“I’m back,” Jim told Reece, his mouth full with donut. “Looks like you’ve been working hard! Good thing I bought us a little snack!”
Reece put down the weights he was lifting. “Snack?” He said, glancing at the pink plastic bag that Jim was holding.
“Donut holes!” Jim said cheerfully.
“No way! I thought they only sold these in America!”
“I thought so too, but I saw these in the store and knew I had to buy them!”
Jim and Reece sat on the grey mat, chomping down on the donut holes while everyone else in the gym continued exercising. Jim took a loud sip of juice while Reece stared at him.
“Can you pass me my juice?” Reece asked.
“Sorry, I didn’t get you one, I thought you didn’t like juice,” Jim replied, shrugging.
“Who doesn’t like juice?”
Reece stood up. “I’ll be right back.” And he set off.
Reece walked inside the nearest coffee shop. “Ok, so I will have a…” He paused while looking up at the board listing all of the options for drinks. “I think I’ll just have an orange juice, thanks.”
“Right away,” said the woman taking his order. “So, where’re you coming from?” She asked, trying to make conversation.
“Why? Don’t I look like an English lad?” Reece asked, putting on a terrible accent. The woman laughed, shaking her head.
“Ok, you got me. I’m here from the United States with my friend Jim, we met in University.”
“America… I’ve been there, once, I went to Vancouver a few years ago.”
Reece started laughing. “Canada isn’t a part of America”
The woman chuckled. Americans hated that. “Ok, here’s your juice, what’s your name?” She asked, with a pen over the plastic juice cup.
“Reece.” The woman got halfway through writing the name before Reece said, “With a C, not an S. I was named after Reece’s Pieces. My dad loves them.”
“So do I.” The woman handed Reece the juice.
“Have a good day,” Reece squinted at the woman’s name tag, “Amanda.”
“Thanks, you too.” Amanda replied.
Reece walked out of the store. He looked down at the juice, and right below his name with the crossed-out S, he saw a phone number written on it.
Jim had eaten most of the donut holes when Reece got back to the gym. He was combing back his chocolate brown coloured hair. Jim had the same haircut for as long as Reece had known him; a mullet, although his hair was shorter when Reece had met him, and he hadn’t grown his moustache then.
Reece on the other hand, had short blonde hair, and was quite muscular, he looked like what you’d think of when you thought of a fit young American.
“You took a while.”
“Sorry, I was making small talk.”
Reece and Jim came home quite late that night, they were laughing all the way up the staircase of their apartment while telling each other funny stories about themselves when they were younger. Jim put a box of pizza into the microwave. “I’m just going to get changed, I’ve stayed in these sweaty clothes the whole day!” Reece shouted. He put on his green pyjamas but noticed something smudged onto his hand. Reece had written down Amanda’s phone number on his hand to make sure he didn’t forget.
He dialled the number into his phone and waited.
“Hello? This is Amanda,” came Amanda’s voice.
“Hey, this is Reece. You gave me an orange juice, and we made small talk. Maybe you don’t remember me.”
“Oh… the Reece’s Pieces guy! I’ve been waiting hours!”
“Haha, sorry, sorry. So… How are you?”
Amanda and Reece talked for a long time, leaving Jim alone to eat his microwaved pizza.
“I think I’ve got go now, but do you want to meet some time?”
“Sure, I work at the coffee shop Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Weekends or anytime between that’s fine.”
“Ok, meet me at the park right outside of your coffee shop on… Saturday, three pm.”
“Sounds good.” She hung up. Reece sighed.
When he came back out to the living room, Jim was deep asleep, snoring on the couch with the now empty pizza box on the carpeted floor. Reece put a blanket over Jim, then walked into the bedroom and also fell asleep.
The next morning Jim was still asleep when Reece woke up. ‘Off to buy breakfast -Reece.’ He scribbled down on a torn piece of paper.
When he came back to the apartment, Reece toasted the bread and cooked the eggs that he had bought from the supermarket. He heard a yawn behind him and looked back.
“Ahhhh, you’re awake! Only took you forever!”
“What’re you making?”
“Eggs on toast.”
Jim yawned again. He still looked a bit tired. “Where’d you go last night?”
“Oh, yeah… Listen, I’m really sorry, I was making a phone call, but I didn’t know it’d take that long.”
“I was out there, waiting, for like, half an hour.”
“Jim, I’m sorry, really.”
Jim sighed. “It’s fine, you know how I get cranky when I just wake up…”
Three PM rolled around quicker than Reece expected. Jim was busy watching some TV show about a murderer. “Hey Jim, I’m just going to go out for a little while… That ok with you?”
“No way! The sister did it!? His own sister killed him!? I liked her! Sorry, what was that Reece?”
Reece waited in the park where they planned to meet, when suddenly, Amanda jumped up behind him.
“Hi!” She said cheerfully.
“Hi,” he said, less enthusiastically but still with a smile.
“Where would you like to go first?”
“Well… There’s a nice cafe around here…”
They walked awkwardly without saying anything until they found the cafe.
“Table for two, please,” Amanda said to someone who worked there. Reece skimmed over the menu.
“Is the hot chocolate good?”
“Terrible. It tastes like…” She paused, thinking what to compare it to. “Vegetarian meat. Yeah, that’s a perfect example.”
Reece chuckled. “I once considered becoming a vegetarian… Didn’t work out, though, I only lasted a few hours.” Amanda smiled.
