Shrink Duty.

This week has been splendid. Entirely. Every night I got enough sleep... and I'd gotten all my homework done with relatively no stress. The to-do list in my head was rather small... which all in all resulted in a happy Jenna.

I even sang well in choir. In fact, I think I got the piece that we would be performing in devotional next week completely memorized. Yay! So, of course, I walked out of choir smiling with a skip in my step.

Ryan kind of snuck up behind me and just silently walked beside me. He didn't even say hello. I looked over at him. "Hello!" He smiled. I started to wonder if he was all right... he seemed tired, or stressed, or depressed, or something... But since I couldn't figure it out within two seconds, I asked, "How are you?"

He said he was okay. I'm not sure if I believed him or not. We walked for a little, and then just when he seemed like he was going to talk...

"Jenna!" Will viciously cut in, oblivious to anything in the world except himself and Jenna Griffin.

"What?"

Will took the place on my other side. He has a tendency to make everything about him, so it wouldn't do for him to be on the same side as Ryan. No, no, we have to completely absorb Jenna's attention.

"I'm happy!" Well, that was a change... usually he was the most depressed person within a ten-mile radius. But it was sort of expected... he had just gotten his mission call (to Mendoza, Argentina). I patiently listen to Will... and Ryan slinks away. Will continues to talk, and it gets more and more awkward (he was more happy because he had talked to his first girlfriend, and then he started telling me all about the circumstances of his first kiss, and...)

I am about to cut in and tell him I need to get to class... "Well, I'll let you get to biology..."

"Okay..." How do you know my class schedule? This isn't something I openly tell Will about. Stalker.

Well, my biology professor didn't show up... and I didn't particularly mind, because my mind was occupied and class probably wouldn't have done much good for me anyway. I couldn't help wondering if Ryan was okay. I hadn't seen him in two days, and he seemed rather bothered by something.

I went home. Pulled out my pen and paper, and proceeded to write him a little note to see if he was okay. I then ran over to Shipp Hall and slipped it under his door.

Then I went home again. Where I totally cleaned my kitchen... then my room... then my hallways... then my bedding... then my laundry... and then... I walked out of my front door and noticed a sharp smell of permanent marker. I followed my nose and discovered a note taped up by my door... and yes, in permanent marker. I smelled it before I saw it. It was in Ryan's clumsy writing. He said was okay. Liar.

I went back in my room to see messages from both Ryan and Will on my computer. Ryan was just informing me that there was a note outside my door. Will... well, I can't sign onto instant messenger without fear (usually fulfilled) that Will may start talking to me within thirty seconds. I started talking to both of them... and then Ryan wanted to come over.
He did, but then we just went to my neighbor's place.... Cherish, Ryan, and I (mostly Cherish and I) talked about random things for about an hour and a half. Then Cherish and her roommates left to go see a movie.

I was hungry, so I went back to my apartment to scavenge for food. Ryan followed me. And... there wasn't much. Somehow, my other roommates had run out of meal plan money, and I had to pay for most of the food this week... and so we only that the most basic foodstuffs imaginable... and then I was out of money too.

Checking my refrigerator and my cupboards for food, and hearing my stomach growling angrily, all I saw that wouldn't take much time to prepare was... pasta. All right. What can I have with plain pasta?

Ryan is lying on my couch rather dejectedly. I pull the chair over to the cupboard so that I can search better. Aha! In the back, a can of tomato sauce! And... three cloves of garlic on this shelf... and over there, I'm sure we have Italian seasoning... I check the fridge for ground beef, but we are out. Oh well. Meatless sauce is better than no sauce.

"Have you eaten yet? I'm making spaghetti."

"Uh... I've snacked..."

"No dinner?"

"Well, no..."

"Ryan. Do. You. Want. Dinner."

"Uhh... sure..."

"Okay! Sorry about not having any meat..." I get the noodles going. And then just as I'm about to start the sauce... Wait a minute.

"Do you know how to make spaghetti sauce?"

He blinked at me. "No..."

I pulled him over to the stove. "You're going to make the sauce." I decided I wasn't even going to touch any of the ingredient for the sauce anymore. I had already poured the tomato sauce in the pan, but the rest I could just tell him how to do...

I told him how to peel a clove of garlic, and then I pulled out a garlic press. "What's that?" "A garlic press... To crush the garlic with..." "Oh... it's meant for garlic?" "Yep." "I always just used to play with peanut butter with those..."

I told him to put the garlic inside and then crush it. He looked down at the garlic press, and then at me. "Will it hurt it?" "No..." "Oh... will it hurt me?" "No... But it might hurt the garlic..." He opened the garlic press, apologized to the garlic, closed it again, and then squeezed. I gave him the knife so he could scrape the garlic into the pan. Then I pulled out the Italian seasoning. We crushed that, and then put it in. We put the sauce on low heat and then let it simmer until the noodles were done.

I served it, he blessed it, and we ate it. And then Ryan started to talk. And talk. And talk some more. I sat and I listened, occasionally giving input and advice... I realized that I had been right about him not being okay earlier... I don't know if he had realized it though. By the time Ryan had finished talking, it was past 1 am. I pretty much got to be his shrink... I think he's better now though. Five hours of listening made me really tired, but five hours of talking made him more awake than he had been all day. When he finally left, I went to bed and pretty much passed out.