east of eden 𑁋 salvis.

IX

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really long chapter to make up for taking so long to update. motivation's been low, so sorry everyone!

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Travis stares at the ceiling until Sarah comes back, holding a plate of chicken nuggets. Except these are shaped like.. Dinosaurs? Rather than just lumps of meat, they're dinosaur shaped. Or is Travis imagining things now? Is he seeing things from all the blood loss?

She walks softly over to the bed, somehow knowing her way around all the junk on the floor and miraculously not tripping over it. Once Sarah's at the bed, she forces herself next to Travis, blue pigtail hitting him in the face as he's forced to scoot over. Travis groans a bit to himself but does scoot over, mostly because he doesn't want Sarah right on top of him.

Once she's in the bed with him, weighing down the blanket over him, as she's sitting on top of it rather than under it, Sarah hands Travis the plate of chicken nuggets. He takes it, looking down at the shapes, and yep, they're definitely dinosaurs. How the fuck did she do that?

"What's wrong dude, never seen a fucking chicken nugget or something?" Sarah's words were monotone, Travis couldn't tell if that was a lighthearted joke or if she was really insulting him. He assumed the second, sighing and taking a bite of a nugget despite the nausea that rushes over him at the premise of eating.

The silence after that was awkward. Neither knew what to say, Sarah was afraid whatever she may say may end in her getting yelled at, maybe even punched. Travis, on the other hand, just had no interest in talking to her.

Although the silence quickly became killer, leading Travis to do just what he didn't want to; talk to Sarah. Er, Sal. Fuck, no.. That's not right... But Travis is having a hard time calling her-him Sarah now. It's like something changed in his brain, like a switch flipped. He couldn't bring himself to refer to Sarah as a girl anymore.

Travis looked around Sal- Sarah- the room as he ate, then at.. Sal. Yeah, Sal.. He guesses he'll call her Sal.

"Why did you bring me here?" He asked softly, not looking at her as he spoke, and instead deciding his plate looked a lot more interesting. Sal took a deep breath, Travis could hear it in the quiet of the room, paired with anxiety.. Or something along those lines. He was just getting an anxious vibe from her.

Sal was silent for a moment, it seemed like she was thinking, maybe. Travis was silent as well, simply because he didn't want to ruin his chance to have a good conversation with Sal. There was something in him, some urge, that wanted to be closer to her. Like a friend. Travis tried to brush it off but every time he tried it just came back stronger. It hurt.

"Because I figured you'd be safest here." She said softly, still not looking at Travis. Her tone, mixed with her words, sort of hurt. Did Sarah know Travis was in danger? That his father hurt him all the time? Daily?

Travis didn't know how to respond so he simply didn't, finishing off his last chicken nugget and laying down. He was in so much pain everywhere, and he desperately just wanted a bath, or a shower even would do. A shower would just be harder to manage with his ankle.