An Itsy Bitsy Strawberry

A Meal

Strawberry shuffled over to the closet, holding her bag containing a singular other outfit. Rocco didn't seem to have taken her wardrobe.

An old cape, a pair of sweatpants, and a blank, white shirt were hung into the group closet. Upon shuffling even further through her back, she found an old plush of hers.

Her eyes widened at the sight. Rocco had not only seen this plush, but had bothered to pack it in the bag of leftover bullshit. She awkwardly tossed the stuffed toy onto her bed, throwing the bag along with it.

At last, Strawberry was ready. She opened the dorm door and stumbled out into a hallway. With every step, she grew more and more anxious. She recalled her very first time in the cafeteria, with all the eyes on her. Once she reached the doorway between the hall and the cafeteria, she paused.

One deep breath. Two deep breaths. Three deep breaths, and she set off through the door.

The cafeteria was rather full, with at least 100 people inside. He was hard to spot, but Strawberry could make out the figure of Rocco. She wandered over to him and sat down next to him.

"Oh, hey Strawhead!" he called out, his mouth full of food.

"Hey, Rocco," she answered.

"You're not gonna get food?"

"Nah."

"But you gotta eat something! Here, take this apple." He handed her a crisp, red apple. The appearance of it was almost aesthetic.

Well, now she couldn't say no. What would she do after? Suffer the consequences? So, she took the apple from Rocco's hand and bit into it.

It was an unfamiliar taste, yet so familiar at the same time. The juicy crunch of the apple mixed with the semi-sweet taste made her crave more. She kept biting into it over and over and over, refusing to stop.

Her persistence made Rocco laugh until she reached the core of the apple. "You might not wanna eat that, Strawhead," he said, his joyous manner dying down.

"Why?" she asked, core halfway in her mouth.

"The seeds have stuff that can make cyanide in them-" he began. However, the whole core was gone. "Oh, wow, okay."

"Oh well," Strawberry sighed, resting her arms onto the table. 

"So, is there anything you wanna do today other than sit in bed? You wasted the entirety of yesterday playing that game."

"I mean, if you don't ditch me, we could do something together. After all, I don't know many people around here."

"You want Damien to join too or nah?"

"He agreed to tour me around, no?"

"Alright, I'll get him to join us."

It was then that Strawberry realized that they were sitting by themselves. "And he isn't here because why?"

"Oh, he's sitting with another group of his friends. You could not believe how popular he is with the ladies here," he answered, smug as he always was when it came to Damien and women.

As Rocco dug a fork into a waffle doused generously in syrup, Strawberry mumbled, "You're real close with Damien, huh?"

"Yeah, I am. He was there for me once I'd lost all my friends," Rocco replied, shoving a chunk of the syrupy, sweet goodness into his mouth.

"Your other friends. Who were they and why'd they go?"

Rocco swallowed his waffle. "Strawberry, you, uh, do realize that it's a bit inappropriate to ask such a question, r-right?" His voice was a tad bit shaky.

"Sorry, I was just curious," she muttered, turning her whole body to face the table.

Noticing her gestures, he consoled with, "Hey, it's okay to be curious, Strawhead. You just need to know when it's okay to ask and when it's not. We can talk about the subject of alternate friends at a future time."

Strawberry admired his ability to remain calm despite her intrusiveness. "If you say so," she sighed.

After a few minutes of silence between the two, Rocco got up with his emptied tray. "You coming?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Strawberry started, snapping back to reality. She stood up and followed Rocco like a dog as he trashed his tray and walked back to the dorm.