At this point in time, I had already run out of facial expressions to use with each piece of news I'd discover or every bit of nostalgia that would wash over so I put my hands up in defeat and entered my house to finally have some lunch. And lo and behold, the interior was definitely squeaky clean but there was no semblance of food whatsoever.
And yeah, my 'good' friend Ben knew what we had stashed in our cars so he wouldn't even let me open the MY fridge to prepare us light food for once. However, I noticed that Lopez was the only one who didn't come in because he looked like he wanted to double back and check on his wife ASAP.
He looked desperate for once, "I… I need permission to visit my wife and—"
"No."
"Wai— Why?! You think I'd try to escape?"
"Not really, I think you need to have some food first."
He shook his head furiously, "I've already eaten a lot because they took my blood when—"
"Right. Go ahead, I already put a tracker in you anyway—"
"YOU WHAT?! HOW?!"
"D'you know that you talk in your sleep? Of course, I'm fucking kidding! Numb-nut. But yeah, I wouldn't let you out of my sight without a chaperone or two so you'd still have to wait for two of us to finish eating so they could come with you. If not—"
"I'll come with him," JP suddenly raised his hand.
"Me too! I'll come too!" Lucas followed like a loyal dog.
When that happened, Lopez looked at the two approvingly but his face still turned solemn as he turned to me. I could only sigh because I didn't know what JP and Lucas were trying to do but since I could easily call Andy and tell him to not let them drive away when they're not with us, I just let them go because we did have some packed lunches stashed away.
It's just that it was hella awkward when we saw them off but just for a little insurance, I made them leave their gear before they hiked their way towards the hospital.
In any case, I still tried to look for fresh vegetables in MY pantry but Ben blocked me like his life depended on it.
"C'mon, dudeee~ You know the food situation over here! The vegetables are fresh and crisp but I gotta have some meat, alright?!"
Cass butted in, "I brought you some sausages from the Academy yesterday—"
Ben's eyes had never been so round as he stared Cass down, "It was two little pieces, Cass—"
"Hmph! Then I'll have what I brought today for myself because I definitely would appreciate not just the quantity but the thought—"
"It's not like that, Cass— I sincerely thank you for that but meat's meat, alright?"
Cass had never looked so confused, "I… I don't even understand what that meant."
I cut in, "Where's everyone else though? Won't they come back here for lunch?"
Ben chuckled, "Really, dude? You do know that it's a long walk to here from the clinic? I'm not even sure why those three decided to walk it off. Mimi's definitely gonna have lunch over there while everyone will do the same in their stations."
"Sure. But something's bugging me."
"Hmm?"
"What do YOU do for work around here?"
Cass added while looking at Ben in a certain not-so-friendly way, "Yeah, what do YOU do around here? Huh?"
The dumbass spread his arms out like that statue in Brazil, "The fuck are you guys on about? Can't you see how this place looks? I'm the perfect stay-at-home husband out there! The place is clean, the laundry's already washed and folded, our pantry's stocked—"
"Yet you still don't want me to take some—"
"I WANT MEAT TODAY, DUDE! MEAT! C'MON!"
In any case, it didn't take long before he relented because I asked someone to pull out some of the meat products we brought with us, then Ben and I put on our aprons and prepared food for everyone. While we were doing that, everyone else either walked around outside or just chatted with each other but it was at the 30-minute mark when #1 and #2 brought in what they thought was a young lass who got lost.
The "young lass" was standing at 4'10'', had a petite frame, bright round eyes, clear but now had a smudged face, almost out of breath, wearing a dirtied nurse uniform, had scraped both her knees and an elbow, and was on the fucking verge of crying her eyes out.
It took her one second to spot me from the crowd of people in their home—which was technically mine—and she started to slowly approach me with her arms forward as she ugly-cried once she hugged me.
