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 Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:38 pm
If dark clouds were possible indoors, there would be a particularly huge one raining buckets over a particularly confused student. Topher Coral sat on the wall corner of his bed, head in his hands, knees pulled up to his chest nearly sobbing to himself. He had been that way the entire afternoon.
No classes. No studying. Nothing.
"Oh my god. How could I?" The boy took a moment to wipe his eyes, starring down at his paled skins with tear blurred vision. "...And I ate afterwards like it was nothing!" Topher violently lurched forward, arms wrapping around his stomach and face pressed against his knees. This was supposed to be an uneventful day and it was ruined by that dumb dream. She had been so vulnerable and so sweet standing there with such a sweet smile. Her flesh had tasted just as sweet as he ripped into her without a second thought. It wasn't fair at all. Was this some sort of cosmic joke or was he really turning into some horrible, grotesque, pubescent Hannibal Lector? Dreams were just an extension of the soul and his apparently wanted to eat Yvette. Not only that but there seemed to be rumors of meningitis going around the school. There weren't enough bottles of Purell in the world to keep that stuff at bay. One more thing to worry about.
Topher groaned into the fabric of his pajama bottoms, completely forgetting the small array of candles that lined his now cleaned off desk all lit and giving off a lavender and white flower scent. Aroma therapy wasn't helping in the slightest. There certainly wasn't a candle for -calming the homicidal freak inside of you- at Bed, Bath & Beyond.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:57 pm
Meekly, Yvette had made her way to her friend's dorm room while clutching onto her drawing pads. Topher had mentioned the other day that he wanted her to stop by to watch TV and look over her sketches. Initially, she had not taken the request seriously, assuming that he was just saying this to be nice. He was always so very nice to her. She tried to help him out with homework from time to time, but usually it ended in disaster because she didn't explain things right.
She stood in front of his dorm room, her hand up, ready to knock. However, it wasn't doing as it was supposed to. It hesitated as she thought over what had happened in her dreams. She had already sorted some of the issues out, but even after dealing with all those other students in the kitchen, she still felt very confused. Especially after catching whispers of other students having very similar dreams to her own.
"...T-topher..." she sighed quietly as her hand finally tapped lightly against his door. The knock would be soft, but still noticeable enough to react to.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2009 11:24 pm
The sound of soft knocking roused him out of his crying just long enough to hear her small, gentle voice. It was Yvette. The one person he wanted -no- needed to see. He needed to make sure she was alright. Even though she was literally the woman of his dreams, it took him what seemed like minutes to sluggishly swing both legs over the edge of his bed.
"I coming. One moment..." Topher's voice was unsteady and unusually rough. Hours of crying and talking to himself had shaped it to be that way. Hopefully she wouldn't think he'd turned into something horrible. Realizing that he'd been crying and probably looked a bigger mess than he normally did, he shook a hand through his hair until it reached it's normal fluffiness, if...it could even be called fluffy, and wiped his eyes with the back of hie blue and white striped shirt.
When the door finally opened, he still looked a mess. He tried to smile as widely as possible without giving the left over tears in his eyes a chance to fall. The same rough voice answered her, "Yvette. I can honestly say that you couldn't have picked a better time. I...was worried..." Blue eyes darted away from her to stare at his own bare feet. Topher wasn't one to lie about how he was feeling and at the tail end of a nervous breakdown certainly wasn't where he was going to start right then and there. Though telling the truth wasn't a sure fire way to feel better.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:47 am
If there was anything making this moment more intense, it was the waiting. The girl waited for what felt like an hour, but it was far shorter than that. As she waited, she could almost feel her heart thumping in her head, which was far from where it should have been thumping, that much was for sure. She thought for a brief moment she had heard a voice from inside the room, but the thumping in her head was too loud to really hear what it had said. Nervously, she bit her lip a tiny bit, and then the door began to open slowly.
The pounding in her head stopped as she saw her friend there, looking absolutely miserable. After knowing Topher for so long, she knew that he could and would never hide his emotions. If he wasn't feeling good, it would show.
