Exchanging Stories
Tiny Way Of Life
chapter 13
by
copier
· original author:
a27293
Having more or less eaten your fill of soggy cheerios, you sit back and lounge in the cereal bowl, as if you were a regular person chilling in a swimming pool, while you tell Sora the basics about your life up 'till now. About being born this way, growing up, how it wasn't as bad as you'd think.
Along the way, of course, you have to answer a lot of reasonable and/or childlike questions she bombards you with. Yes, really, you'd been stepped on. Yeah, you were fine. No, she wasn't wearing shoes and it was a soft carpet besides, you didn't know if you'd survive a real stomping.
Yes, you really could hold your breath pretty much all day. You just didn't like to. Yes, you really had been accidentally swallowed before. Yeah, mostly they got you back out later, but one time you ended up going all the way through and getting pooped out after. That's actually how you ended up in this city, by getting flushed down and washing down the sewer system. Got trapped underground for months.
"What was it like?" Sora whispers, her mouth forming a perpetual 'o' of intrigue at all of this adventure.
"What, living in the sewers?" You say, waving it off casually. At first explaining everything had been just a matter of routine, but you couldn't ask for a more attentive audience than this girl and despite yourself, you'd been caught up in the swing of the storytelling. "Well, first thing I did was find the gray-water runoff - that's the mostly clean stuff, like from sinks, for big buildings particularly - and wash off best as I could. Then I fought a rat to the death and killed it, stabbing it with a nee-"
"What was it like being eaten, thought?" Sora blurts out and interrupts you, somewhat annoyingly.
"What, that? Didn't like it. Real cramped and damp and hot inside, seriously, there's way too little room to move around. And that's just in the stomach! Weirdly enough, that's the smelliest part too, since you're not adjusted to the sm-"
"You mean because of all the other food?"
"Hey, just 'cause I got eaten doesn't make me food, alright!?" Sora looks quizzical at this, but before she can ask another question you quickly interrupt: "But yes, because of the food. And bile. Keep in mind, there's not even standing room inside the stomach to begin with, right?
"So I'm curled up in there trying to keep my head above this chewed-up mess of some girl's breakfast, but meantime, every time she takes a step or even moves around at all it's, like, this huge motion and everything gets thrown around, so I have to keep moving to keep my head clear the whole time - (god forbid she chug down some kind of drink on top of that, by the way). You'd think having someone moving around that much in your gut would make you nauseous or something, right? But apparently, some people actually enjoy it somehow, like this last chick who kept on patting her stomach and drinking down water until I finally decided it was give up and move on, or drown. That idiot apparently thought she'd just swallowed a fish the night before, like an actual living goldfish. Seriously."
You stop and take a breath after venting this. Months of hard-fought survival had not yet taken the edge off of how annoying that whole memory was.
Meanwhile, Sora still had questions. After waiting a moment to make sure you were done, she asked: "Didn't you try yelling out that you weren't a fish? Even if she only just kind of heard you shouting in there, you'd think she'd realize that goldfish wouldn't do that. Right?"
You roll your eyes. "Of course I tried that. Waste of time. Apparently she couldn't hear anything at all from me. Meanwhile, I have to hear every little sound she's making. Words, steps, heartbeats, even loud breathing sometimes, you name it. I woke up while she was snoring, and believe me, I could feel that noise - literally! Call that fair? 'Cause I most certainly do not!"
You cross your arms in mock anger, dramatically fuming, which gets a laugh out of the younger girl while she sits back and brushes her pigtails back over her shoulder. You make a face and get another little chuckle out of the moment, then crack a grin and lean back again, spreading your arms out over the rim of the bowl. She smiles back again, then asks another question. Because of course she does. "So what was the worst part, if you had to pick just one? The smell? The big-person noises? Maybe the part at the end, where you had to wait to be pooped out of her butt?" She teases, giggling.
"Yes. All of it was the worst. It was all terrible."
"Aww, c'monnn..." Sora pleads, switching gears in an instant. Dammit.
"Gah, fine! If you must know, then honestly? I think being totally ignored like that was the worst. Everything else wasn't great, but when the person who got you into that whole mess in the first place, and could totally get you out of it anytime, doesn't know or even care about it? Well, that really made me mad."
"And the best?" She prompted, leaning back in and setting her arm down on the table.
"There was no 'best'. It was all the worst."
"Steeeeve!" She pouts.
