Private Finished How Bad Can I Be?

After that whole controversy in the M3C, Sprinkles knew he would need to speak to Sweetpea. Clearly, they had misunderstood what the interview was about and why he had done it. Sweetpea had good intentions, Sprinkles could see that. All they needed to do was talk it out and find a solution that made them both happy. Sprinkles already had that solution, now it was about getting Sweetpea to accept it.

He knocked on the entrance to their dorm, holding a container of cooked fish for them to share while they talked. Hopefully, this sign of kindness would make Sweetpea more open to a polite conversation. A long, polite conversation.

The door was not shut in his face when Sweeptea saw who it was. A good sign, Sprinkles thought.

"I thought we should talk about the other day. I brought some fish for us too. Mind if I come in?"

Sprinkles strolled into Sweetpea's place casually, as if he owned the place. He set the container on the table in front of the futon, got some forks and napkins from the kitchen, then laid himself out on the futon

"I snacked earlier, so you can have more of the fish," he said lazily. "Anyways, I came here to apologize to you about yesterday. I didn't expect things to blow up as much as it did. I was hoping we could make up? Talk things out?"

He could sense Sweetpea's patience running out. Time to make this quick.

"I know you said it's not about who's getting interviewed, but I know the journalist is interested in us. She's a cat-person too."

He pulled out a note from the pocket of his shorts and sat it on the table. "Here's her phone number and email. Hit her up if you want. I ended up being vague because I didn't ask for permission about everyone else's stories. Didn't want to release personal information I didn't have the right to. Sounds better if we put our own stories out there ourselves."

Sprinkles could see Sweetpea second-guessing themself. He was proud of himself for getting Sweetpea to genuinely consider his words. It was all a big misunderstanding resulting from their volatile emotions. Now, Sprinkles just had to make sure this problem wouldn't happen again.

"You don't need to thank me. I felt bad and thought I could help you out. I'm part of the Mass Media Club at the school and was thinking, you're clearly very passionate about people understanding what we went through, and I've made a lot of connections already. With the students paying more attention to the news now that the student council elections are coming up, this would be a great time to get your message out there."

Sprinkles knew he was right, but it was nice hearing it. While nibbling on a piece of fish, he thought to himself proudly, See? Everything works out when everyone talks and listens.

"I'll be honest, I don't know how involved I'll be," he admitted. "I do want to help you, however. I could talk to my club members and write something up for the school's newspaper. If what's being told is considered too graphic, there's always the journalist I spoke to. There are a lot of options I can think of."

"It sucks," he agreed. "It's why I toned down my own story. I didn't want people to become grossed out, then ignore other stories about NEK0s."

Sprinkles imagined giving up all that information would bring the chance of people finding the NEK0s' backstories too gruesome to look into. That, or being told he's only looking for pity. There was a lot to think about when it came to telling complete strangers who you are.

Nevertheless, he gave Sweetpea an encouraging smile. Sprinkles had little interest in spreading the word of how much the NEK0s suffered, but he could admire Sweetpea for that.

"I think talking to your therapist about your plans would be great," he said as he stood up, "but that's all I wanted to talk about. You can have the rest of the fish. If you need any help, don't hesitate to hit me up. I think what you're going for is pretty cool."

Before heading out, Sprinkles gave Sweetpea an affectionate rub of their head. "No hard feelings. I'm sorry too. I should've given more thought to the interview before jumping in. I'm just happy we got to talk things through."