If she really counts as company, anyway.

So, yeah. You follow Delilah closely as she walks through the ever-darkening hallways, keeping your eyes peeled on all the darker spots you pass by. You're still hearing occasional scary noises every now and then, and you'd really prefer to not.

"So... how come you're still here?" You ask, trying to strike up a conversation and get your focus away from the scary bits.

"Don't talk to me."

"Are you here by accident too?"

"..."

.......didn't work. As she leads you through the halls, sipping her hot chocolate occasionally, you try to get her talking to you from a bunch of different angles, but none of them really work much. She takes you out to the Courtyard, which is way darker now and filled with the buzz of cicadas, and walks you across the grass. She's barefoot under her pyjamas, so her feet are totally getting cold and wet from the dew, and the edges of her pyjama pants legs are totally doing the same, but she doesn't seem bothered by it. Until you bring it up to her, then she gets bothered.

Finding a spot in the corner of the grass, she plops herself down with a satisfied "mmn", sets down her half-empty mug beside her, and produces an apple that she was apparently carrying around in her pants pocket. She takes a loud, powerful crunching bite out of it, then looks you over as you stand in front of her, chewing loudly and crossing her legs out straight in front of her.

She swallows the first bite. "You smell like cum. You should take a shower." She takes another smaller bite, then slowly chews on it and swallows. "I promise I'll still be right here when you're done, honest."

You put a hand on your crotch. Still a bit damp. Drat.

You keep awkwardly standing in the grass in front of her as she slowly makes her way through the apple, leaning back against the building wall in a relaxed position. You'd sit too, but you want to stay alert and ready to act, in case any scary things happen.

It takes a little bit for her to eat the full apple, and you're not having much fun right now at all. You just want to get home and curl up in your{if@ Bed >0} real{endif} bed, with a big bowl of stir fry, and enjoy the weekend after your first week here.... you stomach grumbles loudly in the middle of the swaying you started to do to pass the time.

Delilah looks up at you accusingly, as if you're being too loud for her, before going back to chewing the bite of apple in her mouth. You put a hand over your tummy apologetically. H-hey, wait, you don't have anything to be sorry for at all! She's the whole reason you're here at all, and she didn't even offer a bite of apple to a hungry person in need, you don't owe her a thing!

You settle to sit down in the grass crosslegged at last, because standing was getting boring. While you're down there, you start idly picking at the grass below.

".....how come you hate me, anyway?"

Delilah swallows her last bite of apple. "What?" She says, beginning to dig through her apple core to take out all of the seeds.

"You're only ever mean to me!" You say, building in confidence since it's just the two of you here now. "Even just since we met, you were really really rude, and I've tried being friends, but you don't let me!"

You hope you aren't being too harsh right now, but you're a bit worked up from being cummed **** and having to spend the night here now. Plus, you're on four hours of sleep, which means you're tired enough to act tired but not tired enough to sleep more. So you're gonna speak your mind!

"I....." Delilah pauses for a second, but then plays it off as if she was digging out a particularly difficult seed. "I don't hate you, I just don't like you. Not everybody you run into is going to love you, that's how things work."

"But why?" You press. "There's got to be a reason, or else we'd be friends!"

"There doesn't have to be a reason." Delilah says, gaze growing increasingly interesting in gutting the apple core. "Not liking someone is the standard human condition. You can't like or dislike something you don't know."

"Me! You don't know me! You were really really rude when all you knew about me was what I looked like!"

"So what?!" Delilah suddenly shouts, ripping her head upwards to look at you again. Her face is slightly tinged red in anger. "So what? Look at you! You're..... argh!"

Delilah goes back to looking down at her apple, digging out the last seed, and then fiercely throwing her fully-supplied handful of seeds to the side. Looking down at her legs, her other hand lifts the fully-gutted apple core into the air, and waves it around.

"So what if I don't like you? Why do you care? Why do you need to have more friends than you've got?"

