TechnoAnxiety

Wk 2 pt 3: No one is around

I was outside, again. In the park, walking toward the shops as I hear it.

Walking along, mindin' my own business, when I hear someone.

Crying. Striking the night silence, just a constant rhythm.

I look around, to see our 14-year old neighbor. Again.

But instead of his normal, energy radiant sunshine being, he was crying. Sobbing, in fact. His shoulders rising and falling, in time with his cries.

I pause. Looking around a bit more, i survey the situation.

I was the only one there.

Now, if I was a good person, I should comfort him. But...I don't know how to do that. I'm not sure whether he would appreciate it. What even happened?

I start pacing, and my thoughts go on overdrive.

The clear thing to do is to comfort him. But how would I do that? Do I touch him, would that be ok? Do I talk to him like my family does with me? Do I give him something else to focus on? Would he think I'm weird?

I sigh internally, walk over to him, and stand by. He doesn't notice, which makes my job much harder. That means I have to get his attention.

Which means more thinking

A particularly loud sob comes from him. And I'm panicking, but I shouldn't be allowed to panic, because there's someone else who's crying.

But I can't, and how do I help him? I want to, he's a kindred spirit, and he helped me.

I crouch down and tap his shoulder, my breathing uneven already. Social interaction is a curse, but... No one else was helping him, so I took it upon myself to help him even if I don't know how.

I take off my jacket and lay it over him.

Did i just come across as creepy?

He looks at me, his eyes red and raw from crying. I smile.

He sobs again, and puts his head back in his hands. My smile falls.

How do I do this?

I realize I can't breathe easily. I shove it down, I shouldn't be allowed to feel anxiety when they're crying-

I'm a backwards emapth. Basically, I feel others emotions but not my own. So, I could feel his crippling sadness.

And I had to help him. I couldn't be like this when others need help.

I breathe deeply, and he looks up, finally, finally-

I manage to get out a strangled "follow my lead" as I breath, trying to calm myself down, and I'm sweating because I don't know how to do this, what if I do it wrong, and I can feel tears fall down my face.

I can feel a hand on my arm and i jerk my arm back, snapping back and breathing deeply.

The neighbor stares back, unblinking.

He's not crying anymore. He looks worried, and did I make him worried, did I do this, and-

"Hey, calm down." He says, tentatively. "You're ok, you didn't do anything wrong."

I wipe my eyes, and give out a shaky laugh, my brain on autopilot from all the conversations and interactions I've seen coming in to mimic.

"Huh, I guess I'm bad at cheering people up," I joke. "but at least you're not crying."

I pause. What was I doing? "Uh, probably should've started with this. What's your name and why are you crying?"

He smiles, and pulls my jacket closer around him. Wait. My jacket? when did i give him that? "Yeah, sorry about that, my name is Adrian. Uh..I just really needed to cry, life's been going pretty badly."

I survey him, then sit down next to him. "Well, do you want to talk about it?"

I'm pretty sure that's how it goes, right?

And so I listened as Adrian vented his problems to me. I listened for a few hours, in fact. And by the end I was so drained, but it was worth it because he shined.

When he was finished, I got up and I offered him a hand, and Adrian got up, and we walked to our respective houses.

I was still lightheaded, but hey I'll deal with it.

As we got to his door, he turned around, and said "Thanks, Technoblade."And I smiled. "You're welcome."

With that, I turn and walk to the house.

Opening the door I get greeted by everyone.

"WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?!" Tommy yells. "IT'S FUCKING 11:50PM, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE SO LATE?!"

Wilbur lightly shoves Tommy, brushing past him to stand in front. "Techno, we were so worried about you, you weren't answering your texts."

I hear a "Mhmm." And I turn sheepishly to Phil. His arms are crossed, his eyes hooded. He walks from his perch on the stairs towards me, and i gulp. "Techno, were were you?" he pauses, looking me over. "We were about to go out to look for you. But it seems like we didn't need to. Your shoulder is wet, you look tired, and you arrived with the neighbor." He observes.

Phil sighs. "Were you involving yourself in others problems again?"

I smile. "Yep."

"Why?"

"Because no one else was." I sigh, flopping onto the couch.

"Oi, no wet clothing on the couch." Phil reprimands.

To late. The stress of the day caught up to me and I promptly fell asleep, the last thing I hear is;

"Did he even get the shopping?"

(Aight, second to last part tomorrow! Also, the next one is from my own brain, not a prompt.)