believed in barbecuing year round. He would bundle up and happily grill outside in frigid temperatures. Fortunately, the eating was done inside.

"I'll check with Jenny and Sarah," I said, knowing that our plans only included sitting around watching TV. "I might not be able to make it but they probably can."

"Why not?" asked Simon, pausing in the act of cutting into his pancakes and looking up at me. "You're already spending Sunday on your homework so it's not that."

"Um," I paused, trying to think of an excuse. I wasn't used to being questioned about why I couldn't make things. Even though I liked my social life, I still needed time to be alone. Most people seemed to just accept my polite refusal. Except for Sarah and Jenny. And now Simon. While I was determined to be friends with Simon because I didn't want to start avoiding the group because of him, I also didn't know if I could handle a second straight night of him.

"I need to organize my room?" It came out as more of a question than a statement, and I mentally slapped myself on the forehead. Not only for the lame excuse but the way it came out.

Simon smirked. "You have to organize your room," he repeated with a disbelieving look.

"Yes," I replied, grabbing onto my excuse, as pathetic as it was. "I've been slacking and my room is totally disorganized. And...I promised myself that I would clean tonight. And if I don't, I'll keep on procrastinating. So...it's, um...really imperative that I do it tonight,"
I finished in a rush.