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

[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.