Sample: Literate+, hospital. Private thread.
There's always something about tears that can make any situation more awkward, even happy ones. To be frank, even when someone's crying from joy, it's painful to be around them, since you know you need to comfort them, but there's no way. Society has, literally, ran emotions into the floor. Who can handle these emotions? Therapists, psychologists, doctors and the like. Anyone who could make a buck off your suspense. Or, there were people like Riley. Awkward, unorganized, won't-take-no-for-an-answer people.
Crying was definitely a no-no for Riley. Not only was it an ugly, ugly thing, but it scared him, too. You can't fix things inside people like that. Sure, broken bones and torn muscles, but not tears. They came and went as they pleased, ripping whatever sanity anyone in the room had left apart. Bull. s**t.
At the sound of her sniveling, Riley had immediately raised his hand and opened his mouth, ready to tell the girl to clam down, and ask what he had just told her (that being “Not to worry”). But it was then she had started to speak. Sure, her heart ached, obviously, he thought to himself as he listened, feeling more and more out of place in front of the weeping kid. When he was a little kid, his heart pounded like hell when he cried (not that he'd ever admit to crying in the past ten or so years).
Her voice was tiny and pretty, as she spoke, looking nervously up at him. He lowered his arm and closed his mouth to give himself a more relaxed look, trying not to seem as angry as he really was; girls. Emotions. Crying. Stupid, stupid things. Ohhhh, my heart hurts to badly, he said to himself, trying to grin as she admitted to knowing the Children's poet. Then, you can leave. Ha, that's polite. Just, 'Get out,' basically.
Then he cracked. Visually, he twitched, his eye like a spasm, his head a bit to the side, quick as a flash, and a cold shiver went up his spine. All of a sudden, he felt like a total jerk. An a**. An utter fool. It all made sense.
What did?
First off, leaving for his own benefit of being near an awkward, confusing sick person. A patient. This made him feel bad. Awful. Like dirt. Like puckey. Something that didn't even deserve to be scraped off boots and into the trash, barely worthy of being run over by a truck. She hadn't said it to be mean, but to make the situation less strange. Then, oh, then...
So much for his blather about her heart. Suddenly, the only obvious thing was that she had something wrong with her heart. Disease, an attack, whatever... She wasn't here for show.
"Oh, damn," he said aloud by mistake, gritting his teeth as he looked down at her, feeling worse than ever. His brow was crunched, and his eyes wide, giving him a truly worried appearance. Riley's first stupid statement out of the way, he continued on after placing his broom and butler up against the wall.
"What happened? An accident, born with it? What... Skye?" he inquired, looking serious. Usually, someone like Riley wouldn’t ever try to feign such an act. But it wasn't said that the boy wasn't human. Some things, especially things that made him look bad, could really get through to him. This was, surprisingly, genuine concern.
"I mean, you need some company, right...?"
etilletas Community Member 
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