Time Warp: Study Buddies (Sean)

The heater in the living room did its best to heat the common space of the apartment. It was only moderately successful, which was all one could expect of appliances and fixtures in student housing, even if that student housing took the form of apartments in buildings owned by NYU.

Sean wore sweaters and heavy socks to compensate. They weren’t particularly flattering to his figure, but they were warm, and New York winters were frigid. Function always triumphed over form where the telepath was concerned.

He’d had his nose buried in a book for his literature class when he felt a familiar presence moments before he heard a knock at the door. The twenty-one-year old senior marked his place in his book and set it down on the table, springing quickly to his feet and making a Beeline for the door.

Opening it, he greeted his visitor with a wide smile, so eager to see the freshman. “Josh!” The single word was spoken with affection, as he moved to the side, clearing a path for the younger boy to enter his apartment. “Come in. It isn’t as warm as it could be, but it’s far better than freezing out in the open air.” Or in the hallways which trapped the cold air, making them only marginally better.

Once the door was closed, Sean turned around, taking the moment the watch (and appreciate the view of) his boyfriend’s backside while the younger boy removed his boots. He knew that Josh could be a little self-conscious about his appearance, but the telepath truly thought that his boyfriend had no reason to be.

“I’m fine.” Sean moved his arms to rest behind his back in what the ROTC students called “parade rest position” and which the telepath simply considered comfortable for his limbs. “I was just reading for class; I’m just about caught up but I wanted to take advantage of Greg being out.”

That single sentence was intended to assure his boyfriend that they could have some time alone, without fear of interruption. Not that Greg judged them; Sean felt wholly safe and comfortable around the blond, as he was his close friend. But Greg teased, and the telepath knew that Josh wasn’t always in the mood for that.

“And how are you? Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” They had coffee and tea, both of which would warm Josh quickly. There wasn’t much in the refrigerator, not the same that Sean would have at home with his parents, but there was more than enough for him to make something as a snack.

His smile widened at Josh’s other remark. “Is that a promise?”

“No, he isn’t,” Sean confirmed, returning his boyfriend’s smile. “He’ll be out for a couple of hours.” As a fellow senior, Greg had a number of tasks ahead of him as he prepared for his future and his goals of graduate school for architecture. Additionally, Greg lacked the financial resources that were available to Sean and Josh; he worked hard for his money, which was necessary as his parents had disowned him when he had come out of the closet to them. Before his own foray into same-sex relationships, the telepath had had only admiration for Greg’s unwillingness to hide a fundamental part of who he was. After meeting Josh, Sean’s admiration for their blond friend had tripled. Now he understood, truly, what it was to have to hide that.

Unlike Greg, he couldn’t come out. It was too early.

“I don’t think I want to date a statue,” he remarked to the younger boy. “So it’s for the best that you’re inside.”

He heard the thought a moment before the verbal request, and Sean crossed to the kitchenette to put the coffee on. “I have some, and I think I’ll join you in a cup.”

So it was science that brought Josh to his doorstep. Sean considered that fair. Bafflingly, his boyfriend had (accidentally) taken an advanced class, so now his science pacing was out of sync with the rest of the freshmen. He also knew that science was a weak area for Josh in the first place. “Chemistry this time?”

The telepath didn’t remark on the compliment about his intelligence. He knew Josh was smitten, and he still thought that his boyfriend would grow out of that admiration in a few months. He didn’t encourage it, but he also didn’t discourage it, as he didn’t want Josh to think that he was insulted.

“It takes a lot of memorization,” Sean admitted, as he walked over to the kitchenette in order to put on the coffee. “But there are patterns to it. When we sit down to study, I’ll show you how to divide the Periodic Table into a grid based on elemental properties. It makes studying a lot easier once you have that.”

Josh would still have to memorize a number of properties, but in Sean’s experience, having the patterns made studying easier.

Once he had taken down the grounds and filled the pot with water, the telepath let the coffee brew. Moving around, he pulled down two mugs and set them on the counter. Sean pulled out the milk from the refrigerator, and then pulled out the sugar that he kept. The telepath knew better than to offer either to his boyfriend, but Sean had never developed a taste for the unadulterated bitterness of black coffee.

“You’ll graduate,” he assured the younger boy, turning to look over at where Josh sat by the sofa. “Freshman year isn’t supposed to be easy, because it’s a new way of doing school.” High school and college bore only a passing resemblance to each other, in terms of coursework and scheduling. One did not adequately prepare a person for the other.

As for the question, he replied, “Not at NYU.”

Sean had always excelled at science, as was expected of him. He found the subject matter manageable, even when a particular unit was challenging. The young telepath was also organized, and he kept his notes from prior classes, so he could always let Josh inherit his study guides for chemistry. They were comprehensive, although, he thought to himself, he might need to make a more basic introductory one as well, should Josh struggle with the building blocks.

While he waited for the coffee to brew, Sean leaned against the counter in the kitchenette, facing his boyfriend in the living area. “Look at it this way, you don’t have that many science requirements, so when you finish with them, you’ll never have to take another science class again.” He knew where Josh’s preferences and strengths lay (they overlapped, which was fortunate for his boyfriend). He could take history and rhetoric classes to his heart’s content when he finished with the general education requirements assigned to the freshmen and sophomores.

Hearing Josh’s thought, Sean shook his head in the negative. “It wasn’t academic classes. Do you remember what I told you about my boarding school? I used to think that I’d never pass my training classes, which meant that I couldn’t graduate.”

Sean wasn’t surprised to hear that. He knew that academic achievement was important to his boyfriend; it was equally important to him, as well, and so they were of a similar mindset there. He was sure that Josh would have an easier time with classes when his required science coursework ended. “It’ll happen soon enough.”

As it was, at the end of this semester, Sean would have graduated, and Josh would be a rising sophomore already. Time had a way of moving so quickly.

The kitchenette filled with the aroma of coffee, which caused the telepath to go check on it. Another minute or so, and they would be able to enjoy their warm beverages and begin the tutoring.

The question was complicated to answer, since there were some constants, but in other ways, it varied from person to person. Not all abilities were equally difficult to control, and even within a given ability, there were gradients – some had weaker versions of the same ability, while others were very powerful.

Although Sean wasn’t a braggart, he was very powerful.

“It can be very hard, depending on the person. Some people have an easier time than others.” The telepath shrugged a single time. “I didn’t have an easy time.”

The coffee was ready before Sean could answer the question, and he turned his attention to that task first. He filled Josh’s mug and then his own. The telepath took the time to pour in a fair amount of milk (turning his coffee a caramel color) and then two sugar cubes. He then brought both mugs over to the sofa, setting Josh’s down in front of him before he sat beside his boyfriend.

“They do happen, very suddenly and often without warning.” Manifestation rarely had prior indications, and depending on the nature of the ability, first manifestation could be dangerous or traumatic.

Sean stirred his coffee, making certain that the sugar was mixed in, before he took his first sip. That would do.

“Telepathy is overwhelming when it’s untrained,” he explained, taking another sip from his mug. “We all have a veil that hides our thoughts from everyone else. Telepathy rips that veil away, and so I heard and saw and felt and knew everything about everyone, and I couldn’t control a lick of it.”

Agonizing Confessions spent worrying about the state of his soul for the sins of others, simply because he had absorbed them through awareness. Sean had no desire to return to that untrained state, and he was grateful that he never would.

“It’s exhausting when you can’t turn it off.”