Empathy [Josh Dun - Twenty One Pilots]

TWENTY EIGHT

Josh had not always been anxious about going to school. He used to be the life of the party, or "popular" like high schoolers liked to call it. But that had stopped a while ago, so long ago actually that Josh couldn't even remember what it felt like to wake up in the morning without a pounding heart and a chest so tight he could barely breathe. 

Standing in the hallway, right in front of his opened locker, Josh looked right and left at the incessant flow of students roaming the school's main building. Having been used to feeling invisible for the past two years, the boy had not anticipated the stares and whispers that would come along with what had happened to him over the Christmas break. He wasn't even sure how all those people knew what they knew - which was about 90% incorrect from the thoughts he had gathered - but the fact was there: Josh was now again in the spotlight, and he wasn't sure he liked it very much. 

Trying to distract himself from the constant buzzing of thoughts that didn't belong to him, Josh looked at the piece of paper tightly held in his hand, reading his own words over and over again just to make sure he wouldn't forget them. 

"What's that?" a feminine voice asked, making him jump out of his reverie. 

Instantly, the boy shoved the notebook page in the pocket of his skinny jeans. "Nothing," he answered, slamming his locker shut with a smile that wasn't very convincing.

"Are you still hiding things from me, Joshua?" the red-haired girl playfully hit his arm with a smile - very convincing this one. Josh thought she was beautiful, and mentally thanked God Debby didn't have his ability, or he'd be screwed. 

As she stood next to him waiting for an answer of some sort, Josh gave some thought to her question and felt a hint of remorse. It was true, he had hidden quite a few things from her, and although it wasn't the main factor in the failure of their relationship, it had certainly played a role in maintaining that sense of enmity between the two. And even though Tyler had greatly helped them recover some sort of friendship, Josh hadn't been able to reach out to her after the Cincinnati incident, in part because he wasn't sure how well she had taken the extent of Tyler's powers and how much she knew of the events, but mostly because he still couldn't manage to see her as anything more than a friend.

 "How are you doing?" she finally asked after a somewhat uncomfortable silence set upon them. 

The boy shrugged. He knew this was a rhetorical question, only there to break the silence he had let settle but this didn't make it any less hard to answer. Was he supposed to give an honest answer, or did Debby just expect him to nod and let out a generic reply so that they could go on with their day, unaware of each other's deep feelings?

Hopefully, Josh didn't get to the bottom of this, as his best friend chimed in, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"What's up?" the dark-haired boy asked, holding the straps of his backpack with both of his hands like a middle school kid. He had this smile on his face that wasn't totally sad yet not completely happy either, and Josh couldn't help but wonder if there would ever be something he could do to make Tyler genuinely smile someday. He was about to make up a joke, just to see if he would be able to hear his best friend's laugh when a sudden crowd movement caught their attention. 

People were suddenly walking fast towards the school's main entrance at the end of the hallway, much like a herd of does running from lions in the savanna, except they weren't fleeing. They all seemed attracted to something, or someone, that Josh and his friends couldn't see just yet. The three of them briefly stared at each other in wonder before silently agreeing and walking over the crowd that was forming in the entrance. 

"Did you really get kidnapped?"

"Were you shot?"

Questions were pouring from the crowd of curious students as they all formed a circle around Mark's tiny frame. The boy forced a smile, desperately looking around him for an excuse to get rid of all these scary faces surrounding him. Josh could have felt his fear from miles away. He wasn't sure why Mark was back in school so quickly, or if it was even a good idea. His friend had gone through so much, and he truly deserved a break. It infuriated Josh to see all those teenagers asking him questions, pretending to care about him while they hadn't even paid any attention to Mark before his abduction. Then the thought dawned upon Josh that he had done quite the same.