Empathy [Josh Dun - Twenty One Pilots]

Prologue

"Watch out, loser!"

Josh didn't even look up and picked up his books from the ground before continuing towards his locker. Ethan's voice, behind him, was still shouting insults at him. He should have been used to that, because the constant bullying had been going on for more than a year, now. But the boy still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that Ethan wasn't his best friend anymore.

He sighed, forcing the locker open before dropping some of the books he wouldn't need for the day. The bell rang, for the second time already, and Josh looked down at his phone. It was the first day of his senior year, and he would already be late. Maybe it would have been different if he hadn't taken half an hour to actually force himself to enter the building. But then again, everything would have been different if he wasn't the way he was today. Everything.

He shut the locker and started pacing towards his first class, trying to muffle the sound of the numerous voices in his head, trying to ignore his surroundings, trying to listen to only his own thoughts. But failing miserably, as always. A pain on his left side forced him to come back to some reality.

"I'm sorry!"

Josh looked up at the boy who had tried to enter the classroom at the same time. He wasn't used to apologies directed towards him. His throat was dry. And even if he wanted to answer, he didn't know what to say anyway.

"Are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

Josh's eyes met the boy's, and instantly, a painful wave of sadness rushed through him. A sadness like no other, a sadness he never thought could exist in such a small frame. A sadness that seemed to carefully and constantly rip pieces of his heart off. Josh was almost suffocating, as the boy was still looking into his eyes.

He was tall and slim, with brown hair and eyes so dark they were almost black. His lips were bright and still moving, but Josh couldn't hear anything anymore. It was like a scene in those sappy movies where the guy meets the girl and they feel the electricity between them when they touch for the first time. Except that in this case, the electricity was painful and Josh would have given anything to get rid of it. As he was still having trouble breathing and overcoming the thunderstorm of sadness that was taking over his body, the boy held out a friendly hand towards Josh's shoulder.

"Boys, if you don't enter that classroom now, you better head to detention right away."

Finally, the boy looked away to the teacher, and relief washed over Josh as he finally entered. Without a word, his cheeks turning red from the teacher's gaze, he shuffled behind him and took a seat.

Josh spent the entire period watching that boy's back. He thought he had never seen him before, but something in him seemed oddly familiar. Maybe he used to go to another school? He might have seen him in town or something. Or maybe it was just an impression, because he was pretty sure he would have remembered a face like this. The face of sorrow.

It had been a long time since Josh had been surprised by the emotions coming out of a boy his age. He still remembered the first time it happened. When he came home that afternoon, he shuffled through the top drawer of his dresser. When he finally found what he was searching for, he carefully closed the door of his room and laid down in his bed, opening his journal at the first page.

June 18th. The day after his 16th birthday. That's when it all began.

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I wanted to wait more, but I'm also so excited about this that I needed to get it out. It might be a little bit blurry so far, but I promise you'll understand as the story goes on. I'll try to alternate updates between this story and "We All Have Our Masks". I hope you like this one too.