David stopped himself before the words ‘I’m used to that’ left his lips. Instead he just forced a smile on his lips. He watched as she waved her hand forward and started walking in the direction alongside her. “I know… am I obvious?” he asked, his words more sarcastic than surprised. David’s eyes moved around as they walked down the street, taking in his surroundings. He wouldn’t be there for long; or at least that was the plan unless things went sideways, which happened more often than he’d like to admit in his life. So it was better to have a feel for the area just in case and distracting himself with something else seemed to help quiet the voices down a little bit. “Feel weird being the odd one out in a place of assholes?” he asked, a genuine laugh leaving his lips.

Evelyne chuckled lightly at his question. She hadn’t been so nice to others, in fact it was more common for people to think she was an asshole, but there was something different here. He looked like he needed help, and there was something in his eyes that told her he had seen some heavy shit. There was also a sense of...power? She wasn’t sure what it was, but there was more to him than being lost. She was curious. “Well, I would say I’m not an asshole. I just tend to know when someone doesn’t need to see that side of me.” She laughed lightly.

“Honestly that sounds like a nightmare for me and the poor bastard who has to listen to my problems.”

David shrugged his shoulders, they didn’t really have much of a choice - or well he didn’t anyways. “I mean I don’t have a car. So I would have walked either way,” he told her. He tucked his hands into the pockets of his pants and bounced on the heels of his feet, trying his best to distract himself from the chaos inside his mind. “Thanks…for offering to help I mean.” 

She laughed lightly in agreement. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t have had a choice to begin with.” She joked, stepping to the side and motioning forward with one hand in the direction they needed to go. At his thanks, she shrugged it off. “People in this city can be pretty impolite, you look like you needed someone to not be rude to you.” She laughed.

“So she admits it. That’s the first step. I’ll let you know when I figure out the others.”

“You don’t have to,” David told her, although he knew that if she didn’t he’d probably end up stopping someone else a few blocks from where they stood and well he knew from experience that not everyone could be as nice as she was being right now and with the voices inside his mind already getting the best of him, he didn’t want to know what would happen if someone agitated him.  “I mean if you don’t mind-…” he added. 

She was surprised to hear him accept her offer of help, even if he did so in a way that told her he didn’t particularly want to. “I don’t mind.” She shrugged, folding the map so that she could see where they were and not have to hold the large map at the biggest it could get. “I don’t have my car...is walking alright with you?”

“Does that sound like something a therapist would say? What kind of therapists are you seeing?”

“Counter offer - you take my advice and tell me what’s wrong. And maybe I’ll take it back and help you. Or confirm you are indeed crazy and help you. Or decide it doesn’t sound fun and leave you alone.”

David did his best to listen to the woman’s words, but of course the one time he needed his brain to be quiet he couldn’t focus. Various voices talking over one another caused him to bring his hand up to his face and pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration. He only caught her last few words and yet still nodded his head as if he had heard everything. “Okay,” he replied. He closed his eyes for a brief moment in an attempt to force the voices inside his mind to quiet down. “N-no…I should be good,” he told her. He already felt like he was inconveniencing her enough by stopping her to ask for directions.

There was something going on inside his head that she couldn’t figure out. She didn’t know where he’d been or where he was going, but something told her that letting him go to the bus station by himself would probably end with him wandering confused. He hadn’t paid much attention to her explanation, even if he pretended he did. “How about I take you? I don’t have anywhere to be, and I don’t mind.”

David did his best to focus, but with how much stress he had been under lately it was hard to follow Melanie’s technique. It was part of the reason he didn’t just poof himself back to Summerland. He couldn’t even focus enough to quiet his mind, who knew what would happen if he tried to project himself somewhere with little to no concentration. A bus was the safest route, even if it was one of the longest. Only problem was, he’d have to find a way on the bus with no money - but that was a problem for when he arrived at the station. Worst case scenario, he’d just have to pickpocket someone. “I mean, even if you can tell me a few key points. Things to look out for and to follow. That’s probably be easier than trying to make sense of these streets.”

She eyed him for a second with uncertainty. She didn’t know how much time he’d lost “off the grid”, but the look on his face when he’d heard it was January was troubling. He didn’t appear to really know where he was either, which also had her contemplating just who he was and how he’d ended up here. It wasn’t her business, though, so she took a look at the map again and sighed. “I think this line here is one of the bus routes. You could follow it to the station and they’d be able to tell you which bus is headed in the direction you want.” She explained, hoping it was enough. Then, before she could stop herself: “Are you sure you don’t need help or anything?”

"Would it be better to say it behind your back? Or should I send you a mental message?"

January. The word hit him like a ton of bricks and he felt his jaw tighten in frustration. It had been six months since he had seen Sydney and the rest of the group from Summerland. At least he thinks July was the last time he had been with them. He tries to keep himself in a calm state, knowing if he allows himself to get too stressed out it will only make it harder to control his abilities. “So uh-…Bus station?” he asked, avoiding answering her question for more than one reason.

He was clearly startled by the fact that it was January, which only made her wonder what month it had been for him last even more. And how had he lost so much time if he’d simply been off the radar? How could he miss fall turning to winter, or even summer turning to fall? It was curious, and she frowned at him before deciding that perhaps it really wasn’t her business. “Okay, let me look at this map and we’ll see what we can find.” She sighed, eyes falling to the map in hand.