“I like her,” Rimorr says bluntly, using Amgis’ stoic voice.
Reflecting his well-sculpted, but unkempt appearance. As if a painter drew him with beautiful autumn leaf-colored hair with some sticks poking out to form a cowlick. Contrasting his grey eyes that bite like a wolf under the cover of a stormy night. And a well-proportioned, but deprived posture, body that balances tightness and looseness in certain areas of his school uniform. Rimoor is a perfect image of Amgis, except it doesn’t have to deal with the incessant bowel movements that seem to haunt his midafternoons.
“You talking about Mia?” Amgis asks, turning the sink water on to clean his hands.
“Yeah, I have been thinking about it over the weekend. She seemed really nice. No wonder you are head over heels for her.”
“...I wouldn’t say that.”
Rimorr scoffs, catching onto Amgis’ dubiousness.
“Oh, Mia, are you okay?” It mocked, using a higher-pitched voice. Reenacting the moment that Mia had fallen to the ground upon seeing her reflection move on its own.
Amgis watches with a disapproving scowl as Rimorr dramatically rolls on the ground, almost out of view from his perspective. He knows there is nothing that he can say to make it stop. The fact that he acts differently around her seems to be something he realized a while ago.
After making its point, Rimorr bounces back up with a proud grin. An expression Amgis isn’t accustomed to seeing on himself. Only for it to unexpectedly shift his reflected expression to a sour one.
Crossing its arms before saying in a coarse tone, “Mia even asked for my name. Which is something that you never did, even though you had visited me a few times already.”
“...I did feel a little bad. The thought never crossed my mind that you even had a name, to be honest. Also, it looked like you had forgotten about it too.”
“Yeah,” It replied, not trying to deny it. “But I didn’t necessarily forget it. I would have been able to tell you it a lot sooner if you had asked.”
Amgis turns off the sink having finished washing his hands. He then grabbed paper towels from the dispenser closest to him. It was slightly see-through, so Amgis could tell that the paper towels were almost all used up. The other dispenser was completely empty, too. Because of Rimorr, the bathroom rarely gets restocked. Today, he had to steal toilet paper from the smaller stall.
“I am going to have to start bringing bathroom supplies from my house,” Amgis says, dutifully. Coming up with a response to the previous thing Rimorr said having slipped from his mind due to this revelation.
“Well, when are you going to ask her out?” Rimorr says, tactfully redirecting the conversation back to the Mia situation.
“This again?”
“You know that I can feel your desire, right?”
Amgis let out an exasperated breath and scratches his head. Clearly uncomfortable with talking about such matters.
“Yes, and desires are just that,” he replied, callously. “There’s no way that she would go out with me. She’s nice to me, sure, but that’s just how she is.”
“Oh, come on. What’s the worst that can happen?”
Instead of getting more frustrated, Amgis just sighs at Rimorr’s cliche optimistic remarks. Either realizing he is talking to a mirror that doesn’t know better or because he realizes that he is overreacting. Taking a few moments to reset back to his candid and curt demeanor, he continues the conversation.
“Well, if she doesn’t reject me—by some miracle—it might just be because she is nice and didn’t want to hurt my feelings. Then, other students—other people might eat her up because of that. Or she rejects me. Then, other people might hear about it and eat me up for just attempting the unthinkable.”
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“So, she’ll be eaten if she says yes. Or, you’ll be eaten if she says no,” Rimorr says, trying to piece together what Amgis had just said, “I didn’t know people eat other people,” Its face—Amgis’s face—frowns in disgust. “Is that why everyone thinks I am going to eat them?”
Amgis exhales laughter from Rimorr’s misunderstanding. It always seems to take things literally.
“No. No. It’s just an expression. The majority of people don’t literally eat other people. But in a figurative sense, people can eat people. It can be something as simple as hurtful words to something as big as physically abusing. Anything hurtful said or done to a person can eventually eat them up inside.”
