Mia's Pov
Josh has been acting weird ever since he healed Leah. It's been a month since she got stabbed and the entire time, every time I talk to Josh he is either being super weird and trying to get out of the conversation or he just straight up avoids me. It's making me suspicious of him. I think he might be trying to hide something from me.
I had been asking people if Josh seemed weird to them and everybody said that they didn't know him well enough, he just seemed different than when they met him. So I guess that them saying he does seem weird but only a little. It was frustrating.
I was walking down the hallway trying to think of ways to talk to Josh when I quite literally walked into a wall.
"Damnit. Stupid wall," I said. I heard laughter coming from my right.
I turned and saw Jack, one of my least favorite people. He was annoying and always sticking his nose in other people's business and constantly asking questions about stupid things.
"What do you want," I said, glaring at him.
"Nothing," Jack said, raising his hands in surrender. "Just was here, when you walked into a wall."
"Go away," I said, glaring with increasing hostility.
"Why? Got to do something right here, in this specific spot. Otherwise, you could just keep walking." He said snarkily.
"You know, you are such an ass. I don't know what Lauren ever saw in you" I said starting to walk away.
I seemed to have hit a nerve. He glared at me.
"I have stuff to do," I said smiling slightly as I brushed past him.
"Make sure you don't walk into any more walls" He called after me. I flipped him off as I continued walking down the hallway to the medical area.
I walked into the medical room. Esme was sitting in a chair in the corner watching Leah. She still hadn't woken up.
"Hey, have you seen Josh? I wanted to talk to him." I said.
Esme looked up, "Um he left a couple of minutes after I walked in. About 15 minutes ago."
I nodded and went to leave then stopped, "Has Josh seemed off to you? You've been spending a lot of time here with him and I'm just worried about him."
"Uh no. Why?" she said looking away from me. She seemed nervous.
"Esme... is there something you aren't telling me?" I said stepping towards her.
Esme seemed to internally debate with herself before responding, "Fine. Josh didn't want me to tell you, or anyone for that matter," she took a deep breath before continuing, "When Josh was healing Leah, his powers wouldn't work. Something was stopping them from working. He injected himself with a drug to boost his powers, Kick, to heal her."
"What!" I said. "Why would he do that? I got it to save Leah but there had to be another way."
"I know, but there wasn't another way that we could see at that moment. He did it to help Leah," she said.
"That explains why he was acting weird a month ago. Not why he's still acting weird now." I said crossing my arms. Something still wasn't right.
Esme sighed, "I don't know Mia. He could just be being weird because he's keeping a secret."
"No, I've known him almost my whole life and this is not how he keeps secrets. Something else is going on." I said trying to think. Then it dawned on me, he never stopped taking the drug. After that first dose, he never stopped.
"Did he ever mention that that was the only time he took the drug?" I asked.
Esme seemed to consider what I said, "He said he stopped but he was being weird and aggressive when he did."
"He never stopped," I said, my heart sinking. I glared at the floor. "He's not dumb enough to say he took Kick more than once."
Esme looked at me with sad eyes, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. He asked me-"
I cut her off, "I know, I get it. It's not your fault." I sighed. "I have to talk to him. I think it would be best if I just waited here for him to come back and confront him here where we would be alone."
Esme nodded and got up to leave. "I really am sorry."
I nodded, "I know. It wasn't your fault. I'll fix it. Everything will be fine. Hopefully" I said. Hopefully, if I could just talk to him about it he would stop.
Josh's Pov
I had left the medical room after Esme went in there. I was still distancing myself from everyone. Especially her because I think she's suspicious that I'm still taking Kick. I mean, I am but that doesn't mean I want people to know.
I needed to go back and get another dose of Kick. I was starting to get shaky, it wouldn't be long before I would get nauseous. I hated the side effects of going too long without taking the drug. It made me feel awful.
I walked into the room and stopped. Mia was sitting in the chair in the corner of the room, holding the bottle of Kick I had been using.
"Mia..." I started.
"So, is there anything you want to tell me, Josh?" she said crossing her arms.
"I know what you're thinking and..." I said.
