[Esha Mullur]

The sun was spitting fire, the sky was blue as ice. Even under the shade of the Capital Café’s canopy, Esha could still feel the sun’s rays. A cooked fish out of water. Luckily for her, she had an iced coffee to cool her down. What wasn’t cooling her down was the empty seat opposite to her. Ten minutes and counting, it has been vacant.

Esha looked rather unimpressed, faced glued to her phone as she doom scrolled across the internet. She asked her date if they were running late five minutes ago, still no response. This particular reason was why she hated Tinder. Everything about it lacked commitment or accountability. And if things continued the way they were, this would be the third time she’d been stood up and ghosted.

There was a running list of things she could have done with her day. She could have done schoolwork, she could have banked some hours at the hospital, she could have volunteered at the blood bank, felt useful. But no, she dedicated this specific block of time for a man that might not even exist for all she knew. There had to be a reason for all this, right? Was she not praying enough? Should she have given her bus fare to the homeless man peddling for money outside of her apartment for good karma?

And to think, she went through all the trouble of giving herself a full body shave, just so that she could wear a tank top out in public. No hint of her gross porcupine quills, just her smooth bare arms and a couple metal bangles for good measure. She didn’t go so far as to shave her head though, that part could easily be dealt with by a nice wide-brimmed sun hat. Add on the foundation and concealer that she applied to the sides of her neck and you wouldn’t be able to notice her skin flap-like gills. If you asked her, she did a bang-up job making herself look like a normal human being.

At that thought though, she sighed. All that didn’t really matter though, did it? She lowered her phone and placed the straw of her ice cold drink into her mouth, longingly staring across the café’s veranda.

[Deleted]

What a long week it had been, like seven Mondays back to back.

To say he was tired would have been an understatement. Zane’s entire body felt like he was carrying his own dead weight everywhere, like he was Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. From work to his research to school work, he was all around mentally fried, burnt out from the many hours he had been putting in with little sleep and rest. It…definitely wasn’t healthy. His family had even pointed this out a couple times that week when he had been on video chat with them. His sister had even compared him to a zombie with the dark circles under his eyes and how spaced out he had seemed. Suppose that was a fair comparison. He felt like the living dead, like a cheap horror movie extra without the makeup.

Today was no different. A sleepless night, a short nap in the morning, then class….And now he needed an IV of coffee after forcing himself to stay awake this long. “Ugh, I really just need to give myself a break.” He sighed to himself as he made his way towards the cafe, severely needing a pick-me-up. Capital Cafe was the closest thing along this route, so he had taken a detour to his home to get a large s’mores coffee. The largest they had. After some time of waiting, the young man took a long sip of his drink, tasting the first bit of coffee heaven that day. Ahhh, caffeine at last…

Stepping outside onto the veranda, Zane took a moment to allow his eyes to adjust back to the bright outside, taking another sip as he glanced around at the usual crowds. With the weather lately, it was no surprise that the place was packed, mostly full of college students, teenagers, and business people going about their day. Though one person in particular caught his attention. A young woman about his age, sitting alone and looking longingly across the veranda, piquing his curiosity somewhat. It was one thing to see someone alone here, but usually they had a book, a laptop, something to occupy their time, even their phone. But this woman seemed otherwise distracted, disappointed even if he was reading her expression right. Well, not like he was in a rush to do more of anything else right at this moment, so he made his way through the crowd, figuring it couldn’t hurt to approach the woman.

“Is everything alright miss?” Zane inquired towards Esha, shifting his pack closer to his body so as to not bump into people. “You seem distracted.”

Esha Mullur