The Coffee Shop (Wellenore)

twenty three

"OMG H.G." Lenore cried excitedly as she floated through the apartment until she found H.G. in Edgars old study and Krishanti's old storage room which he had turned into a room for his inventions. "You have to come up onto the roof. There's the most gorgeous sunset ever setting over the roofs of the buildings," she explained to H.G. who sat at a long table he had set up, two gears in either of his hands and his goggles pulled down over his eyes.

"Are people even allowed onto the roof?" questioned H.G. as he put the materials he had been working with down onto the table surface and lifted his goggles off of his eyes.

"I mean there is a ladder," Lenore shrugged.

"A ladder that is likely for maintenance," H.G. pointed out.

"Doesn't really matter," Lenore decided, "random children go up there all the time. If anyone should be going up there it is the people who live in the building which happens to be you."

"Lenore, I don't want to be going somewhere I am not supposed to be. I only just moved in, I don't particularly fancy being kicked out," H.G. explained as he allowed his goggles to fall around his neck.

"Please H.G." Lenore begged, "I won't let you get in trouble, I'll like scare anyone who tries so badly that they will not be able to. The sunset is so pretty, as a good best friend I cannot allow you to miss a chance to see it."

H.G. shook his head softly but pushed his chair backwards so that he could stand up. "Very well," he nodded.

"Yay," Lenore exclaimed happily. "I've seen like a bunch of sunsets in my time alive but like none of them have ever looked as good as this one," Lenore explained as H.G. walked through the apartment and towards the door so that he could put his shoes and a coat on. "Have you ever thought about how inconvenient being alive is, 'cause I can just float up through the ceiling and be on the roof and barely feel the cold weather that has arrived so suddenly but like you have to go on this huge walk just to get there and being the sups nice person I am I'm obviously going to go with you instead of just waiting on the roof for you but wow this is like a lot of work," she continued as H.G. headed down the staircase and out the back door of the coffee shop to the back alleyway. "I can't wait until I can hopefully teleport one day because it would make everything even easier. Like scaring people would be a hundred times easier if I could just teleport to be right beside them."

"You would likely be the first person to ever be able to teleport," H.G. pointed out, "even if most scientists don't realize it. I assume you would still keep it all fairly quiet."

"Totes. I don't want some strange scientist like trying to chase me down to experiment on me or whatever. Only the cool science people like you deserve to know of my ground breaking existence," Lenore grinned. "One thing I will never miss about being alive is stairs. Do you know how many staircases we had in the home I grew up in?" she added as H.G. began to slowly climb the staircase that ran up along the side of the building. Following beside him, not caring if she was even near the steps of the stairs Lenore continued to talk. "There were like so many, it did make my legs look totes fab though which was awesome."

H.G. climbed to the top of the roof, making careful steps while Lenore floated beside him, making the occasional comment about how thankful she was to simply be able to float up to the roof without having to care about the old staircase and ladder.

"See I told you it was fab," Lenore said once H.G. was on the roof. Floating happily further onto the roof Lenore looked up towards the sky with a soft smile before she turned to look over her shoulder towards H.G. who had stopped to look at the sunset after having taken a few steps onto the roof's surface.

"It is very lovely," H.G. agreed. "When I was younger I broke both my legs and was bound to my bed for weeks. That was when I started inventing actually. I spent my days reading, there wasn't much else for me to do, but every day I looked forward to the evening when the sunset would line up perfectly with my window and cast my bedroom into shades of orange and yellow. It was always so lovely to see and added something nice for me to look forward to during my rather repetitive and might I add pain filled days."

"OMG how did you manage to break both of your legs," Lenore exclaimed, a laugh entangling her words.

"It was a moment of rather poor judgement," responded H.G.

"I mean I broke my leg once, I was using this huge roll of fabric and got my leg tangled in it and tripped but to break both legs at the same time takes skills. Was your first invention something to prevent you from breaking your legs again?"

"It was actually to help them in their broken state," H.G. told her, "it was a rather simple device. I, after all, was very young and couldn't move much to collect materials but I am still proud of myself for it."

"That's amaze. I remember the first design I ever made. It was a scarf for my mom. It was just some old material cut up and I'm pretty sure it was a scarf so really I just gave my mom a scarf that I cut into a slightly smaller scarf but she still loved it and soon I was making actual good things that didn't involve me ruining things that my mom already owned."

H.G. chuckled. "I'm sure it was a very lovely scarf once you were finished with it."

"It totes was but i did end up getting in trouble because I used the scissors to cut it without permission. I didnt cut myself so really I dont see what the issue there was," Lenore shrugged. "OMG I see a star," Lenore exclaimed, pointing up towards the sky that was slowly beginning to grow dark. She paused for a moment before she spoke again. "Okay so it might have been an airplane."

"If you are looking for stars now you will likely have to wait for the sun to set. With the sun and the lights of the town the stars won't be very visible quite yet," H.G. explained.

"They should be visible," Lenore decided, "stars are like sups cool. They should be visible at all times of day."

"Well that would not be very possible because the light from the sun is-"

"Love your science talk but like in the kindest way possible, I don't really care right now Herbert George," Lenore stated, her head tilted as she looked up towards the sky, trying desperately to make out the light of a star.

"My apologies of-" H.G. began before he paused. "You got my- how?"

The grin that Lenore had been struggling to keep hidden fell easily onto her face as she turned to look towards H.G. "Your full name was plastered all over your mail. I saw it the other day. I told you I could keep secrets. I've known your name for days now and have not said anything until now."

"That is rather impressive but I never doubted your secret keeping abilities," stated H.G.

"It is a really bad name," Lenore added, "you made the right decision to keep it a secret because I would have made fun of you for the name so much if I knew it before we got super close."

"So does that mean you are not planning to make fun of my name?" asked H.G.

Lenore thought for a moment. "No I totally will, just not as much as I would have and I will do it lovingly."

"I suppose I have no choice but to accept it," stated H.G.

"Probably true, yeah," Lenore nodded. "I can't believe Annabel has known your name was Herbert George for so long and has never told me and has never made fun of you for it. What were your parents thinking? Herbert George Wells kinda sounds terrible. Like H.G. Wells is an awesome name but Herbert George Wells is just disgusting."

"Then you see why I go by H.G. only," H.G. pointed out.