College Road Trip (Z-Fic Novella Honorable Mention) [COMPLETE]

CHAPTER 11: DINNERTIME

The water, which was only lukewarm, felt welcome and hellish against my poor aching skin. I won't go into details on the shower because, to be honest, it's not all that relevant. Did I wash my asscrack? Yes. That's all you need to know.

When I got out, it was Lewis's turn and, as if like clockwork, it was time for dinner almost immediately after that. How convenient, right?

Dinner was a simple affair. Mr. Salucci had me help him set the table while everyone else pulled the chairs out of the closet and found a turkey-patterned tablecloth. (It was the only one he had. It didn't exactly fit the springtime we were currently in but, then, nothing did anymore. This was a spring break apocalypse and it was fine to use a turkey tablecloth for dinner.)

When we sat down to dinner, Mr. Salucci instructed us on how he would prefer that we fix our plates (I was annoyed by that, but I didn't mind so much as to make a scene). He tried to talk to us about our lives and our day.

"I'm writing a story with some college-aged characters," he admitted, just so that his intentions were clear, "and I would appreciate it if I could just talk to you to get a feel for how things go these days."

I nodded while putting some canned green beans on Lewis's plate (I was in charge of the beans, apparently). "Sure. What do you want to know?"

"Nothing specific. I'd just like to listen to you talk. You're, what, sophomores?"

"Freshmen."

"Interesting. I assumed you were older."

"Not really. Lynette and I are only a few days apart."

Mr. Salucci looked at Lynette, who was sitting to his right while he was at the head of the table. "You're Lynette?

She nodded. "Yep."

"And who are the rest of you?"

"I'm Kurtis," I jumped in (because I wanted to talk and it was my turn), "the guy sitting next to me is Lewis, and the guy across from me is Peter."

"It's nice to meet you all. I hope that you have found my home welcoming and warm. It's nice to have visitors, after so long. Now, I'll allow you to talk, as long as I am allowed to listen."

"In that case," Lynette said, then immediately launched into a complicated conversation with Lewis about something so incredibly stupid that I couldn't bring myself to properly listen to.

About ten minutes later, a timer went off in the kitchen and Mr. Salucci rose. "That'll be the meat. I'll go grab it. You kids enjoy yourselves."

As soon as he came back with a steaming platter of meat, Peter stopped talking. There was a weird expression on his face, but I couldn't place it. Was it hunger? Was it disgust? Was it both? I wasn't sure. All I knew was that he wasn't talking and he had almost completely frozen.

He didn't touch the meat at all. I considered making up an excuse about how he was a vegetarian but, honestly, there was no opportunity or need to. I found out why later that night, after dinner was done and over with and everyone was asleep.

For now, though, I was at the dinner table, eating the best meat I had ever tasted. I'm being serious here. I'm not a huge meat guy, but, at that moment, I felt like I understood why some people were. My heart swelled with respect for Mr. Salucci as I tasted the spices, the marinade, the everything. It was similar to veal, in a way, but not quite. (I had veal once at a fancy dinner party my father dragged me to, back when we were still talking to each other.) The flavor was immense and the meat itself was so incredibly tender... I would have gone back for seconds if my stomach weren't still in knots from the day's events.