Alive // bxb

Chapter 3

Liam's POV:

"I hate History," Sage declared as he almost threw his tray down on the lunch table in frustration that was easy to see in his green eyes.

"Agreed," Juliana sighed, crossing her arms.

"Who decided that history would be the hardest subject to pass?" I wondered, absentmindedly taking a bite of food as I thought on the issue. "Remember back when history was actually fun?"

"Back when I actually understood half the things we were talking about," Julie sighed again. "It used to be my favorite subject. Now I just hate everything."

"How melodramatic."

"Shut up, you know it's true."

"I mean... yeah," Sage agreed, laughing a bit.

"Honestly, we ought to start a petition," I continued, leading a spoonful of applesauce (who decided it was a good idea to feed high schoolers that?) to my mouth as I watched, out of the corner of my eye, Adriel and Milo trying to find a place to sit as the tables filled up. Julie gave me a look and I responded with a look of my own that said, just let me finish my bite of applesauce.

Yet apparently I didn't need to wait for that, because-

"Hello. May we sit here?"

I choked on my applesauce and had to press a hand to my mouth as I coughed. Sage started to laugh, so I fixed him with an unamused stare as Julie assured Adriel that it was perfectly fine for them to sit there. Finally I managed to swallow the apple remnants and offered the two now sitting on the opposite side of the table a smile.

Milo surprised me by being the first to speak. "Are you okay?"

I nodded. "Applesauce is deadly."

Unlike what I'd hoped for, no friendly banter ensued. Instead, Milo and Adriel began to eat in silence, so I gave up and continued eating my applesauce, smiling a bit at the notion that it was some sort of assassin, like the stories Paisley loved to create with Caleb, Sage's brother.

A few moments later, Sage asked, "Is applesauce a soup?"

"What?" I asked, surprised. "No- why would you ask that?"

"I don't know, it just seemed like something that might be a thing."

"I don't think we can even debate that," I said, "it's not like cereal. There's just no reason why it would be considered a soup."

"Okay. Is cereal a soup, then?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't know why, it's just not."

"Hold on, I'll look it up," Juliana interjected, already tapping on her cell phone. "It says here that a soup is 'a liquid food prepared by boiling'. So unless you drink your cereal warm, I don't think it's a soup."

"But what if I did drink it warm?"

"Why would you even try that?" Julie sounded disgusted, a laugh shadowing her tone.

"I don't know, now I'm curious!"

"Hold on, did you just say 'drink your cereal'?" I asked, a bit horrified.

"Well, you don't really eat cereal."

"Yes you do! You don't just put it in a glass and drink it, that's disgusting."

"I am so confused," Sage said, looking with wide eyes between my girlfriend and I. "Is cereal a drink or a food?"

"The cereal itself is a food, but the milk on the cereal is a beverage."