Violet sat on the edge of her bed, a copy of 'The BFG' sitting open beside her. She'd paused in reading it so that she could adjust the collar of the white turtleneck shirt she was wearing. Stupid itchy shirt, she frowned. The bruises were still there on her neck, and she didn't feel like displaying them. Sighing, she tucked her hair behind her ear. Her hair was down for once - it was annoying how it kept getting in her face, but it provided a nice sort of mask, like a thin curtain that she could hide behind.

She reminded herself that she was lucky that she hadn't, say, been killed. And she was by far luckier than Wick, who still hadn't come around since what Violet mentally referred to as 'freaky kid incident number two'.

The past little while, things hadn't been going all that wonderfully - not counting meeting Dave. Dave was nice. That didn't make up for everything else, but it helped. Another thing that helped was books. Violet had half of the contents of her small bookcase in stacks around her bed. She'd cut out her evening walks in favor of reading, and hadn't bothered to put the books away once she was done with them.

Keye walked in without knocking. Forgive him, please. No one ever taught him manners.
"Hi, Violet, how ya been? I just stopped by to make sure Dr. Barclay did what he promised he was gonna, which is apologize, cause god knows the man has an ego, so I didn't really entirely trust him to do it, so--"
All the while, his mind had been processing the little details of her appearance: the way she was hiding behind her hair, the turtleneck, the way she held herself a little more nervously than usual...
"Who attacked you?"
And her bruises aren't even visible.

She just stared at him, for the longest time - she wasn't used to people just walking in like that. I must've forgotten to lock the door... she thought, frowning a little. When she spoke, she answered his questions in order. Sort of.
"Yeah, Dr. Barclay apologized. I still think he's a jerk though. Wouldn't trust him as far as I could kick him," Violet said, as if she hadn't even heard the last question. She'd get to it in due time. Like,... right about now.
"...Who says I was attacked...?"

"He's not a jerk." he argued absently. There were more important things right now.
"Violet, you're a normal person. Normal people under normal circumstances don't drape their hair in their eyes, especially while reading. Normal people don't wear turtlenecks in April. And you're holding yourself like you're scared, and like you've got bruises."
Very observant, yes?

"He is so a jerk," she said, for the sake of arguing, and keeping the subject away from herself. It wasn't so much that she thought Dr. Barclay was a jerk,... she just thought he had questionable morals and a mutated conscience. Violet glared at him, then looked away, muttering, "Lovely, now I've got Sherlock effing Holmes in my dorm room..."

"Sherlock Holmes. Why not? Stop evading and answer my question."
He was really worried now. He sat down on the floor, twisting the hem of his shirt and staring anxiously at Violet.

She sighed irritably, knowing she'd have to tell him eventually so it might as well be now. "...The freak kid. You remember, at the park? There was this freaky kid, with the, the-" she frowned, tugging on a few strands of her hair to try and get her point across, "-he had white hair. White 'n black. You remember him? Well, it was that guy. I ran into him by accident, out in the woods... That little ,... I don't even have an insult bad enough for him..."

"Yeah."
Keye looked suddenly extremely uncomfortable, because, really, this was the third freak-kid-incident.
"I...I...remember him..."
And if the kid had no problems doing what he did to Keye, then...
"Violet..."
He stammered wordlessly, rising into a crouch from his sitting position on the floor.
"He...he...he didn't...didn't....he didn't...f-force you, d-did he? Are you okay?"

Violet drew a blank, thinking, Force me what?

"He hit me on the head with a tree branch and then he almost strangled me," she recounted tonelessly. "I blacked out for a little while. I don't think it was long. I'm okay. I've been worse after a self-defence class, compared to what he did. It's not so bad."

Not really. That was a lie. Self-defence class never made her think she would die. It didn't nearly kill both her and Wick... oh, and about the faery..."Wick's not doing so well, though," she added, with a semblance of a thoughtful frown.

"He didn't do anything to you while you were out, did he?"
Panicking, he leaped to his feet, and then abruptly sat down on the bed.
"...he hurt Wick too? How bad?"

"He,... no, I don't think so, and I think I would know," Violet shook her head slowly. "What happened was - well, what I think happened was, Wick distracted him before he could actually kill me. I'm not exactly sure what went on in between, but I came to and Wick was just lying there and he'd given the freak kid nightmares... it's what Wick does, you know, he can make you see your worst nightmares. That's how we got away."

She bit her lip, her eyes straying momentarily towards her desk. "Wick's,... well, it is serious, I think. I'm no doctor or anything, but,.. he's really out of it..."

"And there's no doctor you c'n take him to, either..."
Keye shook his head, biting his lip.
"Let me see 'im?"
Dr. Kael...well, he knows...but no, that guy's way too creepy. He'd probably do an experiment on the poor thing. Dr. Barclay? He's not a medical doctor, but he does know about magic...
Violet wasn't going to like this.
"Dr. Barclay might know what to do."

