She's My Sleeping Pill

“You can’t be here. My father will kill you,” she expressed worriedly while looking back to the house behind her. It was obvious that she feared someone from her family would see Stanley right now. “Please, leave. I’ll talk to you when I get back to work. I’m sure they’ll allow me to go back.”

“And then what? Are we going to hide forever? I don’t want this kind of relationship. You know that – ”

“Please.” Jessie muttered while holding Stanley’s hands through the metal gate. “I’m begging you. Just leave for now.”

“Running away won’t solve anything.” Stefan commented and stood beside his uncle. “If you continue to hide him, your father will continue to doubt my uncle. I have nothing against your relationship but I don’t like it when people keep hurting my family. You have to choose. You can either introduce him to your family or end your relationship right here, right now.”

“Stefan.” Cayenne mumbled and pulled Stefan closer to her. “That’s a little bit harsh.”

“She needs to make a choice, love. She can’t continue to run away from this issue forever.”

They could see that Jessie was stopping her tears from falling and her hands that held Stanley were shaking. This would be a hard choice to make.

“Jessie!”

.....

Stanley looked up and saw a fierce-looking man at the door of the house behind his girlfriend. If the man was a dragon, he was probably spitting fire in anger right now. His face was red in anger and he was looking at Stanley as if he wanted to chop him.

“Good afternoon, sir.” Stanley greeted while holding Jessie’s hands tightly. It was now or never.

“Pa. This is Stanley. He is my boyfriend.”

“So, it was real! Have you gone crazy?! Am I that useless that you’d have to make yourself and old man’s pet! For god’s sake, he could be the same age as me!”

“Sir, I beg your pardon. Jessie is not my pet and I am not some old man in an alley. I’m Stanley Sugo. Is it possible if we could talk this out? I came here to properly talk with you about our relationship because I respect you as her father.”

The man was about to fire horrendous statements against Stanley once more, but seeing his daughter was about to cry, he took a deep breath and walked back inside.

Jessie opened the gate at once and Stanley went inside along with Cayenne, his son, and his nephew. The onlookers were curious as well as they gawked at the people who visited their neighbor. They didn’t expect that those rich people will be shouted at upon their arrival. It was really surprising since most of them were just commoners.

Jessie’s house was just twice the size of the apartment that Cayenne and her family lived before but it was enough for a small family like hers. However, at this moment, it was a little bit crowded because of their guests as well as their relatives who came to witness Jessie’s life changing moment.

Jessie sat between her father and mother while her brother stood behind the couch along with her two cousins and her uncle and auntie. One of these cousins was the one who told Jessie’s father about her relationship with Stanley and even without asking, they could tell which one already. Seeing the smirk on the young woman’s face; they already knew that she was up to something bad against Jessie.

“Once again, I am Stanley Sugo and I am Jessie’s boyfriend. We’ve been together for almost a year.”

“Almost a year huh!” Jessie’s father snorted in mockery. “How ironic for you to say that you respect me when you waited for almost a year before coming to introduce yourself.”

“Pa, it was – ”

“I didn’t ask you to speak,” he snapped and Jessie shut up instantly. She was distressed that Stanley has to bear the consequence of her decisions.

Stanley looked at his girlfriend and smiled to comfort her a little from this depressing situation. Knowing that he has the support of his family, he wanted to make Jessie’s relative to feel that support. “I wanted Jessie to decide when to introduce me to her family and we talked about it that she would come to tell you on our anniversary, but I guess we no longer need to wait.”

“Yes, pa. We were supposed to tell you about soon.”

“Why wait for that day?”

Jessie wanted to speak again but her father glared sharply which made her sealed her mouth at once.

“Honestly, I have a failed marriage in the past. My wife divorced me because she felt that I was incompetent. At first, I wasn’t the least bit affected of what she said but when I met your daughter, I told myself that I have to work hard for her. I need to make sure that she’s happy. Why do we have to wait? Because I want her to know me better. I want her to decide if I’m incompetent or not, or if I am reliable or worthy of being her partner.”

“You had a wife? Do you have a child? You want my daughter to be a mother of someone else’s child?”

“Uhh...”

“I’m his son.” Dominic decided to speak up to help his father in achieving his happiness. He also wanted him to have a happy life after all the hardships he went through. “I don’t really need another mother because my father is also a mother to me. You know what I mean. I only want my father to live happily and I have seen him smile more often when he’s with her. Jessie is also a good woman. She had been doing her best to act like a good mother that she should be, but she didn’t really need to do that.”

“Wait, uncle,” Jessie’s cousin spoke up and she seemed a little worried with the flow of the conversation. She looked anxious right now. “Don’t tell me you will let Jessie get into their family. Didn’t you know that rich people often bully the poor?”