Lila wasted no time in starting her so-called “list.”

  The very next day, as soon as classes ended, she grabbed Elias’s sleeve and pulled him along before he could protest.

  “We’re doing number one today,” she announced.

  Elias glanced at her notebook, which she had tucked under her arm. He remembered the first item on the list.

  “Go to a café and try something new,” he recited.

  “Exactly!” Lila grinned. “See? You’re already invested.”

  “I never agreed to this.”

  “You didn’t say no.”

  He supposed that was true. But then, he hadn’t realized he was supposed to say no. Most people, when faced with his indifference, took it as disinterest and left him alone.

  Lila, however, did not seem deterred by his lack of enthusiasm.

  She led him to a small café just a few blocks from the school. It was the kind of place Elias had never bothered to enter before—cozy, with warm lighting and the faint smell of coffee and pastries in the air. A few customers sat scattered throughout, chatting or reading books.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Lila walked right up to the counter and turned to him.

  “Pick something,” she said.

  Elias scanned the menu.

  Nothing stood out. Coffee, tea, pastries—it was all just food. There was no reason to prefer one thing over another.

  “Anything is fine,” he said.

  Lila huffed. “That’s not how this works. You have to pick.”

  He hesitated. “Why?”

  “Because that’s the point,” she said, as if it was obvious. “You can’t always just let things happen. You have to make choices.”

  Elias considered this.

  It wasn’t that he avoided making choices—he just didn’t see the need for preferences. Whether he ate one thing or another, it wouldn’t change anything.

  But Lila was watching him expectantly, waiting.

  So he pointed to the first thing he saw. “That one.”

  Lila followed his gaze. “A caramel macchiato?”

  He nodded.

  She smiled. “Good choice.”

  They found a seat by the window while they waited for their drinks. Lila sat across from him, resting her chin in her hands.

  “Do you always let other people decide things for you?” she asked.

  Elias thought about it. “If it doesn’t matter, then yes.”

  Lila hummed. “But what if it does matter?”

  “Then I decide.”

  She tapped her fingers against the table. “And how do you know when it matters?”

  That was a harder question.

  Elias opened his mouth to answer, but their drinks arrived, and the conversation was momentarily forgotten.

  Lila picked up her cup, taking a sip with a pleased sigh.

  Elias took a careful sip of his own. The taste was… sweet. The caramel was strong, mixing with the bitterness of the coffee in a way he hadn’t expected. It wasn’t bad.

  Lila watched him expectantly. “Well?”

  “It’s fine,” he said.

  She laughed. “That’s the most lukewarm review I’ve ever heard.”

  Elias stared at her. “What do you expect me to say?”

  “That it’s amazing! Or terrible! Or that it makes your soul feel like it’s ascending to another plane of existence!”

  “That seems excessive.”

  Lila grinned. “Maybe. But it’s fun.”

  Elias took another sip. It still tasted the same.

  Still, he supposed there was something… different about this moment.

  Not the coffee itself.

  But sitting here, with someone who wasn’t family, doing something just because.

  He didn’t understand why, but Lila’s smile made him think that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t such a pointless exercise after all.