I Didn't Do It, I Swear!! (Rue)

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Jackson was steaming by the time he reached Rue's apartment. He'd skipped stopping by his aunt's house(he still was hesitant to call it home) for a couple of reasons. One was because he was avoiding the girl next door, Bunny, who up until a couple weeks ago was his girlfriend. After a lot of personal debating, Jackson had finally decided to come clean and be honest with her about...himself. The look on her face was still heartbreaking....it really wasn't that he didn't care for her. But he couldn't make her happy if he was only interested in her when she was a boy. That wasn't fair to her, he decided. Especially since he'd been cheating on her since day one of their school-level 'relationship'.

The other reason was because of the notice he just got from the teachers, both his professors and his trainer.

He wasn't graduating.

Fuck it all....

After all the work he'd done in trying to stay on top of his academics, it hadn't been enough! Apparently, his grades had dropped to where he hadn't passed at least two of his classes last semester. His power was already shit, so he had already expected to have to make trips in for training, but....that he wasn't graduating high school either...?

He really had fallen hard, hadn't he? Since summer it'd just been getting worse and worse, and this was the ultimate penalty, even more than the stupid community service he still had about a hundred hours left of.

Basically, Jackson didn't want to go 'home', not until he at least calmed down enough that he could fake his way through being okay. Or at least, only a little bummed out instead of feeling like the whole world had cheated him! Since he'd promised Rue that he'd be more honest with the older man, and that he'd go to him when he was upset rather than going out and doing something stupid, that's exactly where he went, texting the older man as soon as school let out that he was on his way.

Jackson stormed right past Rue as soon as he opened the door and into the modest apartment, barely taking the time to kick off his shoes before jumping onto the couch and curling up into the cushions with a frustrated growl. "I hate thiisss~" he cried, his voice muffled by the plush he'd pressed his face into.

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Even though Jackson was more apt to expressing negative emotions and not always as pleasant to be around as he had been before his admission, Rue was glad that the younger boy was no longer hiding how he really felt and stopped taking his emotions out in harmful ways. The aura reader could handle a lot, and fortunately, since he was nearing graduation, soon he wouldn’t have to spend so much time on schoolwork and could focus more on his career in helping people. In a way, Jackson was almost like an internship – giving Rue experience with what worked and what didn’t with the young, grieving, impulsive boy.

Fortunately, he was at home when he got the text, so he just responded with a short accepting text and waited for the boy to arrive. Rue wasn’t sure what sort of mood he might be in – the text didn’t give much of an indication of that – but he was prepared for the worst, just in case.

And it was a good thing that he had. No sooner had he opened his door that Jackson stormed inside, leaving the aura reader looking after him with a frown of concern and a greeting stuck in his throat. Obviously something had happened, but Rue wasn’t sure he should ask about it until Jackson was a little more stable. Quietly, he shut the door and went to the kitchen, setting some water to boil and getting out a box of some of his favorite scones from the cupboards. Pretty soon, he was sitting on the edge of the couch beside the boy, a mug and a plate with a pastry in hand. “Would you like to talk or eat first?” he asked quietly, putting both on the coffee table. Rue rested a large, gentle hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “Or, neither is fine too,” he added after a moment.

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Rue was finding out quickly, no doubt, that the innocent boy he thought he was nurturing over the past year or so was in reality such a….a rotten person…. Though Rue would probably still say he wasn’t and make excuses for him…why was he so kind? It just made Jackson feel worse sometimes. Better and worse all at once. He liked that he could get these things off his chest now, and not keep them bottled up, but he hated that he was showing the worst of himself to the one person he didn’t want to disappoint the most. There was no winning in this case, was there…?

Before he went on whatever rant that was stuck in his throat, Jackson was at least going to try to calm down so Rue didn’t get the brunt of it all….if that was possible. He stayed curled over on the couch for a few minutes before he flopped onto his side, facing out with his knees loosely curled up in a semi-fetal position. He refused to cry….but damn if he didn’t feel like it. No, he felt more like raging for a while. That’ll make him feel better…maybe…

Or maybe he was just feeling the effects of going too long without eating? It was a little cold on his neck, now that he thought about it, and his fingers were jittering slightly. Jackson just didn’t feel like doing anything about it yet. Luckily, Rue had the right idea, whether he knew it or not. “…..I should probably eat…” he said despondently. Jackson stared at the scone and mug sitting on the coffee table. Too far. He reached out with his power and floated the scone closer until he could take it lazily in his hand. Jackson nibbled on it slowly. “….see? My power works just fine, the jerks…” he grumbled, hinting only vaguely the thing that was upsetting him.

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Rue wouldn’t call Jackson a rotten person. He wouldn’t still be seeing him if he thought as much. He thought that Jackson had just had too much pressure and negativity pushed onto him from a young age – the abandonment of his mother, plus the jailing of his father, among many other things – that he just didn’t know what to do with himself or how he was supposed to please everyone without being absolutely miserable. He tried to convey this to Jackson as much as he could, but he knew he couldn’t comfort all of the boy’s worries in an instant, and would just keep trying until he got somewhere. Rue was confident that he would eventually.

He hoped the time he gave Jackson to lay down for a few minutes and hopefully take some deep breaths would be beneficial to whatever conversation they would end up having. He still prepared himself for the worse, but hoped that it wasn’t as bad as he was afraid of.

“You should,” he agreed quietly. Rue noticed the shaking in the boy’s fingers and rubbed his hand against Jackson’s back, unsure if it was from emotions or his blood sugar levels. “Have you been taking your medicine on time?” he murmured. Rue knew it was easy to stop taking care of oneself when you were upset, and Jackson couldn’t risk that with his condition. He watched as the boy seemed to use his ability to bring the scone over to him, and smiled faintly to himself. “That was really good control,” he agreed, his hand still resting on Jackson’s back. He didn’t notice the hint to what the younger boy was saying, but rather than address it quite yet, he added,”You should drink some of the tea too. It’s chamomile, so it’s very calming.” Rue rested back against the couch and gazed down at the boy. “Would you like to tell me about your day?” Maybe that would encourage him to talk about other things that had happened over the course of the last several hours, and not just the bad.