Stoic (unOrdinary oc insert)

Part 28-- Rambling

Tessa

The next day, I wake up and think to myself, Y'know what?

I don't feel like going to school today.

I know I've done this before, but the past couple weeks have been weird as hell and I need sometime to process...mostly about my approach to John to make sure he doesn't snap, or at least not have him snap because of me.

What if I hired Seraphina? Could I pay her to coax answers I need out of John? 

No, she'd kill me and that might not be an exaggeration. 

Could I set up an interrogation? A lie detector test? Hold him hostage somewhere?

I do realize that this whole thing could be solved by just going into John's head, but I don't know the extent of John's abilities. The last time I went into his head with his ability activated I assumed that he could feel me in his mind though he couldn't take control of my ability. 

Do I just talk to him? I have been watching a lot of true crime stuff lately and I bet I could formulate a good interrogation. 

What does John want? That's a good place to start. He wants anarchy. That's what it is, right? John wants to dismantle authority. 

As I proceed to make myself cream of wheat and turn my phone off, I unwittingly remember a moment when I brushed past John in the crowded hall and he felt like a tornado. Even without activating my ability, I could feel his chaos. His thoughts are deafening and his emotions are uncontrolled. His anger knows no bounds. When I was actually in his head, I didn't have time to explore John's psyche (it's not like I could have subtly done it anyway), but I couldn't hear myself over John's rambling thoughts. They were just too much. 

From what I gathered in those moments in John's head, Isen's shown me, and what I already know about John, somewhere between the rampage at New Bostin (caused mostly by John's anger towards the people who tormented him) and him transferring to Wellston, something made John snap. 

"Okay, clearly the easy answer to this is to get him a therapist," I tell myself and lean on the counter while waiting for the milk to heat up. "How do I bring that up in conversation?"

"I could play the telepath 'I can tell there's something wrong' card..."

I stir the mix into the milk. I got this chocolate kind with crispy things from the international market on the other side of town.

"Do I text him or call him or talk to him in person? Of course, if I say one thing wrong in person, I risk myself getting hurt...would it be worth it? I think that depends on what my motives are. The John I know now and the John I used to know are basically the same, I mean, at his core, nothing has changed," I ramble. "I assume I'll have to make a script. If I go with talking to him, right? And I need to get him alone. Would the main part of that be getting Seraphina alone or worrying about John? If I have him on the phone, I doubt he'll pay attention to anything else going on around him. Okay, in-person interactions are off the table."

Rambling to myself helps a lot.

"Texting would make it harder to predict his responses if I can't read his body language, but he could read mine if we FaceTime. Calling would allow me to hear changes in the tones of his voice, which is a plus, but I'd have to be sure to be extra articulate. FaceTiming would also make it easy for John to see if I'm reading from a script..."

This goes on for some time as I eat cream of wheat and write up the basics bones of what I think the conversation with John will entail, including a few parts where I mess up and John snaps at me. 

"Okay," I tell myself in the mirror. "I text John late in the evening, around 7 or 8, and ask him if everything's okay. If he says yes, I ask him if I can talk to him about something and if he says no then I ask to call him because I'm doing something. We start off with small talk and then one of us does the 'cut the crap, tell me what's up' and hopefully that will be me, but if it's not, I ad-lib it until I can steer the conversation to where I want it to go. I ask vague and ambiguous questions to keep control of the conversation, and see if I can make it into an interrogation. If John makes me sympathize with him, then I jokingly say that he might need to talk to a professional and then it will go downhill from there until we yell at each other or I give him the number of a cheap therapist I found."

I can execute the plan on Thursday night so that it doesn't arise suspicion when we inevitably stay up past midnight.

.......

I'M BACK BABY

seriously, thank you so much for all the support, I promise more parts will be released but we are nearing the end here

i love you lads <3