S20 E4: FAKE
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Here's Lauren's mom. I didn't know about Brody until she had been talking to him for two years.

I feel like the reason she took so long to tell me was because deep down she knew something was not right, deep down. And she knew that I would call her out on it.

Lauren came to visit us, and Jess came with her and her son, and they were staying at our house a couple of days. This is so weird because I'm usually an excellent judge of character. I usually am. But when I met Jess, I really liked her. I thought she was so nice and funny, and she was just a lot of fun. We would all laugh and talk that night, and I thought, oh, she's really nice. I really like her.

My mom, on the other hand, who was living with us at the time, as soon as they left, mom said, I do not like that girl. And I said, Mom, you don't even know her. And I kind of got mad at my mom. She said, something is not right with her. I got a bad feeling about her. And I was like, Mom, you're being ridiculous. And I thought mom was kind of jealous because we were all hanging out and her being left out or something. I had no idea. My mom nailed it. I even told Lauren because I was mad at my mom. And obviously,

And all of a sudden, Lauren and Jess tell me they're going to look at apartments in Hampstead. And my heart just melted. I was like, what? I was so excited because that's a little over an hour from where we live. I was so excited and I couldn't believe it.

They found a place. I was going there regularly right from the start. I mean, Jeff was like, you got to come watch the actual with us and we'll have a girls night. And I mean, right away, we just all, we got along great. And I was happy that Lauren had a good roommate and a good friend, I thought.

Lauren started telling me anytime she wanted to do something with someone else, Jess would get really upset and really mad and make her feel guilty. Act like, I thought I was your best friend. And if you want to go hang out with somebody you don't even know, that's fine. I'll just stay here. And she would just manipulate her. And I didn't like that. This was continuously. Either Lauren would get upset and not go or her...

And Jess would have a big fight and then Lauren would go anyway, but she would be miserable and she would text me or FaceTime me while she was getting ready to go so often. And she would say, I was so looking forward to going in now. I don't even want to go. I just want to get out and have fun. I would just say, Lauren, just go have fun. Don't let her control your life. So then for days afterwards, Jess would not speak to her, would make things really awkward. And Lauren would say how it just wasn't worth it.

So a lot of times she wouldn't go because it wasn't worth the headache of what she was going to have to deal with for the next several days to a week. It was just ridiculous.

I told Lauren, I was like, well, first of all, she sounds like a little elementary school kid. Who does that? Close to 30 years old. I told Lauren, I felt like she was jealous and it was really awkward. But I shared with my best friend back home, my two best friends, I was sharing with them how it was just so awkward and so weird. And one of them said, is Jess in love with Lauren? I just kind of laughed, but they took it that way too. From

From what I was telling them how Jess was acting, they were like, that sounds weird. It sounds like she's jealous in a different kind of way. And I had more than one family member say that as well when I would tell them things that were going on.

I don't think Lauren took it that way. But as time went on, Lauren would say she's obsessed with me or something like that. And I would say the same thing back. Sometimes I would say, she's obsessed with you, Lauren. It's kind of weird. But sometimes Lauren would act like she saw it and sometimes she didn't. I think it was uncomfortable for her to think of it that way. She would say she's had a hard life and I just want to be here for her. Lauren felt bad for her.

Because Lauren's caring, like I said before, and she's compassionate. And she was trying to make reasons for why she was acting like that instead of what it was really looking like. Here's Lauren's cousin. From the moment Lauren met Jess, I thought that Jess was Brody.

When I first heard about Brody, me and Lauren were talking a lot. It was during quarantine. Lauren had started telling me about him. He was supposed to come see her and he got into this horrible wreck and his dog flew out of the car, went missing on his way to come see Lauren. Both of us were first like, what is going on? This is not normal. So we both were like, is this guy for real?

And we started doing all this digging, like Warren was reverse image searching all the pictures he had sent to her. We were really trying to figure out if this guy was real or not. And I didn't think he was. I was like, this is too much. Too many crazy things are happening. And Lauren was the same way. She was very skeptical about him until she met Jess. She had flown out to go see him. Something else came up. And then that's how she met Jess.

