Cynical Secrets

Healing Suspicions

That day, when I came back from the river with Ben, everyone was surprised to see me as I sat down at the table. I felt their stares and suddenly felt less confident than I was on the way here. Ben put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me, then he turned to the others and spoke.

"I know you want to stare at her because she's finally eating with us, but please don't. You're making her uncomfortable. Be glad she showed up."

Everyone looked at each other, nodded, smiled at me, and then went back to their conversations. Some even included me in their convos.

"Toxic, help us settle this. Jane says that I should wear more brown, but Sally says I should wear more green. What do you think?"

I stared at Clockwork for a bit before deciding.

"I think you should wear an even amount of both. Wearing too much brown can look tacky, but too much green could be obnoxious."

The three girls looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Then they went to talking about other things amongst themselves. Ben glanced at me and smiled slightly, making me feel reassured. Soon, our food came out. We were having spaghetti. Slender handed me my plate, and I examined it. Then, I took a bite of it. It was good, so I dug in. After everyone saw how happy I was, they dug in, too. After dinner, everyone started to hang out as usual, and for once, I joined them. We all watched as Ben, Jeff, and Toby played co-op games. They weren't doing too hot, and their interactions in the game were hilarious. Soon, the end of the night came. Everyone started getting ready for bed, and I did so as well. Before going up to my room, Ben stopped me.

"Toxic!"

"Yeah? You alright, Ben?"

"Yeah! Um. Thank you for today. I had fun."
I smiled warmly. "I did too, Ben. Thanks for taking me out today. See ya tomorrow. "

"Yeah, see ya."

With that, I went to my room and laid on my bed, content with what the day had unexpectedly brought. As I curled up, I hoped tomorrow would be just as good.

For breakfast, I had yogurt and granola. I hadn't had that in a long time, so I was very delighted. As I finished up and brought my bowl to the sink, Slender approached me.

"I'm glad to see you out of your room, Toxic."

"You and me both. I feel a lot better."

"I'm glad to hear that. That means you'll do better in training today, yes?"

I froze. I forgot I had training today! Oh, great. In the past few days, I hadn't improved much. I could teleport fast and a good distance too, but my toxin powers and the music related thing hadn't done too well. What Slender was asking for would have to be a miracle. I turned to him slowly.

"Are we leaving now?"

He nodded. "Go get ready. I will be waiting for you."

With that, he turned and left the room. I sighed and teleported to my room. I threw on a black tank top, camo skinny jeans, and my combat boots. Once I was done, I teleported back downstairs and began to walk out the door when I heard someone yell from behind me.

"Wait! We wanna come with!"

I turned around to see Toby, Ben, and Jeff all bolting down the stairs towards me. Well, Toby and Ben were, Jeff was walking as nonchalant as I'd always seen him.

"Y'all really wanna come with?"

"Yeah, we wanna watch. Only one of us has seen your power, but even then, we don't know your abilities to a full extent. We wanna know!"