“So how did you sleep last night?” Dr. Owen asks while Jacob sits across from him sucking on a lollipop.
“Fine.” Jacob says quietly.
“Anything new happen recently?” Dr. Owen asks, running a hand through his hair.
“Nothing interesting. I found a treehouse in the woods behind my house after my appointment last week.”
“Have you told your parents?” Dr. Owen asks with a curious look on his face.
“Do I need to? It’s kind of like an escape from them.” Jacob says quickly.
“No I guess not. It can be a secret. Anything else happen?”
“No.”
“What  about with Michael?” Dr. Owen asks adjusting himself in his chair.
Jacob looks up, surprised. “You’re gonna let me talk about Michael?”
“I’m not saying he’s real, but I want to hear about everything that happens. I don’t want you telling me what I want to hear, but what you want to say.”
“Okay.” Jacob pauses quickly before continuing. “Well he dyed his hair yellow. It was pink before.” He says throwing away the stick of his lollipop in the trashcan next to him. “I personally like the yellow more.”
“Why does he dye his hair?” Dr. Owen asks, leaning forward.
“I don’t know. I think he just doesn’t like his natural brown hair.”
“Interesting. Is there a reason he wouldn’t like it?” Dr. Owen asks curiously.
Jacob pauses to think. After several seconds pass he answers; “I don’t know. Maybe he just wants to be different. I know he doesn’t like following the crowd.”
Dr. Owen doesn’t say anything for a minute, he just sits quietly and thinks. Finally he says; “You talk much easier about Michael then you ever have about any other topic I have asked about.”
“Yeah so?” Jacob says defensively.
“So, I want you to tell your parents about him. At least tell your mom. I know you still have a problem with trusting your dad.”
“My mom won’t like hearing about Michael. She hates the idea of him.” Jacob says, sounding slightly mad.
“Then talk to your dad.” Dr. Owen suggests. “It would be great bonding. So you can trust him.”
“I’m not going to ever fully trust him. He reminds me too much of my real dad.” 
“You know he has never hurt you. And he never will. You just have to get past the whole ‘dad’ thing and talk to him like he is your friend.” Dr. Owen says hopefully.
“Yeah, no.” Jacob says with sass.
Dr. Owen sighs. “Fine.” Dr. Owen thinks for a minute. “I have an idea. How about instead of talking about Michael, you tell your parents what happened when you were younger. I’m the only one who knows the whole-”
“Michael knows.” Jacob says quickly before Dr. Owen can finish his sentence.
“Yes, okay. But still. Your parents need to know. And it would be a good chance for your parents to get to know you, and why you act the way you do.”
Jacob goes quiet for a while, then says; “Okay fine. I’ll tell them. But it’s not my fault if they get worked up and cause me more anxiety than I already have.”
“I completely understand.” Dr. Owen says, then suddenly remembers something. “We are going to start you on a new pill to treat your insomnia.”
“Great. Yet another pill.” Jacob says sarcastically.
“Don’t worry, this on is only once a day. You take it at dinner with your two other pills, and it will kick in by 9:30-10:00ish.” Dr. Owen says.
“Alright. It better work.”
“It will.” Dr. Owen says sounding sure of himself.

“So that’s why I ended up in foster homes, until you adopted me” Jacob says carefully, finishing up telling his mom about his past.
She stares at him, thinking about what to say. “Jacob-”
“Don’t tell me you’re ‘so sorry,’” Jacob says cutting her off, “everyone always says that kind of thing, and I hate it. I hate it because my dad would always mutter a simple ‘sorry’ in the morning after he got sober and realized what he did. I began hating that word, and I always will.”
“Okay, um, how do you feel now that you told me?” She asked slowly, not knowing quite what to say.
“I’m fine. It’s just weird now that you know. I wanted to keep it a secret but I guess it’s good that you know. I mean it’s what Dr. Owen wanted.” Jacob kind of chuckles. “I’m surprised he didn’t tell you himself. I guess he takes patient confidentiality pretty seriously.”
“He has to. If it is your wish that nobody know certain information, than he can’t tell anybody.”
“Well that’s a good rule.”
“I agree.” She smiled. “Want some lunch?”
“Sure. I’m pretty hungry.”
They both stand up to head to the kitchen, “Hey mom,” Jacob says, stopping her, “Thank you for understanding, and, you know, not getting really worked up and crying. If you had, I don’t know if I would have been able to stop myself from crying.”
“Oh your welcome. While listening my emotions went more to shere shock, rather than sadness.” She grins slightly. “I’m just happy you were able to tell me.” She hugs him quickly. “So, what do you want for lunch?”

