Ezra saw her wincing in pain and reached under the counter for a couple pills. He slid the bottle between them and let her do what she wished. The medicine wasn't something you'd find in a store and they weren't given by doctors. It was a little illegal, but it was all they had and his mother swore by the stuff. He repeated her question in his head before responding.

"What makes food Kosher...hmm...well I could rattle off a bunch of information. When it comes to meat it must come from an animal that chews its cud and has split hooves such as cows, sheep, and goats. For birds they have to be domesticated creatures such as chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, cornish hens. That kind of stuff. They also must be killed with precision and examined by a skill shochet, which is a person trained in kosher slaughtering. The meat also has to be soaked and removed of all traces of blood before it can be cooked and anything used to slaughter the animals must also be kosher," Ezra paused a moment and went to the kitchen to pull out some meat for their sandwiches and vegetables. When he came back he continued, "for dariy all our items have to come from a kosher animal. They must be free of any meat derivatives. They have to be produced, processed and packaged on kosher equipment. The foods that aren't meat or dairy are considered pareve, which includes eggs, fish, fruit, vegetables, grains, pasta, coffee, candies, and other snacks. Pareve items however lose their status if they're processed on meat or dairy equipment. The chocolate we use and cookies we bake all have to be certified pareve. We also have to make sure our fruits, vegetables, and grains don't have any small insects or larvae because those aren't kosher. Our eggs must looked at for any blood spots or else we can't eat them."

He looked over and saw the cap off the pill bottle and smiled a bit. She trusted him still. "I hope that wasn't too much information. You usually learn all this stuff while you're a child so by the time you're our age it's drilled in your mind and you can repeat it like a machine," he finished their sandwiches and passed one over to her.

He could see she was struggling and it made him a little irritated that she wasn't telling him exactly what happened. He knew something was wrong, but he didn't think she'd hide it. He was basically flashing his body to her, at least from the waist up, and she could see his markings. Why was she struggling to let him know what was wrong. He began to think he'd been too harsh when he told her to stop crying. She had every right to cry over what happened. Everything he predicted was coming true. Maybe she was struggling to realize the truth again.

"I know they hurt you. You don't have to act tough. I'm not going to shoo you away. You need comfort and you need to know I'm here for you the same way you were for me. I know I've been hot and cold, but I'll stop. I know you don't need that and after today...well people already seem to know. So there's really no point in pretending that I don't want to kiss you," Ezra said taking a bite of his food.