Serious Talking and Sugar Crashing

Who: Jeri and Kavin
When: After school
Where: School, the car, Kavin's place

Kavin didn't bother going back to school until it was about to let out. He wasn't going to make Jeri walk home in the cold, that was for sure, so he parked his car in the nearly empty parking lot and waited for her to come out. Once he spotted her, he opened his door and climbed out, lighting himself a cigarette and stuffing his lighter back in his pocket. "Hey you." he smiled as she approached the car.

"What, you're not even going to offer me candy to get into your car?" Jeri asked dryly. "Or ask me to help you find your lost puppy? You're just going to stand outside your car and look sexy? Damn. I'm almost sad. Except the opposite." She stood on her toes and literally took the cigarette from his mouth to give him a kiss before she put the smoke back. "Sup?"

He raised an eyebrow at her when she took his cigarette, but he smiled against her mouth when she kissed him. "Nothing much." he told her, taking a drag and letting the smoke filter through a small gap between his lips. "Skipped today. That's why I missed lunch. Got tired of sitting around in half empty classrooms and not learning anything. Met some new chick and she had pot and yeah, well pot versus class. Not a tough choice."

"Hmph. I'm all sad now for real. Pot, and I didn't have any. I guess I'll have to keep my weed to myself so I can catch up." She wiped an imaginary tear from her eye, then grinned. "Was she see-through? Was new chick a ghosty?"

"No, she wasn't see through. She was human." Well sort of at least. Elemental, but humanish. More human than those ghosty things that were walking about all confused looking. "What'd you do all day? Listen to the talk of the end of the world and such?"

"Why would I listen to that?" Jeri shook her head. "And you have to admit, it's not as if it's them that are talking about the end of the world. It's everyone else. I mostly went to class, ignored the end-of-the-worlders, studied. I really need to bring my grades up." She shrugged. "I want to go where the rest of those people who are marching around with the sandwich boards are and hold a sign that says 'Don't worry, be happy!' or something equally optimistic."

Kavin chuckled and brushed a hand across her cheek. "You're such a goofball." he told her, leaning down long enough to press his lips to her forehead. "Get in the car, dork before you freeze."

Jeri huffed, and thusly breathed out steam which kind of proved his point. "I'm a mammal. I make my own heat. So there." But she got into the car anyway, and waited for him to get in as well. "I'm going to make a cake, I think. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. Would you like a cake?"

He flicked the ash from his cigarette and held it between his lips as he climbed in the car. Then she was asking about a cake and he raised a brow. "You're like my own personal Betty Crocker." he grinned around the cigarette. "When have you ever known me to refuse baked goods?"

"Well, I haven't cooked for you since the werewolves." Jeri pointed out lazily. "You might one day when your house is overflowing with various homemade foods and you can't pawn them off on your mom anymore."

"Cake is good as long as you don't make like fifty of them like last time." he teased as he started the car up and pulled out of the parking lot. "Do you have work today?" he asked her, eyes focused on a ghost on the side of the road as they pulled out onto the asphalt.

"Nope." Jeri looked around him to the ghost, who she waved to and apparently seemed pleased when it tentatively waved back. "Well, I could go in and get put to work, but I'm not scheduled to work so I don't want to tempt fate, anyway." Jer wasn't really sure about the ghosts, but it didn't look like they were harming anything and while some of them looked pretty gruesome she was pretty sure they weren't dripping anything that would stain or spread disease.

"Well good. I kinda wanna talk to you." he told her. For a half second he thought about telling her about Nate, but that would just have to wait because right now he didn't want her more pissed than she was already going to be. "About the stuff with your dad." he added.

Jeri shrugged. "It looked worse than it was."

Well, this was off to an already crappy start. "I don't care if it looked worse than it was." he started, doing his best to keep a calm tone. "Fact is, he hit you and that's fucked up and it's not right and you need to tell someone. You need to get help." He paused and swallowed air and knew that this next part would get him in the most trouble, but damn it he was going to say it. "And if you don't tell someone, I will."

"Kavin, I can't." Jeri frowned at him. "Beyond the facts that I don't want to end up getting lost in the system and I don't want to move because I have a lot of shit and I like my house even if I don't like the other people there, I can't afford to lose the insurance. I can't afford to have diabetes on my own - I don't have insurance from work unless I manage to cut off a hand or something there."

"That's a shit excuse and you know it." he told her, shooting her a glare as they turned on his street. "What happens when he goes off on you so bad one night that it's more than a beating, Jeri? What happens when he puts you in the hospital or kills you? It's not right, it's fucked up and you shouldn't have to deal with it. And like I said, you tell, or I will."

"Shit exc-- Kavin, do you know how expensive it is? I need to test my blood sugar minimum three times a day. Each of those damn little testing strips is a dollar a piece. Ninty dollars a month at best, not including taxes. Not to mention I need the insulin, the syringe, needles for the syringe, needles for the finger poking thing, doctors appointments, and other medications." Jer ran a hand through her hair, looking distinctly distressed. She hated changing things around, and the idea of other people knowing left her with a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I don't care how much it costs. If it means getting you the fuck away from him, I'll pay for the fucking testing shit." he muttered. "You can be pissed at me if you want to. You can be whatever the hell you wanna be to make yourself feel better, but I'm not going to sit around and watch him beat you." Kavin told her as he parked his car in the driveway. "So you make your choice."

