Ever since he was little, Winter Duke had always been stone faced. Whenever he was happy, he would wear a neutral expression. Sad? Neutral expression. Angry out of his guts? He simply sat still, and kept… you guessed it, a neutral expression.
It was something he was used to, and it wasn’t like there was anything particularly wrong with him. That’s just how he was.
Other people, however, were not really aware of that. His constant resting face and the fact that he was quite tall scared people.
That… was not something he was used to.
He hadn’t gone out much in his childhood, so he was still getting used to interacting with people. People… they expected you to act a certain way, but he had no idea how to conform to their ideas of acceptable. He didn’t even know how to.
Winter sat in his class, listening to the teacher, like any person would. He could sense a few spirits in the room, but they were all harmless, so he ignored them for the most part.
He could hear the instructor’s slow, boring voice. He simply sat back and listened to all of it. However, he could also hear something else. Quiet whispers in the back of the classroom.
It wasn’t abnormal for kids to get bored in class and begin murmuring amongst themselves, in fact, it was quite common, he heard such whispers almost every class. He was just about to ignore them, as he did with the spirits in the classroom, until he caught a few of their words.
His breath hitched for a second, and a string of some type of emotion ran through his body, but he did not show it, instead staying completely, absolutely, still. He did not turn his head. He did not get up and shout.
Simply listened.
“You know that Winter kid, the one that joined halfway through the year?”
“The weird guy? That sits in front of us?”
“Yeah, man. Is something up with him?”
“I heard he’s blind.”
“I know, I know, but beside that. He’s wacky.”
“How so?” The second girl asked, and Winter could hear her shuffling around in her seat. When she spoke again, her voice sounded a little closer, so he assumed that she leaned forward to speak with her friend better. “Like, I know he has problems, but…”
“I dunno, something’s got to be mentally wrong with this guy. He’s so freaky.”
Winter blinked, and kept up his stone face. That was just how he looked. But inside, he was… well, kind of hurt. How could those words not hurt?
But he never stood up and told them they were being horrible, and so they kept talking.
“...Freaky?” the second girl said after a silence, but after another brief pause, she huffed. “Yeah, I get what you mean, actually. He’s always so tall, and just, like, sits there like his face is just a mask. He doesn’t talk much, or do anything. Just…”
“Like a damn statue.”
“Exactly! He could stand to have some emotions.”
“Does he even have emotions?”
“I dunno. He never shows them, his face just stays the same. Maybe he doesn’t even have a face, and it’s just drawn on.”
Winter’s heart sank even more at those words. Of course he had emotions. He just expressed them differently. With a delicate hand and a brush full of colors- or, well, a carving knife now. He couldn’t paint anymore.
But still. He had emotions. He was definitely feeling them when they spoke those words.
He kept listening though, even though it hurt, just to see how it would play out.
“Did you hear him when he talks, though?”
“He talks?” a third girl chimed in, her voice laced with genuine shock. Her voice was to Winter’s right, and he recognized it as the voice of the girl that sat next to him.
“Uh-huh,” the girl who started the conversation said. “I’ve heard him talk. Only a few times, and to the teacher, but even that is weird.”
“How does he talk? I’ve never heard his voice before.”
Winter could have had them hear his voice, then and there, but he didn’t want to. They weren’t worth his time. He should’ve stopped listening.
“His sentences are so short. Stiff. It’s like talking to a broken robot.”
Okay, even Winter, with his eternal patience, was getting really fed up with it, and so he turned around to where their voices were coming from, and muttered: “I’m blind. Not deaf.” Then, he turned around and resumed listening to the teacher, or trying to, at least.
The three girls didn’t say a word for the rest of the period, but he could hear writing and the rustling of paper, and the occasional giggle. Passing notes?
Whatever. He wasn’t hearing them anymore, so he had nothing to say.
Except… was he really that weird and scary?
Perhaps he needed a lesson in being more expressive. So he could look less freaky.
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After school, Winter went straight to the cafe to work.
“I don’t know why you insist on going to school,” his boss, Aeris, said, filling up some drinks for the customers. “Doesn’t that get in the way of your duties?”
“It does,” the tall boy agreed, standing at the counter, waiting for a customer to walk in and give him their order. “But I manage.”
He didn’t need to be able to see to know that Aeris was practically raising her eyebrows towards the clouds. “Oh. Really? I completely believe that.” The sarcasm in her voice was there, and as obvious as a big red button in a haystack, but it simply went over Winter’s head.
