Swallowing Panic in the Face of Its Force

[Slam]

Yeah, Lincoln trying to concentrate on his conversation with Kennedy wasn’t made much easier by Leila and Kaine just carrying on their's right in front of him. Thanks guys, really.

Not that it really mattered, when Kennedy started flailing her arms like a drowning victim. Apparently there had been a misunderstanding. Lincoln pinched the bridge of his nose, scrunching his face around it.

“ℕ-𝕟𝕠, 𝕀 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕒𝕣𝕖. 𝕀 𝕕𝕚𝕕𝕟'𝕥 𝕞𝕖𝕒𝕟 𝕚𝕥 𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕪. 𝕎𝕖'𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕟 𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕨𝕒𝕪."

Lincoln hung up on Kennedy, bringing his orb back towards himself. He had his bearings well enough to reach her without it marking her location, and he could always move it back up again if he needed to reorient. If there wasn't a reason to keep it at a distance, he much preferred to keep it within arm's reach.

"So you probably heard that. I'm going to go get her. You guys are coming, right?"

He didn't trust Kennedy mind, and he wasn't about to offer her any outstretched fingers, but if it was three on one they were probably safe. Probably.

[Primrosette]

((Sorry, skipping to avoid inactivity!))

Kaine didn't have to wait for an answer from Leila because Kennedy's voice was suddenly yelling and his heart did like a weird flutter. Like a butterfly. He actually liked butterflies. Wait... His mind was trying to wander away from the situation and he shook his head slightly. He needed to keep himself focused and alert.

It seemed like Lincoln wanted to go over to her and he wanted to do the same thing. He wanted to keep Lincoln safe and he really didn't want Mercedes to kick his ass. He was still thankful for her help with the rock fight years ago, even if they weren't close friends. He also wanted to make sure that Kennedy was going to be alright and he wanted to know her side of the fight with Moose.

"Sure. I will come with you, Lincoln. However...." He glanced around at the area around them and he was making his voice a bit louder so that Kennedy could heard him. "....We should really think about moving away from this place as it is too far out in the open. Yes?"

[Spindarene]

Leila mumbled something about having not seen anyone else in response to Kaine's question when some shouting from a nearby bush startled her. That, apparently, was Kennedy. Lincoln wanted to go get her, and Kaine wanted to move out of the open space.

Both ideas sounded good to her, so she nodded and said "Yes." Then, realizing that answer was vague, stammered "I-I mean, both ideas sound good. Finding Kennedy and then leaving."

Her cheeks reddened and she looked down at her shoes. She'd never been very good at talking to people.

[Slam]

Lincoln nodded at both Kaine and Leila, turning to head towards Kennedy. He reunited with his orb halfway there, it floating down to hover along side his head.

It didn’t take long to reach Kennedy in the brush. He looked over her from the other side of the clearing they were now both in, taking her measure. She hadn’t stood up, which was to be expected given her ankle’s supposed state. He wondered how they’d get her out of there. She wasn’t that much bigger than him, so maybe he could carry her. Never mind the fact that the much taller Kaine was right there, Lincoln didn’t mind doing it.

First things first though, he had to clear something up. Checking on her from a distance, as Kaine had suggested, while trying to keep all his digits attached.

“Before we team up with you, Kennedy,” he started, holding an arm up to block the other two from moving past him. “We have to know: why did you attack Moose? I mean you took off his finger, you know? What’s up with that?”

He spoke without hesitation, but not in a cold manner. His eyes focused on her carefully though, in case she decided to take a shot at him like Crispin had. He wasn’t going to be caught out twice in one day. He didn't need another punch in the face, at least not right now.

[Brackie]

Kennedy blinked.

"...what?"

[Primrosette]

Kaine didn't have the patience to mess around, so his sharp tongue was going to take over and he was standing right on the left side of Lincoln, making sure to keep his eyes on the situation.

"Come on, Kennedy. Just be honest. We know you attacked him. There were marks that look like ink around his eyes."

[Brackie]

"...w-what are you talking about? Finger, what? He att-I mean, I...what?"

[Slam]

"Don't play dumb." Lincoln retorted, not dropping his guard for a moment. He glanced at Kaine out of the side of his eye, feeling emboldened by his support. "We found Moose, he was missing a finger. He said you attacked him, and that's before he attacked us. Yeah, doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."

"If you had to do it in self defence, that's one thing. But don't lie about it. We can't trust you if you're not going to be straight with us."

