fantastic_torch | Rm 326, Late Tuesday night

	"Sue? It's me..."
	"Hey, Johnny." Sue said. "Finally calling again, hm?"
	"Yeah..."
	Worried about his tone, she asked him softly, "Johnny? Everything okay?"
	"I don't know, Sue. Things...here...they're just not the same as back home."
	"What's going on," she asked pointedly, ready to come to him if he needed her.
	"I'm letting things get to me. The girls. The classes. I have detention and I think I pretty much deserved it."
	Sue refrained from rolling her eyes. Same old Johnny. "What did you do, Johnny?"
	"I...just wasn't nice. I mean I was but I wasn't. I just didn't know how to deal with the crazy, you know? I sort of freaked out and said things I shouldn't have. To people who were older than me. To my...professor."
	Again, nothing new. "Johnny, I thought this school was going to be good for you, that you were going to grow up a little. I can't say that I'm surprised. You know that, right? I mean, come on, when are you going to grow up?"
	"I don't know," he said soft, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You'd have to be here...you'd have to see for yourself. Everything, everyone, is different and sometimes I'm not sure how to act. I've done things...I'm not proud of."
	Now she was getting worried. "What sort of things, Johnny?"
	"Just...things. I...wasn't nice. I've...there was this guy...and the girls...god, Sue, I'm so confused..."
	She was quiet for a moment, thinking, worrying about her little brother. "Do you want to come home? I can try and work that out, Johnny."
	Johnny sighed deeply, "I...don't know. Maybe? I feel...alone, Sue." Yes, despite the girls, despite Ronan, despite Dick's fist in his face.
	"What is it, Johnny? Really? This just doesn't sound like you at all." Sue stood up and frowned as she stared out her bedroom window at the lights of the city.
	"What if...what if I can't change? Ever? What if I can't grow up? What if I keep teasing and flirting and never get a girl for myself? What if I just keep pissing everyone off?" Johnny was more than frustrated and it was very much evident in his tone.
	"It's late, Johnny. Where is this all coming from? Are you just tired? Maybe you need to go to bed and call me in the morning, okay?" It was the best advice she could offer him because really, it was late and honestly she didn't know what to say to him; she was too floored by his tone and words to understand what he was getting at.
	Closing his eyes, he rested his forehead against the window in his room, "You're right, Sue. I am tired. I'm...sorry for bugging you, for calling you so late and...hell, everything will be fine tomorrow. Forget it, forget what I said. Talk to you later...bye, Sue." And he hung up.
	"Johnny? Wait--" but he had already hung up and Sue could do nothing but sit and stare down at her phone, wondering what could have happened to her little brother that had him sounding so forlorn.