“So you really told her?” Michael asks, surprised.
“Yeah. I can only assume she’s going to tell my dad. Which is good, because I wasn’t planning on doing it.” Jacob replies.
“Are you happy she knows, or do you wish she didn’t?” Michael asks, curious.
“Who are you, Dr. Owen?” Jacob asks jokingly.
“No, I’m genuinely curious in how you feel.” Michael replies, leaning back against the wall of their tree house.
“Well, I really don’t know. I’m glad she knows, but I just don’t want her to treat me differently than she has been.” Jacob sighs “She was finally letting me have more freedom to go places, but now I’m scared she won’t let me leave the house.”
“She might, but if she does, just tell her you’re older now and you should be allowed to have more freedom. How do you think I finally got my mom to stop being so overprotective?
“You’ve told me. But your mom is really overprotective. She really wouldn’t let you leave the house after you snuck out to go to see a movie with a group of your friends?” Jacob asks, a grin spreading across his face.
“Yeah. And it wasn’t even sneaking out! I left a note on the counter saying where I went. She just apparently didn’t like the idea of me being out of the house.” Michael grins. “But after talking to her, and telling her that I’m getting older and more responsible, I got her to let me leave the house.”
“So if my mom gets overprotective of me, I should just sit her down and convince her I’m old enough to take care of myself?” Jacob asks.
“Yup. Worked for me, after a few tries.” Michael half sighs and continues talking. “Of course the reason it was so hard to get her to let me leave is because I was homeschooled, so I didn’t get a ton of social practice, and she didn’t want me to be overwhelmed.”
“Well then you met me. Am I a threat at all?” Jacob asks with a slight smile.
“I don’t know. All I know is that you are a nice person to me. You could be bluffing and lying to me. You could be a total psychopath and planning to murder me.” Michael says sarcastically.
“Dammit, you figured out my plan. Guess you’re not as dumb as I originally thought.” Jacob says, going along with Michaels sarcasm.
“Well I have always had a high GPA.” Michael says straightening up against the wall of the tree house.
“Sadly I can’t say the same for me. I’ve never been ‘smart,’ at least I’ve never gotten good grades.” Jacob says, with a hint of sadness hiding behind his words.
“Okay no self deprecating comments.” Michael says.
“Fine. But it’s true.” Jacob replies.
“I don’t care. You shouldn’t put yourself down. Plus you ruined the lighthearted mood we had going here.” Michael says jokingly. “It was pretty nice.”
“Okay okay I get it. But we can continue our conversation tomorrow afternoon. The Sun is going down and I don’t want my mom to worry.” Jacob says as he stood up to climb out of the treehouse.
“Okay. So are we meeting here again?” Michael asks, also standing up.
“No we’ll have to meet in my room. It will be too late by the time I get out to walk this far. By the time I got here we would only have an hour to talk.” Jacob says, making his way down the ladder.
“Okay. What time are you gonna be getting back from your appointment with Dr. Owen? I want to get there before you so I can sneak in your room easily.” Michael asks, still standing in the treehouse.
“Around 4:30. So if you get there at 4:15 you shouldn’t have to wait so long. I’ll leave the window cracked so you can climb in.” Jacob says, watching Michael climb down to ladder.
“Okay. See you tomorrow.” Michael says, stepping down off the ladder.
“Bye.” Jacob says. He turns to walk home.
“Expect even more vibrant yellow hair! I’m getting it redyed!” Michael yells to Jacob as he walks away.
“Okay. I’m looking forward to seeing it!” Jacob yells over his shoulder.

“So how was the appointment?” Jacob’s mom asks to break the silence.
“Same as usual.” Jacob asks, obviously disinterested.
“What’d you talk about?” She asked, ignoring the fact that Jacob didn’t seem to want to talk.
“How my new medicine was working, and how schools going, stuff like that.” Jacob said, annoyed his mom is pressing him to talk.
“Did you tell him that you told me about what happened?” She asks, glancing at him quickly.
“Yeah.” He replies, looking at the clock on the dashboard, which reads 4:18.
“Was he happy that you finally told me?”
“Yeah I think so. I mean it’s what he wanted so I’d assume he’d be happy that you know now.” He said, still looking at the clock.
“That’s good.” She sighs quickly. “I told your father. About what happened. I know you still aren’t completely fond of him, but I wanted him to know.”
“I expected you would. I knew you would tell him if I didn’t.” Jacob said, a slight sound of annoyance hinting at his voice. “I don’t really feel like talking. I just got done talking with Dr. Owen.” Jacob says as he reaches out and turns on the radio to make his point.
“Okay then.” His mom mutters to herself, but she doesn’t argue with him.

Jacob walks into his room to see Michael sitting on his bed, waiting for him. “Hello there.”
“Hey. How was your appointment?” Michael asks.
“Ugh not you too. I already had my mom ask me, I don’t need to explain it again.” Jacob says, obviously annoyed. He then just stares at Michael for a second.
“Why are you just staring at me?” Michael asks, tilting his head slightly.
“I like your hair. It’s very bright.” Jacob says, making his way over to his desk.
“Thanks. I got it redone like I said I was going to.” Michael says.
“So are you gonna stick with the yellow for a while?” Jacob asks as he sits in his desk chair.
“I don’t know. I might.” Michael says, running his fingers through his hair.
“You should.” Jacob says, turning to face him.
“And why’s that?” Michael asks, grinning slightly.
“I like the yellow.” Jacob replies, also grinning. “It suits you.”
“Well then, I might keep it for a while then.”
“Good. But get it redone frequently, or else it will fade to a gross pale yellow-blondish color.” Jacob says jokingly.
“Oh I wouldn’t want that.” Michael says giggling.
“I know. You’d just be-” Jacob is cut off when his mom walks in with a laundry basket full of clean clothes. She glances around the room and then spots Michael. Immediately she knows who it must be, but she asks anyway.
“Who are you?” She asks Michael nervously.
Michael looks startled but quickly gathers himself. He stands up to walk over and shake her hand. “I’m Michael, nice to meet you.”