I’m doing my best to focus on what Caleb is saying as he explains a huge block of desperate emotions that would hit him sometimes when he takes the bus. Caleb is animated as he talks, and my heart swells that he feels comfortable enough to talk to me about this kind of stuff, even if it has messed me up a bit to have my entire worldview completely shifted.

“And his feelings were really different, you know?” Caleb says. “Like, way more intense and louder than other people’s. I couldn’t feel anyone else the couple times I passed him around town.”

“What, like how it is with me?” I ask, trying not to sound jealous. The first time Caleb told me how much more he liked my feelings over anyone else’s, I practically passed out from happiness.

“No, not really.” He shakes his head. “It’s not comfortable in the same way. His feelings are pretty extreme. And they, like, grate on me in a way that yours definitely don’t.”

“Why?” I ask.

“I don’t know … Chloe seems to think that something happened to him when he was in the military.”

“Hm.” I think through the various psychology books I’ve read. “That makes sense. I mean, if he has PTSD—which it sounds like he probably does, I mean it’s so common in vets and if he actually saw combat … well, maybe that makes the emotions more intense?”

“Oh.” Caleb blinks. “Yeah, maybe. I didn’t even think about that.”

“Maybe talk to Dr. Bright about it?” I suggest.

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He nods.

“Well, wait, if Chloe wasn’t talking about PTSD, what does she think happened to him?” I ask.

“Oh, she thinks … she thinks he may have been part of some experiment or something,” Caleb says. “Like, I guess some of the stuff she’s seen in his thoughts is sort of … sketchy.”

“What?” I laugh. “That’s crazy.”

“Is it?” Caleb raises his eyebrows at me and I have to concede. Caleb went to a telepath’s art studio this week, I guess anything’s possible. I swallow in fear, thinking about my dad looking at the floor as he tried to convince me his work was in hypotheticals alone, before Caleb distracts me.

“Anyway,” he continues, “he’s a nice guy, even if it is a little hard to be around him. He came by right as I was leaving Chloe’s studio, and it was like being thrown on an emotional merry-go-round. Like, he’s just got so much fear and sadness.”

“Yikes.” I grimace sympathetically. “Maybe it’s best to stay away, then?”