He began to walk away, but I reached out to him and grabbed him by the arm. "Hey, wait!"
The boy halted midstep, mostly because I was holding him from running off. He whirled around and tried to pry my hand off to no avail. "What’s wrong with you? What are you doing?"
"I need your help—" I started, then stopped when I caught a glimpse of his hand. It was bandaged over, with some dried blood visible through the cloth on some of the fingers. "What happened to your hand?" I asked, letting go of him.
Jay stepped back, grasping his arm as if he was worried that I was going to try and pluck it off his sides. "It’s none of ya business."
Folding my arms, I frowned as he looked like he was about to run off again. "You’re hurt," I stated the obvious. A dark thought crossed my mind, making me voice my concerns. "And you didn’t have that just yesterday evening. If someone in the orphanage is doing this to you, you should not just keep quiet about it."
"What are you saying?" Jay narrowed his eyes, slowly realizing what I had implied. "Are you trying to say— Ms Sharity would never hurt me!"
"I wasn’t talking about her." At least, not just her; from what I had seen at the orphanage, it was quite clear that Jay was more of an outsider within the family dynamic. "Eaton, Hannah, or anyone else there. You can tell me." I spoke reassuringly.
The boy snapped back. "Nobody in the orphanage would hurt me! In fact, you’re the only person I know who would want to do that."
"Then who did that?" I asked, gesturing at the bandages while ignoring his provocation.
"I—" Jay paused. He glanced back for a moment, before finally responding to my question. "I did it to myself. And before you ask— no, I didn't do it on purpose."
I felt my worries wash away, and relaxed a bit. "How did that happen then?" I asked a follow up question, more curious than anything.
"I was helping fix a toy. It’s this Dwarven made doll— they call it a stuffed animal. I’m not used to sewing something that’s not just… flat y’know?"— he made the vague shape of a square-like object with his hands— "so I poked myself a lot by accident last night. I’m not rich like you, I can’t just buy a healing potion. So since it’s nothing bad, I just wrapped it up with a piece of cloth."
Right, and you haven’t changed it for a new one. I filled in the missing blanks myself; he was being unhygienic— which was something you did not want to do during a plague outbreak— but it was not like he knew any better. I decided not to lecture him on the importance of proper sanitation, since he was already annoyed at me.
"I didn’t know you could sew. Was it the little girl’s toy you fixed?"
"Obviously," he replied impatiently. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets now, and I could see him tapping his foot on the ground.
I tried to redirect the conversation back to the orphanage. "That’s really nice of you. You’re such a good brother," I said, smiling.
Jay’s ducked his head, obscuring the pinkish hue that came over his face from being complimented. "I, uh… t-thanks?" He said, uncertainly scratching the back of his head now. "I mean— sewing isn’t really difficult. I’ve mostly just fixed torn clothes to help Ms Sharity. But I’ve made a few things too."
"Wow. And you picked up sewing to help your mother?"
"Well, yeah. She’s always so stressed with so many of us to look after. So I thought if I could help her in some way, why not just do it. Even if it’s girlish, it’s not like it matters."
"That’s so sweet," I sincerely said. "You must really love her, huh?"
"Of course. And it’s not like I hate sewing. I do enjoy doing it a little bit…"
"Well, I don’t think it makes you any less of a man for it. And you said you’ve made actual clothes and stuff?"
"Thanks…" Jay’ hesitated. But when he realized I was being genuine, he nodded. "Yeah, I’ve made quite— a few."
That was obviously a lie; there was no doubt in my mind that he made more than just ‘a few’.
"I’d love to see some of it, if you don’t mind. It’s at the orphanage, right?"
"Y-yeah," the boy answered after a moment.
"Then let’s go on over right now!" I took a step towards him, but he backed up. "What’s wrong?" I asked, leaning in closer.
"No, I—" His head snapped away from me, and he took several steps back. "I-it’s not anything you’d want to see. It’s not very good, ok? And didn’t I tell you I was busy? I can’t just bring you anywhere you want!"
"That’s not what I—"
He cut me off.
"I’m busy, ok? If you want to see it, why not just go see it! I don’t have to be there for that. I need to go. Goodbye."
Jay dashed off before I could say anything in return. Well, there goes that.
I wanted to chase after him, but this was not something that warranted such drastic actions. And more than that— he was right: I could very easily just go to the orphanage by myself, since most of them would recognize me as his friend from yesterday. The thing is—
"I don’t want to..." I murmured quietly to myself.
I went there anyways.
"Thank you for taking time out of your day to show me this, Ms Sharity."
"Oh, it’s no problem at all. Jay doesn’t like letting the others touch his stuff, but since you’re his friend, I had to let you see it."
The middle aged woman pulled
