Petal by Petal

01; dating

o n e ~ 

"Be honest with me. How was I?" 

I sigh. "You did well, Ava. You were perfect." 

Although to me, the word perfect never exist, but my sister, well, she's perfect. Everything about her is: the way her hair fits perfectly with the shape of her body, how her lips moved when she sang, how her voice fits the lonely hearts in this cafe. 

"Hi, you're Ava, right? The guitar girl?" An elder lady bumps in, holding my arm and looks at me, her eyes are shining with expectation. 

I shake my head, no. "No, I'm Mclean, Ava's my sister."

"Hi, I'm Ava," my sister chirps in, her voice is bright as always. 

"Oh, Ava!" The lady turns to steal her gaze by her shoulder. "My husband and I loved your voice. Your performance was breathtaking." 

I smile at my sister. She's been working at Hope Cafe for a couple of months, and everytime she performed, she'd get tons of positive feedbacks. Why do I know? Because I was always here, supporting my sister silently from the back of the crowd, by a table in the cornor. Sometimes my mom would stop by to get a drink then wait for Ava's turn to be on stage. My family loves this place.

"Thank you so much," Ava says as the lady lean in and hugs her, which my sister returns with the same smile she's given to other people ever since.

She turns back around to face me and sighs. I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

"You seem stressed." I point out.

"No, I don't. It's a sigh-of-relief. You know, a way of expressing that something is over." She says, reaching out to pull my cup of hot chocolate towards her and takes a sip. I nod silently. Now I wonder when can I really, just drop everything, and not having to worry about stuffs that's going to happen tomorrow, and be able to sign in relief. 

"Would you like something to eat? Ava asks now, her hands are holding the menu. When I shake my head, she adds, "It's on me this time. I promise." 

I choose to ignore her 'I promise' part. I want to trust her, I really do. It's just that, for some reasons, I can't. If that's even a logic. She's my sister, and there's no reason for me to not trust her, right? But no, I don't trust anybody. 

"It's okay, I'm not hungry," I tell her, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear. 

"Mclean, c'mon." My sister pouts, tucking my arm. "We rarely eat together."

"We ate together all the time, Ava, remember?" I say, rolling my eyes. 

This time, she smiles, and after a while, she moves her hand away from me to flip the pages on the menu. "Yeah, well, but I'm leaving for college this fall. . ."

I wince. I really hate it when she brings this up, it's like, a way of her to make me do when I don't want to. But yeah, she's starting her first year of college this fall and frankly, I don't like it. It's only summer now, and she'll be leaving in two months, which makes me treasure the time we both have now. 

"Alright," I say, giving up. "I'll have the same thing as yours."

"Great!" Ava grins. "I heard this dish is new the other day, so. . Excuse me, I'd like to have this," she tells the waiter, pointing at the menu. "Make that two. Oh, and a green tea frappe, please." 

I excuse myself from Ava after the waiter walked away, telling her that I'm heading to the bathroom when actually, I just want a break. I wash my face for a bit, wanting the cold water to remind me that no, it's not the best time to feel tired right now. After that, instead of turning right which leads me to the tables where Ava is seated at, I turn left, heading to the porch which is at the back of the cafe.