Twenty Candles (Part of the Tx3U Trilogy)

15. A Day Without You

"That's adorable!" Raven just finished hearing Prius tell her

about Jacen.

"I know it is!" Prius hasn't seemed this happy since her eighteenth birthday, she got to ride an elephant.

"But," Raven ruins the moment by spitting out a 'but'. "Are you alright with being known as "unknown girlfriend"?"

"Sure. Paparazzi don't know who I am, so I'm less bothered," Raven wasn't fully convinced Prius was happy with her title.

Masslie unlocks the door to her temporary home.

She groans, another long day. At least Lopez enjoyed his birthday party. Masslie's didn't even last. As she walks over to her bed she feels her phone buzz through her jacket pocket. Annoyed, she slides her hand down in the pocket and pulls out her phone.

It's a message from the online network Open Yearbook. The message was from Blake Daniels. Her coffee guy. "And how're the birthdays going?" he asked. Masslie couldn't help but smile, how sweet of him to remember. She stretches her hands out in front of her then replies back on her phone.

"Good, so far. Only two more birthdays left."

"Who's? Yours right, tell me I haven't missed yours," Blake sent.

"Sorry. Mine was last week."

"Shucks! Well happy belated birthday, I guess."

"Thanks. When I come back I want the birthday coffee!"

"Oh come on! We're having a nice friendly chat and then you just had to bring up I make your coffee! How sweet."

Masslie chuckles, Blake and her have been good friends ever since she started buying coffee from Stargaze, but they never had a conversation like this. "Okay, I'm sorry! What do you do for a living when you're not "working"?"

"I'm in culinary school right now. I wanna own a restaurant like my dad did."

"That's amazing. I can't cook whatsoever!"

"Lies!!! So, how 'bout you?"

"Well, I just turned twenty so I'm not used to um, achieving anything yet. Honestly I'm not sure what I wanna do for the rest of my life."

"You know what I think you'd be good at?"

"And what is that?"

"Coffee critic," Blake sends with a winkie face added after the last word. Masslie giggles.

"Haha. Very funny, maybe I'll consider that as an option."

"Mase, I'm kidding," Blake responds, "but I do think you'd make a good journalist."

"Why? I've never written anything that wasn't for homework."

"Because, (by the way that's weird then,) every time you come into the coffee shop you've always got a story to tell. Whether it's about your friends or family or a complete stranger. You're odd like that."

"Thanks, but journalism is not an option to me."

"Think about it," Blake sent a happy face. "Listen, I gotta take off. Maybe I'll see you back at the coffee shop soon?"

"Definitely in a week," Masslie assures him. Blake had already logged off though.

All thanks to Blake, Masslie felt a huge weight off her shoulders. Calming herself down for the rest of the week.

Malcolm sits in a booth alone at McMillan's fast food. His eyes are glued to the phone in his hands. In a tight grip.

He's texting #BlueberryBubblegum, his online match. How can Malcolm be so blind to not see he's online dating. He barely knows her and they've only chatted a few times. What does she even look like?

"Sweetie, you can't sit here for two hours without ordering something," a waitress explained to Malcolm. He looked up from his phone, has it really been two hours? It felt like he just dropped Raven off not too long ago.

"Sorry. Can I have an iced tea?"

The waitress stared Malcolm up and down and bit her lip, she nodded and walked away trying to keep her eyes on him.

After about twenty minutes #BlueberryBubblegum had to take off. And Malcolm stayed at the restaurant for another three hours, rereading his entire conversation with her.

"You gave me the best birthday ever," Lopez and Quincy held hands as they walked home.

"Glad you think that. You're gonna enjoy Costa Rica right?"

"Hey," Lopez took Quincy closer to him and looked into her eyes. He showed his bright promising smile and nodded, "of course. Especially if I'm going there with you."

"Wow, we're only twenty and yet, we have our lives planned out already, you're in law school," Quincy begins tearing up. "I'm in a company already. We're going too fast, and we only graduated two years ago."

"Hey, hey," Quincy's now drowning in tears, Lopez grips her shoulders and stare into her eyes. "Quincy, it's alright. We're not going too fast. It's not that we're living life too quickly, but we already have a future. That's it," Quincy nods and wipes her tears away.

Now they continue their walk home, silently.