A false alarm as the rain never reached severity before the clouds make way for the blue skies. 'I guess she took the train home,' said Johan as he sat inside his car on the train station's parking lot. 'I shouldn't have left her but it's as if something else is keeping me back. I should have been honest with her from the very beginning. But what could I say? I didn't know what to answer.' He leaned back on his seat, 'But if there's anything that I can confirm is that I was right. She's having trouble at home and is using me as a way to cope with it. If that is the case, then the whole paradigm has changed. I'm just taking advantage of her at this point. As an adult, I have to be the one to tell her that. I can't have her continue to use me as a crutch for her problems. In order for her to settle her problems, she has to talk to her parents. It's a shame I can't talk to them, but in any case, I got to convince her to do so. Rather than play along with whatever ideas she has, I... ' He paused for a moment. 'Playing around?'

As the sun appeared from the clouds, Johan took his leave from the parking lot and began driving home. "Is this what all this has led to? She practically read me like a book. I am uncomfortable about this, I'm not even sure what I'm doing anymore. What was I thinking, leaving everything behind for isolation, I'll go crazy. I wasn't meant to be alone. I had friends, I had family, I had people in my life that I cared so much about, only to lose them all. Few acquaintances are all that I have left and even they are disappearing before my eyes. But even Wendy... Edwin... Am I really your friend? Are you still my best friend? Everything changed so fast, I don't even know who you are, or who I am for that matter. Everything is changing. Is it because I'm becoming an adult? No, I already am an adult. I've been an adult for a few years now since I graduated high school. Is that it? Is it because I'm still being childish myself? That has to be it. I haven't grown up at all. I'm still acting like that young teenager who knew nothing about the real world. Well, that has to change now. I'm no longer that immature teenager, I'm now an adult.

"I think I finally understand what Margaret was telling me, to be a man. Maybe she too saw through me. I'm trying to hold on to the past, that's my problem. That has to be. In that case, from here on, I will become the man I'm supposed to be. Whatever happened in the past is just that, the past. From here on out, I move forward to my future as an adult."

--

Taking off the damp jacket and placing the umbrella on the rack to dry, "Johan, are you home?" Wendy said loudly but no reply. "I wonder where he is. I sure hope nothing is happening to him."

At this time, the door opened behind them "Wendy, hi!" Johan said.

"Oh, you went out?"

"Wendy, how's it going? I just came back from a walk."

"A walk? In the rain?"

"Say, Wendy, how about we do something later on. You know, just hang out like good friends. Good, mature, adult friends?"

"Huh?"

"That's right. Just because we're adults, doesn't mean we can't have a good clean fun time now, can't we?"

"Johan, your choice of words is weirding me out."

"Oh, that's right. I was quite rude with Francesca and Hera, wasn't I, and that accident. Oh my gosh, I finally realize the error of my ways. I must apologize to them and have a night out, the four of us."

"You actually want to hang out with my friends?"

A bigger smile appears on his face, "Oh yes, let us ask them if they are available. Maybe they're on a date. You know, a normal date that adults have that doesn't involve anything weird."

A look of apprehension was on Wendy as they look directly at the unnatural smile Johan is displaying. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay! I'm better than okay! The world is my oyster and life is the pearl. It is too short to be thinking about every single possible angle and getting mad at it. It's about having fun, but responsible normal adult fun. That's what it's about. Forget everything that happened in the past Wendy." He then grabbed Wendy's shoulders, intimidating them further. "Wendy, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable or angry. I wasn't myself. In fact, I haven't been myself in years. That's because I'm not myself, I'm a new person, and only when I realized this could I move on to be the man you see before you. I don't care who you are, even if you do care about who I am, but that's okay. As long as we can get past these notions, we can have a good normal friendly platonic adult relationship without any kind of strange taboo attraction whatsoever. Oh, that doesn't necessarily refer to you, no sir, or ma'am, or any adjacent adjective that best describes your person, which I am not familiar but perhaps you can educate me on that soon."

After a few blinks, "Okay... thank you... can you please let go of me?"

"Yes, I will, only because I respect you, Wendy." After letting go of the perturbed Wendy, he headed off to his room.

Watching him enter with a great stride as Johan swung his arms, Wendy thought to themselves, "He's not going to appear next to my bed with a knife tonight, is he?"