Saving Each Other

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Griffin frowned slightly at her words. But he didn't as question, he knew what it was like to have a past he would rather not talk about. His own past was a painful one and one he was ashamed to acknowledge to himself much less anyone else. Maybe someday he would met someone he would be able to talk to but he doubted that it would happen anytime soon. That would require trusting someone and his trust had been destroyed a long time ago. He glanced out the window. A fall storm. No wonder his leg ached. Weather affected almost as much as standing on it did. "Looks like its going to rain."
 
"Yeah. Great huh?" Teddi said very unenthusiasticaly she didn't like storms. It was a childish fear she knew...like being afraid of the dark but Teddi had a lot of childish fears and worries. When she was a child no one had helped her or comforted her when she was afraid so she hadn't ever grown out of them so to speak. She'd just learned to internalize her fear more.
Teddi also knew if it states storming she could go to the gym. The gym was too far away from her dorm for it to be safe and she didn't want to have a panic attack at the gym.
Teddi hurriedly finished up her food.
"I'm gonna get going...I'd rather not get rained on." She muttered clearing her tray she hurried out of the cafeteria and towards the bookstore.
 
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Griffin watched Teddi leave. He didn't blame her for not wanting to rained on. If he had been more comfortable with her he would have offered to give her a lift on his motorcycle. But he had missed the opportunity. He sighed. Maybe someday he would get better at social interactions. He cleaned up jphis mess and headed out of the cafeteria. He wanted to get back to the dorm if he could. He didn't mind storms as much as he did the cold and wet that came with them. While he had never had anyone to comfort him when he was young he had long ago outgrown childish fears. He knew there were worse things then whatever hide in the dark.
 
Teddi hurried to the bookstore. She asked at the front desk where she could pick up the books she needed to borrow. It took her a while to get them, she had to show her Campus ID, they had to go into the system and make sure she was a work for tuition student, and then they had to go into a different part of the system to check what books she needed. Finally after a good 30-45 minutes of waiting she was handed a huge stack of books for this semester. She somehow managed to fit all of them into her bag, they all had 'BORROWED' written in large letters on the front cover and spine and a sticker with her name and campus ID number on it. She wrote down in her little calendar notebook what date she needed to return the books by and then headed out.
Her backpack was heavy. Teddi's Freshmen years was a pretty hard year because she had the book for the classes required for all degrees and books for her basic courses of her own degree. Teddi's trudged towards the dorms, hoping it wouldn't start raining while she was walking. It smelled and felt like it was going to storm, the young college student was glad she'd decided to go swimming yesterday because she wouldn't make it to the gym today if it started storming soon.
 
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Griffin jumped when thunder clapped over head. He took a deep breath and reminded himself that he was safe. He was really afraid of storms but they did make him uneasy because the power tended to go out. Especially in older buildings. He hated being in the dark. It stirred too many memories for him. He hoped the power didn't go out. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Teddi. Not that Teddi was in the room. The thought made him frown. He looked at the clock. She should have been back by now. It adnt taken him this long to get his books. Even taking the fact that she was walking into account he was concerned. Which made no sense since he barely knew her. He would give her another half an hour and then he'd go looking for her.
 
Teddi flinched when she heard a thunder clap. She picked her pace up as the rain started to fall. Great just great, she started to run/jog as best as she could with her her bag being so heavy and she finally got into the dorm about 15-20ish minutes later. She was soaked in freezing rain and sweating at the same time. Teddi dragged herself up the stairs and finally got to dorm. She didn't even think to knock and unlocking the door she walked in and dumped her bag on 'her' desk under Griffin's bed. She pulled out her insulin, and blood sugar checker.
"Hey." Teddi greeted Griffin breathlessly. She flinched visibly when another clap of thunder boomed over the old dorms. She pricked her finger and checke dher blood sugar. She glanced at the test strip, she needed a little boost after having to run with her over stuffed bag here. She injected herself with insulin, disposed of the needle and pulled out a small snack.
Another clap of thunder banged and Teddi flinched again and looked around fearfully. She hated storms. She ate her snack quickly. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed but she needed to change first.
 
