Salmonella

Chapter 18

🫧Eighteen🫧

Asslas shows up late to work for the first time, and I'm prepared to celebrate in his face when I realize he's injured again—so injured he can barely swim on his own. His mom and Istio swim on his either side, both helping him through the door.

"...Can't be doing all this physically demanding stuff," Ms. Índigo is reprimanding him as they swim in. "Twenty years and you still have that bad habit, thinking you can take on more than you can handle. You keep trying to manage a million jobs. It's not gonna work, Atlas. And, being lazy with your meds!" She flicks him across the forehead. "You're not just gonna magically get better! Listen, I'm going to go pick up your new MotoFloat from the pharmacy and I'll bring it tonight, okay?"

At that, Asslas grows scarlet, trying to shoo the old lady out the door. He has to use an electric floatie again? I remember the last time he did. He looked like a toddler still learning to swim properly; it was a funny sight. I want to laugh, but he looks so pitiful right now that I can't even.

"Yeah, yeah, okay." He pushes his mom out the door. "I will, love you, bye." She gives him one last hard look before leaving, door jangling behind her.

Istio helps Asslas to his seat behind the desk. "Take it easy today," he warns. "If you can't take it, just call me, okay? Don't push yourself."

Asslas waves him away. "I'm fine. Go to class."

Zig and Teal rush to Asslas' side to bombard him with questions; I listen absently for a second before I notice someone gesturing wildly from my peripheral vision and glance in their direction. When our eyes meet, Istio mouths "take care of him" while pointing at Asslas, then making an "ok" sign at me with a small smile. I give him a single nod, a silent promise, and he shoulders the door.

Later, we get a few customers and, noticing the lazy bitch won't help them check out, I quickly head behind the counter to assist them. In the process, I almost fall on stupid Asslas, whose useless tail is in my way. His hands punch out and he catches me by the waist before I can fall onto him.

"Sorry. You okay?" He winces from the effort of pulling his tail off the desk where he was resting it. I nod silently and quickly help him, knowing fully well we're both being nice to not make a scene in front of the customers. I avoid his eyes and start working the splash register.

I can feel those ugly eyes boring unnervingly into me the whole day, but at least he's not yelling at anyone today. Just sits there making the occasional cranky whine. When it's almost time to go, he tells everyone that he's taking a few weeks off to heal and that he leaves me in charge. I lean on my mop, fairly surprised. Sure, I do all the work around here while the others don't pull their weight, but I didn't think Asslas would actually notice. Maybe he's not such a bad manager after all? Is the injury really making him a better person?

As he's leaving, because Istio is outside waiting to pick him up, Asslas glances over his shoulder at me.

"You better not mess up, Bentik. Because I won't be the one paying if you ruin something—That comes out of your own paycheck."

"Ahaha," I laugh nervously, watching him leave.

Nope. Still the same Asslas.

𓆟 𓆟 𓆟

"Where's Gene?" Is the first thing I ask when I swim into the library to find Bloom alone at a table, looking up expectantly at me, arms folded. She doesn't answer.

"Ella, I want you to be honest with me... Is this you?" She holds up her phone to a Finstaclam post and I peek nervously at it.

Gen's pics of me in the lonlass fit.

Clammit, how'd she know it was me??? Does EVERYONE know it's me?? I thought it wasn't obvious with the emoji over my face—

"Knew it." Bloom leans back in her chair with a smug smirk of victory, then narrows her eyes at me. "Now explain."

Shakily, I lower myself into the hot seat. "Now hold on, I didn't say anything."

"Come on, dude. It's written all over your face. Spill. How'd you get so close to Genesis?"

"Sshhhh—!" I lean my whole body over the table, clamping her mouth shut. She lifts her eyebrows. "We just met by accident, okay? At Paints. She's friends with Asslas. We got off on the wrong fin but then we started hanging out after that. We're friends now, I guess. I don't know."

"Isn't Genesis, like, kinda weird?" comes a voice from behind me. I almost leap out of my seat, thinking I've been discovered. Thank cod it's just Gene, and this side of the library is pretty vacant today.

"What do you mean?" asks Bloom as he joins us at the table.

"Weird. Kooky. Believes crazy conspiracy theories that ferries and lonlasses are real and all that."

"Okay, stop. You sound like my sisters." I sigh. "And besides, that's just what the media says. Gen isn't really like that. I mean, sure, she believes in some... spiritual stuff, but she's not crazy."

"Yeah, at least she doesn't collect cadavers in her basement."

"I do not—" Gene hisses through his teeth. We laugh, and seem to digress from the conversation topic, much to my relief. He and Bloom start sharing study guides for upcoming finals and I wonder to myself. Is what Gene said true, that Gen really believes in lonlasses? Is that what she was too embarrassed to tell me?

"By the way," Bloom interrupts my thoughts—I didn't realize when her gaze had shifted from study notes back to me—"I'm glad you're branching out more and making new friends, don't get me wrong." I falter at her grave tone, bracing myself for the but. "I'm not gonna lie and say I'm not worried about you, though. Do I believe Genesis is psycho like people say, no. People make up shit online about you all the time, celebrity or not. But that's not to say I fully trust her." She sees my glare and shoots me a look. "What, don't tell me her being friends with Asslas isn't a red flag? Suddenly you're all chum-salmony with Asslas' friends?"

I want to argue, but she makes a point. The me before would steer clear of any and all associates of Asslas. I know I sure hated Gen's guts our first encounter. But she's different, I can see that now. She just took some getting to know. I just don't know how to explain all that convincingly to Bloom.

"Tread carefully, is all I'm saying." Bloom leans back in her seat, putting a swift end to that conversation. Unable to look her in the eye, I glance over at Gene, who is evidently listening in on this despite how focused he appears to be on highlighting notes. "It's easy to get carried away, being close to someone so loaded. It's hard to know what they're really like. Money masks the person."

My chest tightens. It's true, money masks the person. Masks their innocent interior tainted only by the tongues of snakes. If only I could get everyone to see that Gen isn't at all what they think.