It might be Monday for some people when this is posted; my apologies. Better late than never?

Chapter 25: Fake

JPOV

I was happy when Wednesday's group therapy came around, because at least that would be something to do. I've been talking to Alice, but that's about the only other thing I've been doing here besides sleeping. I needed a change sometime, and therapy looked like the only option.

Most of the others were in the room when I arrived. There was a girl that wasn't there, and Jarrett was also missing. I remembered him saying something about a pass for Wednesday, and how much I wished that I could escape for a day, too. Fresh air was something you took for granted and and absence noticed when it was too late.

At least one of us would be free for a day. Jarrett deserved to get out; I still remembered the way he looked on Saturday. It was the first time I had ever seen fear cross his eyes. He seemed so stricken from his nightmare that it made me wonder how he could hold himself together throughout the day. He needed some time out of here. He might forget about the place for awhile. It's what I wanted to do.

I sat in the empty seat beside Alice. "Hey," she greeted cheerfully.

"Hi," I replied.

She sighed longingly. "Jarrett is so lucky. I wanna get out of here so bad…"

"Me too," I agreed. "I don't know when we can qualify for one. He said something about them having to know that you could handle it or something."

She huffed. "Well, they'd better hurry up and decide. I'm going crazy just sitting in here."

I didn't point out that, technically, we were already crazy. Either way, I didn't think that Alice was insane or anything. She was just talented. Her visions were no illness. I, on the other hand, was crazy. I didn't except it, exactly, but I've learned to live with it and tried my best to get better.

"Good luck with that."

Jonathan was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room beside Jenny. His elbows were propped on the back of the chair, and his legs were spread in front of him casually.

The absent girl appeared through the door and quickly took her seat beside another girl. "Okay, Jarrett has a pass," Jenny said, "so looks like we're ready to begin!"

"Yay!" Jonathan cheered sarcastically.

"Let's go around the circle and tell everyone how we're doing," Jenny continued. "And be truthful, everyone. No one is here to judge."

"Not out loud, anyways," Jonathan added.

"Michelle, you can start us off."

Michelle cleared her throat and sat up straighter, like she was about to give an important speech. "Well," she began in a high-pitched voice, "I think I'm getting better, personally. I mean, like, I'm not hearing as much, so that's gotta be, like, awesome progress, right?"

"Yes, I would say that's very nice progress," Jenny said. Jonathan scoffed. Michelle tossed her hair and grinned. "Erin, let's move over to you. How do you think you're progressing?"

We went around the circle and gave a brief report on how each person thought they were progressing. I tried to ignore Jonathan's comments the best I could.

When Steve finished, there was a pause. I realized it was my turn. Jonathan sat up straighter to listen.

"Jasper, your turn," Jenny pushed.

"I know," I said a little too sharply. "Sorry," I mumbled. Jonathan was staring intently at me, waiting, and it was a bit unnerving.

"Do you need a minute?" Margaret asked softly. She hasn't said much throughout the session, but I found that she was kind and considerate of the other people here.

I gave her a small smile. "No, I'm fine, thank you."

"Seeing as we don't know your condition," Jenny said, "you'll have to fill us in."

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Shut up," he muttered. "You're so annoying."

"Alright." I took a deep breath and let it out. Alice was staring in concern. She probably thought I was lying about being fine. I gave her a reassuring smile. She smiled back.

"I… hallucinate," I explained without making eye contact with anyone. "I don't think it's getting better. I don't know." I rested my elbows on my knees and ran my hands through my hair.

"What do you hallucinate?" Jenny asked the question I hoped wouldn't come up.

"A person." I hoped I could get away with that.

"Who is this person? What did they do?" I guess my vague response wasn't enough.

"Did you honestly think you would get away with that?" Jonathan asked with incredulous laughter. "And I'm hurt. Won't you introduce me?"

I bit my tongue to keep myself from answering him out loud.

"Jasper, what are you looking at?" Margaret asked curiously. She was more observant than I gave her credit for.

I chuckled dryly. "I'm hallucinating right now, actually. I was hoping no one would notice."

"Ah, hope," Jonathan mused. "Something I love to see squashed. Preferably when I do the squashing."

I focused on other people's reactions instead of Jonathan's comment. Some people looked around as if they could see him if they looked hard enough. Some looked surprised. Jenny and Margaret exchanged a glance.

"Who do you see?" Jenny asked again.

"A guy named Jonathan." I didn't want to go into the horrifying details with so many strangers in the room.

"And how is Jonathan significant?"

"Good luck getting out of that one," Jonathan said with a smirk.

I paused. "Do I have to go into that?"

"Talking always helps," Jenny replied. "I think that you should tell us-"

"No," Margaret cut in. "You don't have to tell us today." She shot Jenny a warning look. Jenny looked annoyed, but didn't press it.

Jonathan looked annoyed, too. "Damn, and I thought this was gonna be fun for me." I thought that he would leave, but he just slumped down in his chair again and regained his hung-back posture.

"Should we move on?" Margaret asked. She looked at Alice without waiting for Jenny's answer. Alice glanced at me; she looked nervous. I nodded in encouragement. She smiled faintly before looked up at the others.

"Well, I can see the future," she said simply. Her eyes swept over the others. The girls were whispering to each other, and every person in the room looked intrigued.

"Looks like your girlfriend can cause quite a stir," Jonathan noted.

"Sh-," I began, but I caught myself before I could speak to him out loud. "She's not my girlfriend," I finished in my head. He just scoffed.

