Chapter 14
814 Words
Chapter 14
I was in no mood to go home. I left Deppy’s after cleaning up of course and went to a cafe on my own.
I walked inside and the barman lit up as soon as he saw me. His name was Adras and he was as manly as it gets. He had a thing for me, commenting on all my pictures. I could get a free coffee anytime where he worked.
He tried to hide that he rushed to my side of the bar and casually rubbed something that needed cleaning. “Yasou Mahi! It’s not your usual time.”
“I should leave then,” I said and theatrically turned towards the exit.
“No, no,” he said and he was practically leaning over the counter.
So adorable.
“I’ll stay then,” I said and smiled at him.
He looked like he had won a prize. “What shall I make you? Frappe as usual?”
I held my hand topside touching my forehead, and said, “I really need something stronger today.”
Adras gritted his teeth and inhaled. “I can’t do that Mahi, you aren’t 18 yet. And the fact is, I know you are not 18, and can’t even claim ignorance. You come here with half your classmates for god’s sake.”
“Come on…” I said and leaned on the counter to give him a good view, the very same I knew for a fact he was looking at for hours surfing my pictures. I took a real bimbo tone of voice and said, “I read on a article the other day that a woman should have a Cosmo when she is troubled. Can you make me a woman?”
He gulped. “Yes.”
“I’m sure you make it great.” I made sure to keep the pose he liked and took out my wallet. “I dunno how much a cocktail costs, never had one before…”
“It’s OK, on me,” he said and started making me one.
“You are the best,” I told him and smiled.
I sat at a table alone.
I surfed the web a while, ignoring my messages. Adras brought me the Cosmo and after some chit chat, he went back to the bar. I took a big sip and found it nice. I think he made it light on alcohol somehow, even though I’ve never had one before to compare. It was surely on purpose because he really knew how to make those things. Adras was a mixologist, a title that brings out snorts in Greece everytime it is uttered out loud because it means something silly. It sounds as if you call yourself “snot specialist.” Seriously. But no one seemed to complain after he’d tasted his lattes and cocktails. Adras had gone to a mixologist school in the Netherlands, and he was really proud of it. He was older of course, way over thirty but he was always sweet.
Plus he had grrreat arms.
Muscled and with hands that were rough from manual labour.
I stared at him work through a reflection.
My phone buzzed. It was a message. I was about to ignore it but I noticed the greek pi on a white background. It was Prodromos.
“Come with me if you want to live.”
What?
I wrote back, “What?”
No reply.
I waited and waited, refreshed and turned my Wi-Fi on and off again. Nothing. I drank my whole drink but decided against asking for another. Maybe I could push my luck with Adras for a second one, but to be honest, I was starting to get tipsy.
I called Billy.
“Hey.”
“Hey. Did you see what happened?”
“No, what?”
“You really need to get a smartphone one of these days. You are literally the only person I know who didn’t see the videos yet.”
“Please tell me you aren’t talking about a s*x tape.”
“No, it’s worse!”
And I told him what happened.
“… And now nothing.”
“It’s Terminator.”
“The killer robot is after me?”
“No, I mean could be, but no. The line is from Terminator. Come with me if you want to live. It’s right after he saves Sar-”
“So? What does it mean?”
“Lemme think. It must be a place, he must be telling you to come somewhere.”
“We aren’t in Hollywood.”
“No, wait. There is something similar nearby.”
“What, a killer robot?”
I instinctively looked around. Couldn’t help it.
“Ohi, no. There’s a sculpture at Omonoia, a metal man. It looks a lot like Terminator. The artist was on the local news a few weeks ago, didn’t you see it?”
“Why would I see sculptures,” I said as if the word was something lame. Which it was.
“Because that knowledge might come in handy when receiving cryptic messages from anonymous people. Which it just did.”
I let the smug bastard have his moment.
“I’ll text you the address.”
“Whoa, wait! You aren’t leaving me to go there alone, are you?”
“Why not? I could be wrong.”
“And you could be right! And frankly, when have you ever been wrong you tall brainiac?”
“I’ve been wrong many times.”
“You’re coming with me. I’m not meeting this creepy guy on my own. My mom would kill you if something happened to me and you weren’t there.”
- Writer
