C A P P U C C I NO
oOoOoOoOo
Namine stared out the window, her left hand loosely holding onto the handle of the coffee cup in front of her. She was sitting by the window of a dimly lit corner café sipping her cappuccino slowly and watching the world pass by. The bell on the door rang and she looked up. A girl walked in wearing the crisp starched uniform of a nearby school. She looked hesitant and uncertain as she walked over to the boy at the table to Namine's right. She spoke shyly. "Excuse me, are you…"
"Roxas?" The boy nodded.
"And you must be Namine, right?"
"Yes."
The boy clumsily got up and pulled out the chair for the girl. Namine's lip curled. Boys were hardly ever that polite. She only knew one other boy that did that on a blind date. It was obvious from their unease that it was a first date. It didn't help that it was a blind date, too. Blind dates were often painfully short. She sipped her cappuccino, wondering how long these two would last.
"Want something to drink?"
Roxas signaled to the waitress.
"Ready to order?" The perky waitress took out her pen and pad from her apron and waited expectantly.
"I'll have a cappuccino…" Namine trailed off and looked at Roxas.
"I'll have a decaf," the boy said.
"Will that be all?"
Namine snorted quietly. Of course that was all. They don't want to look like greedy pigs in front of their dates. Dates always made you very self-conscious. Namine sipped her cappuccino.
"Um… Yeah." The waitress left with their orders and left them in discomfited silence.
"So, I heard you like art." Roxas tried to start the conversation.
"I'm not that good."
"Here you are! One cappuccino and one decaf! Enjoy!" The waitress placed the two cups onto the table and left. The boy took a long gulp from his mug and immediately turned red.
Roxas choked on the hot liquid. Namine watched him in concern. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." He smiled weakly.
Namine sipped her cappuccino.
"You should be more careful." The girl's hesitation disappeared as her maternal instinct took over. She fussed over him for awhile until the boy reassured her that he was fine and then they both fell into awkward silence. The girl tried to start a conversation.
Namine sipped her cappuccino and looked out the window. "The weather was nice today wasn't it?" It was drizzling lightly outside. "I like the rain, don't you?"
"Um… yeah."
That attempt fell flat onto the ground and Namine tried to hide her embarrassment by busying herself with her cup of coffee.
Her cappuccino was about half gone now.
"What do you like to do?"
"I skateboard a lot."
"Is it fun?"
"Fun? It's freaking crazy!"
"Crazy?"
"That split second while you're in the air, it's amazing."
"… I can't do cool things like that."
"Why not?"
"I'm too weak." Namine silently concurred with the girl as she drank from her cup again. The girl looked so thin and frail that she looked like she could get snapped into two.
"Oh…"
Roxas began to visibly lose interest in her. "Well, I've got to go now. Maybe I'll see you around." He paid for the drinks.
"Bye." The girl watched the boy leave. The clouds had cleared up and it looked like the boy was being bathed by the sunshine.
Namine looked down at her cup.
They hadn't even lasted for one cappuccino.
She looked back at the girl who was still sitting in her seat with a look in her eye. Namine knew that look too well. She had been wearing that same look for more than ten years now.
"He's not worth it."
The girl was startled by Namine's voice.
"He's not worth it," Namine repeated. "Get yourself someone who cares. Then you'll really be happy." The girl nodded. Then she smiled a real smile at Namine and left in the same sunlight the boy had left in.
"Unlike me," She added quietly to herself.
And then…
She left the café forever, leaving behind half a cup of cappuccino sitting on the table, swathed in a puddle of sunlight.
Ugh... izzy has finally experienced what they call... dun dun dun... "Writer's Block". And so my next fruit is not coming out for awhile. Here is something else... It was inspired by episode 6 of "xxxHOLiC" when Yuuko-san remarks that her customer didn't even last one cappuccino. And somehow... this came out of my head.
If anyone didn't get this fic... well, Namine is an adult and she's drinking a cappuccino in a cafe. There are other customers in the cafe, two of them being a boy and a girl on a blind date. This reminds Namine of her last blind date with a guy called... you guessed it... Roxas! The whole italics thing is what happened during Namine and Roxas's date ten years ago. Namine has been pining for Roxas the whole ten years. She doesn't want the younger unnamed girl to be sad like her for being dumped after one blind date that very eerily resembled her own so she gives advice which she finally takes herself... So yeah... I get the feeling that if I have to explain this then I'm not a very good writer... Oh well... Izzy tries and if Izzy gets feedback she'll try to use the criticism to revise this story. Thank you very much for reading!