Reason

She had no family, she shut people out, she had no reason to live, until one morning in a café, she found it. She found her reason.

She sat down in the dainty little café and started deciding what to order. A cappuccino? No, that reminded her too much of the family she had lost in a plane crash. Her brother had loved it and she couldn't bear to think of him. His laugh, his eyes, the lifeless body that came home, it was all too much to bear. Her once inviting, petal like sea green eyes reflected her ghastly past as she hurriedly scanned the menu for another item to get her mind off those memories. Anything but those memories. An espresso? Yes, it would be fine. Anything was fine.

The waiter nodded when she asked him for an espresso and went to get her one, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She opened her notebook and decided to look around the café for some inspiration. Cafés were great for ideas. Such different people, from such different backgrounds, all came together for a meal, and then left, maybe never meeting again. This affair fascinated her greatly.

Shaking her head to shoo the philosophy out, she started looking around the little café, but alas, it seemed like the universe was against her happiness today. Her eyes darted all around the café, but they kept returning to the alluring sight of a mother and daughter devouring pizza at an impossible speed. Her mother wasn't beautiful, but she had a loving glint in her eyes, which looked impossibly like her own mother. She couldn't bear it, yet her eyes observed the scene so intently that even she was surprised. It was like the universe wanted to cause her pain.

"Here's your coffee, ma'am." The waiter's voice broke her trail of thoughts. She accepted her cup, silently thanking the waiter for interrupting her thinking, and set it down to cool just in time to see a pair of teenagers with identical chocolate coloured hair and amber eyes. They were surely brother and sister, she decided. It was easy to identify from their looks and behavior - had she not spent days goofing about with her own brother when he were still here?

Those times, ah, those beautiful days, those wonderful evenings they spent, roaming around the town, discovering something brand new everyday even though they grew up in the same place, their mother scolding them for coming home late, checking on them at night to see if they had escaped yet again like they had numerous times, each time leaving a note explaining where they were at, but which note could soothe a mother's worried mind? The numerous times she and her brother tossed a coin to decide who was going to get drunk at a party and who was going to drive them home, saving each other from pranks they could have walked it on, drunk, their mother looking worriedly at their hungover frames, all came back to her, forming a giant lump in her throat and salty water in her eyes, which she forced to stay inside. She blinked repeatedly to hold the tears in and swallowed repeatedly to get rid of the lump in her throat, but one stubborn drop of water managed to creep out despite her best efforts.

"Don't cry." Her ears caught a whisper, a soft, beautiful voice trying to console her. She looked up to see a pair of big blue eyes, framed by red locks, looking at her. It was a girl, possibly eight years old, from a crowd of kids from an orphanage, who were possibly on a field trip, and had stopped for a meal. "Tell me what happened. There's a solution to every problem. That's what my mother said."

To say that she was mesmerised by this child would be an understatement. She gestured towards the seat across from her and the girl took it. "What's your name?" She asked her.

"Rosabelle. And yours?"

"Serenity. How old are you, Rose? Can I call you that?"

"Oh, of course you can. I'm eight. Can I ask, why were you crying?"

"Well," She hesitated, "I was missing my mother and brother."

"Oh! Where do they live?"

In reply, she looked up at the sky and pointed in the same direction. "Oh. They're in heaven, aren't they?" Rosabelle asked delicately. "So are mine.'

"I'm so sorry, my dear. Here, d'you want something to drink?" She moved her coffee towards the child seated across from her.

"I like cappuccinos better, so I think I'll pass."

Just like her brother did.

"Well, then, we can order one, can't we?" She summoned the waiter and ordered a cappuccino. She felt a certain connection to this girl, which allowed her to overlook her own grief and make sure Rosabelle got what she wanted. The coffee came pretty quickly, and by the time it did, she understood that Rosabelle was very talkative. In this short amount of time, she knew the names and character of each and every teacher who had taught the girl (Which were just three in total) and could create extremely accurate pictures of each of Rose's friends in her head.

