No. I have not.

You shake your head. “I have not.”

“Oh,” she deadpans and sighs.

“Tell me about it, maybe I’ll start reading too once you are done reading.”

This response makes her laugh a little. You now have her full attention. “I didn’t take you that much of a reader.”

“Hey now,” you smile back. “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.”

She rolls her eyes and looks at the cover of her book. “Well, it’s about rabbits.” she begins, you lean against the wall and look at her. She taps her fingers against the texture of the aged binding. It was probably rewritten on a refurbished printer - from the looks of it, long ago by now.

“Rabbits?” you inquire.

“Rabbits.” she replies.

“Interesting,” you follow. “So you want to have a rabbit farm or something?”

“Oh, no! It’s so much more than just about the animal. The way it tells the story about them is much more...human-like with their adventures. Sometimes when reading it, I picture the bunnies as people!”

Your brows furrow slightly as you tilt your head. “Sounds...pretty entertaining. What’s the story about then?”

“Well,” she opens the book and trails a few chapters back, to what you assume is the beginning. “It’s superstitious, but there are real life people like that too, I suppose.”

“Elaborate a bit more?”

“In the first chapter, you read about two rabbits in specific - Hazel and Fiver. They’re just eating, doing rabbit things, I guess. The smaller rabbit, Fiver, gets this really bad feeling while are eating and tells his brother, Hazel, about it and...Ugh - this sounds so stupid.”

You swallow and look away, feeling suddenly embarrassed. “No, no! Tell me more. I’m- I think I’m interested in it?”

Her face has taken a slight chance of color. “R-really?”

You think for a moment. Are you? You aren’t really sure of your last statement, but you know you want to keep her talking. “Of course! You seem to be enjoying it at the very least. Since we’re stuck together, we might as well get to know each other, right?”

Flora perks a little, looking at the floor as she thinks. “Yeah. You got a point. Ahhh, let me tell you some more about it then.”

Despite the conversation being one-sided, you are able to burn the time relatively quickly. Flora banters for a long time, sometimes referring back to the back the pages between the pauses to confirm something about the book. By the time the conversation dries, you can both agree that it’s time to eat something.