Oops, My Boyfriend

第12章

When school started in early spring, cottonwood fluff filled the air so thickly that a deep breath would fill your nostrils with fuzz.Caleb was buried in his lab work again, seeing him became more difficult than catching a meeting with the department head. I once lamented to him, "Am I worth less to you than a bunch of cells?"It was during one of our rare lunch breaks together. He bit into a meatball from his plate and said, "You're much simpler than they are." Before I could react, he stuffed the remaining meatball into my mouth and patted my head affectionately, "Good girl."I couldn't cry, make a scene, or threaten him with dramatics; he was doing important work. If I acted petty and hindered him, could I ever face my future in-laws or my future children?So, I started living a solitary, shadow-like existence. The most vivid memory from that time is of me, sitting on my bed alone, eating instant noodles.I texted him: "I wish my face was a petri dish, so you'd look at me every day."Over an hour later, he replied: "Sweetie, silly kid."I was speechless.My roommates, pointing at my dejected expression, tsk-tsked, "Look at her, the picture of a forsaken wife."I got angry, stood on the bed, and challenged, "Whoever calls me a forsaken wife will have me to contend with!"Thus, I was restless and sleepless, and despite not exercising, I still lost three pounds.I looked down at my chest, hoping those three pounds hadn't come from there.My dorm mates were indignant, "How could we let you whittle away to double digits on your own?"That night, under a dark sky, they dragged me to a local eatery near our campus. They ordered chili and pulled pork sandwiches; I ordered chicken noodle soup served in a hearty bowl. Three women, one drama.They began competing over whose boyfriend was more considerate or more romantic. One boasted about her boyfriend's gentleness, another raved about how her boyfriend nursed her through a cold for three days, totally neglecting the plight of the "forsaken wife" in the corner.One elder sister declared, "Oh, you don't know, my XXX is the best, he stayed up with me all night watching stars..." Her tone so saccharine it sent a shiver down my spine and made the chicken in my soup seem less appealing.Before I could recover, she shyly added, "He even said he'd watch the moon with me next time."Are these words even spoken by real people?I choked, a chicken bone stuck in my throat.I didn't want to admit it was because of her gushing.The three women continued chattering, completely oblivious to my distress. I'd been choked by fish bones twice as a child; those were sharp pains. Now, I was experiencing the dull, suffocating pain of a chicken bone. It hurt not at one pinpoint but throughout my throat, even breathing was painful.I rushed to the sidewalk, hoping to eject it by vomiting. After a while, the bone remained stuck, but the women from the restaurant came out. "What's wrong? What's wrong?" they asked. I pointed to my throat, "It's stuck."One sister exclaimed, "Faint! You can choke on chicken?" Was this really the time to discuss this?The restaurant owner came out too, handing me a bottle of vinegar, "Drink this quickly if it's stuck." I chugged the vinegar but to no avail.I tried to vomit again, the bone stubbornly lodged in place, neither moving up nor down. As I continued, cursing, "Damn it, this chicken died but still so stubborn!" I grew more desperate, tears reddening my eyes.Still trying to vomit, I suddenly felt a hand patting my back. "Are you okay?" the person asked. I looked up, tears in my eyes, like an underground party operative finding their contact, and whimpered, "Caleb..."