We're All In The Same Boat

It felt weird for Janelle to be flying without her costume on. She wasn't supposed to be using her powers so blatantly through the identity of Janelle Thompson. Yet there she was, soaring through the sky as pink-purple light to meet up with her close friend—and now ex-teammate—Rory. Adrastia. Janelle was never going to get used to calling them only by their civilian names, and she didn't want to.

After landing a bit away and all the light from her disappeared, she jogged over to Adrastia, then almost fell in a botched attempt to create a surprise entrance.

"Ignore that," she grunted. By now Adrastia could tell that Janelle was trying to play her mistake off cool in one of her more friendly ways. "Did I arrived on time. I decided to not be fashionably late, for once."

She gave Adrastia a cocky smile. One that was weaker than usual. Being outside for this long was already tiring her out. She wanted to stay cooped up in her room and leave for school, but she had no intention of restarting her reputation by being the angsty teen who never leaves their dorm. She was better than that.

Janelle knew that sooner or later, one of her friends would ask her how she was doing after everything that happened. She already got enough pity from the school and some randos from the Community Center who heard what happened. But weirdly enough, instead of feeling angry, throwing out some curse word, then flying away, Janelle only tensed up when Adrastia asked.

"Watching the fireworks sounds nice. But... uh..." She was determined to not fidget, bite down on her lip, or dart her eyes away from Adrastia's. In a way, this was a challenge. The goal being for Janelle to not to get overemotional and maybe cry. "I feel great! I have a whole gang now and my reputation's being rebuilt fast. The island's a bit... No, the island is very weird, but I'm blending in easily." A prideful, yet shakey, smile appeared after her boasting of her achievements.

Then, she got serious. In a way, this was to deflect the attention off of her own problems. "Are you doing okay?"

So they were jumping right into it then.

When Adrastia was being honest about her feelings, Janelle felt ashamed for trying to put up a bravado. There was a noticeable loosen in Janelle's posture accompanied with a tired sigh when she decided to give in and be honest about her feelings.

Janelle gave Adrastia a half-hearted smile at the attempt to cheer her up. She appreciated it. She really did. But she also just wasn't feeling too invested in the topic of the conversation. It wasn't something she wanted to let herself get invested in.

"Thanks, but, I don't really feel like crying. I don't really," she gave a nonchalant shrug, "feel much right now. Not in an edgy, angsty way. I'm not that bad. But I only cry when I'm alone. That's when I have enough in me." All of that was said like she was talking about a boring day at school, but it was true. When she was outside and around people, she couldn't let her feelings get in the way and make her a depressing mess to be around.

Suddenly she felt self-conscious. "Sorry... I know you wanted me to talk about how I feel and I'm not giving you a lot back."

The look of relief was unmissable on Janelle's face. Janelle knew Adrastia wasn't the type to make fun of her. To call her edgy and angsty and that she was trying too hard. Yet for some reason, she still expected to be made fun of for saying something so melodramatic. And that made Janelle start to tear up.

"I'm... I'm really happy I have you. I'm happy I have the whole team... When I'm out talking to people and hanging with the team, I don't feel nothing. It's like... It's like my mind is too focused on everyone talking to actually be sad. It's really just when I'm alone. And I haven't really gotten to talk about this to any of you and..." Janelle's sobbing became stronger until she couldn't speak anymore. There was an attempt at giving a small smile to her friend, but she was too busy wiping her eyes and hiccuping. Even now, as much Janelle was crying, being here and talking to Adrastia felt right.

Janelle wanted to push Adrastia away. To deny that she needed coddling and that she was crying at all. But maybe she was too weakwilled right now to do anything like that, or maybe she really did want Adrastia to keep making her feel wanted.

It took a few moments for her to suck the tears in and talk like she never cried at all. Although, she kept wiping her wet face until it felt adequately dry, and once in a while and small hiccup would escape her. "Ugh, that was lame. This is a fireworks show. We should be having fun. Not this sentimental shit... N-Not that I dislike it, just, it's a bummer, y'know? God, now I'm gonna have to get you a gift to make it up to you."