the accidental empath

Thesky was now a threatening charcoal, and the rain came down in sheets. Quick flashes of lightning illuminated the outlines of houses and mailboxes, the only thing allowing Lucas to pinpoint where he was going. Torrents of wind threatened to blow him off balance from his bike. The blunt force of rain pelted against Lucas’ exposed skin and created huge puddles that seemed to erupt when rolled over by the bike tires. Somewhere in the chaos, Lucas’s best friend Aaron was also yelling and struggling against the pop-up storm.

Then, a gust of wind hit Lucas like a concrete wall. Before he could process what was happening, Lucas launched off his bike into the air. It all happened too fast for Lucas to brace his fall. He hit the concrete headfirst and blacked out.

Somewhere in his head, a voice cried “Lucas!”

Lucas, half-unconscious, focused on feeling pain on his head but couldn’t find any. He could tell he was being shaken by someone, but he couldn’t remember who. It was cold. And wet.

Lucas jolted awake. Aaron had been kneeling, trying to wake him up. He looked very concerned. No, not looked. Lucas knew he was concerned. And scared. And sad. And angry? There seemed to be a swirl of color around him, like a Trix yogurt spiral made of reds, blues, and bright oranges.

Dazed and convinced he was having concussion-induced delusions, Lucas didn’t say a word to Aaron about the fact that he was seeing and feeling Aaron’s emotions.

Lucas quickly started to understand why people can’t see emotions. They attack you like the sun on a clear summer day, except—unlike a summer day—you can’t block them. This became apparent when Lucas came home a few hours after he smashed his head; the weird-emotionreading ability had not gone away, and he was greeted by a kaleidoscope of emotions accompanying his parents.

Mr. Blair, Lucas’ dad, glanced at Lucas as he walked through the front door, drawing his gaze away from a Seinfeld rerun. His dad didn’t look sad, but Lucas was flooded with a sense of lethargy and sadness. Lucas was taken off guard by the sea of gray and blue that engulfed the living room.

Another fight, he assumed.

As he walked through the living room, he passed his mom washing dishes in the kitchen. When she turned around, the dark-red anger was more than palpable. Lucas had his suspicions, but despite hearing the occasional argument or accidentally seeing a rude text on a phone, there was no clear evidence that his parents were fighting. However, their emotions seemed to confirm this—if the colors were real, that is.

Lucas felt he should say something. He stood there in between the living room and kitchen, hoping their emotions would subside and confirm that he was suffering a concussion of some sort. Searching for a bump or scratch on his head to no avail, Lucas had a sinking feeling in his stomach that it was real. Deciding that a confrontation may be too blunt—he wasn’t supposed to know how they were feeling—Lucas holed himself up in the room for most of the night, trying to prepare for what school would be like with his new-found ability. It wasn’t talking to the teachers that worried him or even interacting with his classmates. Having been nervous for the past week, he was now even more worried about asking his crush, Holly, to the Spring Dance. Reading her expression if she rejected him would be bad enough, but feeling her reaction…

The next morning, Lucas awoke to sunlight streaming through his window and a bird singing on the tree branch outside. Staggering out of bed, he tripped over loose clothes, notebooks, video game controllers, and wires as he made his way towards the bathroom to get ready. In a cloudy corner of his mind, the anxiety of asking Holly to the Spring Dance lingered. It was Monday, and the dance was on Saturday. He didn’t really have time to screw up—who else would he ask? After putting on one of his typical athleisure outfits and tidying up, Lucas walked downstairs and straight towards the door, deciding he was too preoccupied to eat breakfast.

“Lucas! Come in here, please,” called his mother from the kitchen.

Lucas walked begrudgingly towards the kitchen and was surprised to see his parents sitting at their breakfast table, waiting for him. There was a distinct sense of sadness and anger about both of them. Lucas choked back an exasperated sob. He could still read their emotions. He didn’t need the stress of feeling his parents’ emotions on top of the spring dance ordeal.

