"It's never the tears that measure the pain, sometimes it's the smile we fake."
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"Hey, how'd it go?" Jesse asked you upon you arriving at his house.
"It went wonderfully. He's the real father."
He gave you a look of confusion. "What do you mean? Wouldn't you know who the father of your child was? I mean, you don't seem like you're a slut who has sex with a bunch of guys."
"No, I'm not like that." You shook your head. You realized that you never told Jesse about Dark or any of them. He would think that you were insane. But, then again, he seemed to deal with people with all kinds of issues so maybe this would seem like nothing to him.
"Jesse, can I tell you something?" You sat down on the couch as you spoke because the extra weight that you had gained over the last few months was really putting a strain on you.
"Of course you can." He sat down next to you, leaving a little space between the two of you. "You can tell me anything."
You sighed. "Please don't think that I'm insane."
"(Y/N), as an aspiring psychologist, you wouldn't believe the shit that people have gone through and what I learned in college." He smiled in an attempt to lighten up the mood a bit and ran a hand through his hair. "But anyway, tell me what's up."
You sighed once more. "I see and talk to dead people. Not only that, but there's this guy who's just a creation but he just seems so real. They're driving me crazy. I feel like I'm going to go insane if they keep interfering with my life like they have been."
"You have to shut them out."
"I don't know how to shut them out."
"You have to keep telling yourself that they aren't real." He was looking at you dead in the eyes now. "You have to close your eyes and keep telling yourself over and over again that they aren't real."
"But one of them keeps getting into my dreams."
"Are you aware that they are dreams during that time?"
"Yes."
"When that happens, you have to wake yourself up. You might lose sleep but eventually this person or whatever it is that you've been seeing with realize that it's a waste of time to interfere with your dreams because you're just going to wake up and that'll be the end of it."
"Will all of this really work?"
Jesse shrugged. "Honestly, I really wish that I could promise you that it would work but I can't. I'll be honest when I say that I've never dealt with anyone with a problem like yours so this is brand new to me. But, like with all problems, not all methods work for everyone. Something that works really well for someone might work terribly for someone else. The main thing I took away from my psych class in college is that humans really are unique and how someone deals with problems can really help or hurt their mental state."
You smiled. "Jesse, I love it when you talk psychology to me. I can see the passion that you have for it in your eyes." You immediately frowned as you realized that he didn't have a job. "How come you aren't a psychologist around here?"
"I am." He insisted. "I have the gang. They don't pay me and even though they try to pay me every once in a while, I always tell them that I don't need their money."
"Wow." You stared down at the floor. "I wish that I was more like you. You're so kind and caring. Meanwhile, I'm selfish and really only think about myself."
"Now, that's not true." Jesse insisted. "You're just overwhelmed right now. Mark's gone and he left you with a child that you feel like you're going to have to take care of on your own."
"I am going too."
"Not necessarily." He seemed to get shy at that moment. "Y-you have me."
You looked up at him. "You really don't have to step in and take care of a kid that isn't even yours."
He blinked. "I want to though. I've already lost a kid."
"Jesse... I had no idea." You suddenly remembered that he wasn't very happy with you becoming friends with Angie because she had done things to hurt him. "Oh my God, are the father of Angie's child? Did you ra-"
"No, I didn't rape her." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "She lied about that shit. She's trying to take me to court for it. But she hasn't quite gotten her hands on the money for all the fees and shit that you have to pay in order to actually take my ass to court." He sighed. "So that's why I was so upset about you becoming friends with her."
"Jesse I-"
"Can we just play something and forget about this whole thing? Maybe we could record a video together?"
You smiled. "Yeah, that'd be tons of fun. Just promise me that you won't make me go to any more of those yoga classes."
"You got yourself a deal. Hopefully we don't have any run-ins with Angie anywhere in the future."
"Hopefully." You paused for a brief moment. "But anyway, what do you want to play?"
"Well, we could do some-"
"What the fuck is she doing here?" Jesse happened to be looking out the window as you spoke. He looked pissed as he walked over to the door and opened it so fast and with so much force that it was a wonder that he didn't break the door. He angrily slammed it behind him and you knew that it was wrong for you to eavesdrop on him but curiosity got the better of you. You made sure that you couldn't be seen but also made sure that you had a good spot that you would be able to hear the conversation clearly.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" Jesse was still pretty pissed off.
"I wanted to talk to you." You immediately recognized the voice of Angie's.
"I don't want to talk to you! You're just going to spew out all the same shit that you said last time!"
"No I'm not! Let me speak!"
"The only time you can speak to me is when and if you drag my motherfucking ass to court!"
"Oh, I'm definitely doing it! Just you wait!"
"Fine then! Do it! See what happens when you do it! I fucking dare you!" He didn't wait for her to respond. "I'll tell you what'll happen so you can save a shit ton of money. What's going to happen is that you're going to lose the case and you'll be down thousands of dollars that you could've spent taking care of our child!"
"Well, you could not be a terrible dad and actually want to be in its life!"
"I do want to be in its life! The only problem with this is that there's a psycho mother in the way of me doing so!"
Why am I allowing this to go on?
"Psycho?" She seemed disgusted that Jesse used that word to describe her. "If you think that this is psycho, you haven't seen anything yet!"
"Whatever." He sighed angrily. "Get your ass off my damn property or I'm calling the cops." He slammed the door in her face and went back over to where you were.
"Jesse-"
"We aren't going to speak about this (Y/N)." He snapped. "We're going to act like it never even happened!"
Before you could even respond, he stormed upstairs. You watched as he did so.