Piece By Piece ~ Snippet 4

Viren

"Ummm, Viren?" Aiden is the first to speak up. I turn to him as he straightens his glasses. He opens his mouth to say something else, but then closes it. 

"Why are you wearing that?" Savannah asks. One of her eyebrows is raised, and her hip is cocked out to the side. 

"What?" I ask. "You don't think it looks nice on me?" I pretend to pout, but really I'm playing with her, and I'm curious what her response will be. 

"Nope." She doesn't miss a beat. "That thing is just too gaudy for my taste. I think it would look ghastly on anyone." 

I can't hold my laughter back. I bust into a serious belly laugh, doubling over. I have to work hard to keep from rolling on the floor and crying. Savannah laughs too, alleviating most of the tension is worked so hard to cause. "Man, I was hoping to mess with you guys more. Savannah, you had to go and blow it." 

She shrugs, smirking at me. "I don't see what the big deal is, aside from how horrible that dress is." 

"Haha. Thanks for that." I grin. 

"So which pronouns do you prefer?" she asks. 

I shrug. "Typically neutral, but I won't hold it against you if use one of the others instead." 

Aside from Savannah, most of the others seem confused. "Guys, haven't you figured it out yet? Viren's non-binary, so use pronouns like they of their instead of he or she." She takes the news in stride, and I have to admit; I admire her for it. 

"So, you remembered that you're non-binary, Viren," Elise asks as she pulls a large hoodie over the outfit she was uncomfortable in. 

I shrug and cross my arms over my chest. "It's not really something I had to remember, it's just a part of who I am. I mean, I didn't catch any of you looking down your pants to remember which genders you were." 

"You're right," Elise says, rubbing one of her arms. 

"I never want to think of that again," Aiden mumbles, rubbing the corners of his eyes with one hand while holding his bent glasses in the other. I smile, not so secretly happy about being able to disturb him. 

"Alright, you've had your fun, Viren." Danger waves a hand at me. "Go change into something more practical." 

"Yessir." I fake salute him and he rolls his eyes. As I change back into a loose t-shirt and cargo shorts, I listen to the exchange outside. Lana must be up next because I hear her talking to Danger. 

"Lana, don't get any ideas," he cautions. "Dresses aren't practical."

"Who says I was going to wear one?" I can hear the snootiness in her voice. 

"You have one in your pile." Danger's monotone reply nearly makes me laugh as I pull on my shoes. 

"So?" Her voice rises. "I just wanted to try it on, okay?" 

I step out of the changing room proudly carrying my dress. "Well, I doubt yours will be as pretty as mine, but you can give it your best shot." I gesture grandly to the door and wink at her. She shakes her head before entering. 

I throw my dress on an empty chair and sit down next to Danger. "You just like causing chaos, don't you?" 

I laugh and hold up just my forefinger and thumb. "Just a little." His eye slides over to me. 

"What? It was fun. You should have seen the looks on everyone's faces. You didn't seem very fazed by it." 

He shrugs. "Why should I be?" 

"I dunno." I rest my head on my hand. "Just seems like most people are." 

"Do you remember something?" He shifts to look at me. 

I shake my head. "Not really. I just have a feeling." 

"Ta-da!" Lana bursts out of the dressing room in a long blue shimmering dress that accentuates her slim figure. A matching dark blue clip pulls her long black hair to the side. I know her Asian hair, like mine, must be straight typically, but at the moment it moves with residual waves left from when she had it pulled into a bun. "What do you think?" 

"You're beautiful," Aiden says breathlessly. 

"Wow," is all I can manage. 

"Spin for me," Savannah adds, cheering when Lana turns to reveal the plunging back of the dress. 

"Savannah," Danger grumbles. "Stop encouraging them." 

"Where did you even pick that up?" Elise asks. 

"It's a secret." Lana winks and puts a finger to her lips. 

"No," Danger asserts. "We aren't here to play dress up. Will you put something useful on?" 

"Don't spoil our fun." She sticks out her tongue at him. "For all we know, we're the last people on the planet. Why shouldn't we enjoy ourselves?"

Danger's eyes roll up into his head. "Ugh. Somehow I don't find that scenario likely, so can we please prepare a little?" 

She narrows her eyes at him. "Fine." She huffs as she stomps back into the dressing room. 

Savannah turns to Danger. "You really are a stick in the mud, you know that?"

He shrugs. "You're the one who forced this stick in the mud to tag along." Savannah shoots him a glare from the corner of her eye, but doesn't say anything else. 

"So Danger, are you changing too?" I ask, bored after a moment's silence. 

He raises an eyebrow. "Why, do my clothes seem impractical?" He has on a pair of dark washed jeans, a loose faded tank top, and a long dark coat, split in the back. 

"Guess not." I narrow my eyes a little. "Well, for someone who loves practicality, you keep your hair pretty long." Sitting down, his dark ponytail trails down past his seat.

