Like a Cinderella

Chapter 12

But how do I tell her that the princess suffers too?

"let's order something." This is how Isaac speaks.

"yeah sure," Noah replies.

"Why should take at least one selfie before we leave," Cristian says as we have finished our meal.

"yeah, I also need to keep it on my Instagram story so I can keep it in my highlights forever."

Isaac speaks, he looks like a person who would keep the memories to look at them later.

But, I feel like memories are supposed to be in our minds, and what we felt in that moment can't be captured in pictures. And what is the purpose of memories what if we won't even live to look at them tomorrow?

"Your highlights are already full of just you and Abraham, and no one else."

Cristian says

"Abraham Walton?"

Noah questions Isaac.

"Yeah, he is my best friend."

Isaac replies while he opens his phone's camera to capture a selfie of 4 of us.

Noah looks at me and I nod. I know I should have told him already but I know he would freak out at Abraham's name as he already told me to stay away from him.

Isaac dropped me and Noah at our neighbor till this moment he is silent. But I know he will speak, though he never shouts at me but he will ask.

"Abraham Walton? I asked you to stay away from him and we just had dinner with his best friend. Lol."

He is being sarcastic and this hurts me more.

"I am tired, We will talk about it later. And Abraham is not a bad guy as you think instead he is so nice to me."

I say and enter my house without waiting for him to reply.

I don't know what's wrong with me, Abraham has only been nice to me for once and I have already started thinking he is nice.
I just hope he stays nice to me always.
                        _______________

Abraham Walton,

The fact that I am back in California and my usual life after 3 days sounds okay and I feel okay too.

I received a text from Delilah, she wanted to discuss the poem with me for the last time before we will present it in front of the teacher, She already emailed me everything she has written. Of course, I didn't bother to open it because it would want me to change it without letting her know.

I get ready for uni and leave for the cafe in front of our university.

It's lowkey 9 in the morning, but the cafe is full of students, I still easily spot her, sitting on a chair in the corner alone with a book of poetry resting on the table, she is fully consumed in her book as if she cares more about the words of a dead poet than alive people talking and laughing around her.

As long as I reach her, I can't seem to take my eyes off her, she is wearing a gray T-shirt,  her curly hair is open, and I haven't seen more beautiful curls than this, and her silver 'bird' pendant that looks cute on her,

"Hi, Abraham" She looks up at me and smiles.

"Yeah, Hi." I don't smile, I look rude but I am okay with that because that is the only impression I want to leave on people.

"How was your trip?"

She smiles again, there is something changed in her. Why is she acting like she is my friend? I don't have any friends other than Isaac and I don't like Delilah to be nice to me, I want her to hate me.

"That is not your concern. You wanted to discuss something about the assignment?"

I throw a question at her while sitting down on my chair.

I can see her smile fading away, more like that slight dimple on her left cheek that suddenly disappeared showing how my words have left the influence on her.

"Yeah, did you read the email?"

She is not as enthusiastic as she was a minute ago.

"Yeah."

I lie to her because I don't want to upset her anymore, or maybe I don't want to sound irresponsible to her.

"Is that okay? Or do you want me to make any changes to it? We still have some time left. I can rewrite everything."

She doesn't look up at me, instead, she tries to find something from her bag, she is trying to avoid eye contact with me.

"It was great." I lie again, she looks up at me and smiles.

"Okay." She says.

"do you want coffee?"

I ask her and stand up.

"Sure."
She looks confused, before I leave to get the coffee she opens her poetry book again.

As I get the coffee, I look at it, and then at Delilah, she is innocently preoccupied by her book.

"Can I get pure crushed coffee beans or powder?"

I ask and the boy at the counter looks at me with confusion but since he knows who I am, He simply gives me the crushed coffee.

I again look at her, her few strands of curls come over her face and she removes them with her hands without taking her eyes off from book.

I add one spoon, then another, and another, In total, I add 6 spoons of coffee in coffee that was already made.

I mix it and then take it to her.

I gently keep it in front of her and sit down in my seat.

"Thank you." She smiles at me.

I don't reply instead I look at her and wait for her to drink the coffee because now the coffee is so bitter that she will take a single sip of it and its bitterness will linger in her throat for the next 8 hours.

She takes the cup of coffee, something inside me wants to stop her, but I love torturing her, I want to make her hate me in every possible way a human can be hated.

She drinks it, keeps the cup of coffee on the table, and reads her book as if the coffee is normal, I wonder did I add the less spoons of coffee, isn't it too bitter to want you puke?

I silently look at her, she takes another sip, then another, she has finished half of the cup and she hasn't died. I don't know what is this girl made up of.

As she is about to take another sip, I snatch the cup from her.

" Are you human? Can't you feel the bitterness of this coffee?" I ask in a harsh tone.

"Are you Human, Abraham? Coz you let me drink half of it and didn't say a word." She stands up and wears her bag.

"By the way, this coffee isn't more bitter than your words and tone." She leaves.

I know she was taunting me, she was mad at me but I still take a sip from her coffee because I want to know if it was not bitter enough.
As soon as I take a sip, I immediately rush towards the restroom, because I want to vomit it out.