It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride

After Jordan explained what he thought was at stake, Eric was thoughtful for a moment. Well, enough to decide that if it was not a legitimate threat, he was going to pretend otherwise for as long as Jordan kept to his role, anyway. So as long as Eric could lengthen this, without putting him through ****, is what Eric was thinking. Or until he met a real girl to fall in love with.

The very next thing he said was, "You probably do need to go along with this for now."

Jordan collapsed on the bed before Eric hugged him to his chest. After Jordan was almost cried out, only almost because he didn't forget about Adam, he asked his roommate, "Can I at least tell your sister that Janet isn't truly a friend of mine?"

Eric thought if he denied him this, that would be enough to be ****. Because of that, his response was, "Definitely."

"O-okay," Jordan stammered, a few tears more streaming out, this time out of relief, before he hugged Eric tight for 3 seconds. Jordan let go, then went to Lauren's room. He softly knocked the door, and Lauren said it was open. When Jordan came in, having already formulated a plan, or undeniably a start of a plan, in the hallway, he immediately closed and locked the door behind him just in case Eric changed his mind. Now that Jordan was amidst these pink walls, he sighed in relief, pushing back from the door a bit before he turned to Lauren, on her phone relaxing on the bed.

"Lauren," Jordan said, "May I please talk to you? It's very important, what I am about to say."

Lauren set the phone down, visibly concerned. The woman in front of her had not seemed this devastated before in the more sly kind of communications they had with each other. "Yes, Jodie," Lauren answered.

Jordan made sure to get very close to her before whispering to her, "Janet is not my friend. No matter what she says, do NOT believe that bitch!"

"I'm confused," Lauren said, which started as a normal tone, but upon seeing poor Jodie looking at the door, she turned it into a whisper into the shy girl's ear. She continued whispering by whispering, "Aren't you always so bubbly with her, Tiffany, and me in the group chats?"

"LIES!" Jordan said in the sort of whisper that is nevertheless italicized, "They're all lies, me saying what a great friend she is! Because... the truth is, I'm being blackmailed!"

Lauren's eyes widened. "What threats are being made?"

"I can't tell you," Jordan whispered in response, "Um... For now, me and Eric have it covered."

"Are you sure? You looked at the door earlier."

"That's because I don't know if he's going to change his mind," Jordan said, and then wondered what truth he could twist to not reveal anything more, before he whispered, "you know how busy your brother can be."

Lauren thought for a few seconds before whispering back, "I think I understand. So what should I do?"

"Just keep up appearances for now. Actually, I need more help, but I'll talk about that later. You need to keep up the appearance of being her friend for now, just as I am, because she is my blackmailer. She can't suspect anything is wrong. Again, whatever she says about me and her allegedly being friends or even neutral towards each other, do NOT believe that bitch!"

"Okay. What 'more help' do you need?"

"The next day a nail studio is open, seeing as it's night already, take me there, just me and you, without telling Janet or even Tiffany about it."

"Okay. Tomorrow then?"

"Yes."

Jordan stood for a moment, before allowing himself to talk louder than a whisper by saying, "Thank you!" and hugging her softly.

"Anytime," Lauren said.

Jordan then walked out of the room before going into his and Eric's room. When they settled into bed, Jordan eventually laid still enough to where Eric thought he was asleep. Jordan was awake still, but he didn't exactly mind when Eric pulled him into a spooning position. He just breathed deep, trying to keep Eric from realizing he was awake. He was going to get his nails cut short tomorrow, but have them painted black, still, to keep up appearances. If Janet threatened, so be it, because this was part of his plan to make sure Eric didn't start gaslighting him.

In the morning, Eric had left a note saying he was at work, which he read after Lauren woke him up by shaking him.

After reading the note, Jordan said, "Thanks Lauren. I assume we're going now?"

"Yes."

The salon turned out to be in a neighborhood somewhat, but not too much, out of the way. Lauren called a cab to get the two of them there. Once inside, Jordan was paranoid the whole time that he'd see Janet out of one of the windows. One time, when the specialists were already in the process of shortening his nails, he even saw who he thought was Janet, thinking, 'NO!!!', before her face turned enough to where Jordan could see it was noticeably different than Janet's.

Once the two were waiting for their nails to dry, Jordan looked at them in their darkness. 'I can go back to the old days once this is all over', he thought. In Eric's office, Jordan realized, there was a lot of paper. Enough to execute the next part of his anti-being-gaslighted plan. Most critical was making sure he didn't start to believe it if Eric told him he was stupid, and wouldn't make it anywhere else.

Another cab was taken home after Lauren paid for their now-dried nails. When Lauren and Jordan got inside the apartment once more, Jordan immediately went to his and Eric's shared bed, because he was still recovering from the surgery. If he forgot what to do next - after taking a nap - one look at his hands would remind him.

And that's what happened. He was groggy after the 2-3 hours it took to get fully rested again, but he held his head in his hands until the world stopped being dizzy - that is, a bit less than 10 minutes. He brought his hands down, seeing his short nails again, immediately knowing what he needed to do next. He got more sheets of paper than he thought he needed as well as a pen. Then he drew layouts of different applications he had coded with, one layout on each of the sheets. Writing and correcting with his pen, he wasn't satisfied until he wrote out all the codes he remembered, which he'd recognize on the cloud services he was about to upload pictures of this to. He knew that some codes were missing, but thought if he tried to remember them, he'd pass out due to the **** in his system. His survival instincts had kept him this much afloat, so he couldn't risk jinxing that.

He took pictures of each sheet he wrote on. There were 7 pages and a part of another spent on this writing of code. Were the pictures capturing each, whole, page? Check. Were they able to be read when zooming into? Check. Was a great deal readable even without zooming in? Check.

He uploaded the 8 pictures to 3 different cloud services, choosing a password he already used on other accounts that he knew by heart, before putting the sheets themselves under the mattress just in case. He put the unused sheets back where he took them from, as well as the pen. He texted some former band members that he was in deep trouble as one last precaution before facing the rest of the day. He didn't think they would have his back, but he needed to take every measure he could.

'If Eric ends up injuring me to try and gaslight me,' Jordan thought, 'that will be proof enough that I need to get the hell out.'

Jordan proceeded to face the rest of the day, heading to the kitchen to eat something. He knew he'd have to re-lengthen these nails as soon as he could, but for now, he needed food and rest.