"Here, try this. Then even you'll want a cappuccino." Rosabelle passed her the cup.

She hesitated. "Well, I like it better than I like an espresso too."

"Then why weren't you drinking it?"

"It was my brother's favourite."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay. You didn't know."

"But would your brother have wanted you to drink something you don't like?"

No, he wouldn't. But it hurt. Anything connected to them hurt. But then, didn't she like a cappuccino better too? And what would Alex have told her?

"Suck it up and drink it, sis." Yes, it sounded so Alex. So why not drink a cappuccino herself?

"Excuse me!" She called out to the waiter. "We'd like another cappuccino here, if you would."

Hearing her words, Rosabelle smiled the biggest smile possible, which lit her whole face up. "I used to do that too. But it's really unhealthy to avoid things that remind you of your dead family."

She proceeded to tell her about her dead parents, her mother's jingling giggling, her father's booming laughter, both of them laughing as the whole family played tag. The open fields behind their house, and the lake where they taught her how to ice skate (which she could never do properly till date) the teddy bear they gave her (It was named Coco), the exact colour of her mother's locks (which she saw everyday in the mirror), her father's favourite shirt (Which she still carried in her bag), and finally, crying, she described each and every haunting detail of the lack of relatives to take her in, and finally coming to Sunshine Orphanage.

Her eyes shamelessly held water too by the time her coffee arrived. The sheer amount of pain Rosabelle had seen, compared to her young age, was overwhelming. She forgot all her pains, all her tears as she hurried across the table to put her arms around the now brawling child. Her eyes were too bright to hold tears, all they should hold was happiness. Sadness didn't belong in there, joy did. And she would make sure of it.

"Hey, sweetie, it's okay. It's fine. You know, my mom wrote in her will that she wanted to see a smile on my face. Your mum would've wanted the same, wouldn't she? Smile, now. Stop those pearls from tumbling out. Shhh....."

They both had said whatever they had bottled up for years, and thus the rest of the evening was spent laughing and giggling. Rosabelle praised her red locks and aquamarine eyes, and weirdly, as her pink lips spoke, the scorching sun seemed a little lighter. It was the little girl's presence that brought all the difference in her life. It made the sky bluer and the laughter happier.

But time flew by, and too soon, Rosabelle had to leave. They both knew it had to happen, and neither wanted to get separated, but what hurt her the most were the tears in Rose's eyes. It felt like Rosabelle like her more than she had anticipated. And finally, with a promise to meet again, they walked their own separate ways.

*******

On one of the many evenings she and Rosabelle somehow managed to find time to see each other, Rosabelle's eyebrows rose in confusion when she saw the mammoth amount of paperwork Serenity was carrying. On being asked why she was carrying them, she received the reply, "To make sure you never have to come back here."

They say you have two lives, and the second one begins when you realise you have only one, and she had realised it. She was living her life now, not dragging it like she was before. She had still not made peace with her mother and brother not being there for her every time, but she knew that they wouldn't have liked her mourning their deaths. She had another family now, no matter how small. She had a reason to fight, day after day. She had Rosabelle. She had her reason.

Oh, and just like it had been, cappuccino was her favourite type of coffee now.

© 2017 Vasilees Sybissyl

Author's Note

I wrote this one pretty long ago too, so again, point out as many mistakes as you can. Thanks for reading, guys! You really are the best!!

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Reviews

Rassoul

I like how you started this one, I really liked it.

Posted 7 Years Ago

6 Years Ago

Thank you so much, dude!

Layla Fairchild

This is so beautiful. It starts of really sad and I couldn't help but feel for the two girls. I'm just so happy there was a happy ending for the both of them. It's what they deserved. I can almost feel like Alex is watching down from heaven, smiling at his little sister.
I really loved the last paragraph. Espechially these lines:
"She had another family now, no matter how small. She had a reason to fight, day after day. She had Rosabelle. She had her reason."

It so beautiful, I could cry.