The Ramblings of a Confused Fish

Familiar Faces in Familiar Places (Mini Story 1: Part 3)

Since Jeremy became a nightmare blob, he's become more open to eating different foods. I've been so happy. It's so much easier to cook for us now.

He's branched out to other forms of pasta/noodles (I don't know the difference between them, sue me). He even tries new forms of carbs, like bread and potatoes! He loves his pasta though. He likes chicken nuggets, but only with ranch. I think that's worse than him only eating mac and cheese. Not only that, but he eats vegetables now! He didn't even complain (that much) about me giving him broccoli and beans!

I waved Jeremy goodbye, ready to eat real sustenance for the first time in three months. I joyously went over to the grocery store, ready to buy actual food. I was gonna make a feast tonight. Well, until I saw my balance. Yikes. There's only so much I can buy in college that doesn't seem suspicious to my parents. Imagine explaining how I've been cooking for a literal demon for the past three months. Couldn't be me. My parents think I've gotten a normal roommate, and we've been living harmoniously for the last couple of weeks. They've never seen this roommate, and they don't seem interested. Thank god for that, because Jeremy would give them a heart attack. I always thought it was strange how I was given a place far from my friends, whom I asked to room with, and got a random place with a monster.

To be honest, I've never tried to find out if I'm going insane from my workload/sleep deprivation and seeing hallucinations. Maybe I should get checked out. Oh well, that day isn't today. Today is cooking day.

I snatch some frozen green beans and chicken nuggets and throw them in my basket. The weight of the bags is nothing compared to the crushing pressure of the assignments I have to do when I come back. Brought back to reality, I grabbed some sweet potatoes and juice. Thank god for the drinkable tap water in the apartment. As I round the corner to the checkout aisle, I run into someone I haven't seen very much of lately. She's struggling to get the chips from the top row, so she jumps and smacks it down with her left hand. I shift my heavy basket to my other hand, struggling to hold it up with only a hand. I reach out and smoothly catch the chips.

"Thanks-" She looks up. "-Kashi?" She squeals.

"Larissa!" I squeak. We've been so busy the last two months, we barely see each other. I look at the bag in my hand. "Please, the ketchup chips?" I judge.

"Of course, the ketchup chips," She scoffs. "You're just uncultured. How do you not like these?"

"Dude, I haven't seen you in like, years!" I whisper dramatically. "How could you leave me to suffer alone?"

"Easily." She says, swiping at her chips in my hand. I hold it above my head, being the petty person I am. "It looks like you need some help carrying stuff back to your apartment, I'll come with you. I wanna see your apartment."

"Nah, " I say, remembering Jeremy. "I've got it."

"You're a terrible liar, come on." She laughs. "Go pay, I'll walk with you."

There's no winning against her. I paid. We left together, walking slowly toward my apartment while I thought long and hard about the monster living in my house. It's hard making conversation while you're worrying about another entity's wellbeing. I don't know how my parents ever did it.