Jefferson Lake One Shot

Parker's POV - Manic Episode

I was re-reading my essay due next day when Emily called to inform that McKenna wanted to have a little chat with me about Lee's latest manic episode.

Now, I completely understand why she was freaking out about Lee wanting to skateboard off the roof of a building. People willingly jumping off a roof because they simply want to is as common as unicorns shitting rainbows.

But with the pounding in my head from thinking too much for that stupid essay, the ability to think rationally thrown out the window thanks to no sleep last night, and with the bitter Starbucks drink in my mouth, it took a Herculean effort to even care.

I saw McKenna enter the coffeehouse,  looking for me, and I tried not to glare at her.

It didn't seem to work much.

"Hey," she said, standing awkwardly near my table.

I was trying to save my energy by not speaking too much so I waited for her to skip the formalities and get to the point.

"You look pretty busy." She glanced at the open laptop on the table.

Shutting it down, I said, "I just finished."

She didn't respond to that so I did. "Emily said you wanted to talk?"

She seemed hesitant. "If you have the time."

I really didn't.

"Well, I'm here, aren't I?"

She took a seat across from me. "It's about Lee."

Well, duh.

"I didn't think we were here on a courtesy call."

She didn't seem big on sarcasm. I didn't give a shit.

"He's about to skateboard off the roof of a building," she said. "In fact, he probably has by now."

Lee's manic episodes were hard to forget. Him jumping from a three-storey building into a pool was one of them. This didn't seem much different.

"I'm aware."

She just stared at me with wide eyes and mouth slightly ajar.

I could feel my temper rising along with the headache. Not a good combination.

"Is that what you wanted to tell me?" I demanded. "You wanted to come all the way to Florida State, track me down at Starbucks and interrupt my study session to inform me that my brother wanted to skateboard off a roof?"

"He's having a manic episode," she sputtered.

Again, duh.

"Well, I don't think he'd rationally decide to skateboard off the roof." He wasn't that big of a moron. "Who the hell would?"

I could see her biting back her retort and trying to be polite instead. "I kind of just wanted to talk to you about Lee's manic episodes."

Really. I was guessing it was the weather.

"Well, talk away."

"I just kind of wanted to get an idea of what I can expect?" She said, frustration seeping into her tone.

I didn't blame her.

I heaved a long sigh trying to calm myself down.

"Please, Parker," Emily's call rang out in my head, "try to understand her situation too. Her boyfriend wants to basically jump to his death and everybody is acting like it's no big deal-"

"Because it isn't the first time Lee is pulling such shit an-"

"And she doesn't know that. It's not her fault. Just promise me you will explain everything to her as best as you can."

And so I did.

"When Lee is manic, he has this God-like syndrome. He knows all. Which isn't any different than usual, but Lee is usually pretty humble about his genius-ness. When he's manic, he wants the entire world to know how smart he is. You can't tell him what to do, you can't tell him what he's doing is stupid, he wants nothing to do with your ideas. It's all about him. He's also very irritable, his mood can switch at the snap of a finger. He doesn't sleep, not more than an hour at the most per night. And he eventually stops taking his meds because he's convinced that he doesn't need them anymore. Which sends him even more haywire."

I wasted a great deal of my already depleted energy on that long ass explanation but it looked like I had kept my promise, after all.

"So, what do you do?" She asked, crossing her arms. "How do you deal with it?"

"You just..." I started, remembering the countless times I had tried getting some sense into Lee during his previous episodes and promptly failing, "...deal with it."

I swirled my coffee around and took another sip. "It's not going to last forever."

She frowned. "I get that, but I don't want to wake up every morning wondering what he's going to do today or what he's going to say." 

But the thing was, you couldn't. You could never know what Lee might do or say next during these episodes. Or otherwise.

He could go from being as bright as the Sun to as dark as a dungeon in less than a bloody minute. Just like I explained a few minutes ago.

Didn't she get that already?

Moody. Temperamental. Capricious. Bipolar.

"He's bipolar," I said out loud. "Right now, he's manic, you deal with it. When he's depressive, you deal with it. And when he levels out, you cherish it."

Caffeine speaking.

"If you can't deal with it, get out now."

She finally snapped, standing up. "You know Parker, I came to you for advice. It would've been nice if you could've sat down, and for two minutes, actually talked to me. I'm your brother's girlfriend and I'm just trying to figure this all out."

I stood up too. "Are you done?"

"I'm done here with you," she said, before finally leaving.

Cue another tired sigh.

I closed my eyes for a second.

Lee was going to give me hell for that. Assuming he would still be in one piece after fucking skateboarding off the roof of a building.

I opened my eyes and started wrapping up my work.

That little fucker seemed to get better and better at doing crazy shit.