"Alright, alright already! So if I had to pick the least-bad thing about it, somehow, I guess..." You think for a moment. One odd little standalone event in that whole debacle had been how, when Christine had started rubbing her belly while you leaned against it, the sensation had been surprisingly somewhat pleasant. But you felt weird about saying that. "I need to think about it. I never really thought about it that way before," you conclude.
"But-"
"Nope! No buts. Also, it's my turn to ask some questions. Like: can I use your phone, when you get a second? I need to call my folks and let them know what's up, already. Clear up a missing persons case, get home, and what not."
"Ah- about that..." Sora looks embarrassed, and turns her eyes down while she talks. "See, the thing is, my phone, I might have... dropped it in the gutter, when I saw you, so..."
You give her an incredulous stare, at which she blushes and looks back down again. "For real? Damn, that sucks, sorry. Anyway, if you've got a landline..."
"We don't." You smack your palm to your forehead. "Yeah, fair, fair, I guess I should have expected that much. Then, when you're going to school yo-"
"My parents took me out of school," she blurts out, suddenly looking even sadder. "Last year, because of bullying. I mean, I'd rather go there anyway, and at least see other people, but..." she trails off.
Partly out of sympathy, and partly out of curiosity, you chip in: "Bullying, what for? You're like the coolest kid I ever met, first one that isn't a total brat. What's up with that?"
Sora blushes, and then smiles weakly. "Thanks, but it's not me. Not really. It's just because I have two moms."
"Ah." Damn kids. You both sit in silence for a while.
Finally, Sora raises her head. "Anyway, I could take you to a pay phone later. Would that help?"
"A-uh. Yeah. Yeah, that should be fine. I've never used one before, but y'know. Pretty sure we can figure it out. Your parents probably don't let you use their computer either, huh?"
"Only for the guest account. It has my home-ed software on it, so the web browser's disabled so I can't look up answers. Sorry." She says it easily enough, but looks uncomfortable while she's at it.
You honestly have to feel bad for her. Somehow, it feels like she's lonelier here in this house than you ever were in that sewer. Damn shame. She seemed like a pretty good kid. Even if she was a bit mischievous, and skipped over all your heroic rat-killing/bug-slaying adventure stories to ask a million friggin' questions about people eating you.
"Anyway" you stand up, milk sloughing off you as you stretch out and call up at the girl, who's attentive but still looks at you a little sadly. "Thing is, I've been totally AWOL for a seriously long time now, so..."
Without turning to look, you can plainly hear her outreached hand fidgeting nervously behind you, as she listens with reluctant resignation...
Along the way, of course, you have to answer a lot of reasonable and/or childlike questions she bombards you with. Yes, really, you'd been stepped on. Yeah, you were fine. No, she wasn't wearing shoes and it was a soft carpet besides, you didn't know if you'd survive a real stomping.
Yes, you really could hold your breath pretty much all day. You just didn't like to. Yes, you really had been accidentally swallowed before. Yeah, mostly they got you back out later, but one time you ended up going all the way through and getting pooped out after. That's actually how you ended up in this city, by getting flushed down and washing down the sewer system. Got trapped underground for months.
"What was it like?" Sora whispers, her mouth forming a perpetual 'o' of intrigue at all of this adventure.
"What, living in the sewers?" You say, waving it off casually. At first explaining everything had been just a matter of routine, but you couldn't ask for a more attentive audience than this girl and despite yourself, you'd been caught up in the swing of the storytelling. "Well, first thing I did was find the gray-water runoff - that's the mostly clean stuff, like from sinks, for big buildings particularly - and wash off best as I could. Then I fought a rat to the death and killed it, stabbing it with a nee-"
"What was it like being eaten, thought?" Sora blurts out and interrupts you, somewhat annoyingly.
"What, that? Didn't like it. Real cramped and damp and hot inside, seriously, there's way too little room to move around. And that's just in the stomach! Weirdly enough, that's the smelliest part too, since you're not adjusted to the sm-"
"You mean because of all the other food?"
"Hey, just 'cause I got eaten doesn't make me food, alright!?" Sora looks quizzical at this, but before she can ask another question you quickly interrupt: "But yes, because of the food. And bile. Keep in mind, there's not even standing room inside the stomach to begin with, right?
"So I'm curled up in there trying to keep my head above this chewed-up mess of some girl's breakfast, but meantime, every time she takes a step or even moves around at all it's, like, this huge motion and everything gets thrown around, so I have to keep moving to keep my head clear the whole time - (god forbid she chug down some kind of drink on top of that, by the way). You'd think having someone moving around that much in your gut would make you nauseous or something, right? But apparently, some people actually enjoy it somehow, like this last chick who kept on patting her stomach and drinking down water until I finally decided it was give up and move on, or drown. That idiot apparently thought she'd just swallowed a fish the night before, like an actual living goldfish. Seriously."
