"I mean I don't get it. Well, I get why he's into her, she is HOT, but Don's a freakin' mutant turtle! It's not like they can go on dates or anything." Casey knocked back the end of his smuggled beer and reached for another can nearly falling off the low metal garden chair they had dragged to the roof earlier in the night.

"Yeah…" Raph answered and looked away, wishing this conversation would be over. He had said those words more than a few times himself, to Donnie even, but hearing them come from his best friend's lips seemed to hurt more. He knew they were true, they were freaks and there was really no way a human would find them attractive. He gulped down his half finished can quickly, crushed the empty container in his hand and tossed it to the growing pile.

The good humour he was in at running off to secretly drink some beer and hang together with his best friend had evaporated and he was suddenly left feeling inadequate, exposed and ashamed. He needed to leave. "Well, it's late. I should be heading back, see ya."

Casey blinked at the sudden change putting his unopened can down and getting up to stop his friend who had already crossed the rooftop and was perched on the ledge. "Woah woah! Wait! Raph! Wait!" He had to physically pull him away from the ledge. "What the fuck, Raph? I thought we were having a good time? Why are you freaking out on me?"

"I'm not! I just." Fuck this, fuck it all to hell. How was he supposed to explain something he didn't even understand himself. The sense of betrayal he had felt at those words, how important Casey was to him and how he always wanted to hang with him because he felt like an equal until those words fell from his mouth. 'Freakin' mutant turtle', they seemed to echo in his head and all he could do was run away. Run away for being stupid enough to think that Casey had overlooked that in him, that he didn't see a freak when they were together. That he was as important to Casey as Casey was to him. So stupid.

"I gotta go." He pushed past him, knocking him on his ass and jumped. He kept running as fast as he could from those words hoping to outrun them and the pain they brought.