Bell Cafe

Do y'all prefer milk or water for your pancake batter? I prefer cold water.

I made pancakes for breakfast. Oh to the time when I poured them into neat circles on the griddle! Now, the batter is never good enough and they cook into whatever shapes.

I don't mind. I'm barely living.

Mom isn't up. I sneak peeked into her room earlier to find her sound asleep - mind me when I say sound asleep, she was sleeping soundly, with snores so loud they could literally shake a spoon on the table beside. So I choose not to wake her up. It's rare to see her so peaceful. Even in her sleep, her dreams scare her, threatening to break the pieces she had somehow picked and taped together. It's Thursday, we're allowed to not-wear-the-uniform for a day. People up high on the hierarchy like to call it A Casual Day. I prefer otherwise. I pull from among my junk of clothes a pair of black Nike shorts and an oversized sorta pink t-shirt. Classic. I attempt to iron the t-shirt which looks like it is a thousand year old, crumbled by the heaviest machines. It hangs on my body despite my muscles. I think it looks fine so I leave for school.

X Road BW is a nice road to drive on in the morning. The silence of the main street mixed with the buzz of the market bustle inside works as the perfect wake-up soundtrack.

My stars have a new way of mocking me each day and today they got me a parking place next to Jay Eff's car. My worn out Honda beside his shiny black Range Rover. Iconic. But I couldn't care less.

I notice that I have quite the time left before class began. So I decided to get a coffee from Bell Cafe which is barely a 5 minute walk from school. I get down and walk out of the gates onto the streets. I like the location of my school. Mind my sarcasm. There's a park closeby so there are kids and old folks and uncles and aunts there in the morning. The only good thing about my school is that it is close to Bell Cafe. The blueberry cheesecakes and coffee from there are famous all over town.

"Mom says I'm God's favorite because he always gives me what I want" says a kid on a blue scooter. He must be 4-5 given his height.

"God loves everyone equally. Nobody is His favorite" argues the other kid who looks smarter with his neat trousers and tiny glasses.

Like He even exists, I mock their ignorance.

"You're both naïve. I'll tell you a secret. Lean closer" I stop by.

The kid on the scooter grins foolishly and comes closer. The other one followed but he seemed alarmed.

"There is no God"

Their expressions clearly scream that they disagree. The glasses opens his mouth to say something but stops. The other one looks dumb.

"What do you have to prove that?" goes the smarter one.

"Yeah! onii chan nu baaka" follows the one on the scooter real quick.

I had noticed the tiny eyes he had but I wasn't sure. He probably was a Japanese. Thanks to my Japanese vocabulary that anime built, I knew that onii chan meant big brother and baaka meant stupid. So yeah, the kid had the audacity to call me stupid in his native language.

"Well if God exists, He would make that bird fly off the branch before I count to three" I point to the bird in it's nest. She's probably looking after her eggs so there's no way she's gonna fly anytime soon.

The kids look stupidly fazed.

"One."

Their eyes widen.

"Two."

They look stupified. Not blinking once, they keep staring at it.

"And three."

Nothing happens.

"There. Your God failed you. He doesn't exist. Big brother knows better."

The one on the scooter looked convinced, the other one looked at me suspiciously.

I knew the scooter was dumb.

Self satisfied to have proven my point, I continue moving to get my coffee.

Surprisingly, the cafe is almost empty. I order my coffee. There is enough time for me to sit and drink it in peace so I sit at a table near the window facing the road. I didn't realize I was leaving for school so early.

Little had I drunk my coffee when I realized someone walking upto me. I look up.

It's the Jones girl. She has a coffee of her own.

"Hey!" she smiles. "Ben, isn't it?"

The way she says my name, it feels so different. I don't know. It's probably the accent but not often does somebody call my name.

I nod.

"Nice t-shirt."

I shrug. "Thanks-s."

"I like the color. Suits you. Mind if I sit here?"

"Ah no – not at all." Actually, I did. I was scared. I am socially awkward and it's written all over my face. I do not want to mess up, especially when a girl's involved.

She sits down in the chair opposite to me. I can not face her. I can face nobody. I am a nobody. I look down at my coffee.

"You look upset. Are you sure you don't mind me sitting with you. I mean I - I can go someplace else I - " I stop her midway.

"It's not that. No. This is my natural face. This erm is how I always look. It's not you, its me I - I just am this way. Grumpy." I grip my coffee, fake grin for a moment and then look away, out of the window.

I am startled when she speaks. "I noticed you yesterday."

She noticed me? A freaking nobody?

"And I felt that there's something terribly wrong with the way they treat you. I might be wrong so correct me if I am." I look at her, eyes wide, unable to say anything at the moment.

When you quoted "I didn't mean to drown. I just meant to swim till I sank" I heard you and it just hit me.

"Oh my God! I barely whispered that" I gasp.

"That's not the point here. If there is something bothering you, you should spit it out. You don't talk to anyone. And don't get me wrong, I'm not a creep. I just think I might've gone through something similar you know, but I've been saved. I'm new here so I hope we can be friends. I want you to know that someone's there for you and that you're not alone. Let people save you."

Did I just feel my heart flutter? Nobody ever said those things to me. Maybe I'd always wanted to hear those words. It felt good – sort of warm.

For once, I smile genuinely. I look up to her, I face her. She's smiling too – a beautiful smile. I felt like I made a friend today. Guess I'm really simple. A few sweet words and I'm all down stumbling.

Since our destination is the same, we walk to school together. We don't talk much – not in the cafe, not on our way.

I steal glances at her all through the day. It kept me occupied.

It is only her second day and she has already befriended half of the class. I wonder why she said she went through something similar to me. She seems to have been part of the popular crowd. She's beautiful, talented and friendly. Did I mention that her handwriting is very pretty – all neat curves and dots. She also writes good poetry. Mr.Keats praised one of her poems in the class today. Not gonna lie, it was actually pretty good.

The cafeteria was serving pork sandwiches when I see Amelia walk to my table. She is choosing to sit at the table where I am sitting ALL ALONE!?

I smile and wave at her.

She waves back.

"May I? Everywhere else is quite full." she says.

Correction: Everywhere else wasn't as full.

"Yeah of course" I move a little to the right so she can sit right there.

We eat in silence. It's like she understands that I don't like talking much but I wonder why she chose to sit with me when literally every other person from class would be happy enough to sit with her.