Savannah chimes in. "I know, I'm jealous of hair that long." 

He shrugs and his uneven bangs slide away from his face. "I tie it back, so it isn't really in my way." He turns to Savannah. "And if your hair was this long, it might eat you." 

He grins as she grabs her flaming red wavy hair. "No it wouldn't." 

Elise points up at her fluffy blonde hair. "Mine would." We all laugh at that, even Danger, whose shoulders move a little with the chuckle that barely emanates from his chest. 

"Okay, I'm done now." Lana emerges from the dressing room, appearing disgruntled. She has on a pair of plain blue jeans, an asymmetrical light green top, and a faded green denim jacket. To top it all off, she has on a hunter green cap sitting off to the side opposite the neat braid trailing over her left shoulder. 

Danger sighs. "That's probably as practical as your outfits get, isn't it?"

Her mouth drops open. "This is very practical." 

"And very neat," Aiden adds. "And that's coming from the guy with crooked glasses." 

She purses her lips and crosses her arms. "I can be neat and practical." 

He rolls his eyes. "Well everyone needs to grab a second outfit as well to carry with you, and remember that layers will help us be more adaptable." 

"I've got one." Elise says, gesturing to the small bundle in her arms.

"When did you get that?" Savannah and Lana ask in unison. I saw them steal her earlier when we split up to look for clothes. 

Elise grins. "It's a secret." She puts a finger to her lips like Lana had earlier. "Just kidding. I managed to sneak off while you were changing." 

"Alright, well, I and Aiden each have our own second outfits as well, so the rest of you need to get yours." Danger tries to redirect the conversation. 

I smirk. "I have mine." 

"Viren, don't you dare say that the dress," Danger starts. 

I point right at the dress. "Yup. That's my backup." His eyelids lower. 

"No fair!" Lana says, and she comes over to pull me up to my feet. "If I don't get to bring a dress, neither do you." 

Elise walks over to Aiden as we leave. "Here, let me try to fix your glasses." 

Lana and Savannah, newly clothed in a similar outfit to the one she had on before, split off. I briefly caution them against taking so long the second time. I duck behind a clothing rack when Lana throws something towards me in response. I peek back over it to stick my tongue out at her. My clothes don't take long to retrieve, though I do pick up jeans and a hoodie along with my tshirt. I choose from the men's section again, because loose male clothes usually read as androgynous more easily than female clothes. I'm also mildly afraid to go anywhere near the women's clothing section while Lana and Savannah are in there. Although, I do snicker to myself when I think of the stunt I pulled with the dress. 

I return to the dressing rooms where we left Elise, Aiden, and Danger. Aiden turns to me. "Hey, look! Elise fixed my glasses." 

"Here, let me see." I quickly slip the glasses off his face and put them on. The whole world is blurry, and I can't focus in even on the sign for the dressing rooms a few feet away. "Wow, you're blind." I take off the glasses and hold them out. 

His squinted eyes narrow further. "I know." He swipes the glasses back out of my hand, a little clumsy due to his lack of depth perception. He shoves the glasses back on his face. "Don't you know better than to steal glasses from the visually impaired?" I shrug. 

Savannah, just returned, adds to the conversation. "How'd you manage to fix them, Elise? They were in pretty bad shape."

Elise rubs the back of her neck. "I just bent them back into shape." 

"Wow, you must be strong," Lana remarks. "That frame doesn't look thin." Elise smiles uncomfortably. 

Danger crosses his arms over his chest. "I lifted an entire beam off of you, Lana." She shrugs and he shakes his head. 

Savannah stretches her arms high over her head and yawns wide. When she closes her mouth she looks around and sees all of us looking back at her. "Sorry it isn't the company. I think it must be from running earlier, but I'm bushed. Aren't you?" 

Danger looks towards a window letting in light from an outside street lamp. "No natural light outside; it probably is nighttime." 

I shrug. "I still have energy. What else do we need to do?" 

"Somehow I doubt that you ever run out of energy," Lana says. 

I stick my tongue out at her. "Jealous?" 

"Enough, you two," Savannah interrupts, yawning again. "We need to decide what we're doing. If we're sleeping, can we please go do that?"

Danger picks up one of the six backpacks. "We can't do much if we don't rest at some point. Grab a bag everyone, and we'll go find somewhere to sleep." 


I sling my bag up onto my shoulder quickly. "If we manage to find beds, I'm jumping on all of them before I let you guys sleep!"

- Hi, there everybody! I'm sorry this snippet is a day late. I got sick over the weekend, and I'm actually still getting over this bug. I lost a lot of writing time when I was sick, so I needed an extra day to wrap it up. I hope you enjoyed this week's installment from Viren's perspective. Piece By Piece will continue next week, hopefully back on schedule!