Whoever glanced at me when I slipped now had their attention back to Alice.

I didn't notice Jenny and her skeptical expression. Her doubt was hidden, but I could see that it was there. "Can you explain that, Alice?"

"Well, my vision just gets blurry, and then I can sorta see what will happen. They just kinda come on without much warning."

Everyone was listening intently, some even leaning forward a bit so they didn't miss a word she said. When she paused, people exchanged glances. Jenny looked at Margaret like Alice was making everything up. She seemed surprised when Margaret didn't acknowledge her colleague; she was staring at Alice with a mixture of curiosity and awe.

Jenny didn't seem to like this. She put her positive listening face on and said, "How do you know that these are really things that will happen, what you see?"

Alice was starting to see the therapist's displeasure and doubt. "There's proof!" Alice replied. "In my first vision, I saw the subway train I was on crashing, and-"

"That obviously did not happen," Jenny cut in, "if you're still here without injury."

"Because I pulled the emergency brake," Alice continued. "I got in trouble for that because no one would believe me. I went to the police station, and a guy came in with a paper that said the trains would have crashed if I wouldn't have stopped it."

Everyone's eyes went to Jenny for her response. Her cheeks were getting pink, and she stayed silent for a long minute. Whispers went through the room to fill the quiet. The whispers turned into talking loud enough for me to hear.

"Do you believe it?"

"She said there's proof."

"Do you think they have that report in her file?"

"Settle down, please," Jenny said over the voices. They fell silent. "I think we should move on. Mark?"

The boy next to Alice spoke, but it wasn't about himself. "So do you believe her?" Mark asked.

All eyes were back to the therapist. "We have moved on from that discussion, Mark."

"And I'm going back to it," he shot back. His expression went from determination to chagrin, like he was afraid to get scolded for talking back to her.

"You think she's lying?" Shane accused from three seats away.

Jenny was about to deny it when Erin cried, "That's not fair!" Other people got into the argument and tried to talk over each other to be heard.

I ignored the pandemonium going on around me and the pleasure Jonathan seemed to be getting from the fighting and looked at Alice. Hurt was buried deep in her eyes under anger. She met my gaze. "Why won't anyone believe me?" Her voice portrayed the hurt.

I didn't want her to be upset. I put an arm around her shoulder and squeezed gently. "I know it's hard," I said sympathetically. "Some people just don't accept differences in other people. They deny that the differences are good."

She sighed and slid her chair closer to mine to rest her head on my shoulder. "That makes sense," she muttered, "but it's not fair. I don't know anyone who will accept it that can help me out with it. At least someone believes me." She looked up at me and smiled. "Thank you."

I could hear Jonathan chuckle dryly from across the room. "Not your girlfriend, huh?"

"I can be a good friend," I replied in my head.

"Yeah, a really good friend." He rolled his eyes and went back to enjoying the chaos.

Suddenly, Jenny couldn't take it anymore. "EVERYONE BE QUIET!"

Shock seemed to silence the others. I guess they weren't used to her yelling when she was always so positive and bubbly all the time. It was a bit unnerving.

"This discussion is over," she seethed. "Time is up. We'll pick up with Mark next week. You are dismissed."

Everyone slowly and silently got up and left the room. With one last laugh in Jenny's direction, Jonathan disappeared.

I walked down the hall with Alice at my side. She seemed to cheer up a bit now that she was out of that room and away from Jenny. I was glad that I didn't have her for one-on-one therapy. At first I would have said that because of her over-positive attitude about everything, but today altered my reasoning. I had seen that her cheerfulness was so thick to cover her hidden irritation and negativity. What did she really think of the people she was treating?

"I'm just going to go to bed," Alice said as she stretched her arms over her head.

"Alright," I replied. "I guess I'll see you later."

"Yeah." We were standing where we would have to part to get to out rooms. I waved and turned to go, but she caught my arm. "Wait a sec."

I swung back around. "Yeah?"

"Thanks. I mean, thanks for… well, everything?" She smiled sheepishly. "For being my friend, and believing in me, and making me feel better."

I grinned in return. "Thanks for being my friend. You make a pretty good one."

"Good. And so do you." She took her hand off of my arm and walked away. After a moment, I did the same.

When I got to my room and onto my bed, I closed my eyes and let the morning and the questions it raised play around in my head. I didn't trust Jenny at all, or respect her. She didn't deserve it. She barely even heard Alice out about her visions when she seemed to actually listen to the others there. What made her so different that she didn't deserve respect?

A loud sigh cut into my thoughts. "Thinking about her again?" Jonathan asked. He was sitting against the wall and staring at the ceiling.

"What do you mean by that?"

He rolled his eyes and sighed twice as loud as he did before. "Are you serious? Are you blind?"

"What?" I asked again.

He opened his mouth, but seemed to change his mind on what he was about to say. "No. I'll let you figure that one out."

"Hey, if you're going to be in my head, at least tell me something about it."

"No." I thought he would leave, but he didn't. What was he gaining from staying?

"If you're staying, you have to tell me what you're talking about."

His eyes slid down to stare at me incredulously. He stood up and walked closer to me. "Since when did you call the shots here?" When I didn't answer, a smirk found its way to his lips. "That's right, you don't. I can come when I want, stay as long as I want, and say or not say what I want." He sat back down on the floor so he was between the side of the bed and the wall. "And for forgetting that, I'll stick around to give you a reminder."

A horrible feeling formed at the pit of my stomach at his tone and leer. He had something planned, and it wasn't good.

Ooooooh, intrigue.

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