You stop and take a breath after venting this. Months of hard-fought survival had not yet taken the edge off of how annoying that whole memory was.
Meanwhile, Sora still had questions. After waiting a moment to make sure you were done, she asked: "Didn't you try yelling out that you weren't a fish? Even if she only just kind of heard you shouting in there, you'd think she'd realize that goldfish wouldn't do that. Right?"
You roll your eyes. "Of course I tried that. Waste of time. Apparently she couldn't hear anything at all from me. Meanwhile, I have to hear every little sound she's making. Words, steps, heartbeats, even loud breathing sometimes, you name it. I woke up while she was snoring, and believe me, I could feel that noise - literally! Call that fair? 'Cause I most certainly do not!"
You cross your arms in mock anger, dramatically fuming, which gets a laugh out of the younger girl while she sits back and brushes her pigtails back over her shoulder. You make a face and get another little chuckle out of the moment, then crack a grin and lean back again, spreading your arms out over the rim of the bowl. She smiles back again, then asks another question. Because of course she does. "So what was the worst part, if you had to pick just one? The smell? The big-person noises? Maybe the part at the end, where you had to wait to be pooped out of her butt?" She teases, giggling.
"Yes. All of it was the worst. It was all terrible."
"Aww, c'monnn..." Sora pleads, switching gears in an instant. Dammit.
"Gah, fine! If you must know, then honestly? I think being totally ignored like that was the worst. Everything else wasn't great, but when the person who got you into that whole mess in the first place, and could totally get you out of it anytime, doesn't know or even care about it? Well, that really made me mad."
"And the best?" She prompted, leaning back in and setting her arm down on the table.
"There was no 'best'. It was all the worst."
"Steeeeve!" She pouts.
"Alright, alright already! So if I had to pick the least-bad thing about it, somehow, I guess..." You think for a moment. One odd little standalone event in that whole debacle had been how, when Christine had started rubbing her belly while you leaned against it, the sensation had been surprisingly somewhat pleasant. But you felt weird about saying that. "I need to think about it. I never really thought about it that way before," you conclude.
"But-"
"Nope! No buts. Also, it's my turn to ask some questions. Like: can I use your phone, when you get a second? I need to call my folks and let them know what's up, already. Clear up a missing persons case, get home, and what not."
"Ah- about that..." Sora looks embarrassed, and turns her eyes down while she talks. "See, the thing is, my phone, I might have... dropped it in the gutter, when I saw you, so..."
You give her an incredulous stare, at which she blushes and looks back down again. "For real? Damn, that sucks, sorry. Anyway, if you've got a landline..."
"We don't." You smack your palm to your forehead. "Yeah, fair, fair, I guess I should have expected that much. Then, when you're going to school yo-"
"My parents took me out of school," she blurts out, suddenly looking even sadder. "Last year, because of bullying. I mean, I'd rather go there anyway, and at least see other people, but..." she trails off.
Partly out of sympathy, and partly out of curiosity, you chip in: "Bullying, what for? You're like the coolest kid I ever met, first one that isn't a total brat. What's up with that?"
Sora blushes, and then smiles weakly. "Thanks, but it's not me. Not really. It's just because I have two moms."
"Ah." Damn kids. You both sit in silence for a while.
Finally, Sora raises her head. "Anyway, I could take you to a pay phone later. Would that help?"
"A-uh. Yeah. Yeah, that should be fine. I've never used one before, but y'know. Pretty sure we can figure it out. Your parents probably don't let you use their computer either, huh?"
"Only for the guest account. It has my home-ed software on it, so the web browser's disabled so I can't look up answers. Sorry." She says it easily enough, but looks uncomfortable while she's at it.
You honestly have to feel bad for her. Somehow, it feels like she's lonelier here in this house than you ever were in that sewer. Damn shame. She seemed like a pretty good kid. Even if she was a bit mischievous, and skipped over all your heroic rat-killing/bug-slaying adventure stories to ask a million friggin' questions about people eating you.
"Anyway" you stand up, milk sloughing off you as you stretch out and call up at the girl, who's attentive but still looks at you a little sadly. "Thing is, I've been totally AWOL for a seriously long time now, so..."
Without turning to look, you can plainly hear her outreached hand fidgeting nervously behind you, as she listens with reluctant resignation...
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June 2
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