taletober

oct 11

DAY 11: "Too bad you didn't listen to me last week." (daily-prompts)
...

"I knew this would happen." I whined, pacing my room.

"Too bad you didn't listen to me last week. I told you not to tell anyone that you could read minds! Why did you have to make your life at school harder than it is?" Jasper whisper-screamed, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation.

"Ok-kay, yeah, but how-how-how-how could I not? It's-is-s so freak-freaking-freaking cool!" I exclaimed.

"Whatever," Jasper sighed, "It's your mess to clean up anyways. No way am I helping you this time." He crossed his arms.

I made my saddest puppy-dog eyes. "Jas-j-jasp-jas-per, please. I-I ne-need you."

"Don't even try, Jake," he warned. "I'm serious. You fucked up, and it's your turn to take responsibility for your actions. I'm going to be 2,000 miles away for college next year and it'll be up to you to manage yourself."

"But-"

"No buts," He glared at me as I giggled at his word choice. "You can figure this out." He slammed my door behind him and I flopped onto my bed, reality sinking in.

My older brother Jasper had been my only friend for as long as I could remember. To everyone else at school, I was The Invisible Dweeb™. My scrawny frame and awkward posture did little to help my reputation as the only student at Redwood High School not involved in a school club or activity, but my stutter was what really drove people away. 

My speech impediment had always thrown me off. It was hard enough to talk to people before even considering the fact that I couldn't get the words out of my god damned mouth anyways. My stutter initiated a never-ending ball of nerves inside of me that my therapist liked to label as "anxiety". The combination of my crippling speech impediment and mental health issues made me quite the lacking candidate for a friend, hence why I hadn't spoken to anyone other than my family for years.

I had gotten myself caught up in lies before, but I really had no idea why I'd told some senior in my advanced math class that I could read minds. Like I wasn't weird enough.

I turned my head to gaze at a picture of Jasper and I propped up on my desk. I sighed. He was right. He was always right. I needed to start facing my problems on my own.

I wanted to change.