Bruises- Modern Zelink- discontinued :(

Conversations

*Tuesday*

Miph: why did you do that
M: kiss her
L: she was the one that kissed me
M: you let her kiss you
M: why
L: I couldn't exactly push her away...
M: yes you could have
L: I'm sorry, and I know things were going well with the two of us, but...
M: don't "but" me
M: why do you even like her
M: she's a bitch
L: you're friends with her!
M: not anymore
M: fuck you guys
...
M: I'm sorry
M: I'm really really sorry
M: I didn't mean that
M: you hate me now, don't you
L: no
L: I forgive you
M: thank you
M: so much
M: i don't mind if you two get together
M: I really don't
M: it wouldn't bother me
L: are you sure?
M: yes
M: :)

~

L: mipha was a little upset
Z: understandable
Z: I just hope she doesn't get too upset...
L: she said she doesn't mind
L: so...
L: actually, let's facetime
Z: okay, sure

~

"Hello, Link."
"Hey. I wanted to know..."
He looked down, away from the screen. "Well, I wanted to know if... if you'd..."
"Like to go out?"
"Yeah! That's what I was gonna say."
"Sure. Where to?"
"Um... shit, I probably should have thought more about this before..."
"I can pay and have my brother drive us somewhere."
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. So, where do you want to go?"
"Maybe to see a movie or something? I dunno."
"Sure. What movie?"
"It depends. What would you want to see?"
"Hm, let me see."

Zelda pulled her laptop over and opened it up. She began typing something, then she said, "How about that Twilight thing?"
"Ew, no."
"Not the vampire one, stupid. The one with the wolf."
"Oh, that one. Yeah, it sounds good."
"Okay, when should we go? It's playing at 2:30 on Saturday."
"Sounds good."

"Hey, Link?"
"Yeah?"
"There was something I wanted to ask you."
"Ask away."
"It's about yesterday."
"Yes...?"
"How often does that happen?"
"Oh, um, I dunno. At least once a month, I think."
"That's... not good."
"Yeah, okay, I know. You're probably gonna say that I've gotta eat better like last time. But you why I don't. It's because I can't. So stop bothering me about it."
"Sorry..."
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you."
"You didn't yell."
"I raised my voice. Same difference. I gotta stop shwngsmchmshn..." He mumbled the rest of the sentence, and the words became a jumbled up mess.

"Anyway," Zelda continued after an awkward silence. "Why can't you eat?"
"My dad pretty much won't let me. When I go to get a snack, he'll tell me to eat something real. When I make something for myself, he tells me to stop wasting the food. So it's a bit of a lose-lose situation. Because of that, I have to sneak food into my room. My.. mom.... you know what? Let's stop talking about that! How about... I dunno, something else. Um.. just not that."
"Link, you can't just get out of this any time. I want to talk about it so I can help you."
"I can stop the call. We don't need to keep talking." He blinked. Then, much quieter, he added, "I don't wanna talk about that, okay? Just... leave me alone for now."

He hung up, leaving her to wonder what was wrong.

<<×>>

Link sat on his bed, hugging his legs. Why did the conversation have to go there?
Why did it have to make him remember how his mom used to make this while thing into a game?

It wasn't a game.

Imagine being her in this situation. A husband who hurts her son. A little kid who didn't understand what was going on. Because of that, she couldn't just tell him.
So, she pretended that they were just playing a game.

It was around when he was nine. She stopped playing the "game" with him. She had to leave him on his own.
Imagine how hard that must have been.

He hugged his legs tighter. His eyes started watering.

This was no game. He couldn't just pretend everything was fine. Sure, he acted as if nothing was wrong when he was at school, but he wasn't convinced that that was true.

He was old enough to know that this wasn't normal. He was aware. But he told himself that this happened to other people. It wasn't just him.
And there were people in worse situations. He had no right to complain. He probably deserved it. He didn't know what he had done, but it must have been bad.

This was his fault.
He couldn't let Zelda help. Anyway, he didn't want her getting tied up in this and end up getting hurt.
He didn't want something bad to happen to her for his sake. Especially when he didn't deserve help. When he didn't deserve her.

<<×>>

"Hey Dan?"
"What do you want?"
"Can you so something for me on Saturday?"

<×>

"You're going on a date? I can't believe it! Who knew a nerd like you would get a date?"
"Oh, shut up. I just need you to drive me to his house to pick him up, then bring us to the theater. I'll call you to have you pick us up. And don't tell dad what we're actually doing. Tell him I'm at a friend's house to do homework or something."
"No problem, sis."
"I'm surprised you're actually being helpful for once."
"Heh. I'm not stopping you from going out with a guy. Hylia knows you'd have trouble making that happen."
"Ugh. You're really stupid, you know that?"