The walk was awkward, to say the least.
They took seating on park benches. It was in the shade and provided a much-needed relief, they were a godsend.
Adrion shifted around while he sat, the tension making it hard to get comfortable.
He's so different from what he was before. He wanted to talk...but he hasn't said anything since we sat down. Should I say something?
"Adrion..."
John finally spoke, snapping Adrion out of his thoughts.
"Y-Yeah?"
"How...have things been?"
"Oh, you know. They've been...happening."
"You've started working?"
Adrion looked away, staring at the ground. "Summer break rolled around, so I figured I might as well. We need all the help we can get..."
John frowned. He remembered Adrion's household not being very financially stable now that he thought about it.
The hospital bills must have taken a toll on them.
Why does he always make things worse?
"What about you?"
John was pulled back to now. "Huh?"
"I heard that you had to spend a couple months doing those re-adjustment classes or something..." Adrion looked John up and down. "Did they help?"
John looked off to the side. "Sure, let's go with that."
...Yeah, totally not foreboding... A sweatdrop trickled down Adrion's face.
John grunted, rubbing his eyes. He was wasting time, he needed to just get it out already.
"Adrion, I...I'm sorry."
John glances at him. Adrion didn't need to say anything, his face showed it all.
"I'm sorry for all the crap I put you through. I'm sorry for treating you like shit. I'm—"
He choked up.
John composed himself. "I'm sorry I was such a shitty person."
He felt a firm grip on his shoulder, Adrion's gotten stronger.
"...Thanks, John, I appreciate it. I'm just glad to see you're doing better."
John let go of a breath hitched in his throat.
Hearing those words felt so much better than he thought it would.
"So, after summer's over, where do you plan on going to school?" Adrion asked. He wasn't as nervous and seemed a bit chipper even.
John rested his chin in the palm of his hand. He didn't want to go anywhere that was close, he had run through so many turf wars with the other nearby schools that whether they wanted him or not, he definitely wouldn't want to be there.
"We were looking for somewhere that was...pretty far away from here. Dad and I figured...Wellston was a good place to try."
Adrion eyes went wide. "Woah, really? Wellston's a pretty snazzy place. That's the best school in the region, ain't it?"
John shrugged. "That's what they say, guess that's why their entrance exams were such a pain in the ass."
Adrion laughed a little.
It was nice to hear.
"We sent in my admissions form a week ago, it's gonna take a bit to get back to us."
"Well, good luck! I hope you get in!" Adrion gave him a thumbs-up.
John smiled just a little. "Thanks, Adrion. I appreciate it."
Adrion hesitated for a moment but followed through, he pulled out his phone. "Has your phone number changed? I'd like it if we could find a time to hang out...like we used to."
That stunned John, Adrion was so willing to mend their bond back to something normal.
"Y-Yeah, I got a new phone a bit ago, I'll put it in for you."
"Sure! I'll do the same for you."
The pair swapped phones and put their numbers in, then swapped back.
"You know, if you haven't yet, you should talk things out with Claire." Adrion moves his hand to reach for John's phone again. "I can give you her number if you need it."
John stiffens, pulling away slightly.
"Adrion...tell me the truth." John's expression becomes serious as he turns to face the other boy.
"John?" Adrion was confused, he didn't know what John meant.
"Claire, she knew how strong I would get, and used me in order to get to the top."
Adrion's heartbeat rose in an instant.
"When she couldn't control me, she gathered all of our classmates in order to take me down."
He grips the denim of his jeans.
"That's what you told me back then, wasn't it?"
Adrion's eyes shifted away from John's. How could I forget...Claire and I didn't see him again after what happened. He still thinks Claire...
"That's why she did everything she did, right?" John moved closer, his tone sounding as if he was pleading for it to be the case.
He needs to know the truth. Claire doesn't deserve to be misjudged like that.
"I was wrong."
John was deadly silent, for a moment.
"What do you mean you were wrong?" His tone was harsher than he meant it to be.
"Claire cared more about you than I ever did. She...What I heard her say to Zirian, wasn't true. She only said that to convince him to gather people loyal to him...
"At the hospital, she told me she had seen a vision of her and all the other students confronting you. She thought if you saw all the people you were hurting, that maybe...maybe she could get you back to how you were. But...you didn't. She was the one that had actually tried to bring you back."
Adrion clenched his fists.
"I couldn't do it. I was too scared, too scared to get beaten, too scared to lose my best friend. I didn't do anything to help and when I did it didn't matter, you were too far gone."
Adrion hears John breathe out a shaky breath. A glance shows John's breathing heavy, he's shaking like he did earlier.
"I'm sorry that you've thought of her like that for this long."
"I...No!" John stood up, anger rising in his voice. "There's no way that's why she did it! If she really had a problem with everything I did, she should've talked to me instead of going my back and getting everyone else involved!"
"She did try!" Adrion stood up, he needed John to understand. "So many times she did! But every time she tried, you ignored or pushed her away!"
Adrion stopped, he hadn't realized he was yelling back.
