After the early morning interrogation session, Ashton felt a little bit out of place in the world. Fiddling around with his phone in his palm, stalling so he didn’t have to spend his time thinking of a decent next morning text. Even though Kai would probably answer, and more than happy to help them. The sound of sizzling bacon echoed in the spacious white-walled dorm room, Soo was at it again. Rana slammed the buttons on the gamepad while cursing at the TV, that especially was all too familiar as well. Ashton felt like the events last night blurred into some tiny span of time that became harder and harder to recall as time passed.  The fear still held a close hold onto his heart, but the excitement pushed back against it. Fighting a battle in his mind, the possibility of him obtaining the fantasy adventure he always day dreamed about. Soo’s words earlier kept replaying, that wasn’t the look of someone who enjoyed having these powers. 

Ashton ran through the lock screen, entering the password in the rhythmic pattern like usual, scrolling to the Chatty app. The new contact icon blinked, signifying that Kai had already added him back by the time he crashed. Quickly, he typed shot him a text;

——————————————————————————————————————

Mina-Muncher12: Hey Kai, its Ash whatsup?

Capt.Kai : Yo my man, how are you? Did you get some rest finally?

Mina-Muncher12: I passed out like I had the -itis.. Btw how many drifters are at Brookshire U?

Capt.Kai: I should be only one stationed here, we each get our own sub section of space….. Why?

Mina-Muncher12: If that’s the case then we need to have a talk lol 

——————————————————————————————————————-

Pulling his face from out of the world of instant messaging, and back into the huddle of 3 them all in their morning clothes, stressed. Hell Soo was even tapping his foot in an irregular pattern that man was never offbeat ,but as Ashton chewed his lips he pondered about what to do next.  Soo let out a big puff of air from his mouth as leaned his head back into his arms before turning to round the kitchen corner, shuffling his way to the fridge he threw the door open, proceeding to rummage around inside. The hollow echo of his hand hitting the jugs of juice, Soo’s uttered curse,told Ashton all he needed to know. Picking at his hair grabbing a long strand of it out,

“Food?”The question was thrown out there like a mood changing grenade was rolled into the dorm. 

A long inquisitive grunt escaped from Rana as he nodded his head very slowly. “Ashton we may just have to follow through on that plan.”  In sync they both turned their heads sto face Soo who was looking at them with an annoyed grimace. 

“Do not look at me like that!” he shouted, initially rejecting the invitation for some mid day grub, for reasons the other two didn’t really understand. “There’s no way in the multiverse you’re getting me to go out into public looking like this. 

Pulling up to the Cafe, Soo hadn’t said a word since he was “invited” to the car seat.  He already wasn’t too  happy when meeting Ashton’s friend Mr.Seatbelt, but child lock was the icing on the cake that sealed the deal. Hopping out the car, Rana opened the door up to receive the glare of coldest degrees. 

“Stop it, you’re here already aren’t you?” 

“You’re lucky that this place is all you can eat, that’s the last thing I’ll say about it.”

Ashton shrugged at the both of them, “ I think that’s a fair trade-off, personal freedom for custom pizza”

Soo laughed and  turned, his robe belt floating around him, “His only saving grace!”

The cafe was always filled to the brim with angry students that didn’t want to find themselves stuck in a long ass drive-thru line right before class. Quick bite, and get out of there so you can get where you need to be, but for Dorm 205 it was salvation. There was food of all types; The East Asian Classics, Soul Food, Southern Border Grub, and much more. ‘A taste around the world’ was what the slogan said , Ashton swore he saw it pasted on every free corner of this place. The line to check cards and credentials was filled with tired looking students, yet they stood out like a pajama clad thumb. Ashton’s stomach growled at the thought of stuffing his face full of the assortment of grub that offered him 0 nutritional value. 

“NEXT!” the clerk yelled, stretching her arm so lazily that you practically had to put your key card in her hand. She snatched it up with a quickness, rolling her eyes as she swiped the card, metal crunched as the gate flung open.

Ashton furrowed his brow as the annoyed lunch lady pushed the card roughly back into his hand, wondering who put water in her cereal bowl this morning. Trugging along he waited for the others awkwardly against the wall where they stuck out like a sore thumb. The group of guys that wore whatever whenever they decided to wake up to eat, seeing how it was midday, lunch time, the cartoon character pjs definitely labeled them. Ashton didn’t know if that was necessarily a good thing, as the looks they got between spoonfuls, and bites of food was unsettling to say the least. 

“Cmon, newbie let’s take you to The Spot, fancy dining for our new fancy friend.”  Rana, slapped him in the back startling Ash, the sheer amount of force would’ve been probably enough to kill him when he was just a regular, now it just stung.

“The Spot ?” he spun around at the tiny menace, “Were you guys gatekeeping me?” 

“Perhaps, but now that you’re one of us now, gotta show you all the cool places that are lurking here.” Rana kept chuckling while periodically looking back at Soo, who started to giggle himself.  Shooting the thumbs up from across the cafeteria, he had already begun to pile a trough of food onto that tiny plate. Following his lead, Rana trailed off towards the Ice Cream stand. “Listen, go get some food, we will be over there.” Pointing towards a dark corner of the cafe. 

“Whatever….”, Ashton rolled his eyes turning towards the pinnacle of deliciousness, the cornucopia of flavor, the definition of filling, the Soul Food stand. His mouth was watering, nothing made him hungrier than the image of collard greens with the neckbone, sitting on his plate calling his name. Mashed potatoes and gravy that had the tinies hint of butter, coupled with two drumsticks fried to crispy perfection.  Soon the realization came to him that he was stuck daydreaming in the middle of the line, as the server stared at him concerned at the fact that there was a drooling boy standing in front of her with no sense of style. He tried to laugh it off, but again more looks from people, that awkward chill found itself creeping back up his spine once again. 

    Simply, not wanting to embarrass himself even further, he handed the plate to her, with his head down, but when he lifted it up there was a plate full of steam, ready-made, dreams that met him with an aromatic smile that seemed to put his anxiety back at ease.  It was like a forbidden treasure that he hadn’t seen in so long, although nothing could beat his Auntie’s Jamie’s cooking, a lesser recreation would just have to do. Ashton looked for that dark corner Rana had told him about, and once he had the path set to walk, he stared at his plate of food fighting the urge to eat it while standing up. 

The brisk pace Ash found his legs moving at, bumped him into another person, almost dropping everything. He clicked his teeth, who dared to get between him and his food baby. These aggressive looking alternative emo chick, with the bad attitude shot him a deathly glare, slightly taking a long look at his wrist before stomping off to take that entitlement elsewhere. As she put her heels into the ground with each step, Ashton stuck his tongue out and continued on his journey toward The Spot.