At this point, Cass and Ben actually shed a tear for seeing Mimi like this—even causing Kaley and the others to do the same—but the awkward thing was that everyone was motioning for me to hug her back but I can't because my hands were tied with a dead fucking chicken that I just beheaded using a huge-ass cleaver.
It was one of the most awkward scenes I've been in—and Quinn was laughing her ass out she had to walk outside—but it didn't stop when Mimi tried to speak while bawling her eyes out.
Trust me, it was one incoherent sentence after the other but Kaley and Cass were kind enough to detach her from my body and take care of her wounds as I tried to finish preparing lunch for everyone else.
'I guess the three couldn't give much of a fuck when they saw her running over here… Or Mimi used a different route and didn't see them…'
With that said, Mimi eventually came out of their room wearing a fresh set of clothes but she was still teary-eyed when I turned around to greet her:
"Yo."
In a blink of an eye, Mimi started to bawl her eyes even worse than earlier but they didn't have to detach her from me this time because I finally returned her hug as I patted her head. But yeah, the girls in my circle—especially Kaley—were looking at me a certain way but I rolled my eyes and shrugged them off as I introduced Mimi to everyone.
"Okay, you weirdoes~ This is Mimi, the first friend I made in this university and people could say that we're like brother and sister, in a sense— but she's older than me by a couple of years so she's technically my older sister if you think about it… She's a really kind and gentle friend and…"
I continued to sing her praises as I gave her a brief introduction about everybody in my crew, but for some reason, her eyes looked dead when I told her that Kaley was my wife. And for some other reason, everyone else was looking at me a certain way but I couldn't quite figure out the reason why.
'Did I say something wrong? Did I praise her too much? Was that it?'
Even when we started eating, she took bites like she didn't just run the whole way here and she was even sighing at points that was grabbing everyone's attention.
But yeah, I eventually put two and two together—with a little bit of nudge from Kaley—because it seemed like my denseness had started to act up again. I can actually pick up social cues or simple signs if it was ever thrown at me so I decided to remedy the situation by giving Mimi another slice of our strip steaks.
"We know you cannot grow taller anymore but you gotta beef up! Put some muscle in ya, y'know?"
She never looked so confused as she turned her head to me, "W-What?"
"..." everyone else.
I turned to Kaley instead, "Should I have given her more potatoes?"
Everyone exploded, "NO! YOU FUCKING DUMBASS! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT SHE HAS FEELINGS FOR YOU?!"
I chortled as I waved everyone off, "Whaaat? No way, heh. We're just really good friends—best friends, if you will—right, Mimi? Besides, I did say we're like brother and sister so it's gonna be weird if—"
Mimi cut me off, "Y-Yeah… d-don't get the wrong i-idea guys… We're… We're just— I just really missed him and I thought… yeah… t-that's it… yep…"
I turned to everyone with a smug smile, "See? I was—"
Before I got to finish my sentence, Mimi just straight up left the table and headed straight for the door and I had to get beat up by Kaley and the Alpha Bitches to finally understand what was going on.
I was ordered to hurry up and run after her but let's be fucking real here, she wouldn't reach far with her legs and I actually caught up to her in less than a minute. But yeah, she tried to slap my hand off her arm but she really should've eaten more because I felt fucking nothing.
Though joking aside, we sat down under this huge tree that was just a small sapling when I was still studying here and we started to talk for real this time.
I was just about to apologize to the things I've done and said but she took me by surprise and apologized first.
"I-I'm sorry for c-causing a scene… It was just… A-All the emotions coming together a-and… you know, seeing you after a-all this was too much and I-I can't believe that—"
"Mimi."
"W-What?"
I gave her a faint smile, "Breathe, alright?"
"R-Right… Ha… Haaa… Haa… Yeah, I think I'm okay now—"
"See—"
Then she suddenly blew up, "Y-YOU B-BIG GOOF! YOU GOT M-MARRIED?! WHAT— I CAN'T— WAS SHE— YOU— AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
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