'Hey, old man!' (Chapter 14)

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Delusion.

It's one of the things I love about the human brain. Fixed, false conviction in something that is not real or shared by other people, it's a coping mechanism. The chance to feel comforted and peaceful about a situation that is entirely imaginative. Is it healthy?

Absolutely not.

The five of us are sat patiently in the Twinkie as my brother drives us somewhere unknown. I want my brother to come to terms with dads death before it eats him alive. Believe me I'm the most delusional person there is, but when it comes to believing that our dead father is alive somewhere, that's when it gets too much.

"I mean, it's obvious, right? A family heirloom. What better place to hide a message? He had to know it was going to get back to us, right?" John b rambles on, making us all look to each other in concern for the boy.

"Yeah, it's possible." Kie quietly whispers clearly worried for him.

"It could also be possible you're concocting wild theories to help deal with your sad feels." Pope tries to reason with my brother. It's not fair that John b is leading my friends on a wild goose chase just because he misses our dad.

"Bro, you know how I process my sad feels. Dank nugs and the stickiest of ickies, that's how I do it." JJ shares as my brother gets annoyed.

"I'm not concocting, okay? My dad's trying to give me a message." John b shouts upset over everyone downplaying his theory.

"If it helps you believe, John B." Kie says softly trying to comfort the grieving boy. Her words only make him more frustrated, it's clear to me that he is feeling attacked.

"I don't need a therapy session, okay? I'm not tripping out." He gets more and more agitated at the topic of the conversation.

"It's okay to trip, bro." JJ voices before John B almost jumps out of his seat in irritation.

"Look my dad is missing, okay? Missing." He shouts in anger making me jump slightly. "You don't know what it's like to have one of the people closest to you vanish and have no idea what happened. That's what Sam and I are going through right now and I'm sorry, but we want answers."

"Don't rope me into this madness. Johnny, don't you think it's best that you come to terms with what happened. Dads dead, that's the whole story." I start to get angry at his destructive coping mechanism. This false hope thing only makes it harder for me to get over dads death. "He's not sending you a secret message and waiting for you to come rescue him, it's a ridiculous theory." I shout in frustration, my outburst shocking everyone to their core.

Paradise // JJ MaybankWhere stories live. Discover now