Your stomach rumbles again, and Delilah squeezes her eyes tightly shut in pure frustration, waving the apple core a bit faster now. Her other hand, which is now on her knee after brushing off the apple seeds that stuck to her hand, has its fingers firmly pressing inwards. You feel a big bubble of dejection and dismissal bubbling up high in your chest, and it's making you feel not good at all.

"Well fine!" You shout back, louder than she did. "Then we won't be friends! I won't be your friend, and Lexi won't be your friend,{if@ Cameron's Impression >50} and Cameron won't be your friend,{endif} and nobody'll be your friend, because you're just..... you're just a big..... just a big, nasty bully!"

Delilah's eyes shoot open again, and she glares **** back at you with such intensity you find yourself shrinking backwards. She opens her mouth, ready to retaliate in fully ****, but before anything can get out she's interrupted by another sound.

"meowww."

Swaggering right past you, brushing its head against your elbow as it does so, an orange and white forest cat walks its way up to Delilah. When it reaches the base of her hips, it stops and sits up. Delilah takes in a deep, calming breath, before lowering her arm again and holding the seedless apple core for the cat to inspect. It leans in close, sniffing a few times, before trying a single lick. It leans back and looks up at Delilah.

"What, did I miss one again?" She mutters to herself quietly, turning over the apple core in her hand and locating a seed that she'd apparently not spotted. She digs it out, tosses it into the grass, then holds out the apple core to the cat's mouth again. "Happy?"

Seeming satisfied, the cat leans forward and takes the apple core into its mouth. It then walks a few steps away to find its own private spot in the grass a short distance away from the two of you, and sits itself down there to fully consume its meal.

You stare at the cat in awe, watching as it uses its front paws to hold the apple core in place for its mouth to **** from all angles. Delilah looks over at the furry creature too, but with a more bored expression.

"His name's Toffee." She says, in a tone of voice so normal that it sounds overly gentle coming from her. "I call him Toff."

"Is he your cat?" You ask, mouth open slightly as you continue your gaze.

You've seen cats and stuff before, but there's something extra special about this one. It might just be the way it's eating, or that you're so happiness-starved that this scene feels like a full festival, but you're not so sure. Toffee's eyes are a brilliant, shining amber, and his fur is more intricately patterned than any other animal fur you've ever seen before, almost like a fine tapestry of oranges which wind and weave their way forwards into his proud white-furred and sorta puffy chest.

"I feed him." Delilah says simply, with a small shrug.

"So he's yours?"

"I feed him." She repeats.

You've never had a pet before.... as you're staring at the extra-special and fluffy cute cat, next to the mean girl who feeds it and stayed at school after leaving time, fear suddenly creeps back into your body. Slowly, almost creakily, you turn your wide eyes and shaking head to look over at Delilah.

"You're not.... you're not a witch, are you?"

"I'm not a.... what, because of the cat? No, stupid, I'm not a witch."

"Are you a human?"

"What- what are you actually even- you're so fucking-"

In the middle of your interrogation, Toffee finishes his meal. Rising back up from his curled laying position, he walks over to you and rubs his head against your hand again, this time working his way into your palm, purring soothingly. Your mind is immediately taken off of the imminent threat sitting across from you, and fully into that cute, purring little fluffball you're giving headscritches to.

Delilah watches for a little bit, then silently stands up and takes the hot chocolate mug up off of the grassy ground. Toffee and you both look up at her, with you still rubbing behind his ears.

"Well, you might've gotten some sleep after you came like a whore, but as you know, I didn't." She says, stretching her arms behind her back relaxedly. "I'm going to my room. Come on Toff."

Delilah starts walking across the Courtyard, but stops after a few steps when she notices that Toffee's still sitting by you getting headscritches and looking over at her.

".....Toffee." She says in a stern voice. Toffee interrupts his purring to meow loudly at her, then gets right back to purring. Delilah's shoulders sag a little bit, but then she sighs and rubs at her eyes. "Alright, fine. You're hungry, right Debbie? Let's get you some food, and then I'll go get some.... fuckin'...... some sleep."

She yawns. You hop up off of the grass, and Toffee stretches out his back, before Delilah turns and walks away with the two of you following her. Toffee walks with what can easily be described as complete confidence.