He never found mundane human tasks all that enthralling before, but now thanks to Angela Weber he was fascinated. She had an entire ritual around how she ate a Happy Meal. While her friends chatted, and stuffed their faces with food, Angela would carefully study the decorations on the box.
Then she would careful unpack her food, arrange it into orderly piles, and take equally proportioned bites of each. A bite of her chicken nugget, followed by half of a french fry and then washed down with a sip of her vanilla milkshake. Edward often wondered what would happen if she ended up with more of one item at the end of a meal, but some how it never occurred.
When she was done she would repack all the wrappers into the box and deposit it into the trash can at the entrance of the restaurant. And Edward, much to his own personal shame would follow behind her, and take the box from the trash. He had no interest in the soiled wrappings or the even the box. It was the small toys that were left inside. He would take them out, and pocket them before discreetly ducking out of the sight, so she was never the wiser.
The shelf sat above his bed, littered with tiny, cheap, plastic toys. Each marked a day he had spent watching Angela eat. Occasionally, he would pick up one and wonder it at why a simple, human girl no more extraordinary as that toy in his hand held his attention. Their tiny, painted faces never revealed any secrets and he was left in a haze of frustration.
Per Jess' Request