The Parasite | Eminem

22

- Several Months Later -

"You need to savor, really taste it. No matter what it is. Because you need to know you really made some poor factory worker or chef's work worth it... before it's consumed in your gut." I tell her, opening my mouth and sticking my tongue out.
I press the cherry flavored gummy bear to it, retracting my tongue and closing my mouth.

She gives me a perplexed stare.
I'm the world's pseudo-intellectual philanthropist.
Well, I'd like to consider myself intellectual... but I'm partially pulling her leg here.

"You're fucking crazy" she giggles, watching me suck on the gummy bear until it's obstructed and swimming in my saliva.

My expression in blank.
She watches my cheeks pucker in.
She tosses a gummy bear into her own mouth, purposefully chewing it quickly and swallowing it.

I milk the moment for a few more seconds before properly swallowing.
"Done." I tell her, "your experience lasted 5 seconds, mine lasted a minute. Who's getting the best value for their money?"

"I thought it was about memorializing the minimum-wage worker" she raises an eyebrow, smirking at me.
It's meant to be a gotcha moment.
It's not really.

"It's about everything. When you stop to enjoy... really enjoy everything, watch how much better you'll start to feel over all." I try to convey how this small little detail in life is so important to me.
It's quite hard.
I drop myself back down on my bed.
She follows suit, lying down beside me.
"Not everything needs to be go, go, go. We don't need to plan every five minutes of our life so we can do as much as possible. Every once in a while you need to recognize that you aren't a slave..." I mumble, staring up at the blank ceiling.
My hand searches sightlessly for the bag of gummies, grabbing onto one with my fingers and placing it in my mouth.
Pineapple.
Nice.

"Plus, buying food makes me angry. I know it's essential or whatever, but it's immediately consumed." I grunt, gummy bear tucked between my teeth and cheek as I speak. "So yeah, I like to savor what I eat. Doesn't matter what it is"

"Food is the beginning of life and the conclusion of death" she tells me, smiling off into oblivion. "Including gummy bears I guess" cracking out a laugh, she sits back up, pulling up the fallen strap of her tank top.

"Entire ecosystems..." she mumbles under her breath. She brings a hand to her chin, fingers grazing over her lips. "I have a lot of respect for food..."

"This would be more impactful if we were eating strawberries or something" I chuckle, finally swallowing the remnants of the pineapple flavored bear.

"Yeah, I know" she laughs, looking back at my form. "So, how's your dude?" Questioning casually, she reminds me of Marshall.
Oh righty.

"Uhm... well, he's finalized his divorce... and I think he's getting a new place..." I tell her, giving a very over-simplified recap of what's happened the past few months.
I speak of him as if he's not even my boyfriend.
God, I'm bad at this.

"How's you and him?" She scoffs, not actually caring about what he's up to.

"Oh, yeah- good, good. He's coming over tonight actually..." I play with the little metal loop in my ear, looking up at her.

"Well, have fun" she smiles, blankly.
She doesn't care too much about relationship stuff, nor anyone else's.

I think I truly am the only one she spends time with.
She's been really working on developing her first book of essays.
About the simple human thrills.

"Thanks..." I send her back the same empty smile before sitting up.
I grab some of the bleached white printed pages, staring down at all the red sharpie marks.
Lines crossed out, grammar corrected, edits.