Janice had her daughter's dinner on a tray.
"She should start taking medicine Mum. It's not normal for someone to fall into depression over deleting a YouTube channel is it?" Joe walked behind his mother up the stairs. He was holding his 2DS in one hand.
"I suppose she was proud of it? I didn't even know she was online again. Jesy's so stubborn it's astounding." She walked towards her daughter's door while frowning. This morning neither she nor her husband had been able to get Jesy to leave her room for school. The teen's excuse for oversleeping was having a major migraine but they quickly found out from Joe that Jesy was upset about something that happened online the night before. Janice had Jesy's phone in her bathrobe. The internet was poison. She knew that there was more behind Jesy's mental illness but whatever was going on in her daughter's mind would only be exacerbated when she got involved on social media. How many times would the same issue occur? I thought Jungkook was over to record another documentary. But something completely different was in the works.
She asked Joe to knock on the door.
They waited a few seconds before the boy just turned the knob to go in.
Janice switched on the light. "Jesy dinner." She brought it to the bedside table.
Jesy was sucked into her laptop. Her eyes squinted to slits after the light came on but she kept watching her screen.
Joe tried to get a glimpse of what had her hooked. "What show is this?"
Jesy sighed. "It's about a prince who moves to the suburbs. Don't ask me the name I've just been watching anything that pops up."
The mother placed her hands on her hips. "Jesy do you intend on staying locked away in your room forever? Because you can't do that. Especially not over something that I told you to stay away from. Why did you make a YouTube channel? Do you enjoy torturing yourself? You know that social media brings out the worst in you."
Jesy's eyes were closing while her hand rubbed them and her face. "I know, I know. You have every right to nag me." She sat up with her sheets around her body. "I was just high on attention as usual. Any bit of it I get just goes straight to my head and I turn into a colossal dick."
Joe sat next to her. "Why though?"
"I don't know. 'Cause I crave people's approval deep down? It's sick and I don't even know if this will be the last time I do something like this." Jesy closed her Netflix.
Janice was at least glad she seemed self-aware. "You haven't really eaten all day. I think you should have some dinner."
"I'm not hungry." Jesy curled up under her sheets.
"You must be. All you managed for breakfast was a strip of bacon." Janice reminded. "Just try to eat some of your dinner."
Jesy turned to the plate of food. "Mmm . . . bring it here."
Janice thanked the heavens. "You like roast right?"
Jesy struggled to eat the meat and potatoes.
Joe's fingers comed through his brown locks. "Mum says you're never getting your phone back."
Jesy grunted.
"It's true. I know you need it for emergencies but as long as you live here, you're not gonna have this." She held up the device from her robe. "Me and Andrew were talking about getting one that only calls the house and police for you."
"I saw something like that in a movie. It was shaped like a ladybird." Joe had a laugh.
Jesy's teeth chewed her food slowly. This was sickening to her stomach. Her appetite was very poor right now. I'm gonna throw up. She fought the urge. "Whatever."
