how strange love is || bear & rskde

If there was anything worse than starting a new school year, it was starting a new school year somewhere completely different. At just 17, her parents had uprooted her life in a way that lead to absolute tragedy. Sure, Cassidy understood why her parents had to move in order to get more money, but she couldn't fathom why her father wouldn't work from home...At home. Where the snow was several feet deep and her friends were the people she had grown up with.

But no. They had moved to Florida, where the weather was perpetually hot and the people were strangers. High school may as well have been a death sentence for a girl whose new nickname was the "chubby new kid". At her tender age, Cass had gained a roundness in her belly and face that made her... An easy target, to say the least. She'd gotten used to the rude picking at home, but the new environment here... Her cheeks were hot all the time and she had new tormentors to deal with.

One day, she promised herself, one day she would lose all the weight and show them she could be just as beautiful as she was on the inside.

Instead, she settled for letting her personality shine through - despite the barriers that were around her and the change in everything she had known, Cass was a child of love and life. She was friendly, optimistic, and painfully sweet. Her optimism was almost painful as she struggled through the day, doing her best not to cry as she found herself sitting alone at a table in the cafeteria. She'd heard the whispers about her plate having food (becuase god forbid someone eat, she should just starve herself), and the way people looked at her only made her heart sink further.

She was alone.

Except, there was someone else that sat alone too, a young man that looked every bit as dejected as she was. Now was the time when she could sit in her own morose attitude and mope about the sorrows of life...Or be a beacon of light to someone else. She gathered her plate and approached him, tapping his shoulder gently.

"Hi... I'm Cass... Can I sit with you?"

At a young age, Ryan had found himself particularly emotional. He never really found his passion to be social situations, in fact he tended to avoid them far more than welcoming them. This made him a sort of hermit, always staying in his room to play games on his laptop, never participating in any after school activities.. Always alone. Nobody really ever talked to him unless they had to, which for the most part was to get him to do their homework or to bully him like some of the students had taken to doing. It was small, pitiful, but painful nicknames that followed him through the halls of school.

He wears a thick pair of glasses that had named him the childish nickname 'Four eyes', or just 'nerd' which happened to be the only true name, as he was a massive nerd for things like video games and the books that he normally toted around school. He almost always wore jeans and a t-shirt, never anything expensive or worn, just average looking clothes. He didn't seem to care about his outward experience, it was sad to say but he had experienced so much bullying that it hardly even fazed him anymore, as if he had gotten used to being constantly made fun of.

His eyes that his glasses magnified were a light hazel, small specks of green scattered throughout the inside of his iris. He had black hair that was cut short and well trimmed, he was very skinny and only stood at 5'9, though while he was sitting he was obviously shorter. His features are handsome but obscured by his glasses, making it hard to see the rest of the pale skin of his face.

Because of his dejection, he didn't hear gossip or rumors, nor did he hear that a new student had arrived in school.. Not that he would care considering they would probably never even see him sitting alone at his table in the cafeteria. All things considered, he had sat in the bathroom during his Freshman year.. So a lunch table was certainly a step up.

The food on the plate in front of him was untouched, his eyes glued to the hard-cover book sitting in his lap, his eyes glazed over as they scanned the pages for adventures that he knew he would never experience, for entertaining stories and fantastical worlds that he knew he would never be able to live in. But at least he could dream. He was in the middle of turning the page when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He jumps, as if expecting an ambush and turns his head to look over his shoulder, almost in fear. He hears her words and his eyebrows furrow together lightly, as if he didn't understand why she would want to sit next to him. Ryan didn't recognize her, she must've been new.. For someone who didn't participate in social situations, he happened to know the faces of his classmates. "Um.. Sure." He tries to smile, but he was obviously really awkward.

"I'm.. I'm Ryan, it's nice to meet you." He says to her while slipping a finger to the top of his page and gently folding the page into a dog ear before closing the book. "Are you new here?" He asks her while his eyes scanned over her face, searching for any recognizable features.

The signs of a life lived alone were all apparent once she made the first contact, from the way he jumped as if he were under attack and the panic in his eyes at first. Her heart panged with sympathy and she almost wanted to reach out to envelope him in her arms. Thankfully, she withheld. Instead, she offered him a tender smile that was reserved for those that needed all of her tenderness.

He hadn't touched his meal, she noted, and had instead been ears-deep in a book that looked... Almost as thick as his glasses. Even still, he didn't seem to be a harmful person, simply pushed to the side much as she had been.

She makes every move deliberately, taking a seat next to him as she set down her plate. It wasn't full, almost obviously so. She'd felt people's eyes watching her as she'd taken the items she wanted and felt their stares as if she filled it she would be labeled a pig that couldn't put down the fork. Instead of eating, she turned to him, "I am, yeah," She said, trying to peek over and see the title of his book. "I just started today... What's your excuse?" She joked, offering a light smile.

