Proxy Texts and More!

Tad woke up to pee and checked his texts. Sneaky responded to things Tad expected him to just pass along in a way that didn't seem particularly like Sneaky to Tad. Almost like Sneaky was unsure what to do with the information Tad had shared. So Tad texted back to tell him the relevance of the information he was passing through his proxy. Sneaky was right about one thing. He IS the mailman. And the destination address may be a treehouse. But that's up to Tessa. 

Tad won't ask for help with this particular thing unless Mr. Smiley is actively trying to brainwash him. So far, Tad's not sure what his intentions with him are. It could be recruitment. Or he could be a fly stuck in the web. Is he being approached by the cult leader or the serial killer?

Tad is not actually fine. But he appears to be. On purpose. Because "fine" means people are less likely to ask. Unless they're your therapist and know you should definitely NOT be "fine" yet. 

So far, he's had conversations with two different people who know a bit about his trauma: Saini and Jojo.

Saini didn't pry into his mood shift much. She may have just been happy her friend seemed to be happy. To Tad, that's the reaction that is easier to manage. If he continues with default happy surface reactions with her, she may never push for anything beyond that. 

Jojo may be a problem though. He definitely has to dance around her questions more. She is fully aware that he is not fine and trying to find the cracks in this new veneer he suddenly encased himself in. She was asking about things that he inwardly had big reactions to. But he was able to keep his answers surface-level. How did he get over his crush on Stacey? Well, he already told her that. Getting rid of that ended him up in the hospital. But. You know. He just "got interested in other things." Like kids do.

The harder thing to balance with this particular directive is that Tad still really wants to yap. He's having fun with conversations. He also NEEDS to yap if he's going to make more connections in the city.