Chapter 6.5: Friends

As we marched to the cafeteria -both starving- I spotted that we were getting a few weird stares. Or maybe it’s better to say she was. However, that was the least of my concerns. I was praying that the cafeteria would pull through, if not ever then just this once.

Low and behold, my prayers seemed to have been heard.

My eyes sparkled as I saw this morning’s menu. Today was french toast sticks, sided by a strawberry cup and washed down with apple juice.

The inner tears rained from my happiness. I could even see that Emily was joyful as well.

We arrived pretty early, so the line wasn’t very full.

In no time at all, we both got our breakfast plates and headed to an empty table close by.

Again we were being pierced by the gaze of the randoms.

Almost immediately after we sat, Emily started demolishing her french toasts.

I watched as she drenched them one by one in syrup, and absorbed them down, with no regard for the crumps being left on her face.

I myself had half a mind to do the same, but clearly I was the more “restraint” one among us.

“Sooo…Why did you wanna eat together?”, I asked.

“...”

She continued to chomp down on her sticks, and was just now moving to the strawberry cup.

I’m more glad that she didn’t try talking with her mouthful, but she wasn’t even trying to slow down.

Seeing that she was clearly “busy” I quietly waited for her to finish while I also ate my french toasts.

By the time I finished my toast, she had already cleared her plate and was wiping her mouth with a napkin.

“S-Sorry about that”, she muttered.

For someone so shy, she sure does express herself quite freely.

“I just wanted someone to sit with…”, she went on.

I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for her. Her expression was just so sorrowful as she said that.

I scrambled for an answer to quell her sadness. The only answer I could come to was apologizing.

“Oh-Ahh…Sorry for asking that.”

“...You don't have to apologize”, she said as she chuckled at me. “Y’know your pretty weird.”

Her chuckle slowly grew in decibel.

But more than her laughing, I was more embarrassed that I got called “weird” by this girl of all people.

“Glad to know you're more comfortable”, I said in an irritated tone.

“Yeah, it's the strangest thing. It's like I can talk to you about anything.”

Without a care in the world, we continued our leisurely chit chat, honestly just talking about useless things. It was a great time, to a third party we almost looked like reuniting pals.

But as anyone can tell you, all good things must come to an end.

Within the span of only half a day, the apocalypse itself knocked on the world's doors. And in a similar way to how this all started… Everything ended.

The entire planet -along with all who still inhabited it- were wiped off the face of the universe.