“Thanks.” he said, and it was silent for a while. Business was pretty slow that day, and because it was so slow, he took it as an opportunity to ask a question. “Aeris.”
“Mmm, what is it?” She replied while Winter rolled up his sleeves and leaned on the counter.
“I need help.”
“With?”
“Practicing my expressions.”
A small snorting sound came from behind him, and then a full on eruption of laughter. Though it quickly died down when he didn’t laugh with her, or even smile the tiniest bit. “Oh,” Aeris said, clearing her throat. “You were serious.”
“Yes,” he confirmed, and waited for her reply.
“Er… I don’t really know.”
He nodded. “It’s okay.” There was yet another pause. The cafe music played in the background, a soft, jazzy song, filling up the lack of conversation. “I’ll ask the One With a Million-”
Her eyes widened, and she stopped him mid-sentence. “No, I’m not going to let you ask the One With a Million Faces. That’s a last resort, and you’re not going to need a last resort.”
“Why?”
She bit her lip, and sighed. That creature was dangerous, and no one should be talking to it. It was constantly looking for gullible souls to add to its million faces, and sadly, Winter was a somewhat gullible soul. She instead decided to offer an alternative, one that he would definitely take over the other. “There might be a few books in the library on changing your expressions and stuff,” she said with a sigh. “After your shift, I can guide you to the section.”
“But I-”
“I know you’re blind. I mean the magic books. You know, the ones I showed you a while ago that talk?”
“Oh.” His heart had a spark, a little bit of hope. Maybe then he wouldn’t be so weird. “Thanks.”
“Of course,” she said. “You have a lot on your plate already. You don’t need to be worrying about this, too.”
He smiled. It was his own way of smiling, though, so no one could tell unless they were really looking for a difference in expression.
The bell to the shop rang as somebody opened up the door, and some boots walked in. He stood tall and got ready. “Welcome. Your order?” he asked the potential customer, who simply giggled a bit.
“I’m just here for work,” the voice replied, the smooth, higher voice of Grey.
“Sorry,” Winter said, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. He felt his cheeks get a little warm as well. Grey, the new employee in the shop. Surely he wouldn’t want to be friends with him. It was hard enough the first time. Winter didn’t know how to make friends, anyway, and plus, he was too weird and stone faced, like the girls said.
“It’s fine,” replied the boy, and he heard him get behind the counter. “Hi Aeris, sorry I’m late. My teacher was giving me a lecture on how I can do better in class.”
“Well, as long as you’re here.”
Winter went about his job as usual, looking the same as always, but inside, he was almost jumping for joy. Soon, he would be able to show it like a normal person, too.
And, hey. Maybe once he learned how to have more normal expressions, he could try to be friends with Grey.
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After the shift was over, Winter stood near the entrance of the library, waiting for Aeris, who was finishing up cleaning the last of the things for the day, the sleeves to her white button-up shirt rolled up.
Then, when all was finished, she walked to the back door and placed her hand on the handle.
“Wait,” Grey had called out, and they both stopped. Aeris stared at him through her glasses, waiting for him to continue. “Where are you both going?”
“Where do you think?” she asked dryly.
“Ah,” he said. “I mean, more like- why are you going?”
“Winter needs something there, and I’m the guide. It’s very easy to get lost without knowing where you’re going.”
“That’s fair, I guess,” said Grey. “But what do you need to get from there?”
Aeris pursed her lips. He had good intentions, but sometimes he was a little nosy. Or maybe she was just being too harsh on him. Whatever the case, she nudged Winter’s arm a little, asking for permission to say what it was.
Winter, however, did not know what that nudge meant. What was he supposed to do, read her mind?
And so, the place stayed quiet…
Somebody coughed in the silence, and Grey finally just decided to back down. “Er… I’m just going to go now. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”
Aeris nodded, and once she was sure he left, she opened the back door to the library, walking in with Winter right behind her.
As they entered the incredibly odd, magical place, she turned around. “So, Winter. Why didn’t you say anything?”
He simply stood there, and tilted his head a bit. “What?”
“Back there, I was asking for permission to talk about the expression thing, and you didn’t reply.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know I was asking?”
He shook his head. How was he supposed to know? In fact, he just thought that she bumped into him by accident.
“Oh well,” she simply said, and started walking. Winter followed her, being able to sense where she was, and also following the sound of her footsteps.
