Imperfect Life: Arc 7

Chapter 15

On their way to school, Brandon could tell something was bothering Crys. She was hunched over slightly, off in her own world. Her whole face was red and he could tell she had been crying.

"Nightmare or..." Brandon spoke up. It was the first words he had said to Crys all morning.

"Him." Crys replied. It was her first word to Brandon all morning.

"What happened?" Brandon asked with concern.

"He interrogated me." Crys replied flatly, devoid of most emotion and her usual spark.

"What did he do to you?" Brandon asked, now even more worried.

"Nothing. He just talked." Crys continued in her hollow tone.

"Are you okay?"

Crys kept quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time before speaking up. "No." She finally said.

Brandon didn't know what to say.

"H-he asked me about Karen." Crys spoke up again. "He wanted to know how I killed her."

"But, you didn't." Brandon said.

"I told him that, over, and over, and over. Then he asked me about that werewolf... the night of the werepocalypse. T-the one that turned me into..." Crys hushed.

Brandon put an arm around Crys' shoulder. He knew how much she hated having to remember that night. He could tell that whatever had been said last night wasn't pretty and bought back some very painful memories for Crys.

"H-he kept asking how I managed to kill him, a-and h-he was absolutely furious that a teenager managed to kill him and... and..."

"You don't have to keep explaining, Crys." Brandon said as comfortingly as he could.

Crys went quiet, then she stopped walking. Brandon stopped as well. Crys then turned to the side and hugged Brandon as tightly as she could without hurting him, breaking into tears.

Brandon felt terrible for his friend. His heart hurt for her. He could barely stand to see her like this. He let her cry and get her pain out.

After a few minutes, Crys picked her head up from Brandon's shoulder and let go of him. She started to walk again slowly.

Brandon walked alongside Crys and took her hand. He held it and gave it a little squeeze. He was there for her.

Crys didn't need to say anything, and she didn't need Brandon to either. He helped make things feel better. Just him being there for her helped.

The two friends kept walking to school in silence.

After managing to make it through the first half of the school day, Brandon and Crys took their seats at their lunch table along with Tomas and Emma.

"Crys, are you okay?" Tomas said with slight concern as Crys was taking her seat. He could see quite clearly that Crys already looked miserable.

Crys started to slowly nod her head, then just shook it instead, being honest.

"What's wrong?" Tomas asked.

"Rough night." Crys replied.

"How so?" Emma spoke up, also a bit concerned.

Crys stayed quiet, not finding any words she would want to say.

"Crys?" Tomas asked, a bit quieter than he usually was.

"I uh... I got to thinking about the werepocalypse..." Crys paused. "I don't like thinking about it." She added on quietly.

Tomas gave a glance to Brandon. He was frowning a little, obviously concerned for Crys as well. Crys was definitely telling the truth. Whatever it was she had remembered had clearly taken its toll on her. "I uh... I hope it gets better." He said, trying his best to be comforting.

"Thanks." Crys said quietly with a very faint smile. She appreciated Tomas' gesture, even if it wasn't much.

"Well, if it isn't the school's toughest girl?" Connor remarked as he disgracefully approached the lunch table.

"Hey, go bother someone else today." Tomas said firmly. He didn't want the day to be any worse for Crys than it already was.

"Oh, so now you need him to protect you as well?" Connor continued bothering Crys.

Crys didn't even bother to look in Connor's direction. She just looked down to the side and kept quiet.

"Tsh, what a coward you turned out to be." Connor said after a second, hopping Crys would have snapped back at him.

"I told you to leave!" Tomas stood up.

"And?" Connor said back with snark.

"And that means you need to go back to your table full of narcissists and pipe down." Tomas continued, firm in tone.

"Or what? You're gonna do something? Better yet, is she gonna do something? Is she gonna beat me up like she beat up those two guys from the beginning of the year?" Connor mocked.

"Don't push your luck or you might find out the hard way." Tomas said defensively.

"You four are too cowardly to do anything about it, and you know it. None of you have any backbone." Connor said with an edge to his tone.

"You sure about that?" Tomas said, leaning in a little.

Crys couldn't stand this back and forth anymore. She swiftly got up from the table and ran off in a hurry, not saying a word.

Brandon got up, concerned and confused. He looked around the table for a moment, then ran after Crys.

Connor looked over in the direction the two had run off in. He scoffed. "How pathetic." He muttered, unimpressed.

Tomas scowled, annoyed with Connor. He knew today was definitely not the day for Connor to be doing this, and Crys running off was proof enough. He briefly considered sucker-punching Connor in the jaw, but instead he just sat back down as Connor, who was somewhat proud of his work, wandered off.

Emma was not happy with any of what happened. She frowned a little, just as annoyed as Tomas. "That was terrible." She said.

Tomas stayed quiet for a second. "I have some very choice words, but I'm not going to say them here." He said.

"Same here." Emma said.

"Do you think Crys is okay?"

"Brandon will take care of her."

"It's bad enough she was already in a terrible mood."

"Agreed."

Meanwhile, Brandon was running down the hallway in chase after his friend. "Crys!" He called out.

Crys wasn't running as fast as she could. She just barely kept ahead of Brandon on purpose. She kept going until she made it out the main door of the school out to the field area. It was there that she fell down onto her knees and clutched her sides as she started to tear up.

Brandon made it outside just a handful of seconds after Crys. He saw her kneeling in the grass, barely keeping it together. He went over to her and knelt down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"I can't take it, Brandon. I can't." Crys murmured. "I hate this school!" She cried out. "I hate it! I hate these stupid bullies! I hate having to deal with all this! I-I..." She broke down.

Brandon shuffled his position and hugged Crys from the side. He didn't know what else to do.

Later on, the two friends made their way back to class, arriving just barely on time. After getting through the rest of what felt like a slog of a school day, they went back home where they watched movies for the rest of the night as Crys cuddled up close to Brandon for comfort. It was a blissful moment of peace for her.