Skylar felt a tickle on their toes. Instead of flinching, Skylar gently set the mayonnaise covered knife on the edge of a bread slice. They looked down, grinning and clicking their tongue in greeting to Rhonda.
The cockroach climbed up Skylar’s pant leg, circling their torso, and settling on Skylar’s shoulder. After taking a moment to flutter their fingers with Rhonda’s antenna they returned to making their sandwich. “Yes, you can have all the crumbs and drippings from my sandwich.”
Thick layer of mayo on once piece of bread, a thinner layer of Dijon mustard on the other, Rhonda chattering up a storm the entire time Skylar worked.
“I never would have guessed John’s dad would put extra mayo on the knife, before licking it clean.” Skylar commented. They still had to speak aloud for their translator to be able to emit the sounds, most of which out of the range of hearing for humans, for Rhonda to understand.
“Yeah.” Rhonda’s antenna were moving around Skylar’s neck, making them giggle. “He does it with butter, cream cheese, and other spreads too.”
“Yet he told John not to drink out of the orange juice jug even though there was only a swig left.” Skylar gently shook their head. “Hypocritical much?”
Rhonda’s laughter was high pitched and it reminded Skylar a lot of the various whines a ship would make when something was stuck in a vent cover, the fast paced oscillating noise was comforting.
“I suppose. But you didn’t see the previous own of this place. That man was a real slubberdegullion. The golden age of roaches and ants, fighting over the crumbs and drops of sugary and yeasty liquids, ahhh.” Rhonda circled Skylar’s neck a few times still making noises of delight. Rhonda eventually paused at the bottom of Skylar’s neck, holding onto their shirt, their antenna sweeping over a small bread crumb. “It makes my carapace quiver just thinking about the feasts we had.”
“I’ll bet.” Skylar knew it wasn’t the human way to eat food off the floor, but the idea of a feast still set their mouth watering. “You want some of the sandwich?” They glanced down at Rhonda, but a deeper human voice answered first.
“Sure, I’ll take a sandwich.” The voice of John’s father came from the doorway. “Three slices of ham, mayo, mustard, and lettuce if we have any.”
Careful not to turn their torso, because the bulge of Ronda just underneath the collar of their shirt was easily noticeable, Skylar looked back at John’s father.
“Sure thing! Go ahead and put your feet up, it looks like you’ve had a long day at work. I’ll bring your sandwich out in a minute.” The man’s face softened, giving the dark circles a spreading effect under his eyes.
“Thank you.” He lumbered off to the living room and Skylar sighed.
“I would like some sandwich.” Rhonda’s squeaks were quiet.
“I’ll save you crumbs.” Skylar whispered as they finished making the two sandwiches.
Word count: 497
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