a bustling canteen

A rustle of footsteps murmur in the hallway. New's mother is entering his bedroom early in the morning. She grabs his shoulder, fast asleep, and nudges him.

"New, wake up please. Almost school time." The lady in yellow slightly nudges his cheeks as he murmurs in his sleep. "Wake up, baby."

New, tingled as an oven timer in the kitchen chimes, sits up and rubs his eyes. The curtains flutter as a bird's chirp tunes his numb slumber. Into an urn sits a tennis ball and his knapsack. He puts on his glasses and is smothered by his mother's kisses.

"I have a bread warming, have some before you leave."

"Okay, thanks mother." New gets up and stretches a little.

His computer hums quietly in a corner of the room, and as he walks up to check his calendar, a notification is heard. New looks at his desktop to see a message from his cousin, Artix.

Hey cousin, I just woke up.. New types.

His mother is cleaning a dish as her son is eating a sandwich and an english muffin. "Don't forget to text me when classes are over." she says.

"Mmm, " New mumbles. He grabs his knapsack from his bedroom and pats his mother before he leaves for school. "Bye mom."

...

Her paper floats in a pond as she hovers over it. Undone by the return of a school season and her brother's enigmatic girlfriend, Lila is cold in a late August dusk. Her written poem lies in a gentle nudge of water lilies.

A tear draws in her enmity for her father because their family had her transfer to a new school in a city of Poland; an overcoat is her only warmth as she walks alone at a park near her dormitory. An evening is a welcome to her feelings of anxiety and melancholy because of her missed friendships and pastries. Often in a guile of frolic is a gesture to purchase a few pastries with her friends in-between classes.

She stoops to a bedrock of moss and dangling leaves and whines quietly to herself in an unapologetic tone. I should be walking back.

As the autumn drifts of cool air and fallen leaves reminds her to return to her room, Lila hands her phone and starts texting her brother. I'll be busy this weekend. She texts. Maybe you can visit?

...

A girl in daisy twirls hops in a street flourishing in tourists and students and librarians and munches on a small danish pastry. In a jolt of a love, she scurries away and shyly stands behind a street lunch stall. She mumbles in a swift crush as she witnesses her charm walking in a store.

Mel is concerned in being seen, so she looks to find a way to his arms. She is oblivious to his heart and so begins her approach in a store of which she may confess her love.

She walks in and bites her pastry, and as she hovers in a rapture of fallen branches and cracked egg shells, this little girl intertwines a lot of nights of dreaming of him and a gasp of drench in a towel as she has a habit of swerving in her bathtub as she conceives her luscious arms around her love.

In a moment of abrupt kindling, she spots him looking at an avenue of shirts. She stubbly walks to him and taps his back.

The boy turns around and perks his head up at her. "Uh.. hi! Mel?"

She blushes and says, "Hello, what is you doing?" she whispers in a blushful manner.

The boy, in a quest to find a good shirt, holds a shirt to her and declares, "I want to wear a good shirt for a weekend. My mother is bringing me to Toulouse to see my older brother at university." He grins and gives her a light punch.

She grabs his hand and mumbles it with her soft lips. "I like you, " she whispers.

The boy is alarmed and holds on to her curious love with a silence. She drops his hand and twirls in a skirt. Then, she takes a pastry out of her purse and offers it to him. "You want? This is my ring for you."

"Uhh.. a snack?" he calmly intervenes in his wistful and warm sigh and takes the pastry. "Thank you, love."

She is a little defiant of his demeanor and denies his hand. "No! No pastry unless you take my love." She whimpers in a quiet gesture.

The girl is still as the boy stands by her, pondering on a cute girl's sugary cheeks.

"Okay, sweet, I take your love." He steps to her and leans in slowly.

Shyly and abrupt, she stills herself and closes her eyes. The boy kisses her cheeks and licks her a bit. "What?"

She opens his eyes in a small laughter and asks him, "Why?"

"Because you have sugar on your cheeks." He smiles and says, "Fine, you are a girl of mine. Just please be a little quiet. I know the owner of this store, and she may not let me take a shirt."

The girl beckons with a charmed blush and twinkles in a blink as she loves him with her presence.

...

New is in a classroom, organizing his notebooks in his desk as a few girls walk in. It's the second lecture in the morning, and he is lulled in a sleepy current of notes and thought. He is learning engineering and history, so he is prompt and ready to catch up on all the classes he has missed because of his transferal and moving with his parents to Warsaw.

He does like to take notes on his laptop and so takes it out and begins to type a note to himself a reminder to purchase a cheese bread for his little sister. His dusky hair is a twirl as he has been introducing himself to fellow university class mates. "Hi." he gestures to a girl eyeing his laptop.

She says hi. "Are you in this class too?" New asks. She nods. "I hope it's interesting."

She smiles and decides to sit next to him. He leans on his chair and waits for a lecture to start.

"And this is an initial grasp of the historical venue of European estates and their literature for a movement of prowess as the central cachets interest in a constitution the liability of family and homestead." The lecturer maneuvers beside a chalk board and writes down an outline.

New writes it down and is a daze of humble interest for the girl next to him. She observes his twirls and mumbles to herself. She is blurred by the cute boy next to her. As the two sit and listen, a love is in ferment as she caresses his studious manner with her eyes and lips.

"Uhm.. " she glimpses at his neck. New does hear but is in a benign contemplation.

The girl shyly reclines on her seat and is a frivolous indent.

The boy gets up and packs his things to purchase a cake and lunch. In a muster of courage, the girl grabs his notebook, longing for his attention. New perks his thought and nudges at the girl with his smile. "Oh hey."

She creases his notebook pages and sits. "I want to-."

The boy listens as he craves a canteen's comfort. Hmm?

"I want to eat lunch with you, " the girl mutters in a coy. The boy nods and walks to her desk.

"Okay, eat lunch with me." He responds in a wonder of a slow manner. "We can have lunch in a date, " he grins a bit.

The girl blushes in her seat and approves in a swirl of her strawberry hair. "Okay, I like that."

...

The boy places a plate of macaroni and an apple pie at the table they chose. Sitting and holding a fork, the girl gives him a thank you blink and scoops up her lunch.

New watches as the lovely student finishes her macaroni. "How was it? I had to make sure it was warm."

She decides to give him a kiss, so she tenderly takes his hand and smudges his wrist with macaroni cheese. He smirks, silly and in a smudge of an autumn crush.

He hears a ping from his phone so he takes it out and reads a message from his mother. "Sorry, miss. It's from my mom."

She waves her hand nudgingly and says, "I will eat the apples now."

He blinks and smiles as he types.

The girl waves bye as the two stand together under an afternoon twilight in sunny asters and tulips. Oh! She forgot to share her name.

She turns to him and says, "My name is Lila."

The boy gestures in a steady incoming kiss and gently caresses her cheek with his lips. She blushes heavily and swirls her swirly hair.

"Okay, Lila. I have to go to a class."

"Bye New." The boy carries his knapsack and walks away as he studies the autumn trees that effloresce in campus. He grips his heart with a girl's tender invitation to a love and fixates on her waist with a thirst.

The girl whimpers in a stupor of a fallen love and an earnest request to care for her lover.

The two begin a journey of a love that may inherit a meager child's inquisitive cuteness. The boy begins his courage to love a girl as is the girl cannot but wait to see his dark eyes once more.