Chapter 6 - One More Cup of Coffee

Henry, James, Jim and Matt sat in the warm, cosy surroundings of Taste. It was Friday night and the group were having their usual post-C.U. drinks to put off the long walk back to DRA. James was stood at the counter, chatting to the girl making coffee, while Jim was explaining what he had done on his gap year mission while Henry and Matt sat listening, unable to get a word in edgeways in order to ask where he had been. A young couple in the corner were sat on the leather sofa, nursing steaming cappacinos and muttering into each other's ears, their eyes locked together. Matt glanced at them, wishing he could take the place of the male and Janet that of the girl. He stared back down at his cup of spiced delight tea and caught, from the corner of his eye, a recognisable figure in a window across the street.
Holly was stood there, looking down into Taste. Matt's heart skipped a beat for a second at the sight of her silouette and he wondered why, coming to the conclusion that it must be the couple in the corner that had him feeling the need for some female company.
His train of thought, and, to the relief of both Matt and Henry, Jim's talk, was broken as James sat down on the stool and began folding the napkin he had brought from the counter. Henry picked up two coffee beans from the small dish on the table and put them up his nose, pretending to be a zombi before blowing them out again. Matt, deciding this seemed a fun game and lacking both common sense and an imagination of his own, did the same, only to be unable to get one of the beans out again. Begininning to panic, he put his finger inside his nostril in an attempt to retrive it, but succeeded only in pushing it further. The couple in the corner tore their eyes from each other for long enough to caste a dirty look in the small group's direction before returning to their gazing. Matt finally blew hard enough to expel the bean, accompanied by a small remnant of snot, from his nostril and into the eye of Holly, who had just entered from the street.
"Thanks guys," she grunted, pulling the bean from her eye and dropping it into Henry's hot chocolate.
"Holly," said Jim, "winner!" He pulled a stool over for Holly. She bent down, ajusted her tights and sat down, asking what James was making.
"A Stegosaurus," replied James. "I'm going to leave it here so they can put it on top of the coffee machine. You see that rat there?" The couple once again broke their gaze, grabbed their coats and made a hasty retreat into the street looking both horrified and disgusted. "I made it."
"That's nice," replied Holly, distracted by the couple's exit.
"Winner!" said Jim, stranding up and lauching himself front first onto the newly vacated leather sofa, where he lay wishing he'd put his coffe on the table first. The others joined him and Henry, wondering why his hot chocolate had suddenly acquired a hint of coffee, though enjoying the mix, asked if Holly was going to get a drink.
"Huh, dude," she replied, glancing at the prices on the board behind the counter. "I've come to ask if I can use someone's spare ticket for the DRA ball."
"I thought you were going to the History Soc one," replied Henry.
"Yeah, I was going to but prefer this one."
"You do know Nadia will kill you, right?" asked James.
"She seemed OK with it," answered Holly.
"Oh, that's good, because if not Captain James of the Black Pearl would fend her off. Arrgh!"
"Riiiight...", Holly turned to face Henry.
"Oh, oh, you can't have mine," said Henry, "because Katy's coming with me."
"Do you want to come with me?" asked Jim
"That'd be good, thanks Jim."
"Winner."

***

The group stayed in the small coffee shop until the girl got bored and politly asked them to leave at 2:30, asking again at 2:53 and finally forcibly ejecting them at 3:12. The walk home took even longer than usual as James insisted on threading the needle all the way back, not helped by the simple fact that he wasn't very good at it.
"Are you wearing a kilt to the ball?" Jim asked Henry.
"I don't know," he replied. "The kilt's good, but it's kinda cold on the legs. Trousers are so... English." He pulled a face, as though he'd just been given some of Matt's cooking.
"I'm glad Holly's coming with me," said Jim. "She's quite hot, know what I mean?"
"What?" asked Matt, shocked.
"I quite like her anyway," he answered, making a W with his fingers.
"Have you got your eye on anyone, Henners?" Matt enquired, wincing as he heard James behind him fall over once again and smash his face on the pavement.
"Erm... I don't know," Henry said, looking sheepish.
The rest of the walk was taken up by a hearty rendition of There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, performed by James and Matt, in which Liza and Henry turned out to be living in a desert with no internet connection in order to avoid paying their council tax and thus Henry was unable to fix the hole in his bucket.

***

It was 5.37 when Jim finally got back to his flat. He had encouraged the other three to play endless games of table football in the facilities building and now, instead of going to bed, sat in front of his computer screen and booked a perm for Saturday afternoon and ordered 200 Kinder Eggs from Tesco Online for next day delivery. He had to be ready for Holly on Sunday evening. This was his chance to shine.