Hello, my lovely readers. Since the last chapter was fluff this one will be hurt-comfort/angst celebrating Thanksgiving with a little social awareness. On with the show…

Chapter 7: I'm Thankful for You

The room of the church basement wasn't that big. Kai had been in much larger ones. Back in Los Angeles, Tucson, Albuquerque, Dallas, New Orleans, Biloxi, Memphis, Roanoke, Chicago, Lafayette, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, which brought him to the sleepy town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, the smallest town he'd stayed in his entire life.

When Kai was thirteen, he got sick of his family—who had been sick of him and his "anti-social" behavior for a far longer time—and he took off. As far as Kai knew, his so-called family hadn't even bothered to file a missing person's report. Legally, they were supposed to. But people could turn a blind eye to almost anything. And most people who had met Kai would probably be relieved to hear that he'd just up and walked off one day, never to return.

Walking to the end of a line for a hot meal, Kai glanced up to see a pretty girl talking to a couple of other girls. They were probably all about the same age. Grew up together. Went to elementary, middle, high schools and then college. They talked all the time. This was their one or two days a year that they came to this kitchen, dressed up in its Thanksgiving best, fake leaves taped to the walls, happy looking fake turkeys sitting on the tables as centerpieces, the real birds probably screamed in pain to feed them and their fellow brethren.

Kai watched the girl as she offered an older woman in a coat that was one size too big for her her meal for the day. Yup. The smile the girl offered the woman told Kai how clueless she was about the woman's life. If she knew what the woman would be doing tomorrow to get food; she wouldn't be smiling.

"Bonnie, hurry up!" the blonde girl cried, pulling out her cell phone. "We're going to be late." She looked unhappy as she looked at her phone and then shoved it back in her back pocket. Her expression changed when she turned to Kai. "Hi! Happy Thanksgiving," she said chirpily, placing a tray in front of Kai.

The brunette between the blonde and the girl Kai wanted to stand in front of, flushed, rolling her eyes at her blonde friend before placing mashed potatoes on Kai's plate. "Would you like gravy on these?" the girl asked him, looking up at him with large brown eyes. Man, she would be eaten alive if she ever had to live the way he did.

Kai offered Bambi a winning smile and adjusted his knit cap over his hair. "Gravy's fine. Thanks," he told her.

The blonde shot the brunette a look, a smile appearing on her face. "Someone's got a crush," the blonde said as Kai moved his tray further down the aisle.

"Caroline, shut up," the brunette hissed. "You're being rude."

"Am not. And he's kind of cute. Once you get him in a bath, he probably cleans up really well and then you can dump Salvatore on his ass." Caroline let out a giggle.

"Guys, cut it out," the girl Kai wanted to look at, warned her friends, waving a ladle at them.

"Sorry, Bonnie," the two girls called before getting into another argument.

Bonnie sighed before turning to Kai. "Hi. I hope my friends aren't ruining your Thanksgiving. I talked them into coming down here," she told him. "And this one has been a blabbermouth since we were six and the other one is taking after her boyfriend."

"Bonnie!" the two girls cried, their eyes widening.

"Sorry, Care, Lena, but you know I'm right." Bonnie poured cranberry sauce onto his plate.

"That's okay. I haven't really been able to watch much TV lately," Kai retorted grinning at Bonnie who let out an amused laugh. Her eyes lit up and he could only stand there, staring at her and feeling awkward. He didn't really like people—in general—but he liked this girl. He wanted to continue talking to her but the guy next to him kept glaring. He'd been on the wrong side of too many people's fists this week so he thought it would be better to go. Keep this as the one happy moment for the year.

Chuckling, Kai walked over to the table, picking the place where no one seemed to want to sit. He faced the rest of the people in the room with a view of the lunch line. Bonnie continued to serve people with her enthusiastic smile and her friends continued to argue. It really was a great show.

After two hours, Kai got up to get a refill of coffee and felt startled when a hand came down on the arm of his old army jacket which was probably made in the sixties. You'd think the thing would be torn to pieces but it wore incredibly well and kept him warm through the colder months.

"Yeah?" Kai glanced at the hand. The nice hand that belonged to the girl that made his heart skip a beat for a moment.

