Sense Pleasure [Arlo x John]

Chapter 1

Warning: This book is EXTREMELY explicit.
And intentionally ooc (John, Arlo, and Elaine.)

Ever since Seraphina had been suspended, every day is a repetitive blur. A whole week goes by so fast without any form of change, other than the reasons that he's getting beaten up becoming worse, or the ways he's getting beaten up, or the different people beating him up... He doesn't care to remember them. Only differentiating them by their hair or accessories. Blue hair. Green hair. Red glasses. Nose piercing. They never mention their name, and John never cared to learn it.

Go to school. Get beat up. Spend the time in the infirmary. Go home. Rest.

Rise and repeat. Nothing new. Nothing to look forward to.

It's simple to get angry at this, so painfully easy to just play the victim and become the abuser. He's done that once and feels the temptation to do it again, but he knows that it's a dangerous line he's walking on. It would lead to nothing. Only an impending cycle of violence that he wouldn't be able to escape... but why does he have to endure all this? This cowardly, painful life that he has to just pretend that all this bullying isn't getting to him? This is fucking ridiculous, it's so very vile. His past self would mock him for becoming so weak, pretending to be exactly what he despised in the first place. What he wanted to escape being.

A cripple. Cripples were useless and unwanted, abominations in this society.

He doesn't know why he keeps subjecting all this torture to himself. It's simple to escape, just show them his ability and he would be free from this mess... he could be high-tiers with Seraphina and have a calm high school life.

But he's not stupid. He knows, using even just a bit of his ability would lead to his downfall. He would bask in the glory of hurting others and without knowing, his abuse would escalate until it would result in murders. He can't control himself and he knows it well. He would he inconsolable, like a... a monster. As much as he hated hearing her say it, he finally understood her point, no matter how painful it was.

Then again, isn't all these ruthless bullies... the bigger monster? Compared to them, he's only a fraction of how vile they can be.

They don't deserve to live. They don't deserve their limbs. I should break them and ruin their life. I should cripple them so they know how I'd feel. He can't control his thoughts, the build-up of years of torture and the thought of the impending doom of more pain... all he wants is revenge. It's the only thought that forms in his mind.

Just when John thinks that he can't control himself anymore, Arlo suddenly appears in the picture by complete chance. He had unintentionally rescued John when he was forced by Remi to help a low-tier, despite how much he tried to persuade her not to. John had piqued his interest. Normally, low-tiers would have been more than grateful to accept her help, but John? He had shoved all of Remi's concern away as he stumbled off, presumably to the infirmary. John had caught his attention, despite being all bloodied and injured. He could tell that there was something special about him.

Arlo then treated John with equal status, curious enough to try and get to know the boy a bit more. The blond didn't know it, but he had become the ray of sunshine that John so desperately needed. Every interaction with him was all accidents, him bumping into the King multiple times, crashing into the blond and spilling all of his papers, awkwardly encountering him on the rooftop when he arrived to eat his lunch.

But he's never mad to see John, just amused. Always smiling. Almost like he's happy to see the boy, and that thought makes him hope it was the case. As pathetic as that sounds.

Maybe he's just like Seraphina, not a bad person but was just shaped by society to act this way. He thought when he watches Arlo's moving figure approaching him in the halls. He had the split-second thought to greet him, but when he noticed the blond talking with Holden, he suddenly felt inferior. It was a weird feeling, he never acted so timid, but now, the only thought he could think of was to stay low and out of trouble.