“I think you should grow a moustache.”
At first, Reece didn’t say anything, then he started laughing. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“Yeah, you’d look good with one.”
Reece started touching his upper lip. “A moustache…” He muttered to himself.
“May I take your orders?” the waiter asked.
“I will have a… lemon meringue pie, please,” Amanda told the waiter. She quickly wrote it down on a notepad.
“Very good, and you sir?” She asked, now addressing Reece.
“A blueberry muffin will do, thanks.” The waiter walked away.
“How long have you lived in London for?” Amanda asked Reece.
“Six months now. How about you?”
“I was born in Italy, but I’ve lived in London my whole life.”
“Ever thought of going on an adventure? Some place you’ve never been before?”
“Yeah… London’s a beautiful city, but I’d like to go on an adventure around Europe, maybe even the world, but I can’t get that type of money working part time at a coffee shop…”
“Then why don’t you quit? Get a better job, save up some money, and then do what you want to do?” Amanda sighed.
“It’s not that simple. If I could, I would. Just quit. Become an artist. That’s what I really want to do…” Amanda shook her head.
“Here you are, a lemon meringue pie for you.” The waiter put the pie in front of Amanda. “And a blueberry muffin for you.” She put the muffin in front of Reece.
The muffin was much crumblier than Reece had expected it to be.
“This place is the best! Except for their hot chocolate,” Amanda said.
“Yeah, this is good,” Reece replied.
Reece glanced up at a clock on the wall. He had been gone for about an hour. Jim was probably still watching the TV show, but Reece still didn’t want to leave him too long like he had done the day before.
“I think I should start heading home…” Reece told Amanda.
“Alright.”
“We should meet up for dinner together. There’s an Italian restaurant that me and Jim go to all the time.”
“Great. See you at… Seven?”
“Sure.”
But before Reece left, Amanda gave him a little kiss on the cheek.
When Reece came back to the apartment, Jim still had his eyes glued to the television. “Oh hey Reece,” Jim said, finally turning off the TV.
“Hi Jim. Did you finish watching that murder TV show?”
“Oh you mean Who & Why? No, I’m on the final episode. How was wherever you went?”
“Good, good. All good.”
“Did you miss me?”
Reece laughed but stopped. Jim had a strange look on his face. “What?” Reece asked. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know… Just, nothing. Well, we’ve known each other for a while now, and I…”
Reece spoke quickly. “We’re friends, Jim, and we’ll always be friends.”
“I’m just saying. I think there’s something, I don’t know…” Jim said. He looked in pain, but like he also wanted to say more.
“Hey, listen”. Reece paused. “Are you good with going to that great Italian place tonight? With a friend of mine and me? You know.. The- What was it called! Elipino’s! That’s the place!”
“Sure, yeah.” Jim said unsurely, looking at the ground.
Reece and Jim didn’t say anything to each other until seven o’clock rolled around.
“Time to go. Come on Jim,” Reece said quietly.
“Hi Amanda. This is my friend Jim.” Jim and Amanda shook hands. They found a table to sit at.
“I recommend the spaghetti bolognese,” Reece said looking down at the menu.
“No, the pesto pasta’s better,” Jim mumbled, locking eyes with Reece before quickly looking away.
“Gee, I don’t know what to pick. It all looks quite nice…” Amanda said hesitantly.
“You know what this place is famous for? Their splits, you can get a split of anything; lasagne and pizza, spaghetti bolognese and pesto pasta, you name it!” Reece said.
“That sounds a bit gross,” said Amanda. “I think I’ll just settle for pesto pasta.” Amanda started humming a song while taking a sip of water.
“You know Who & Why?” Asked Jim, unexpectedly.
“Jim, what…“ Reece began saying but was cut off.
“Oh, yeah. It’s the perfect TV show! What part are you up to?”
Jim and Amanda talked about the show for almost the entire time they were at the restaurant, leaving Reece to sit and eat his spaghetti quietly while no one was paying attention to him whatsoever.
“I didn’t believe it when I found out the sister killed him! She was always so nice, and when you learn that she did kill him, you look at the funeral speech a whole other way!” Amanda was saying.
“This sounds like a pretty good show…” Reece said, hoping that would help him into the conversation.
“Oh, it is,” Amanda said, taking a bite of her pesto pasta.
“Anyway… So your theory is that the dad killed him?”
“I mean yeah, new episodes are still coming out, and it would make more sense, he had the motive and everything.”
All three of them returned to the apartment that night (Amanda wanted to see it). “I’ve got to go to the bathroom…” Reece muttered. He quickly went, but when he walked out of the bathroom, Jim and Amanda had vanished.
“Hello?” He called out. He searched for a little while, but Reece and Amanda weren’t there. Reece opened the door leading to the hallway and walked out onto the unstained baby blue carpet. As he turned his head, Reece managed to see, but only barely, two figures running down the hall and quickly turning a corner.
Written by Lucy Martin. Ten-year-old student from Western Academy of Beijing.
What inspired the story: My motivation for writing this story is that I’d like to be an author when I grow up. I came up with the plot idea from an episode of a TV show called ‘Poker Face’. The episode was about a crime being committed in a gym, but I wanted to tell a story about two close friends and then expanded the idea from there. When I was about midway through writing, my Dad told me about this competition, so I had a good reason to finish the story.
Images: FreePik
