parental issues

Who: Roy and Jessie
When: Late afternoon
Where: On the streets

Jessie hadn't stayed long in her apartment. She couldn't be there right now. She took her bag upstairs, fed Leo, cleaned out his litter box, and headed to the door again, but not without fetching something from her school bag. Something silver and slightly dinged up, something very important given to someone who Jessie didn't consider very important anymore. Or, well, maybe she considered her a little too important. She wasn't sure and it was all too much to try and figure out anyway, so she headed down the stairs again and out onto the streets.

The walk home with Dodge had been interesting at best, confusing otherwise, and that half a block of walking home alone hadn't done enough to clear her mind. So she knew she needed to keep walking, just for a while, to try and get a really clear head even if she knew that this wasn't something that was going to fix itself today.

She didn't really pay attention to where she was going, just sort of walking until she didn't want to walk anymore. When that happened, she sat down at a bench and just stared at the locket, flicking it open and shut, open and shut, over and over again because the locket didn't close right anymore. It made her sick, really physically queasy, just looking at this necklace. This was the lowest of the low things that Veronica had done, including all the birthdays and holidays she'd missed in Jessie's life. Sighing, Jessie closed her eyes and put a hand on her temple, gearing herself up for another sleepless night.

Roy was out wandering around as usual, just sort of letting his mind drift over everything. Arden, her situation, Madeline, Dodge, the DiGiovanni's, and his sister. He had a lot to think on, in a lot of directions, and generally he did better when he wasn't sitting in one place grinding his wheels over everything. He did better when he was out walking, so at least there were minor distractions along the way. Like when he looked up, and spotted JJ up ahead, on a bench. It had been a while since he'd seen her, so he headed over. "Hey, JJ." he said. "...you look a little..." he didn't quite know how to finish the sentence, but she didn't look especially well. Preoccupied, maybe? Something.

Hearing Roy's voice brought Jessie out of the funk she was in. She looked up and gave him the biggest smile she could muster, which actually was pretty small, and shrugged. "Hey, Roy. Yeah...Today sucked." Taking the time to scan his face, she noticed that she might not be the only one who looked a little preoccupied. "You ok?" She scooted over on the bench a little, offering Roy the space beside her.

He sat down, since the space was offered. "I'm okay." he told her. "Just a lot on my mind. But why's your day sucked?" he asked, giving her his full attention. Part of it was because Jessie was a decent sort, he'd never had any problems with her, and part of it was because if he had someone else's woes to focus on, that would mean he didn't have to focus on his own. He was a fan of that, really. That was a good thing for him. Plus, if he could do anything, then maybe that would give him something even better to focus on.

"Found something I shouldn't have. Or...well...I found something I didn't want to find." She held the locket tight in her hands, contemplating exactly how to approach this situation. Dodge knew about the locket only because she had screamed about it in the pawn shop, but now that she'd tried to take a step back from the locket ordeal, she wondered where she should draw the line about what she wanted to say. She'd asked Dodge to keep it a secret because she definitely didn't want any news about this necklace getting out. Not that it would matter to anyone else, but it was just private stuff that she wanted to keep private. "Got a lot to do with someone I don't like very much." But she had the same plan of action he had; divert attention. "Wanna tell me what's on your mind?"

He'd noticed her fiddling with the locket when he'd spotted her before saying hello, and he noticed she'd stopped doing that when he'd alerted her to his presence. "Anything to do with that?" he asked, pointing to her closed hand. "And mine's all just a lot of little things, nothing too big, I guess. Just more than one. Yours seems to be a little more pressing." he said. "Who don't you like very much?" Not that he figured he'd know the person. Unless it was Dodge, or something. Then he'd know. He still had some faded bruises from that situation.

Apparently she was a little more obvious than she'd wanted to be. She opened her hands to show the locket, but kept it closed. Or as closed as it got. "Yeah, I guess it has a lot to do with this..." She glanced back at Roy and shook her head. "It's no one important." It wasn't just that she didn't want to show her dirty laundry to everyone in town, but it was also that Roy was going through things of his own, it seemed, and he didn't need Jessie's mother drama to deal with too. "It's no one I want to think about, really. No one worth my time."

