Distractions From the Mind [Stephen]

[Mackenzie Stone]

Mackenzie didn't know what he was doing wandering the second floor corridors. He supposed he was bored just sitting in the common room reading. Wow, he would never say that again. He loved reading, but sometimes he just needed a break from it and needed a change of scenery. Or... maybe he was trying to avoid both Phoenix and Elizabeth right now.

He didn't really know what was going on in his life right now. He had, without actually, cheated on his girlfriend. He never kissed Elizabeth or anything while they were cuddling on the couch, but it still felt wrong. Completely wrong. He shouldn't have been cuddling someone on the couch while his girlfriend did god knows what somewhere by herself. He liked Dria. He really did, but what he felt for Elizabeth was stronger. He knew that, but he was trying to push it aside. Elizabeth and him had an instant connection. Dria and him still had yet to find one.

Taking a deep sigh, Mack leaned his back against the wall and slowly slid downward so he was sitting in the corridor. He brought his knees up to his chest and rested his elbows on them. Then bringing his head down so his hands would run through his hair, stopping there.

[Stephen Moore]

It was just his luck that when Stephen had decided to come out from the dorms to try exploring the castle in hopes of finding a quiet place, he'd run into some... guy. Some guy who looked really quite confused and tired was just leaning against the wall.

It was kind of freaky.

Stephen rather wanted to know what was wrong, though. After all, it wasn't every day that people saw others looking like that. It'd be the right thing to do to at least offer some comfort, right?

So Stephen bent down so he was looking at the other guy's face.

"Er, hi. Are you okay?"

[Mackenzie Stone]

Mack heard the footsteps approaching him, but didn't bother to look. He rather hoped that whoever it was would just walk away. He didn't feel like talking to anyone, at the moment. His luck wasn't on his side, however, as the dude bent down and looked at him. Asking if he was okay. Well great.

"It's none of your fucking business if I'm okay or not." Mack snapped at him as he took his head out of his hands. He took a deep sigh and looked at the dude. He was a Hufflepuff. Mack knew that much. He was pretty sure he was a year below him, but he had never talked to him before now. Wasn't this a great time to run into him. When Mack's brain was about to fucking explode from all the thoughts he was having. Life was not okay right now, and he didn't need anyone else knowing about how fucked up his head was.

[Stephen Moore]

Stephen was just looking and being concerned like a good person when the guy looked up. Just his luck that during one of the very, very rare times that he'd tried to be nice to a complete stranger, he'd run into Mackenzie Stone.

Or to be precise, Mackenzie Stone, who snapped at him for asking if he was okay. Instinctively Stephen took a step back. If Mackenzie decided to lash out at him, he under no circumstances wanted to be within punching range.

"I'm sorry! I'm... sorry for bothering you. It's just that you looked really stressed and like maybe you wanted to talk to someone about it and I thought maybe I could help out because talking about it sometimes helps for me and I wanted to offer help because I thought it might be a good thing to do and I didn't mean to bother you at all! I'm sorry!"

He was pretty sure he bore an uncanny resemblance to a mouse trying to escape as he rambled on apologizing.

[Mackenzie Stone]

Mackenzie saw recognition in the kids head. He didn't care. So what if he was the fucking Quidditch Captain and one of if not the best chaser in the school. None of that mattered at the moment. The only thing that matters is Elizabeth.

Wait.

No. Dria is the one that matters. Right? That's how it should be. One fucking night and it had Mack's head all confused. This wasn't normal, was it. "You should be fucking sorry, you idiot." Mack snapped at him. Sometimes he really did think he should be in Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw. Who cares if he's smart. Okay, Mack cares.

He really should start being nicer to people. "I don't need anyone's help. Everything is fucking amazing in my fucking life!" Mack might have a problem with the F word at times. A small one? It came out more when he was pissed off.

He took a shaky sigh and straightened his back against the wall before running one of his hands through his hair in an attempt to flatten it out after he just messed it up.

[Stephen Moore]

Okay, so the normal thing to do in this situation-- in Stephen's case, that is-- would be to escape immediately and never try to talk to that person again. And since Mackenzie seemed to want to be left alone, Stephen should be rushing to comply.

Then again, it wasn't like he had anything better to do, and Mackenzie had caught him in one of his rare daring moods where he would actually dare to interact with strangers.

Stephen took a deep breath before answering, hoping that whatever he said wouldn't offend. "If you're using the 'f'-word so many times in just one sentence, there's obviously something wrong. And anyway, I was just trying to help. There's no need to be so rude."

[Mackenzie Stone]

Was this guy stupid? Did he not understand what wanting to be alone meant? Normal people would have just ran away with their metaphorical tail between their legs. Mackenzie could be lethal when he wanted to. When someone pissed him off to the point where he didn't care about what he did.

"What. Are you too fucking afraid to say fuck?" Mackenzie asked him in a mocking tone. This kid was getting on his nerve, and did he really just call him rude? "You don't know what rude is." Mack said, narrowing his eyes and glaring at him. He didn't need help from anyone, let alone some random fucker he found in the hallway. A Hufflepuff none the less. They're always trying to help people. It was sickening.

"Why can't you just leave me alone. Why do you care if I have a problem?" Mack asked him in a small voice, not sure why his angry tone had disappeared.

[Stephen Moore]

Mackenzie Stone was very, very rude. He was so rude that Stephen really just wanted to run away, but he really didn't want the one time that he tried to help someone end up badly like this. And Mackenzie obviously really needed someone to talk to. That much was obvious, and since Stephen was the one to encounter him in the corridor, he rather felt like it was just something he should do.