"What? It's not true. You're not taking Kick? Because I think we both know that's not true," she said her voice shaking slightly, if I didn't know her I probably wouldn't have even noticed. She looked disappointed in me like I let her down, which I guess I did.
I looked at my feet, "I'm sorry, but I'm doing this to help people."
"By hurting yourself? That's not a good trade-off Josh," she said standing up. She was basically yelling at this point.
"Yes, it is. I'm helping people Mia," I said matching her volume.
"No. You don't get it. You're not helping anyone. You can heal people without drugs. You don't need them," she said.
I shook my head, she just didn't get it. "Yes, I do. There was no way I would have been able to heal Leah without Kick. I have helped so many people in the past month. Do you know how many of them would have had lasting injuries? Way too many."
Mia shook her head and walked over to Leah's bedside, "It's normal for people to get hurt. I get that you want to help people, I really do, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you hurt yourself." she said.
I watched almost in slow motion as she threw the bottle of Kick on the floor.
"No" I yelled as the bottle hit the floor shattering. "What did you do?" I said my knees hitting the floor as I tried to grab the bottle before it hit the floor even though it lay shattered at my feet. My voice was shaking more than my hands were at that point.
"I took away the source of the problem. Getting drug addicts off drugs 101," she said.
"No, no, you don't understand. I need that drug." I said.
She knelt next to me and gently put her hands on my shoulder, "No, you don't. It's alright, I'm going to help you get through this," she said gently. She was trying to help me but I didn't need help. I just wanted her to leave me alone.
"No you're not," I said quietly. I stood up grabbing her arm to push her away from me. I felt my powers start to run through my hand into her arm. I didn't know why they were but I didn't stop them. The green light of my powers glowed where my hand gripped her arm.
Mia winced and looked like she was going to pass out. She looked at me horrified, "Josh, stop it. You're hurting me."
I didn't stop. I kept letting my powers run through my hand until Mia collapsed on the ground. I let go of her arm in shock.
I knelt next to her quickly, my heart pounding, "Oh my god. What did I do?" I whispered.
I needed to get out of there. I quickly got up and walked over to the medicine cabinet. We kept one bottle of every kind of medicine in a glass box, only to use in emergencies. I hit the glass surrounding the extra bottles of medicine, shattering it. I grabbed the bottle of Kick and a syringe and left my best friend lying on the ground behind me. I didn't even know if she was okay.
I took a deep breath and went to my room to grab my stuff to leave.
Andy's Pov
"Where's Mia, I thought she wanted to talk to us about something?" I said. I was sitting on my bed talking to Lauren who was laying on the floor.
"Don't know. Last I talked to her she was going to check on Josh but that was a while ago," Lauren said sitting up.
"We should probably see if we could find her," I said.
Lauren sighed, "Probably." She got up from the floor, "Let's go check the medical room. That's where Josh generally hands out so if she was looking for him she probably would be there."
We got to the medical room and the only person that I saw was Leah still unconscious on the bed.
"Mia?" I said. "I don't think she's here."
"Wait," Lauren said, grabbing my wrist as I tried to walk away. She took a couple of steps inside the room before running to the corner of the room, "Oh my god," she said.
"What," I said then I saw Mia lying in the corner. I ran over.
"Mia, what happened?" Lauren asked, helping her into a sitting position. Her nose was bleeding black blood.
"Josh, he-" Mia started before she started coughing. She put her hand over her mouth and when she pulled it away more blood was on her hand.
"Oh my god, Mia..." I said.
Mia took a deep breath, "Josh, he's taking Kick. I don't know for how long but I think it affected his powers somehow, making him able to take away health instead of just giving it," she said.
"Okay, what do you need?" Lauren said gently holding Mia's arm to keep her steady.
"I'm fine. I'll be fine," Mia said, pausing to cough up more blood, "You can't let him leave. If he gets out he'll be able to get more drugs and we might never find him."
I nodded, "Ok, we won't let him get out. I promise," I said.
"We'll tell someone to come and find you," Lauren said as I pulled her up.
Mia called after us as we left, "Don't let him touch you. He needs physical contact to use his powers."
