Imperfect Life: Arc 8

Chapter 7

Tomas went through the usual motions of the school day the next morning. He woke up, nudged Emma awake from her place in the window, took a quick shower, then ate a small breakfast, and finally, he and Emma got driven to school by his dad.

Most of his morning was spent in silence. He and Emma were rather tired, so there wasn't much conversation to be had. In the car, however, Tomas' dad spoke up.

"Have either of you seen Crys, yet?" He asked carefully.

"No." Tomas said, too tired to start on this topic already.

"I have not." Emma spoke up. "Brandon said he had seen her, but she had run away from him."

"Hmm..." Tomas' dad quietly murmured to himself. He didn't plan on doing anything to interfere, but he thought it good to be in the know. The fact Crys was hiding away concerned him from a parental perspective, but with regards to his job, it was rather good.

"Do you have any suggestions on how we could help her?" Emma asked quietly.

"Not really." Tomas' dad replied. "There isn't much we can do for someone who doesn't want to be helped, but that doesn't mean you should give up on her. Just try to be there for her. Keep reaching out. Hopefully, she'll reciprocate."

Tomas frowned.

"Thank you." Emma said with a small nod of her head.

"Of course." Tomas' dad replied.

The rest of their short trip was silent.

Tomas continued to go about his day, migrating from one class to the next. Nothing was really too terribly important in any of them, after all, it was still fairly early into the school year. This left Tomas with plenty of time to ponder. He hated it. It was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment, so he tried his best to focus on the rather dull, and not very challenging, classes. The only problem was that the teachers spoke in slow motion, the clock barely moved, and every bit of explanation was long winded and drawn out. It was like he was trapped in a little bubble that made time itself move slower around him. It was like the universe itself wanted him to ponder.

So, he did. Whether he liked it or not.

Finally, once it was time for lunch, he left his class, went to his locker to get what he needed for his next class, then started down the maze of hallways in the complete opposite direction of the lunchroom. All his pondering throughout the morning had led him to this decision: He needed to try.

So that's what he did. He walked around aimlessly, trying to look in all the places nobody would think to look. Although Crys was specifically avoiding him and the others, he doubted that she would want to be around anyone at all, so he could already rule out all the classrooms and such. The next best place to look, in his mind, would be outside by the field. There were plenty of corners around the building and numerous hiding spots by the bleachers and scoreboard. So he wandered, casually checking all the little corners and nooks that Crys may have been in. Eventually, he made his way to the bleachers, failing everywhere else he had looked, it was just about the last place he hadn't checked.

Crys was sitting on the ground cross-legged, munching on a sandwich, but at the same time, looking rather famished. She was relatively centered underneath the bleachers, and she directed her gauze to the intruder she heard approaching and froze.

Tomas stopped walking as soon as he noticed Crys sitting there. He could very easily tell that she was on edge and ready to run. He didn't quite know what to do next, though. He didn't expect to actually find Crys, he just was trying to feel better by at the very least trying to find her. He didn't have any words planned. No speeches, no kind gestures, no pleads, nothing. So, all he did was give her a small wave of his hand, a slight frown, and a meager "hi".

Crys didn't respond. She didn't know what to do just yet, and the fact that it was Tomas in front of her absolutely threw her for a loop.

"You don't look so good." Tomas said flatly, making things up on the fly.

Crys briefly glanced down at herself, but she then returned her nervous glare back to Tomas.

"I uh..." Tomas paused, really not knowing what to say. "Well... look, you know I'm no good with this kinda stuff. Um... we're all worried about you, Crys. Brandon, especially."
Crys winced.

Tomas took a breath, then scratched at the back of his head momentarily. "Could you at least talk to him?" He asked.

Crys suddenly sprung to life, a look of terror swiftly took hold of her face, and she jumped up from the ground and started backing away. "Why are you here!?" She demanded, some tears already welling up.

"I..." Tomas trailed off, not really knowing his own reasoning.

"Just leave me alone!" Crys shouted. "Why can't you just get that already! I don't want anything to do with you, or Emma, or Brandon! Just stay away!"

"Crys-" Tomas tried to interject, but his attempt was in vain.

"No! Just go away!" Crys interrupted, tears now streaming down her face. Her voice was horace and tired.

"You're our friend, Crys!" Tomas shouted back.

"No I'm not! I'm nobody's friend! I hate you! I hate all of you! Just leave me alone!"

Tomas was just about to speak up again, but by then Crys was already gone. She had fled as fast as she could, leaving Tomas alone. He didn't even know what to think. He felt a horrible empty pain in his chest. It was a miserable feeling. He didn't exactly know how to put it into words, either. All he knew was that he felt hurt. More hurt than he had expected. At the same time, though, he also knew that the person he had just talked to was not Crys. It looked like her, it sounded like her, for all intents and purposes it WAS her... but it wasn't her. Now, with nothing left to do, Tomas slowly turned around and sulked back to the main building to go to the cafeteria and use up whatever meager time he had left in lunch to silently prod at his food.

Emma and Brandon tried to question Tomas about his absence, but he wouldn't budge. It was only later that night that he would tell Emma about what had happened, who would then fill in Brandon over a text message. For now, however, the three of them sat in silence as the rest of lunch passed them by.

Meanwhile, as the others sulked, Crys had run off to another one of her shady hiding spots where no one would see her as she sobbed over what she had just said about her friends. Friends who, no matter how much she wished it wasn't true, she still cared for deeply.