Personal Narrative: The List

The air hung around them, tensed and quiet. The fragility of her emotion was threatening to shatter. It is as if that time stood still for her. She fingered the brim of her notebook, nervously and took notice of the cup of coffee on her side. Controlling the sudden urged to drown the caffeine all at once; she carefully picked the cup and warily sipped its content. It had long been cold, and her tongue appreciated that fact.

She took a deep breath as the man in front of her waited for her answer. Glancing at him, she did notice his impatience at her winding down. Once again, he reverted back to his normal self, the bored and laid back personality that he had carried for the longest time. He sat down easily in the chair waiting for her to speak.

It had been more than a year since she had last seen him and for her nothing about him changed. His eyes still held a big mystery that only a few people she knew had the privileged to decipher. She was proud of the fact that she saw herself as one of those people. His demeanor remained lazy and bored and nothing about him emit that he was genius inside.

Only a few people can read him, and she was one of them.

She hoped he can read her well, too.

Ino put down the cup, now empty of its caffeine content. The coffee shop now was dimly lighted, adding to it the few lights outside that peek through the shop's windows. His frame was just a shadow and as everything that surrounds him. And that surrounds her.

Thankfully, the owner of the cafe has not kicked them out yet. She still had to think about how to tell him.

Her mind hasn't figured out yet if she will tell him everything, or how she can tell him everything. Maybe, calling and meeting him this soon has been a bad idea. He was myriad of ...

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...he saw it again her reflection against him. She looks defeated and scared.

Shikamaru shook his head. He gazed at her deeply, his eyes piercing through her veil. It was frustrations the same emotion that she felt, it was being mirrored by him once more.

"The list was bullshit, Ino."

"It's the only thing I have now.

"Do you think this is all a fucking game?" He snapped at her and she backed off.

"No..."

"You are going back to the hospital." His tone was hard and final.

She looked up at his hard tone. "I was asking for your help on my list not an advice for my fucking dwindling life." She finally yelled at him, her voice reverberating in the now empty cafe.

Shikamaru stood still for a moment before he began to walk away.

"Then find someone else." He replied coldly.

Ino leaned her back and head in her chair, her tears flowing.

It finally started to sink in.