While they walked, Winter thought. Was he supposed to be able to tell what that nudge meant? Maybe he should add it to the list of things to fix.
Well, one thing at a time.
Aeris stopped walking, and he bumped into her. “Sorry.”
“Nah, it’s fine,” she said, and stepped to the side, allowing Winter to walk towards the shelves. “Here we are.”
He lifted his hand, cold at the fingertips, and traced the shapes of the books on the shelves. “Section?”
“It’s a section I didn’t even know we had,” she admitted. “It’s called ‘Magic Audiobooks: Expressing Yourself in a Manner That’s Socially Acceptable so that People Like You.’ Honestly, I think the idea of this section seems a little problematic, but…”
“Long title,” was all Winter commented, and stopped moving his hand at a particular book, feeling its hardcover spine, and then pulled it out, opening it up. The book started speaking- speaking with his own voice, and reading all of the words on that page aloud.
It was a little trippy, but he had listened to magic books before. He was starting to get used to hearing his own voice without him being the one talking.
“Everything you need here?” Aeris asked.
From the chapter index, it sounded like what he was looking for. Winter nodded to answer Aeris’ question, and sat down to listen to the book, getting extremely focused on the words.
“Hm. Well… don’t stay too long here. I know time pretty much stops, but don’t tire yourself out.”
“Hmm,” he said, not really listening to her words, and instead only the book.
“No staying in here for weeks, either. Your poor grandma got worried and called me up when you were missing for a day. I had to come in here and fish you out, remember that?”
“...” He was now completely immersed in the book, and Aeris just sighed, and placed a hand on his head. He could feel the rings she wore, cold metal.
“Just don’t get too focused, like last time. All right?” She ruffled his already messy hair, and this time he responded, with a nod. “I trust you can find the exit?” He nodded again, and she shook her head. “All right. I’ll see you in a bit.” She retracted her hand and left, heels softly clicking across the wooden floor.
He heard her get further and further from the little corner of books, and bent forward to hear the words from the magical tomes better, since they were speaking with his own soft voice.
“Chapter One: Facial Expressions. People change their expressions according to their emotions, so if you’re having trouble with doing that, this book can help. For example, when people are happy, they usually smile. To smile, pull up the ends of your lips, like you’re trying to get them to reach your ears.”
“Hmm…” Winter sat there for a bit, thinking of how to go about following the instructions. He tried to tense his facial muscles in a way that would work, but he could never get his lips to go up. He just settled for pulling his cheeks for now. It sort of made them go up.
“A tip to help you smile is like you’re saying cheese, but you really stretch the E.”
Winter tilted his head. Maybe that would help. “Cheeeeeeeeeeeese.” His mouth sort of felt stretched out.
“Next, smile with your eyes.”
That didn’t make sense. A smile was done with a mouth, right? He didn’t have tiny mouths in his eyes. He was also pretty sure that it was harder to move them to form particular shapes.
He just ignored that.
“Now, some people show their teeth when they smile. You can practice this.”
He bared his teeth while pulling on his cheeks. Was that it? Did it work? He couldn’t really tell, but maybe it did. It was really starting to hurt his face, though…
He let go, and his face went back to normal. But maybe it did something…? If it was in a book, it must’ve been helpful. He’d try it out tomorrow.
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After about fifteen hours in the library, and a lot of sleep at his Grandma’s house, he was ready to test out the information he learned in the book.
He went to school, like normal, and sat in his seat.
Class proceeded as usual. The teacher talked for a while about the subject. He didn’t hear any gossip from the three girls behind him, just writing.
At some point, the teacher made a joke, and everybody laughed, soft chuckles and cackles all across the room. He didn’t laugh at first, but then it occurred to him that he was supposed to be laughing too. To fit in.
He stretched out his mouth, like the book told him too, and tried to match their laughs. “Ha… ha... haaaa…” He did it a few seconds after the room went silent, so it was just him, laughing awkwardly. He still didn’t get the hang of the whole expressions thing, though, and the silence of the room felt awkward.
He promptly stopped, though he heard snickers from the girls behind him, and the one girl next to him. They whispered to each other. Rude things. About him.
Winter blinked, and a small, embarrassing warmth overtook him. A few moments passed, and everything went back to normal, class resumed, though he felt his heart sinking just the tiniest bit.
Yeah, he would definitely need more training for this. Who knew that expressing your emotions to fit in was so hard?