It was so weird to me. I was like, there is no way. I just had a bad feeling about her as soon as Lauren told me that. But then she hung out with Jess a lot. A part of me wanted to believe her and then a part of me was very skeptical. So when I first met Jess, I had went over to Wilmington to hang out with them for the weekend.

I was pretty confident that Jess was Brody. But as soon as I met her, something in my brain flipped and I was just like, oh no, there's no way she could do that. I really like Jess. She was very friendly and very outgoing. She was an easy person to get along with. I saw no red flags about her. And I remember coming home and telling my husband because he knew all the Brody stuff. And I was like, no, I was wrong.

I feel like I knew Jess. I would consider Jess my friend. But honestly, we only met like a handful of times looking back on it. I think it was more so her personality. I feel like I differed from her other friends that Jess met because Jess didn't have any sort of competition with me. Well, first of all, we're cousins, so it's not like she can get rid of me. Also, I live four hours from them, so I wasn't hanging out with Lauren all the time.

Once I met Jess, I was like, nah, I don't think she's pregnant anymore. And that was almost a full year later that I first met Jess. Jess is my age or maybe a year older than me. I kind of related to her on that level because Lauren was a couple years younger than us. And so sometimes she had friends that I felt were kind of like a little immature. She

She had a good job. She had a kid. She seemed mature. We would always go do fun things that I enjoyed, like not just going partying or going to the bars. We would go jet skiing or we'd go to the pool and have a couple of drinks. We went to a Panthers game and that was really fun. We went to a Jody Messina concert. We liked the same music.

Grew up in that country 90s era, and I could relate to her on that.

Honestly, I stopped talking to Lauren about Brody because I don't know if she would think this. But for me, I thought she got very defensive about it and would get mad at me for bringing it up because I'm still in the mindset like this guy's a catfish. But she really liked him and nothing I say is good about him. I feel like it was causing conflict between us, me and Lauren. So we just wouldn't talk about him. I would never ask about him because nothing ever good came from that.

I didn't know the full extent of it. The further that they got into their relationship, the more that I learned. But I still probably didn't know that much. If we were hanging out, I would see him going off on her. Anytime I'd be like, why are you still talking to him? I'd stopped asking, have you met him? Because I knew she hadn't. I just stopped asking.

We went to the J.D. Messina concert close to where I live. We had a really good time. Me and Lauren and Jess

It was just us three. They had come closer to where I live and we were going to stay the night. We had a hotel and everything. We were leaving the concert. We're kind of like, what are we going to do? On our way back to the hotel, Lauren was like, oh, my ex-boyfriend lived here. Why don't we get him to come show us around? So Lauren calls him and just shuts down. Gets super quiet. You could tell it pissed her off.

And so I'm over there trying to comfort her. I'm like, he's a fun guy. Like he always shows us around town. He's a really fun guy to hang out with. I loved him for Lauren and I just thought he was a good friend. So I enjoyed hanging out with him. She said something like, I just wanted this to be a girl's night. And so we were like, okay, well, I get it. Maybe that's why she's shut down or whatever.

And then we got back to the hotel and she freaks out, leaves the room, storms off, calls somebody. She said that she called her ex-boyfriend, which is Brody's cousin, supposedly. And so Brody knows that Lauren had called her ex and wanted him to show us around. But it wasn't like that. We were all friends at that point. So it wasn't like Lauren was trying to get with him. Jess knew that. But yeah.

But yet she still tells her, which that was a red flag right there. I was like, that's weird. Why would she tell him? And then Brody all of a sudden knows. So Brody's pissed off at Lauren, just was pissed off and crying and saying that she didn't trust men. And that's why she was freaking out. But it didn't make any sense. It was one guy that Lauren used to date. It didn't make sense that she couldn't be around him because she didn't trust him.

