Ripping Up the Script

Stressed Out

Chapter 3: Stressed Out
Playlist:
Cheap Thrills- Sia
Sail- AWOLNATION
No Roots- Alice Merton
We Don't Believe What's On TV- TØP
Hey Jude- The Beatles

~~~~~
Apparently they'd gotten to the bunker at around four in the morning. Too early to be awake, but too late to go back to sleep if you were.

Sam was on his way to get Eileen. Mary was on her way to the bunker. Garth had been warned, as had some other hunters. As soon as Sam called to say that he was with Eileen, they would get rid of the bug under the library table (Dean had checked). Jen, Cas, and Kelly were sitting around the kitchen table while Dean made coffee. Kelly was sitting across from Jen, at a diagonal to Castiel, since Jen was still adamant that she not touch him lest the Nephilim decide to do something.

Jennifer picked up her phone and went to the third screen over, the one with her favorite apps (Notes, Netflix, and Tumblr, to name the main ones). She intended to scroll through her Notes, but she noticed something odd. An icon that looked like an anti-possession symbol, labeled "Supernatural".

"What's that?" Jen started when she heard the voice. Cas was frowning at her screen.

"What's what?"

"The thing that looks like an anti-possession symbol, labeled 'Supernatural'. That's the name of the Winchester Gospels that....." he trailed off. Jen supposed thinking about Chuck wasn't something Cas would like to do very much.

"I don't know," she replied. "I've never seen it before. Maybe whatever brought me here put it there?"

"And that's another thing," said Dean, walking over with a tray of four coffee mugs. "How the hell did you end up here? I mean, does anyone besides Chuck have the power to do that?" He leaned across the table slightly to put two coffee mugs in front of Castiel and Jen, keeping two for himself and Kelly. Jen locked her phone. She'd worry about the new icon later.

"I wish I knew," Jen told him. "I mean, we can hope for the best, but I'm pretty pessimistic by nature. Less disappointment that way. Do you have any creamer?" Dean nodded and went to the fridge. Opening it, he grabbed a bottle of French Vanilla coffee creamer and tossed it over. Jennifer caught it and poured a substantial amount into her coffee.

"Like a little coffee with that creamer?" Dean teased her.

"Only masochists like plain black coffee," she replied, offering the creamer to Kelly, who took it and poured a little into her own coffee.

"So... this is all just a TV show where you're from?" Kelly asked after she'd put the lid back on the creamer. Jen shrugged.

"Well, yeah. I mean, this was definitely not part of it, but yeah. It's an emotional-frickin'-roller coaster, let me tell you. It's not surprising that it inspired something like Twist and Shout."

"Isn't that a song?" Dean asked. Jen laughed wryly.

"A song," she scoffed. "I mean, it is, but if you say those words to a Supernatural fan, or at least a certain type of fan, be prepared for a complete emotional breakdown, complete with a choked singing of Elvis and buckets of tears. It's depressing. But, back to the topic at hand, Supernatural is quite frankly a really depressing, dark show. I mean, you guys lead pretty dark, depressing lives," she told Dean. He snorted.

"You're not wrong," he admitted.

"Why do you watch it then, if it's so dark and depressing?" Castiel asked her. Jennifer shrugged. She wasn't sure why. She just... did.

"It's an escape, for one. I mean, your lives suck, but there's also that element of magic. Like, you guys fight monsters. You have family, who you can work with and relate to. You're tough, you're confident, you're just, like, awesome. And I... get up every morning, go to school, go home and do homework, sleep, repeat. I can't talk to my parents about anything, I have no siblings, I have hardly any friends. I'm really freaking lonely. I guess fictional characters just... gave me friends, sort of. That's not exactly it, but it's the closest I can come to describing it. I could imagine I was somewhere else for a while."