“Honey, we heard you hit your head pretty hard while biking with Aaron,” said Mrs. Blair. “And then you basically went straight to bed last night. You barely even acknowledged us. Are you alright?”

Was he supposed to say, “I can see and feel your emotions, and I’m pretty sure you and dad are fighting”?

“Yeah, just felt out of it. I don’t think I’m hurt though, look at my head,” said Lucas, pointing at the spot on his head where he fell. There wasn’t even a scratch. He looked down at his watch. He was going to be late. And, by the way his dad was looking at his mom, it seemed Lucas had interrupted something.

“I gotta go or I’ll be late. See ya,” mumbled Lucas, turning and running towards the front door.

Once he arrived at school, the severity of his problem started to set in. Every classmate Lucas made eye contact flooded his mind with a new colorful emotion. Not even fifteen minutes had past until his senses were overstimulated with a jumbled kaleidoscope of feelings and emotion. He needed tell Aaron what was going on.

Lucas sat down next to Aaron during U.S. History per usual. He grabbed a packet of notecards out of his backpack and began to write Aaron a message—chatting out loud in their U.S. History class usually meant an instant detention.

Bro, I’m going to tell you something and I need you to believe me even though it’s gonna sound insane.

Aaron read his notecard, scribbled a message, and handed a new one back.

Sure man. Also, should you even be here right now? You hit your head pretty hard yesterday.

Yeah, it’s actually about that. Ever since I hit my head, I’ve been able to see and people’s emotions. Colors and stuff.

Bro, I am not falling for that. How hard did you hit your head? LOL.

I’m not kidding! Look at me in the eyes.

As Aaron read the notecard, Lucas realized he hadn’t read Aaron’s emotions yet. Probably should have started with that. Aaron eventually looked up and made eye contact with Lucas.

Aaron had a cloud of anxiety about him. A sort of blinking gray. Probably had to do with his test later. Or maybe the spring dance. Other than that, he seemed happy.

You’re happy but slightly scared about something?

Dude, stop. He probably told you, I was talking to him before class.

Aaron pointed behind himself to someone Lucas didn’t know very well.

Just as Lucas went to scribble a response, his history teacher came up and snatched the notecards out from under his hand. Lucas didn’t have to look into his eyes to know he was angry.

After class ended, Aaron ran up to Lucas. After successfully reading a few other people’s emotions in the room, Aaron began to think that, maybe, Lucas was telling the truth. Suddenly, Lucas stopped dead in his tracks.

The dance.

He had completely forgotten that Holly passed through the hallway next to his history class around ten o’ clock. It was the only time he ever saw her throughout the day.

It was ten of five.

Cutting off his conversation with Aaron, Lucas ran out of his classroom and looked down the hall.

As Lucas looked down the hallway, there seemed to be a footballfield sized distance between Holly. But she was there. His palms began to sweat slightly as he navigated his way through the sea of students, backpacks, and papers that had fallen out of lockers. He did his best to avoid eye contact with anyone in the hallway. Especially Holly. He didn’t need this empath thing to overwhelm him and ruin his chances of scoring Holly as a date for the Spring Dance. After an eternity of watching his Vans stride across the laminated tile floor, Lucas looked up to see Holly at her locker in the middle of a group of girls. The smell of cheap, flowery perfumed was strong and Lucas had to suppress a cough after breathing in too much.

“Hey, Holly,” said Lucas, making sure to not make direct eye contact.

“Hey… Lucas?” responded Holly, her question lingering on his name, as if she wasn’t sure whether she was right or not.

Still looking at the gray metal locker beside her, Lucas replied, “So, I know you don’t have a date to the school dance yet and, well, neither do I!”

Giggling, one of the girls next to Holly said, “Look at her face, weirdo!” and, after a couple of seconds, Lucas realized she was talking to him. Lucas glanced at Holly’s face and, despite her mostly stoic complexion, was blinded by a green barrage of embarrassment and discomfort. Lucas panicked.

