Lavender

He could not believe what he saw...

One moment he was skating down the pavement, and the next he smelt something sweet as he past. Another minute passed until his brain managed to decode the impulses sent to his brain: lavender.

'Lavender... Lavender!' he thought. Quickly, he stomped his foot on the ground to stop himself from being dragged further by his skate board and looked back.

It seems like the flowery scent came from a girl standing about seven feet away from him. She was about his age - 18, or younger? - and quite petite in size. Nonetheless, she was beautiful. 'Like a flower blooming in spring... Whoa, thinking flowers again. NOT. COOL.'

The girl had black shoulder-length layer-cut hair, a cute button nose, lips that make you wish they were on your mouth, smooth cheeks, and strikingly gray eyes. She was standing by the sidewalk, wearing a buttoned-down blouse with a tanktop inside and form fitting jeans, which really shows her growing curves. She kept switching her glance from her book to her surroundings; looking left, then right, then back to her book again.

As Ian was a young man, and just two months past his 18th birthday, it would only surprise everyone if he weren't to stop skating and take a look at the opposite sex who just so happened to smell like his favorite flower.

'Man, stop it with the flowers!' he scolded himself mentally. His gaze went back to said-person. She was still immersed in her book, her eyes skating literally skating across the page as the words were scanned by her eyes and transferred to her brain for further process and understanding. Adding sunlight and a small breeze to that mix, it made her hair join in with the flow of the wind and practically made her whole being shine.

His heart skipped two beats; his hands started to sweat, even perspiration was building up on his forehead. 'What is this girl doing to me? Standing there, not giving a damn about everyone about her yet she makes me fell as if someone punched me in the face!'

Passersby were giving him a weird look (Most of them saw his skating down, and he just so happened to stop all a sudden after skating with such a speed?) but ignored him just the same as they have better things to do instead of wonder what's going on in the young man's mind.

Ian couldn't take it anymore. He gulped, took a deep breath, and strive forward towards the girl in question, like a soldier going out into the battlefield.

PAGE BREAK

She noticed a presence beside her and looked to her left, her eyes having left the pages of her new horror novel and landed on the young man just three feet away from her.

He was almost her age - well, she's almost 32 hours and 16 minutes away from her 17th birthday - and stood almost half a foot taller than her. He had black short-cut hair that almost any female would want to run their fingers through; straight nose; lean jaw and crystal-blue eyes that makes you think of the ocean.

He was taken aback when Phoebe fixed her gaze on him, and she could tell from the slight widening of his eyes and the slacking of his jaw. This gave her time to check him out.

A plain white T that happened to fit his lean/muscular body just right and loose jeans, with a skateboard on his side. 'And here I thought loose jeans made you look fat...' she thought as her gaze went from top to bottom, then back at his face.

He was clearly uncomfortable with the way she's scrutinizing him. He shifted his weight from his left leg to right, his left hand going to scratch the back of his neck; his eyes looking everywhere but her. She almost smiled to herself, feeling a bit proud in making a guy feeling uncomfortable.

"Can I help you?" she asked the stranger.

He suddenly looked at her, surprised that she was actually talking to him. His gaze went to the closed book in her right hand, then back at her, which darted away just as quickly as it settled.

'This is really awkward...' she sighed.

PAGE BREAK

"Can I help you?" she had said. He was at a loss. He was trapped in a jar, intoxicated by the smell of lavender. What should he say that wouldn't make him look like an idiot? "Hey, did it hurt... when you fell from heaven?" Yeah, right, the last time he actually used one of those pickup lines on a girl, his best friend ran straight up to him and punched him on the nose.

He stammered for a bit before giving up, deciding to use the "proper" way to pick up a girl, "Hi, um... I'm... Ian."

She paused, her eyes looking to her right, eyelids blinking a few times, and looked back at him. "Ookay..." she chuckled.

"Yeah..." And then they just stood there; she giving him an awkward smile and he giving her raised brows. 'Way to go, man...' said his brain sarcastically.

"What book are you reading?"

"Oh, um... The Raven." She said, surprised with the change of topic.

"You an Edgar fan?" Ian too couldn't believe he happened to stumble upon another Poe"r" as he happened to be a Edgar fan himself.

"No... not really, just nothing to read, so I just randomly picked a book, bought it, and when I took it out of the bag, voila..." She said sarcastically, waving the book in front.

"Huh, picking a book randomly, which in turn turned out to be an Edgar Allan Poe book? Wow, you should try the lottery next time." He winked.

She scoffed, but gifted him a small smile.

"I'm Phoebe." She held out her hand for him to shake.

"And again, Ian. Really nice to meet you." He took her hand, marveling on the softness of it. "Pray tell, what brings you here to this lovely spot?" he asked, while flashing her a charming smile.

She looked unsure of herself for a moment, then replied, "My friend actually promised to pick me up after the trip to the bookstore, but it seems like that idiot forgot..." She gave a forced smile and grumbled under her breath so as not to let him hear her curse.

He smiled, finding the way she pouted and cursed cute.

"Wanna grab a cup of coffee?" He asked, feeling hopeful, especially after bypassing that awkward moment. "There's a coffee shop just across the corner?"

"I..." She looked as if she were about to say no, so Ian braced himself for the denial coming his way. "Okay, as long as they serve tea too." She grinned, then walked pass him toward the shop.

'They do...' He answered mentally and turned to follow her down. He caught up with her just in time as she asked, "So, pick up girls' much?"

He smirked, "Well, usually they would slap me in the face if I did, but you didn't. You even agreed to go have coffee with me."

"Just so you know, I didn't bring my wallet." She mentioned quite innocently.

His grinned seemed to have widened, "No worries, my treat."

Oh yeah, the day just couldn't get any better...