Let’s Chat over Coffee- Chapter 3

After ending his conversation with Colin, Bradley feels good. He doesn’t know why but he does. He looks around in the tiny cubicle he’s in, guitar on hand and sheet music on the stand, he thinks of his playlist for the night. Maybe if I use half and half… half classical half popular. People go to a coffee shop to drink coffee and talk. They’re not there to hear people sing. Bradley started to fidget in his chair and started to sweat. And I’m still not comfortable in singing alone in public. Yeah… That seems like a good idea. I wonder is that Colin kid will ~actually~ show up. He’s kind- Wait… what was it that I was going to say… think… whatever… He seems nice. Just. Nice. Bradley picks up his guitar and starts to sing, trying to get Colin out of his mind. Focus Pendragon! Bradley sigh and tries to focus on the lyrics. I wish I could get more money out of this gig…

Colin anxious by the minute picks up his phone and starts to text Rachel.

Colin: Hey. What should I wear? I mean… jeans and a shirt or would that be awkward? Is it too much?

Entering to her room, Rachel listens to her phone and picks it up. She sighs as she sees too text messages from Colin, one with a text and the other a picture of Colin in “outfit”.

Rachel: /sigh I knew I was going to have this conversation with you. Cols, its just to PICK UP A BOOK. Ok? Do you even know he ~goes~ that way? And besides you’re not going on a date. And if you are I will kill you because I will NOT be the third wheel. Are you? Omg this is a date isn’t it Emerys I will KILL YOU!
Colin: Please. I know. You’re right. I’m over reacting… and NO!!!OMG NO it’s not a date. I will just pick up the pick up the book and that’s it….
Rachel: Please don’t tell me you’re getting your hopes up? /sigh I know you Cols. Is something up?
Colin: Who said about getting my hopes up? He’s just a random guy. And yeah, I’ll ditch what I have on. I’ll be out at… five-ish so I can meet up in the music building.
Colin: PS: I will change… and to be honest I looked hot. >_>
Rachel: Ok then. See you soon luv.

Colin sighed as he looked at himself in the mirror. I look nice… I’m not ~hot~ but I look ~okay~. Rach’s right. I’m over dressed. I’m such an idiot. I don’t even know if he’s… Looking at himself in the mirror in his room, Lance walks in looking at him with a weird look in his face. “Are you going on a date?” Said Lance with a smug smirk on his face and a beer in his hand. “I wish, sadly no. I just overdressed. I’m going with Rach to the coffee shop” Said Colin with a hint of sadness. “Oh… I see and you don’t invite me or Angel, huh?” Said Colin’s roommate, amused. “It came up last minute and besides now you can invite Angel over here. Haven’t you been trying to kick me out? Now you have until 8 approximately. Use your time wisely.” Smiled Colin knowing he touched a sensitive subject with his roommate. “How did you know about Angel and I?” Lance looked pale as snow, and fumbled to get his beer that almost fell to the ground. Colin smirked as he changed his black ¾ shirt to a black T-shirt, still in his tight black jeans and high top black converse. “The walls have eyes and ears Lance. The walls have eyes and ears.” “What do you mean?” Said Lance “It means that before you bring somebody for a shag. In this case your girlfriend, since I know you’ve been with her more or less after… September? Be a little less… vocal.” Laughed Colin. “You bastard! Did she tell you?!” “No, she didn’t tell me. Lance, she’s not that hard to read. And yes I knew it ever since you two started to date. Angel is my childhood friend after all. Now you better treat her well, if not I will chop your balls, with a chainsaw.” Just as Colin finished that sentence, somebody knocked on the door. “Shit” Lance cursed as he, looked at Colin and went and opened the door. “So… are we gonna- COLIN! Hey” Angel awkwardly smiled at Colin, as she knew the gist was up. “Hey Ang. Wassap? Don’t worry. I’ll be off in a few minutes and your secret will be safe with me. And no I won’t tell Katie. I swear.” Colin winked to Angel as she looked at him shocked. “You really are a Sherlock, aren’t you” asked Angel. “Yep”. “Oh… and Angel? Think wisely… I mean Lance? Come on you could do sooo much better” smirked Colin as Angel started to laugh and Lance glared at him “Just go to your ~date~ already!” yelled his roommate. “Look at you, going on a date. Who’s the lucky guy?” asked the girl dressed in a yellow dress, showing off her breasts. “Like I told to your ~boyfriend~, it’s not a date. Just going to hang out in the coffee shop with Rachel. And I’m off… and by the time I get here, this place should be spotless. I don’t want to know what you did.” Said Colin walking to the door. “I owe you one Colin!” Said Angel as Colin left his dorm.

