Emojis and Food

Chapter 8: Burgers

💖Katy💖

hey i'm outside, come out

Okay

•••

Xialing followed Katy into the park while holding the cardboard boxes of their food. Katy looked around and pointed at a table with an engraved chess board where two elderly men had just left.

"How about there?" Katy asked. Xialing agreed and sat down on the wooden bench. Katy sat across from her and took the box from the other woman. She opened the box and looked at her meal. The scent of Swiss cheese and caramelized onions danced through the air to Xialing's nose. Katy picked up the small plastic cup of ketchup and tapped it onto the yellow melted cheese. "So," Katy began "I kinda need your advice on something."

"What's up?" Xialing asked after swallowing her first bite of the meal.

"It's about Shaun." She began. Xialing blinked. Those three words made her realize she had not even spoken to her brother in a while. A seed of guilt was planted inside her, hurriedly growing as the conversation continued. "I think he's been kinda stressed recently now that he has the rings. He's been so disconnected."

"Oh," Xialing said, unaware of what to say. The seed was beginning to stem. "Ummm..." she mumbled.

"And remember when we went to that Indian place to eat?" Xialing nodded, her mouth filled with food.

"Yeah, that was the other day." She said. Confusion flashed on Katy's face.

"That was like, three- four-ish weeks ago..." she said, phrasing it like a question. Katy waved her hand in the air. "Eh- same thing. But that was the last time I saw him. Do you know if he's okay?" The guilt in Xialing was now a grand oak tree.

"We don't... really talk that much..." Xialing said. Katy blinked at her.

"But he's your brother?" Xialing nibbled on a French fry, holding it up to her lips while squishing it between her pointer finger and thumb.

"Yeeeeeeah... We're really not that close, I don't really remember the last time we spoke..." Xialing inhaled the fry and wiped her hands on her napkin. "We weren't close when we were kids, I think we were just regular siblings, y'know? Just kids who hung out and lived with each other. After he left we never spoke to each other again. Not until I fought him that time..."

"Well... Maybe this can be a good time to reconnect?" Katy asked. "This could be good for you guys. It might be nice for you guys to have someone who can relate to what you went through as kids."

"Maybe..." Xialing said, nervously munching on another fry. "I just don't know how. I mean, how would you reconnect to your long lost brother?"

"Probably like this?" Katy suggested after a beat. "Just go out to lunch with him, he'll be open to it."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." Xialing smiled at Katy. How could a girl be so goofy and yet so compassionate?