Paranoia

Who: Thom and Kaysen
Where: Outside Kaysen's house
When: Late afternoon

Thom had practically bounced back from his date with Leija - which wasn't something Thom did very often, but it had been known. It had gone so well and there was no question that he was going to see her again. Just thinking about it made him smile. He'd headed straight round to Isaac's to tell him, because how could he not? And the guy would want to know! But he didn't get all the way there - stopped by the fact that he saw the pads and helmet he'd sent Kaysen lying out the front of the house. She must have left them there - he hadn't been impressed with their desertion, but it did give him a chance to do what he'd been unable to do before since he'd got them mail order.

Checking there was nobody looking, Thom had collected them up and taken them home. Naturally, his house was empty and he had no disturbances as he set up the circle and walked his way throguh the protection spell that he'd learned last year but hardly ever used. It was slow going - he was far from great at this stuff, but he was getting there and he was careful to ensure that each step was done perfectly. He blinked at the small puff of purple smoke that the instructions stated indicated the spell had been performed properly, before starting his clean up.

By the time that was done, it was approaching late afternoon and Thom knew he was going to have to haul ass to get the kit back to the St James yard before the parents appeared. But he felt accomplished - the spell should minimise any physical harm Kaysen received whilst she was wearing them. Which meant that at the very least, she'd not hurt herself falling off that damn board. He scooted down the road and up the drive to where he'd found the pads and helmet in the first place, before starting to lay the items back down again in at least a good approximation of where they came from.

Kaysen happened to be home. She'd come home and was there by herself at current, sitting in her room that overlooked the street. Where she saw Thom. Her window opened up in a heartbeat and she shouted out it. "HEY!" She was blinking. What the hell? "What are you doing?!"

Shit - busted! Thom internally flailed for a second, before stooping to pick up the pad he'd moments before put down. He looked up at Kaysen. "You left these out here - I was gonna bring them in," he called up to her. Hey, it sounded like a good excuse in his head!

"You were totally just putting them down!" Kaysen accused, then disappeared into her room. A few moments later had her running out the front door and down the yard to glare at him. "What were you doing with them? Some stupid asshole sent them to me and I don't know who, do you? Are you in on it?!" Okay so Kaysen and Rational had parted company for the day, and they had never been very good friends.

As she disappeared, he swore under his breath and quickly collected everything up again so that he was holding them when she appeared. He'd hoped he'd be able to get away with this without having to talk to her. Obviously not. "In on what?" he asked her - actually honestly confused by that question.

"In on!!" she started, then of course stopped because she hadn't found out the nefarious plan yet. "Something!" she supplied. "Who on earth would send me anonymous gifts! I'll tell you who! People who're trying to trick me! I couldn't find what was wrong with them, but I will!"

He couldn't help it - he stared at her. "Kaysen - why would someone who was trying to trick you send you safety gear?" he asked her. Was that what she thought? That it was some kind fo trick? And if so... how? Wait, stop, rewind - this is Kaysen. You can't depend on her to have any actual grasp on reality...

"Why would anyone send me anything that wasn't rigged?!" she shot back. It made sense to her. "That's all anyone gives me! Stuff that'll blow up, or has bugs in it, or is all ruined in some gross way, or that someone spit in or peed on." she continued. "Want me to go on?" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

"Kaysen, this stuff is brand new," Thom told her, trying to sound patient but finding her attitude as annoying as it always was when she got like this. "I bet it even came straight from the store, right?" he asked - knowing full well that it had done. Damn - he'd actually thought that she would take it better if she didn't know that he'd sent it.

"I didn't see it bought in a store." Kaysen said. "And they could have done anything to it before sending it. They do anyways, people go out of their way to do things to me, why would anyone just randomly send me anything nice? It doesn't make sense!"

Thom Looked at her. "I sent them," he said, simply, giving up. He held them out to her. "There's nothing wrong with them. Take them"

Thom might have gotten less of a shocked reaction if he started beating her with the helmet. Yes, that indeed would have gotten much more productive a time with Kaysen, as she was staring at him, wide eyed, before she managed to start blinking at him like he was speaking Swahili. "Bwuhhhhhh....huh?"

He rolled his eyes and held them out to her again. "Take. Them," he repeated slowly. Damn but this was hard work. Which was typical Kaysen - even if he had to admit that it wasn't exactly something she would have expected him to do, so of course she was surprised. But she probably would ahve been reacting like this anyway, so that didn't count.

She was to the blinking stage! Hooray! Slight bits of coherency were returning, as braincells started to unfreeze. Mutely, she reached out to take them, eyeing him like she expected him to hit her or something. All of a sudden, that stupid party was back in her mind, and how he's walked her home like a big dumb ass! Speaking she hadn't re-mastered yet.

