Tea
"I'm really not sure Dr. Tea. I feel like this sickness has been part of my Acoughuh – (intense coughing fit) anxiety. You know I've always been a pretty paranoid person by nature, and with this epidemic going around, it's hard to deal with the stress. After everything I went through in my childhood, it's hard to believe whatever this sickness is might do me in." The patient looked at me sadly, hoping for an answer to his problems. I could see the wrinkles on his forehead furrow and scrunch up as his face tried not to contort. You didn't have to be a psychologist to tell that James was worried. Every other week for 2 years, he had sat down on that exact chair and told me his life problems. Everything from his relationships to being abused as a child and his parents' divorce, he'd told all of it to me on this exact chair. I had grown accustomed to my office, from its soothing beige walls to my mahogany desk facing the window. I had a couch in the front of the room, with one chair each on the other ends of the coffee table. This has been my life for over two years now. It took me a long time, but I got my doctorate in clinical psychology and I'm now one of the leading psychologists in Florida.
"Well, I'll be completely honest with you since we've known each other for so long. If you've made it through everything in your childhood, I don't think some overly-contagious cold is going to do much. Yeah the symptoms are pretty bad, but to me it seems like you already have it, and you still walked into my office on your own two feet. Besides, from everything I've read the virus is only really dangerous for those already at risk. You know, young people, old people, people with lung or heart problems." I said. James seemed to relax quite a bit, but his cough didn't. I made a mental note to clean the office before I started again on Monday. "Is there anything else that's bothering you today?" I asked.
"Honestly, not really. I'm just going to try to rest over the weekend so I can come back to work on Saturday. If you don't mind, I'll go home now; the sickness was really all I needed to talk about today, thanks doctor!" He stood up off of the couch and made his way towards the door, giving me an earnest grin.
"Any time James, see you in two weeks." I said, giving him one back. This is one of the reasons I became a psychologist. I still remember the first time he came into my office. He looked like a cornered animal. He barely said a word, and now he has a job, a girlfriend, and a pet dog (that's the most important part). Getting to help people like that and seeing them walk out smiling like he does makes it all worth it. I looked at the clock by my desk. 5:30. Normally it would have gone until six, but because James left early I still had thirty minutes in my session. I opened the door.
"Marlene, do I have anyone else lined up for the day?" I said. Marlene is my secretary. She's been helping me for almost as long as I've been running this clinic.
"From the looks of the schedule you don't, Dr. Tea." Marlene said cheerfully.
"Alright, we can just take the rest of the day off then. Have a good weekend Marlene, would you mind locking up for me?" I said. Marlene nodded. "Oh, and don't worry. You'll still be paid as if we finished the day." I grabbed my stuff and headed out the main door. I wondered if Vincente was home yet. Jefferson probably was, since his work has always been weird. I pulled out my phone and called my mother as I got into my car. One ring, two rings, three. The engine of my car revved to life. By the fourth ring, she picked up.
"Hello? I'm really low energy and I'm still sick sadly. I'm just glad your siblings are old enough to take care of themselves for the most part. If I was this sick when you were still in the house, I'd probably collapse from exhaustion. Anyways, how are you?" My mother asked.
"I'm good Mom, I'm glad to hear you're still in good spirits. If you need anything, please let me know. I'm so glad you, Dad, and everyone else is still good for the most part. I'm about to grab some food, so I'll have to call you back later, alright?" I said.
"Ok, that's all good. Get some rest and try not to catch what I have, because it sucks." Mom said to me.
"I'll try Mom, but you know how many people I deal with a day. I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Feel better soon, love you!" I hung up the phone, wondering if Jefferson would want any food. I dialed him next.
"Yo, Jefferson. I'm on my way back to the house, I clocked out early. I'm thinking about picking up some food, do you want anything?" I asked.
"Nah, I just got some street tacos a minute ago, so I'M good." Jefferson said.
"Alright, just wanted to ask. I'll probably get a sandwich from somewhere, so I'll be home in a bit. See you then." I hung up.
After a slight sandwich detour, I made my way back to the house. A rather luxurious one at that. To be truthful, calling it a house doesn't really do it justice. It's probably closer to a mansion than a house, but it's not quite there yet. Jefferson, Vincente, and I had been living together for years, and we were good friends since high school. Jefferson and I were in the same class, and Vincente was a grade above us. I could have bought my own place a few years ago honestly, but I didn't want to all that much. I'm not married or really seeing anyone right now, so having roommates keeps me from living in isolation.
I felt my keys rattle against the doorknob. You always had to fiddle with the keys in the keyhole before they turned. I can't really remember a time when the door worked normally, and by now I'd just gotten used to it. If I wasn't trying to describe it, I probably wouldn't even notice it was there. I took off my shoes and stepped into the house; my empty sandwich bag in one hand, and a phone in the other.
The first thing I saw was Jefferson sitting in the living room, standing still with what seemed to be a fork glued to him. "Jefferson, what exactly. . . is happening here?" I asked.
"Don't you think if I knew then I WOULDN'T HAVE A FORK STUCK TO ME?" He screamed back.
A grin came from the very depths of my soul. I couldn't wait to hear the story behind this. It would be something I could hold over him for years. "Every time I pull this fork off of me, it just gets stuck to me again. I don't know what Vince thinks he's doing, but it stopped being funny when it happened to me instead of you." Jefferson said.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get this off of you now. I'll try to help you." I said. I tried to pull it off of him, but it wasn't some sort of glue. It was genuinely just stuck to him, like someone had covered Jefferson from head to toe in a super-magnet. I wasn't sure what had happened to him, but for now I just needed to get the fork off of him. After about five minutes of frustrating labor, we finally got the fork off and I slammed it into the silverware drawer.
