21: The Antidote to Righteousness (Caleb)

God, I feel sick to my stomach. What is going on? Ever since he sat down, Noah's emotions have been a total roller coaster. Surprised, sad, angry, annoyed, and now disappointed again, but a little different. The sludge fills my veins and then freezes over. Hardens.
What is he thinking about?
His best friend is a telepath, why are his mental blocks not better than this? But then it occurs to me, with only one known telepath in the school why would he have his blocking techniques in place if he did not need them. No one knew about my power yet, well, none of the students.
Noah had never even been on my radar when I first arrived here. If you'd asked me what classes we had shared I couldn't tell you. I was aware of him because he was one of the X-Men, students who went out into the field to help other mutants. But other than that I had not thought about him.
But now my whole day revolves around our shared spaces. It was vague at first - just a general awareness when he was nearby - and I'd hoped things would have normalised. But of course they haven't. If anything, his feelings are even more noticeable. They wash over me - different from the molasses I swim through with the rest of my classmates - and stretch to every corner. Blue, filling up my entire field of vision; my whole brain.
His emotions are always a shade of blue. But not blue like the sky; blue like the ocean. And they're warm and soft a lot of the time. Even when he's sad, it's warm and soft. Like sinking into a bath. And sometimes that's nice and sometimes I get pulled under and nearly drown.
Today, things are not soft and warm. The black sludge and the red anger are taking
over a bit. Those are always the same, in every person.
I don't know why. Black and red can be other emotions, depending on the individual, but disappointment and anger always feel the same at their core.
Jeez, save it for therapy, Caleb. Focus on class. Focus. Focus.