"It wasn't any different when I tried either." A somber tone in Adrion's voice as he said that.
"She...I..." Flashes of memories ran through John's head, just as others did so many other times.
"If I could just copy your ability, I wouldn't need to waste my time waiting on your damn visions!"
―
"John, stop! You're gonna get in trouble again!"
"So what?! Who gives a shit?!"
I shoved her away, pushing her into Adrion.
"Back off! Don't tell me what to do!"
―
"I'm King, so stop telling me what to do. It's embarrassing for people to think I'm taking orders from a Low-Tier."
"I'm just trying to help you, John. If you keep doing this, you're gonna keep getting in trouble. You're already suspended!"
I waved her off. "If they wanted me expelled, they would've done it already. Clearly, they aren't interested in getting rid of their strongest student in history.
―
"Come on, you can't bail out on me like this!"
"I've told you already, John. I don't like seeing you go overboard on those guys."
I groaned. It's always the same shit with her.
"You're being soooo overdramatic." I sigh. "But, fine. I'll try to go easy on them, now let's go." I turned away to head to the Turf War grounds.
"Really? You promise this time?"
"Yeah, yeah, I promise. Let's grab a drink before we go."
"O-Okay, sure!"
John could hear a smile in her voice. Cute.
―
"This has to stop! These people you fight at turf wars, haven't even done anything to you. You don't need to go any farther, you've already won." Adrion tried his best to plead with me.
I didn't want to hear it, so I socked him across the face.
"Shut up! You don't know shit, so just shut up! If I don't beat them down, they'll do it to me!"
I threw Adrion to the ground.
"Neither of you gets it! Of course you wouldn't! You get to hide in my shadow away from all the fights like cowards!"
"John, stop!"
Claire grabbed ahold of my left arm, trying to stop me.
"Adrion's our friend! We're on the same side!"
I slammed my elbow into her face.
"Get the hell off me! What the fuck is wrong with you two?! Why do you never have my back?!"
"Because you always go too far!" Claire yelled back, cupping her bruised cheek with her hand. "They weren't even trying to fight you at this point and you still kept going! Why can't you ever just stop when they've gone down?!"
"Because everyone hit me when I was down!"
"But you don't have to be like them!"
"Fuck off! I'll do whatever the hell I want!"
―
"WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME, CLAIRE?! DID I REALLY MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?!"
Claire smacked him away, imprinting a red hand mark on his cheek.
"TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF!
"YOU'RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR REASONS TO HURT OTHERS!
"YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE ANYMORE!
"YOU TYRANT, YOU HYPOCRITE!
"You..."
"I NEVER SHOULD HAVE HELPED YOU!"
"SHUT UP!"
"I WISH I NEVER MET YOU!"
"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
...
"Monster."
"Damn it!"
He slammed his fists into the sides of his head, John couldn't handle it.
"J-John, calm down, please!" Adrion wanted to move, but his instincts prevented him from doing so, he didn't want to get caught in the crossfire.
"What the hell was wrong with me?!"
John took aim at the bench he had sat on, slamming his foot into it.
"I always fucked everything up!"
He broke the bench in two.
He snapped his head to look at Adrion. The boy had his arms out shielding his face, he was almost kneeling.
He was scared.
"...Fuck." He muttered. He messed up again. He walked past Adrion, he needed to go back home. "I'm sorry, I'll leave."
"Wait, John!"
John halted, turning back to look at him. Adrion was...holding out some money?
"Y-Your change, you left it back at the store."
"O-Oh. U-Uh, thanks..." John slowly grabs the money and puts it in his pocket, caught off-guard by the action.
"I'm sure you're doing your best at getting better, s-so don't let this stop you, alright?"
John gives him a tired look. "I'll...try."
Adrion doesn't stop him again. He makes it home.
John barely makes it into the living room before dropping to his knees.
All that time I spent cursing her...When I was the one with my head so far up my ass I couldn't see they were just trying to help me...
"Woah, John, you alright?" William rushed over to his son's side, coming from his office after hearing the door open. "That must've been a pretty intense run..."
"I saw him today...I saw Adrion." John mumbled, loud enough for William to hear it.
"You did?" William looked John up and down. "How did it go?"
"He's forgiven me if you could believe it."
William smiles and nods. "Well, I'm glad. He's always been a kind boy, it'd be nice to see you two hanging out again."
"You were right, Dad, about Claire, Adrion told me what she was really trying to do, she didn't betray me." John could barely look him in the eye. "I betrayed them."
William softly ruffled John's unkempt, slightly damped hair. "Remember, John. Hating yourself over what happened in the past isn't going to solve anything. Learn from it, be better."
"I know, I know."
William helped pulled his son up before speaking. "Moving on from that, John. I want you to go take a shower, dry yourself up, then come see me."
John cocked an eyebrow. "Why, what's going on?"
William sighed.
"I want you to tell me what happened in those rehabilitation classes."
John did what his dad said: Shower, dry off, and go to him after. They sat adjacent to each other at the dinner table.
