B.C Loafs with a hint of Cheerios and Custard
B.C Loafs with a hint of Cheerios and Custard
‘’Hey, do you have any bananas and chocolate?’’
Hannah looked up from the freezer as she took out the orange juice and asked Grace.
Grace laughed and pointed to a white cabinet over the kitchen counter.
‘’Up there’’ she smiled.
‘’What are you going to do with them?’’ she added curiously.
‘’What? You’ve never had banana and chocolate sandwiches?’’ Hannah grinned.
‘’Okay, your world is about to be revolutionized’’ she huffed out as Grace shook her head.
She found the ingredients and smeared chocolate on one piece of loaf.
‘’First you do this. Some would take the butter under the chocolate, but I’m going to butter the other piece of loaf with a thick layer instead’’ she grinned as she picked up the other piece.
She grabbed the bananas after buttering the loaf.
‘’Theeeen’’ she muttered when she cut the banana in small pieces and put them on both loaf pieces.
‘’You smash them together. And you have what I would call perfect B.C Loafs’’ she grinned.
Before them now was a completely-disgusting-looking-probably-not-very-healthy-and-probably-just-an-invitation-for-acne sandwich. But when Hannah cut it in two and handed Grace one half of it, she took a bite. And Hannah could see she was right. Grace’s world had just been revolutionized.
‘’So, for dinner I am going to make my favorite dish. Cheerios and custard’’ Hannah muffled when she took a bite of her own making.
Grace laughed, and it wasn’t anything like the laughs Hannah had seen from her before. It was a completely awkward, completely adorable full body laugh. And it made Hannah laugh with her.
‘’You truly are something for yourself’’ she muttered out in between her fits of laughs.
‘’So, tell me more about you’’ Grace said looking down in her bowl filled to the brink with cheerios and custard.
Hannah looked at her for a moment, trying to figure out where to start.
‘’Well’’ she breathed.
‘’My father is ex-military’’ she sighed.
She wasn’t sure if she would be able to tell the entire story, so she decided to tell bits and pieces.
‘’He was captured by a hostile camp on his last trip. He was tortured and forced to torture other people. He maimed them. He even killed some. And when he got home, he was so damaged that he didn’t stop’’ she said, feeling the normal push behind her eyes.
‘’So, one day, when I turned 18, I decided to leave. And that’s when I met you and Lex’’ Hannah smiled at the memory.
‘’Ever since then I have just wandered around aimlessly. That was until I came here a few weeks ago’’ she smiled to Grace who was listening curiously.
‘’Is that the whole story?’’ Grace asked, still pretty curious.
‘’For now’’ Hannah exhaled slowly.
‘’Okay’’ Grace whispered as she looked down in her bowl again.
Hannah reached out and put her hand on Grace’s.
‘’What about you? What’s your story?’’ she asked, trying to look into Grace’s eyes.
‘’Oh, nothing exiting really’’ she said looking up at Hannah.
‘’Oh, I’m pretty sure it is’’ Hannah murmured.
Grace smiled and looked down at Hannah’s hand on top of hers. Her thumb was stroking around Grace’s ring, and Grace was mesmerized by it.
‘’Well, I was born and raised in Austin. I moved to Seattle 4 years ago with my family because my mum got cancer and got transferred to a doctor here. She died a few months after, and I lived in this apartment with Lex until she died as well. And now I’m on my own. 23 years old and living alone’’
‘’What about your father?’’ Hannah wondered.
‘’I… never really knew him. He died in a car crash when I was two years old’’ she smiled.
But Hannah could easily see that this smile was forced. There wasn’t any happiness put in it, and how could it? This woman had lost her entire family to the grim reaper, and no one had been around to help her through it.
Hannah drew Grace’s hand up and kissed the back of it.
‘’I’m so sorry, Grace’’ she sighed.
‘’It’s okay. I’ve learned to deal with it’’ she said while exhaling softly.
‘’No one should have to learn to deal with it’’ Hannah whispered, gazing into the sadness of stars and oceans.
Grace shrugged and took a spoonful of the dinner into her mouth.
‘’You’re right; this is truly good’’ she smiled, mouth filled with cheerios and custard.
‘’I know, right?’’ Hannah grinned.
‘’What would you do without me?’’ she smirked as she leaned against the back of the chair. She picked up her bowl and was about to eat when she heard Grace try to scream something. But she couldn’t make it out, because suddenly she was lying on the floor covered in the bowls contents.
‘’-lean on it’’
Grace finished her sentence in shock, and it quickly turned into a laugh. Like… a real laugh. She threw her head back and slammed to the floor herself in her little laughing seizure.
‘’Glad you find me funny’’ Hannah mumbled as she got to her feet.
‘’Hey, Grace?’’ she said when she looked around herself.
‘’What?’’ Grace managed to huff out.
‘’Umh, sorry about your floor?’’ Hannah said pursing her lips down in half a smile, half shock.
This shut Grace up for a few seconds before another laugh erupted from her.
‘’It’s okay’’
‘’Also, do you have a shirt I could borrow? I don’t have any clean ones’’
Still rolling on the floor Grace managed to get out ‘’yeah’’, and she got up only to see her floor. And she cracked in another laugh.
‘’Yeah, I get it. I’m funny’’ Hannah smiled.
‘’So, so funny’’ Grace grinned.
‘’Here’’ Grace said turning around to give the shirt to Hannah. The smile on her lips faded as she looked at Hannah, on her stomach.
‘’Why are you looking at me like that?’’ Hannah smiled, but then she remembered.
Fuck!
It was the only thought swirling around in her head as Grace stepped into her personal space and traced her fingers along the marks in Hannah’s skin.
Fuckfuckfuckfuck.
‘’Don’t’’ she whispered as she grabbed Grace’s hand. She pushed it away and released it when Grace looked up in her eyes. Worry and pity evident in hazel-brown and blue.
‘’Just… don’t’’ she whispered again when Grace’s eyes didn’t shy away from her own.
Grace swung her arms around Hannah’s shoulder and drew her in for a tight hug. She tightened her grip when Hannah tried to pull away and Hannah gave in. She put her arms on Grace’s back and let out a sob.
She didn’t know why she was crying. But she guessed it was because this was the only person that avoided her curse. Even when she remembered the awful memories she felt, Grace’s touch was comfortable. Her hands were so different from those that haunted her dreams. They were small and soft and… Grace.
Grace let go of Hannah and sat down on the bed.
Hannah followed her. She wasn’t quite ready to let go of Grace’s touch yet, so she climbed on top of the bed and crawled behind Grace’s back. She shifted and sat down, her legs surrounding Grace’s waist. She placed her chin on Grace’s shoulder and put her arms around her stomach.
‘’Do you want to talk about it?’’ Grace whispered as she put her hands on top of Hannah’s.
Hannah put her nose in the brown locks cascading Grace’s neck and shoulders.
‘’No. Can we just sit like this for a while?’’ she muffled into them.
Grace closed her eyes and nodded her head.
‘’Yeah. Yeah, we can do that’’