"Hi. We're serving pie now and I thought I'd bring you a slice," Bonnie said. "That way you can go back to watching the 'show.'" She grinned and Kai felt embarrassed that she knew he'd been watching her and her friends like some kind of creepy stalker. The problem was that he could easily begin stalking this girl if she kept treating him like a person rather than a disease like most people treated them.

Bonnie held out a plate with pumpkin pie toward him. "Here," she said.

"I can't." Kai shook his head, holding up a hand.

Bonnie's eyebrows rose. "Are you on a diet? Come on, it's Thanksgiving; live a little."

Kai continued to shake his head. "I'm not touching that pie unless you agree to eat a slice with me," he folded his arms over his chest and watched Bonnie's mouth open. He could see the wheels in her head spinning.

"I would really like to do that but my friends have this whole tradition and they'll kill me if I don't help them clean up and get out of here," Bonnie gave Kai an apologetic look, placing a hand on his arm again. He'd die happy if she'd keep touching him. He stopped his impulse to place her hand over his heart so she could feel how quickly it beat every time she touched him.

"Right. Well, have great night, Bonnie," Kai said, nodding and striding away with his steaming cup of coffee. He did want the pie but he wanted her company more.

Checking the clock every couple of minutes, Kai wondered what would happen if he grabbed Bonnie and took off with her. They wouldn't get far. He didn't have car. But he could steal one. Then again, kidnapping, plus abduction would add up to the electric chair or life in prison. Kai thought Bonnie might be worth all of that and worse.

He continued to watch the clock. His father thought he was worthless, just another mouth to feed with a disagreeable tongue. His twin sister couldn't stand him because he liked to stick it out. His younger siblings thought he was a freak. No one got him. Bonnie would. If she were willing to stay with him for awhile. But if he took her against her will, she'd never get the chance, he'd just be the freak who took her from her friends and her family.

"Hey!" Bonnie's chipper voice sounded over the noise of other people's conversations. She held two slices of pie. "Can you get me a cup of coffee since my hands are full?"

Kai shot to his feet. He almost tripped himself, never remembering being so clumsy in his whole life. "Yeah. Sure. Anything else?" he asked her. She had come. She had come to him of her own free will. Was it sign from the universe that she wanted to go with him and they could drift from place to place, seeing all the big cities the US had to offer before heading up to Canada?

"Nope. I think we're good. Although I do like sugar in my coffee. The real stuff, not the Sweet & Low." Bonnie looked up at him, placing a fork on his side of the table.

Kai felt his heart doing a happy dance in his chest and only stopped when he caught sight of Bonnie's friends eyeing him skeptically. If he took Bonnie with him, they'd file a report. They cared. They might even try to find them on their own. They would even give the cops his exact description. No, this was not an early Christmas gift given to him by a mysterious but benevolent Santa.

Pouring out the cup of coffee, Kai tried not to let his gloomy thoughts kill the mood. When was the last time he'd been on a date? Oh, right, never. This would be a first. Coffee with a girl. She had to be about four or maybe five years younger than he was. He turned twenty-six months ago. Too old to be on his first date, not old enough to control his desire to smile like an idiot about it.

He walked as calmly as he could back to the table where Bonnie sat, not playing with her phone like so many people of their generation, checking her favorite social media site for updates. She sat, her back to him, rocking her foot back and forth. "Hey!" Kai called to her. "Here is your coffee and your real sugar," he handed her the coffee cup, feeling a thrill going through him when her fingers brushed his. She took the cup in one hand and he placed the packets of sugar in her other hand, grazing her palm and wanting to kiss her fingertips.

This just felt like too much. Kai had never been this lucky. "So, what made you change your mind?" he asked her, trying to sound normal, like he had coffee with women all the time.

"Well, I hate to say this, but my friends' Thanksgiving celebration is kind of lame and it usually ends with my friend, Caroline, getting into a fight with Elena, my other friend's boyfriend, Damon, who is also one of my friends. And I don't like taking sides. So, here I am, avoiding that. And, bonus, I get to talk to the guy who refused pie if I wouldn't have coffee with him. Funny pick up line but it seemed to work in your favor." Bonnie smirked at him, taking a sip from her cup.

