Blind Date ↳ Jared Padalecki

16 | don't go away mad

THE NEXT MORNING, Jared doesn't greet Emma with his usual 'hello' and kiss on the cheek, instead he mumbles something in her direction and doesn't even look at her, which makes her stomach flip uncomfortably. Did she say or do something to make him upset? Yesterday seemed to go really good. She remembers a brief conversation last night before she fell asleep, but if she said something mean to him, she would remember it, wouldn't she?

Jared, Emma, Sharon, and Gerry's morning consists of eating breakfast, and then the parents urge Jared to take Emma out and show her some cool local places that she has never seen.

"I don't know, it's too hot to do anything outside," Jared replies, forking his eggs around with his fork. Emma frowns, afraid that maybe he just doesn't want to be alone with her. He still won't even look at her. He looks incredibly depressed. Emma hates to think that maybe she was the reason behind it.

"Well, Gerry and I are going to be gone all day, but you two are welcome to stay here," Sharon tells Emma and Jared. Emma smiles at her gratefully but Jared doesn't say anything.

Once Gerry and Sharon both leave to go to work, Emma walks around the house trying to find Jared. She takes a deep breath, hoping that if there is a fight it won't be a big one.

She pauses as she notices Jared in a random room. It looks like a teenage boy's, what with the posters hanging up on the blue walls and the movies and books sorted messily onto the shelves. This must have been Jared's room when he was younger.

"Hey, you're parents are gone," Emma tells him, clearing her throat first. Jared is standing in the middle of the room, hands on his hips, with his back to Emma. "I think we should talk."

"Yeah, we should," he responds, speaking to her for the first time today. She raises her eyebrows as she steps inside, more than a little surprised that he answered her.

"Look, whatever I said or did to make you upset, I'm really sorry," Emma says, staying near the door in case she needs to suddenly leave.

"It wasn't you," Jared says quietly, taking her by surprise. He finally turns around, looking distressed. "I mean, it wasn't all you."

"Well, I'm sorry either way," she tells him firmly. "Is there something else going on?" She asks him worriedly, tilting her head to the side. Jared just looks at her a moment before letting out a long sigh, putting his hands over his face and sitting at the edge of his old bed.

"I don't know," he mumbles through his hands that are covering his face. Emma moves closer to him, but doesn't sit next to him just yet. He removes his hands eventually, showing his distressed expression, and a part of Emma wishes he would cover it back up.

"Just... for some reason this year has been difficult," Jared says, rubbing his hands together. "Again, not because of you. If anything you've actually made it easier."

Emma ignores the rising panic in her chest and tries to remain calm. "Why? Why has this year been so hard?"

"Because I think I'm depressed," he says bluntly, finally looking up at his girlfriend. She only furrows her eyebrows, sure she didn't hear him right.

"What?" She says. Jared only shakes his head and looks at the floor. "Did... did something bad happen?"

"No, that's the weird part," Jared says. "I've been feeling like this for months and there's... no freaking reason behind it."

Emma furrows her eyebrows, still a little fuzzy about the whole thing. She sighs before finally sitting down next to Jared, thinking up something to say.

"Jared..." she rubs her hands together. She knows all about depression and anxiety and how they can be such killers to the mind, and she hates the fact that Jared just told her that he is depressed. "It's okay. It doesn't matter that there's no reason for it. Sometimes it's like that, it's not as if it's your fault. It's just the way it happened."

Jared sighs, clenching his jaw a little. "It sucks," he says after a moment. Emma raises her eyebrows, shrugging.

"Yeah," she murmurs. "But you need to know that you have people who care about you and who will help you through this if you want them to." He turns to look at her with furrowed eyebrows, looking confused. "Yeah, you have Jensen and me, and your parents, and probably loads of others I don't even know about. My point is, you don't have to go through this by yourself and you shouldn't have to."

Jared doesn't say anything for a while, but Emma's not concerned about it. She figures he's just trying to absorb everything she just told him. It'll take him a few minutes.

She stands up slowly and walks to the door. "Thank you," Jared says quietly. Emma stops and smiles softly at him before leaving the room.

•••

After their little talk, Jared doesn't see any reason to ignore Emma any longer. He smiles at her and actually talks to her again, even more so in the presence of his parents.

Nighttime rolls around, and the two return to the hotel after bidding goodbye to Jared's parents. They make Emma promise to come back sometime. She smiles softly and says she'll do her best to go through with the promise.

"They're really nice," Emma says as they are driving back to the hotel.

"Yeah, they're great," Jared agrees. He doesn't take his eyes off the road. Emma can tell that Jared is feeling a little self-conscious lately, ever since he told her about his depression. She didn't want him to think she would leave him over something like that, though.

"You okay?" She asks, turning her head to the side to look at him. He glances at her and then smiles a little.

"Yeah," he responds. She's not sure if he's telling the truth or not, but she doesn't press the subject.

***

A/N: I'm sorry for the late update, the next chapter will be longer, I promise.