Modern Empathy ~ a Patrick Stump Fanfiction

Trance State

February 29, 2012 ~ Wednesday ~ Leap Day!

Sitting at my table in the café before school, I wrote on my school iPad:

I'm too tired to walk,
To talk,
To write,
Or to cry.
I'm awake enough to eat,
To sleep,
To run,
To absorb the sun.
I am in a state of trance.
I want to fall asleep.
I want to wake up.
I feel a sense of tender.
When I feel for someone,
I feel hard.
Right before leap day, I cried myself to sleep,
In hopes I could fix it by having a good weep.
There's nothing I can do,
But I hope he'll pull through,
Coming out stronger from hurt
And losing his shirt.
Baby boomers might not get my situation,
Since we grew in a different generation.
The problem is, he sounds like he's loathing himself,
And the worst part is that I can't be there to help.

"That was really moving." said Stella, sitting with me. "Very good job expressing yourself feeling it for someone."

"Thank you." I said.

"Of course. Now, I do have some questions, since the person you're talking about seems really familiar to me."

I pulled up Patrick Stump's blog on there. "Here it is."

Stella just pulled it up on her own phone and took a good look. "I remember meeting him. That's so sad what's happening. I can't believe he's hit rock bottom now. Damn those snooty brats who snuck into his shows just to belittle him."

"Yeah! He's the best." I said sadly. "He's good at everything, and he's so sweet because he saved you when you ran away."

"I remember that."

"I'm sure sobbing the heck out of it in his arms at the police station was fun, wasn't it?" I joked.

"Worth it, that's for sure. Let's get up to class."

As we walked up the stairs, I asked, "How'd you find him?"

"I found his address and he was awake, only to find me outside in the cold. He asked me what was going on and I told him that what was going on at my home was not for me. I'm glad he knew I was being serious."

"I remember you talking to me about that. It's crazy how spontaneous the events were."

Last year, Stella lost her grandmother, which was very hard on the family. Her parents were separated a long while ago, so her father and mother at both homes were struggling to take care of a 15-year-old, a 14-year-old, a 13-year-old, 12-year-old and a 9-year-old. Stella felt pressured to do it all for her mother, and one day she couldn't take it, and ran away. She headed to the police station with the assistance of Patrick Stump. Stella still has a picture of him hugging her while she is crying in his shoulder.

"Yeah, for sure. And speaking of that poem, I want to say that you should definitely read it for your next workshop performance." We were walking up the stairs to the second floor.

"Absolutely! Empathy is real!"

"I agree. Some people just don't get the struggles of modern empathy. Like, what if you didn't write this poem or have any emotional outlets to it? Your empathy can actually make you physically sick."

"I never thought of it that way. I can say that it's because emotions are contagious."

"Exactly! That's a great point."

"Well, I'm going to go to English, but I'll see you in art class!"

"See you! Have a good first period!"