Ruins of Autumn

9• You're Dangerous, Brunilda.

    "Pilafi doesn't carry water anymore with you."

    Anila's loud voice didn't even reach her cousin's ears, let alone wake her up.

    "Pilafi doesn't carry water anymore with you, I tell you!"

    Brunilda woke up, confused by the surrounding noises, and before she realised what was going on, Anila jumped on the bed, grabbed her by both arms, and started shaking her from side to side.

    "How come there are no righteous people in this world to leave me alone? Oh, I'm sorry, myself." Brunilda weighed her head heavily on the pillow and closed her eyes.

    Anila looked at her with a smile, allowing the feeling of being grateful that she had a friend who offered comfort with her presence, her wise way of speaking, and her understanding. She felt like she wasn't doing enough for Brunilda, and maybe Anila was the one who wasn't a good friend, because she couldn't convince her cousin that she didn't have to doubt her worth for a second because Anila saw nothing but a masterpiece in her, and if Brunilda saw herself like that and allowed others, they would also show that they saw her as such.

    "Look at how you sleep, and meanwhile, I am full of bombs here. You didn't even wait for me yesterday," Anila remarked, surprised, and then she looked excited at what she was going to say. "Bottle in the air?"

    "I fell asleep," said Brunilda about last night with her eyes closed. "Throw it."

    "Blerimi and I are dating together!" Anila spoke in a blithe voice and watched her cousin open her eyes, not at all jovial about that news.

    'No!' was the first word that unconsciously came to Brunilda's mind as she looked at her friend.

    She didn't resist the feeling that Anila was wrong, but she couldn't say anything because she was afraid that Anila would be angry with her. She would argue that Brunilda was only creating negativity and judging someone, whom she didn't know enough to give a true opinion about, but only based on some feelings she claimed to have, but maybe that was because she guessed that others felt the same from her presence, and Brunilda was getting the energy that she was giving.

    "Congratulations," she smiled lightly and turned to the right to sleep a little more.

    "You will tell me 'Congratulations,' when we go out tonight."

    Brunilda sighed deeply in annoyance.

    "I don't want to go out," she said what she felt, probably for the first time since she remembered herself, and surprisingly for her, she wasn't scared that she would be judged but powerful enough to insist on self-defence and do as she wanted.

    "Ida, in life, it is not said that we will always do what we want."

    "Because there are people in life who think that the world has to live as if it belongs to them, and these people are very arrogant," Brunilda uttered bitterly.

    "Listen, yesterday I read the fragment of a mafia book that a girl had posted on her story on Instagram, and it immediately reminded me of you."

    "Mafia?" Brunilda saw her, mystified.

    "Let's skip this part. Listen to what it was about. I'm sure it will help you," Anila insisted. "The character in that fragment had all those problems and was very anxious about how they were going to solve them. One time they listed them all one by one, and in the end they said, 'I don't care how much fear these challenges cause. I'll find a way to work them out, and that's it. It's nothing to be exaggerated.' You do the same, too. Ignore the fear of introversion that you have, as if it were an arrogant person, trying to get your attention, and you're not impressed at all by them."