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The rest of the day had similar results, every time he tried to consciously change his face and put emotion into it, there was always an odd silence afterwards. He couldn’t see it, either, but people were probably staring at him with confusion and disappointment, an expression he saw quite a lot back when he still could see.
He was back at work again, with Grey beside him. They had talked a few times that day, but now, he was off making some of the drinks. Winter stood, waiting to take orders.
Winter had a plan. After work, he would go home and practice smiling. He would also practice laughing, and his sad face, his confused face, and all of the other faces that went wrong earlier.
“Win… Winter!”
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize Grey was trying to get his attention, and he perked up a bit at the sound of the boy’s voice.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Somebody’s trying to order.”
He cleared his throat. “Sorry.” Winter turned to face the counter better, where a person was presumably standing, and decided to try to use his practiced smile, just one more time. He stretched his lips wide, and tried to say as enthusiastically as possible: “Welcome. Your order?”
The response was a quiet snickering from the other side of the counter, and his smile fell. Was it really that bad?
“Sorry, I’d like one lemonade please.”
Winter nodded, and mumbled the order to Grey, who promptly got to work. “Anything else?”
“What?” the person on the other side of the counter asked, “Speak up, I can’t hear you.”
\He swallowed, and tried his best to raise his voice from a quiet mutter up to a slightly louder tone. “Anything else…?”
“Nah, just the lemonade.”
Grey was finished, and carried a plastic cup that rattled with the ice inside. He placed it on the counter and pushed it over to the buyer.
The ice inside of the cup rattled again as the man picked up the plastic container and took a sip, and he made a small sound in the back of his throat in surprise. “Oh my God.”
“Is… something wrong, sir?” Grey asked, and Winter could feel the nervousness from the boy.
“No, no, there’s no problem.” The ice rattled around again as he took another sip. “This is just… different from the lemonade I usually get here.”
Grey made a small gasp in realization. “Oh no, I accidentally made it the way my Mom makes lemonade for me… I’m so sorry, I’ll remake it with the shop recipe,” he apologized, stepping back to make another one.
“It’s actually all right,” the customer interjected. “This is pretty good.”
Grey stopped, and turned back. “Really?”
“Yeah. I think this is better than the shop recipe. It was bitter at first, but it has a really sweet aftertaste. What did you put in this?”
Winter heard the other employee laugh to himself, all of his worries about the drink fading away with that small chuckle. “That’s a secret, it’s my Mom’s recipe,” he said, and his voice was just the tiniest bit higher, how it always was when he was happy.
“I got it. Next time I order lemonade, can you make it like this again?”
“Sure thing!” Grey exclaimed, his voice more full of energy than ever. Winter could practically feel the happiness radiating off of him with the praise.
“All right, thanks,” the man said. The bell rang as he opened up the door to leave, but he never heard the door close. “Oh yeah, and your smile is really sweet,” the guy said before exiting.
“Uh… thanks?” Grey replied, even though the guy left. He simply made an indifferent sound in the back of his throat and resumed his work, the clanking of cups and machines continuing. Winter stood at the counter still.
Grey was good at showing his emotions. He always seemed so happy, and Winter could tell, even without seeing a wide smile. And for those who could see, apparently it was “sweet.”
Winter could vaguely remember Grey’s smile. He agreed, it was quite sweet.
If Grey was a painting, he would be big, bright, and glowing with colors. It would be one of those pieces that would make you cry simply out of pure joy, an artwork so beautiful it would be hung up in a castle. Children would marvel at it, adults would praise the complexity and emotion.
Winter was sure that he also had the potential to be just as amazing as that… but he wasn’t like a painting. Instead, Winter believed that he would be a diorama. It could be just as wonderful as a painting, but it was inside a box. A closed box, making it look dull to outsiders.
To see the diorama, one would need to open up the box. But they never would, for it looked dull and so it was assumed that there’d be nothing of interest inside.
Perhaps he could ask Grey to help him unlock his potential, to reveal all of the beautiful colors inside. To be an open book. People liked open books.
But, how would he ask?
He leaned on the counter and traced over the scratches in the surface with his finger mindlessly, agonizing over how to ask.
Maybe he shouldn’t. He didn’t want to cause trouble, after all.
Though…
Words from others seeped under his skin and refused to leave. Usually, he would just ignore them, but they weren’t going away this time, staying latched onto his mind.
How he was weird, and always kept the same face, same monotone voice.
It was decided, he would ask him. Just a quick lesson, and plus, he would have another person there to tell him if his smiles were any good.
