coffee or tea?

Bri still had that air around her, Elsie noted. Elsie muttered something barely audible about neatening herself up and left the living room. She grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom, glancing into the mirror to survey her own unpresentable image. The bathroom door was still open and the mirror reflected the living room, where Bri was still in view.

She had dyed her short, cropped hair to a slightly milder shade of red than it was before. It always used to be a shock to others, like she was balancing a ball of flame atop her head. To Elsie, the colour, although piercing, had a magnetic quality to it. Elsie loved to stare intently at Bri's hair whenever she moved around their kitchen, one of her very few unconquered territories. Bri would be moving around, forgetting where she had left the spatula, or nearly hitting her head against the cupboard door that she she had forgotten to close after taking out the plates, while always cursing vehemently. "I swear I was insane when we agreed I'd do breakfast on weekends!", Bri would say and Elsie would laugh, telling her it was too late for regrets. She often wondered if the flame would spread down all over her body, swallowing her up whole, knowing Bri would only burn to emerge more fiercely brilliant than before.

And here she was moving around again, bending down to shift stacks of rough papers and drawings aside and off the couch so she could sit down. As she sat, she took off her heels and rubbed her soles, placing her feet on the cold floor and ran her hand through her hair, a gesture so familiar it almost ached to watch.

Elsie turned and closed the door and ran the tap, splashing water over her face. Wake up Elsie, you're in the present, now, and nothing else matters.

"Cissy?"

Elsie did not answer. She reached for the toothpaste.

"Do you want coffee? I'm going to make some coffee."

Oh sure you're going to make some coffee. Elsie waited. One, two, thr-

"Cissy? Hey, where's the coffee powder?"

Elsie emerged from the bathroom. "There's no more coffee powder."

"You've finished it again? You really shouldn't drink so m-"

"Which is why I don't drink coffee anymore, Bri, and which in turn explains the lack of coffee powder." Elsie cut in and then glanced at the cupboard door half-opened. "In any case, it was never where you thought it was. It was in the other cupboard, the one on the upper right of the stove. And I drink tea now."

"Oh right." Bri paused for a moment. "But you love coffee, Cissy, I'd never believe you mananged to curb the addiction..."

"Well, in fact, I did. See, after you left, a lot of things changed, if you haven't noticed. I no longer mess up the living room with my drawings- well not that much," as Bri raised her eyebrows and Elsie hurried on: "I now do messy work at the balcony area only."

Bri fell silent, although she appeared on the verge of saying something.

"Also," Elsie added, "I prefer to be called Elsie."