I Should Switch to Decaf | Teen Ink

I Should Switch to Decaf MAG

July 18, 2009
By mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments

I want to like coffee for you.

I hate coffee. I hate the taste, I hate the smell, I hate the way people get artificially addicted to it, like it's a trend. People joke about needing coffee to function. It's stupid until you see them without coffee – then it's ugly.

But for you, I'm going to try. I've obviously tasted coffee, but I've never sat down and just drunk it. I'm going to. I'm going to brave the nasty smell and bitter taste and silly stereotypes. Just for you! I'm not sure why. I barely know you. In fact, I've never actually met you. We're meeting for coffee. I've never met someone for coffee. It's so normal and casual. It's so wild and strange. Everyone meets people for coffee. It's nothing extraordinary. Nobody meets people for a chai or an iced tea or something silly like that. Just coffee. So that's what I'm going to do for you. It's new. It's exciting.

Let's not start this off with illusions or lies. I'm not sure what to think of coffee. A lot of people like it, but a lot of people like smoking or heroin. It doesn't make those things healthy. Maybe a lot of people like you, too, but I'm not sure what to think of you either. Are you too bitter, too strong? Are you unhealthy? I want you to be healthy. I want you to be sweet, even if it's bittersweet. I want to like you. Maybe I do. Maybe it's just coffee I'm not sure of. Maybe it's me I'm not sure of. All my thoughts and feelings are mixed up with the past and the present and the smell of coffee in my mind. Please don't hate me.

In a way, this scares me, this meeting for coffee. In a way, coffee weirds me out. I don't want to be one of those people who needs tons of flavors and sweeteners with their coffee. I don't want people to look at me with my coffee and laugh and say, “You want a little coffee with your cream and sugar?” Of course there should be some sweetness. Life needs flavor. It needs cream and sugar. But the point of drinking coffee is to drink coffee. It shouldn't be all hidden, like you're ashamed. If you like coffee and you want to drink it, then go for it! Don't water it down. I don't want to feel like a wuss, like a coffee fraud. I don't want people to look at me and think, Oh, look at that stupid girl drinking coffee just to impress that boy. How pathetic. That's just a sad, ridiculous situation to be caught in.

I'm an honest person. So that's why I'm telling you from the start that I'm not sure about coffee. That's why I'm telling you I'll try it just for you. That's why I want to like coffee for you. So, here we go.

I look down at my lap in the car. I check my reflection in the side mirror. My hair looks decent, but is it good enough? Should I really be wearing this outfit? Is there time to turn around? No. It'll have to do. Funny how much better it looked in the safety of my room, away from this pressure, the pressure of going out for coffee. I'm nervous. I shift my feet and rhythmically move my legs, as I have a habit of doing.

I wonder for a moment if you have nervous habits, or any habits. Do you talk with your hands like me? Are you as clumsy as me? Oh, God, I'm going to spill the coffee on myself. I can see it coming. I take a deep breath so I won't forget. Sometimes I panic and forget to breathe. Honestly.

I can almost smell the coffee already. I wonder if you'll like me, if you'll be impressed by me. Will you find me boring? I think about the way my grammar mysteriously becomes awful when I talk to you, and I wonder if I'm going to embarrass myself.

Now I'm scared to talk at all. Will I be too bitter, too strong? And there's definitely no time to turn back? No, it's just coffee. What if I hate it? Will you hate me? It's just coffee. Hot, steaming, bittersweet coffee. There's no turning back.

I arrive, barely on time, where I promised to meet you. To meet you for coffee. I get out of the car with a sense of growing up, of being incredibly old and yet monumentally young. I'm a silly girl, meeting a boy for coffee for the first time. If I don't like it, I could be stranded here, in Vineland, New Jersey.

I go inside, trying to put some confidence in my step. I'm telling my legs, “Be strong. Don't be clumsy or shy. Be strong. Strong like coffee!”

I see you, I recognize you from your photos, and you recognize me. You know it's me. You come over to say hi. You're smiling, my heart's racing and I'm nervous, I'm scared, oh, I'm so alone, but, God, it's so good to see you smile, to finally see you at all, to hear your voice, to meet you for coffee. I smile back and I know it's going to be all right.

We're two writers, two nervous, silly, like-minded people, pushing our way through a common ritual, meeting for coffee. We shake by with all the wrong verbs and stutter in and out of vibrant, dramatic adjectives. We're putting color in black and white and we're adding flavor with sideways glances. We're accustomed to this, to the frightening mix of hormones, caffeine, and words. We're just young and the same. It's just another conversation – Hi, how are you? Good, you? Good. Wonderful. Cream and sugar. We look around us like tourists, like we've never seen a coffee shop. I decide to be natural and confident. I decide to be strong.