After a lot of thought, he finally spoke. “Grey?”
“Mmm?” the boy responded.
“Can you teach me?”
“Sure, but what am I teaching you?” He could sense the other boy put down what he was holding and lean on the counter next to Winter. He was close, their arms were practically touching. He had to take another breath and remember what he was going to say.
“Expressions. Smiles. How you do it.”
“Oh!” Grey said, his voice laced with a bit of surprise. “It’s no problem, man, but why are you asking so suddenly?”
“Earlier. You’re good at it.”
“All right, got it! After the shift, or… where are we going to go? We can’t go to my house, can we go to yours? Oh, if your Grandma’s okay with it though, I think you mentioned you stayed with her the first time we met?”
Winter listened as Grey talked, and waited until a long enough pause to answer the questions. “Yes. My house.”
“All right!”
“Your mom, though.”
Grey paused. “You’re asking about my mom, not my parents?” he asked, but quickly shook it off. “Well, I don’t know if she’s going to be okay with it, but as long as I only spend an hour there after our shift, I should be fine. I’ll just tell her my club took a little longer than expected.”
“...Okay.”
Despite his flat tone of voice, he was really excited.
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“WOAH!”
The two boys sat in Winter’s room, a very small place, but cozy.
The constant mewling was from the sheer amount of cats in the tiny house. There were three or four in Winter’s room, and Grey seemed to have a lot of fun playing around with them, having a meowing little furball sitting in his lap.
“This one is so soft,” he stated, his voice going slightly higher again.
Winter nodded, and sat on his own bed, a thin twin bed layered with blankets, and one that the old lady knitted for him with quite a lot of yarn. Grey got up and joined him on the bed, still holding a fuzzy little kitten.
“So, where do you want to start?” asked Grey, getting comfortable and crossing his legs. “There’s lots of different things.”
Winter shrugged.
“All… right? Let’s start with a big smile then. Show me how you smile normally.”
Winter sat up straight, took a deep breath, and presented his practiced smile that he learned from the book, stretching his mouth out wide.
He could hear Grey suck in some air through his teeth. “All right, it’s… it’s a start. What about that other one?”
“Other smile?” Winter questioned, tilting his head. He felt his messy bangs brush across his face as he did so. From what he knew, he didn’t have any other smiles, just the ones he learned.
“The one where you go, like… I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s adorable. A small smile where the corners just barely go up, but I can tell you’re happy,” Grey tried to explain, petting the cat in his lap on the head. “Your true smile.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Here, let me show you my true smile! I just need to think of something happy, and… there we go!” Grey was probably grinning from ear to ear, but Winter wouldn’t know.
“I can’t see it.”
“Oh, right… sorry…”
“Do you mind if I…” Winter didn’t know how to phrase it in the simplest way possible, but he held out a hand. Grey got what he meant, and gently took hold of Winter’s wrist, guiding his hand to his face.
“Sure, to help you learn!”
Winter’s fingertips finally landed on Grey’s soft skin, and he marveled at how warm his cheeks were. He brought his other hand to the boy’s face. It was equally warm. He traced around different parts of his face, and felt the roundness, the squishiness.
Then he started feeling for different parts that contributed to the smile, poking around for which parts were pulled taut and which parts were relaxed.
Grey giggled. “That kind of tickles,” he said quietly, and Winter could feel the muscles moving under the palms of his hands as he laughed and spoke.
“Sorry,” Winter murmured.
“It’s all right. You learning anything?”
“...Your skin is soft.”
Grey giggled again. “Well, that’s something. I mean about the expression, dumbass.” The words were rude, but they were said lightly, and with a laugh, so Winter assumed that they weren’t meant to hurt.
“Er…” Winter felt around more, and felt some muscles tensed, mostly around the ends of the mouth and the cheeks. “A bit.”
“Okay. Do you want to try smiling by yourself now, with this as a reference? I don’t really know how it’s going to work, but…”
Winter let go of Grey’s face and nodded. “I can try. Copy your smile.”
“All right. It can be a start, but make sure you find your own genuine one, okay? The one that you make when you’re happy. Don’t fake it.”
For some reason, Winter felt a little bit of sadness from the other boy, but perhaps that was just his failure to read the room again, since his voice still made that little sound like when he was happy.
“Okay.”
“Try whenever you’re ready,” Grey encouraged, sitting forward and waiting. The cats in the room went silent as well, as if watching quietly to see how Winter would react.