Just because they were loners didn't mean there wasnt' a reason for it. He was obviously someone quite used to being alone, though he was sweet enough seeming she couldn't fathom why people wouldn't find him at least endearing if nothing else. But she was also a painful optimist.

He bites the inside of his cheek when she sits down, his eyes scanned over her food and he also noticed that she hadn't really touched her food, just like him. He didn't eat very often considering that he didn't do much physical activity and therefore did not need much energy to keep himself going through the day. He pretty much just packed his lunch so that nobody would ask him any questions.

Ryan listens to her question and chuckles quietly, his fingers awkwardly moving over the cover of his book, as if trying to keep it clean. The title of the book read 'The Enemy' by Charlie Higson and had an image of an apocalyptic London on it, it was obviously a book that did not take place in their world. "My excuse?" He asks quietly. "Well, I sit alone because nobody around here really likes me, unless they are pressuring me into doing their homework for them." His shoulders raise in an automatic shrug as he taps his books, his eyes unable to meet hers as he was unused to these situations. "The bullies probably already found you, right?" He asks her while blinking and looking to her. "You don't have to starve yourself just because they think you're something that your not." He says to her while gently laying his book on the table.

He had to be careful about where he placed his book, it often didn't leave his lap because a bully had once stolen once of his books to torment him with its destruction. Because of his parents not really being there for him, he was unable to convince them to buy him a new copy.. Which forced him to make the money himself and buy one. The school administration really wasn't even there to help, and even if they were they would give the bully's a slap on the wrist rather than an actual punishment for their actions.

"I don't really have any friends." Ryan explains to her. "Talking to other people is.. Weird, and often painful." He says. "It's normally not worth it." His hand goes to his plate, taking a grape and placing it in his mouth, chewing it for a solid five seconds longer than it needed to be chewed before swallowing it. His hand returns to his lap before raising to his face to push his glasses from the tip of his nose to the bridge, they were ill-fitting, indicating damage to their exterior but also that they were old and had gone a year or two without replacement. He often had to purposefully break his glasses to get his parents to get him a new pair, and even when he did get a new pair, the constant physical torment that he received was often degrading to his eye wear.

The way he talked wasn't demeaning, but it was... Very matter-of-fact. He didn't sound depressed when he mentioned the bullies in the school, almost as if it were too much of a hassle to actually confront the problem than it was to just endure it. He looked like someone that had been through hell and back and was still doing their best to tread water. When someone else was drowning, it was in her nature to be the one to throw a life preserver

And so she did. She smiled, wider than her soft and shy one and brighter than anything she'd shown before at this school. Even if she couldn't fix what was all wrong in his life, she could make hiis corner of the world a litle bit brighter.

"I...I wasn't trying to starve myself," She defended, but it was obvious from her embarrassed grab at something on her plate that she had never really intended on eating much of it anyways. She was in a transitional period in her life and she knew it. These people didn't know her like her other friends had, and they certainly didn't know that it wasn't her diet that made her overweight. Her parents couldn't afforrd to feed her well enough for her to pick her own foods, and she was... Suffering, at the price of her health. McDonalds was easier to buy than kale.

"It's kind of rude to say you don't have any friends, Ryan. I'm your friend now." She said, offering out her hand to him with one of her pinkies extended. "We have to stick together to survive this... Right? No man left behind?"

Ryan raises his eyebrows at her when she said that she wasn't trying to starve herself, he could obviously see that she wasn't eating the food that she had bought from the cafeteria. He bites the inside of his cheek when she looked to him and smiled, it made him nervous that she was smiling at him like this.. Nobody had really smiled like that unless they were patronizing or attacking him and took pleasure in it.

He seems a bit confused on why she was being so nice to him.. But it was a nice change from what he was used to, so he decided to give it a shot. When she extended her hand to him with her pinkie towards him, his own hand raises, his pinkie wrapping around hers and his head bobbing in agreement. "Okay.. I-I meant that I didn't have friends.. Before you, I mean." He says awkwardly, reaching his other hand up to rub the back of his head. His hand drops from hers and he nods again. "I guess sticking together is better than being alone." He says with a shrug, though he didn't really know the benefits of friendship, considering he hadn't encountered any friends since a time when everyone was 'friends' in elementary school.

After finishing his meal, he stands to take his plate to the washing area of the cafeteria before returning to her. "I think this lunch is about to end.. It was nice meeting you, though.. If you want we could.. Ehm.. Exchange.. Phone numbers?" He asks while his eyebrows knit together neatly, the only contacts he had on his phone was family, after all. He pulls his phone from his pocket and opens it, navigating to the contacts list before offering it to her, wanting her to put her information into it.