So I look you in the eyes, even though I never look people in the eyes, even though I have self-esteem problems and I'm nervous and I think you'll hate me, even though I wear glasses and I'm terribly self-conscious. I look right into your eyes and say the line I've been writing, rearranging, editing, and rehearsing in my mind the whole way here.

“Let's get some coffee.”



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This article has 199 comments.


on Apr. 1 2010 at 8:21 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thanks! and i definitely will check it out

on Apr. 1 2010 at 8:20 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thank you :)

on Apr. 1 2010 at 8:20 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thanks :D i'm glad you could relate to it so much

hepburn said...
on Mar. 30 2010 at 4:25 am
hepburn, Assd, Other
0 articles 0 photos 91 comments

Favorite Quote:
sdf

nice!! i like the way the speaker's thoughts come across the page... its nicely written :)

on Mar. 28 2010 at 3:49 am
Rosalie PLATINUM, Maryville, Tennessee
48 articles 0 photos 100 comments

Favorite Quote:
-you have many to learn but nothing to lose.
-the hardest thing to do is watch the one you love, love someone else...
-good girls are bad girls that dont get caught.

this is amazing.

me too, i hate coffee...

 


on Mar. 24 2010 at 11:03 pm
liltrinhle SILVER, Raleigh, North Carolina
8 articles 6 photos 37 comments
Great job! I really like the details of the speaker's thoughts and how you phrase things.

check out my stuff!

on Mar. 24 2010 at 9:36 pm
MyFairyTaleEnding SILVER, Villa Ridge, Missouri
7 articles 0 photos 86 comments
AHHHHHHHHHMAYYYYYYYYZINNNNNNG!!!!!!!!!! i ABSOLUTLY ADORE THIS! It reminds me so much of myself. Except, this was baseball for the guy I adore. I am a total girly-girl and I cannot STAND baseball, like the girl with coffee. But, when I actually tried it, I could stand it and started liking it. Just for him. :)

on Mar. 24 2010 at 3:09 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thanks!

and to each their own :)

toflyaway said...
on Mar. 18 2010 at 1:51 am
toflyaway, Melbourne, Other
0 articles 0 photos 85 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You're Bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are" -Alice In Wonderland (2010)

I love this. I love coffee too ;)

on Mar. 13 2010 at 8:14 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thank you!

on Mar. 13 2010 at 8:13 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thanks :) i wasn't sure about the ending

on Mar. 11 2010 at 5:26 pm
Just.A.Dream SILVER, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
7 articles 0 photos 430 comments

Favorite Quote:
Part of the J7X team. :)

I can definitely relate to the coffee part, YUCK!

But I like how you made it so that it relates to someone you like, without straight out saying so. :)

on Mar. 10 2010 at 3:15 pm
Psychic_Sky13 GOLD, York, Pennsylvania
11 articles 0 photos 19 comments
Excelent! I love your style!!! Fantastic ending!!!

on Mar. 9 2010 at 4:13 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thank you :)

on Mar. 9 2010 at 4:12 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thank you very much

on Mar. 9 2010 at 4:12 pm
mercantile BRONZE, New Gloucester, Maine
3 articles 0 photos 47 comments
thank you :)

on Mar. 9 2010 at 4:01 pm
Acalleq PLATINUM, Togiak, Alaska
22 articles 5 photos 146 comments

Favorite Quote:
you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have

two thumbs up!

on Mar. 8 2010 at 8:35 pm
Green8a8 SILVER, NY, New York
8 articles 1 photo 161 comments

Favorite Quote:
im the author of my life, unfortunately im writing in pen therefore i can't erase nothing about it.-by some crazy friend of mine

this is seriously clever

i like how you use coffee to describe your relationship, its fun creative and smart...love it absolutely love it

on Mar. 8 2010 at 8:30 pm
ChristianCowgirlCC SILVER, Wellington, Kansas
6 articles 2 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
Galatians 1:10
"Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Aw, what a clever piece of work. I love it. (:

on Mar. 6 2010 at 10:03 am
Dutchess BRONZE, Leland, North Carolina
1 article 0 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
The least deviation from truth is multiplied later a thousand fold.
~Alexander Hamilton

LOL! i totally agree. i would appreciate it if u went and looked up my story LYING AS A LIFESTYLE and commented on it. it is realistic fiction. u might have to search for it a little bit though. but i would really like some feedback from a peer writer.