𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓤𝓷𝓬𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓭 (𝓡𝓸𝔂𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓢𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓑𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓣𝔀𝓸)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓕𝓲𝓯𝓽𝔂-𝓣𝔀𝓸

Jessie and I walk into the bathroom. We both stand in front of the sinks, and take a deep breath.

Even though it's been an hour or so since Fanny was saying those harsh things, Jessie's still very broken over it. She's spent the entire hour either crying, or hiding in the corner trying to get away from everyone.

As her friend, I naturally wanted to talk to her, and get all of those thoughts out of her head. She really needs someone to talk to otherwise she'll continue being upset, and I wanna try and help her feel better.

But first, I need something to start with. I need to know if this is a reoccurring thing between the both of them or if it's new.

I look at her and lean against the sink, "Has this been going on for a while between you two?"

She nods and hiccups a few rushed breaths. She rubs the tears from her eyes and looks at the sink, "It's been going on since we came back. I don't know what happened, but she just.... changed. She always talks about the protest, and she talks about how she thinks it should be run. She argues with me when I wanna talk about something else, or calls me stupid when I don't agree with her," she pauses, "I don't know what happened, she's become obsessed with this stuff."

I can't even stop my eyes from widening.

What the hell?

This has been going on for nearly five months? I mean, clearly she's been showing to the group recently that she was being weird, but I didn't think it spanned this long.

Jessie doesn't deserve this. She deserves someone who won't belittle her, and instead view her as an equal. She deserves someone who won't give all of their time to this protest, and forgets they have a partnership to give time and effort to.

I shake my head and sigh, "Jessie, you don't deserve any of this. You deserve someone who'd give their all for the protest, but also give their all for you. And you definitely don't deserve someone who belittles you constantly."

She reluctantly nods and wipes more tears away, "I know Catherine, I know. But I don't wanna throw everything away. I fell in love with her because of how nice and smart she was. It felt like we had such a good connection whether it was painting or nothing," she pauses and sighs, "And, what if she's just going through something?"

My eyes soften.

The one thing I've learned from the past few months is it's much better to say something, and communicate even when it might hurt you than to let it in. 

The more I let all of the conflict with Arty go on, it hurt me. The more she lets this go on with Fanny, it'll hurt her. Instead of keeping it in, it's better to speak out. Yeah, you might not like the answer, but it's better for the conflict to be solved. Once it's solved, the mental strain goes away.

"You need to talk to her about it. Even though the answer could hurt, you need to know what's going on, and even if the answer leads you to a direction you might not like the outcome of."

She pauses and sighs again, "But what if it does lead in a bad direction? What if I lose her? I'm not only losing her, but I'm losing the only thing that makes me unique from my sister. I'm not ready to lose any of that."

I raise an eyebrow.

She thinks her partnership with Fanny is the only difference she has with Sophie? What the hell?

"What do you mean this is the only thing that makes you different from Sophie?"

She shakes her head, "I told you how much my mom either lumped us together, or treated her better than me. This relationship is kind of the only thing that people can tell us apart by."

What the-

I get where she's coming from, but that doesn't make any sense. Her interests, her personality, and even her appearance are different from Sophie. We all know she's different from Sophie.

"Jessie," I whisper with a soft voice, "You're different from Sophie in many other ways than that. Sophie doesn't like to paint, and giggle about things that don't mean anything. Sophie isn't around here, always smiling, and being kind to everyone. I mean, come on neither of you even have the same body shape," I pause, "You're different from Sophie because you're your own unique person with interests, and a different outlook on life. You're different because you're you, and it's a shame that you don't think that about yourself."

She stands there looking at the sink for a few seconds before looking at me and smiling, "Are you sure?"

I nod.

She looks at me for another second before pulling me into a hug, "Thank you. It means so much more to me than you know."

I return her gesture and whisper against her ear, "Of course. Hey, Sophie wouldn't be hugging me in the bathroom right now. That's definitely something different."

She pulls away and laughs, "You're right. We're very different, aren't we?" She smiles but it quickly disappears, "So I guess I need to talk to Fanny."

I nod, "Yes soon. Whenever you have the time to do it, do it. Do it before the situation gets worse."

She looks at me and looks down, "Okay fine. I'll do it soon."