It was her first time on a cruise, it had been her mother and stepfather's idea, neither of whom were right in the head. Anyone would think this was the perfect birthday present for a sixteen year old girl, but Cinthya was different. With her piercings, black clothes, lined eyes and messy hair she adorned her rebellious and stubborn personality. She was at a point in her life where she didn't want to allow herself to feel happy about anything, rather she thought that happiness was an exclusive good that she could dedicate to certain things she loved, for example, coffee.
It was the second day of the cruise and Cinthya had had enough. Her mother and stepfather seemed to have been swept up in the vacation frenzy, she had run into some old friends and now they were always drinking Martini's together and exchanging scandalous laughs that embarrassed Cinthya, who they no longer paid much attention to, as they knew that was her strange way of being.
Cinthya wandered around the cruise ship with a cup of strong coffee in her hand and headphones blaring listening to old Janis Joplin songs. After a lot of wandering around, she found a secluded little corner in one of the outside areas, she thought she had found paradise.
She had a while there enjoying her solitude when a colorful boy interrupted her, Cinthya wanted to ignore him but the boy insisted on talking to her and she could only see his lips moving to the rhythm of the music. Finally she turned off the player to listen to the young man.
-I see that you like to be alone, so I'm going to recommend you to stay here, because there is a madness going on inside. Such a racket may be inappropriate for a lonely girl - commented the boy with a tender voice and look.
The chaos caught Cinthya's attention.
-And what has generated such a commotion inside? - Cinthya asked.
-You won't believe it, but there is no coffee on the entire cruise ship. The fools in management thought it wouldn't be relevant, but it turned out to matter more to people than alcohol and cigarettes. Now people are running around looking for headache pills, but those are out of stock too - The guy was telling it like he was a news anchor.
Cinthya's face lit up, finally that boring trip was starting to make sense.
-By the way, my name is Simon - said the boy as he shook her hand.
Cinthya introduced herself as well and together they went inside to enjoy the commotion caused by the coffee. She found her mother crying in one of the corridors, coffee was the only thing that relieved her hangover and now she didn't even have a pill. Cinthya tried to hide her satisfaction, but seeing all those ridiculous women, without makeup, disheveled and with deep dark circles under their eyes; and the men wrinkled, disheveled and in a bad mood, caused her excitement.
A disturbing rumor began to spread that a woman had jumped into the water, which terrified Cinthya. In front of the two boys, a man smashed a bottle of champagne over the head of another, in the middle of a dispute over three coffee candies. Cinthya and Simon began to worry, as things were starting to get out of control. Cinthya looked for her stepfather, but he ignored her, he was so decomposed that she could not hear him.
There was still an hour to reach land, in that time anything could happen. Simon took Cinthya's hand, she felt as if an electric shock ran through her arm, she had never felt like that before. For a moment she thought they were like Jack and Rose in the silly movie Titanic, this disgusted her and at the same time moved her. They arrived at Simon's room, Cinthya was nervous, they were breathing heavily from the agitation.
Simon slowly approached her and whispered:
-I have something for you.
The boy took out a thermos from the closet, inside there was hot coffee, intense as Cinthya liked it. They sat on the floor to drink together while they spent the remaining time to reach land. Cinthya had never believed in love at first sight, but now she knew there was a more powerful love and it was that of the first cup of coffee. That boy could have shared the coffee with anyone, even drank it alone, but he had chosen her, her heart pounding in her chest with strong beats. At that moment Cinthya understood that the real chaos was inside her.
When the boat landed on a small island paradise in the Caribbean, people began to get off in desperation. Cinthya and Simon walked slowly among the frantic people, they were not anxious, they had been drinking hot coffee while everyone else suffered their abstinence. Cinthya pinked Simon's hand with hers as they walked, for the first time she felt it had been a great idea to take the cruise.
They got off the boat and Cinthya felt like she was floating, the feeling she was experiencing was disconnecting her from everything and even more so now that the coffee nightmare was over, people would drink coffee and the next few days would be wonderful in the company of her new friend. What Cinthya did not know was that all that would end very soon, when she discovered that the woman who had jumped off the boat hours before, was her mother.