Chapter 22 — Jason's Advice

Dana POV:

"Are you okay Dana?" Jason asks calmly, walking up to where I sat with my head resting on my knees.

I lift my head up and stare back at him with my teary eyes and my slightly runny nose. He notices that I was in tears and looks around for a bit before walking away for a few seconds and walking back towards me with a box of tissue in his hands.

"Thanks," I mutter as soon as he hands me the tissues, taking out a few of them and blowing my nose into it.

"You should use some for your face as well," he advises and I do as he said, wiping off my tear with a fresh tissue.

"How'd you know I was here?" I ask, realizing he couldn't have possibly heard me crying all the way from his art studio upstairs.

"Buckley had informed me that you were in here with your sister and that you two had gotten into an argument. Is everything okay? Do you want to talk about it?" he asks, and I sigh.

Did I want to talk about it? I wasn't sure about that cause as much as I wanted to let out my anger and vent, I just didn't know if it was the right thing talking to Jason especially since we both don't know each other that well and I've never actually spoken to him about my family before, at least, not too deeply.

"If you don't want to talk about it, it's perfectly fine Dana. I only offered so you can let things out of your chest and vent to me but if it makes you uncomfortable then you really don't have to," he says and something in me decided to let it out anyways since there is really no point in keeping it all in anymore.

"It's not that I don't want to say it, it's just, I don't know where to start. It's such a mess and even I still don't understand how it got to this point," I tell him, unsure of how I should even start to explain what happened to him.

"How about you start from where it all started to hit you hard? If you can do that, then I'm pretty sure the rest of the story will start to make sense along the line," he replies, before taking a seat right beside me.

I sigh. "Okay, but in case I don't make any sense, do let me know. Saying this to someone else other than Samantha isn't exactly easy for me," I tell him.

"You don't have to worry about how you sound to me. Even if it seems like it doesn't make any sense, I'd still understand, trust me," he tells me reassuringly.

"The thing is, I have three younger siblings and one of them was actually here today but sadly, I could barely recognize her. She now has tattoos all over her body and I couldn't even count the number of piercings she had on her face. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not against anyone having tattoos or piercings or anything like that but my sister Ximena is only 16 and I wasn't even aware of this until she came here today," I explain he looks somewhat confused.

"Don't get me wrong for what I'm about to ask, Dana, but did you two fight simply because she got tattoos or is there more to this?" he asks.

"Of course, we wouldn't fight simply because she got tattoos. That was simply the last straw for me. Ximena has always been a very troublesome kid. She's rude, disrespectful, and she says whatever comes to mind without thinking twice about her choice of words. I actually thought with time she would get better because her nasty attitude only came to life after our mom died and dad disappeared. I thought, after a few more years, she'd forget about everything and just outgrow her nasty outbursts, but surprisingly, she only ever got worse.

"Ximena's grades in school got so bad that her teachers had to call me to tell me to talk to her so she could pull herself together and when I did just that, Ximena promised she'd do better but of course, that didn't happen. She got into fights, she got caught sneaking out of school, she'd fake been sick to skip school, literally all sorts of shenanigans just to avoid going to school..." I'm explaining and he chimes in.

"Did all of this start after your mother's death?" he asks.

"Well, not exactly. She was weirdly quiet after mom died but she wasn't rebellious. She only became this way after dad disappeared. It's like his absence really made her lose herself and she became a lot more aggressive," I explain, and he sighs.

"Did you ever talk to her about it? Did you check up on her and ask how she was coping with your father's absence?" he asks.

"I did my best Jason, I really did. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me? I was barely 18 when mom died, and I immediately had to be a mother to my siblings. I dropped out of school, forgot about anything college or my dreams and I did all kinds of odd jobs just to feed them and that man practically watched me for years, working my ass off and guess what he did? He drank. He spent every dime he had on drinking, and he did not once put a hand in taking care of his own children. Now tell me Jason, how was I supposed to give a shit about someone like that when I literally had no time to even worry about myself?" I vent in frustration, hoping he would understand me.

"Trust me Dana, I understand you way more than you think and I'm not judging you one bit. You had too much on your plate and you did the best you could to be a mother to her at your young age but unfortunately, life doesn't always end up being fair to us. I think your sister is just deeply affected by her father's absence and it could be because she was pretty close to him or deeply attached to him for her own reasons so the fact that he disappeared from one day to the next may have taken a huge toll on her mentally causing her to become pretty defensive with her words and actions," he says and I couldn't help the tears that welled up in my eyes.

"So, you're telling me that I was a terrible sister to her?" I ask while sobbing.

"That wasn't my point, Dana. You are not a terrible sister. Her attitude is not your fault, it's his fault. I know this will hurt but I think the best way to actually snap her out of it is by talking to her and I'm just suggesting an aggressive kind of conversation, I'm talking about a friendly, easygoing conversation so she can open up to you about how she really feels without feeling scared that you'd judge or reprimand her," he says and I chuckle bitterly.

"A friendly conversation? I think it's a little too late for that cause I got upset with her and I gave her an option to either get rid of the tattoos or get out of my life for good. I told her to her face that I could no longer stand her attitude and the next thing I know, she throws hurtful words in my face and did exactly as I asked. She walked out just like I asked, and you know what's actually worse? She actually left to go find the same man that hasn't been her father in the last few years. She left to go find him and I have no idea how she plans on going about it," I tell him, fearing that Ximena might actually end up getting hurt.

"Do you perhaps have an idea where she'd be staying? I mean, she can't possibly just walk around looking for her father, she has to start from somewhere," he asks.

"She's probably at one of her friend's places from her old school. Fortunately, I know all of them and I can get their address, but the problem isn't just finding her, it's actually getting her to come back. Ximena is the most stubborn brat you'll probably ever come across and with the way she walked out of here, I don't think she has any plan of ever coming back,"

"She's your sister Dana and that will never change. You may think she hates but I doubt that's the case. She really just needs answers and unfortunately, she's doing all the wrong things to get them. I personally think she wants you to support her so you can both find your father and get the closure you need cause whether or not you like to admit it, his absence did take a toll on you too and for that reason alone, you need to meet with him and vent openly instead of carrying around the resentment," he advises and something about the way he spoke made it seem like he could actually relate to it.

"I know I'm in no place to ask but do you in any way relate to what I'm saying? I'm only asking cause you're talking like you actually can," I ask out of both curiosity and surprise.

"I think we should leave that story for another day Dana and focus on how to solve the issue with your sister. I still insist you go see her and get her back home first and after that, you help her find her father so she can finally relax. That to me still seems like the only reasonable option," he replies, insisting on his advice.

"Well, if that's what I have to do to finally get my sister back on track then, I'll do just that. I'm also sick and tired of dealing with this back and forth with her," I respond with a sigh, still not happy with the idea of agreeing to find my father even when he's still the last person I ever want to see.

"Good then. If you need help talking to her, I'll be more than happy to be of help. Trust me, I'm pretty good with dealing with teenagers. They always end up listening to me," he boasts, and I chuckle.

"Ximena isn't an easy-to-handle kid though but if you feel confident, then there's no problem. I can't possibly reject help when I desperately need it," I say to him, and he immediately stands up before stretching his hands out to me.

I take his hands as he helps me get up, picking up the rest of the tissues that fell from my legs.

"I suggest you take a long shower and go to bed immediately cause tomorrow is most likely going to be a long day," he advises.

"Thanks a lot for today, Jason, I really needed the talk," I say to him genuinely thankful that he took his time to actually listen to me talk. He simply nods dismissively with a small smile before walking out of the room and I stare at his retreating figure for a while before walking out and heading back up to my room.