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"Not a fan of storms either!" Griffin asked as he watched Teddi check her blood sugar. Which was hard to o considering that he had to ean over the edge of the bed to see her. Hanging like that hurt his head so he sat back up and climbed off isis bed. He went to the desk under her bed. He felt uncomfortable but he could tell that she was uneasy to so he doubted that Teddi noticed. "I've discovered the best way to deal with things I don't like is to keep my mind off it. We could play agin if you like." he didn't know many games. Not the legal kind anyway. But she was likely to know one or two. Staying busy was the best way to deal with something you couldn't control.
 
"I have to change first." She said. She left and quickly returned to the room in the same pajamas she'd worn last night, red pin stripes boxers and a white t-shirt.
She sat down and hugged herself, jumping and biting her lip when a huge clap of thunder sounded.
"I don't know many games." Teddi muttered truthfully. She knew some board games she'd seen kids play at the girls home and she knew some card games but she had neither boards nor cards with her at the moment.
"At least not with out need cards or something. " Teddi clarified, her voice trembled and she flinched at another clap of thunder.
 
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"I don't know a lot of games either." Griffin admitted. He hadn't intended to tell her that but since she admitted to his limited knowledge he figured he could admit his. Although his wasn't as easy to explain as her. He got up and went to the closet. He reached into a small box that put on the far side of his half of the closet. He took out a box of playing cards and took them back to his desk. He opened the box and slide the cards out. He shuffled them with casual ease. "So what would you like to play?"
 
"I only know.." Teddi stopped as another clap of thunder practically shook the building, "Little kids games like Go Fish and the Memory game..." she told him quietly. She was shamed of her lack of game knowledge. Most of what she knew she knew from seeing other kids play it or reading the game boxes at the girls' home, Teddi had never been really included in a card/board game.
Teddi sucked her breath in when a flash of lightening struck just outside their window and nearly jumped out of her seat when a thunderous bang sounded above the building. The lights flickered and frowned worried. If the power went out the heat also went out and the building was cool enough with the heat supposedly on.
 
"Nothing wrong with little kid games." Griffin assured her. Not that he had ever played any. He only knew adult games like poker and blackjack. He didn't miss her reaction to the lighting. He liked lighting simply because it meant there was light in the storm. Any type of light was fine with him. He just wanted to have light. He frowned when the lights flickered. He eyed them warily. He hoped they didn't go out. He didn't want Teddi knowing about his fear of the dark. Grown men weren't suppose to be afraid of such stupid things. He doubted she would make fun of him considering her own fear. But he didn't want to take chances. "I've never been good with Memory. How about Go Fish? It might help take your mind off the storm."
 
Teddi nodded.
"OK..." she said. She took the cards out of the pack. "Um what you do is you get dealt like 5 cards I think..." she said trying to remember. "Um at then you have a stack in the middle." she slowly went on. She dealt the cards and put the stack in the middle of the floor sitting criss cross next to them across from where she set out Griffin's card,
"Sorry I never played I only saw it played..." she apologized and as she tried to figure the rest of the game out. Another clap of thunder made Teddi jumped again and bit her lip.
"So you make like pair. Like Red twos or Black Nines." she explained. "And if you have a pair you lay it out. You have to like ask the other person 'Do you have a Red Four?' during your turn. If they don't they say 'go fish' and you draw from the pile and your turns over. If they do they hand it out and you go again I think..." she finished.
 
Griffin nodded as she explained the game to him. He had never seen the game played. He had only heard about it. It seemed simple enough. "Sounds easy enough. What if we run out of cards to draw from?" He asked. He didn't know if that could happen but it seemed possible. He wanted to know as many of the rules as possible. He knew how important to rules could be. He sorted through the cards she had dealt him. He set the pairs aside. "Both the color and the number have to match?" He asked wanting to clarify that. It seemed that having to match both would make the game harder." He put his hand on hers when thunder clapped. "Do you want to turn on some music to drowned out the thunder."
 
