A Chance Encounter

If you drive down route 27 and take the exit 11b, then pass the McDonald's and the Aldi's, you will find a rather old-fashioned coffee house with brick layering and casement windows. And if you were to look through those windows on the twilight of May 27th, you could see the face of Jay Stevens looking through it, his gaze upon the purple sky.

Jay was sitting there, sipping on his coffee and thinking. He was at his best friend's wedding, Brian King, ( the bride was Vanessa Robison), and was on his way to the after party at Brian's place, but Jay had to use the washroom in between the long drive from the wedding venue to the after party, so he took the exit and came upon this old fashioned coffee house. And if you knew anything about the man, you would know that he had to try the coffee.

The coffee wasn't bad, not worth an hours drive from where lived, but the setting of the establishment was so cultured and homely that Jay knew he had to come here often. As he thought of this, sipping on the coffee, a familiar face came in to his sight.

It was Vivien, an old classmate and best friend of Vanessa. She was ordering something and didn't notice Jay until she turned around. He waved at her, she smiled and grabbed her coffee, with doughnuts as well.

"Hey, how are you doing, Jay? I think I saw you at the wedding couple of hours ago." said Vivien.

"I think I might have seen you too there, but I wasn't sure. I mean Vanessa had a lot of bridesmaids down there, confused the shit out of me." chuckled Jay.

Vivien smiled and then asked " True, but why did Brian had only you and Caesar down there? Wasn't he the popular guy back at school? With all those people around him always?"

"Well, didn't he have his cousins there too? But I see what you mean. Truth be told, that was high-school. We are adults now, you don't keep that many friends, they begin falling off as time goes by till you are left with a solid couple of folks, which in Brian's case left just the two of us." said Jay.

Vivien looked at him through her rather nerdy glasses, which made him chuckle inside his head.

"What are you waiting for? You have your coffee, right?" asked Jay.

"I am waiting for Jillian. She is in the washroom. I think you know her too, the tall girl who used to arm wrestle guys from our class." said she.

Jay smiled as he remembered. " Oh yeah, I remember. She even took me down once and I was a strong kid. Yeah, you and her were best of friends then."

"We still are but she does annoy me a lot. I didn't wanna go to the after party, but since I drove her here, as I always do, she has forced me to be there." said Vivien exhaustedly.

" I can definitely understand you. Arabi is like that with me, and you know him too." said Jay in understanding.

"Wait, who?"

"Arabi. He went to a different school, but used to play soccer with us, and also told all those questionable jokes. Don't you remember him? Arabi was the guy who told Tammy that someone invented the word "Cunt" after meeting her."

"Oh, that crazy dude! I remember him, he was slightly uncomfortable to be around with the things he said, but Arabi once told a couple of creeps to back off , who were crowding me and Vanessa. I owe him one, so I ain't letting you badmouth him." said Vivien.

"He is here, outside talking to somebody on the phone. Frankly speaking, even though I have known him for close to a decade, I still don't know what the dude does for a living.. And here he comes." said Jay, as the man in question came slinging in.

" Hey Jay, You done? Wait a minute, hold the fuck up. Is this miss Rivelda? Oh my, it is. What a fortunate day!" said Arabi, as he bowed like a gentleman.

"But wait, are you sitting here and talking to Jay? I thought you hated him." asked Arabi.

Vivien blushed. "Oh god, Why does everyone keep bringing that up? It was a long time ago, I was very young and stupid. There is nothing there."

Arabi was going to say something but then Jillian ( or Jill as they called her) came out of the washroom. Arabi's eyes lightened up. "Oh, look! Stone Cold Jill Austin!" said he, upon which a paper cup went flashing by his head. The disrupter of peace quickly bounced out the door, followed by Jill, but as she went past the two, her eyes fell on Jay and a questioning look came on her face. Before Jay could say anything, Jill was out the door, hunting for joker.

Jay looked to Vivien and laid out a questioning glance.

" He called her that because of her reputation." answered Vivien.

"You know what I am asking." rebuked Jay.

"Ok. A long time ago, back in our freshman days, I used to really like Brian. I wrote a love letter to him, confessing my love and all. Well, the letter got to him, but you apparently said that it came from Vanessa. That ended being better for both Brian and V, but I ended up hating you for it. Though the mistake was mine, why didn't I write my full name? Putting only my initials was wrong and it gave you the opportunity to do me dirty. Which surprises me, we never really even talked."

Jay smiled. It couldn't be seen clearly but he began to look red.

" Look, first of all, who only puts their initials on a love letter? Secondly, only five people knew of the switch I did. Me, Danny, Arabi, Caesar and eventually Brian but that came way later. So who was the snitching son of a bitch who told on me?" asked Jay, in good humor.

" Well, Danny told me. He saw me in damp spirit after Vanessa and B got together, so he told me the truth to let me know it wasn't any fault in me or my actions that lead to Brian rejecting me, as he didn't even know anything." revealed she.

"I am gonna see him one of these days, in fact he might be in the party later. My knuckle dusters might come in useful. But now it all makes sense, you being cold and ignoring me." said he.

"Of course. I was angry at you, considering what you did. But please don't say anything to Danny, he only that because I looked sad. You know how he is." implored Vivien.

"Ok, I will go easy on him. But do you know the reason why I did that? It was because I liked you. So when I saw you leaving the letter on Brian's desk, I had this very odd feeling. Me being stupid and an asshole, I lied to him, saying it was Vanessa. Who knew she liked him too, as V went with the lie and that's how they began dating." said he.

"It is funny though how I lied to keep you separate from someone but it ended moving you from me too. I tried to talk to you all throughout high-school but you would just ignore me. Very heartbreaking, I must add." continued Jay.

Vivien was caught by surprise. " WAIT! I didn't know that. You liking me? I thought this was a classic case of you being the jock that you were and me being the nerd I was."

They stood silent for sometime, looking outside the window and seeing Jill and Arabi argue about something. It seemed like Jill was making fun of his giant truck, and Arabi wasn't taking it too kindly as he loved that Toyota Tundra.

Just then popped in Ali and Shehnaz, their friend from school days. Those two looked at Jay and Vivien in confusion too.

" What are you two doing here together? Aren't you guys going to Brian's?" asked Shehnaz, with the emphasize on "Together".

"Well, I was waiting for Arabi and Vivien was waiting for Jill, but seeing how they are outside fighting." all of them looked through the window to see Jill having Arabi in a stranglehold." I was suggesting to Vivien that we leave."

Ali didn't say anything but acknowledged the situation. "Ok, see you guys at Brian's then." and went towards the counter with his wife Shehnaz.

Jay and Vivien very quietly went to her car and drove off together, leaving the confused duo fighting to come by the Tundra. Twilight was coming to an end, as they entered the scenic highway.