Book Of One Shots

Animal Crackers

• Translations at the end •

Alexander typed frantically on his laptop. He had been assigned at least three essays and was done with two of them last week but this third one had him so lost.

He had to write about who he was? The things that made him happy? Alex had no idea what to write for this!

He had typed fifteen different essays for this one prompt, but he wasn't satisfied with any of them. None of them seemed sincere.

His stomach made a sound. Alex took an animal cracker from the bag next to him and plopped it into his mouth. His stomach grumbled again in protest.

His eyes were drooping. He hadn't slept in a week, he was weak, he was awake. His computer had gone into power save mode a while ago and it was hard to see the words.

Alex wasn't sure what time it was anymore.

He didn't even know why he was still working on this stupid assignment. He did two of them. And had fifteen versions of the third, he could just turn in which ever!

No. It had to be perfect. Alex needed to know for himself what made him happy.

There was a knock on his door. Maybe it was his roommate, Burr. He had left a while ago, mumbling about how he couldn't be stuck in the dark room any longer.

Maybe it was day time.

But Burr had a key.

Alex ignored it.

They knocked again. Alex reluctantly pushed his laptop aside and tried to get up. He then found out the circulation in his legs was slow from sitting too long, and fell to the floor. He knocked over a stack of books with him.

"Alex? Are you okay?" A frantic voice asked, knocking again. He recognized the voice. It was John. Okay.

Shit. It was John. Alexander quickly got up and fumbled to the door, slowly opening it.

He did his best to smile up at the freckled boy but he ended up giving a creepy vibe, the dark room making it worse.

"Hello...John." He spoke, his voice raspy.

John looked down at him worriedly. "Alex, are you alright?"

"Yes just...working." Alex mumbled.

"Oh...okay. Sorry to bother you, just wondering if you wanted to hang out." He said, blushing slightly.

Alexander's stomach growled again as he tried to speak. John look down at his belly, furrowing his brow.

"Hold on." Alex walked back into the room and grabbed his bag of animal crackers.

John followed after him, sighing. "Alex this room is a mess." He wandered to the window and opened the curtain, letting the sun rays bleed through.

He watched as Alex plopped the small cookies into his mouth.

"Alex, did you remember to eat today?" John asked, leaning down closely to his face.

Alex blushed and looked away, not saying anything.

"That's it. Let's go grab some food." John huffed, crossing his arms. Alex looked up at him in protest.