Abby, Skylar, and Gwyn's Awesome Apprenticeship Adventures (Jon's Mysteries)

AITA for telling my friend she’s being cheated on?

I think most people could agree high school was the very last place anyone wanted to be. Well, except high school teachers—pretty sure they were insane for voluntarily coming back, but that was beside the point.

As the apprentice to one of the best Readers in the world, you’d think I could get a pass on going to high school, but not a single person in my life agreed with me.

Hell, Jon argued I still needed to go college and get a Criminal Justice degree so I knew how to work the laws and the courts.

He wasn’t wrong but…ugh, the idea of five more years of school before I could focus on catching bad guys was a little bit frustrating.

Three more weeks of Junior year, three more weeks of Junior year, I could at least survive three more weeks before spending a full summer learning under Jon and flirting with my girl. I totally had this.

Speaking of super cool girlfriend, Skylar dropped into the seat across from mine at the cafeteria table. She’d popped up to refill her drink and was now giving me a confused look. “What’s that face for?”

“I’m trying to convince myself that I can totally do three more weeks of school.”

“Ugh, heard.” Skylar rolled those baby blue eyes expressively. “I ask the universe, why does the last month of a school year generate so much drama?”

“It’s insane. I feel like everyone aside from us is breaking up or trying to get with someone so they’re not alone during the summer.”

“You too, huh? Thought it was just me.” Skylar looked warily at our surroundings.

No one was seated super close, we were the only ones at this table, but we were rather in the middle of the room.

She leaned in and dropped her voice. Over the many overlapping conversations going on around us, I could barely hear her. “How much drama are you seeing?”

It was a legit question since I could see far, far more than she could.

Glancing at someone’s lines I could see age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, feelings, habits, and so much more.

I could also see relationship connections as the glowing meridian lines were like a roadmap of interpersonal relationships.

Truly fascinating to me and I was so, so glad Jon could teach me the ones that were hard to puzzle out because it was rather like trying to tease answers out of a 5D map of glowing lines. Confusion was part of the process.

“I’m seeing a lot,” I admitted, head turning a little as I picked up another chip. “I could do a fucking podcast on drama right now, there’s so much content all around me…oh. Oh shit.”

Skylar hissed, “What? Don’t start and then stop, that’s like a cliffhanger!”

I hadn’t meant to, I was just mentally trying to scramble my brain cells back together. “Uh. Okay, so see Emily over there?”

“Yeah, what about her?”

“She’s pregnant.”

Skylar’s jaw dropped and then she whistled low and long.

Yeah. The girl in question wasn’t one of my favorite people.

She was very shallow and catty, and I gave her a wide berth even on the best of days.

I doubted Emily even knew she was pregnant, that’s how new the pregnancy was.

Maybe five weeks? Four at the least. It was a little hard to judge, something I had to get more practice at.

I bet Jon could nail it in a glance. Still, a sixteen year old should not be pregnant, and that was a very tangible problem coming her direction like a runaway semi hyped up on rocket fuel.

“Hope she enjoyed the fuck around stage ’cause the find out part of the program is going to be brutal.” Skylar grinned, full of evil enjoyment. Safe to say, she didn’t like Emily either. “Who’s her baby daddy?”

“Don’t know yet, but she’s got a very shallow bond with him. Got a feeling this was a friends with benefits situation.”

“Without protection?” Skylar shook her head, flabbergasted at the stupidity.

I shrugged, went back to eating. “You ready for your driver’s test tomorrow?”

Skylar groaned dramatically. “I think I’ve gone insane doing the practice tests over and over. I’d better pass tomorrow. I don’t know if I have it in me to study for it again. At least you got yours on the first try.”

A fact I was very proud of. “I dunno when I’ll actually be able to drive, though.”

With my very hot psychic ability, most cars didn’t like me.

Dad tended to trade vehicles once a year because if he tried to keep them for two, I’d kill them.

It was conversely cheaper to trade in a vehicle or lease one.

He knew I’d need something steady and reliable, though, so he’d been saving up the past three years to get me a car that was safe to drive or could be made safe.

It had taken some research, and Grandpa had been talking with various professionals who did EMP shields for survivalists, but they had a game plan for me.

In two words: Jeep Wrangler.

Apparently, a Wrangler had minimal electronics compared to most modern cars and was mostly mechanical.