He wasn't particularly interested in opening up about the experience, but he wasn't going to brush off his father's help. Not anymore.
"There's not much to talk about. I was too violent, a threat to everyone around me. The classes helped "fix" me—"
"John, I've heard enough of the copy-and-paste crap from the suits I talked to. Tell me, what did they specifically do?"
Well, damn, there really was no getting out of it.
"They—" John's voice was caught in his throat, the old redhead bastard taking over his mind, the images of the man making him shake his head away as he tried so many times before in a vain attempt to escape from him.
William seemed to have some sort of idea of what John was feeling. "Whoever you're afraid of, they aren't going to lay a finger on you while I'm around, not anymore. Please, John, say what you need to."
It calmed John down, just enough to speak sentences fluidly.
"It was this older guy, Keon. He had...some kind of mental ability. He used it to dig through my memories, found the ones that affected me the most, and made me experience them...over and over again...every day."
...
"They what?!"
Horrified. Disgusted. Appalled. Angered—
No.
No emotion known to the world could accurately represent just how vexed the authorities had made William Henry Doe.
He couldn't hold himself back and pulled in his son for a tight hug.
"D-Dad?"
"That's horrible what they did to you! How is that supposed to be the solution?!" His grip tightened around his son.
"They didn't help you at all! They didn't teach you to control your power, they didn't help you understand right from wrong, they just wanted to break you down and hoped you can never recover!"
Those bastards did that to my baby boy?! To his son?!
...To their son...
As much as he wanted to be angered, he needed to stay calm, he needs to set an example for his son.
His tone softens and he pulls away to look his son in the eyes. "Is that why you're still so hesitant about your ability, even after all these months?"
John did his best to keep eye contact with his dad. He nodded slowly. "Yeah, sounds about right."
"John, no matter what kind of crap they tried to make you believe in that time you spent there, You always have control over your ability. Your ability is a part of you and always will be. To ignore that is to ignore one of the greatest gifts you've been given. Stay true to yourself, to your goal, and you'll never have to be afraid."
William knocked on his son's forehead lightly. "We're going to do our damndest to get rid of all that crap they tried to brainwash you into believing, got it?"
John couldn't help but let a small laugh escape him. "Y-Yeah got it." He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Can I go to bed? Today's been eye-opening and...very exhausting. I need time to let it all sink in."
William nodded. "Of course, take all the rest you need."
Once John retreated to his room, William opened one of the far-off cabinets, rummaging through it till he found what he needed.
It's a burner phone. He dials a number and it begins ringing. It picks up after a few seconds.
"William? That you?" The voice of an older man spoke.
"Yeah, it's me, Simon. I need your help with what we talked about."
"I thought you said—"
"Things have...changed. And I want to know for certain. So, how much?"
...
"What brought this on?"
"How. Much."
"Hm, the first time I heard you sound like that. Look, we'll discuss the details in the morning, alright? Let's do it around 10. My daughter's pulling me off for her bedtime story."
"Yeah, that's fine. I'll be calling you from a different burner though."
"Why, what's wrong with this one?"
"It's broken."
William crushed the phone in the palm of his hand and threw the remains into the trash can.
He's got a bad feeling that the authorities have messed with his family more than he thought.
Adrion took his home key and unlocked the door.
"Mom, I'm back!" He called out. There was no response, so he checked the fridge.
Sure enough, there was a note.
Hey sweetie, going to be pulling a double shift tonight.
Please get some of the dishes done and try not to stay up too late.
We still got some leftover spaghetti in the fridge you can help yourself too.
Love ya bunch!
PS: If you bring Claire over, you know what to do.
Adrion rubbed his neck, flustered by the note, but he also smiled. Mom was always looking out for him. He took out his phone and sent a quick text to her.
Love you a bunch too Mom. - Adrion
He changed into some sleep clothes: a t-shirt and sweatpants, then did work on the dishes. There weren't that many anyways, so he took care of it all.
After which, he grabbed a bowl and filled it to the brim with spaghetti, then popped it into the microwave. He ate the bowl clean. His mom always made it taste so good.
Then he got a text back from his mom.
? ﾟﾘﾭ❤️❤️❤️ - Mom
He smiled.
Looking through his other texts, he sees Claire's contact.
He pauses briefly, then presses it to dial.
John was just finishing up a reread of the first half of Unordinary before he heard his phone go off. A text notification. He sent the book aside and unlocked his phone.
Oh, it's from Adrion.
Hey John! Hoping everything's alright man. Wanna hang out Saturday after 4? We can grab some of the new boba flavors! - Adrion
Seeing that made John have a little smile. It looks like he didn't scare him off after all.
Yea, sounds godo. - John
Godo? - Adrion
John rolled his eyes.
gOoD. U no what I meant. - John
Yeah, I know. You can head over to U-Mart that day, I'll be getting off work then. Cool? - Adrion
Yeah, cool. - John
John glances at the book but decides to set it back on his desk. He'll finish it in the morning, his want for sleep was really getting to him.
It was the first night that John's dreams didn't turn into nightmares at all.