Roy looked at the locket, noticing it wasn't clasping right. "Want me to fix that?" he asked. Since he could. He fixed things--he liked fixing things. It was one talent that he naturally had, and there was always something calming about it. "And for someone who isn't worth the time, you seem to be spending time on them. I mean, if you don't want to tell me, it's okay. Ain't really my business, an all, but I've got the time for you." he offered. He'd need a straight nail, if he was going to fix the locket. That would be easy enough to find, and he knew he had some at the vault. A pin might do as well, though that he wasn't sure he had.

Well, that was another question entirely. She hadn't thought that maybe she could get the locket fixed and she'd decided one thing earlier no matter what she thought about this whole situation. That if Veronica wasn't going to cherish the locket like she should, then Jessie would do it for her. But that would mean letting Roy in on what the locket meant and it wasn't like she didn't think she could trust him, but it was just...a hard place to be in. "...You don't mind?" She started, taking a moment to try and get her thoughts about her before she continued. "Found this locket in a pawn shop today...It's, uh...something that used to belong to my mother."

"I don't mind." Roy told her genuinely. He held his hand out for it. "I'm sure it won't take much. I'll just need to find a nail or a pin." he added. Then he glanced up to her eyes again, from where he'd been looking at the locket. "It belonged to your mother, and you found it in a pawn shop?" he asked. "That's lucky." he said, looking at it in an entirely different manner. "Maybe you were meant to have it." he suggested. "Fate, or something."

Jessie scoffed a little, shaking her head. Lucky was not the word. "It's not like that." She glanced down at her hands again, feeling odd now that the locket wasn't there. She didn't know what was worse, having it or not having it. That stupid locket had really turned her whole head upside down. "She was meant to have it and she didn't want it, that's how that is."

Roy turned his attention on the locket, though from the look of it, he wasn't actually paying attention to the inscription, or what was inside. He really was just looking at it with a mind to fix it, instead of spending overly much time taking in the details. "Is that how it is." he said, quirking a faint half smile as he glanced to her. "Seems to me, things are how you decide they are. So maybe if you decided it was something else, you might be less upset about it." he told her, even if his tone was light. "And if she didn't want it, then it's her loss. Do you want it?" he asked, since he wasn't sure her attitude really spoke of her desiring to have it. More that it's presence was upsetting.

"It's more than just that, Roy..." She didn't want to get into the details of why she was so mad at Veronica. It could take days, months even, just to say everything about the woman that upset Jessie. "It's not about me. It's really not. It's..she sold this and it was a present from my dad. It's about her not caring about anything. So yeah, maybe I do decide how things are, but she sure as hell is making the decisions she wants to too. And yes, I want it. If she doesn't want it, then I'll keep it. It's not something I want out in public just jumping from pawn shop to pawn shop. My dad should know that even if Veronica didn't want this, that someone thinks it's special and understands the effort he put into getting this locket made."

Roy was of a mind that if she was this bent out of shape about things, then it most certainly was about her, but he didn't say as much. "C'mon, let's go find a nail." he said, standing up, and after a moment's hesitation, he offered her his hand up. Though it was more being polite and something resembling a gentleman than anything else. "If she doesn't care about anything, then that's definitely her problem. Though I'm sure it sucks that she doesn't care about her family. Return the favor." he suggested, which he knew was easier said than done, but Jessie also kept assuring him that she didn't care and such, even if it was clear she did.

She sat there for a moment, contemplating his hand. It wasn't like with Dodge, when he was always trying to put his arm around her or hold her hand. It was just help up off the bench, and she didn't really need help up off the bench, but she didn't see a problem with taking it right now. So she stood with his help but put her hands back in her pockets once she was up again."Let's go find a nail," She repeated, really, honestly, not wanting to talk about Veronica anymore. Jessie had quite a few unsavory words she could say about Veronica, but right now there was a mission to be had. They had to fix the locket her mother had so unceremoniously thrown out of her life. Maybe she was just thinking too much but she had a sudden thought of how this might be metaphorical. Like if she was willing to give up this locket, then it was the final step in Veronica really, truly giving up on their family.