Jeri was trapped, pushed into a corner, and she, of course, didn't like it. "K-kavin I c-can't." Her hands were literally shaking, and a bead of sweat ran down her forehead. She was very close to panicking here.

"You can." he told her, unbuckling and brushing his hand through her hair. "You have to."

"But I can't." The panicking sound was definitely edging into her voice now, but she definitely leaned into his hand. Seeking comfort wherever she could find it. It was the sudden dizziness from the change of position that clued her into what was going on though, and she pulled away from him and started rummaging through her backpack. "Lifesavers."

He sighed and once she'd finished rummaging, he brushed his fingers through her hair again. "Think about it from my position, Jeri. What happens if we break up and you don't wanna stay with me. I can't live with knowing I didn't help you and something happen ya know?"

She tore the pack open and popped a couple into her mouth, sucking hard on them. Maybe she should've started investing in those glucose tubes. It'd make more damn sense then lifesavers where she could pop a couple and choke. She pulled out another one and added it to the couple she already had. "I'll try. I'll try but you have to try to see it from mine too." Jeri pleaded with him. Then she crunched down on the candy and took another one.

He sighed. "I do see it from your side. I understand why you don't tell but you gotta know how hard it is for me to watch him keep doing this shit to you. It's not right. It's fucked up and he shouldn't get away with it. I just wanna know that if we don't work out that you're gonna be alright. So you don't have to tell tomorrow or anything like that, but you're going to tell someone. Eventually."

"I told you." Jeri argued, still popping the lifesavers life... well, like candy. "Kavin, I need something to eat. Something other than lifesavers, I mean. Preferably as soon as possible." She wanted to add that she wanted something with protein, but anything would be good right now. She could get something now, make something better later. "And I can call you if something happens at home."

"Well lets go inside then and you can get something to eat." he said with a sigh. He wasn't wanting to push the matter aside, but he wasn't going to let her not eat, that'd be stupid. "Come on." he told her, getting out of the car and waiting for her to do the same as he unlocked the front door to his house.

For the first time, in spite of not really liking frozen, microwavable meals, Jeri was rather grateful to Kavin's mother for the foresight it took to stock her son's freezer. She didn't bother taking off her shoes like she usually did, she just went to the kitchen, pulled out the first thing she found, and threw it in the microwave. Whatever it was. For all she cared, it could've just been plain frozen vegetables. In between this, she stuck another lifesaver in her mouth. Maybe he'd forget the previous conversation, too. One could always hope.

"Are you okay?" he questioned as he reached the kitchen. He knew something was wrong, but he'd never seen her like this. "Do I need to... call a doctor or something?" he asked. It seemed that each passing minute just seemed to make her look a bit more pale than normal and he couldn't help but feel like he'd caused it somehow.

"Nah. Just a sugar crash. Can't say I didn't warn you about them. One minute I'm fine, another minute and I turn into zombie with the need to feed, or whatever that stupid tagline from Resident Evil was." She gave him a slightly sheepish smile. The sugar from the candy was getting into her system now and she was feeling a little better too. Jer sat down at the kitchen table heavily. "I wish they'd stop putting the pineapple flavor in the lifesavers. Bleh."

He frowned a little and walked up behind her, wrapping his arms around her body as he leaned over to press his lips against her temple. "I'm sorry." he murmured. "I just... I want to help and I feel like there's not much I can do and I just don't want him to hurt you again. I just... feel completely helpless, like I'm supposed to watch him do these awful things to you and not even be able to do anything about it."

She turned around and hugged him back. "It'll be okay." Jeri ran her thumb from his ear down his jaw line to his chin. "I'll be okay, I promise."

He nodded. "You better be." he told her. "Staying here tonight or at home?" he questioned her, though he was hoping she'd say 'here'. He'd worry less.

"I have to go home to take care of Furball but I could come back. I think Furball's getting lonely, though." She sighed, then blinked over his shoulder. "Why... did one of your socks randomly fly out of your room, Kavin?"

"I have ghosts." he muttered. "That apparently despise my clothes." He rolled his eyes and shrugged. "You can bring the furry thing here, if you want..." he told her. "But I'm guessing we'd be sleeping in the guestroom because at least they're not in there."

The microwave beeped and she let him go long enough to deal with the food, and putting the food inside her. Whatever it was tasted exactly what she thought microwaved frozen food should taste like - kind of blandish and maybe not quite hot enough. Whatever. Food was needed, and she had it. "You like Furball. I know you do."

"Eh, he's okay for a rat thing." he smiled. "So you gonna go get him and come back here?" he asked. "I can order pizza or something, has to be better than what you just ate."

"I have no idea what I just ate." Jeri shrugged. "So I'm assuming so. Um. Pepperoni and mushroom with spinach for me?" She looked very hopeful. "Yeah. I'll bring him, clothes, toothbrush. The important items for a sleepover party."

"On your half cuz that sounds kinda nasty." he said with a light laugh. "Hurry up and get the dang rat." he told her, handing over his keys. "Call me if you need me to come down there." he told her, the look on his face saying he wasn't playing. "I'll order the pizza and try to clean up a little bit of these fucking clothes." he said. "You take the car and get some of your stuff."

"Could be worse." Jeri pointed now, and she could say that now that she didn't feel like hell again. "They could be having a party and smoking your weed and taking pictures while we have fun in bed." But she caught the keys and headed for the door.

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Crazy girl." he muttered as she left the house. "Such a crazy girl."