The Strange One

3 - Introspection

(Saiki's POV)

"It's a bit creepy and I'm afraid to go home," he says.

I sigh and point in the direction of my house. He looks, then turns back, tilting his head.

"Is your house that way? I can walk you home if you would like to, I-"

I shake my head. His face seems to drop into something of a fake smile.

So much for making friends.

Well, now I have to do it. I sigh. "Fine."

I catch up beside him and start walking with him. We walk in silence most of the way. He's hugging his notebook close to his chest. I don't entirely trust him with that, but nothing bad has happened since he's had it.

"Hm?" He hums and looks at me. "Are you interested in my writing? You're staring at my notebook."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to stare."

"Oh, it's fine." He gestures to the notebook. "This is just for notes, though."

He has his excuses down. If I were asking to see his notes, he would've said it's something he's writing. "Okay. My house is to the left."

"It was nice talking to y-" he looks to his right. He lives right across from me.

Good grief.

Oh no...

"Look, Saiki, I don't have the most... Respectful family, so, I'm sorry if they bother you or bug you about me. I'll see you at school." He goes inside his house.

The poor guy. I wonder what he's worried about. I can't find out now because I have other problems. For example, my mom saw us walking home. I don't know what my excuse would be, but I can't tell them Jackson's trans. I don't think he'd like that and it'd be a bit of a problem if someone like him hated me.

(Jackson's POV)

I enter quickly and run to my room. They didn't see me out there with him, but they are going to encourage me to talk to him at some point. It'll be a disaster. I stand up and start to head downstairs. The house is quite silent. I wanted to look around a bit to see if my parents are here. We have a bit of a tendency to get into fights, mostly about school and other teenage things. They yell at me for being too anxious to talk to people sometimes. But they do care about me. I mean, enough to care whether I die or not.

I'm not saying that I've tried to do it or anything, but I've had the thoughts, and even the motivation. Run away, I mean, among other things, but running is too painful. My legs are fucked up from my many attempts at making ripped jeans with a blade while still wearing them. Don't judge me, I found it on Wikihow. I'm never following their instructions again, but, I've memorized the ripped jeans method and there's no way I'm gonna stop. Gotta power through the pain, you know.

I start to gather some things for baking. My parents aren't home, so I don't have to ask. It's how I deal with stress, other than writing, playing the piano, and just watching YouTube. I enjoy being in the kitchen. The big thing I like most about it is that I get to have everything I make myself. No one cares enough to eat what I make unless they give me the job of cook that night, which never happens anymore. Okay, I may have a bit of a grudge against my family, but it's nothing too bad.

I can say for sure that they aren't the reason I'm angrily splashing cookie batter all over the counter. Actually, I'm the reason. My meeting with Hairo went very far off track. I wanted to make friends with him, but now I seem like something of a creep. But, I guess I shouldn't splash as much because I guess I did manage to talk to someone normally. Saiki and I were at least talking normally until we found out we lived near each other. Everything just went downhill from there. Just like every friendship I ever have. Perfect.

Once the cookies are done, I grab them quickly and run outside and start to climb up on the roof. I can tell there's something stirring inside of me and if I'm not outside on the roof by the time I get on the roof, it could be catastrophic. Well, I'm inflating it a bit, but I'd probably get very hurt. My foot slips a bit, but I do manage to get myself up onto the roof, but that's just the half of it. I have to get up to the very top, so my breakdown is neither visible nor audible.

As soon as I reach the very top, I curl up and bite my hand. My tears start to well up in my eyes. Instinctively, I try to hold it in. My teeth dig into my skin, making it way easier than usual. It's dark out. People should be asleep by now. My parents should be home. But they aren't. Where are they, why aren't they here? I need them. I need them so bad. I can't do this without them. It's too hard. Why, why, why, why, why, why, why! I scream into my hand, my hand muffling it enough so no one hears it.

"I can't take this!" I scream, silently."It's so hard! Why, why, why am I stuck with this! These stupid codes I can't decipher, what is this!? Who the fuck am I supposed to be!? I just can't... Not without answers, I can't."

I shove a cookie in my mouth and wipe my eyes. It's over, now. I'm fine. I stare blankly at whatever's in front of me as I slowly snack on the cookies. I guess I can say I'm a little bit happy, now, even though I shouldn't be. With the position I'm in right now, I don't have the right to. Oh, now I wanna scream again. I take a deep breath and

SAIKI'S HOUSE FUCKING EXPLODED, HOLY SHIT!

(Saiki's POV)

Oops. I had another accident, didn't I?