Kai felt his mouth go dry. "I don't have a lot of experience. You don't get to have coffee with many girls when you're picking up and moving around as much as I do."

"Where are you from?" Bonnie asked him.

Bonnie seemed genuinely interested, not like she was trying to be polite. "I'm from Portland. But that was long time ago."

"Portland. That's all the way across the country. How long ago was that?" Bonnie continued to watch him.

Kai blew out a breath. "Let's see, I took off when I was thirteen and have been living on the streets for…thirteen years. Wow! That's a long time." He smiled and Bonnie's smile froze on her lips.

"You ran away from home?" Bonnie's concern touched a part of Kai that he thought died a long time ago.

"Yup," Kai nodded, picking up his cup of coffee, playing with it, not wanting to make eye contact. "There's lots of us. You wouldn't believe how many kids I met over the years who took off because of abuse or neglect or not being able to deal with whatever shit they had to deal with from this screwed up society." Kai stopped himself. He hoped he didn't cause Bonnie to take off. It was nice having company. He liked her. He wanted her to stay with him.

"I know. I've watched the news," Bonnie said, her eyes on a wall. "And there have been kids who took off from my town and never came home. It's like one of those secrets that people don't want to talk about but they really need to stop acting like those kids never existed." She grew quiet.

"Did you know someone who took off?" Kai asked her, placing his hand over hers on the table top.

"Yeah." Bonnie's eyes pooled with tears. "My high school boyfriend, Jeremy. He's Elena's little brother. He was going through a rough patch after his parents died, started doing drugs: ecstasy and pot. I thought that I'd gotten through to him. And then one day, he just up and took off. We didn't know where he'd gone. And one day…one day they found him in New York where he'd joined up with this so-called artist's colony. They weren't artists, they were dealing and using stolen art to cover it up. Jeremy had OD'd. That was three years ago. It's still a sore subject for Elena. She works with troubled youths now."

"And what do you do?" Kai asked.

Bonnie blew out a breath. "I try to remember to live my life because I don't know what's next. And I try to keep people from disappearing if they seem like they're in trouble."

Kai felt Bonnie's eyes boring into him and he laughed. "You think I'm disappearing?"

Bonnie tipped her head to the side. "I don't know? Why don't you tell me?"

"Are you some kind of shrink?" Kai asked her.

Bonnie smiled. "First year med school, trying to work on my psych degree."

"Ah. So I'm a case." Kai got to his feet. If life seemed too good, it probably was. He grabbed his plate and cup before looking down at Bonnie. "It was nice meeting you, Bonnie."

"You didn't tell me your name," Bonnie called after him.

"Have a Happy Thanksgiving," Kai called back to her. He dumped his plate and cup, buried his hands in his pockets and walked out of the room. He headed up the steps and listened to the heavy door swing closed behind him.

On his way across the parking lot, Kai heard the sound of running footsteps behind him. Someone looking for someone else. "Wait!" Bonnie's voice sounded from behind him.

Sighing, Kai turned on his heel to find Bonnie, still in her tank top and long sleeved shirt, running toward him. "Just take this. Please!" she begged him, shivering and her teeth began to chatter in the cold.

"Fine," Kai glanced at the card which didn't say anything but had a handwritten phone number on it. "What is it?"

Bonnie smiled. "That's my cell number. If you ever want to stop being alone."

Kai nodded and shoved the card into his jeans' pocket. Bonnie gave him another smile that made him feel warm despite the November cold. She turned away from him, heading back to the church when he called after her. "Kai!" he yelled.

"What?" Bonnie looked confused, her eyebrows scrunching together and he resisted the urge to cross the distance, take her in his arms and kiss her.

"My name is Kai Parker!" Kai replied.

Bonnie called to him. "It's nice to meet you, Kai. Call me and let me know you're okay!"

"Promise," Kai waved and watched her walk away. Maybe he didn't have to take her away from her life. Maybe she could make him part of hers and he'd have a home to come to next Thanksgiving. Whistling, he turned on his heel, walking down the street as it began to snow.

Thank you for reading, faving, following and reviewing.

Peace,

Jessica