『ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴜᴘᴏɴ ᴀ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ 』

                   ONCE HE HAD taken a seat across of her, jim fixed his emerald eyes on his hands which he had placed on the table. the fingers of his one hand were toying with the single ring he had on his other hand. when she said she wished to still be in greece, the guy finally lifted his gaze to fix it on her: “ it’s just coffee. “, he said, his voice flat and calm before continuing with “ how was greece ? “. of course there were many more questions he could be asking right now – but neither of them came out easily, nor did he believe now was the right time or place to bring them up either. shaking his head with a slight smirk on his features upon hearing her question, jim lifted his shoulders in a nonchalant manner as he replied: “ is there ever something interesting going on around here ? “.

It was Shiloh’s lunch break now, her mind was still focused on mending dresses and selling them. But she knew she had to eat something before returning to work, so she hurried from the shop down to Old Mill Cafe in hopes of getting coffee to keep her mind sharp for the rest of the day ahead. She hurried into the cafe, placed her order and stepped aside to wait for it, turning her attention to her phone. Typically she barely paid the small device any attention outside of when she got a call. But the group chat she was in with her old roommates had been blowing up all day and she wanted to see why. As she was texting her old friends she wasn’t paying attention to what else was going around her. Until she felt something wet hit her legs and heard someone muttering. She looked up to see the cause of the disturbance. “Oh dear…” She said to herself when she saw the spilled coffee on the ground with the other girl standing before it. Immediately Shiloh slipped her phone into her pocket and grabbed a handful of napkins from the dispenser on the counter. She stepped up next to the woman and held the napkins out. She offered a smile to Aurora and said “It could have happened to anyone. Let’s clean this up and I’ll buy you a new coffee, okay?”

As strange as it may have been, Marie’s first instinct upon witnessing the spill was to worry about the other’s shoes. It would be a tragedy after all, if a perfectly good pair of shoes was ruined by something as silly as coffee. A beat after that, she remembered the other could have been burnt, considering she couldn’t tell whether or not the drink had been iced or not. Walking over as fast as she could, she pulled some napkins from her purse offering them to Aurora, “Are you okay?”

你好 – RAISING HIS EYEBROWS as the girl dropped her cup, murray couldn’t help but chuckle, incredibly amused by her klutziness. his arms crossed over his chest as he shook his head, just looking at her for a moment. “oh honey,” he stated before picking the cup up and reaching for some napkins to help her out. murray was glad he was wearing shoes easily cleaned by a napkin. otherwise, his reaction might’ve been very different. “you’ve really got to watch where you’re going, sweetheart.” he was always going to be kind to pretty girls, knowing they had tons of potential and never really truly meant all those klutzy moments. gesturing to the barista, he informed her to remake the blonde’s drink. “promise me you’ll take good care of that precious coffee, yeah?”

                  JIM HADN’T HEARD from aurora in a while – the last time they’d met, he had persisted she’d let him go because he was ( and still is ) convinced he simply isn’t any good for her. that she deserves better than him, despite her arguments that those statements were false. he was convinced that she simply didn’t understand – that she looked at him with rose-tinted glasses on and sugarcoated his many, m a n y, mistakes because of some worthiness she saw in him – a worthiness he couldn’t phantom. the days after, the blonde had been on his mind constantly. while he still couldn’t understand what she saw in him, while he still wanted her see she deserved so much better than him, he also began to wonder why he always had to sabotage himself – why did he feel the urge to ruin one of the only good things he had in his life? he didn’t know what to do. one would think that time would have brought him answers – but quite the opposite happened.

                 looking up from his glass upon hearing something fall to the ground, followed by a couple curses by several people, jim could feel his heart begin to race almost immediately as he recognised the blonde who had caused the tumult. without a second of doubt, jim stood up from his table in the back to help her out – clearly, she was a bit embarrassed and seemed to be frozen on the spot. “ what – you’ve never dropped something ? “, he asked bluntly to one of the women who was standing nearby, giving the blonde a nasty glare. as he was speaking up, he placed his hand on the small of aurora’s back, guiding her away from the small group of people and towards the table he had been sitting at. “ you’re back. “, he said as he took a seat.

          ╰ · ❀ › AURORA HEARD THE voice and recognized the tattooed hands reaching down to help her. she felt his hand on on her back but it took a moment for her to process everything. she had spent most of her time away trying to recover from jim’s rejection, a g a i n and yet still she found her heart fluttering at just his touch. she wished more than anything that she could have moved on just as easily as he seemed to have done. her life would be in a much different place now if she had. “ thank you. “ she muttered as he guided her to a table, avoiding the eyes of any other cafe goers who surely must have been glaring at her. a lot of the older people in town already viewed her as some dumb trust fund baby with no purpose, and with every passing day that was more and more how aurora felt. without purpose. 

