O.K., Jack, I don't want to say that this is what your life has been leading up to, but... THIS IS WHAT YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN LEADING UP TO, I thought to myself, as Rae and I walked up the path on the old man's property. You must think of the perfect sentence to say to Rae in this truly complex time. Choose wisely. I breathed uneasily, searching my head for a foolproof question/sentence/exclamation. As the we approached the porch, I knew I had to speed up my thought process.

"Do you...want to talk about anything? Like, that's bothering you?" I asked, wringing my hands from the social minutia.

Rae remained silent, looking down like she was examining her own shoes. She did have excellent taste in shoes, but they were nothing special enough to examine with such resolution.

We walked up onto the porch, and she knocked the door hastily. I considered asking again, but it seemed more than likely that she would remain quiet still. The old man walked choppily behind the obscure frosted glass to the door and opened it wide.

"Ah! Rose, James, come in," he said, like he was intentionally getting it wrong. We entered the establishment and closed the door behind us. We walked into the living room, where the old man and two teenagers sat drinking tea. "Come! Sit!" he exclaimed, pointing to the couch. He seemed to be in a better mood than before, which was refreshing. "Welcome, welcome, have some tea, get comfortable." We did so, though me getting 'comfortable' in anyone's home but mine was nothing more than a flight of fancy. "Rose, James, this young lady here is Ariel," he said, gesturing to the girl next to Rae, who, by the very sight of her, made me question every decision relating to my appearance I ever made... She was really, really pretty, in other words. "She lives just down the street. And this here is Willa. I've know her since she was in diapers."

"Oh, stop it, Albert!" Willa exclaimed.

"Nice to meet you guys," Ariel said, shaking Rae's hand, and ignoring mine. I wondered if I did something wrong.

"Nice to meet you, too," Rae said, smiling at the perfectly-blonde flawlessly-faced girl next to her. I didn't even blame her for the way she was looking at Ariel.

"Are you okay? You have a bruise on your face," Willa said to Rae.

"Oh, it's nothing. I tripped," Rae said, hands folded on her lap. I sighed.

"Okay, kids, grab some plastic gloves and get to work," the old man said. After everyone else selected their disposable gloves, I reached in the box and there was none left.

I sighed. Yeah, ok, that makes sense, I thought to myself.

"Oh, is there no more?" The old man asked, I nodded. "Ah, okay, Willa, show James to the bathroom. There should be more in the cupboard over the sink," he said, and Willa saluted; taking me by the hand and leading me out of the room. I looked back at Rae, who avoided my glance. Willa and I walked down a hall and turned into a small bathroom. She opened the cabinet and fished around, and then pulled out an identical box to last one. She handed it to me.

"Thanks." I said, taking two powdery plastic gloves out of the dispensary on top, and handed it back to her.

"What's up with you?" Willa asked, putting the box back in the cupboard and closing the door. "You look like I did the day my dog Bryan went to the 'farm'."

"Is it that obvious?" I asked, after I considered denying it, running away, starting to cry, and retailing her with the whole dumb story.

"Kinda," she said, leaning on the wall nonchalantly. "If I can help with, like, anything, just holler, K'?"

"Um, well, I would like to know your opinion, if that's O.K.?" I asked.

"Shoot," Willa said, crossing her arms.

"Well, if you, metaphorically, had a... friend, and one day — the day after they came out as gay, by the way — they, uh, metaphorically, had a huge bruise on their face, and when you try to ask about it they just-just didn't say anything... Where was I going with this? Oh! Yeah, uh, what would you do?"

"That was a lot of 'metaphorically's and 'uh's, which leads me to believe this scenario is very real," she said, and I tucked my hair behind my ear and nodded. "And also, just so you know, James, your friend has a bruise like that. Just FYI."

"Yeah, they may or may not be the same person," I said. "Also my name isn't James, it's Jack."

"Oh, ok, BTW, nice to meet you, Jack, but anyways, my answer to that question is... I would probably talk to her about it, but also give her space, 'cause, you know, space is cool."

"Yeah," I said, a little disappointed, as I more or less was hoping for a script from her on what to say. "Thanks."

"NP. Let's get out there, eh?" she said, with a little hop. We left the bathroom and entered the living room, where the old guy was just starting to lay out the plan of action.

"Okay, I was thinking you would pick up all the toilet paper in the backyard, then the front yard, then you'll work your way up and end up scraping it off the roof." He said, giving me and Rae a dirty look. I sucked my lips in sheepishly. "Pick up as much as you can, and then put it in the garbage cans I provided. Have fun or whatever. Forget about the trees, I got guys coming in for them. Now, get the hell outta here!" he said, dropping down in his recliner.

Ariel led Rae, Willa and I out into the backyard, where there was a surprising amount of toilet paper. I felt proud, in a weird way, and I chuckled to myself. I bent down and picked up a handful of TP, and I tried to remember that it was unused, but I couldn't help but gag as it was soggy with morning dew. I walked over to the trash can and threw the clump of tissue in. Rae walked up beside me, with a mush larger bundle and deposed of it as well.

"Rae, tell me what's happening," I pleaded.

"No, Jack. Drop it, please," she said, walking back to Ariel, who, instead of putting it in the buckets, threw the hunks of toilet paper over the fence into someone else's yard. I kneeled and picked up more TP, but all I wanted to do was dig a hole, get in said hole, and never come out.

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Heeeeeeeeellllo! Thank you for reading this chapter of Preternatural, I hope you enjoyed it!

I may not post for a while, as @CrazyWeirdLatinaGirl , @fluffypandaxxo and I are going on a trip to find the land of Charlies and bask in their eternal charisma!

...No, not actually, but that would have been fun!

Sighing off, it's your friendly neighbourhood lovelorn teenager going through the motions!