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The door is blocked by a nailed bat. I turn around and start walking down an endless hospital hallway, the bright white walls and tiles hurting my eye. I pass door after door, not knowing my destination nor remembering where I came from. A few doors later, I see a girl leaning against the wall on my left. She has long pink hair, teal-colored eyes, and a cyan handkerchief turned bow tied around her head. She wears a jacket with yellow accents, a black crop top, and a jean skirt. I know this girl: her name is Aubrey.
The splash of color in the endless white hallway is a relief to my sore eye, so I approach her to find out why she’s here. When I walk in front of her, she approaches me and says, “So you got my letter, right? I’m glad you want to date me…” She has a little smirk on her face and a light blush as she starts to follow me.
I keep walking down the hall, the scenery ever repeating while Aubrey’s footsteps ring out behind me. Suddenly, shortly ahead, leaning against the wall, is another girl. She has pink hair and teal eyes; it’s Aubrey again.
When I walk in front of Aubrey number two, she approaches me and says, “I’ve always loved you, Sunny… Would you consider going out with me?” She smiles as if I gave her a positive answer. “Lead the way.” She gets behind the first Aubrey, and we continue on down the hall.
Eventually, as the hallway begins to lose any semblance of character, we come across a third Aubrey. When I walk in front of her, she approaches me and says, “Where were you yesterday?” She huffs. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll just have to make it up to me today.” Without another word, she joins the growing line of Aubreys.
A fourth Aubrey soon comes into view. When I walk in front of her, she approaches me and says, “Did I keep you waiting? Sorry… Something came up, but I’m here now.” She joins the line of Aubreys.
We keep walking, only to find a fifth Aubrey leaning against the wall. When I walk in front of her, she approaches me and says, “That jerk, Kel, owes me another dollar. You’ll help me teach him a lesson, right?” She joins the line.
Our footsteps reverberate through the empty halls until we near another Aubrey. When I walk in front of Aubrey number six, she approaches me and says, “Where have you been, Sunny? I’ve been waiting forever!” Despite her apparent anger, she joins the line.
The six Aubreys and I continue down the endless hallway, each step pounding into my skull and each white tile bleeding into the next. Nothing happens for a long while as we pass door upon door, until I spot a splotch of pink against the wall.
We approach Aubrey number seven. When I walk in front of her, she says, “Sunny… I—" She stares at the six other Aubreys following behind me. She steps forward from her leaning position and cracks her knuckles, whipping out her nailed bat. No words are exchanged as the Aubreys prepare to duke it out, all of them taking out their bats from thin air.
The fight starts when the seventh Aubrey spits on the first Aubrey’s shoe, and I find myself flush against the right wall. I watch in horror and fascination as the Aubreys headbutt and punch each other, some pulling hair or kicking shins, and others elbowing and grappling each other. They begin to bruise and bleed all over, some with busted lips and torn skirts, and others still had lost their jackets, their contacts, and their handkerchiefs.
As I keep watching the gradually devolving fight, I notice that one of the Aubreys is missing; suddenly, I’m grabbed from behind and pulled into an adjacent hospital room. Aubrey closes the door and pushes me against the wall, smacking one hand right next to my head, effectively blocking my escape. She comes closer to me, bringing her free hand up to hold my chin, forcing me to look up at her. Was Aubrey always this tall, or am I shorter than I should be? And were her boobs always this big? And she’s getting closer, and her leg is rubbing up between mine, and she smells like watermelon, and her lips are—
“Sunny!” Kel crashes through the wall and tramples over Aubrey with his hooves. I look way up to see his smiling face. “There you are! Don’t tell me you stood me up for Aubrey! You know what they say, bros before hoes!” Ah, of course: I forgot we were going to go have Hero’s homemade mac n’ cheese. Silly me.
Kel picks me up like I weigh nothing and sits me on his back; for some reason, he is a centaur. I wrap my hands around his human torso, securing myself to him, and he charges straight through the wall and out of the hospital. I ride Kel off into the sunset, and we laugh like little schoolgirls, already imagining Herosaurus’s delectable food. I can’t wait to have it so I can prove to him that I accept him for the massive dinosaur with a human head that he is.
As we gallop down the road, the earth suddenly shakes; Kel loses his footing and begins to topple over, and the road splits apart, consuming us whole.
I open my eyes. I look to my left, out of my remaining eye. The ceiling fan spins lazily overhead, while Kel snores from his makeshift bed on the ground. That’s right: I fell asleep in his bed after I had a bad stomach ache. Embarrassed, I remember how he helped clean me up after I purged his mom’s homemade dinner all over his bathroom floor. My stomach growls again, producing a sucking jolt of pain in my belly; I feel too weak to do anything about it.
Sally begins to cry two rooms over, waking up the entire house. Kel groans, wiping a hand down his face as he sits up. He looks up at me, seeing that I’m awake. “Sorry about Sally, Man…”
I shake my head. She didn’t wake me up.
“Oh, if you say so…” He stretches out his back and gets up, heading for the cup of water on his desk. He takes a deep sip from it.
“Kel,” I say.
Kel’s eyebrows shoot up as he finishes his drink. “Yeah? Need something?” He places the cup down and sits at the edge of his bed, looking into my eye.
“Hungry…” I admit. I feel foolish for needing food this late at night.
A soft smile forms on his face. “What’re you thinking? I don’t want to upset your stomach again.”
“Do you have… those mac n’ cheese cups…?” I manage to say. It’s my first full sentence in a while.
“You mean those microwavable ones?”
I nod. My voice is already spent.
“Gotcha. Sit tight; I’ll be right back.” Kel leaves the room; I hear him stomp down the steps to his living room.
It doesn’t take long for him to return with a little cup of microwavable mac n’ cheese, complete with a spoon inside. He also brings in a cup of water.
Kel places the items onto his desk and helps me sit up against his headboard, my body thoroughly spent from the earlier incident. Using the blanket on my lap to mitigate the heat from the cup, he places the mac n’ cheese in my lap. I find myself smiling at the little golden noodles; I remember all the times I would eat these whenever Mom wasn’t home and I was being lazy. I’m sure Kel remembers all our terrible microwave dinners, too.
Kel watches over me from the edge of his bed as I eat the mac n’ cheese, handing me the water whenever I motion for it. I’m fortunate to have his patience; every bite is a struggle for me, my skinny arm shaking and my one eye making it difficult to maneuver my spoon into my mouth properly. Despite how difficult it feels for me, I finish eating every last noodle in the cup, even scraping out the cheese from the bottom and sides for good measure. I hand the empty cup to Kel and drink the last of the water he brought, feeling refreshed and a little full.
Kel gets up to take the cups back to the kitchen, but before he can get out of the room, I say, “Thank you.”
He looks back at me from the doorway, an expression I can’t name on his face. “No problem, Sunny.”
He leaves the room, and as I lay back down and close my eyes, a tear falls onto his pillowcase. I’m sad because of my weakness, but happy because I’m not alone.
Sally stops crying, and a silence falls upon the house. Kel comes back and lays back down on the floor. “Goodnight, Sunny. I’ll be here if you need me.”
“Night…” I say, and long forgotten dreams take me once again.