His words sounded like they had been as polished as sandpaper. The girl looked up to his face with concern painted all over her features. If she hadn't gone to the kitchen, she would not have known why he was worried. However, she had gone, and she had a hunch. Even though she had wanted to tell him all she knew, all that came out was "C-can I come in?" Shyly, her eyes once again fell to the floor as she waited to enter her friend's dorm.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:42 pm
"Yes. Definitely. Come in." Clearing his throat a bit, Topher slowly made his way over to his desk, going to move his tote bag from the chair to the opposite wall to free up a seat. He doubted she would be comfortable with sitting on his bed. Just s he grabbed the strap, he once against noticed the candles flickering and giving off the only real light in the room.
Wow. That's awkward. This wasn't his idea when he thought of asking a friend to his dorm room. Sketches and television by candlelight? Yeah. That totally screamed platonic.
Topher scowled at the candles as he moved his tote, quietly cursing his own dumb luck. Not that there was much time to blow them out without making a fool of himself. The teen tapped his fingers against the wall, debating what to do before painting another wide smile on his face. "Sorry about the candles. I was trying to help my nerves." He sluggishly made his over over to the double bed, hand reaching for the foot board to lean on. "I'm glad you accepted my invitation though. For a second there, I thought I would have scared you off. I mean it is my dorm room after all," his voice finally reached a higher, more inviting octave though still retaining it's gravelly quality, "I was hoping I could...talk to you about something weird. You're normally the only person who will listen to me without getting bored or making an excuse to leave."
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:55 pm
Obediently, the girl scooted herself into the dorm. It was a bit darker than she had imagined it would be, but she didn't utter a word of complaint. When given the go ahead, she sat herself down on the offered chair, still clutching onto her sketch pads. Her eyes curiously danced from candle to candle, wondering why there were candles before Topher offered an explanation. She shyly nodded her head a bit before her eyes sunk down again.
In her tiny voice, she confessed her reason for even stopping by: "I came because I was worried... I... I had a bad dream last night..." Her fingers tightened their grip on her sketchbook pile, as if seeking some sort of gentle comfort.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:36 pm
His face darkened at the mention of a bad dream. Something had hurt Yvette as well. He wondered if it was the same thing that had been plaguing him all day. Would it be okay to tell her? He'd always been a truthful boy but maybe that was going too far. It wouldn't be good to start the conversation with the fact that he ate her in a dream. His head started to throb giving him no other choice but to press his fingers against his thump and middle finger against his temples. This was turning out to be a nightmare or at least the nightmare had come true...partially. The desire to eat her was gone but the horror and the inhumanity lingered on almost to the point where he couldn't look at her in the eyes without some sense of guilt.
"A bad dream?" his voice was wavering, giving off the idea that he wanted to continue with something. Anything. There was so much he had been keeping inside the entire day and yet, for once, there was no long speech, no drawn out, vivid account of his own dream and no comforting words to accompany his inquiry.
For the first time in what seemed like the whole of his young life, Topher Coral was completely silent.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:37 pm
There was something wrong with this. The girl looked up again, expectantly. Why was it so quiet right now? Had Yvette done something wrong again? With a small frown on her tiny mouth, she continued on with her own explanation. "Yes... I..." There was a small pause, as if she was trying to place a finger on which words she wanted to use to explain this. "...I dreamed that I... I was basically a zombie. I... I was hungry..."
Her voice squeaked a bit at this point and her voice quieted down completely. Her eyes fell once more to the floor. The shadows in the room seemed to dance slightly as the candle flames flickered on occasion. Had her mood not been so down, she might have enjoyed watching the shadows. It could have been very inspirational. Instead of inspiration, she felt a wave of sadness that almost could have mirrored her friend's mood. Before she even realized what was going on, a couple tears had dripped down her cheeks. "I...I'm so sorry..." her voice whimpered out.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:57 pm
Zombie? She must have had the same dream. Oh god. She was going through this horrible thing as well. Had Yvette been going through the same awkward feelings that he had been going through? A soft sigh of sigh of apprehension finally slipped past his lips. There wasn't much else he could do but tell. "I...had the same nightmare. I'm not sure what it means but," his hands deftly trailed down his face until he was starring at his trembling fingers once again before hastily continuing, "...but I didn't mean anything by it. I would never do something so horrible to you. Ever!"
