All The Good Things

Chapter 1 - "Do you lie often?"

Ash wiped clean the table in front of her, keeping her eyes trained on her task while her ears were trained on the table to her left. The two girls at the table, Claire and Lauren, had their heads close together in a conspiratorial way.

A moment before, Claire had dropped the volume of her voice and Lauren had followed suit. This didn't surprise Ash. Claire was the dominant one in the friendship and clearly sought control in a situation.

For Lauren's part, she almost seemed happy going along with whatever Claire said. There had only been one time in the last hour that Ash had noticed Lauren hesitate in her complete agreement with Claire.

Claire had been yakking on about how their friend Charlotte really needed to 'just get over her ex already'. A small crease had formed between Lauren's eyes for a moment and Ash could tell Lauren held some form of sympathy for Charlotte and the break-up she was going through. But all it had taken was one look from Claire and Lauren had fallen back into line.

Ash finished wiping the table and looked up in time to catch Claire moving her eyes in the direction of a table across the coffee shop. Like Lauren, Ash followed the obvious eye-movement across the room to a boy sitting at a table by the window. His head was bent over a table scattered with textbooks and papers. Ash smiled to herself as she moved onto the next table. Of course, a boy was the reason for the dispute in the girl's conversation.

Since Claire and Lauren had entered the coffee shop an hour before, their conversation had revolved around boys. The boys they were dating, the boys they wanted to be dating, the boys they had dumped, the boys who had dumped them, the boys their friends were dating, and the boys they wished their friends weren't dating.

They had spoken loud like entitled coffee shop patrons and had all but asked Ash to listen in. She had willingly obliged. It was early afternoon, the lunch rush was done and she had nothing to do. It had been a cherry on top that their conversation was about boys.

Ash had learned nothing revealed people quite like talking about the opposite sex and all the entanglements that brought. Their conversation had allowed Ash to determine their friendship dynamic and learn that both girls were willing to lie to inflate their desirability. Ash had rested against the back counter and listened in until they dropped their voices and forced her out from behind the counter.

With Claire and Lauren's eyes on the boy, Ash had a chance to observe them without being noticed. Claire had dropped her head down so she was gazing upwards at the boy while she fidgeted with her hair. Lauren was fixing the collar of her shirt, bringing attention to her neck, and her cheeks had a pink tint to them. All these were signs the girls were interested in this boy.

"You are not?" Lauren hissed, pulling Ash's attention back to their words.

"Watch me," Claire said boldly, pushing her shoulders back as she stood and strutted across the coffee shop. Lauren stood and watched in disbelief as Claire came to a stop in front of the boy's table.

Ash paused cleaning a table as she watched along with Lauren. The boy didn't seem to notice someone had approached his table. Claire waited another long moment before clearing her throat to gain the boy's attention.

The boy slowly lifted his gaze. Claire tilted her head and Ash moved to a table on the other side of the coffee shop so she could see Claire's face. Annoyance was tucked into the corner of Claire's mouth but she tried to hide it with a bright smile.

Claire and the boy started a back-n-forth and Ash watched the corner of Claire's mouth display her shifting feelings. Annoyance moved to hopefulness then enthusiasm then confusion then frustration. Ash was only half-listening to what they were saying as she watched Claire's quickly moving emotions until something the boy said made her ears perk up.