"Thank you," he told her as she finally took the damn stuff. "So, are you actually going to wear them, now you know they're not hideously cursed?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. Just the opposite, in fact.

"Why did you do that?" she asked, frowning darkly at him. There was something else behind her eyes too, though it was unreadable. Her voice was quiet, not that she'd regained the ability to talk. She didn't understand this, and because she didn't, it was a million shades of freaky.

"Because you keep falling - and if you're gonna keep falling, you're gonna get hurt if you don't have protection," he told her, as though this were obvious. And since it seems to be my job to protect you, I figured it'd be a good start, he inwardly sighed. But he was getting used to the idea. Didn't like it, but he was getting used to it. It wasn't like he had a choice.

Kaysen continued to stare at him. "I've been skateboarding for years. I'm gonna fall off, it happens. S'always gonna happen, and has since I was younger. Why do you suddenly care now? Just cuz you happened to see me biff it bad?" she asked. Her voice was somewhere between accusing and utterly baffled.

He really didn't have an answer for that. Not in the slightest. "Look - can you not just take a damn gift, say 'thank you' and leave it at that?" he snapped, loosing his patience, half because she was annoying as hell when she got all defensive and half because he was on edge because he didn't have a good reason that he could give her and he knew it.

She looked away, then back at him. "Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked. "People aren't nice to me. You know that. It's...people don't give me stuff. Or worry about me. Or...or anything. They don't follow me home and clean me up after I ditch. Are you...are you like, taking drugs now?" she asked tentatively, an honest question. "You and Isaac aren't on something are you? That's bad, I hope you're not...you wouldn't do that, right?"

"Taking drugs makes you nice to people?" Thom asked her, sceptically. "Funny how they never teach that side of it in school, isn't it? No, Kaysen neither me nor your brother are on drugs." He pulled a pointed face. "Anyway - what do you care, right?" he asked, shooting her same kind of question back at her. "Look - I saw them, I thought you could do with them, they were on sale and I had some spare cash. If you don't want them, give me them back and I'll send them back to the store..."

Kaysen now looked downright hurt. She stepped back, and she was still looking at him with a frown, but that unreadable underneath stuff had risen to the surface and now had an identity. Hurt Feelings. "What do I care? I care because you're acting all weird and I don't understand why!" she said, trying to hold it together, but she felt like she was on a rollercoaster lately. One that didn't particularly warn when there was going to be a violent shift in the tracks.

This was why you weren't telling her it was you - remember? he reminded himself. Of course, when trying to avoid her being all confused about why exactly he was being nice to her, he hadn't taken into account the fact that she automatically assumed that the rest of the world was going to shit on her as well. He tried to come up with a good excuse, looking utterly frustrated. He didn't particularly want to descend into a web of complicated lies here, but he could see it going that way. "Look, I just..." No, he really had nothing.

She looked at him, feeling the terrible urge to burst into hysterical tears and throw the stupid things at him. "Just what?" she asked, giving him a chance to explain, even if she couldn't think of any reason he could give her. Like, at all.

Thom was currently fighting off an attack of 'sullen teenager' and couldn't quite look at her, instead concentrating on a spot about a foot over her head and off to one side. He shrugged, knowing that he had to say something to rescue this from complete and utter disaster. And the longer he didn't say anything, the worst that got and the more he knew he had to say something. But the longer he didn't say anything, the harder it seemed to become to say anything.

Kaysen waited, the silence stretching out between them like a high tension wire that was going to be overloading any time now. She didn't understand, Thom was being stupidly weird, and he wasn't explaining why. "Did Isaac put you up to this?" she asked finally, hesitantly, because it was the only thing she could think of that made sense.

He took a breath and looked at her, knowing he was currently being less than mature about this whole thing, but he'd tried being reasonable - or so he thought - and she hadn't bought it. "No, Isaac didn't put me up to it," he told her. "Look, I just thought that you could use them, okay? That's all. Really."

Kaysen stared at him, still vastly unsure about everything. Then she turned, and headed back up to her house. She didn't want to talk to him anymore, he was way too confusing. She didn't know why he'd done anything, and he wasn't telling her. So...she just wanted to get away now. "Leave me alone." she mumbled to him.

He watched her go and made no move to stop her. Really, there was nothing he could add to that. He was fucking this up big time, he knew that, but he really had no idea what he was doing, how he was meant to be going about this, nothing. And it wasn't as if he could ask anybody for help.

He turned and made his way back down the driveway, trying to take consolation in the fact that at least she'd taken the pads with her. That had to count for something - and if she wore them, then he'd achieved his goal. Right?