Munch! Mush! Spew!
Noah sat, a mountain of pure muscles, holding a teacup with proper form, just next to him was another mountain, though one of less height but more width.
Munch! Munch munch munch... Blerrg!
And then there was Balair, who sat behind the other mountain, downing all its contents into the bottomless pit he called a stomach. A hint of disgust flashed on Nilith's face as she pushed away her food, a standard sandwich, opting to just have the tea that came with it instead. Sabastin, who was sitting just next to her without a plate of food, just smiled on, his eyes closed as usual.
"Could you be any calmer with your food?" Noah asked as he dropped the teacup he was drinking from.
"You can't really blame him now, can you? All that slop at the cadet mess hall and finally good food after a week of being in a coma—of course you'd be starved." Sabastin retorted, his nerve-wracking, closed-eye smile sending subtle shivers through Balair. The rest of the group turned to face him with piercing eyes. Nilith face-palmed and shook her head, but Sabastin's smile never changed.
Wait… a week? In a coma? I was in a coma for so long?
Balair thought inwardly, dropping the plate he had in his hand.
"What about our evaluation?" he asked, his voice slightly raised as he hurriedly pushed down the contents of his mouth.
"Evaluation?" Sabastin queried, his brows twitching up, his face swiftly changing from its smile to a look of mild confusion, as if he was trying to remember something.
"They moved it forward from the day it was meant to be held, but it's a done and dusted event now. It was held two days after," Hansen grumbled out a response from a bench a walk away from their table, lying on his back and looking at the ceiling.
"Oh yeah, the one where your platoon ranked last, huh? Hansen?" Sabastin asked with a grin appearing at the fringes of his lips.
"Can we get this done with? I've not gotten a good sleep in a while now," Hansen grumbled, his eyes red from exhaustion.
"Give the kid some time to finish with his meal, why don't you?" Sabastin said, his ever-mocking tone present as always.
"Why is Sabastin here again?" Hansen asked, disgruntled and disturbed by Sabastin's presence. Sabastin just smiled, facing Balair, who had already stopped forcing food down his mouth.
"Hey now! We're all friends here, aren't we?" Sabastin questioned, running his gloved hands through his flowing brown hair as if there was anything to fix in its straight flow, fragrance wafting from it as he disturbed it.
"Sabastin, can you just keep shut? We already told you not to say too much, but you just cannot help yourself now, can you?" Nilith questioned, shooting a sharp glare his way, her golden eyes full of scorn.
"We are before the kid, please maintain your dignity," Noah's voice echoed just as Nilith finished with her question. She shrank again, just like in the hospital room.
The empty mess hall went silent for a good thirty seconds after Noah's plea, but it did not last long. Balair had long stopped his feast after the news that their platoon had been ranked last during the evaluation.
After all that stress?
He thought, a sudden hurt going through him this time, not from his physical, already-hurting body, but from something in him, something deep down.
Is it all my fault? Two days ago, two days after…
He continued to ponder as he looked listlessly at the food before him. He was here eating all this good food—something he was sure none of his fellow cadets had seen since coming into the barracks—while they were forcing down slop and he, who did nothing for a week, sat shoving down mountains of rare meat down his throat.
"I can hear the gears turning in your head, just throw them out so we can begin with business. It seems you are done eating," Hansen said as he slowly rose to his feet. A sudden chill passed through Balair as the plates before him vanished right before his eyes. He at first turned to meet Hansen, thinking it was his doing, his sleep-deprived eyes trying hard to stay awake.
Yeah, ha! It certainly cannot be him!
Balair immediately scoffed at the idea, turning to the others around him only to find that Sabastin was gone.
"Oh? Were you looking for me?" Sabastin's voice sounded distant, almost echoing through the hall. You could almost sense the play in every draw he gave each word.
Tsk…
Nilith clicked her tongue, rolling her eyes as she did so.
"Let me get done with these first, I'll get back to you in a jiffy," he added. Balair finally located his voice at a corner of the hall, discarding a majority of the leftover food into a waste bin, his eyes opening in horror at the sight. The fact that he had never even said he was done eating made the situation even worse for him to witness.
"Okay then, now we can finally get back on track," Noah announced as Hansen walked over lazily to the table they were gathered around. Each step seemed to ask a question of commitment to the trek, but he kept on, finally getting to a seat—one that put him alone, with enough spacing to sleep if need be.
And with the same breeze blowing, Sabastin was back on his seat at the table, now totally spotless.
"Now, down to business…"