The vice grip on his tongue finally loosened it's hold when he saw her tears. He would never want to see anything drive Yvette to tears. "Please Yvette. Don't let it bother you," his voice matter-of-factly drawled out in a way that was trying to convince them both. "You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. This...wasn't your fault or my fault for that matter. Maybe there was something we both watched that was messing with our heads. It could have been anything."
Topher shuffled to the chair, dropping to his knees in front of her trying his best to follow the path of her gaze. "It wasn't even real." The smile on his face was a genuine as he could muster his hands slowly moved to rest, barely there, on her knees. The air over him still fogged up by the figurative gray cloud as he tried to find something to patch up his friend's fragile state.
"How about I light some more candles and we forget about this whole thing? You're too pretty to cry over someone like me. Especially because of a dream." The teen rested his head on the back of his hand, eyes brightening to just a shade off from the normal bright blue they always were at the thought of making her feel better.
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 8:12 pm
At first, all she had were gentle tears. However, her body began to shudder slightly, more as if she was scared. "Th-the... the whole school had the same dream." Her voice was beginning to crackle up slightly, which only made her voice sound like the bad end of a static-filled phone call. Quiet and hard to decipher. Amidst her quiet and broken talking, she had managed to sputter out that she had heard it that early morning in the kitchen. Was it remotely understandable? Not even close. She could see his face as her tiny tears dribbled from her eyes, which brought her some comfort, but her overall sense of impending danger and doom was still poking her in the back of her mind. Yet, his smile could at least soothe her emotions to a point where she was able to hush her tiny sobs.
She attempted to put a smile on her tiny lips, but the corners of her mouth only perked up about halfway up. With her slightly renewed sense of calmness, she confessed "I-i'm just so scared. Everything has been so confusing lately... first the meningitis, and then this..." She hugged onto her sketchbook a bit, her fingers once again beginning to tremble slightly.
"I... I just don't want to lose anymore friends..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:40 pm
All this information was making the rain cloud over his personality became more like a tornado, ripping through the last bit of his mind that could make sense of anything. Everyone had had the dream? This was more than them. However, their little world was in his dorm room at that moment in time. She was breaking up just as he had been. After all of this, the last thing they needed was to be out of their minds.
"I know. Everything was confusing to me too. We started out so strong and now I...just don't know what's happening to the school. It's just falling apart before our eyes." He slowly raised himself up on his knees, slipping his arms down the armrests until he found enough purchase to grab hold of the worn leather. Instinct was winning out over logic. She was afraid of him leaving her too and there wasn't a gentle way to break that sort of thinking. His hand trembled with uncertainty as he leaned closer to her, cupping her chin with a strong, albeit gentle hand to keep her gaze on his steady. This was as forward as he could possibly be with her without making himself uncomfortable. The girl was so...flighty that it was hard to grasp what frightened her anymore.
Somewhere deep in his throat, harsh words were forming. Tact wasn't his policy but today had been full of surprises. First absolute silence and now the most dumbed down phrase he could gather up the courage to muster.
"You'll always have me Yvette. You know that," his voice was softer, more like the normal Topher that strolled through the halls. "The only way you'll lose me is if you told me to leave you alone. I would never desert you willingly. Not with all this going on." Realizing the position he was in, Topher inched away from her and sat back on his knees, breathing harder than he expected from the close contact. There was something about the red flickering glow of the candles that drew his eyes away from her for the first time. They seemed so out of place for such a dramatic, operatic moment in his life.
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 12:17 am
She had managed to hush long enough for her friend to draw himself closer. It came as a shock to her system, but suddenly there was a gentle hand under her chin. Her eyes ceased dripping, but something else happened in response to her friend's attempts at comforting her. Her heart began to beat a bit faster, loud enough to once more obscure her hearing. Maybe it was because a bit of blood was rushing to her face, causing her cheeks to turn a beautiful rosy color. His hand was quite warm, but soon enough that warmth abandoned her face.
