THE OTHER SIDE. aa

drei­und­dreißig.

     THE UPROARIOUS CHATTER inside the cafeteria was deafening as you entered. with your food in hand, you traveled around the mazes of table before finally finding your friends seated in your usual table. you took a seat beside porco, greeting the others cheerfully. they greeted back, but it seems that their voices were on edge and they didn't look like as cheerful as usual. however, there was something that you noticed. there were three people missing; pieck, zeke and reiner.

     you tilted your head at their empty seats and turned to the others, noting their darkened eyes as they glance at their food before looking at each other with a frown. you shook it off and thought that they were having an off day that caused them to be quiet. you were more confused as to why the others weren't present. there wasn't any messages in the groupchat that tells if they are absent.

     "hey, where's the others?"

     the blond beside you looked up from his food and shrugged, "i heard reiner's sick." he replied quietly, shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes in his mouth.

     "what about pieck and zeke?"

     "pieck had a family emergency or something," annie answered plainly as she picked on her food, "don't know about zeke, though." 

     the whole table went quiet and you weren't exactly sure if it was because reiner and pieck was the usual people who were noisy and talkative during lunch, or something else was going on. bertholdt and annie were both quiet people but you didn't expect porco to look so out of it that he wasn't speaking or giving a crap about you or the others. perhaps something bad happened with pieck's emergency that caused them to act so sullen. 

     nevertheless, you allowed them to do their own thing and began to eat your food. the silence was beginning to annoy you so in the end you decided to talk to them and ask them questions that made no sense. it somewhat brought the carefree mood back as the four of you continued to talk, not caring about the other students as the four of you laugh your asses off.

     "did you hear, porco?" you chirped out, a bit bored as you ate your food.

     the blond glanced at you and tilted his head, "what?"

     "that you're an ugly ass bitch?" 

     the tall male in your table snorted but soon covered his mouth, hiding the grin that was about to form in his face while he gives the scowling blond an apologetic look. annie only shook her head and looked down but there was a hint of smirk. porco noticed this and narrowed his eyes, whipping his head to face you with a glare. 

     "seriously?" he sighed out, making you chuckle out an apology before he could punch you.

     the two of you argued for a bit, with annie and bertholdt taking sides once in a while which usually ends up with choosing you the whole time and porco screaming and crying at how biased they were.

     soon enough, you excused yourself from the three before lunch ends. you still had a homework to pass tomorrow and you'd like to start it sooner so you don't have to stress about it later on. as you venture down the hallways, your phone vibrated inside your pocket. you quickly grabbed it and saw reiner's id calling you, waiting for you to answer.

     "hey reiner, what's up? how are you feeling?" you greeted merrily as soon as you answered, walking towards the stairs for your next class. 

     "huh? what are you talking about?" you heard him ask, his voice laced with confusion.

    "the others said you were sick so that's why your absent." you replied. there was a silence following your answer and soon enough you heard him cough and sniffle.