Chapter Text
“No way!” said Kara. She took a strawberry from her fruit salad and threw it at Will. “Harry Potter is definitely better than Percy Jackson.”
“What? Rubbish!” said her boyfriend and took the strawberry from his lap. He laughed and threw it back at Kara. „ And stop throwing food at me, they’re gonna kick us out of here! “
Kara, a twenty-seven-year-old woman with stunning blue eyes and blond long hair was sitting alone by the window in one of her favorite cafes, watching as the people and cars on the street passed by. She founded the busy life in the big city somehow calming.
The cafe door opened slowly and the bell filled the entire place with a melodic ring. Mike, a twenty-six-year-old detective with big blue eyes and messy brown hair, came into the cafe with his nephew Aiden, a nine-year-old boy with dark blond hair and gray eyes.
They sat down at one of the more distant tables and grabbed a menu, trying to choose something for breakfast. Mike ordered black sugar-free coffee with a serving of pancakes, and Aiden ordered a hot chocolate with some waffles. Today Mike had a day off and wanted to spend some time with his nephew. With a job like his, it rarely happened for him to take breaks.
Aiden asked if the plans to go to the movies, and then go eat some ice cream were still up and his uncle nodded, taking a sip of his coffee. The boy couldn't hide his big smile.
They continued to eat their breakfast quietly. Mike was reading the newspaper he had bought on arrival, and Aiden began looking around. He had fun doing it when there was nothing else to do. He noticed a young couple laughing and taking pictures of each other. There was a group of friends who were debating and Aiden had a feeling one of the boys would soon take a glass of water and pour it on the head of another. To be honest, the boy wanted to see this happening.
There were a lot of different people in the café, but the boy's eyes stopped on a woman sitting alone by the window. She was holding a cup of tea in her hands, but it seemed she hadn't drunk a sip of it, although there was no more steam coming out of the tea. The mysterious woman was staring sadly out the window at the passing people.
"Hey, Uncle Mike?" said the boy.
"Yes," Mike said, putting the newspaper down.
"Do you see that woman by the window?" The man turned and threw a quick glance at the woman, then looked back at Aiden.
"Yes?"
"Why do you think she's sad?"
"I don’t know. She might be having a bad day. We all have bad days.” Mike guessed.
"Do you think we should talk to her? Ask her if she is okay?" the boy asked, but his question sounded more like a prompting.
"No, I think the woman wants to be left alone," the man replied.
He continued to read his newspaper and shortly afterward his phone rang. The man pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller. Mike stood up and ran outside to talk to the man, telling Aiden to stay there.
The boy waited until his uncle could no longer see him and slowly approached the mysterious woman. He loudly pulled a chair from one of the empty tables and climbed on it. Although all the noise and all the looks he had attracted, the woman still seem to not notice the boy approaching. She seemed deep in her thoughts and didn’t move her eyes from the cars and people passing by outside.
“You’re saying that as if that has never happened before” they both laughed.
“You’re such an annoying child sometimes, you know that, right?”
“Isn’t that one of the reasons why you love me anyway?” Kara smirked.
"Excuse me," Aiden began. That got Kara out of the trance she had fallen into. She turned and noticed that a little boy was seated next to her.
"Yeah? Can I help you with something? ” she smiled warmly.
"No. I was just wondering why you look so sad."
This question surprised Kara and left her speechless. She didn't know how to answer. She had no intention of telling her whole tragic story to a stranger, but she didn't want to be rude to a child either. The woman sighed.
"I'm just having a bad day, nothing serious, but thanks for the concern."
Aiden reached his pocket, pulled out a karamel candy and handed it to her.
"It should help. It always helped me. "
"Thank you!" the woman smiled.
Seconds after that behind the boy appeared a tall figure of a man.
“Aiden, I told you not to move,” said Mike.
"Sorry!"
"We’re gonna talk about this later” Mike turned to Kara. “I want to apologize to you"
"Oh, no problem. Honestly, a little company was actually pretty nice” the woman laughed and turned to Aiden. “So thank you, Aiden!”
“No problem…”
“It’s Kara” she smiled.
Suddenly, a woman about thirty years old with short brunette hair and brown eyes came into the café. She started looking around and when she caught a glimpse of Kara, she rushed over and gave her a tight hug. Mike and Aiden took their cue and returned to their table.
"Kara, I was so worried about you!" the brunette woman finally let go of the hug. "You can't just disappear like that without saying something or at least leaving a note. I’m your big sister, you should've at least tell me."
"I'm sorry, Alex…" Kara said, looking down at her cup of tea, trying hard not to meet Alex’s eyes. She could feel how worried her sister was and felt guilty.
"Look, Kara" Alex sat down in the chair Aiden had pulled earlier and put her hand on her little sister’s. "I understand it must be a hard time for you, but next time when you decide to go somewhere for a few days, let someone know."
Kara nodded silently, still looking down her drink. She didn’t know what to say. It was not the first time she had disappeared for a few days without telling anyone. It’s not like she wanted to worry her big sister or any of her friends and every time she did so, she felt so guilty, but she just couldn’t help it. Sometimes she just needed to be left alone.
After half an hour the two sisters decided it was time to go. Mike and his nephew had left a few minutes ago. Kara tried to stand up, but she felt a stabbing pain in her right leg and fell back on her chair. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, waiting for the pain to go away. When she felt that the pain was finally gone, she took a deep breath and told her sister she was ready to go. Alex offered her help, but Kara refused it. She said it was the sudden movement that caused the sharp pain and resurged Alex she was fine. The older woman went to pay the bill, while Kara tried standing up again. This time she did it a lot slower.
Alex gave Kara a lift to her loft. On the way home, they didn’t talk much. In fact, it was so awkwardly quiet in the car that Alex turned the radio on and they were forced to listen to awful songs from the 90s because that was the only thing her radio picked. Still, though, it was a lot better than silence.