“If that’s the case, I can see why you would have some concerns, but I still think you should try.”
Amgis opened his mouth to speak, but Rimorr continued.
“When I took over her reflection, I felt what I think was unbridled curiosity. Towards what? I, unfortunately, can’t say. She was only in here for a short while. But I am sure some of it was directed towards you.”
Amgis’ lips and eyes twitch. The thought of Mia being remotely curious about him must have instantly raised more questions than answers for him. Unlike Rimorr, Amgis understood that someone can be curious about you for many reasons. Some good, and some bad.
“I—”
DIIIINNNGGG!
The bell rang, interrupting him from expressing his thoughts.
“...I’ll think about it. I got to get to class.”
Rimorr pouts out of disappointment, which Amgis chooses to ignore as he grabs his resting backpack on the silver bathroom walls. As he goes out the door, they say their farewells for the seventh time. Leaving the bathroom with a wet sink counter and stinky toilet smells. With every day that Amgis uses the bathroom, it is slowly losing that pristine quality that made it a notch above all other high school boys’ bathrooms.
Today, he leaves again without so much as a care of the damage he is causing to this legendary place. He shares a class period with Mia Lefnee and Bear on the first floor of the Science building after lunchtime. The hallway on the second floor that connects to the bathroom is always practically deserted. Because of Rimorr, no one, including the teachers, wanted to be near the bathroom. Therefore, all of the classrooms in this short hallway were either unused or turned into storage rooms.
Amgis turns the corner to a longer hallway, making his way toward the stairway to the first floor. Which cuts into the left-side wall in the middle of the hallway. He approaches with a stride, not wanting to be late for class again due to being chewed out last week for that same thing. In doing so, he is not paying attention to those in front of him.
“Hey, you,” says an older-looking high school boy leaning lazily back against the rails at the stairs entrance. His arms dangling behind him over the rails.
Amgis slows down and looks to see if there is anyone else around him that he could be speaking to.
“Yes, you.”
His tone is a bit coarse, but he appears to not be annoyed. Still, Amgis can’t avoid being uneasy in this situation. He has never talked to him before, and he seems to be a Senior—a year ahead of him. Typically, nothing good comes from that.
Plus, the guy has an intimidating figure. With a chiseled body and face that could only be obtained through many difficult workouts. His clothes—the school uniform that consists of a royal blue button-up and khaki slacks—fit him perfectly to show off his hard work. Along with his long, silver hair and cold eyes, he could be compared to an Arctic wolf. There is no way that he is not somewhere on the first tier of popularity. He should have nothing to do with Amgis.
“What do—”
“Listen,” he says, curtly. “Rimorr isn’t what you think it is. Don’t listen to it.”
Amgis’ eyes narrow.
No one but him and Mia should know about Rimorr. They are the only ones who have ever talked to it without immediately retreating from the bathroom out of fear. This guy… Wait, this guy?
There is no recollection of his name or face.
“Who are yo—”
“It’s best to stay away from that bathroom. That’s why I created the rumor that it eats people,” the guy moves one of his arms resting behind the rail. He motions his hand to grip Amgis’ shoulder. “You can’t let others learn about that mirror, got it?!” Only for his arm to miss and ragdoll to the side of his body.
“Crap, my arm fell asleep,” he says in a dejected manner. A humorous turn-around to how he was just acting.
But that’s not right. He wasn’t the one that started the rumor. It was… Who was it?
There is no recollection of him entering or using the bathroom.
“I know about the Mia girl in your class, but don’t let anyone else know about Rimorr, you understand?”
“...Y-yeah, sure,” Amgis sputters, probably just agreeing so he can hopefully get out of this situation.
“Good,” he stands off the rail, “Sorry for delaying your trip to your next class.”
The guy leaves in the opposite direction of the bathroom and enters a Senior classroom.
There is no recollection of him ever attending North Tron High School.