Colin picked up his phone, dialed Rach’s phone and pressed call just as he heard the first beep, he heard Rachel’s ringtone in a distance. Rachel screamed Colin’s name and he walked up to her. They walked together in silence as they reached the Central Perk’s coffee shop. They opened the door and they took their regular seats just as Bradley started to introduce himself. “Hello, I’m Bradley Pendragon. It’s great to be playing at Perk’s for open mike. The manager told me he wanted to give the music department a break and he wanted students from the uni to play here on Sing it out! Thursday. I’m going to change it up a bit. Let’s start with the depressing thing ‘cause I know we’re still have the stench of failure’s from last weeks midterms so let’s all hang it out and try to cram everything for finals! With that Bradley started to sing Talking to the moon.

Rachel looked at Colin with a smirk as he looked at Bradley. Colin fancies Bradley. I mean who wouldn’t? Bradley’s a musician; he’s talented, nice white smile, beautiful blue eyes and nice hair. He’s smart too, after all he’s in the top 5 of three of our classes together… obviously I’m better than him ‘cause I’m in the number one spot, thank you very much. I don’t know, maybe Bradley, if he went that way and if he liked Colin back, he could help Colin. Colin’s too shy. I mean… shyer than his normal shy self. Something’s up, I know that and he wont tell me… maybe if I pair him up with- Oi! What are you staring at? Said Colin as he looked at Rachel as a confused puppy. Sorry… just thinking too much about my midterms lied Rachel. Come on; buy me some coffee, after all if I’m going to be here ‘till seven watching you look at Bradley as a lost puppy who wants to get adopted then the ~least~ I can get out of you is some free coffee. Said Rachel. “Ok, I’ll buy you the coffee, only if you finally take me out for some shots at the bar.” Countered Colin. “Touché Emerys. Fine… Let’s see how many shots you can handle.” “So what’s the deal with Bradley, how did you meet him all of the sudden?” Asked Rachel, curious to know where exactly Colin knew Bradley from. “Oh, um…” Colin’s eyes traveled to his coffee as he tried to stop his big ears from turning beet red. “I know him from here, actually. He comes here at more or less the same time I’m here doing my reading for my classes, but it was when I saw him playing in a cubicle and a book of mine got lost, he found it and he called me today to give me the book back.” Colin said turning red and failing in saying all of this casually. “He’s actually good. When I saw him play in the cubicle, he was rehearsing a song, that it’s actually one of my favorites. Well… obviously he’s not better than John Williams, but still he played the song really well” Said Colin, looking at Bradley sing and turning even more red, when he actually listened to what Bradley was singing.

~I’ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight
Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans
Be your teenage dream tonight~

People clapped and a group of girls cheered Bradley as he finished his song, Colin couldn’t help but notice that Bradley was looking at him as he sang that last verse and Bradley was smiling ~as~ he sang that verse. Colin looked at Rachel, as she was looking at what just happened. “Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who saw that.” Said Colin, his voice shaking. “No, you weren’t the only one and besides obviously he sang that to ~me~.” Said Rachel tauntly.

In a daze, Colin saw the manager walk towards Bradley and whispered in his ear while Bradley smiled and nodded. As the manager walked away, Bradley grabbed the microphone and said: “Well you guys our friend Gunther told me to stop the show for a few minutes ‘cause apparently you guys aren’t buying coffee! Bradley laughed as the costumers giggled. No I’m serious, Gunther my dear friend who is the manager and who very kindly asked me to sing today, told me to have a 15-minute break. So I’ll see be right back, and buy some of Gunth’s amazing coffee. Smiled Bradley as he placed his guitar on it’s case and looked around on his bag, took out a book and after saying hi and smiling to the table full of freshmen, he walked towards Rachel and Colin as the giggles from the girls Bradley just said hi to burst as bubbles from a bottle of sparkling wine freshly poured into a flute glass on New Years Eve.

