Incipient

Chapter 4 - "The Simpsons is a movie?"

I find a change of clothes on my bed when I return to my room, just a simple pair of Primark leggings and a T-shirt, I tug them on, ignoring the gnawing anxiety in my stomach. When changing I peel my bandage off slightly and see that the wound doesn't look as deep as it did before and all the signs of infection have disappeared. Rylyn has moved since I last saw her, assuming that she's moved downstairs I limp down to the ground floor and vaguely hear laughter coming from the kitchen. When I limp into the kitchen I find Avex, Essri and Rylyn sat around the marble worktop drinking cups of coffee. Avex has an empty bowl of cereal and a half eaten packet of chicken slices in front of him with a cat sat on the floor next to him, begging for food. I then realise that it's Rylyn's cat. Senka. She managed to bring her ridiculously fat grey cat.

"How did Senka get here? I thought she..." I thought she died in the fire. Everyone's gazes land on me.

"G'mornin', Trula." Avex nods at me, putting on an Australian accent.

"Morning." I acknowledge, "How did the cat get here?"

"She followed us." Rylyn shrugs, nursing her coffee. "She never really leaves me, I think she has co-dependency issues."

"Lovely." I feel my stomach start to grumble, "What can I get to eat around here?"

"Pancakes!" Avex suggests a little too enthusiastically - even for him - which makes me think that he's already raided Helena's sugar stash.

"I made some pasta earlier, you can have some of that if you want." Rylyn suggests, which surprises me but she has learned to cook recently.

"I thought it was morning, I don't want pasta for breakfast." I take a seat at the marble surface, feeling my heavy eyes still drooping with sleep.

"It's only eight PM. Avex was just trying to confuse you." Rylyn explains, already standing up to dish me some pasta.

"Thanks." I say when she places a large bowl of macaroni cheese in front of me, I pull my face since it's the only type of pasta that I hate but eat it since I'm too hungry to be that bothered.

I manage to get through about half of it before my stomach feels like it's about to burst then Avex swoops in and starts to eat it with a wooden spoon. I feel disgusted with each time he spoons it into his mouth. He stares it down as he brings it to his mouth and breathes heavily like a wild beast approaching its prey. I think I'm on the verge of throwing up as he picks up slices of bread and is about to put some of the macaroni on the buttered slices when Rylyn whacks him with her hand, glaring at him with revulsion.

"What?" His voice is muffled through trying to speak with a mouthful of pasta in his mouth.

"Cover your mouth when you're eating, Avex." Rylyn retreats away from the pasta flying from his mouth. "Better yet, stop eating. You're making me feel sick - actually you're making us all feel sick - Trula's turning green."

"But it tastes so good!" He responds between a cry and a moan.

"If you think a bit of cheese and pasta are that amazing I'd hate to see how you reacted to a seasoned chicken breast." Rylyn shakes her head and proceeds to take all the food off the table except for mine, much to Avex's protest.

Even though I'm full I carry on eating but give up after spending most of that time defending it from Avex's fork. I finally hand it to him and I can practically see him squealing as he digs into it. When he finally finishes his (my) bowl of pasta he reclines in his chair, his stomach looking rounded like he has kwashiorkor. He probably needs to change from a medium sized shirt into a large one.

Avex is just about to fall asleep again from the exhaustion of eating so much food when we hear a grunt from the stairs and Avex is straight out of his seat and running to Cree is struggling to climb down the stairs. All three of us roll our eyes as Avex strolls in with Cree in his arms who doesn't look entirely pleased about being carried. Although, I'm still secretly worried about him. Worried about his health and about what I said to him earlier.