Pomegranate

Meredith - 4

Four days after Meredith dropped off Seth in his dorm with Persephone and the Pet Co bags, she got a text. She had forgotten she gave him her number in case of bunny-related-emergencies.

I have a three-hour exam starting at 2pm. Can you check on Persephone? She wasn't eating this morning.

She bit her lip, reading over the text. She was supposed to be studying for her own exam, and she promised Benji she would meet him later. But that was hours from now, and she could watch Persephone and study at the same time, probably.

Sure, she replied.

Thanks! Sage 207 door is unlocked

Ugh. Going into a stranger's room alone was uncomfortable, so she couldn't see how Seth would be okay with that. Maybe he really was desperate.

After lunch, she headed to Sage. Meredith approached 207 as if entering a wild safari, knocking on the door despite knowing no one was inside. She turned the knob and pushed the door, worried that someone would spot her in the hallway, like a burglar. She stepped inside, running her eyes up and down Seth's room.

The room was so small Persephone's cage had to be under the bed, which, granted, had been raised higher. It was messy but in an I'm-on-a-rush way. In her room, the mess was part of the aesthetic. The inside smelled like straw and body wash scented like toxic masculinity, but not as bad as she imagined, bunny included and all that. She dropped her bag by the door and stepped around jeans and shoes discarded on the floor, walking to the cage. As soon as she knelt next to the bed, Persephone dashed and hid inside an empty tissue box, propped like a tiny house.

It took ten minutes of coaxing and calling for the bunny — and, finally, bringing the tissue box closer to her — before she could look at Persephone. The fur wasn't dirty anymore, but still far from white. Less rat-like, which was a step up.

"You still look pretty damn ugly," Meredith said.

Persephone's single eye stared at her.

"Right. Food and stuff," Meredith reached for the box of food next to the cage, and tried to feed small squares to Persephone. She would get close to the food and suddenly run away from Meredith, hiding inside the box. Meredith sighed, leaning her forehead against the bed frame. After thirty minutes of this, Persephone finally took a small square from Meredith's fingers with her tiny paws, and ate pieces of it every few seconds, her snout moving rapidly like she was anxious about eating in public. It was kind of cute if you remembered she was a bunny, not a rat.

Sometime later, Seth got back to the room to find Meredith with a book propped open on her lap while her hand hovered in the air around the cage, holding up another square of food Persephone may or may not refuse to eat.

"Hey."

"Hey!" Her head shot up, almost hitting the bed frame. Persephone scurried away.

Meredith closed the book and held onto the bed frame to get up, her knees groaning after spending so long cross-legged. "How was the exam?"

"It was okay," he said, but Meredith sensed by his tone he was being optimistic. "I didn't know you were still here."

"Oh," Meredith checked her watch. She had spent hours there. "Yeah, I guess."

"Is she okay?" He squatted, checking on Persephone.

"Yeah, she ate a little."