Was it really one thing? Well, Crispin had already beaten the shit out of him for no good reason; it wasn't that unlikely Moose had tried to do the same to Kennedy. He was pretty hot-headed, after all. Still, Lincoln hadn't taken off any of Crispin's digits either, so he couldn't exactly sympathise entirely with Kennedy's actions.

[Brackie]

Kennedy jumped to her feet.

"I DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING!"

Kennedy just realized she'd jumped to her feet, and the large inconsistency this presented. She stood there for a few seconds, blank faced aside from the red places she'd been rubbing her nose and face, before letting out a silent breath, and grabbing her bag.

"Whatever. What the fuck ever, this isn't going fucking anywhere, now you're not fucking going to fucking believe me anyway."

She wasn't a swear-er, as was probably becoming obvious, but that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to try. Angry people swore, and Kennedy was angry at this moment, doing up her bag and grabbing her now dusty hoodie, and Kennedy didn't really get angry.

"Moose tried to jump me, so I hit him in the eyes and ran away. Don't know who the fuck stole his finger. Tell me how I'm supposed to do that anyway."

What appeared in Kennedy's head as a grand speech, telling off these stupid idiots who weren't ever nice to her despite how ungodly nice she'd always tried to be to everyone, was becoming something more incoherent, but she didn't care. She didn't want to sit here and be accused of things she didn't do, so she was removing herself from the situation for the betterment of herself.

"Fuck you both."

Kennedy balled up her hoodie and stormed past the two of them, not caring for reprisal at this point.

"Always looking down on me, shitty fucking people. Fuck you, Lincoln."

This was the second time in a day Kennedy had walked past her classmates, and if she was lucky she'd reach the third by sundown.

((Kennedy Jackson continued in-))

No, she wasn't done. Right on the balls of her heels, did Kennedy turn around and face both of them.

"I was always so fucking nice to you, Lincoln, you think I didn't notice the way you spoke about me back at school? Fuck you."

She threw her balled-up hoodie in the general direction of the orb before turning her head to Kaine.

"Oh and don't think I didn't always fucking notice you looking at me Kaine, fucking freak. I was never going to go out with you-"

Kennedy's heels turned around again.

"-because I'M a FUCKING VAGINATARIAN!"

Strap secure above her shoulderblade, Kennedy extended both of her middle fingers to the sky and confidently strode off. This confidence extended until the point she saw Leila Merin, at which point she absentmindedly slowed down and retracted her arms.

"Hi, Leila."

Kennedy didn't meet the other girl's eyes, and just kept walking.

((now Kennedy Jackson actually continued elsewhere))

[Spindarene]

Leila blinked and stared at Kennedy as she stormed off, still trying to process the explosive argument that had just happened. She had no context for any of this; all she knew was that the boys were accusing Kennedy of cutting someone's finger off, and then Kennedy had denied it and freaked out. This situation was made all the more awkward by the fact that Leila was the only person that Kennedy didn't scream at. The only person, in fact, that Kennedy had been passingly friendly to.

However, Kennedy was now too far away for Leila to catch up with (and Leila wasn't sure if she really wanted to stick with Kennedy anyway). Leila was avoiding looking at the two boys next to her, trying to think of some way to salvage the situation, but knowing that it was hopeless. Her plan for a group to travel with had failed, and she didn't trust either Kaine or Lincoln enough to keep traveling with them after this incident, especially given the fact that fights had already happened and accusations were flying.

Finally, she mumbled, looking at the ground, "Um, I should probably go too. I'm sorry, I just...I need to leave."

She then took up her bag and left, still not looking at them. She wanted to say something like "bye" or "see you later," but the former would have felt too final and the latter would have felt like a lie.

((Leila Merin continued elsewhere))

[Slam]

Lincoln was quite stunned by the whole turn of events. He threw his hands up, looking blankly at Kaine. “The fuck did I do?” he asked, referring to Kennedy’s accusations. She had barely been on his radar before today, much less been someone he had gossiped about. If he was someone who gossiped in the first place, which he wasn’t.

He could only look after the departing Leila, not bothering to try to get her to stay. Their merry little band had broken apart as quickly as it had formed, and it was just the two basketball players with themselves for company. Sucks.

“I was right though,” he said, shrugging his hands out of the air. “She was faking her ankle. Told you.”

