School Food... Enough Said (open)

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie's eyes darted to Vixen's wrist as he grabbed at it, a worried frown on her face.

"Is something wrong?" she asked as the boy's grip tightened, knuckles white with the effort. "Does your wrist hurt? Is it broken or something?" Kylie knew she was asking too many questions, but as suddenly as he had grabbed it, Vixen let go of his wrist, shaking his arm to let the sleeve fall over his hand. Does he cut? she wondered to herself, but not daring to ask it aloud.

Kylie smiled as he looked down at the table. He seemed sort of embarrassed about asking. "Well," she said, "I suppose if I were you, trying to get to know Kylie better, I'd either ask her about her family, or something generic like her favorite color or something like that. Just random things, you know."

[Vix]

He ignored her questions about his wrist, pretending like it never happened. "Well then Kylie, what's your favorite color? How many siblings do you have? Are your parents divorced or still together? What's your favorite kind of music? You said you have a dog, what's its name? What's your favorite food? Favorite sport? Favorite band? Favorite singer? Favorite book? Favorite TV show? Favorite movie?" He scratched his head, trying to think of more questions. He'd struggled enough thinking of all those to bombard her with. He looked down, trying to think of more. He bit his lip, searching his mind for more as he wrinkled his brow. There had to be more, why was he so blank right now, he usually can think of anything on a dime. Finally, it hit him, one thing he honestly cared to know about her. "What do you think about me?" He asked.

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie's eyes widened as she tried to remember the barrage of questions Vixen asked her. She laughed as the list grew longer, and tried to answer them all.

"Alright, well, my favorite color is either pink or blue; I have two brothers named Joshua and Dalton; my parents are still together...sort of...; I like most music except the 'screamo' kind and rap, which I don't really consider to be music at all more like poetry that you can't really hear; my dog is a chocolate lab named Bear; my favorite food is potato salad; I'm not really a sports person but I do like watching gymnastics; I don't have a favorite band; I really like singers like Micheal Buble because his songs are so nice and romantic; I really like the Eragon series; my favorite TV show is The Nanny, and my favorite movie is any version of Pride and Prejudice, especially the 2005 one. There, did I get them all?" Kylie was out of breath by the time she'd finished answering the questions, and then she realized there was one left.

"Oh, and what do I think about you? I think you're a nice person who cares a lot about animals but finds it sort of hard to be around people. I also think you get embarrassed sort of easily, and you look cute when you blush."

[Vix]

Vix nodded. "I'm pretty sure you nailed them all."

Her remark about him being cute, result in him blushing wildly, and in turn he turned away and attempted to hid e his face. Then, letting the red fade a bit and he looked back up to Kylie. "I'm not exactly used to getting complements. Most of the time I get insults, like "freak", "Mutant" and even "demon"." He frowned, bad memories from the past filling his head. He looked back down. His jacket sleeve had fallen back up his arm, leaving his wrist exposed. He shut his eyes momentarily, then snapped them open, grabbing his wrist again. He noticed Kylies attention had been averted to his wrist again, and he bit his lip. He slowly let go of it, and slid his sleeve back down, covering his wrist once more. "Out of sight, out of mind" He thought to himself again.

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie laughed gently as Vixen's face became the color of a tomato. "Yeah, just like that," she said with an impish grin. She smirked slightly as he talked about what he were usually called by people.

"If you haven't noticed, we're all kind of freakish here. I mean honestly, we've all got great bloomin' wings sprouting on our backs. It's just a shame that so-called normal people can't see the beauty in them that's really there." Her smile faded again as Vixen gripped his wrist once more.

"You know, my mother was a supermodel, and she always wanted the perfect baby girl to carry on her legacy," she told him quietly. "Then she got me, and she hated me for my wings, since I'd never be able to be a model with them. It bothered me so much, that I tried to cut them off when I was seven. My brother Dalton saved me, though. It's been hard, leaving my brother like this. But I bet you can understand emotional pain, pretty well, huh?"

She reached across the table to touch his sleeve. "Do you mind?" she asked, wanting to know if she could move back his sleeve. If he really didn't want her to see, he could say no.

[Vix]

He looked down, biting his lip. "At least you had a mother..." He whispered, half mumbling. He hoped that she wouldn't hear, but at the same time he wanted her to know what he'd said. But it didn't really matter anyway. Either way at some point the topic would come up eventually, and she'd ask questions, and sooner or later he would have to answer. He could only avoid questions for so long before it became terribly obvious he was hiding something.

He almost jumped as she reached for his sleeve and grabbed it. He bit his lip hard, then looked away for a second. He turned his attention back to her when she spoke. "I- uh..." His voice trailed off. Then, after a moment of consideration, he nodded silently, praying her reaction wouldn't be too terrible. The worst of them had at least began fading...

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie heard his whispered comment, and she patted his hand in what she hoped seemed like an empathetic gesture.

"I know," she said quietly back, "and I'm lucky to have had the care and love of so many people. I know I certainly had it better than a lot of the kids here. We don't live in a very accepting world, do we?"

Now that she had his permission, Kylie rolled back Vixen's sleeve with careful fingers, as if she was using a fine-detail brush on one of her paintings. Her involuntary intake of breath was audible, but soft. Thin scars marred the flesh on the boy's wrist. Some were faded, but other seemed to have just started to fade. Without thinking, Kylie let her index finger trace along one of the more faded ones.

"Why?" she asked. It was such a simple word, only three letters, but it packed a lot into it. She hoped Vixen wouldn't think she was prying.

