Soul Crossers | Wattys 2024

Chapter 2: Soul Cross

Syntel found Zira as he went to find a place to sit in the dining hall. Her wavy ponytail and twin buns shined better than in her dorm. His heart skipped a beat the closer she got, so much she asked if he was constipated.

"I'm good, your hair looks awesome though," though his stomach was hurting.

"Um," looking away. "Thanks."

"You going to join any clubs?"

"Two, one I'll go to later, the other is in here with my friends."

Not in a classroom or different room?  "Ah, well mind if I join?"

"Sure, eat before you get malnourished."

After a painstakingly long wait for the main line, he searched for her friends, not spotting anyone who resembled her or offered a seat. It wouldn't be the first time someone had pretended to want to sit with him, and the lack of lighting in the seating section did not help.

That was until he noticed Aurora, who attacked Zira earlier, sitting by her lonesome. Though hesitant, he chose to sit and get more details. Losing friends was hard, but he elected to understand their conflict given the somber face of both of their faces from last week.

She raised her head, shook back and forth when he nodded to confirm he wanted to sit with her before messing around with a series of art supplies, gluing, using markers to figure out what to do, almost like he wasn't there. Spotting the stress twitching eyes and the sound of her roaring stomach, Syntel returned with a cup of sliced cucumber for her.

"Can't focus on an empty tummy," offering it to her.

She looked up, nodded, and swallowed it down. Meanwhile he got a closer look at her name: Aurora Chuko, and what she was working on: a broken tree. It had pieces of articles cut and plastered together as the base and bottom half of the tree. She covered the topics with her fingers, giving him a scornful look.

"Personal?" She nodded. "Sorry, I was curious," while his brain went back to his literature course about understanding the meanings behind poems and small stories. He snapped his fingers. "Why don't you do several trees? Yours is a broken symbol, so you can do it like a story: a tree at the beginning, then yours in the middle, then one that rises back up again?"

She took out a phone and began typing. What happens if you haven't grown yet, came from her phone.

"Well, I'm not sure," considering his burnout issues. "I'm still recovering from high school and the mental drain, my father, and I don't know where I want to go. But my mother always told me that when I got hurt, even if it wasn't my fault, to get back up again, and it's okay to rest and recover." He scratched his head. "Our lives are like a tree, we're still growing, even if it doesn't feel like it, right?"

Aurora sparkled. A tear dropped from her eye as she patted him on the head. Next she began writing and coloring down ideas and plans, almost evoking a smile, which he watched for minutes on end.

A loud bark from behind put an end to that and they jumped out of their seats with their hearts racing to see the source. A blond, slicked gelled guy with a hockey jersey and his continuous barks got Aurora to gather her things.

"What's wrong vomit girl, I'm just here to give you a gift." Syntel noticed he was about to slip something in her pocket and smacked them away, only for the guy to grab his hand.

"Oh hey, you want a taste of that behind," he asked, strong enough to stop any of the freshman's struggle and pulled it to Aurora's interior. Syntel was horrified, Aurora shrieked, and a plate dropped in front of them, Zira's. And she was ready to explode.