Allen felt sick. Not only had he nearly gotten Nena killed, but now her mother was ignoring her to go to him. Time to fix things his way, which usually meant he messed up badly. Oh well. ''I'm the eldest; I should be the responsible one.'' He said firmly, or as firmly as was possible for one with their head in their hands and looking downwards for fear of throwing up or something. He wanted to know if Nena was alright, how bad she was hurt, but decided he'd check later, when he was feeling better.

''Not particularly, no.'' Allen replied. Oddly enough, even though he hadn't eaten in about a day, he wasn't hungry in the slightest. Strange. Maybe he was coming down with something.

Not moving from where he was, remaining with his head buried in his hands, he peeked through his fingers at her. He saw her hand, bandaged up, over the cover, and quickly looked down again. He'd done that to her. He'd hurt her like that... he was feeling even more terrible, now, and he was guilt-rdden.

Allen looked up as he saw a girl enter the room, and the plastic way she was smiling, the perfectly joyful tone in her voice... wow, she was even better at acting fake than Nena was. Must be a birth right, in this town, to be born nothing more than a fake husk. He couldn't help but smile at how... false she was. Hopefully, for her sake, she wouldn't try speaking to him.

His smile dissipated, though, when she started telling Nena how ugly the scar she was gonna be left with was. She had no right- none -to be speaking to Nena like that. His fists were clenched, but he forced himself to relax, just as she turned around. He wasn't smiling, though. Allen wasn't the type of lad who could just plaster on a fake smile. Not that he wanted to be.

''I'm Nena's 'adopted' brother, Allen. Technically, we're not related, but...'' He said all this with a flat tone, but now he clenched his jaw, and his voice was slightly lowered, ''If you ever say that something about her is ugly- and I mean ever - you will be sorry.'' His eyes were narrowed, now, and he was still definitely not smiling.

''She was insulting you. As your 'big brother', I've gotta stand up for you.'' He said quite simply, shaking his head for a moment before getting an interesting look on his face and resting his head in his hands. What was up with her? Didn't she expect him to be angry at people who insulted her?

After all, they may not have been actually related, but he was, technically, her big brother. And anyway, he had taken a rather liking to her.

Allen was gritting his teeth, trying not to shout at her, as she gave her lecture, before speaking, through his still-clenched jaw.
''Nena, how many times must I tell you. I don't lie, or hide how I feel. People may try their best to break me down, as they've been doing since I was old enough to understand what they said, but I have the most practice. I've been crushed down and built back up more times than I can count. I know perfectly well that the world we live in is cruel, and harsh. Believe me.'' As he said this, he smirked slightly before raising his head and looking up at her.

'Oh, yeah... And if any of your friends are as fake as that one was, well... They're in for some damn wake-up call.'' Had her other friend not been a girl, he probably would've punched her square in the face. He did plan, though, that he would hit them back twice as hard with words again if anyone ever tried to insult Nena.

Allen saw her looking at the wall, obviously trying to avoid looking at him, so he followed suit and focused on looking at the end of his bed. When she turned and spoke to him, he turned his head to look at her, but didn't really have an answer for that question. ''I don't know, Nena. I've never had anyone that I've really cared about before. I like to think I'd do what's best for them; if that meant  hurting them, well... so be it. If it meant lying, though, I don't know if I could do that. It would mean learning how to do something I've never done before.''

 His blank face molded into a frown for a moment, as he pondered on how exactly some one learned how to lie. Was there some technique to it? Or were most people just born with it?

[[LOLS. WELL DONE. XDDD]]

Allen's face looked a little bewildered. ''Not as far as I can remember, no. Why? D'you find that bad or something?'' His voice took on a slightly flat tone, as he tried to figure out what on earth this girl wanted from him. If he had lied to her, she'd only be screaming at him. Why was she so difficult to understand...

[[-huggledundsnugglesundcuddles- D'aww, mah lickle Caneh. <3]]

''I believe the 'just plain crazy' part suits me perfectly, like you say. In all fairness, it did seem like a very good idea at the time.'' He murmured, rubbing his eyes before looking at her again. ''Hey, don't talk like that. I have known plenty of lads who actually like girls with a few 'fun stories to tell', which they claim are usually the ones with the scars. Besides, it doesn't matter what you look like; it's what's inside that counts, for most guys. Sure, they'll look at a pretty girl that has every guy on her arm, but they won't want a tramp for a girlfriend.'' He gave a small chuckle at the end, remembering a time when a 'tramp' had tried to get him to ask her out. She had, eventually, run back to her friends after Allen had given her a melancholy statement of what she would amount to if she showed her nickers off at every posible opportunity.