“What’s wrong? Why are you uncomfortable? I can leave. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize this would be embarrassing for you,” spouted Lucas, causing Holly to now be visibly uncomfortable from being read without even saying anything. He could sense a tinge of anger brewing in Holly and the green seemed to turn a more brownish-red.

“Embarrassing for me?” Holly laughed. “Look around, everyone’s been watching for the last five minutes.”

The hallway was dead silent except the ticking of a far-off clock and the whir of a hand-dryer in the bathroom.

Lucas couldn’t think of a single thing he wanted more than to never have to look someone in the face ever again. It’d spare him from ever seeing those horrible, ugly colors and feeling emotions that weren’t even his.

Lucas turned back to Holly, feeling only his own anger.

“You could have just said no,” barked Lucas. Then, he turned and ran down the hall, past the main office and out the door, laughter chasing him like a pack of hungry wolves.

He would skip the rest of his classes for the day. And maybe all the other days until he figured out how to stop this whole emotion thing.

Lucas spent the rest of the week faking illness in his room while trying to think of a plan to get rid of this weird curse-thing. He realized that, while talking to his parents, sunglasses blocked out the emotions’ brightness. So, he began to wear the darkest pair of sunglasses he could find every time he had to have a conversation with another person. If he absolutely needed to, a blindfold could suffice. Or he could just close his eyes, but that would look weirder than just wearing sunglasses. By Friday night, he had constructed a plan that would hopefully get rid of his ability to read emotions. It was a desperate shot in the dark, but Lucas convinced himself he had no other options. He needed to go to the dance!

Against his better judgment, Lucas walked into the school gymnasium on Saturday night around eight o’ clock. Multi-colored spotlights beamed across couples dancing on the shiny gym floor, streamers and confetti getting crushed under their feet. The roar of people partying and drone of Top 100 pop hits reverberated throughout the gym. Lucas stood in the doorway for a moment, trying to get a general sense of the emotion in the room. Each time someone made eye contact with him, a pink and yellow hue of happiness and love filled his vision.

As Lucas began to walk in, he saw Aaron. He was feeling the same way as everyone else except the color around him seemed to dim when Lucas waved. Aaron broke off from his date and walked over to Lucas.

“Lucas?” yelled Aaron. “What are you doing here? And what’s up with the glasses? It’s nearly pitch-black in here.”

“Aaron, I need you to help me get rid of this curse… thing… whatever it is!” shouted Lucas.

Aaron’s mood shifted towards annoyance and anger.

“Dude, I’m here trying to have fun with my date. Couldn’t you ask anyone else?” replied Aaron.

“Aaron, you’re the only one who trusts me enough to do what I need you to do,” explained Lucas.

Lucas began to explain his master plan. Aaron would knock Lucas out, hard enough that Lucas hit his head on the gym floor. Hopefully, Lucas would not sustain any injury but would lose his curse.

“Knock you out? Seriously Lucas, what’s wrong with you? I’m not going to do that.” Aaron’s emotions started to swirl, red with anger.

“What, do you not trust me?” pressed Lucas.

“No, but I’m not going to sock you while being around hundreds of our classmates and when teachers are watching,” explained Aaron.

“What good friend you are,” Lucas mumbled, trying to make Aaron angry.

The swirl around Aaron went from having a soft red tinge to a boiling red. It was working.

Aaron tried to stay cool and sarcastic, but the façade was destroyed by the scarlet glow around him. “Forget it, Lucas. Go screw up your chances with Holly again, I heard she’s here.”

Lucas’ face then grew red with anger.

“What’d you just say?” growled Lucas, forgetting all about his plan.

Lucas began stomping towards Aaron. Before he could get too close, Aaron reached out and swung at Lucas. Hard. His sunglasses flew. Lucas dropped backwards. His head slammed into the hard gym floor.

Lucas came to. A group of people. Gathered around him. Aaron was in the center. Through blurry vision, Lucas stared into Aaron’s face. Aaron was waving a hand in front of his face and saying something through about a hundreds of layers of echo and reverb. The room was still kind of spinning. Was he concerned? Angry? Sad?

Lucas smiled. He could no longer tell.