Michael kicked his feet onto his desk, taking his sweet precious time to allow Eleanor into his office again.
It was the 69th reboot for Michael's torture for the four humans, a number that Michael knew that Jason loved for God knows what reason. Except there was no God, there was only Michael and his demons.
He was getting so tired of calculating variables that he knew would blow up in his face, that he groaned when he realized that he hadn't even chose a soulmate for Eleanor. Chidi would clearly be the worst pick for torture, and most of the demon actors that he used were useless.
Hmm...who absolutely gets on Eleanor's nerves...Jason!
Ignoring Eleanor's past history with Tahani, Michael jumped to his feet and opened the door, telling Eleanor to come on in. She sat down, and their conversation went practically the same as the last 68 times that he went through this baloney.
He walked her to her clown poster-filled house and introduced her to her 'soulmate Jianyu' before taking off. Conveniently before Michael could tell her that he's taken a vow of silence, another couple needed Michael's assistance. Michael left, promising that he'd come back, and Eleanor stared at Jason.
"So...Michael says you're a monk?" Eleanor asked...silence.
"Is something wrong?" Eleanor asked, hoping for her fake soulmate to answer...no answer.
"Dude, why the hell aren't you saying any-"
"Sorry, I'm back." Michael approached them. "I meant to tell you that Jianyu has taken a vow of silence since the age of seven that he decides to hold here in the afterlife."
"Oh..." A blush crept up on Eleanor's cheeks as she tugged her shirt. "Thanks for telling me."
"So, I suppose there won't be much talking to leave you guys to." Michael held in his laughter. "Well then, I expect you two at tonight's welcoming party."
Michael took off once again, leaving no chance of Eleanor catching up to him. After all, he had interesting soulmates to give to Chidi and Tahani.
Eleanor stared at Jason, thinking over her words.
"So, if I told you a secret, you couldn't say anything could you?" Eleanor wondered. "Or could you write it? Just...you'll keep your mouth shut, okay? I'm a fake, I'm not supposed to be here."
Jason blinked at her, not sure if he should reveal himself as well. What if she was pretending to be a fake, just because she didn't think he was really a monk?
Then again, was she really that clever?
...he kept silent.
"I'm going to take off to the party early, by myself. Follow me, or don't. I don't really care." Eleanor turned her back to him. "Janet?"
Suddenly the most beautiful person in the universe popped in front of Eleanor out of thin air, taking Jason by pleasant surprise. Now it was getting even harder to not speak, or maybe that was good? He didn't want to say anything stupid to this woman.
"Yes, Eleanor?"
"Dress me up...a little slutty. But not too much, just enough to get double-takes." Eleanor snickered. "Don't worry about Jianyu over there, he doesn't care."
Janet looked up for a moment, locking eyes with Jason before snapping her fingers and changing Eleanor's outfit to a low-cut ruby dress that exposed most of Eleanor's back. Eleanor said a brief 'thanks, hot stuff.' before leaving the house right away.
Janet didn't go back to the void, she kept looking at Jason.
"If you want to break your vow of silence, I won't tell anyone." Janet admitted, surprising herself.
"Oh thank God." Jason sighed in relief. "I'm not the monk that she thinks I am, Janet. I don't even know how I got here. The last thing I remember is that I was in a safe, and that old man told me I died and sent me here...is this a prank show?"
"This is the Good Place." Janet explained. "Your name is Jianyu?"
"Jason Mendoza." Jason sighed. "You won't tell anyone?"
"Nope."
"Good, so...what's your deal?"
"My deal?"
"Yeah, like you have a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend?"
"Nope..."
Eleanor got drunk quicker than Michael expected her to. It was almost as if the fact that Jason was mute made her give up right away. Michael smiled as she held in her vomit at the party.
After Eleanor inevitably threw up all over the cake, Michael called Janet to clean it up. But Janet didn't show up right away, so he had Vicky and some of the other demons clean up the cake. He remembered the last time that Janet straight up ignored him, and that she was with Jason...
...was Janet the reason that all his reboots were failing?
No, that couldn't be. After all, it was Eleanor that kept figuring out that they were in the Bad Place. He had nothing to worry about for now...
Eleanor stumbled back to her house, her dress dirty from throwing up. She fell in front of the door and clumsily pushed the door handle open, crawling inside the house.
Everything was spinning, her vision, her hearing. When was the last time she was this drunk? Whenever it was, she knew that she'd feel this really bad in the morning.
She saw two people making out on her bed, what the hell? Whatever, she'd just sleep in the bathtub and take care of it in the morning...
The next day
To no surprise, she woke up in the bathtub feeling like hell.
She felt like she was groaning in the bathtub for hours when Jason walked into the bathroom, staring at her with wide eyes.
"So, Janet gave me some advice last night...and she told me that since you don't belong here, I can trust you." Jason admitted, stretching his hand out. "I'm Jason Mendoza."
Eleanor's headache intensified, what?
"Why the fork didn't you say anything last night?" Eleanor groaned.
"I thought you were trying to get me to admit that I don't belong here." Jason admitted. "But I guess not."
Eleanor curled up in the bathtub, not wanting to ever leave. How were they going to pretend for all of eternity? Especially when-
Suddenly, a tornado of puke and wine glasses zoomed past their house. Eleanor ran to the window, seeing shrimp flying in the sky. Fork.
Her headache was jabbing her mind, becoming more and more painful. She felt Jason holding her to keep her from falling. Remembering something, she suddenly looked at her empty bed.
"Those ash-holes left?" Eleanor asked.
"What?"
"Nothing, just two people making out on my bed last night." Eleanor felt everything spinning again. She could barely hear Michael on their TV, telling everyone to stay in their homes for the time being.
"Oh." was all Jason said. "Do you want to be friends?"
"You want to b-be my friend?" Eleanor managed to say. "Wasn't I really rude to you last night?"
"I figured you were upset about not belonging here." Jason said. "I forgive you, could you forgive me for not saying anything sooner?"
"Y-Yeah, I need to get on the bed." Eleanor whispered.
Jason helped walked her to her bed, allowing Eleanor to get some rest. As he began to walk away, he heard Eleanor call him.
"Jason?"
"Yeah?"
"I...I'd like to be your friend."
"Oh, me too." Jason smiled. "Now I have someone to tell my Florida stories! I wish Pillboi and Donkey Doug were here! Then this would be perfect!"
Jason continued talking about his family and dance crew, while Eleanor smiled and began to fall asleep.
Whatever happened, at least there was someone who cared about her. Who didn't want anything from her but friendship. It was something that she never really had on Earth, but now? She had a real friend in Jason Mendoza.
And that alone was her Good Place.