Part XIX:
Without any words, Todd picked up what remained of his lunch and put it back on his tray. He then followed Cliff to a remote part of the room where the two of them sat, alone. Advantage Cliff. Had Todd been more on the ball, perhaps he would have noticed that this whole thing was engineered by Cliff, in order to pull what information he could out of Todd. But enough about that. Cliff offered a big smile towards Todd, which was greeted with a subtle show of affection.
“Don’t let them get the better of you,” Cliff spoke just below the waves of sound that bounced in all directions in the room, so that only Todd could hear what he was saying. “They really are harmless.”
“Heh,” Todd began, not sure if he was supposed to be laughing or crying at this remark, “Heh.”
“Really, they mean nothing by their actions. Stay by me and I will make sure they don’t bother you. What could you really expect from a bunch of convicted thugs?”
After saying this, Cliff went about eating his lunch, in no specific fashion. He did not have a very compulsive way of dong things that would cause others to take notice, but to the curious onlooker, he appeared to be paying careful attention to the food in front of him. Locking eyes momentarily while Cliff was dabbing the corners of his mouth, Todd felt uncomfortable and sent his eyeballs into a quick spin around their sockets. Cliff, paying careful attention NOT to observe this,, plunged his teeth right into the flesh of the red delicious apple that he now held in the palm of his hand.
To be continued…
