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Chapter 4: Camaraderie

Camaraderie

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Zen thought she was weird but Lin was one level ahead of her. How could someone be so gullible? Zen shook her head and made her way down the stairs neither making eye contact with any students nor looking back. The campus was filled with the chatter of students and indistinctive noises of footsteps drumming the ground like an acoustic rendition of a song so common it could easily be dismissed by the ear.

Lunchtime was always a hive of activity. This was the time when all clowns, after completion of their respective classes, gathered together to discuss, what Zen would call, the vanity of life. This was the time when the walls had ears, when gossip flew a thousand miles in milliseconds, when the canteen would run out of her favourite food if she arrived a tad bit late. The last one was particularly terrifying for her. Food meant everything for a growing, thriving young lady at the peak of her youth and she was no exception to that rule.

Another loud growl from her stomach dampened her mood even more. She was so hungry she could devour a whole bear if served. Where were her two roommates, no, ex-roommates anyway?

Zen was never one to wait for others. She was never tied to so-called friends; she did everything on her own just as she had been doing for the past ten years. She took care of her shit and only helped others if they asked for it. She was, in fact, a solo leveller, the independent type of girl most females aspired to be, the type of girl guys feared the most. But why was it that she was so attached to her two ex-roommates now? Habit. Simply put, Madilyn and Nadia were like leeches, sucking her blood and energy dry like it was some form of guilty pleasure, and she got accustomed to it.

Hanging around with them became a habit that was hard to get rid of. In her first year of university, she was a loner; even now, she was. She never conversed with any of her classmates unless prompted, with the exception of Lin, never hung around with her classmates for some casual talk, and never went for lunch with them, not even with Lin. But ever since Nadia and Madilyn came into her life, their presence began to rub off on her and soon they became almost inseparable. And despite belonging to different departments, Madilyn in Computer Science and Nadia in Business Management, they got along very well, much better than she imagined they would.

Sitting alone and having lunch in the cafeteria felt peaceful then, but after the two psychos came and invaded her private place like unwanted guests, the peace was completely destroyed but something even better came to take its place: Warmth. The feeling was strange at first but she allowed herself to welcome it. Now, it felt like she was in a second home whenever they came to hang out with her.

Where the hell are those two? They had promised to meet at lunch, but they still didn't show up. Standing before the cafeteria, hands folded, one foot tapping the floor to show her impatience, she waited. The innocent passers-by struck by her unintentional deathly glare would lower their heads in fear and quicken their steps until they crossed a safe distance away from her. Hungry Zen meant angry Zen. Her friends were supposed to be perfectly aware of that yet they chose to be late. And, by the looks of it, there were plenty of people visiting the cafeteria at that hour and she was afraid all the food would run out if she waited a minute more.

If there was one thing that didn't appeal to introverts, it was making a phone call. And Zen dreaded the thought of doing it, but she had no choice. Pulling out her phone from her bag, she dialled Nadia.

"Where are you guys at? I thought we were having lunch as usual," Zen said over the phone, making no effort to hide her impatience. "...What? Basketball event? So, you're not coming?" She raised her voice a little too high, earning weird stares from people around her. "You want me to come there? Now? What about food?" The look on Zen's face was unreadable when she dropped the phone and put it back in her bag. Surprisingly, despite her mental instability, she headed in the direction of the basketball court without as much as uttering a groan of frustration.