The next day, during lunch, something happened that I hadn't quite expected. Someone came to talk to me. Even stranger, it was one of those popular people, her name was Yang. I saw her coming from across the cafeteria, but when she got to my table, I acted like I hadn't even noticed the hand she put on the table and that shining smile she had. I could almost swear I smelt roses, but dismissed the thought. She asked for my name. I replied simply, "Gray."
She introduced herself as well, unaware that I knew her name already. I decided to give in to the question I had in my head, asking, "Why are you here? Why are you talking to me of all people?"
She was thrown off by my question for a second, seemingly unaware of the possibility that anyone would try to brush her off. She tried masking it with a smile and replied, "Because I wanted to find out who you are."
I responded quickly, expecting an answer like that, "No. That's not the entire reason. You're set. You don't need to meet other people. You've got a crowd following you almost every minute of every day. Why are you actually here?"
She seemed upset, but it didn't really matter to me. I'd gotten by friendless, though not exactly by choice, for 16 years, and I didn't feel like one more person that didn't like me was a huge issue. I noticed her eyes change to something between that pretty lilac and red, and assumed our conversation was over. It wasn't, and she responded with an answer more along the lines of what I expected to hear, "Fine. I felt bad for you. I saw the way everyone treated you that first week, and I decided you shouldn't have to go through something like that. And you were all alone here, so I decided I might as well talk to you now."
I pulled back my hood, smiled, and said, "Good, now that we've gotten that out of the way, sit down, we might as well have an actual conversation since you wanted to talk to me."
She sat down, but didn't seem satisfied with my sudden change of attitude, which was only made more apparent by the darkening of her now solid red eyes, and said, "You're kidding right? After all that, you just smile and tell me to sit and talk!?"
I couldn't blame her for being angry about the way I talked, but it was what I felt I had to do. I replied, "No, I'm not kidding, but you did sit down which shows that you're willing to talk to me. So, fire away."
She tried to be funny by deploying her weapon and pointing it in my face. Her eye color lightened back towards purple. I silently responded by moving my foot closer to her and putting a little ice on her left boot. She yelped quietly, eyes now back to lilac and I said, "I meant questions, not bullets."
We got along well, she asked about why I was so quiet, and my answer wasn't much more than "Just because."
She asked about the infusions, how I got them, if they hurt, what they were like. I gave all of the answers I could. I asked the questions I had as well. I was especially curious as to what it was like growing up in a normal school. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the talking. It seemed like she did too. My only hope now was that I could go from none to one in terms of friends.
