Sympathy For The Devil

11. Recoil

Nazz had been guilty of jumping to conclusions, too, at first. Upon finding out that Kevin was in the nurse's office for a bloody nose, two splits in his lip, and a black eye, her immediate reaction was to blame Eddward.

Her second reaction, however, was not to go out and try to destroy his self-esteem with words; it was to fake a stomachache and go to the office to make sure her friend was okay, where she found out that her assumption, while reasonable, had been entirely untrue.

You know, basically what decent human beings do.

She sat next to him as he held a tissue to his nose and waited for an ice pack, and heard the full story from him. Well, an abridged version, anyway; he was using simple sentences and small words, and she knew better than to push him for more.

The nurse was focusing on Kevin, which was a good thing for two reasons; one, Kevin needed care and Nazz didn't, and two, said nurse would take her time with the Tums tablets, which meant Nazz could stay longer. (In fact, Nazz would not have been surprised if the nurse knew exactly why she was there, in spite of any lies she might have told in order to get there.) Kevin's hands were already full with treating his nose, so Nazz simply rested her hand on his shoulder, doing her best to offer her silent support.

"I just don't see the point."

The suddenness of the statement startled Nazz, though thankfully it only showed in a twitch. "What?"

Kevin lowered the tissue and turned to face her, and it took all of her willpower to keep from wincing. He looked somehow smaller without his hat on, to start. It was a silly thing to think, since one measly baseball cap was hardly ample protection against sunlight, much less anything else, but he seemed so much more exposed and vulnerable without it. But that wasn't what struck her. What struck her was... well... everything else. His hair was a dirty, untidy mess, his bangs hanging in tangles over his bruised, battered face. The trickles of blood from his nose and mouth, which had reached his chin before dripping down to stain the front of his sweater, had long since dried and crusted. The eye closest to her was swollen halfway shut, and she could see a bruise darkening on his jaw.

"It was stupid," Kevin went on quietly, and the look on his face made Nazz's every instinct scream at her tohug, hug now, but she wasn't sure he would thank her for interrupting him. "I know that. But... it was still right, wasn't it? I mean, they were his, those guys straight upstole from him, and giving them back didn't hurt anyone any more than taking them helped. Right?"

Nazz nodded. "Of course," she said quietly. "But did it have to be you?"

"I saw them. I had that one chance when I was cleaning the locker room. It was stupid," he repeated. "But... didn't I do the right thing?"

"Of course, Kevin."

"And that's what's wrong," Kevin said. "If I do the right thing, i-if I turn the other cheek and go out of my way to do something nice for someone who treats me like crap, and this happens-" He gestured to himself. "...then why should I bother at all?" He didn't sound bitter, or even angry; he just sounded... disheartened. He looked back to her again. "What's the point?"

She opened her mouth to console him, to offer words of encouragement, and closed it. Instead, she simply rested her hand on his shoulder and resolved to sit with him quietly until she wasn't sure how much longer she could bluff the nurse.

It's hard to think of the words to reassure someone when every direction looks like bullshit.

It was upsetting, to say the least. He should have been more vigilant. He should have known better.