Anastasia

12

"In life, you don't always have someone to go to, that's why you shouldn't depend on someone too much. You might expect too much that they're always there for you, when in fact you're not their world."

"So, what would you like to have, misu?" Zachary looked up from his menu and asked. Ana stared at the wondrous food choices to pick from, chewing her lip indecisively. She lifted her eyebrows questioningly.

"It's as if your lips are more favourable than the food we're about to order." He stated, and Ana blushed. A thought came to Zachary so suddenly he was taken aback; he was taking notice of Ana and her subtle actions. Embarrassed, he started to flush furiously. He cleared his throat, raising the menu to cover his cheeks. Oops.

"We-Well, I'd like a plate of steak. Medium rare. I would like to change the salad for potato wedges at the side, please." Perhaps with a glass of alcohol too, maybe? She thought, as she watched Zachary call for the waiter to take down their orders.

"Drinks?" He said, his pen poised and eager to jot the order down on his note pad. Zachary looked at Ana, and she crossed her fingers underneath the table, hoping that he wouldn't be able to read her crave for alcohol.

"Perhaps two cups of hot tea would be great." He raised an eyebrow to seek her approval and Ana nodded, almost too quickly. The waiter repeated their order once again and left the two alone after confirming their orders. Ana stared at her napkin lying on the table, waiting for him to strike a new topic to talk about. Honestly, she would rather telecommunicate with the napkin than any other human being.

If only non-living things were alive.

"So, how was school for you?" He tapped the table in a rhythmic pattern.

Not the school thing again. "It was cool. What did you mean just now? The last two...syllabus." She changed the subject.

"Oh, it means 'miss' in Japanese." He explained.

Ana made a surprised face. "You're bilingual?"

"Not really. I just began to pick up Japanese because I wanted to learn it. Besides, I'm heading off to Japan next year, for an internship."

"Wow, that's cool." She replied and nodded at the waiter who returned with two cups of hot brewed tea. She cupped it between her hands, feeling the warmth rush through her in an instant.

"Yeah, I'm going there to see how some lab experiments are being conducted and gain some skills while I'm there. It's not really a getaway vacation, sadly." He concluded. Ana nodded again, and looked everywhere except making too much eye contact with Zachary, for it made her self-conscious.

"So...tell me more about yourself." he said, and sipped his tea and immediately placed the cup down as gently as possible, fanning his tongue animatedly. "Geez. They want to make their customers' taste buds numb or something." he mumbled.

Ana chuckled. "Well, my full name is Anastasia Cowell, but people call me Ana because my name is apparently too long to pronounce. I'm nineteen this year. I am on scholarship and from a single parent family. I have a twelve year old brother and we don't - I don't communicate much with my family. Since you know...distance and stuff. My best friend is Danielle, the loud and bubbly girl you met? Yeah, that's her. I study Psychology. The end."

He blinked. "Well I prefer to say your full name, instead of your nickname."

"You're weird. You'd have to say more syllabuses and exercise your tongue even more."

"I can exercise my tongue for many other things as well." He winked, and Ana felt her cheeks heat up intensely. Shit I shouldn't have said that, what the hell was I thinking? Zachary looked away from her, staring at the table and trying his best not to grimace in front of her. He was internally screaming and cursing at himself for making such a careless comment.