Dandelion- Jess Mariano

♡Chapter 25: Concert♡

TW: PTSD/Panic Attack

Parker opened her eyes as she hears a loud bang and crash noise. She jolts up in a panic, as she remembers the sounds of gunshots from her foster father. She looks around quickly, frantic breathing taking over.

She holds a hand to her chest as Luke walks over to her, alarmed. "Parker?" He asks, worried. "What's wrong? What's happening?"

He looks around to see if he could find anything wrong with her. Jess is woken up by now, but the sound of Luke rushing to her. Once he is awake enough to realize what is going on, he runs over too.

"Are you hurt?" He asks her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She shakes her head, but doesn't seem to be fully aware of what is going on. Her eyes are blank and looking around in a panic.

"What's going on?" Luke asks Jess. "What do we do?"

"I think it's a panic attack?" He says back, holding her hand. "Maybe just hold her?"

Jess sits himself at the head of the bed behind her, and pulls the girl into his chest. "Luke, can you grab some water?" Jess says, before he pulls the hairtie that was holding Parker's braid out of her hair. Luke places the glass of water by the bed. Jess runs his fingers through Parker's hair, before talking.

"Just try to breathe, it's okay, you're safe, I'm here." He says, "try to focus on the present, the feeling of me messing with your hair, the birds outside, the smell of coffee, and here, I'll hum too." Jess starts to hum a tune, softly in her ear.

After a few minutes, Parker's breathing has returned to a more normal state, and her hand is balled up, grasping his shirt in her first and she tucks her head into his chest. He strokes her hair, still humming.

"Are you seriously humming a Metallica song right now?" Parker looks up to him, laughing. He smiles back at her.

"But which song?" He asks her, glad she is feeling more herself.

"Uh..." Parker pauses for a moment, thinking. "Oh! Master of Puppets!"

"Ding ding ding! Cooooorect!" Jess says in a cheesy announcer vibe. A moment later, Luke walks over.

"Are you alright?" He asks her. "What happened?"

Parker's smile falls and she looks up towards the man sitting next to her. "I'm alright, thank you guys for that." She says. "It's just old memories bubbling up. It's why I am scared to go to court soon, to testify against him."

"Well you still have a few days before then, I think it will be okay, and Jess and I will be there to support you." Luke says.

"Thank you." Parker responds with a smile. "Well come on then, we have to get to work, hungry people to feed!" She hops up, getting ready to go work in the diner.

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The next few days flew by, but it didn't go unnoticed that Jess seemed to be avoiding Parker. He would leave before she got up, skip school, and get home really late, with only a few words spoken in between.

Parker tried to busy herself at work, and buried herself in more schoolwork, but all that was on her mind was Jess.

'What if the panic attack scared him off?'

'What if he just got bored of me?'

'What if he decided I'm too much baggage and chose to call it a day?'

She could not focus on anything other than that, and when she got a text from Dean asking if she could be a buffer between him and Rory during the hockey game, she jumped at the chance to go.