Audentis Fortuna Iuvat

"Who's this boy again?" Swan asked dubiously as she escorted me to the pavilion, her arms folded firmly across her chest as if she already disapproved.

I sighed, "His name is Richard and he works the nightshift in the infirmary. Look, I don't care if you don't like the sound of him. He's just a friend and I promised I'd meet up with him. You of all people should understand not wanting to break a promise."

"Why? Because my dad's the one that makes everyone feel guilty whenever they break one? Honestly, break this one if you want, this guy sounds a little dodgy and I don't want you getting yourself hurt again." Swan smoothed down her fringe repeatedly as we walked.

"I won't. This guy is nice and I think I can trust him. Plus, we'll be in the dining pavilion the whole time. What could go wrong?"

"Well for starters you could do something stupid like make yourself sick with nerves." She nodded to my shaking hands. "If you say you trust this boy, fine. But I'm going to be sitting at a table in the corner watching you two. If anything at all goes wrong then I expect you to let me know so I can get you out of there."

"Why are you being so uncharacteristically caring today?" I asked as we reached the steps and the 7:00 dinner bell was sounded.

"Because someone has to now that Cindy's gone." She said, wiping away what I swear could have been welling tears.

I didn't know how to respond to that, but I didn't have to as Richard chose that exact moment to catch sight of me and call out my name. I said a quick farewell to Swan and covered the last few steps to where Richard was standing.

He held out a single yellow rose, "I know I said that this wasn't really a date but I figured that flowers are good for cheering people up, and you seem the kind of person that needs cheering up sometimes. I even made sure it was yellow to symbolise friendship, see?"

I smiled and carefully took the offered rose, "Thank you. It's a sweet idea."

Richie's grin widened and he offered me his hand. I took it and we walked inside, him babbling on about how nervous he had been that I just wouldn't show up. It was nice to just relax and let him talk to his heart's content. I didn't have to do anything but smile and nod which was a welcome change to having to carry conversations myself. Though I hadn't really been doing that too much lately.

We reached our table and he helped me to my chair before taking his own. "You look really nice tonight." He said.

I felt my cheeks getting hot and ducked my head to hide it under the hair that fell onto my face. "Thank you, I suppose." I wore nothing special, just my worn jeans and a cream sweater over my camp shirt. It felt weird to be complimented, but it was a nice weird. "You look nice too."

He looked down at his ratty purple shirt with a laugh. "You must be new at this whole compliment thing, because even I know that I look like I've been dragged backwards through a gorse bush." He looked down at the hot pizza that had just appeared on our plates. "Well, it looks like we've ordered already so how about we start getting to know each other? What would you like to know?"

I chewed at a piece of flaking skin on the edge of my lip, "Your mother." I said finally, "Tell me about your mother."

He laughed, "She was nothing special. Dark hair that was always braided in a different way and a smile that was worth more than the meager pay they gave her every week. She worked in a small corner shop near our tiny house and she used to always sneak home some food for us. She wasn't much but I loved her, I really did. I haven't seen her since the wolves came to take me to camp." He waved the pizza around as he talked but it dropped to his plate with the last sentence.

"That sucks." I said.

The grin crept back onto his face, "No, it's okay. Maybe without me she'll be able to find a decent job and marry a nice man. That'd be nice."

I nodded in agreement, "It sounds it."

"So what about your dad?"

I shook my head, "There's not much to tell. He died not long before I came to camp. He had mental disorders, like me. He was supposed to hand me over to the cops but he kept hold of me, he even intercepted me on my way to camp the first time. I suppose he loved me too much and it killed him, in the end."

"Do you mind me asking how he died?" He asked.

"You'll think I'm mental."

"Well maybe I like mental?" He suggested and my eyes darted up to his teasing smile. Before that night, I had no idea how many emotions a smile could portray. I hoped mine wasn't giving away too many.

I sighed and my eyes dropped back down to my pizza. "It was a fire. I don't remember setting it but I suppose our brains delete trauma, right? We found the evidence, though. I set the fire in a suicide attempt and my dad ended up being the one who died."

"Dark stuff." He agreed, "But if you're what they call a mental girl then I must really like mental girls."

I raised an eyebrow at him and his grin shrunk into a shy smile that mirrored mine. In that moment, I didn't mind if my smile was giving away all my emotions. He could have them all.

Notes