Before the Angels Fall

Chapter 15~ Cranberries and Walnuts

Isabella remembered when she was alive. She went to school, just like everyone else, and she had met her first and only boyfriend in high school. 

She was a quiet girl,and didn't talk much even when others spoke to her. She was a really good person, though, if only you got to know her. 

Everyday she would bring in the same lunch: bread with cranberries and walnuts. It wasn't just any type of bread. It was soft, warm, and crispy in all the right places. Perfect. 

There wasn't much about her, except that she was extremely shy on the outside. However, on the inside, she was more complex than one would think. 

She had her own cranberries and walnuts, and she cherished them. They were her highlights, her strengths, her weaknesses, her worst feelings, her memories, everything. They were her cranberries and walnuts on her own little slice of warm, fluffy, crispy bread. 

The cranberries were always sweet and full of flavor, and the walnuts were always tasteful and somewhat crunchy. The bread was fresh from the oven, cooled down slightly in her little lunchbox. 

She always smiled when she ate her lunch. To her, it would never get repetitive. She didn't care. The bread was always delicious. 

Until one day, she could feel the flavor lightening, becoming bland as she chewed. What was wrong? The flavor was disappearing, vanishing. Perhaps she vanishing too?

She panicked, unable to enjoy her meal any longer. A hand suddenly was placed on her shoulder. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Um..." She turned around, her gaze meeting a pair of kind hazel eyes. 

"Are you okay?" He repeated the question in a kind tone.

"Um...yes...I'm fine."

"Okay. Good to hear that. By the way, my name is Kevin. I'm in your science class."

"Um...okay...My name is Isabella. Nice you meet you."

"I saw you panicking from over there. Thought that I should help you calm down a bit. Are you better now?"

"Yep. I'm fine. Thanks." She said tersely, then turned back to eat her lunch, expecting the boy to walk away.

"Why do you always have the same lunch everyday?" He now sat next to her, staring at her with wide eyes.

Just. Go. Away, snapped Isabella in her mind. "And why do you care?"

"Um..." He looked taken aback. "I don't know. You just seem interesting."

Ha. Just give me a break already. "Why are you still here anyways? Shouldn't you go back to your friends?"

"Friends? Oh, no. They really aren't my 'friends'." He glanced sadly at her. 

"Oh..." She paused, unsure of what to say. 

"Don't apologize. It's fine," he said, waving a hand in front of her face and smiling genially. 

I wasn't even going to apologize...,thought Isabella. 

"Do you have any friends?"

Isabella turned around fully to peer at him, taking in his every detail. His wavy brown hair was flopped messily on his head; bright blue eyes adorned an innocent-looking face--ah yes, he was the epitome of a boyfriend of one of those frivolous girls. Isabella wanted nothing to do with him anymore. "Friends? Ha, who needs those." As she said those words, her stomach clenched and her eyes narrowed slightly, glaring at her bread. "Now can you please leave? You are ruining my lunch."