Revealed.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Crazy, New Home.

As soon as I see his face, I forget everything. I forget the horrible feeling that settled deep into my bones after I woke up from my nightmare. I forget the shaking and sobbing 30 minutes I just spent on the shower floor. As all this has evacuated the forefront of my mind, causing me to momentarily forget my issues, I know he is just getting caught up.

I look up at him, feeling my face get redder and redder as his eyes wander over my face. Don't think about blushing, don't think about blushing. I coach myself, but this has the opposite effect. I can feel my face practically burning by now. Then I realize that I've been standing in the doorway to the room, not uttering a single word, for almost a minute. I clear my throat awkwardly.

"Hi," I say, and despite clearing my throat, my voice sounds all high and squeaky. I cringe. But, Casper doesn't seem fazed by my total lack of social skills. He just smiles that brilliant smile at me.

"Hey," he says. He looks down quickly, his own cheeks get a little pink. In my head, I give a cheer, because I am finally not the only one. Honestly though, I have no idea what to actually say out loud. Anyone who knows me would be able to tell you that I do not have skills in speaking out loud to another human being. I guess, in this case, another mutant. A strange lite chill runs through me and I try to shake it off.

But when he looks back up at me, my grey eyes meeting his blue ones, everything else fades away. There's no one else in this hallway, no, no one else in this world, other than me and Casper.

She clears her throat loudly, making me jump and Casper hit his head on the top of the door frame. I giggle quietly, then shudder. Ew, I just giggles. I tear my eyes away from Casper to look at Bianca, who has her hands on her hips and that mischievous grin on her face, the one she gets right before she throws me into an uncomfortable or awkward situation.

"Hey there, love birds. Sorry to interrupt, but it's dinner time and everyone is dying to meet Scarlet," she winks at me, attempting to be suggestive but ends up looking rather creepy. I feel my eyes widen as her words sink in. I have to meet people. Real people or mutants or whatever. They're going to want to have conversations with me. My social anxiety kicks in, raising with my heart beat. I start fidgeting with my hands, smoothing my hands down over my sweater, tightening the pony tail holder at the end of my braid.

Bianca meets my eyes and I see sympathy there, no matter how she wants to come off towards Casper, and grabs my hand. "Come on, princess," she says in a loud, deep voice that makes me laugh, "there will only be, like, 60 people there." As Bea starts walking, pulling me by my hand, I grab Casper's hand, too. He looks surprised, probably as surprised by my actions as I am, but doesn't pull away. He just starts walking, keeping pace with Bianca's insane, mom-on-a-health-kick walk, her hips wiggling as she walks.

As we continue down the hallway, Bianca drops my hand and begins to babble about something that happened earlier that day, before I'd even gotten to this crazy place. I nod here and there in the "conversation", along with some "mhm's" and "yeah's". I take the opportunity, while Bianca is preoccupied, to look over Casper. He's being extremely quiet.

I look to my left, noticing that he's actually listening to Bianca's ridiculous word vomit. Okay, it takes some serious dedication to understand a single word that Bianca spews when she's telling a story, much less willingly hand over all of your attention and devotion to hear the end of it. I can tell it makes her happy and I smile to myself. I think he's a keeper.

I glance over his outfit, a soft, long sleeved blue shirt and dark jeans, up to his perfect messy bed head hair. The white-blonde hair is fashioned like he just rolled out of bed, but in a way you know that it took him at least twenty minutes to do it like that. Regardless of all the meticulously arranged blonde hair surrounding it, the single black strand refuses to stay in place. He keeps swiping it out of his eyes with his free hand. I stumble over my feet, my fave burning red. Bianca shoots me an annoyed look, pausing shortly in her story, and I chuckle uneasily. Casper just grins.

I didn't realize I hadn't let go of his hand. Now I'm very aware of the fact that his fingers are laced tightly through mine.

"...And that's how all the Cheetos ended up on the floor and why Logan now hates me!" Bianca exclaims, sighing dramatically. Casper giggles (giggles!) at Bea's story. I smile, pretending that I actually listened to her.

All I can think as I walk into the cafeteria is Who, exactly, Logan is, What on earth Casper is still holding onto my awkwardly sweaty hand and how inexplicably home-like this place feels to me already.