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The YouTube channel was new, and the video was the first on the channel. The video itself was simply called "Our version of the Trauma Candy Salad". Something Lexi wouldn't have looked at twice if it weren't for the three times she'd seen it on her for you page and the ten-minute ramble of a call from Mary, who had excitedly and crazily told her to watch it immediately.
So Lexi took a look at the video, scrolled through some of the top comments that gave her no proper context for each impossibly insane statement. And they were quite frankly horrifying if they were all true (like what the fuck did @imataco mean by 'a cuLT?!?!').
Half an hour later, with the sun setting through the crack in Lexi's curtains and pressure building thanks to having to get an early night before her first opening shift at the local supermarket, she reasoned with herself. Okay, she might have muttered that out loud, then she'd sound like a real lunatic, just watch the fucking video and then go to sleep.
The video started with a hand over the camera, a camera that had quite frankly shitty quality, but as it was set down and the décor of the place came into somewhat focus, Lexi found herself thinking that the quality matched the aesthetic. The person who'd been carrying the camera now stood in front of it, sitting down in the middle of a long couch. She was maybe only two or three years younger than Lexi, probably only just having turned eighteen or something. Her hair was dyed blue in some sections, highlighting the brown underneath; her fashion sense was awesome, and Lexi found herself almost wanting to beg this girl for her wardrobe. Blue-haired girl smirked into the camera at the sound of footsteps hurrying into the room, some muffled yelling getting louder until- "-ted without us?!" could be heard from behind the camera.
After a couple of moments of squabbling, more people entered the frame, taking seats next to the girl. To the left sat a blonde-haired girl, a similar age to the first, though- Lexi realised- they all seemed to be the same age as one another. She was holding hands with a far more confident girl to the left of her, blushing as the confident, black-haired girl squeezed her hand.
Then, to the right of the screen, next to blue-hair, sat a boy with brown curly hair, who was looking at blue-hair was a teasing smirk on his face. Then, next to him, sat a couple. They were definitely together, just like the two girls on the left, but they were more showing of it, the ginger girl giving him a peck on the lips once they were situated.
After a moment the blue-haired girl spoke, "So the six of us-" her voice was smooth and controlled, impossibly hypnotising and Lexi began to worry whether it was just her voice or whether she was developing a big lesbian crush on yet another girl who would never know her. "-decided that we would finally all do this trend, as a... lets say celebration to us all finally graduating from the hard therapy!"
Hard therapy? Like, there was fucking soft therapy?
The curly, brown-haired boy spoke up next, "So I, the one and only Michael, plan to start it off, seen as I was the first to grab a bowl from the kitchen."
He looked so proud of himself, like he hadn't just surrendered himself to go first in the chaos that is trauma-candy salad. He cleared his throat, "Hi, I'm Michael and I have a physically abusive father- and I brought the bowl!" His voice felt far too cheery for the admittance, but Lexi guessed if they were over it-
"So am I next, or Lia?" the ginger girl asked, looking down the row of people. Everyone vaguely shrugged, and she went next. "Hi, I'm Cassie, and I grew up travelling place to place with the only constant of my mother, who everyone thought died when I was twelve." Ok... Yeah, Lexi could see why people found this candy salad so insane if that was the first one this girl said. "And I brought gummy worms." She smiled, grabbing a bag from behind the camera and pouring it into the bowl.
Then it was her boyfriend's turn. "I'm Dean, and I grew up with my dad, who ended up being an infamous murderer. And I brought the chocolate coins!"
Dean didn't pause as the others had for dramatic effect, but he had that same 'I've dealt with that shit' vibe the rest had.
"Hi, I'm Celine!" Black haired girl started, grabbing her bag of sweets from behind the camera as she spoke the line, "And I spent so long drawing faces as a child that I began to recognise bone patterns, especially how my father's business partner's facial structure matched my own! I got the liquorice!"
There were groans of disgust towards the candy that Lexi was actually glad of for once (despite actually liking the sweet- sue her god damn it-) so that she could take a moment because this girl did what-
"I'm Sloane," the blonde girl began, "And my father put me in an FBI program when I was a child so that I was out of his life. And I brought the jelly beans."
Then Lia, who Cassie had named dropped earlier in the round, went, "Hi I'm Lia, and I spent half my childhood in a cult! And I brought the wine gems!"
There was no reprieve for Lexi's brain as the rounds continued. She knew she could pause it, process, then unpause, but every time she thought about it, the next person was speaking, and she couldn't help but listen to the crazy backstories these kids had. Each fact about them building such a past that Lexi was sure outshone a lot of the pasts in some fiction novels she'd read.
Michael learning to read emotions to predict his abusive father-
Cassie jumping out of a tree onto a serial killer that had been trying to hunt her in the woods-
Dean having to pretend to try to kill someone to free them from his father-
Celine coming out as gay to protect her brother from their horrible father from harm, even though it would only work temporarily-
Sloane's mother dead thanks to an overdose-
Lia, who lived on the streets for some time and lived in a bathroom at the met-
Airheads- Sour Patch Kids- Toxic Wastes- Reese's pieces- Nerds- More jelly beans-
Around and around like this was all fun- like what they were saying wasn't truly horrifying-
Michael accusing his father of sleeping with his business partner's daughter, who ended up actually being his sister- (Were Michael and Celine siblings?)
Cassie being taught profiling by a woman who she didn't know was her aunt, and who later tried to kill her- (Sloane and now Cassie- were they all involved in police/FBI shit?)
Dean hoping his father had killed his mother because it would have meant that she didn't leave him- (Gods- who dumped the entirety of history's trauma on these kids-).
Celine running away and faking her own kidnapping- (Really, more police shit? Lexi guessed that each of these kids had rap sheets a mile long).
Sloane's half-brother, whom she'd only just met dying because her father didn't listen to her warning about an unsub- (Again, more police shit, but whatthefuckkk-).
Lia-
"Hi, I'm Lia, and I killed a man when I was nine-" Yeah, Lexi's brain as good as whited out there. She could only pick up on Cassie's "I was kidnapped by a cult and forced to kill my mother" and Michael's "If Sloane's brother hadn't died, I would have."
There was no high to end the video on, and it took Lexi a moment to notice the silence that rang out in her bedroom, signalling the finished video. She breathed- once, then again, then a third time, the breathing becoming easier. She could see their six faces on the screen, a very full bowl of candy in front of them. Each child was laughing and acting like they hadn't just spilt most of their life stories to the internet and admitted to two murders, and an attempted murder between them.
Lexi breathed again, counting the first and second and third, then pulling out her phone. She dialled Mary, beginning to rant at her in a weirdly familiar way to how Mary had ranted at Lexi less than an hour before.
Lexi didn't end up getting an early night; the reminder of the trauma those kids had been through was circling in her mind. She was exhausted when she got to her early morning shift, but she didn't care- her mind was still taken up with the joking attitudes of six traumatised kids on the internet.