Everyone Needs Friends {Malika/Patrick}

[Malika Brezeanu]

November... the last month of Autumn. The time when, it begins to get colder, just about every leave has fallen from the trees, and the time when you begin to slowly count down to December, with which comes Yule time, and for Malika, that means haunting memories that she hadn't yet had time to truly move past. But Lika wasn't worried about the holidays today, she had pushed it far to the back of her mind, saving the painful memories and mourning of her brother for another day. Today she was determined to be cheerful. Despite being cold outside, and a tad windy, the sun was out, and it was otherwise a beautiful day. With this fact, as well as the fact that it was a weekend and she had no classes, in mind, Malika decided she would head outside to the grounds with her latest book, and find a nice sunny spot to read. As she bundled up, putting on her warm wool coat, a scarf, hat and gloves on, over her old faded jeans, blue and red plaid button down shirt, and brown worn ugg like boots, she glanced at her dog, a german shepherd and wolf mix, Gypsy, and gestured at the door out of the sixth year girls dorm. "Shall we go out girl?" she asked softly, "come on Gyps, let's go outside and enjoy the grounds. Its too stuffy to stay cooped up in this castle."

As they made their way out of Ravenclaw tower, and down to the ground floor, and out to the grounds, Gypsy jumped and barked playfully like a puppy, making Lika giggle, and shake her head. She acted like she was only a few months old, and not a 3 year old dog. Once she got outside, and felt the cool wind hitting her face, Lika grinned, she never felt more at home anywhere, than when she was outdoors, surrounded by nature, instead of the stone walls of the castle. She wandered around the grounds at first, throwing sticks for Gypsy. But finally, she found a nice spot on a large rock by the lake, where the sun was shining almost directly, and sitting down, with Gyps curled up near her feet, she opened her book. It was times like this, when she was outside, with nature, and wasn't surrounded by the other students and teachers constantly, and it was quiet and peaceful, when Malika felt herself truly let go and just relax. She found herself getting lost in her book at this point, and really wasn't paying attention to Gypsy anymore, or anything else around her.

[Patrick Genesis]

"Hey, hey Blues...you doing okay today?"

Patrick looked up from his breakfast, untouched again. "I'm surviving, Finnegan. That's all I do."

The dark haired boy's face fell. "Bro, you meed to get out. Live a little. He wouldn't want you slowly killing yourself over this."

No one understood.

He pulled up a dark hood and sighed as his tall frame drew up from the table. "I'm going outside."

Ever since he found out, he was a numb shell of a person. Heart broken and soul crushed, he could only replay the last moments they had in his memory. Exchanging sentiments of love before summer break.

It was gone.

The breeze outside matched the cool disposition he held at the moment as he made his way to the lake. The wind blew his hood back, exposing that messy golden hair. His coat was held together by threads and the soles were separating from his shoes. He was beyond down on luck.

As he crouched near the water, he saw a girl there with a beautiful dog. He gazed at the cover of the book and chuckled, "Fiction, or Non?" That smile crept up on his lips crinkling his eyes pleasantly.

[Malika Brezeanu]

Lika was in her own little world, losing herself in the tale spun by one of her favorite authors. So when she was snapped back to reality, she was a bit surprised. Looking up to find the person attached to the voice that had spoken, she tried to figure out if she knew him, but was pretty sure she didn't. He had asked if she was reading fiction or non fiction, and was smiling. Books were one thing that Lika could talk about without freezing or choking up, her shyness taking over. She gave him a warm smile before speaking softly. "It's fiction... a novel, by a favorite author of mine, J.R.R. Tolkien...I don't know if you're a reader or know of him, " she said, "it's The Hobbit... I've read it many times, but its just one of those books you love so much you can't help but read over and over..."

She trailed off, realizing she was beginning to ramble. He seemed nice, she didn't want to scare him off by rambling on and on. "Forgive me, I don't mean to bore you...I just can't help myself sometimes and I ramble," she said, "Either I ramble, or I'm too shy to talk at all, its a bit of a problem." she closed her book, placing it on the rock next to her, before looking at him again. Her shyness began to creep back in at this point. I...I'm Malika by the way..." she said, stuttering slightly, "and this is gypsy..." She pointed at Gyps who was still laying curled up at her feet, now looking interestedly at the boy.