"I can't take this anymore." Jefferson said. "I'm just gonna go take a nap now." Normally when he said he was taking a "nap", he was completely out of action for more than five hours. Something still felt off about the way that fork was so strongly attracted to Jefferson, but I just thought it might have been Vince sticking magnets in his pockets or using some weird machine again, and it would be revealed in due time. Either way, it wasn't my problem so I decided to head to my room.
"Man, that sandwich was really salty. Some sweet tea would really hit the spot right now, I guess I should have ordered some at the sandwich place. I'll get some on my way to work tomorrow." I thought to myself. Suddenly, a glass of sweet tea appeared in my hand where the sandwich bag had once been. It was perhaps the most gorgeous glass of sweet tea I've ever seen, it seemed straight out of a commercial. Everything from the way the tint changed ever so slightly from the reflection of the light to the lemon slice pressed against the rim of the glass. There was even that one little bead of condensation making its way tantalisingly down the glass.
Sadly though, it seems I couldn't have my cake and eat it too. The sheer surprise of the glass of sweet tea appearing in my hand made me drop the perfect glass, and I had to watch that Moby Dick, that pot of gold of a sweet tea glass shatter on the floor.
"What just happened to me?" I thought. "I'm definitely not going insane, right? I mean, a glass of sweet tea just appeared in my hand. And then there was the weird thing with Jefferson becoming magnetic. Maybe I really wasn't going insane. Could we really have some kind of superpowers? No, that's too crazy. I think I just need to get some good sleep and everything will work out in the morning. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this, I just need to wait."
Convincing myself I was just tired, I cleaned up the shards of glass and sweet tea that had covered the floor in front of me and headed to bed. For some reason, I had probably the best sleep I've had in years. My night clothes felt like fine silk, which was odd because I only had the flannel pants that I received years ago and some random tank top from my dresser on. When I awoke, I realized that I did in fact have on silk pajamas. "Ok, now I KNOW something's off. I have to figure it out somehow. I don't think I've ever touched a pair of silk pajamas in my life, how did this happen?"
Then suddenly the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. There were too many weird things happening. It started with Jefferson having that fork stuck to him, and then there was the sweet tea glass appearing in my hand, and now my pajamas are magically made of silk? There has to be something more. Am I just going crazy, or did I finally read enough horrible manhwas and webnovels to the point where I'm becoming the main character of one? And there's no way I'm this overpowered, right? I can't just start with something as broken as reality manipulation.
I immediately went to Jefferson to ask him if he knew something, anything about what was happening to me. I knocked on the door to his room and heard muffled screams in reply. It sounded like he was trapped somehow. I opened the door, bracing myself mentally to see something horrible. "Jefferson, are you–" My speech was cut off by the shock of seeing what lay before me. Jefferson was stuck in a prone position on his bed, with everything vaguely metallic in his room stuck to him. His regional belt for boxing was glued to his face, a laptop on his left arm, a watch stuck to his hip, and a few other various small trinkets.
"Can you just get these things off me now? I can't get up, the springs in my mattress are holding me down. So if you're done being useless and staring at me can you just get this stuff off me?" he said, already annoyed. My guess was that he'd been there for a while. I walked over, and after quite a bit of struggle, we managed to pry him from his mattress and get the larger things off of him.
"So this wasn't one of Vince's pranks, huh?" I said.
"I guess not. I think I'm a superhuman now, but my power is horrible. Either way, KNEEL BEFORE ME WOR–" Jefferson's rant was cut short by his watch flying back and hitting him in the mouth. He doubled over and seemed to wince in pain. Ever since the car accident a year or two ago, his jaw seems like it's made of glass. The slightest tap, and he's down for the count.
"Yeah don't flatter yourself. Right now it looks like I could carry around a couple of magnets and be at your level. I wanted to ask you about something. Was yesterday the first time something like that happened? There were some weird things that happened to me around that time too." I then went on a tangent about the sweet tea and the silk pajamas and Jefferson seemed kind of annoyed.
"Of course I get the ass powers. You have reality manipulation, and I have some stupid magnet crap that I can't even turn off." Jefferson whined.
"To be fair, neither of us can control it right now so both of our powers are terrible." Just then, a thought occurred to me. "Have you seen Vince recently?" I said.
"I heard his door close a little bit ago, but not much since." Jefferson said, still wincing and rubbing his jaw.
"Let's see if he can lend you an electromagnet or something for now just so you can survive daily life. After that's sorted out, I'll work on figuring out how to control my power." I wondered if there was even a way to control either of our powers, or if we'd have to cope with it. Was it going to be like gaining a new limb that we would be able to train and get used to over time, or was it a symptom of some debilitating disease that we'd have to simply cope with and find work-arounds for? I guessed I'd just have to pray and hope for the best. If it was some kind of disease, maybe there would be a cure, or maybe the way to get around it would be as easy for myself as it would be for Jefferson to carry around some magnets.
We found Vince in his room and explained the situation. He honestly took it all much easier than I thought he would, almost like he expected this to happen all along. It was weird, honestly. I wouldn't be half as calm as he was, frankly if I was him I don't think I'd believe me or Jefferson as readily as he did. I guess that just shows how good of a friend he is. He promised that if Jefferson couldn't control his powers by Monday, he'd get some electromagnets from the office for him.
"Alright, works for me I guess. I'm gonna go on a walk, I'll talk to you guys later."