Even though he's nervous, there's something about him that is charming as he looks at her as if she is an angel. It's a complete contrast from how everyone else had been viewing her and it's almost... It's almost enough to make her forget the horrors of a new town and new people. Suffering is best done with a friend, because it makes the pain less to share it with someone else. His pain is almost palpable and she... She squeezes his pinky as he wraps it around hers, laughing just a bit.

"I know what you meant. We'll work on your social skills." She joked, giving him a playful wink before she let go. Even though they were 'friends' now, he seemed to be growing in confidence and offered his phone out, ready for her number. She smiled, keying in her number and handing it back to him, though she didn't let go just yet.

The words were stuck in her throat, hesitating on what to say, "It was really nice to meet you, Ryan. You should call me tonight. You can tell me more about that book." It wasn't eloquent or funny, but it was more than anything most people said to him, and she knew he needed someone to listen to him. She had two perfectly functioning ears. And he really wasn't so bad.

Ryan bites the inside of his cheek when she types in his number, nodding his head to the idea of calling her later that night. “Working on my social skills sounds fun.” He laughs while taking his book and slipping it into his backpack. “You probably wouldn’t like my book.” He admits to her while rubbing the back of his head with his spare hand. They still had their pinkies laced together, it was a weird feeling to him to be connected to someone for so long.

The bell rings and he stands up, gathering his things and letting go of her pinkie. “I’ll talk to you tonight.” He says before rushing to class, hoping not to get ambushed on the way to his classroom. Later that day, when he gets home he quickly sets all of his things down in his room and locks the door, his family at least gave him his own room, but they never really bothered to walk inside anyway. He had locked it just in case one of them was especially drunk later tonight.

He paces around his room for a little bit, doing some homework that was due the next day before pulling out his phone and walking over to his bed. When he sits down on his bed, his finger lingers over the button to call Cas before pressing down on it, putting it to his ear and resting his back against the headboard of his bed.

Though their time together was brief and their conversation short, there was a smile on her face as she walked away from the lunch table. It was always hard to walk into a place like this and try to make friends when you knew no one, but she couldn't imagine already being here for quite a while and never having friends. There was something about the sadness in his face that made her heart hurt, and the way he had accepted his social isolation as if it were just part of life he had to deal with. She was somber for the rest of the day, hardly aware of the fact people were still whispering about the way she looked. There was nothing she could change about their opinion in one day and she knew herself to know that her weight could change and they would still find something to hate about her.

It wasn't her, it was them. They wanted someone to be aggressive to in order to get their pent up aggression out. It was human nature, her parents had assured her, and she shouldn't let someone else's opinion get to her.

Instead, she let Ryan get to her. She couldn't get him out of her head, from the soft way he'd held onto her pinky despite it being long since they should have let go. He held on as if it were the one thing keeping his head above water.Her heart was heavy as she settled into her bedroom, her phone on her lap as she worked on her assignments.

The gentle vibration was so sudden it made her jump, shocked to see an unknown number. Ryan.

her surprise turned to a smile and she put it to her ear, "Hello?"

Ryan hears her greeting over the phone and replies. “Hey Cass.” He lays back on his bed and rests his arm over his eyes, trying to think of something to say to her. “So you wanted to hear about my book?” He asks, recalling their earlier conversation during lunch. The rest of the day for him had been pretty quiet, surprisingly. Luckily for him, the bully who normally terrorized him on these days seemed to not be in school that day.

“So it’s a uh.. horror novel about zombies and stuff.” He explains before starting to go into more detail. “The infection in the book is a little different from normal infections in movies and stuff, the initial infection is the only one that turns people into zombies.. and it only targets people over the age of sixteen.” He says. “So in the book, if you weren’t infected and you turn over sixteen, you’re still fine and stuff.. nobody else gets infected after the first wave of infections.” He seemed to be enjoying the explanation. “They can’t transmit the virus to you either, they pretty much just eat people.” He laughs. “And the majority of them can’t go outside during the day because of their sensitive skin.. So this leaves all of these kids out in London to fend for themselves and survive to rebuild society, and since none of them have ever used guns they all form gangs that use medieval type weapons.” His lips curl into a smile as he imagines it in his head.

“But.. you’re probably bored to death about my book at this point, if you wanna talk about something else.” Ryan laughs quietly before taking his arm away from his face and sitting up in his bed. He stands up from his bed and walks around his room, pacing as he prepares to listen to whatever she had to say.. he really liked her so far, she was a good friend so far and he was enjoying himself.