The Tales of FUSS

Regret Is In A Bowl Of Green Soup: Damien

   It was green, slimy, and bubbling (not in a hot boiling way, but in an oddly unnatural small eruptions that screamed 'ewww'). I put my hand in front of my lips, as I stared hard; very hard; at that last bowl of food I needed to consume if I wanted to leave the cafeteria. Flo already made his point absolutely clear that he would definitely force feed us till we finished our meal; Eddie protested and was spoon fed by Flo himself.

   I shivered at the thought. I already chugged the whole mug of hot cocoa drink and ate that one piece of freshly baked bread, which I'm starting to regret now; I should eat this thing with bread or cocoa drink to cleanse the aftertaste. I glanced at Orr who sat across the table me. He, too, haven't touched his bowl of abomination. I waited for him to finish his bread and drink his cocoa till it was clean, and looked at him carefully as he drew his bowl closer to him. He noticed my attention on him and said while cupping his cheeks with his hands, shyly,

   "Why are you staring at me like that..."

   "Eww! No! I was just... Are you seriously eating that?" I asked him. This is a matter of life and death.

   Orr points at the green porridge, "This? It's spinach."

   "Despite that, are you seriously eating it? I mean," I leaned closer and whispered at him, "What if it's not spinach? I mean look at it, it's bubbling."

   Orr chuckles, "Dude, if you went to the sea, most of the things in there produce bubbles. Especially the hot spring section. Wooh, the mermaids love to play there. Hey, you should come over sometime."

   Without a shred of lingering thought, he took a spoonful of the porridge and insert it inside his mouth, slowly swallowing it.

   I froze at the sight and immediately, barfed all the cocoa drink and bits of bread that I had eaten. Before I knew it, as I fainted and fell backwards onto the floor, and I heard Orr yelling my name and heavy footsteps coming my way. I could hear the angels. Finally, I thought to myself, an end to all this. But life is cruel.

   Somebody splashed a bucketful of water on me and I immediately rose up from the almost-dead.

   "How are you doing?" asked Flo who was kneeling at my side.

   Orr was on my other side, and in front of me holding an empty tin bucket was her. The beautiful strawberry blonde girl (that I'm secretly in love with and who's name I still don't know), said to me with the sweetest smile on her face, "Feeling better?"

   I just nodded. Flo and Orr helped me stand up and then Flo clapped his hands to make all listen to what he was about to announce. Somehow Eddie clapped along with a smug look plastered on his face, but then a guy next to him asked Eddie something. Eddie replied, the guy nodded and immediately he; Eddie; stopped his actions, that apparently, everyone ignored. Bur it turns out that I wasn’t the only person looking at Eddie. The cherry blonde girl was looking at the embarrassing Eddie and I heard her mutter, ‘Poor guy.’

   "Okay, listen. Now, since you all have done the tour yesterday, you should know by now where is where around here. Your first class will be at the West Wing, Ground Floor, with..." Flo scratched his head while squinting at a small, blue, piece of paper.

   "I don't know... So many names are on here. Let's make the instructor a surprise shall we? You guys can go to the class now, together," he gave the paper to another guy; whose name I don’t know.

   "How are you doing?” asked the girl as she crept behind me; the strawberry blonde girl. She gave me a bright smile and touched my shoulder.

   “Good… better now,” I replied. As she continued smiling, her warm caress left me and she sped up to the front and went to talk to… Eddie. I think I could hear my heart break into a thousand pieces. I still forgot to ask her name.

   “Are you alright?” Orr noticed how sour I was and asked me. He’s a nice guy. “You look like you want to take a shit," he continued. I take it back, he’s annoying.

“I'm fine.”