if you eat the food of the dead, you can never leave hades, so i guess that wasn't hades

[self_composed]

Bella still brings her lunch most of the time. Today, she is chipping away at the leftovers of the pasta monstrosity her father made when left to fend for himself. She has not yet had a chance to talk up Hilary's cooking because it would have seemed cruel in the aftermath of the... meal.

It's actually pretty edible after she added all that garlic and butter.

Jessica sits with her, and Angela, and then Mike; Eric's with some other friends today. There's an empty chair to her left; Angela's on her right, and the other two face them.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

Ooh, good one. Alice grins behind his juice.

[self_composed]

Mike's done with his lunch anyway. He just leaves.

"Well, that was kind of a bitchy thing to do," Lauren remarks.

"So was that," says Bella without any particular heat. Or interest.

Angela's trying to hide her face in her shoulder.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice glances sideways at Bella and grins again.

He doesn't say 'I love you', but he thinks it pretty loudly.

[self_composed]

He gets a wan smile for his trouble.

Bella then conspicuously asks if Angela wants to start heading for Bio, because she actually likes Angela.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice, not being finished his juice yet, stays right where he is.

[self_composed]

Lauren waits until Bella's gone and then turns to Alice. "So, did you move here because you, like, killed somebody?"

Jessica was about to leave, but apparently can't pass up the chance to hear the answer. Eric's leaving anyway.

[edgeofyourseat]

He grins.

"I could tell you that," he says with a wink, "but I'd have to kill you."

[self_composed]

Jessica, slightly quicker on the uptake than Lauren, comes to the understanding that this sentence has implications. She departs expeditiously.

Lauren cocks her head, then leaves, apparently mostly because she and Alice are the only people left at the table.