One last cup of tea.

It was a Tuesday like any other Tuesday. It was cold and gray outside, Chris and Dylan were at school and Nolan stood in the kitchen, staring at the round kitchen table. There really was nothing special about it. There were salt an pepper shakers, a few napkins and a book, but in the middle stood the two things that held Nolan's attention. Two cups, one cylindrical and black and one a soft green with a wider top than bottom.

They had done that every day, washing them and then putting the cups on the table for the next day so that whomever of them got up first would make sure there was coffee or tea ready for the other. It was almost always Alex who got up first, almost always Alex who made the first cup of coffee.

But not since last month.

Nolan swallowed heavily and looked at the dust at the bottom of the cup. He wasn't sure how long he had been standing in the same spot, staring at the cup but the light in the room had changed. Nothing in particular made him do it but suddenly Nolan moved, grabbing the two cups and walking over to the counter, starting the coffeemaker and flicking on the kettle. Soon the sounds of boiling water filled the room and Nolan grabbed the tin can in which Alex had kept his tea. He stopped and looked inside it before lifting it to his nose and smelling it. He still didn't understand how Alex thought this crap better than coffee. Yet he poured some in a strainer and poured water over the brown little leaves.

The coffeemaker let our a burp and then grew quiet so Nolan filled his mug and poured a little milk into the tea before bringing them both over to the table. He placed the teacup in front of the seat opposite the window and then sat down in the seat facing that.

He sipped his coffee and looked at the empty seat which usually was occupied by the laughing redhead he had known for almost a decade and shuddered, feeling a wave of cold wash over him.

He was almost half way through his coffee when he dropped the cup, staring at the chair opposite him. For a second, maybe even half a second he had been sure that he had seen Alex sit there, smiling at him and holding his teacup.

Then it was gone and he was all alone in the kitchen, the apartment quiet except for the soft dripping of coffee falling from his spill on the table and to the floor and a small, whimpering breathing.

“...Please come back...”

Opposite Nolan, in the chair, sat Alex, looking at him sadly and reaching out, wanting to touch Nolan but his fingers just went right through. And Nolan couldn't see him.

”I won't leave.”

Half an hour later Nolan got up, washed the cups and put the coffee mug back on the table. He didn't put the green cup next to it.