           ╰ · ❀ › IT WASN’T UNUSUAL for aurora to up and leave town unannounced. in fact, it happened more times than she would have liked to admit. she was flighty, always ready to run from her problems than face them head on. there was nothing some time in another country, surrounded by beaches and a bit of shopping couldn’t fix. time healed everything. at least, that’s what her parents had taught her. growing up, mr and mrs. rose fixed all of their daughter’s problems with lavish vacations and expensive gifts. now, as an adult, aurora wasn’t really sure how to deal with her emotions or problems. so she did what she called ‘jet set and forget’. now, she was ready to return back to her hometown and hopefully not return to any of her past issues she had been trying to escape, mainly with her parents but some more personal than that. walking through the door of the old mill cafe, aurora took a deep breath and joined the line with intentions to grab a quick coffee and get out but just as she was turning to leave, she dropped her cup, causing it to tumble onto the ground and spill everywhere. “ oh my god, i’m such a clutz. “ she muttered mostly to herself, utterly embarrassed by the attention she was drawing to herself. 

               JIM COULDN’T HELP but chuckle skeptically at the mention of ‘ s o m e poor choices in life ‘. in his eyes, every choice he made was a poor one which resulted in hurt or disappointment – either to him, or to someone around him. most times the latter. he knew aurora had good intentions – and somewhere, deep down, he realised that there was truth to her words as well. but somehow, his stupid head refused to listen or believe that. somehow, his stupid head had this nagging voice inside, reminding him how he was a fuck up. it was a default, for him. that he shouldn’t make up any illusions. sighing deeply when she expressed her belief that there was good inside of his heart, jim fixed his gaze on the ground. he didn’t know how to reply. he felt… a bit awkward, to be honest. he wasn’t good with compliments. “ so do it. for you. and that’s why… that’s why i should go. “, he mumbled, the words falling from his lips in the form of a sigh.

“what can i get for yo—oh!” sarah hadn’t realized who she was serving until she looked up. she couldn’t recall the last time she saw aurora, probably when the girl was dating jim. a shame too. sarah always enjoyed the blonde’s company but didn’t know how to keep that going after the breakup. “how are you? whatever you want to eat, you got it, family discount.”

jim: are you in love?

“ wow, hah. talk about irony. am i in love? doesn’t matter. “

misfire: do you want any kids? if so, how many?

“ i want kids, of course. sometimes i catch myself getting baby fever and i imagine what it would be like to be a mother now, and to have purpose in life. but the thought of actually having a real, tiny human is terrifying. i want to give a child an amazing life and a childhood for them to remember. shaping someone’s entire life is without a doubt the hardest responsibility there is. i’d want to do all the right things and be the perfect mother but that’s not realistic. but yes, i want kids. two, preferably. i’ve always hated being an only child. it was so lonely.

*:･ ❀ aurora rose「 sleeping beauty. 」

            JIM LISTENED TO aurora speak up about how she didn’t want the world, but somehow he didn’t h e a r her. maybe because he didn’t want to hear her. he was too set in his ways and his opinion about himself to acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, aurora didn’t care about his criminal record or his fuck ups. that maybe, just maybe, she saw s o m e t h i n g in him. he refused to believe it, because he k n e w it wasn’t clever. when she asked a legit question, the guy let out a deep sigh and ran his hand across his features. “ i’m not… i’m not trying to decide for you, rora. “, he mumbled, shaking his head as he kept his gaze fixed on her, even though she was looking at the ground. “ i’m just trying to help you see the truth. “, a truth she ( in his eyes ) was blinded to, for some reason. aurora’s words were… kind, but jim couldn’t help but wonder whether her feelings for him ( feelings she for some reason still had, even though there were so many guys around town who were more in her league and not far below like he was ) blinded her to reality. “ no but, it d o e s define me as a person, aurora. i’m a fuck up. i cannot do anything right. i hurt people wherever i go. i’ve done it to you before – i just… i would never forgive myself it happened again. “, and jim knew it was bound to happen sooner or later – it always did.

              WHEN SHE GUESSED his name – well, nickname, but that was what he went by anyways – tigger smiled brightly and nodded fiercely. “ the one and only ! “, he replied cheery, throwing his arms up in the air. “ well  – it’s not my r e a l name. “, tigger shared as if she actually believed it was his real name. “ but i got that nickname when i was, like, super younger and it stuck. “, the guy explained, raising his shoulders nonchalantly. when the blonde insisted that the game was rigged, tigger huffed and took the ball from her with confidence. he knew he was good at these type of games – in fact, he was the very best ! or at least, that he believed – he thought that of almost all things. but when, after a couple tries, the bowling pins still were upstanding, the guy frowned and said: “ definitely rigged. “.