“He’s coming. Don’t screw it or spaz.” Said the girl through gritted teeth to Colin and sipped some coffee. “Wait… What?” Said Colin surprised as he looked at Bradley suddenly in front of him. “Hey Bradley. Nice guitar playing. I don’t know if you recognize me. Rachel Smith we take three classes together.” Said the girl as she extended her hand to greet Bradley. “Yeah! Sure.” Said Bradley smiling and shaking her hand. “We take Chem, Shakespeare and what was the other one? Health was it?” “No, we took that last semester together. Sociology, with Dr. Hermioz.” Replied Rachel with outstanding kindness. “Oh right, Soc 101 with le Herz. I honestly fall asleep in that class so… that’s why I don’t actually remember it. Honestly that class is such a waste of time, if people actually read the book they would get an A. Especially with Dr. Herz” Said Bradley showing his perfect white teeth that left Colin mesmerized. “Bradley you don’t know how much I agree with you. I take that class to do my homework or basically read my emails. Oh that’s rude of me! Do you know Colin? Colin Emerys meet Bradley Pendragon. Said Rachel cynically, which made Colin stop staring at Bradley. “Um… yeah sure. I was the one who invited you remember Rach?” Said Colin ashamed and blushing just a touch that made his cheeks get slightly pink just like when the clouds in sunrise. “Yeah. I met Colin in the music department. Hey Colin. Here!” Said the musician a bit over enthusiast as he gave Colin his book back. “Sorry I didn’t call you earlier I got a little sidetracked ‘cause of the midterms and some juries I had.” “Be back in a tick, I have to get another cup of coffee. Here Bradley, take my seat.” Said Rachel as she left the table and mouthed Relax! He’s cute! To Colin who gave her a I can’t believe you’re doing this to me look.

Colin laughed nervously as he took some of his coffee and he tried not to drink what’s left, just dreading that he had to speak to Bradley alone. “So what instrument do you play?” Asked Bradley. “Um. I actually play a bit of piano. I used to play back when I was in high school. I studied in the conservatory with Prof. Gaius, I don’t know if you know about him.” “Wait… you studied under THE Gaius… The one who won the International Chopin Piano Competition three years in a row?” Almost screamed Bradley looking at Colin in shock. “Yeah, I did. I started to play piano when I was 6 years old. Gaius was actually my second and last teacher” smiled cautiously Colin. “Woah! And please tell me your studying music. You must be an amazing pianist! I mean with Gaius as your mentor and all” Said Bradley still in disbelief as he looked at Colin as if Colin had all the Christmas presents in the world. “No actually, I’m a Literature Major.” Replied Colin amused. “Wow man, you have to call me so I can see you play piano. I mean… you must be amazing!” “Do you like what you’re studying? I mean I like languages and literature but that’s ‘cause well music is deeply intertwined with both of them.” Said Bradley

“Yeah, it’s really my thing. Do you compose or play something other than guitar, which by the way you’re really good at.” Said Colin smiling at Bradley “Oh yeah. I play a bit of piano, but I suck at it to be honest. I also play just a touch of violin, I sing as you could see and I just started in conducting.” Said Bradley self-consciously. “Wow you really are a multi-talented guy, aren’t you?” Replied Colin amazed. “Some people just say to me that I’m a workaholic, I just say that I love music so much I want to do all I can. It’s basically my life you know.” Said Bradley proudly. “Know that feeling.” Said Colin drinking a bit of his scarcely sweetened black coffee. “You know. I got a feeling about you Colin. Colin, that ~is ~ your name right. I’m bad with names so-” Said Bradley as he saw Gunther saying that he had to be up again. “Sorry they’re telling me to go up again. Um… anyways here’s my number if you lost it. And I would really love to talk to you soon. I can use some tutoring with my Shakespeare class. I know you might be good, ‘cause you’re always reading here when around by the time I come here… and I would like to talk music with cha.” Said Bradley as he wrote his number in Colin’s cup as Colin looked at him puzzlingly. Bradley finished writing on Colin’s cup, looked up smiled at him and went back to where his guitar was, picked it up and smiled to the microphone and said: