Mind Planet {ON HOLD}

Chapter Two

    Nathan was the only person she had ever told and although she considered it thoughtful that he had decided to wear such bright colours to cheer her up on her worst day in the year, she knew it would take more than the simple gesture to keep the horrors that came with the date at bay.

    It was the same day, but eight years after that her adopted parents had died. The date on the calendar was a constant reminder of what she had lost and what she had become and she could only be glad for a distraction to keep the awful thoughts away until the night when the pain would be unbearable.

    She gave him a bright smile to which he responded with a gracious bow as he set a delicious-looking piece of chocolate and red velvet cake in front of her. The flavour had been a personal favourite for as long as she could remember but the real reason her smile transformed into a genuine one was because of the size of the cake in comparison to the term 'piece'  he had used when he invited her to his place of work. The cake was large enough to feed two footballers as a full meal and for her' being a foodie with amazing metabolism; enough to fill her up until she would receive her next meal in less than a few hours.

    "For my lovely Naomi on this truly shitty day. I hope you cry only tears this night in a recommended process of ridding your eyes of all the harmful substances you will come across this unfaithful day. But more importantly, I hope you will remember me as a hot man in the vortex of your imaginative dreams." Nathan said in a perfected intergalactic accent. He bowed for the second time to complete his performance then slid into the chair beside her.

    On the tray were a freshly baked cake, two 'couple'  cups of ice cream, and a platter of freshly grilled fresh fish. The char was there and it well seasoned, giving it an aroma that made Naomi's stomach growl. The fish had been seasoned with a great number of exotic spices but as the universal language to her heart was food, so was the equation potato chips; crushed and crumbled as a crust onto the fish.

    In total, the tray could never have been more perfect as a distraction from her truly shitty day.

    "Are you going to rate my performance or not? Do you have any idea how hard it is to take the train, as a guy, dressed in all the brightest colours in the forty-first century, practice a childish performance continuously for a girl who has turned you down countless times, just to see her happy, wake up early in the morning to disturb people to get things ready, only to receive no form of appreciation?" Nathan said in a melodramatic tone, looking like a distressed person who had lost all he owned and cherished.

    For a half-second, Naomi felt a pang of guilt for how she had been towards him but then the feeling was gone, replaced by what had become her natural state of being unbothered. She rolled her eyes then replied in a bored drawl. "Next time you want to get appreciated, get a friend who has emotions and a percentage of sentimental value for actions taken for or against them. But for now, you're stuck with me so sorry, not sorry." Then without a single care for his stretched hand reaching for the cake, she cut the cake into two and swallowed the entire piece whole.

    Her mouth formed a vacuum that had become very uncommon as more children were being born and it sucked up all the roughage while she absorbed only the nutrients and delicious taste. Nathan watched in horror as she did the same for everything else on the tray and slowly and steadily consumed every single thing on the tray of food, including the cup of ice cream that he had originally assigned to himself.

    In a matter of seconds, all traces of the food were gone and with his shoulders sagged, he was forced to do his job of clearing it away when he thought he would have been enjoying a little of all his hard work.

    Once he was gone, Naomi glanced down at her left wrist where a chip that served as a mobile had been embedded in her skin and connected to the nanites implanted in her nerve system. It was the thirteenth hour of the morning and she was more than ready to utilize the twenty-five hours she had left remaining in that day before she would have to retire to the hellish place that she called a residence.