Lunch is the worst part of my day. The smells of rotting cheese and spoiled meat hung within everyone's bento boxes. Yoriko always insisted that I join her for lunch, and I never really minded therefore it became tradition in her eyes. We had only met a few weeks ago on the first day of school, yet she seemed set on talking to me once a day. She would drag her desk against against mine and begin to chatter mindlessly over her food. I never really minded that much.
Problems began to rise during the third week of our new found companionship, when Yoriko made the first of many unsettling comments.
"Why don't you ever eat, Karshima-chan?" I froze, head still pouring over a set of complex fractions.
"I don't bother making the lunch, I just eat when I'm at home."
A small pout crossed Yoriko's lips. "That is not healthy." I raised my brows. As if she needed to tell me that. Honestly it wouldn't be worth it for me to eat that trash, even it it made me seem more human. Throwing up the human food was almost as bad as forcing it down, therefore I try to avoid it.
Yoriko snatched a slice of zucchini in her chopsticks and pressed into my closed lips.
"Eat Karshima-chan." The stench of the zucchini filled my nostrils, I drew upon all of my self control to keep from gagging right then and there. She pressed the food past my lips onto my gritted teeth. "Open." She ordered.
Knowing it would be worse for me if I refused, I complied and unclamped my jaw.
Texture like maggots and the taste of dung filled my mouth. I swallowed fast, pretending to chew the food thoughtfully.
"See, its good."
Wanting nothing more than to yell into her face that it was a disgusting piece of dung, I nodded politely, returning to pouring over my homework.
The next day Yoriko greeted me at lunchtime with a smile. I grimaced back at her as I pulled the jam bun out of my bag and began to take small bites of the foul concoction.
Yoriko's smile turned into a radiant beam of sunshine that did not go away.
Before the break could end I slipped into the girls bathroom and shoved my fingers down my throat. The bathroom was empty. No one heard me throwing up the vile substances I had forced down my throat moments ago.
Weeks passed and Yoriko became more and more accustomed to my daily jam bun. It became routine, normal. Go to school, do work, have lunch, throw up, more work, go home. It became natural to have a friend to sit by and eat with, scratch that, not natural, human. But that sense of calm was ruined pretty quickly.
Two weeks into spring Anteiku was attacked. No one was hurt, in all honesty it was simply some low level ghouls who didn't know their places, but they were enough to cause me enough damage to be lethal to a human. Of course I was fine, but my stomach wasn't. After so much regeneration my body needed food, and soon. Nevertheless, like an idiot, I went to school that day.
Everything was fine and mundane until lunch time came around. I searched my bag, groaning when I realized that in my haste I had forgone the jam bun.
Hopefully Yoriko won't notice. Of course she did.
"Hey, Touka-chan, have some of my lunch."
My stomach flopped at the roasted pork and rice she was extending to me. I was hungry, I was tired, and I certainly didn't have the patience to scarf down the disgusting feces humans called food.
My resolve was lost in a single look from Yoriko. Her watery brown eyes, quite akin to a puppy's, cut deep in to my soul, tearing out any kind of bitterness I could have held.
"Fine." A smile split her face while I tore into the food. The entire product felt like a solid mass of mucus falling down my throat.
Not even bothering to pretend to chew. I stared back at Yoriko, who was giving me an odd look.
"Excuse me." I stood quickly from my seat and rushed into the girls bathroom. Slamming myself into a stall, I began retching on my own fingers in hopes that the food might come out. When it finally did I hunched over the toilet, heaving.
I could have sworn that I locked the door.
Apparently I didn't, because a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind.
"Please Touka-chan, stop." Yoriko's familiar smell invaded my nostrils, giving me a sharp, painful reminder that I needed desperately to eat.
"Hey," she said pulling me out of my stupor. "I'm going to go outside, and wait for you. How about you get cleaned up the meet me outside"
Still not facing her, I nodded. Yoriko stood and left, leaving me in my heap. I flushed the toilet and walked to the sinks to wash myself off. In the mirror stood a monster.
Her eyes were red, the color of demons blood, her face was covered in vomit and tears. (A terrible combination).
No one was in the bathroom to see me crying, but Yoriko was waiting outside, no doubt preparing a long lecture for me and how I shouldn't be doing this to myself.
Wiping off the last of the slime, I forced my eyes back to their regular steely color. I stepped out of the bathroom expecting a barrage of questions and accusations. Instead she wrapped her arms around me. "We'll get through this." They were just empty meaningless words that I had heard too many times before. Those words really weren't enough to make me cry, but I did it anyway.
For all the months that followed, whenever Yoriko felt I wasn't eating enough she would force her lunch on me, not all at once, for fear of scaring me off, but little by little, I'd accept her food, swallowing it whole and keeping it down.
It caused me so much pain, and cost me dearly in several fights, but I was worth it. Enduring pain to keep a friend, I am fine with that setup.