Amidst Our Broken World

Chapter 12 (Part 1) - Misunderstandings

Lunch rolled around pretty quickly before I could even notice. I sat down at my regular empty end of the table, working away at my sandwich mindlessly. All I could think of was what had happened to Two. 

My gaze naturally drifted towards where Peter sat. He was already back at work today despite being fresh out of the infirmary. But this was a bad habit of mine that needed to be stopped. I shouldn't, and didn't, care about him anymore. There was no reason to do so if he didn't reciprocate.

I watched Keira as she set her tray down across the table and took her seat in front of him. A pang of pain hit me in the stomach as I watched her lean forward to talk to him. I tried my best to ignore them for the rest of the break, tuning out the bits of conversation I could hear and focused on my sandwich. I ignored it all. The sound of her lovely laughter. The flash of her glowing, perfectly straight teeth. The flutter of her eyelashes over her seductive squint. How good they looked together.

This was so stupid. Why was this even bothering me? Shouldn't I still be traumatized from witnessing yet another child get electrocuted with a shock collar, as if he were some disobedient pet dog? And yet here I was. My mind completely occupied by something as trivial as someone who didn't even care about me merely talking to someone else.

It didn't matter to me. It really shouldn't.

...

But remind me to bring my headphones and mixtape tomorrow.

~

I was given the rest of the afternoon off. So I decided I would try to visit Two. In broad daylight. 

The more I thought about it, the more I felt bad for him. In the end, he was just a teenage boy who was messed up by these scientists who picked and prodded at him throughout his entire youth. This lack of genuine care and attention was really the underlying cause for his acting out. And even though he had done something wrong, it didn't warrant being electrocuted to the point of passing out in front of a bunch of spectators. 

I didn't care if I would get caught lying with excuses to get in that recovery room. Nonetheless, I was willing to be reckless. This poor lab-rat-turned boy deserved to know that at least one person in his life cared about him. Maybe it was naive, but I guess that's just the way I'm built.

Surprisingly, security didn't pay much attention to me heading towards the clinical wing. Perhaps I looked well-behaved enough. Or maybe it was just because subjects got hurt a lot from all the abuse, so retrieving medical supplies wasn't all that out of the norm.

I found the compartment with its curtains drawn and slipped in quietly. The nurse was at the counter focused on her work, so as long as I was quiet, I was sure she wouldn't check to see where I was.

The boy's eyes were closed when I found him. Thinking he was either still unconscious or asleep, I pulled the piece of candy in my back pocket out to leave for him on his desk. I'd seen the scientists reward subjects with candy, so I figured doing so would offer some amount of solace even if I couldn't talk to him.

However, I guess the crinkle of the candy wrapper stirred him because when I turned back to his bed, I was met with a pair of deep blue eyes.

Surprised by his sudden awakening, I struggled to think of what to say first. "You're awake."

He stared at me. No response.

"Um, I brought this candy here for you." I gestured to the orange sweet that was lying on the table next to the bed. "I hope it'll cheer you up."

A few seconds of awkward silence elapsed between us.

I looked around nervously. "Hey, look, you probably don't get told this a lot, but what you can do is amazing. You shouldn't feel intimidated by Eleven, just because she beat you once while you were tired. Losing doesn't make you weak. It makes you stronger."

I smiled at him, trying to search his gaze for whether or not my words reasoned with him. He kept his eyes on mine, and I saw something like curiosity begin to blossom.

"From what I can tell, I'm guessing you're the oldest of the kids, right?"

He nodded.

"Then you should try to set a good example for them. You're the older brother."

This wasn't going where I'd intended it to go. I wasn't trying to motivate him to work harder for the people who had electrocuted him and put him in the infirmary just hours ago. I was here to offer comfort.

"But if the weight of being a role model becomes too much for you to bear, I want you to know that you can always talk to me. Or if you just want to talk. Express it in a healthy way."

If I couldn't save these kids from being used as military weapons by a bunch of inhumane scientists, the least I could do was use my psychiatric knowledge to play therapist with these trouble teenagers. That would take some weight off my own guilty conscience.

The boy's gaze softened. He looked like he was about to cry.

"You can trust me." I reassured him as I laid my hand gently on his head in the same way my mother would back when I was younger.

Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist. Tight.

"Um--" 

He brought it toward his face, leaning into my palm. "Y/N..."

How did he know my name? I never told him--

"You smell good." He stared at me with a dangerous look on his face.