THESE TIMES ARE WORTH WORKING FOR

[ISAAC JOSIAH CLEMENS]

isaac was never really the type of person to get involved in someone else’s business. he wasn’t clingy, either. people didn’t mean much to him, he was taught that at a young age. being considered a freak in the normal world left you to be outcast, and people were considered to be pointless. until he was able to control his shifting ability, he never really had friends. people would befriend him, but as soon as he changed into a cat, they were scared. humans weren’t used to seeing other humans change into animals. it wasn’t normal. it wasn’t something they knew about. the unknown was to be feared. they stopped being his friend, and he moved on. the trick was not letting it bother him, and with a little mind tricking, he was okay. the loss of friends didn’t last long, he learned how to stay in his human form at a young age. after learning to control his abilities, he had gained friends quickly, but if they left, the habit of the past took over him, and he let himself not care. people came and went and they always did and they always would. it was a simple observation. isaac just had to let himself move on quickly. that was never really hard. just find someone else, do just what they did. don’t even think about them. those were his simple steps. it worked every time.

people had their reasons. they always did. isaac’s personality never really helped him either. he knew he could be annoying and obnoxious. if people didn’t like that they didn’t have to talk to him. but as he sat in his apartment, in a chair at the table with his feet propped up drinking a glass of water, he found himself thinking. there was something that was bothering him, and he couldn’t pin it down. it was an unfamiliar feeling: noticing that he was being ignored by somebody. usually if he felt like he was being ignored, he would just ignore that feeling. today was different, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about it. all of his steps weren’t working, just because he couldn’t stop thinking about it, especially when there was nothing to do. it was fee. their relationship had been interesting to say the least. then it abruptly ended. now that he actually thought about it, he hadn’t seen her in a few days. for some reason that really got to his head and he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about how she had just decided to stop talking to him.

since he was doing nothing, isaac decided that he wouldn’t continue. a plan was devised in his head. for once in his life he wasn’t going to let a relationship fall because the other person didn’t make any attempt to fix it. to contribute, which isaac rarely ever did, he would go to her place. he pushed the chair back and stood up, walking to his room. running his hands through his hair, he started to think about the last thing that happened when he was with her. if there were any signs of her being mad at him, or if he had said anything stupid. the boy didn’t have a filter and he occasionally said the worst things. grabbing a shirt and pulling it his head, he tried to run everything he had said through his mind. this only left him confused. nothing offensive came to mind, he even recalled ending the night well, on a good note. there was no reasonable excuse for this type of behavior according to isaac. usually, losing friends was something he could predict. fee wasn’t expected. not this soon at least. there had been no signs from her of getting bored with him. there was nothing that he had done or said that could have been destroying.

oddly, isaac found himself in a hurry. pushing open the door really fast, barely taking any time at all to lock it again. he skipped steps as he made his way downstairs and out the door of the apartment complex. he was busy making excuses for himself, as to why he actually cared about this friendship over any of the others. because he hadn’t expected it, so he had to get down to the bottom of it for future reference. not just because he still wanted to see fee regularly. at least this was what he was busy trying to convince himself. then he started running through scenarios. forcing himself to think of come backs and excuses for when he would be confronted. isaac wasn’t one to show up with no plan. that’s what the walk for, he didn’t spend much time at his place thinking of actual words, only actions and reasons. nothing that he could tell her. he was at her door sooner than he expected. raising his fist up to the door he knocked twice and stuffed his hands into his pockets, waiting for fee to answer.