“I kinda wanna see what the Food Court has,” I heard Mila say. “I think I forgot to eat before we left.”

“That’s cool!” Mal pointed back at the center of campus and began to walk, Mila and I following her. I noticed Monroe and Travis had stayed in place as they were talking to Lee, so I wondered if they were going to meet with us later.

The way Travis was talking to Lee reminded me of when Mal first met Mila, except they seemed a lot more… flirty? Well, I think they were being flirty. I’m not the best at reading body language. It was the way they were standing and just playing with their hands that made me believe there was something going on with Travis and Lee.

I returned my focus back to our venture to the Food Court, where I was actually relieved to be going to. I was getting tired of looking at the juice box and trying to plan a way to drink it discreetly. For some reason, I was worried of being caught drinking blood, even if it was “okay” to do here. A part of me just can’t help but to worry.

But enough of my worrying, let me tell you about this Food Court. 

The Food Court was probably bigger than any mall that I’ve ever been to. They had a whole variety of shops and stands, and many on the first floor were actual restaurant-sized buildings with in-person dining. And they all seemed to be organized based on the type of foods they served.

Not like every floor having its own food type or anything like that. It’s like they’re set by columns if that makes sense. So like, to my right there was a pizzeria on the first floor. Then when you look up at the second floor there would be another pizzeria, either the same one or a different one. And then on the third floor in the same exact spot as the first-story and second-story pizzerias, there would be yet another pizzeria. Does that make any sense?

I only used the pizzeria as an example, but it applies to everything else around us. And there were a lot of elevators around as well, I guess for when someone wanted something from the fifth-story pizzeria instead of the first-story one. To be honest I don’t know how tall these buildings are. I wanna say it’s a good ten or so stories tall, but I’m not sure.

I forgot that Mal was still talking to us about the Food Court and didn’t know whether I should start paying attention while she was in the middle of explaining whatever it was she was explaining, or wait until we go somewhere to get a quick meal. I don’t think she noticed that I wasn’t paying attention.

“So,” I heard Mal say, after taking a long pause. “Where would y’all like to go eat?”

I looked over at Mila, who was looking around at all the different places on the first floor. She looked like she was trying to see what was on the second floor, but she gave up and kept her gaze on the first-story diners. There was a burger joint across from the pizzeria that I mentioned, and Mila pointed over at it. “There?” She didn’t sound completely sure about her choice, but I knew she was gonna go with it anyways.

“Alrighty,” Mal said. “This place is actually pretty good! They have another location that’s off-campus that makes these really good chicken fries.”

“Those sound good,” Mila said. “Maybe this one has those here too?”

We walked over to the burger place, and I spotted Monroe from inside a building that I assumed was the kitchen—like where they make the burgers and stuff. He seemed to have been arguing with someone else inside from the irritated look on his face, and the way he was talking looked more like yelling to me.

“Is that Monroe?” I heard Mila asked.

“Yeah,” Mal told her. “He actually works here and at the off-campus location. The Crosses thought it would be a nice start to his culinary dreams.”

“Monroe wants to be a chef?” I asked. I didn’t take him for the cooking type, with all the snacks that he and Travis had at their place.

Mal nodded. “When we were younger, he’d make a huge deal about how awesome cooking was. He liked making all these weird dishes and would cook for the Cross family all the time.”

We stood out in line as Mal told us about Monroe’s passion for cooking. She mentioned the Crosses a few times as she talked, and it was like she forgot that me and Mila were from out of state. “Who are the Crosses?” I asked her. 

“They’re Travis’ parents,” Mal explained. “Well, adoptive parents. Technically, they’re also Monroe’s adoptive parents too, but Monroe doesn’t think he lived with them long enough to be considered a part of the family.”

I didn’t know why but the way Mal said that kinda made me feel bad. “How come?” I asked her. “If it’s alright to share, I mean.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mal said. “Most of the people here know his story with the Crosses, thanks to the old newspaper system we used to have. Long story short, he was adopted when he was like fourteen or fifteen, but he and Travis ended up moving out when he was almost eighteen because they were starting college together, and they wanted to live close to the campus. The Crosses helped them move out, and Monroe got a job offer from the owner of this place. He was close to Mr. Cross and thought Monroe would probably like working there. And then Monroe opened up this place here at the college.”

“Hey.” Monroe’s voice brought our attention to him. He was standing at the register in front of us, as if waiting for us to order.

I had no idea how long we had been standing in line. I looked around, hoping that we weren’t holding up the line or anything, but it was just the three of us standing there. Mila was looking around too, probably fearing the same thing. When we looked back at Monroe, he was smiling.

He was just messing with us, I thought with relief.

“Got ya.” He chuckled under his breath.

Mal seemed confused at first but realized what had happened. “Don’t mess with the freshman,” she told Monroe, laughing a little.

“You know I can’t promise that,” Monroe replied. His eyes darted between me and Mila. “So, how do you two like the campus so far?”