[Vix]

Vixen sighed, looking down at his own scars, and shut his eyes for a moment. "They are nothing more than a distraction. Physical pain is more powerful in it's first moments than emotional pain is over time. It may seem stupid to try to block out pain with pain, but it works. Unfortunately, it only works for the first few seconds. Then, both pains are present, and I start again." He bit his lip, pausing frequently. "I don't do it as often anymore. I'm getting better..." He looked down. He knew it was a lie, but it was better for her not to know that. "I've been trying to find as better way... So far I've failed miserably. But, I guess trying is better than nothing... Sometimes, just little things set me off now... I used to be able to handle things better, but I think the older I got, the better I understood it, and the more the pain set in..."

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie stopped running her fingers over the scar as Vixen began his explanation. As he continued, she felt tears come to her eyes as she thought about how awful the boy must feel, and she quickly wiped them away with the back of her forearm.

"Well," she started as he finished his explanation, "Maybe a new start is all you need. This is the perfect place for one, in any case. And maybe some new friends could help, too. A good support system always helps."

Leaning back in her chair now, Kylie absentmindedly twirled a lock of her hair around a finger, not sure what else to say. The silence hung their awkwardly. Kylie always hated awkward silences.

"So, now that you know a bunch about me, what about you?" she finally asked. "What's your favorite...stuff?" She couldn't quite remember all the questions he'd asked, so she figured that one was fairly encompassing. "And what do you think of me?"

[Vix]

Vix nodded. New friends could help. Too bad he's a socially awkward freak. He struggled enough talking to people, and trying only ended in him embarrassing himself. But at least this place was definitely a new start.

Vix looked down. The silence was deafening. He hated it, but lucky for him, she was the one to break it.

His favorite stuff... He thought for a moment, unsure of how to reply. "Well... I don't exactly have a favorite color, or sport, considering I hate all sports. I like all kinds of music, except most rap or country." Then he paused, thinking of what he thought of her. He half chuckled softly, "Where do I start? I think your nice, and I like that your the first person to actually be open and willing to talk to me without having to... You seem like a good person, even if you are somewhat conformist and eat meat. You tend to be curious, from what I've seen, but you seem to know when to back off. But all in all, I like you a lot. Oh, and, you're really pretty."

[Kylie Jenson]

Now it was Kylie's turn to blush, and blush she did, hurriedly looking down at her lap as she nervously shoved the lock of hair she'd been twirling around her finger away from her behind her ear. She giggled softly, though. She just couldn't help it.

"Thank you," she mumbled, suddenly shy. She'd heard that she was pretty before. Or rather, that if she didn't have those freakish wings on her back, shewould be pretty. Her mother made sure to remind her of that all the time. But no guy had ever said that to her, and Kylie wasn't really quite sure how to react to it. She coughed once, then looked back up at Vixen.

"Alright, then, now that we know each other's favorite things...what's your biggest secret?" she asked. She blinked once, and realized how intrusive that might seem. "Uh, you don't have to say if you don't really want to. I'm just curious."

[Vix]

Vix smiled as Kylie blushed, and then giggled. "You're welcome," He told her, as she seemed to grow shy.

"My biggest secret?" He thought for a moment, searching his mind for a big secret. He couldn't seem to find one Everyone has to have a secret, he just didn't know what his was. "I don't really have any secrets. I'm pretty open with everything... I don't have anything to hide. I'm not exactly an interesting person, and I didn't really have an interesting life. Nothing worth hiding ever happened. My only 'secret' would be I write in a journal every night before i go to bed, after reading what I wrote the night before and getting rid of that page. That way the most anyone could ever find out about my feelings is one days worth. ANd I've been doing that for nine years now."

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table and leaning her chin down onto her upturned hands as Vixen told her about his 'big secret'.

"That's a pretty good idea, actually," she said when he explained about ripping out the night before's journal entry. "You wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing what they ought not to see. I kinda have a journal myself, although I don't really write anything down in it. I sorta...just "talk" my journal."

Blushing, Kylie looked down at the table. "My 'big secret' is that I talk to my imaginary friend. My 'talk journal', if you will. I don't do the silly stuff like play games with him or anything. I just talk to him. Yeah, I know it's weird for a girl my age to still have an imaginary friend, but I don't feel like it's any different than talking to your pets or something, so I don't really care what other people think about it."

[Kylie Jenson]

Kylie leaned forward, propping her elbows on the table and leaning her chin down onto her upturned hands as Vixen told her about his 'big secret'.

"That's a pretty good idea, actually," she said when he explained about ripping out the night before's journal entry. "You wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing what they ought not to see. I kinda have a journal myself, although I don't really write anything down in it. I sorta...just "talk" my journal."

Blushing, Kylie looked down at the table. "My 'big secret' is that I talk to my imaginary friend. My 'talk journal', if you will. I don't do the silly stuff like play games with him or anything. I just talk to him. Yeah, I know it's weird for a girl my age to still have an imaginary friend, but I don't feel like it's any different than talking to your pets or something, so I don't really care what other people think about it."

[Vix]

Vix shrugged. "Well, at least the spoken word isn't as easy to prove as the written word is. But I'd be afraid of someone overhearing what I said. And I talk to my snake, so I guess I can't really say anything bad about you for doing it. I used to have imaginary friends, when I was 12, I made up a girl and told all my friends about her. They were so impressed until one of the kids asked me why I was talking to myself, and I said I was talking to her. The adults thought I was crazy, and the winged part didn't help. I was kicked out within a week. " He half chuckled, laughing at himself, then looked down. He remembered a few other, not so laughable events that occurred around that time. He He tried not to frown, and blinked silently.