This black-haired girl's a bit distracted and preoccupied too, today. Normally she'd be on her guard against accidental contact, carefully dodging anyone who gets close. Important life skill for her.

But she didn't sleep last night either. Something unarguably supernatural happened to her last night, and it's turning over in her head. She's definitely got shit to talk about with Sable and Maya when they can get a quiet moment.

She's not paying nearly enough attention to notice and get out of the way in time.

She lurches backward reflexively, eyes wide, a sharp breath hissing in through her teeth. Her other hand whips up to clutch her arm protectively, and she just barely manages to hold onto her lunch bag.

An instant later her guard is up and a scowl is on her lips. Can't show vulnerability, that's a good way to get beat (or worse).

"Fuck. Watch where you're fucking going, dude," she bites out.

She's trying not to show it, but she's not doing so hot. Her face pales, her breath turns shallow and shaky, and she swallows hard. An image of her uncle's snarling face as he grabs her by the shoulder flits through her mind, but she pushes it out angrily.

What the hell is her problem? He was going to apologize but now he's having to fight off and urge to tell her to fuck off.

"I bumped into you, I didn't stab you-"

He grabs hold of his temper. He doesn't want to be that kind of person. It's honestly a little disconcerting, his face just goes blank, his expression smoothing out suddenly.

"No, never mind, you're right, sorry. I shouldn't get pissed at you just because you're pissed I fucked up."

It's not that big a deal but you shouldn't pick fights when you can instead not do that, he knows this-

He spots the look on her face, half hidden behind anger. Oh, this- it really mattered, didn't it? She's not doing so good. She looks- afraid. Because he didn't look where he was going.

"I- I'll pay better attention. I'm sorry."

No, nope, control your emotions man, don't make this about how you feel guilty, that's literally the exact opposite of the point.

He looks a tiny bit like he just got punched in the solar plexus. Not letting the fact that he feels bad get to him would be easier if he'd, uh. Slept.

Across the room, a violet-haired girl is watching closely, on the edge of hopping out of her seat to help, when she sees events suddenly turn back around as the blond boy forcibly controls his temper even before seeing the impact on Hailey. She's even more surprised to see the impact Hailey's trauma reaction has on him.

Huh.

Hailey blows a slow breath out, getting herself under control, her expression flattening a bit as she forces herself away from her fear.

"I—"

Another breath. This dude actually seems affected by what happened. ...He better not be guilt-tripping himself or something.

"Thanks. You... didn't know." She takes her time speaking, a bit, as she finishes steadying herself. Her voice is still a bit sharp, but it's clearly not directed at him now. "Don't beat yourself up about it, s'not like adding more pain fixes anything."

Her hand is still over the contact point on her arm.

"That obvious? I will, ah. Try."

Is that the right response? He doesn't know what the right response is. 

"Yeah. Ain't easy."

And she heads back to Sable's table with a parting nod in his direction.

She's concerned about blond boy. She also thinks blond boy seems neat. Sparkly somehow, despite also being concerning.

Ah, he's probably got people to go eat lunch with, she doesn't wanna get in the way of that or create pressure that conflicts with whatever else he's doing.

Blond boy heads off to an empty table by a window, actually. He sits down and pulls a drink out of his backpack. It's in a thermos, nice and cold. He can drink his ridiculously calorically dense technically-a-protein-shake without anyone being any the wiser that he's consuming Basically Just Melted Ice Cream.

From this he will grow strong. Well, from this and lifting heavy objects. He doesn't actually own weights but he does own soda bottles full of water and reusable grocery bags in which to place them and that's good enough.

He is, actually, weirdly embarrassed about having a very sugary protein shake in a thermos. He's pretty sure nobody would judge him for that but he's shy about it anyway.

Thaaaaat does not look like he has people. It's possible he prefers not having people to eat with, and if he expresses such she'll cheerfully fuck off, but...

First she'll take a moment and give Hailey a gentle hand-squeeze, after making sure she's ready for one. Then she'll quietly explain what she's doing.

And then she'll get up and walk over to blond boy with a warm smile. 

He's looking out the window for most of her trip over to him, but when she's most of the way there he turns to look back around the cafeteria and spots her, very clearly walking towards him.

"Hello?"

"Hey," she replies, still smiling. She stops when she's close enough to talk at a casually-low volume but not close enough to sit down at his table without another couple steps. Her voice is warm, a little hesitant, and curious. "I... thought you put a put a lot more into handling that better than most people would've, no matter how much I wanna see better in them." The last bit is more of a mumble, though not much of one; old training to enunciate clearly still holds on despite her instincts.

Wow she phrased that kind of awkwardly and then overshared at the end can she please do better at this? No, anxiety does not get to be the focus right now. Can her brain please stop that? Blond boy is the focus, and she's curious-impressed-interested.

He's suddenly not shy, once it's clear she really is. He's pretty sure she means the way he bumped into that girl. She seems actually worse at this than him. He is- not really sure what she might be going for or why she showed up to talk to him but she obviously fumbled her attempt to initiate conversation which means she needs help.

So- yeah, just act like he didn't notice her awkward halfmumble, that's the right call. And act like the compliment didn't feel kind of deeply weird to receive, somehow. He doesn't really think snapping and then managing to pull out of it halfway through counts for all that much- he should just not be snapping at all, most people seem to manage that just fine.

"Thanks. I do try, even if it's a bit hard not to be snippy sometimes."

There is a topic, and she has a next topic, all is well now.

"Yeah," she agrees with a nod and a grin. "Difference is I never see people try to do something about it when they are."

Mostly people either blithely accept that they're "good enough," or fail to acknowledge they've made a mistake. Doing a scriptless thing like apologizing unprompted for snapping at someone and wanting to be better? That's rare and interesting.

She chuckles a bit and shakes her head. "Hey, that aside, and totally valid if not, you wanna come sit with us?" She tilts her head in the direction of her table—

Where this girl is chatting serenely with Hailey.

Who seems to be recovering, and even managing to chat back with a little bit of amiable snark.

Oh he gets it now. The girl he bumped into is probably used to people being jerks when they bump into her and he wasn't so he stood out, or something. And so her friend came over to say hello. It's not really the kind of thing that happens to him but it all makes perfect sense if he imagines it happening to someone else. And then she invites him to sit with them. Well, he knows how to respond to that just fine and even if he doesn't end up actually liking them conversation is probably less boring than staring out a window.

Also, he's- he's supposed to be trying. Saying yes is what you do if you're trying.

"Sure."

He grabs his backpack in hand and his thermos in the other and stands from the bench.

"Staring out a window really doesn't compare favourably to the chance to meet some new people, you know? Even if the wind through the trees is rather pretty today."