The Plate

Nora was stopped at the last words he uttered.

She can't think of anything to comfort Johann at that second, nonetheless her mouth just involuntarily moved without even thinking.

"I'm sorry."

Replied Nora with sorrowful eyes.

There was this blaring silence for a moment, it might not even be just a moment but an eternity for Nora who doesn't know what to tell Johann to break the ice and slip out of that silence.

Before she can even think of what to say, Johann asked her if she had seen one, a Siphon.

Hesitantly, she replied a no.

For a while, Johann stared at her intrinsically knowing that she is not telling the truth.

To change the heavy atmosphere, Johann admitted to Nora that it was him last night or should we say earlier this morning.

The creaking sound Nora heard was him sneaking into the house.

"I saw a faint red glow in the North window of the house across the street so I checked it out. I may have missed the room you were staying in so I left."

Johann briefly explained.

"Wait, what?!"

Blares Nora out of vexation.

"Yeah. I'm sorry."

The only words Johann felt fitting to say.

"All that fuss for just you checking out my glowstick?! Jo, don't you know I almost cried and crapped myself out that moment?!"

Nora complained with an unusually high pitched voice.

"Hey, I said I was sorry."

Protested Johann.

Johann was swift to change the subject of the conversation.

"Wait a minute, young lady. No one calls me Jo, excep--."

About to mention a name, likely someone really close and dear to him, Johann stopped right there.

Nora noticed and as her usual nosy self, she asked him.

"Except who, Jo?"

Nora repeated calling him Jo.

"I said don't."

"Tel--"

She was quickly cut out.

"Just don't, Nora."

There was this awkward silence again between the two and this time, no one seems to know what to say to change the topic.

Nora ate her food in awkward silence while Johann cleans up the mess on the table and puts out the fire in the grill.

Steam quickly rose from the burning charcoal and the yard fastly smelled like freshly charred wood.

Before they know it, it's almost sundown and they have to prepare before the dark bites.

Nora, unaware how comfortable she got, fell asleep on the wooden table where they ate.