He hesitated for a second, and then tried to move the same muscles the other boy had, to replicate the smile that was apparently “sweet.” He felt his face start to move, a conscious effort, and then he felt like he was smiling.
Gently, he poked at his own face to see if he was replicating Grey’s skillful grin well enough.
“Am I doing it?” he asked hopefully.
“Er…” Grey simply chuckled a bit. “Well, I can see that you’re trying.”
Winter dropped the forced smile. Perhaps he was never going to get it at all.
“But it’s still a good effort! You’re really getting somewhere, and I can see the work you’re putting into this! You’re so cool, Winter!”
The unexpected barrage of compliments shocked the more withdrawn boy, as he never received so many at once before, but he… kind of liked it. A warm feeling seeped through his chest, sweet like honey. Involuntarily, he felt his mouth curl up just a bit as the feeling spread through him, to all the corners of his body. “Really?”
A gasp came from Grey. “Oh my God! You’re doing it! You’re actually, genuinely doing it! It’s that adorable smile from before!”
“I… am?” he was taken aback, as he hadn’t even been trying, and he reached up to feel his own face. Sure enough, he was doing the exact same thing Grey had, except he wasn’t trying. “I am,” he confirmed.
“Good job, dude!”
Suddenly, a warm form jumped into his chest, and he felt arms wrap around him. Grey had leaned forward to embrace him, and was leaning his head against his chest. The cat that had been in the smaller boy’s lap jumped off, and mewed on the floor.
Winter sat there awkwardly as Grey leaned against him, and tried to figure out what to do when someone was hugging him. Should he lean in too? Where should he put his hands? He wished that there was some kind of textbook on that.
He just decided on wrapping his arms around his torso in an attempt to return the hug.
“You did well! How do you feel, Winter?!”
How did he feel? Well, warm inside. He felt his heart beating in his chest as Grey leaned against it. And he was sure that he was properly expressing it, even though he only changed his facial expression in the slightest.
“...Nice,” he finally responded, with the shortest amount of words possible.
“I’m glad!” Grey said, and he nudged himself out of Winter’s arms to retract from the hug. Winter felt the cold air replace where he had been leaning. “See, you don’t need to practice anything. Just be yourself!”
Winter nodded. Maybe he didn’t need to do anything. Maybe he would be just fine without any practiced smiles, or textbooks on how to fit in. Maybe those girls in his class would see that he wasn’t actually weird and stone-faced.
Maybe Grey would want to be his friend, too.
Everything seemed to be working out.
“Winter, I have one question.”
“Mhm?”
“Why did you want to do this in the first place? You don’t have to answer, I’m just curious.”
He had no reason to lie, so he said: “So I’m not weird.”
Winter regretted speaking those words, because when Grey replied, his voice didn’t sound like he was grinning as usual. In fact, it was more like his heart was breaking. “What? You’re not weird. Never were.”
“Girls in class…”
He heard Grey huff, and change his position on the bed. “Let me guess. Three girls at the school? One starting rumors, the other two agreeing with her? Occasionally with a fourth, though she’s not too bad.”
Winter was just a bit confused at how specific he was being. “Sort of…?”
Grey put a hand on his shoulder. “They call themselves something like ‘the flower girls’ or whatever because they have flower-related names. It’s dumb and stupid, and so are they.”
What was up with him? It wasn’t like Grey to talk bad about people, unless it was his mother, but only on a really terrible day.
“I…”
Grey continued speaking. “It doesn’t matter what they think of you. You’ll never please them. They’re bullies, Winter. They hate people for no reason. Don’t try to change yourself for them.”
Winter was still confused, and didn’t really get it. Why would people say bad things about him if there was no reason to? The only reason would be if he was actually doing something wrong.
However, he just nodded. “Okay.”
It didn’t make sense though.
But it didn’t really matter, did it? Since he now knew how to stop being weird. He was sure that they would stop.
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He walked to the cafe in the rain, listening to the heavy drops hit the fabric of the umbrella above his head.
It didn’t work.
They still giggled, and made snide comments about him. They hadn’t even resumed writing notes to each other, they must have gotten tired. They started whispering once more, and so he heard every little thing.
There was no other reason for them to say such horrible things other than that he was still somehow doing something wrong.
Nothing ever worked. He knew that there was a problem with him.
So…
It was time for the last resort.
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A/N: This was actually meant to be one chapter, but I made it too long... lol. Working on the next chapter rn, I'll see you all on the 28th!
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