Add a little more shielding to pad things for me, and I’d be set.

I’d also be mostly driving the Wrangler so my poor dad could finally stop changing cars every year.

I was supremely grateful I didn’t run as hot as Jon—he’d told me even with all that prevention he’d kill the car in hours.

Meaning he was never allowed in my future baby unless it was an emergency.

“I thought you were going to buy the Wrangler this weekend?”

“I am,” I said, “Or at least, we go shopping for it this weekend. But it’ll still need the modifications, and I don’t have a time frame for that yet.”

“Ahh. Gotcha. Well, hopefully by the time school’s out, it’ll be done.”

“That’d be nice.”

Part of the delay was finding a manual Jeep Wrangler, which meant a used one.

The latest models were all automatics. A manual Jeep was even safer for me, so that was what we were gunning for.

Jon and Donovan had been teaching us on the weekends how to drive a manual using their super cute old truck.

Which, admittedly, had been fun to drive.

I felt pretty comfortable driving a manual now, so I was super hopeful we could find my Jeep this weekend.

Universe, you listening? Help your girl out, here.

More or less done, I got up, bussed my tray, then made my way back to Skylar. Lunch ended in about five minutes, and I needed to swing by my locker before class, so I should probably get a move on now.

However, just as I reached the table, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye.

Ohhhh shit. Shit.

Uh. What do I do?

One of Jon’s first lessons to me had been to mind my own business.

With my psychic ability, I was going to see a lot—too much in fact.

I’d see people’s deepest secrets with nothing more than a glance.

He’d stressed to me that life would be better for me all around if I kept everything to myself unless someone asked for information.

Or unless the situation called for me to reveal that secret.

I, uh, had no idea which heading this fell under. It put me at a loss on what to do.

I walked to Skylar like I was carrying government secrets. Of course she noticed. My Skye’s pretty damn observant and all of her training sessions with Donovan had only made her more so. She clocked my reaction and immediately pulled me in closer to her.

“Abby, what the hell did you see?”

“Oh my god.” I tried not to stare while totally staring from the corner of my eye. “Emily’s baby daddy is Kenneth.”

Skylar started to whip around before she jerked herself to a halt. It left her vibrating in place instead. “Isn’t Kenneth with Becca, though?”

“Yuuup.”

Kenneth went up to Emily and said something that made her laugh, but he was also playing it cool and only said the one thing before walking past her. Still, that brief interaction told me everything I needed to know.

They were fucking, all right, and cheating on Becca in the process.

Fuck. This was not okay in my books. I really wanted to tell Becca.

Everyone in school knew I was a Reader, she’d probably believe me if I said something, which meant I had all of the power right now.

Did this fall under the Mind Your Business heading, though?

No one had asked me for information. Then again, Becca probably didn’t know enough to ask.

Hesitation rooted me on the spot. I didn’t know what to do. What was the right answer, here? Fuck, Jon should have been more specific. I’d totally ask him more questions when I saw him later.

“Skye,” I whined to her, “What do I do? I can’t just let this go, can I? I mean, I don’t know Becca super well—”

“But she doesn’t deserve this,” Skylar agreed, glaring at Kenneth now. “She’s a sweetie, she deserves better than him.”

Truly. Becca had been great since I’d met her, very accepting of me and Skylar, not giving two shits that I could read her like an open book. I had two classes with her and we were always at the same table, sometimes partnering up for group assignments. She was a sort-of-friend.

“I think I’d better tell her?”

“I agree, let’s tell her. How about we wait until we get to class, we can do it then.”

That sounded like the best plan to me. I didn’t see her in the cafeteria, anyway, so the classroom was likely the first chance I’d have. “Then, locker first.”

“Okay.”

We headed to our lockers, which fortunately were right next to each other.

The school was super chill about us being partners, and accommodated me a lot, which I appreciated.

With the exception of one class, Skylar shared my schedule, and it was a godsend.

I felt bad sometimes on how much help I asked of my girlfriend, but her lines glowed bright yellow with pleasure whenever I asked, and that made all the difference to me.

The second we changed out books, Skylar and I went to Physics. Fortunately, Becca had gone in early, and she was at our table, with no one else in yet. Not even the teacher, just two other students on the other side of the room.

I capitalized on this semi-privacy immediately.