"I don't see how swearing's going to help anything, so there's not much of a point to be swearing at me. And I know what rude is, and it's definitely what you are."

Stephen's slight, very very slight annoyance and overwhelming fear of Mackenzie Stone receded, however, when he heard the second part of what Mack was saying.

"I... just wanted to help, and I care that you have a problem because I want to help and I thought that offering help would be a nice thing to do! I'm sorry if you really just wanted to be left alone but you don't really look like that to me and I wanted you to know that... well, you can talk to me about it? Even though I don't really know you or anything. Sometimes talking to strangers work, and I'm probably never going to encounter you again, so you can tell me anything. I don't really talk to strangers much, and I'm good at keeping secrets." Stephen ended up rambling, and by the end of his explanation, he was pretty sure he looked like he was going to cry.

Which he might have been.

[Mackenzie Stone]

Swearing helped him. Clearly that wasn't something he understood. Swearing let him get some kind of frustration out of his system. So what if he did it every sentence. More than once a sentence ever. It didn't matter to him, why should it matter to this random stranger kid.

"It's not that big of a deal, okay? I'll be better when summer starts and I can go back to my sister. Even if that means going back to my house and my parents." Mack spit out at him. Giving him information that most people would die for. Most girls at least. "Is that what you want to hear? That my parents fight?" Mack asked him. "Or how about my new problem with girls? Want to hear that one? Hell, you fucking look like you've never even talked to a girl before."

Mack said all of that while looking away from the kid, looking back he noticed tears in his eyes. "Are you fucking crying?! Man up, Goddammit! I thought I was supposed to be the one with problems here!" Mack told him with a confused look on his face. This dude was pathetic.

[Stephen Moore]

The information that Mackenzie Stone's parents fight was rather shocking. He's always thought that Mackenzie Stone was the model child with the perfect family and wonderful, doting parents, pretty girlfriend. Heck, he was even smart. A Ravenclaw.

And it was true that he rarely talked to females. Stephen rarely talked to anyone, and gender didn't really matter.

"I'm... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to pry so much, I'm sorry! I... just... I just wanted to help. I'm sorry. I'll... go now."

"And I'm not crying!"

[Mackenzie Stone]

When Mackenzie mentioned his sister, he could hear her crying echo as he saw Stephen's tears. Well wasn't that just fucking wonderful. "No. It's fine. You can stay." Mack said, rolling his eyes. He hated when his sister popped up somewhere when he knew he was being a dick or when he was doing the wrong thing. He knew it, but it didn't mean he stopped before he could hear it.

"Sorry. I'm just. Not in a very good mood." Not that it would have been any better another day. Actually, I probably wouldn't be dealing with you right now. Mack thought to himself, but didn't say it. "And stop crying. It's still pathetic to see a man cry. If your'e a man that is." Mack said without thinking. "Sorry... I'm being nice now." He said before the kid could start breaking out into more tears.

[Stephen Moore]

Stephen brightened up slightly when Mackenzie said that he could stay. Maybe he was right that Mackenzie just needed someone to talk to, and he was quite happy that he could help. Or at least, he was happy that Mackenzie stopped being mean and rude.

He wiped away the tears from his eyes (hey, where did those come from?) and smiled a bit.

"I'm not crying! And I am a man. Well, I'm 15, so I'm not really of age yet, but I'm a guy. I'm Stephen, Stephen Moore... Hufflepuff."

"Er, you could tell me about what's wrong if you want. I'm a good listener, I think, and talking helps sometimes!"

[Mackenzie Stone]

Mackenzie actually chuckled. This guy was funny in a pathetic kind of way. Mack stuck his hand toward him in a friendly move, he figured why not. He could be nice. Sometimes. "Mackenzie. Mackenzie Stone." He introduced himself, but knew the kid knew him. Everyone knew who he was.

"You probably don't even want to hear it. It's just girl problems." Mack said in a bored tone, trying to pass it off like it didn't mean anything to him. But then he remember he was trying to be nice. God damn sensitive man. "Just... you know my girlfriend? Dria?" Mack asked but didn't give him time to answer. "Well. I met a girl last night. And I didn't technically cheat. But let's just say if Dria had seen us, she wouldn't be too happy." He admitted with a sheepish grin. He felt terrible about it.

[Stephen Moore]

When Mackenzie stuck his hand out, Stephen was really quite pleasantly surprised. Despite the beginning not-so-nice-ness, both Mackenzie and the conversation were surprisingly okay.

Then it came to Mackenzie's problem. Girl problems were definitely something that he had a lot of experience listening about, because his brother had his fair share of those and liked to complain about them to him.

"Oh. So, what did you do with this girl? As long as you didn't have sex with her, it can't really be called cheating, I think. But why did you do it, though? Did you have a fight with your girlfriend, or do you just not like her anymore?"

He really hoped that he wasn't prying too much, but Stephen was quite sure that he could probably offer some maybe-a-little-bit-useful advice in such a scenario.

[Mackenzie Stone]

Wow. Maybe Mack hadn't given this guy enough credit. He didn't seem like he knew nothing about girls. Maybe he had just helped people out a lot. Yeah, surely that was it. "I don't fucking know anymore! I thought I loved Dria... I still do. But me and Elizabeth were talking, and I can't honestly give her a response as to why I like her. Hell, the first time we met she called me a mudblood." Mack said with a sigh as his hands returned to his hair again.

"Elizabeth is different. She isn't like any other girl I've met. And we didn't even kiss or anything. We sat in the common room all night cuddling on the couch and playing 20 questions. I was trying to make her feel better. She was sad." Another reason he likes her. He wasn't a dick around her, and that was weird to him.