But, yeah, basically she wanted Veronica to not matter so much to her and it was clear that she did, despite all the lies about her not mattering that she told herself. "You sure you don't want to talk about what's on your mind?" She asked, a hint of hopefulness there. "Or anything at all?" Anything that wasn't Veronica.

"I'm pretty sure anything I have going on is minor in comparison to what you have. And I wouldn't be much of a friend or a person if I just ignored you, and talked about my own shit." Roy told her. Which he really felt, or he did at the moment. She was catching him on a thoughtful sort of day. Other moods would have got a different response, but the current one had him just thinking everything over. He walked along, glancing in the alleys as they did so, for any discarded wood and the like, where there might be a nail he could pull out.

"I really just don't want to think about this anymore..." She admitted, glancing down at her feet as she walked beside him. "Doesn't matter if you have minor stuff going on. You have stuff going on too. What kind of a friend hoards all the attention when both people have stuff happening?"

"The kind that has major issues on her mind?" Roy suggested. "Look, JJ, if you don't want to talk about your stuff, that's fine. Just don't expect me to just forget about it and move on like I don't know it's there. I'm really not that much of an asshole." he told her, pausing to crouch down by an old crate. It had a nail starting to pull out on one side, and he started to work at getting it out.

"I know you're not an asshole, Roy." Jessie was starting to feel a little exasperated by the whole situation, but maybe she should just try to focus on helping Roy fix the locket. He was doing her a favor, she shouldn't be making it harder for him. Crouching down beside the crate, Jessie glanced from it back to Roy. "Can I help?"

"Almost got it." he told her, pausing to work the nail back and forth a little before it pulled free. Then he righted the crate and sat on it, looking down at the locket again. He used the tip of the nail to work at the clasp a little, and then made a few adjustments. He wondered if it was real silver or not, and thought it might be, and it took a little effort to get it to bend how he wanted. But eventually he got it, and it didn't take an overly long time, either. Then he tested it, closing it tight, then opening it back up again. Then he closed it once more, holding it out to her. "Fixed."

Jessie watched Roy, staying quiet so she wouldn't interrupt a train of thought or something. But everytime he opened the locket, she wondered if he actually saw what was inside. How could he not see what was inside? The picture was right there, so was the engraving, both of them like slaps to the face in Jessie's opinion. But despite the bad feelings that locket gave her, it was nice to see it functioning again. Veronica didn't take care of anything, whether she actually cared about it or not, so Jessie was certainly going to keep this locket in her care from now on. It deserved to be with someone that understood it's value. Taking it in her hands, Jessie smiled at Roy, even if it was still heavy with the happenings of the day. "Thanks a lot, Roy. Can I, uh, repay you somehow?" Fixing this locket wasn't something he had to do, it was something he'd done out of kindness and Jessie felt like just a 'thank you' wasn't exactly enough thanks to sit and listen to her baggage and fix a necklace for her. She reached into her pocket to see just how much allowance she had left out, and realized that the amount was none. That she'd given it all to the owner of that pawn shop in her frantic need to get the hell out of there. "...at a later time? I used up all my allowance..."

"I wouldn't take any money from you anyways, JJ." Roy told her, quirking a half smile in her direction. "I offered to fix it, didn't I? I didn't say I'd do it for a fee. I like fixing things." he added, to kind of put a spin on it like he'd done it for his own reasons as well, not just for her. Which was kind of trueish. He'd seen it was broken and could see how to fix it, and had wanted to do so. It happened to help her ends as well, but still. He stood, pocketing the nail that he'd used to fix it. He had seen what was inside, but she'd been shutting him down pretty hard with talking about anything, so he didn't ask about it, even if he was curious.

