No One Really Understands

Release.

Karkat was just as confused. The haze that had been clouding his thoughts he'd been in when he stepped into the road was gone, and now he wasn't sure what he'd been planning to do in the first place.

"I-I--? um--?" Karkat looked around, confused and a little lost.

The car behind Dirk honked loudly on annoyance. Dirk cast a dirty look over his shoulder then looked around and sighed. He gestured towards Karkat. "Get in."

"I... what?"

"Just get in. You can't keep standing in the road. We can talk later."

Karkat was too confused to object, so he climbed into the passenger seat and Dirk started driving. The two sat in silence for several minutes before Karkat spoke.

"Wh--"

"The school knows our situation, so they let me skip school to work a couple times a month."

"Oh."

"Although," Dirk said, glancing at Karkat out of the corner of his eye, "Really I should be asking you why you're not at school."

"Oh. Um... I didn't..." he felt his neck grow warmer. "I-I didn't really want to s-stay... s-so I l... left..."

"You just up and walked away?"

"Uh...y-yeah."

"Is there a reason why?"

An image of John standing over him, sneering flashed through Karkat's mind, and a shiver of fear ran down his spine. "N-no."

"Are you sure?" Dirk's voice was calm and even, so much so that it made Karkat even more nervous.

"Y-y-yes, I-I'm sure." Karkat looked out the window, chastising himself for stuttering so much, and noticed that he recognized some of the passing scenery. "W... where are we going?" he asked softly.

"Well, I was going home, but, I mean, if you want to go somewhere else, we can."

"No, that's ok..." Karkat stared down at his hands in his lap. His fingers looked so skinny and pale, and there were still tiny flecks of dried blood around his torn cuticles. He curled his hands into loose fists.

The two both remained silent as Dirk pulled into the driveway of his and Dave's house and walked in. Karkat still felt out of place, but a little bit less so since he knew that Dave wasn't home.

Dirk sat on the couch and motioned for Karkat to sit beside him. He did, but scrunched himself into the corner, trying to take up as little space as possible.

"...Ok," Dirk said after a beat of silence. "So, I would like to know exactly what you were doing stepping into the road like that. I mean, as far as I know, that's not usually what kids do when they skip school."

"U-um... I..." Karkat shifted uncomfortably. He couldn't exactly tell Dirk that he'd wanted to get hit so he could forget all his problems.

Dirk looked at Karkat out of the corner of his eye. "If I didn't know any better, I might think you were trying to hurt yourself. But that's not it, right?"

Fear ran up Karkat's spine. "I... um..." he picked at a loose thread on his sleeve. "I-I don't know..."

Dirk nodded. "Ok..." he sat back and exhaled softly. He looked over at Karkat. "You don't have to be nervous, y'know. I just want to talk. Okay?"

"O-okay," Karkat mumbled.

"Alright. So. How are you, first of all? You're in ninth grade, right? Same as Dave? How's high school been treating you?"