"T-topher..." There were so many feelings inside of her that wanted to burst out right now. She wanted to scream so many things. It was all so confusing. Her heart was still beating in her head. She could have told her friend to keep her safe. She could have told him that he was one of the people she worried about most out of the school. There was so much she could have said.
And all she had managed to say was his name. Feeling once again defeated, her arms released their hold of her sketchbooks. Without the extra support, the pads of paper slid off her thighs quite easily. The clatter was perhaps the loudest thing to happen in the room thus far.
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:14 pm
The sound of her sketchbooks crashing to the floor snapped him out of everything. If he wasn't kneeling listlessly he would would have been across the dorm room and huddled in a corner from the sudden noise. Instead, he just fell back on his hands, blues eyes watching the books intently as if he expected them to get up and run away. When he finally realized that they were in fact just paper, he slowly drew himself up, reaching for the pad closet to him.
Oh yes! That's why he had originally asked her. Maybe this was finally a chance to get both their minds off of everything. Besides, her sketches were just so...her.
Topher nodded, a smile playing at the corner his lips as he stared at the cover. "Since they're all already on the floor, why don't you come down here with me! I'll grab one of the candles so we can see better kay!" The blue haired boy set the sketchbook down, lifting himself off the floor only long enough to grab the one candle that would be safe on the floor. Carefully taking the hold of the intricate dragon handle, he tried to stay as stiff as a board to keep the oil from spilling. Oil candles. His mother's favorite thing and normally the only thing she sent him. At least this on was a pewter dragon and not a crystal cat playing with a yarn ball.
"My Mom seriously loves these things. I think she might even get a magazine about them. Every you look there's catalogs and random stuff about candles," a soft sigh when the candle was placed safely on the floor," I've never been too fond of them. Most of the time I use them as decoration when people come over. You just happened upon a rare occasion. Very rare indeed."
Topher settled himself on the floor again, crossed his legs and patting the ground next to him before leaning back on his hands. "You know I don't bite."
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:40 pm
In a similar fashion to her friend's reaction, Yvette squeaked slightly and jumped in her seat. That moment of spacing out really had caused a bit of a situation, for once she saw what caused the noise, the girl squeaked out "Oh! I'm so sorry!" She didn't hesitate to get out of the chair to try and recover the sketchbooks, but her reaction time seemed to be a bit too late. By the time she had knelt onto the ground to pick up her belongings, Topher had already grabbed one.
Upon his voiced suggestion, she blushed and looked to the floor (which was now closer than before, how convenient!). "Oh.... um... okay..." She didn't budge initially, watching her blue haired friend stand up and get one of the candles. She watched with wide eyes, much like a fawn who was huddled up waiting for its mother to return to it. As he spoke, she couldn't help but feel vaguely comforted as he began to act more like Topher. He was the type to talk someone's ear off. If one didn't know him, they wouldn't have noticed anything wrong. Yet anyone who knew Topher for five minutes knew he was best off talking and talking and talking.
With the same amount of boldness as that deer fawn, Yvette carefully began to scoot over to where Topher had patted. She looked as if she was going to spook off if her friend made any sort of sudden movement.
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:45 pm
The teen watched her carefully she slowly lowered herself to the floor. He wondered if she was so hesitant by herself. In fact, he'd never really seen her when she was alone. It wasn't like he sat there and watched her. Well, not all the time but that didn't matter. She was actually here, in his dorm room, giving him the time of day just to hang out. This didn't happen often.
The floor was much less intimidating or at least he hoped so. "See. It's much nicer on the floor. I can look at your sketches without hovering over you right?" He glanced over her sketchbooks with vigor, wondering which one held all of her fashion designs. With the most grace that he could muster up, he took the and put it down in his lap and grabbed the candle to hold over it. Hopefully it would get through the night without any red wax dripping down on it and making the poor thing look like a murder weapon.
Topher chuckled, his voice instantly softened by the calming aura around them, "Is there any in here that you don't want me to see? I mean, I doubt you draw horrible things that should never be seen by humankind but it never hurts to be prepared. I looked through this one kid's sketchbook at my old school and it was pretty much a Playboy magazine without the official seal of approval. It was weird to say the least..." Oh the joys of making an awkward situation all the more awkward.
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