Bound Shadows

Neiro and I walk into a small little pizza place and get seats at a table near the window. We sit there awkwardly for a few moments until Neiro speaks up, "It was really nice of you to ask me to go out to lunch with you."

"Eh, it's nothin' special, just a little somethin' for my friend," I reply, I can feel the heat of a blush flood to my cheeks.

The waitress walks up to the table, "Hello, I will be your waitres- oh, hey Vinyl didn't expect to see you here, oh and with a boy nonetheless."

"Hey Lyra, me and Neiro are only here as friends," I explain to her.

"Whatever, I still need your order," Lyra says as she pulls out a notepad.

"We'll have a large cheese pizza," I tell her.

"Alright, got it,"Lyra walks to the counter to give the order to the chef.

Neiro mumbles something and Lyra comes back several minutes later with the pizza. Lyra casts a glance at Neiro and leans closer to my ear and whispers, "Watch what you say around him, he seems like a good, innocent kid, it'd be a shame if his hands were to be stained red due to your carelessness." I shakily grab a slice of pizza.

"Hey Vinyl are you okay?" Neiro asks me.

"Y-yeah I-I'm fine," I answer and take a bite of the pizza, gagging a bit.

"Are you sure it sounds like you're choking," he asks looking concerned.

I put down the pizza and order a glass of water at the counter. I take a sip of it to wash down the pizza, "I-I'm fine, it's just that some of the ingredients in this pizza are a bit overwhelming, but I should be fine now." We sit back down at the table and actually enjoy the pizza.

"Wow there's a lot of garlic in this pizza," Neiro observes.

"Why'd you notice that?" I ask.

"When you grow up from where I'm from you learn to look for those things," He answers.

"Why's that?" I ask nervously.

"Because you never know when you'll need it to save your life," He answers coldly.

"F-from what?" I ask

"It doesn't really matter, I haven't seen any of them here," He says sullenly.

We are shaken out of the conversation when a harsh voice calls out from behind us, "Hey girls look it's Neiro from school."

"Oh damn it," Neiro says looking very shaken.

Three girls walk up to Neiro, the one in the middle was the leader of the three, "Hey Neiro, haven't seen you since you left London."

"H-hey S-Snow," Neiro manages to say.

"Oh, I'm just flattered that the little emo bastard remembers me," She says in a flat voice, "And who are you?"

"I'm Vinyl Scra-" She cuts me off.

"Yeah yeah whatever," Snow says, "So, Neiro how are your parents doing?"

Neiro looks very shaken up by this statement and Snow continues, "Oh wait, you have no way of knowing since they don't ever want to hear from you, well, your mother at least, your father isn't around to care, wait, wasn't that your fault if I remember correctly."

"Neiro what is she talking about?" I ask him

"Well Vinyl, one day I had accidentally knocked a refrigerator over and it sorta killed my dad, a few years later my mother found out that it was my fault and disowned me and I had to find some way to live on my own, then I found the school that I went to in London and now I'm here," Neiro explains.

"How did the refrigerator get knocked over?" I ask him.

"I was trying to hide behind it," Neiro answers.

"Why?" I ask

"I was trying to hide from my dad," Neiro says.

"Why were you hiding from him?" I ask, worried.

"He wasn't a pleasant person to be around, he would beat me so I would always try to hide, I hadn't learned that if I hid it would be worse," he explains sullenly.

"That's horrible," I say

"Yeah, but I still regret everything, can we stop talking about this?" He replies.

Snow had left at some time during the conversation so we continued to eat the pizza in awkward silence.

"I'm gonna go," Neiro says and gets out of his chair to leave.

"Why?" I ask him.

"I just need to be alone right now," He says.

"Alright," Neiro walks out and heads to the dorms.

Lyra walks over to the table, "I'm guessing things didn't go too well."

"No, they didn't," I answer.