Jason beams and puts his arm around me.
Maybe some of this is working, after all.
“All right, Jason,” Monroe says. “Now tell us what Emily drew.”
I hold up my paper and cringe. “It’s not a maple leaf.”
Jason squints at it like this is the world’s weirdest game of Pictionary. “It’s a fire!” he announces. “For passion. And a heart because she loves me.”
“That’s right,” I say, and Jason gives a whoop, like we’ve won.
“We rock at this.” He holds up his hand and gives me a high five.
I laugh.That’s my Jason, always excited about everything. Except weirdly not about moving in with me, and I still don’t know why. My smile fades a little, and I lean against Jason’s shoulder, wanting to be as close to him as I can.
“Excellent,” Monroe says. “But you don’t always feel only that way, do you? Sometimes you also feel anger or jealousy.” She gives us a stern look, like the bubble might pop if we lie about our fight last night.
“Yeah, okay,” Jason says. “The whole camp heard it.”
“Speak to that,” Monroe says.
Jason and I look at each other.
“Um,” I say. “We had a fight, because couples do that?”
His mouth curls up in the corner, like he likes this answer. I do, too. Maybe, just maybe, it means we’re not completely broken.
“Jason.” Monroe hands him another piece of paper. “Why don’t you draw your feelings about Emily’s relationship with her friend Connor.”
Jason stares at the paper like it might bite him, and then he snatches it. I’m pretty sure Monroe’s tent is too far away to have heard the actual fight. Rich must have had her review the footage.
Of course he did.
Jason scribbles something furiously on the piece of paper. When he turns it around, it says, “I don’t like him.”
“Maybe I wasn’t specific enough.” An edge of judgment creeps into Monroe’s voice. “I want you todrawyour feelings. Not write them.” She hands Jason another piece of paper, and he sighs and starts drawing. His eyes widen as he looks at his picture. “Nope, not that,” he says, and turns the paper over and tries again.
When he holds up the paper, it’s a poorly-drawn picture of a hand holding up a middle finger. On the back, I can see that his first attempt looked much more like, well, a dick and testicles.
“Show us what you drew first,” Monroe says. “It might be more representative of your feelings.”
“Nope!” I snatch the paper away and crumple it up. We really do not need to announce to the world that Jason has sexual feelings toward Connor, when really he just lacks art skills as much as I do.
Monroe studies me so intently and for a long enough pause that I start to sweat a little. But then I realize she’s probably just doing that for the cameras to get a good, long shot of her appearing very thoughtful. “Emily, it seems you have violent feelings about Jason’s picture.”
He smirks at me, which is special, considering I just saved from showing a Pictionary-style dick pic on television.
“I don’t feel violently about it,” I say. “But I do wish he didn’t feel the way he does. Connor is a friend of mine, and he’s engaged to someone else.” Oh, no. I’m only now realizing that I’ve dragged Connor into this, and that when it airs, people might think there was really something going on between us. I don’t want to do that to him or his fiancée. “There’s absolutely nothing going on with us. We just work together.”
“I know that,” Jason says quietly. “It’s not like I think you’re cheating on me. I know you’re not.”
“Jason,” Monroe says sternly. “It was Emily’s turn to speak. Here.” She pulls the stuffed animal from her tote bag. It is a dinosaur—a big, green, furry one with felt triangles down its back. “This is Dinokins. He is the speaking dinosaur.” She passes Dinokins to me, andTiberius growls. From the rips in the dinosaur’s tail, I gather I was right about the toy belonging toTiberius.
“Hush,” Monroe says to her dog, then turns back to us. “You have to hold the dinosaur to speak.This will help you learn to listen to each other.”
“I don’t think we have a problem listening to each other,” I say. Monroe gives me a doubtful look, and okay, maybe she has a point. We don’t seem to be communicating super well lately.
I’m not sure this dinosaur is going to help.
