"Chime,"
The door opened and Alex walked in. The moment he saw the scene and felt the suffocating tension inside, "holy shit," he muttered under his breath. His eyes immediately shifted to Devon, who was waving his hand. Without a second thought, Alex headed over and sat across from Devon and Sarah.
"Devon, what the hell is actually going on?" Alex asked in a whisper.
"It's a long story, but the main thing is you better save our boy over there," Devon answered, pointing to Luke, who was stuck right in the middle of them.
Alex immediately studied the situation. He saw Claire and Amanda sitting at the bar counter, Giselle now standing in front of them both behind the bar, and Lorna standing behind the two of them with her hands on her hips. Meanwhile, Luke stood frozen next to Giselle, drying a cup that was already dry. Everyone was silent, but the aura they were giving off made the atmosphere in the cafe feel cramped and incredibly uncomfortable. Alex turned back to Devon.
"How am I supposed to do that?" Alex whispered.
"If I knew, I would've gone over there myself, dumbass," Devon answered, watching Luke.
"And who's the one next to Luke? She's gorgeous—right up there with Claire and Amanda. And Lorna too... for that matter," Alex said.
"I don't know... I don't recognize her. Do you know her?" Devon asked Sarah.
"Hmm... I've never seen that girl before either," Sarah answered.
"Wait, who are you?" Alex asked, finally noticing Sarah in front of him.
"Oh right... meet Sarah. Um... we just started dating today, haha," Devon said.
"Hi... are you a friend of Devon's?" Sarah asked, greeting Alex.
"Wait... what?!" Alex shouted, standing up.
Instantly, Claire, Amanda, Lorna, and Giselle all turned to look at Alex, firing such sharp glares that he realized what he'd done and immediately sat back down, trying to stay calm. When everyone went back to staring each other down like before, Alex let out a sigh of relief and leaned in toward Devon and Sarah.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Alex, this idiot's friend," Alex whispered to Sarah.
"Oh, hi, I'm Sarah. Like he said, we just started dating," Sarah replied with a smile.
"Hey, moron, what do you mean you just 'started dating' out of nowhere?" Alex said to Devon.
"I'll tell you the details later. Help our boy first, man, you're terrible," Devon whispered back.
***
While Alex and Devon were trying to find a way to save Luke, Lorna, who had been standing behind Amanda and Claire, stepped forward.
"So... why are you here, Amanda?" Lorna asked.
"Drinking coffee, can't you see? Are you blind?" Amanda asked, intentionally picking up her coffee glass and taking a sip.
"And you're drinking coffee too," Lorna said to Claire.
"Well, you can see that for yourself, can't you? Why even ask? You're weird," Claire replied curtly. Then Claire turned to look at Lorna in the middle. "Do you know who she is? You don't seem surprised to see her," Claire asked Lorna while pointing at Giselle.
"Hey... how about you just ask the person yourself? I'm Giselle, Luke's cousin," Giselle said, introducing herself.
"Oh, a cousin. I was wondering. Do you go to the college across the street too?" Claire asked.
"Yeah, Business, sophomore. That cover everything?" Giselle answered directly.
"Wait, you're in my year? How come I've never seen you before?" Claire asked.
"I just moved here last week," Giselle replied.
"Hmm... that explains it. Whatever then," Claire muttered, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Click,"
Everyone immediately turned to see Amanda taking a selfie while posing with her cup. Then she set the cup down and snapped a photo of it.
"Hey... what are you doing?" Lorna asked.
"Letting my followers know I'm having coffee here. Why?" Amanda asked casually while typing on her smartphone.
"Oh, so she's the Amanda who asked Luke out even though she's engaged," Giselle remarked.
"Oh... when I asked him out, I wasn't engaged yet. But as soon as I was, I deleted the chat history, don't worry," Amanda said nonchalantly.
"What? You asked Luke out?" Claire asked, shocked.
"It was just dinner, and besides, it didn't even happen because Luke had to open the cafe and I was understanding about it," Amanda answered, ignoring Claire.
