Black and Blue

12 - I Guess We're Friends Now, Whatever That Means

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'll ever truly forgive him for my tía's death. If anything, it made me want to help him more, since he hadn't been in his right mind when it happened. His whole past with Jenny, and the cult, and that demon—Chernobog, I remembered it was called—basically ruined his chances of being able to trust anyone ever again. Anyone except me, I suppose.

Deadlines for different assignments and forms were hanging over my head all the time now, but that didn't stop him from visiting me almost every day. Without my permission. I'm not sure if he thought he could make up for all this by being extra friendly with me, or if it was something else. I mean, it worked. A little. When he dropped by one Sunday, anxious and sharper-looking than usual, I didn't bother saying hello. I simply let him get to whatever he wanted to say.

"Can we talk?"

I bit the inside of my cheek and looked to my textbooks sprawled out across my desk. "Does it have to be now? I was kind of going to sort through my things. And then...work. More."

Jack frowned. "You're practically killing yourself with all this. Whenever I see you, it's work, work, work—hell, the last time we saw each other for more than five minutes, you were pushing all these assignments to 3:00 in the morning!"

"And whose fault is..." I stopped myself before something hurtful was said. "Nope. Not doing that today. What did you need?" I asked with a sigh, pulling out my phone to check for any messages. Morgan had texted. Twice.

"What are you doing tomorrow? I'm having a lunch date, s.o. says it's fine if u tag along."

"They really want to meet you again!!"

Yesterday, at 11:00 PM.

"I guess help would be a good place to start," Jack said in a rushed yet tired tone. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Hold on right there, I thought I was already helping you. This whole not-telling-Cher—"

I was cut off by a stern shake of his head and a finger to his lips. Oh. I guess I can't even say its name.

"That's not it. This is a different kind of help, I..." He sighed and threw his head back as if saying to God, please, take me now. "I want to learn how to be normal. Human. Or I guess 'relearn,' if that makes sense."

"Gladly. Lesson one: showers. Hands-on activity, try it out for yourself!" Not looking up from my phone, I pointed out the door towards the bathroom. "Go on." Jack wasn't amused.

"I mean how to act normal, Sawyer. And I don't need to take a shower that bad, I'm fine."

"When was the last time you did?"

"I'm not answering that."

I raised an eyebrow and sat up, running a hand through my hair. "M-hm. So...you want to act like a person. That's it? I don't know if you need a lot of help on this one, bud—"

"Trust me, I do. I haven't had a single conversation with someone in years, not a regular, human one."

I frowned. "So I'm not human enough for you, huh?"

"It doesn't count when I've talked to one person over the course of several months. I'd say you're more of a practice run. I have a human disguise, one that covers up all the physical stuff, keeps me from getting arrested if I'm just seen going to a convenience store or something. But I don't know how to interact with other people. At all. Not without giving something away. So I figured, why not go to the most human-y human I know?" He leaned down and ruffled my hair with a knowing smile. I batted his hand away, the seed of an idea having already been planted in my head. I had to fight back a smirk as the details started rushing to me.