"Um after all the pairs are made I think the one with the most are done..." Teddi answered. "And yeah both colors and numbers have to match...I think." She finished though she was very unsure. She didn't know this game that well! She's just seen it played a few times.
Teddi shrugged when it came to the music question and flinched again at the thunder.
"I don't have anything to play music." She muttered.
 
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"I do." Griffin got up and went to the closet. He reached up to the top shelve and took down a stereo. He had gotten it at a second hand store. He had gotten it cheap because it hadn't worked. "I got it cheap. It wasn't working but I fixed it. Do you have a preference?" he had gotten the stereo because he hated silence. He was glad to have an excuse to turn it on. He loved music. Just about any kind. There were a few like heavy metal and rap that he didn't care for. Anything was better then the storm.as long as the power didn't go out the music should cover some of the noise. He plugged the stereo in and started to fiddle with the dials.
 
Teddi relaxed a little bit because the music helped cover the sounds of the storm a bit more. She laid her pairs down and drew up to five cards,
"Um do you have a red king?" she asked Griffin after studying her cards for a while. She carefully held her cards back so he hopefully couldn't see what she had. She waited for him to answer her as she looked around. Lightening cracked just outside there window and you heard the snap of what sounded like a large tree branch even over the music. She could feel her hands shaking because she was scared. Teddi hoped the game would be more distracting as it went on becuase right now it wasn't actually helping right now.
 
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Griffin looked at the cards. He shook his head. "No... I mean go fish." he knew this game wasn't oing to be enough to distract Teddi but he didn't know what else to do. He had never had anyone with him during a storm before. Nor had he ever tres to comfort someone. He wasn't sure how to do it. He wanted to help her. If only because he knew what it was like to be afraid and have no one comfort you. He didn't want here to be afraid. But he was out. "Focus on me and the music. Pretend the storm doesn't exist." he encouraged her.
 
Teddi nodded. She drew the deck and put the card in her hand.
"Now it's your turn." She told him. The lights flickered again and she looked up worried. Another huge crack of thunder and suddenly the lights went totally out and the music stopped.
Teddi felt her chest tighten and panic start to rise. She hoped the lights would turn back on soon. She waited but they didn't. Now she couldn't even see her cards well.
Teddi neatly lay her cards down so no one could see them and biting her lip scampered up to her bed. She childishly clutched her teddy bear pillow to her chest as she sat on the bed waiting for the lights to turn back in.
 
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Griffin jumped when the lights went out. He didn't move from his spot he couldn't. He started to shake so hard that he dropped his cards. He hated the dark. The storm didn't bother him half as much as the dark did. Memories of being lucked in the closet and his father's visits flashed through his mind. He couldn't do anything but try to keep the memories from replaying in his mind. He didn't want to relive those moments. He wished the lights would come back on but he knew that with the age of the dorm it would be morning before that happened.
 
Teddi noticed Griffin seemed to be scared. It surprised her, she hadn't expected that someone of his size would be scared of anyone or anything. She climbed down and sat ext to him holding her bear close,
"Are you OK?" she asked quietly. She held the bear out to him. It seemed stupid and childish to offer a grown man a teddy bear to hug because he was afraid, but it was all Teddi could think of.
She couldn't bring herself to hug him, she was too afraid for herself. Physical contact was not her strong suit and she had a very hard time with it. She waited to see if he'd take her bear.
Teddi honestly wanted to make Griffin feel better she just wasn't sure how to exactly, but doing her best attempt at it and hoping she didn't seem demeaning or stupid to him. She didn't want to ruin any chance of a friendship with him! Another crack of thunder boomed and Teddi flinched and half whimpered.
 
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