Old man tries to keep up with young Alex notebooking coffee apprentice morning routine exercise Bialetti mentor

His 
apprentice
excited him, but made him feel a little bit uncomfortable.

Each morning he'd go downstairs to see young Alex already eager to tackle the day. He wasn't sure what his apprentice's
morning routine
consisted of but he was sure that there was some intense 
exercise
there and some 
notebooking
.

And finally young Alex would make 
coffee
for the both of them and he'd time it perfectly so that he'd walking down the stairs just as the 
Bialetti
was coming to a boil on the stovetop.

At first he felt proud and had no insecurities about getting dressed and coming downstairs to a coffee made by his apprentice. But over time he began seeing the energy, the vigor of this young Alex and it made him uncomfortable. He began feeling self conscious about sleeping so much. He even began using an alarm to try to wake up earlier so that he wouldn't look like a sloth next to his apprentice.

Over two weeks of artificially waking up earlier than his body asked him to, he became irritable and when he noticed that he was becoming more irritable he became irate. In his mind at least. In his behavior he tried to act calm. His apprentice was watching after all. He had to act like the good 
mentor
 that young Alex thought he was.

Flash Fiction Practice