Returning his half smile with a full one of her own, Jessie tested the locket for herself. Not that she hadn't seen him fix it or didn't believe it was fixed, but because her thoughts were back on the inside of it and maybe it would help to look at it. What she found was that it didn't help much, just pissed her off more, but she felt like she owed Roy at least a little explanation. "So I guess you saw what was inside, huh?" Maybe she could focus on the nice part of the locket, the photo? "That's, uh...it was me as a baby." She shrugged a little. "And my dad." All of these statements were obvious, no-brainers, really, but how else did she bring up that photograph?

"They looked like nice pictures." he said. He just hoped he wasn't meant to have read the inscription, since he couldn't actually read it. Maddy had said she'd teach him, but hadn't actually done that. "So your mom just gave that away, huh? Didn't even keep the pictures?" he asked, for clarity, so he could be sure he understood the situation correctly.

Luckily, Jessie couldn't stomach the inscription right now. The picture was more than enough, the inscription was like a knife in her stomach. She'd picked the lesser of two evils for a reason, because she just couldn't handle those words. "Doesn't look like it..." Jessie sighed a moment later. "I don't think she keeps things like pictures around." Not because it might make her feel guilty or anything. No, Jessie didn't think she kept pictures because Veronica wasn't the person who cared enough to have pictures. "But it's like you said, it's her loss." It was her loss...and maybe if she repeated it enough times, Jessie would start believing it.

Roy was silent for a few moments, watching Jessie. "It's just you and your dad, right?" he asked, thinking he recalled that about JJ's living situation. "You get an allowance. So you're not on the streets, or too bad in the poor house." he assessed. "You've always seemed a pretty capable type to me. Smart and all that." he continued. "Seems to me a woman like that isn't really necessary in your life. Especially if she can't be bothered. But it doesn't seem like you're less because of it. And just because she can't appreciate things doesn't mean that's your fault. Seems to me that'd be her fault. Her loss. So...let her deal with that loss, you're okay, right? Just fine without her."

She nodded to his first question, but liked to think of it less as 'just her and her dad' and more of 'her and her dad', like it should be. He made a lot of sense. Veronica didn't care, so why should Jessie care if she didn't care? She wasn't less loved because Veronica didn't stick around. She had the best family a girl could ever ask for. It should be her mother's loss and it should be something Jessie didn't waste another thought over. But it was much harder to put that into practice. Hearing it was one thing, but actually thinking it...Just wasn't going to happen yet and a part of her wondered if it would ever happen.

Jessie unclasped the chain and closed it behind her neck, moving the locket so that it was safely tucked under her jacket and shirt. "Only thing is..I don't know if she will deal with it. Haven't seen her in..a long time so all I really know about her at the moment is that she sold this and she shouldn't have sold it."

Roy eyed Jessie for a few moments, considering. "Does it matter, if she's not really part of your family?" he asked. And it was an honest question, since he didn't know. His own family had been ripped apart and so many of them died, and his father just up and went missing. The mechanics of family life was something he didn't feel all that qualified to comment on, so much. But that didn't mean he couldn't try, and maybe he couldn't try and give Jessie a point of view that might help her.

It took her a moment to answer and when she did, her voice was much quieter than before. "It's not just me. My dad gave her this. It'd be different if it was just me, if it was just me she didn't care about...but it's my dad. This locket meant something, or...I don't know, it should have meant something to her. But it didn't. Not enough for her to keep it. I mean, I don't know if it matters, but I do know that what she did with this locket was wrong. It's unforgivable." Honestly, she was just having a hard time seeing past the fact that her family was perfect just as it was, that on a normal day she wouldn't be thinking about Veronica, but this locket had brought that woman back into her head and it was really screwing with her. And it was taking the perfect family she had and twisting it so that it had to incorporate Veronica, something she didn't like at all.

Hands in his pockets, Roy considered that, thinking over what that would mean in general. "So you're more offended on his behalf?" he asked, trying to understand, but not sure he'd grasped it correctly. So, he asked. He figured that was the best course of action, when he wasn't sure about his understanding. He could understand being offended on family's behalf, if that was the case, though. That he could very much understand.