It was a pretty hollow victory. All it confirmed was that Kennedy wasn’t someone they could trust, a number that seemed to be growing with every encounter. Even if she was being honest about Moose jumping her, which wasn’t that unlikely given it was Moose, she had made clear her lack of interest in an alliance. Leila’s similar reluctance to join just left them right back where they started.

He let out a frustrated sigh. The sun bearing down on him was just the icing on the cake, yeah.

“Whatever, let’s just keep moving. We still need to find people who aren’t going to attack or scream at us.

"That's assuming you’re not going to throw another chair at someone, by the way." he trailed off, glancing away from Kaine. It was a momentary slip of the snarky tongue, a stress response to Kennedy fucking him off. He had been wanting to say it though, so right now, after that verbal barrage that had no doubt left both of them quite tense, seemed like the best time to bring it up.

[Primrosette]

....

Kaine blinked a few times as he was watching as both of the girls have left him and Lincoln on their own and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to handle Kennedy's outburst. He didn't like that she had been faking her so-called injury and he had found himself frowning in disbelief. His slight crush on her had faded away. Just like that. To be fair, he barely knew the ink girl anyway and honestly, it felt better to know that she was not who he thought she was. He had admired her from a distance and now that he felt like a strange weight had been taken off from him.

Lincoln was talking to him now and he was keeping quiet as he was now trying to process everything in his head.

He suddenly felt embarrassed when Lincoln mentioned the chair and he let out a tired sigh. How was he supposed to explain that?

"You weren't at the rock fight, so I'll keep it short." Kaine said after a few seconds of silence and he knew that even his reasons why weren't going to help with how petty he had been. "I got hit by a rock at some point as me, Kyle and your sister were trying to get Austin out of a disastrous situation and my temple ended up bleeding pretty badly. Crispin came over on a bike with a paintball, shooting at anyone like the complete madman that he is and my injury got hurt in the process, making it worse... I ended up collapsing on the way home...."

Kaine paused for a moment and there was a feeling of regret and shame hitting him now. He moved back some curls of black hair that had covered the scar for years and he was showing it to Lincoln now. He didn't like showing it to other people as he felt like it was a reminder of how vulnerable and helpless he had been back then.

"I ended up in a coma for a couple of days. My family were scared that I wasn't going to wake up and when I did wake up, they were.... crying over me." He let the curls fall back over the scar and he rubbed at his right arm uncomfortably. "...I guess the chair was finally me just wanting a bit of revenge on Crispin. I ever wanted to see my family that way over me. It.... It scared me...."

He then thought about Austin.

"....I did it for Austin too. Crispin had hurt him and... I..."

He let out a shaky breath.

"I should have handled things better than I did back there. You got hurt because of my stupidity and selfishness. I'm sorry, Lincoln." He admitted honestly and he was looking at the other boy sincerely.

[Slam]

…

“Wow.”

You want a can of worms? How’s that for a can of worms?

Lincoln could only stand there, a dumbfounded look on his face. He tried to think of a response, but honestly? No. He was pretty much tapped out.

“Look, it’s cool or whatever.” he mumbled, continuing to evade direct eye contact. He really didn’t care that he had gotten hurt about it. Or rather, he did care, but it was small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. More, feeling pissed about that seemed pretty petty when Kaine had confessed his comatose episode. Not exactly information that had been invited to the table. And as if he needed another reason to stay the hell away from Crispin.

“...fuck that rock fight, you know?” he finally said, awkwardly shrugging at Kaine. His orb had slowly edged away from the pair, idling at a distance as if it was looking for a distraction. This sort of conversation really wasn’t his forte.

“And if we see Crispy again, I’ll break his arm next time. I know I could.” he tried to give a reassuring smile, but the awkwardness corrupted it into a mess of an expression. He was aware of the fact. At that point, he just gave up and shrugged.

“Let’s just move on, yeah?”

((Lincoln Guenther continued in Toeing the Line))

[Primrosette]

Kaine didn't say much after when Lincoln responded to his reasons why he had a silly, personal grudge against Crispin and most of what he did was a few grunts and nods. He actually felt a small smile form onto his face and a soft chuckle came out of his mouth when Lincoln made a funny comment about hurting Crispin. At least he hoped it was just a joke. Creating more of a disaster was not in the books.

"Yeah, bud. Let's go." He nodded in agreement, hoping that things would get better for them.

((Kaine Griffin and Lincoln Guenther continued elsewhere.)