"Fine, Rose." He said with a shrug. He turned back to his tray, and pushed it away slightly. His phone chimed with a message, and he checked it. 'Did you eat plenty of lunch?' from his mother. He sighed. 'Yes. I ate.' he replied. He had eaten five bites, but…she hadn't asked if he had eaten it all, so technically he wasn't lying.
"hey, you should eat that….. its such a waste of food if you don't"
She said looking out of the wide window on the side of the lunch room.
"I'm not hungry." He replied softly, putting his phone away. "If you want it, you can have it, but I'm not going to eat it." He couldn't stomach it. For months now, every bit of food he ate tasted like ash in his mouth. He didn't know why. He just knew he was never hungry, and when he did it, the food never tasted right.
"Okay…. I'm not eating it though. Youll just have to deal with the guilt of wasting food."
She says to the boy, noticing he was a little shaky.
"Well, so are you planning on skipping class be shown around? or what? Although we do have quite a bit of time right now"
She says turning her head back at him, her green and brown eyes glancing over at him.
"I don't feel guilt over it." Jared replied. He hesitated. "I can't skip class. I have…far too much riding on my grades this year. Because while friends and family might forgive screwing up because of…of trauma, colleges do not." Trauma. What a nice, easy way to put it. He thought sarcastically. Not "kidnapping", not "torture", not "hell", but "trauma". That's what the therapist calls it. "So, tell me about your recent trauma." No thanks. He sighed softly.
During that whole ordeal, Tangerine had been sitting still and looking down, trying to stay out of Damian's fire. She didn't have the best history with him. "I can show you around after school. I don't really have to be home by a specific time… if you want of course…"
He looked over at her. "That would be great, thanks. I can drive you home afterwards, too. If you need." Well technically he wouldn't be doing the driving, the chauffeur would, because, well…he wasn't allowed to drive until he was pronounced mentally stable by the psychiatrist and therapist, and since he didn't actually tell either of them anything and just kind of…sat in silence for the entire appointments…he wasn't getting his license back anytime soon.
She looked to him, making eye contact for a short moment before looking down again, unable to hold eye contact. "Sounds like a plan!"
He smiled very slightly, and nodded. "Alright." He said. His phone rang, and he answered it. "Hello?" He paused. "Hi Mom." Another pause. "Yes, I ate something." He glanced at his still mostly full plate. "No, i won't be hungry for the rest of the school day." He stopped for a moment. "A picture? Of what…the tray?" He sighed. "Sure. Whatever. Give me a minute." He hung up, staring at the plate blankly. "Well crap." He muttered, dragging a hand over his face.
"Um… you could maybe dump it in the trash then send a picture of the empty tray?" She tried to be helpful, hoping this might help him.
He looked at her, and nodded. "Yeah…thanks." he scraped out the food, careful to make it look like he'd eaten, then took a picture of it and sent it. He sighed softly. "If you ever meet her for what ever bizarre reason, and for whatever bizarre reason she asks about my eating habits…please just tell her I eat enough." He rubbed his face with his hands. "But if lying makes you uncomfortable, just tell her the truth."
"oh okay, so that's what's happening."
She says after she just quietly watched the whole conversation.
She didn't care about anything, and honestly…. she wanted to go to bed.
Jared looked at her. "Hmm? Yeah." He nodded, then looked down at the table for a moment. He had grown far too comfortable with lying. To everyone. His parents, what was left of his friends, his family, teachers. Oh well. It would have to continue like this for…he didn't even know how long.
"Don't starve yourself dude"
She says with a sigh, then standing up. Looking down on both of them, she gives him a paper, her phone number on it, and with that, she walks away.
"I'm… not." He said, taking the paper. He put it in his pocket, watching her go for a moment, then looked down at the table again. He wasn't purposefully starving himself. Not really. His body had just become so used to too little food that now it was hard to force it down.
walking down the hallways, hoping he noticed the paper that she technically threw at his face. On one side her number, the other side, a little smiley face with a heart on it. Smiling to herself, she stopped at her locker, taking yet another candy par out of it, eating the kit kat, she sat in her empty classroom. She was at the front row of the class, right by the open window, the classroom seemed so empty, which kind of bothered her, but not to much. She just wished there was at least one other person she could talk to.
She was feeling good today.
"You probably aren't used to this much food at a time right?" Tangerine glanced at the paper as Jared put it in his pocket. "Um, if you ever need anything, feel free to ask… wait did I say that already?…" She was subconsciously fidgeting with the hem of her shirt, still very shy around these people.
His eyes flashed to her. "Yeah…" He said. He chuckled softly. "I'm not sure if you did or not, but thanks." He smiled slightly. He raked a hand through his already messy red hair.
(bump)
(Sorry, I'm pretty busy so I haven't responded. I won't be very active for the rest of this week but there will be times when I am.)
"You're welcome." She sent him a small smile. "We should probably get to class, the bell is going to ring soon." Tangerine stood up from the chair and waited for Jared.
Sitting down in the empty classroom, not many people wanted to be around her, which she could've guessed that. Anybody did the wrong thing, she beats them to a pulp. And she doesn't hold back. She never goes over board unless she lets her emotions get in the way. The worse she's done is hospitalize a kid. Broken leg, four ribs, a nose, a wrist, and both of their pinky fingers. The fingers were just for fun. But she usually just gives a kid a bloody nose, black eye and a few bruises and they back away.
(its fine!)
Jared nodded, and stood up. He put the tray away, and shouldered his backpack. "What's your next class?" He asked Tangerine curiously, looking over at her.
Tangerine grabbed her bag and looked over to Jared. "It's uh… Science. What about you?" She started heading out of the cafeteria with Jared while constantly checking the time, she didn't want to be tardy and it was getting very close to the next class time.
"Hm. Hey, I have science too!" He exclaimed with a smile. "Uhm…help me get to class?" He asked, keeping pace with her. "I don't exactly…know my way around yet." He said with a soft, embarrassed chuckle.
Tangerine smiled at Jared. "Of course I can help! Just pay attention to the way to each class to that maybe next time, or sometime, you can get to each class by yourself." She was walking at a faster pace than normal so that they wouldn't be late.