"But if it had happened, would you still have gotten engaged?" Lorna blurted out.
Amanda glanced at Lorna and Claire, who were clearly waiting for her answer. She also glanced at Giselle, who had her arms folded across her chest and was watching Amanda with an expression that was hard to read. Then Amanda smiled and took a sip of her coffee before speaking.
"Of course I wouldn't have gotten engaged. Even if I didn't get this $18,000 ring, it would've been fine," Amanda said, intentionally trying to create drama.
The atmosphere immediately went silent and clearly became even more suffocating. Lorna, Claire, and Giselle stared at Amanda—who appeared perfectly calm while looking at her ring—as if she had grown two heads. Meanwhile, Luke looked like he'd been hit by a freight train because he hadn't expected that at all, and he was clearly confused about whether Amanda was being serious or not.
Lorna and Claire looked like they wanted to swallow Amanda whole, and Giselle just slowly shook her head while staring at her, as if saying in her head, "there's actually a girl like this."
Then Lorna turned to see Claire, who looked so annoyed that her hands were gripping her pants.
"What's your problem now? Why is it any of your business if she's with Luke?" Lorna asked, gesturing toward Amanda.
"Why are you so worked up yourself? You should answer your own question," Claire shouted back.
"You're the one who rejected Luke... right?" Lorna asked once more, pressing the point.
"You're being annoying. It sounds like you're looking for trouble with me," Claire replied, turning to look at Lorna and getting ready to climb down from her stool.
"Come on then, step up," Lorna challenged.
"Hey... hey... please don't fight," Luke said.
"Let it go, Luke. Just let them be; it's pathetic how they're still fighting over you, haha," Amanda teased.
"Huh...over me ?" Luke asked, shocked.
"Shut up!" Lorna and Claire snapped at the same time.
Then Claire turned to look at Luke, but suddenly her gaze shifted to Giselle's hand, which was still hooked onto Luke's arm.
"What? It's only natural for me to hold onto my cousin," Giselle said, beating her to it.
"The way you're holding him isn't like a cousin," Claire shot back.
"Yeah, exactly. I'm with you on that one, Claire," Lorna added.
"Oh, so now you two are double-teaming me? Good, good," Giselle said, smelling blood in the air.
"You guys are honestly ridiculous. What do you think Luke is, an object? Obviously not. He has feelings too, right? So you all should just shut up. Please, show a little respect. Anyway, I'm heading out; I'm meeting my fiancé on campus. Bye-bye, Luke, let's talk on the phone later," Amanda said as she hopped down from her stool and left $20 on the counter.
"What did you just say?" Claire and Lorna shouted, and this time Giselle joined in too.
"Why are you joining in? You're just a cousin," Claire snapped back.
"Don't be annoying; of course I'm joining in. It's my cousin you're all treating like an object," Giselle shouted.
"Hey... enough, already. Please don't fight, I have a headache," Luke cut in.
"Whatever, I'm going home too. Thanks, Luke. If I need to vent again later, I'll call you," Claire said, jumping off her stool.
"Huh... what do you mean? You already have a boyfriend," Lorna yelled.
"So? I'm not engaged like her. For her, being engaged isn't even an issue," Claire sarcastically remarked, looking at Amanda.
"Haha... forget being engaged, even being married is no problem. There are plenty of lawyers willing to take on my divorce case," Amanda shot back.
"You're all out of your minds," Giselle muttered, starting to get genuinely annoyed.
Finally, the argument dragged on for another 20 minutes until everyone actually left except for Giselle and Lorna. During that time, Luke could only watch in silence as Claire, Lorna, Giselle, and Amanda ended up staying just to keep the argument going.
"Seriously... I really don't understand girls... it's giving me a headache and I'm totally exhausted even though it's still early. I think I'm starting to question my desire to even have a girlfriend... but seriously, are Claire and Amanda actually fighting over me? Now I'm just getting ahead of myself... stop... don't start thinking like that," Luke muttered in his heart, his head spinning.