"I don't know..." The exasperation was back in her voice again as she looked down at her shoes. Jessie just felt offended in general, on the behalf of every James there was, but particularly for her dad and her. She knew Veronica meant something to her dad, it wasn't hard for her to see that. And it wasn't like she didn't get everything she needed or wanted family-wise from her dad, her aunts, and her grandparents. She had all she could ever want, but it stung that the woman who had nurtured her for nine months, that had given birth to her, just up and left and didn't care. "All I know is that I hadn't thought about her in a while and I was totally fine not thinking about her, and then I see this locket and it means she's back. Don't know if she actually went anywhere, don't really care, but she's back here, screwing with my family, and I don't like that." God, she needed to talk to her dad. He'd know just what to do about this if anyone would. Roy was sweet and thoughtful and had good advice, but Roy wasn't related to or involved with Veronica, or at least she hoped he wasn't.

"She could have got rid of that ages ago. So she might not be back." Roy suggested. "Unless you've seen her. Or you're just talking like...back in your thoughts." he added. "She might not come around or anything." he added. Then he sighed. "I know a girl who lives with her dad, and her dad's been keeping a bunch of stuff from her about her mom. She was pretty sure her mom didn't care and everything either, but it turns out maybe she does. But as far as I can see, it hasn't done more than just confuse her, hurt her feelings all the more, and mess with her head." he said. "And then there's people like Pepper, or me, or D, who don't have parents at all, one way or another. No families, really. My mom's dead. My dad took off, or went missing, or something, but he's not around anymore, but he left me cleaning up his messes. Things could be worse than just finding a locket, JJ. You've got a pretty good life, from what I see. Don't go looking for things to sour it when you don't have to."

Jessie stayed silent throughout the whole of Roy's speech, feeling even more like she'd just gotten slapped in the face. This was way too much to take in right now. From the story about someone that she thought might be Arden, but she wasn't really sure was Arden, to Roy talking about his parents dying and going missing and him being left to clean up everything...

Yes, she was being a little selfish with this. Yes, she had a great life outside of this Veronica nonsense and she didn't know why she kept thinking about her mother at all. She didn't want to make it sour like Roy was saying she was, and he was right about a lot of things. She had her dad, the most important person in the entire world to her, and her family that loved her very much. It could be worse. But she just wanted to scream that it wasn't just the locket. It was everything. It was what the locket represented. Still, now she was feeling like the asshole here, rambling on about Veronica and a locket when Roy didn't have any parents at all to care for him. "You're right. I just need to get my head together, that's all."

"Well, I hope you do." Roy said. "Sorry things are out of sorts for you." he added. He didn't have much to say beyond that though, unless a new topic was brought up. But he really didn't see what the huge fuss was when things could always be worse. So, so much worse. But people were like that, sometimes. They didn't appreciate what they had til it was gone. He'd figured JJ for not being like that, but apparently she was. Or, maybe he'd just caught her at a bad time, he didn't know. He'd have to see, he supposed.

She wanted to smile at Roy, but it was sadder than she'd intended, with a hint of guilt in it. Damn, now she just felt awful. "Thanks, Roy. And really, thanks again for fixing the locket. It was really nice of you." She figured that, no matter what was on her mind now, Roy had gone through enough of her baggage for her to at least try and see if he wanted to talk before she headed home. He deserved that much. "You sure you don't want to talk about the stuff on your mind now? I mean, I get it if you don't, but just thought I'd ask."

"You're welcome. And naw. I'll be alright. I've got some things to get to today anyways, have to get to the garage soon. I'd only just start in on things then have to leave off. Thanks for asking, though." he told her, and there was a genuine note in his voice. He did appreciate that. So many people didn't give a damn one way or another.

"Ok, well...if you do want to talk, I'll be around." Smiling again, Jessie glanced back up at Roy to catch his eyes, hoping to let him know that despite the funk she was in, she meant it. "See you around, Roy." She said with a nod before turning and heading back to her house.