Not Yet Corpses. Still, We Rot.

January 24th, 2024.

Eliza was sat in the break room, rummaging through her bag, trying to find the lunch she was so sure she packed last night. She was just ready to burst into tears from hunger and frustration, when Alain walked in.
“Lookin’ for something?” He questioned, seeing Eliza frantically look through her bag. Eliza looked up at him, trying to suppress her tears. “I-” Her voice broke, which quite honestly made her want to sink through the ground. Unfortunately, she could not sink through the ground, and therefore she cleared her throat and tried again. “I think I forgot my lunch at home.” She said, trying not to let this minor inconvenience get to her. Alain just ‘Oooohhh’-ed in understanding, having been there nearly more times than not. “Well, my break technically hasn’t started yet…” he begun, trying to sound like he was heavily considering going back to work, “but I guess I could take a break now, since Mr. Clifton is at the bakery anyways.” He let out an exasperated sigh. It was very clear this was his intention already when he walked into the room. Alain walked over to his bag, and started taking books out, trying to find his lunchbox. He had evening classes and it was simpler to go straight from work, so he did have a very heavy bag today. He finally found his food though, and without putting his books back, he stood up and walked over to Eliza, who was checking her bank account to see if she had enough to get a croissant at the grocery store two blocks away. She did, but before she could announce that she was going to get a croissant at the grocery store two blocks away, Alain already held out a poorly torn off half of his sandwich to her. “Do you like peanut butter and jelly?” He asked, before taking a bite of his half. Eliza took it, not wanting to seem too eager, but really needing to eat something right about now. “You’re an angel, you know that?” She sighed, taking a bite. Alain turned his head away, feeling his face flush red. That had been happening more and more often lately and he was not happy about it. He just took a bite of his sandwich and hummed in recognition.
“Do you want to go do something this Saturday?” Alain asked. “I mean, it’s gonna be cold but we could still go outside, there’s a forest relatively close to here. You know that forest, right? Anyways we don’t have to go to the forest, there’s a lot we can do. We can go to the movies, or we can stay inside, we can do anything! What do you say, just you and me?” He added, trying not to come over too pushy. They’d hung out before, so why did this make him feel so nervous? Eliza waited patiently until Alain was done with his ramble, before responding with; “Sure. By the way, ‘Just you and me’ makes it sound like a date.” She stated matter-of-factually, but perhaps there was just a trace of hope in her voice. Alain hid his pink face by turning and starting to rummage through some of the butterfly-boxes. He wanted it to be a date, he just wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted as well. The more they had gotten to know each other, the more he had fallen for her. Her graceful smile, her soft personality and her radiant way of speaking about what she truly cared about. She also had a calico cat who liked him very much. Her name was burnt marshmallow and she was the cuddliest cat he had ever met. He wasn’t able to care for a pet himself, his mom was usually either at work or asleep, so she couldn’t care for one, especially beside him and his siblings. Alain had been taking care of his siblings a lot ever since his mum picked up night shifts, so he probably couldn’t take care of an animal beside that. Maybe when he moved out he would get one. Eliza had had burnt marshmallow since she was four years old, and they were very close to each other, so she was very glad that Alain liked cats.
“If you want it to be a date, it could be. Also do you know where the Cyaniris semiargus are? We ran out in the front yesterday, and I forgot to restock them so I’m trying to do that before Mr. Clifton notices .” Alain responded as nonchalantly as he could. He was preparing himself for rejection, already coming up with what to say if that were the case. To his surprise, it wasn’t the case, and Eliza responded to him, with an evenly nonchalant; “Sure, I guess it’s a date then. And the forest sounds good to me. I do have to ask my dad though so I’ll text you if I’m allowed ore not. The Cyaniris semiargus are in the third box from the right.” If Alain had been alone right now, he would’ve been kicking his feet and screaming in excitement. He was not alone though, and therefore just hummed in response, as to not kick his feet and scream in excitement. Right as he grabbed the butterflies, Mr. Clifton walked in. He looked at the both of them with a stern look. “Congratulations on your ‘date’,” Mr. Clifton finger-quoted, “but Eliza, your break ends in two minutes. Alain, you’re not supposed to be on break at all, get back to work.” Alain pretended to be shocked, as if he had not been eating lunch only three minutes before. “Who said I was taking a break? I’m restocking the Cyaniris semiargus’ right now! I’m showing initiative since we ran out, like you told me to do more often. I thought you’d be proud of me Mr. Clifton!” He put on a hurt expression whilst stacking butterflies into his arms. Mr. Clifton rolled his eyes. “Well done on the initiative, but you can’t fool me. I know you were on break. Get back to it, Alain.” Mr. Clifton said, looking unimpressed with Alain’s little pretend tantrum. Alain just sighed and left the room, rolling his eyes sarcastically, and trying to balance the butterflies without dropping them.
“I swear, Mr. Clifton can like, read our minds or something. We don’t have camera’s, and I could swear he wasn’t in the store when I was eating.” Alain whined. Eliza was stood behind the counter, taking the cash out of the register to put it into the safe in the back. Alain was mopping the floors, a task that he wasn’t very fond of. The store had been closed for about fifteen minutes, when they heard a knock on the glass door. They looked over to where the noise came from, and they saw a middle aged woman, who was still loudly knocking on the door. Eliza covered her ears, starting to become very uncomfortable with the loud noise that was echoing through the room. Alain quickly grabbed the keys off of a little hook inside the break room. The woman just kept knocking and knocking, and Eliza really could not handle it, and she just, well, froze. She could hear her breathing speed up and the knocking was all she could focus on. Her heart started racing and her chest tightened. It felt like time was slowing down and like she was stuck, stuck in this point of time and space, incapable of anything but perceiving everything around her. She barely even noticed that Alain was already being scolded for being closed after closing. He promptly closed and locked the door in the woman’s face, before turning around and seeing that Eliza was not looking so well. He quickly turned back around, unlocked and opened the door before kindly telling the woman; “Fuck off or I’m calling the cops, you old hag!” And he locked the door again. The woman looked very offended, and decided to let him know just that by calling him a slur, and telling him to go back to his own country, even though Alain was born and raised here. She then stuck her nose into the air and walked off, still feeling like she was the bigger person here. She very obviously was not, but Alain didn’t have time to argue with the ‘old hag’ about that right now. He quickly ran over to Eliza, reaching to put a hand on her shoulder, but quickly retracting it when she flinched away from him, obviously not wanting physical contact at this moment. Alain started panicking, not having the slightest clue on what to do. Eliza was very aware of what was going on at the moment, but still completely frozen in place, she started tearing up, not even being able to express what she needed, not that she truly knew what she needed in the moment. Alain, noticing that Eliza was squeezing her eyes shut, he turned off the lights, and he ran to the break room, grabbing a bottle of water from his bag. He went back to Eliza, nearly slipping on the freshly mopped floor. Eliza had sat down, visibly less strained, but tears were streaming down her face, endlessly coming down like a waterfall of affliction. Alain sits down next to Eliza and puts the water in front of her, not really knowing what to do beside waiting, making sure she didn’t asphyxiate or something. Eliza took a second to calm her breathing, before taking the water, trying very hard as to not make as little eye contact as possible. This was absolutely going in the little “embarrassing things I think about instead of sleeping” section of her brain.