"He's over there," she pointed to her desk - one of the drawers was open. In it was Wick, tucked snugly into a makeshift bed. Her eyes narrowed at the mention of Dr. Barclay. "No way. Besides, he wouldn't help. And Wick hates him anyway."

"He looks real bad, Violet."
He shook his head slowly.
"We can risk it, or let him die. And he doesn't have to know."

"Look, I know he might d-..." Violet began indignantly, but cut herself off. She glared at the floor. Some people, when under stress, cry. Violet, when under stress, sort of seethes until she reaches her breaking point. She's a big girl, she's been a big girl since she was six. Big girls don't cry. "Fine. But I can't ask. I don't think he likes me any more than I like him, and he certainly doesn't like Wick... He won't help. It's probably pointless to even ask..."

"I'll ask. What's more, if he does anything I don't like, like hurting Wick, I'll pound 'im til he don't know which way is up. I can, too. He's not that big. But he's teaching right now, so we'll wait."
He nodded, as if it was all settled.
"In the meantime, let's have a look at you. Is there anywhere you're hurt real bad?"

"If you say so," Violet said. She appreciated the sentiment, but somehow didn't believe that Keye could actually beat up the professor, unless for some crazy reason the professor wouldn't fight back...

"I told you already," she shook her head, smirking faintly, "I'm all right. 'S just my neck, - and my head where the branch hit me. But I'm okay. Really, don't worry about it. I've been far worse than this."

"Have you? Have you really? Have you iced either of those things?"
He raised an eyebrow. He didn't mean to doubt her knowledge of such things, but the way she was lying about being okay (clearly she was upset mentally, though not badly hurt physically) made him uncertain.

"Yes. I have," Violet said, her tone growing sharp. She crossed her arms, looking away, out the window. She was perfectly capable of looking after herself, and she resented any comment that might imply that she wasn't. She tilted her head so that her hair fell into her face and hid it. "I know what I'm doing."

His fingers brushed lightly against her wrist.
"Violet? I'm sorry. It's just...you don't seem okay. Not mentally, anyway. And...and I know what that kid's like, and how he can really fuck a person up."
Got the hint yet, Violet?

"You met him once before that time in the park, you said," Violet said emotionlessly, unfortunately not getting the hint. She was still under the assumption that whoever it was that hurt Keye had to be some kind of pro wrestler or something. After all, he'd managed to subdue the freak kid that time in the park, with relative ease. Nothing short of some kind of monster could win against Keye. With the exception of, possibly, a magic user.

"That kid should be in a mental institution. I told the police, you know, but I don't think they can do anything about it since I don't have proof. Don't even know his name," she said sullenly. "Anyway. I told you. Get it through your head. I. Am. Just. Fine."

"If you're fine, stop hiding behind your hair."
Keye knew, or at least thought he did. After all, his own shaggy mop had been used many a time for the same purpose.
"Yeah. And one time after."

For the most part, that was true. Keye knew how to fight, and how to win. Usually, he did win. But in certain situations, he became as helpless as...oh, say Wick. Wick without magic.

"Why?"

Violet swept back her hair and tucked it behind her ear, then turned and glared at him. "I'm not hiding," she snapped, holding his gaze with her dark eyes for a full minute or so, before she turned her glare on the wall.
"...Just commenting, because you said you knew he could really mess people up. Though you don't have to 've met him more than once to know that. That twisted, sadistic little..."
She still didn't have a bad enough word for him. She'd think of one eventually.

"Yeah, he's a real creep. I woulda told the police, but I don't think they'd believe me. I mean, he's like half my size."
He shrugged.
"You're really mad. Are you mad at me?"

Violet had to think for a moment before she could reply. She wasn't mad at him,... not any more than she was mad at everything and everyone. "...I'm... frustrated. Not at you. Not so much at you. I'm just angry about everything. Classes, weather, people - mostly people. I hate people today," she said, biting her lip. Violet didn't usually hate anything, and she'd probably take this all back later. "I hate the ones who enjoy hurting others, I hate the ones who always think they know better, I hate the ones who don't care about anything. "

"I used to be that last type. Sucks, though...is there anything that might help you feel better?"

Yes.

"No. But thanks for offering," she said, picking up her book and opening it - not really reading it yet, because that would be rude. It wouldn't be nice to ignore him in favor of her book. Being nice to anyone wasn't exactly on her list of priorities right now, but regardless of how she was feeling, Keye was her friend.
"I want to be alone. I think you should go now. Like, right now."
(Okay, ignoring him is rude, but saying that wasn't?)

"...'Kay."
He stood slowly, as if a little uncertain of his feet. The calculating part of his mind, that was always ticking, told him that Wick's condition was urgent enough to warrant the invasion of Violet's privacy, and the unwanted presence of Alexander Barclay. The rest of his mind was just hurt.
"Sorry t've bothered you."
He can move quickly and silently when he wants to. It was like he was never there to begin with.