The Afterstory

Chapter 2

When Lake woke up, she realized Jesse was gone. Now that she was pretty much fully awake and had thought about last night, she felt embarrassed. What if somehow Jesse knew that she liked it?
I mean, it's not like she liked him that way anyways.. right?
Lake decided to stay in denial, she didn't want to face the fact she felt that way. It felt wrong to her, it would destroy their friendship if she liked him like that.
She simply sighed and stood up, getting off the bed.
Where was Jesse??
Well, he was in the Kitchen making breakfast. He didn't really know if Lake had to eat or not, but just to be safe he was making her a plate too.
Just as Lake was about to go looking for Jesse, a car pulled up in the driveway.
It was Mr. And Mrs. Cosay!
Lake didn't know what to do in that moment, but she soon heard footsteps going towards the room she was in.
It was Jesse!
"Alright, they're here! Come on so I can introduce you!"

"I don't know Jesse, are you sure they're gonna just let me stay here like that??"
Lake was a little doubtful because of how sudden it would be for Jesse to just show up after being missing with a random person and ask if they could stay.
"Well, you don't have anywhere else to go so they would have to let you stay!"
Jesse insisted, taking Lakes hand and leading her outside where Mr and Mrs Cosay were.
Mr and Mrs Cosay looked over at the two, Mrs Cosay tearing up a bit
"Jesse! You're back!! Where were you??"
She wrapped her arms around Jesse.
There was fury in Mrs. Cosays voice but it was the kind where you can tell she was just worried.
"Mom! Oh God there's so much to explain, there was this train I was trapped on and--"
Jesse kept explaining to his mom what happened meanwhile Mr Cosay walked over and was sort of staring at Lake, enamored and confused. Both of her metal skin and not knowing who she was.
Mrs. Cosay backed out of the hug she had with Jesse and turned her attention to me
"And who's this young Lady? And why is she.. reflective??"
Mrs. Cosay questioned, looking at Lake like she was a fun house mirror, moving in different directions to see how her reflection would morph.
Lake didn't do much but let out an Annoyed sigh since this has happened to her multiple times now.
She felt weird about being called 'young lady'. She didn't know why but something about it made her feel weird.
"This is Lake! She was on the train with me and helped me get off, I would still be there if it wasn't for her! Also she kind of used to be a reflection and hasn't had a life of her own up until now so she has nowhere to stay"
Jesse explained, not taking a break to breathe between words.
Mr. Cosay was quiet and was just watching everything go down, but he shot a look to Mrs. Cosay. He caught the drift of what Jesse was trying to ask and gave Mrs. Cosay that one 'well, what do we do?' look.
Mrs. Cosay looked back at Mr. Cosay, understanding his look and nodding before looking back to Lake and Jesse.
"Jesse, are you comfortable sharing a room with her?"
Mr. Cosay finally spoke up, not knowing what else to do about Lake.
"Yup! I already talked to Lake about it since we got here yesterday!"
Jesse smiled, putting his arm around Lakes shoulders and pulling her into a weird side hug.
"Well, okay then. She can stay with us until we can figure out how to get her her own place of some kind." Mrs. Cosay spoke as she looked over to Mr. Cosay who nodded in agreement
"Well, that went way better than I thought it would" Lake admitted, relieved it went over well.
Jesse happily flapped one of his hands before talking again, remembering something
"Oh wait! I just remembered, I made everyone breakfast! Yesterday Nate told me you guys were getting here this morning so I made you guys food too! I think Nates still sleeping, actually."
Lake chuckled a bit, finding Jesse adorable. But like, adorable in the sense he's dorky. It wasn't romantic or anything, right??
"Well, that should give us a good chance to get to know Lake here! We can all talk over some food"
Mrs cosay smiled sweetly
"Well then let's go inside, I'm starving" Mr Cosay half joked as he walked inside, everyone else following behind him
"You could say that twice" Lake agreed.

After about 30 minutes of non stop questions at breakfast, Lake was finally free to go upstairs.

Lake went to Jesse's room, Jesse following behind her.
Lake sat down on Jesse's bed and leaned on the wall behind her.
All the questions everyone was asking was exhausting and may have resurfaced some trauma she was trying to bury. Such as the flecs, all of her time with Tulip, etc.

"Hey, those questions didn't overwhelm you too much, did they?"
Jesse sat down next to Lake, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"It's fine, I know my.. existence is confusing for them so I don't really care."
She thought about that for a second. Her very existence was confusing to them. Would she ever just be a normal person??
She thought to herself that she's doomed to be weird and out of place where ever she went, but she didn't want Jesse to worry about her so she didn't say anything that might be concerning
Either way, Jesse had a concerned look on his face and didn't really know how to make sure she was okay without overstepping.
"Are you sure??"
Well, except maybe that. But that kind of question has a built in answer for everybody.
"Yea, don't worry about it, I'm fine."
Lake didn't really seem fine but she decided to try and change the topic
"Anyways, where's the remote? I'm bored"
Jesse got up and looked around, eventually finding it.
He handed it to Lake who put on a horror movie she never heard of before. It looked interesting though, so she put it on with Jesse watching with her.

45 minutes into the movie and Jesse was grabbing onto Lakes arm terrified, meanwhile Lake found the movie bland. Jesse was really sensitive to horror and stuff, so whenever there was a jumpscare or something he would close his eye and hide behind Lakes shoulder.
Lake found it funny and adorable, especially since the movie wasn't all that scary.

Both of them were happy to be in eachothers company, butterflies in both of their stomachs.