Jess goes off to the car and she's like, "I'm leaving." She had came with Lauren, so Lauren didn't have a ride back. They live in the opposite direction that I live in, several hours the other way. So it's not like I could just take Lauren back. And Jess is like, "We're leaving." It wasn't even that big of a deal. And we were all supposed to be just having a normal girls' night. And Jess decided that they were leaving. So they went home in the middle of the night.

I was like, "What is going on?" I started thinking, I feel like Jess has a crush on Lauren. I'm trying to be there for Lauren and so I'm trying not to think that Brody is Jess. The only other thing my brain could come up with was, "Okay, Jess has a crush on Lauren." At the time, it was hard to understand. I'm like, "Are you a super insecure, jealous friend or do you like Lauren?" I was like, "Lauren, has she ever really made a move on you? Is there a reason why she's acting like this?" And Lauren's like, "No,

I don't think it's that. And so I'm like, okay, what else could it be? My mind keeps going back to like, okay, maybe she is Brody. But then I would be around her in like the good moments. And I'm like, I just don't see how and I don't see why I don't get it. I could not wrap my head around it at all. Hi, my name is Kai. I've been friends with Lauren for a little over six years now.

We just had a bunch of fun together. We were best friends. We took random spontaneous trips together and we would go out all the time. We were living in Nashville. We were right out of college. We both worked at the same restaurant together. So we really met through that and then became really close friends.

I think about this all the time. I miss the Lauren that I knew. Honestly, we were just crazy. We were fun. We were wild. We were free. We laughed so much together. I loved how much fun we had together. Like we used to go out all the time. We would spend every weekend at brunch together. We had tons of friends. It was me and her against the world kind of thing.

She was always a fun loving spirit. She was hilarious. She was a best friend to me and spontaneous, just like me. And she and I would at 4am in the morning decide to drive down the coast. And yeah, I just miss that about her. When did you start to see that shift?

So for a while, I thought it was because I was getting into a relationship. But I've come to notice that obviously something wasn't right. I was a little concerned and I wanted to express that to her and just be like, hey, I know you haven't met this person yet. Why don't you try FaceTiming them? Why don't you try calling them? Trying to get her to realize that this could be a scam that happens all the time in this day and age.

Then the story just got deeper and deeper. And I felt her pulling away faster. And for me, I was like, oh, it's because I'm spending all the time with my new relationship. But no, that wasn't the case. It was more so because she was being encompassed by this person named Brody. She really didn't want to budge when it came to listening to her friends.

She essentially thought that her friends were like ganging up on her. And it got to a point where she got anxious talking about him around us. I specifically was the one that was closest to her. And I really tried to give her like a peace of mind about like, hey, I'll support you no matter what. I know you're feeling all these types of feelings towards this person. I'm not going to say I'm behind it. I love you and I'll support you through whatever you want to do. I didn't want to judge her because other people were judging her.

And I tried to be like that hand she could hold. But I also knew that she would be embarrassed to talk about Brody in front of other people, especially our friends. And then she just started kind of shying away from the group in general and not going to all the brunches or the parties or the things that we used to do because she felt ganged up on.

I think that Brody, or aka Jess, was using these emotions. And I'm sure she was expressing that as well to Brody at the time.

He would never actually show face and he would make stories as to why he wouldn't show face. Like the time where he was driving all the way from, I think it was Colorado to Nashville and he had a dog in the car. I remember this and his truck ran off the road or something. So he ended up in the hospital and me and my friends, we were like, okay, well, if he's in the hospital, where's the dog?

But then when he was in the hospital, started coming the other personalities and the other characters that Jess was creating. I wanted her to try to like look into that and be like, okay, is this really his cousin? How do you know that this person is actually hospitalized? So we started calling the hospitals. We started calling the hospitals around his specific location where he supposedly ran off the side of the road and almost died.

After calling hospitals, Lauren was getting really worked up and I was like, let's take a breath and why don't we try talking to these family members, even though they weren't real. She started getting like really emotional about him. She was like, this person was trying to come here for me. Now we might be dying. So now I'm stuck in this trap of being an emotional wreck.

I was trying to be there for her, but at the same time, I really didn't think that that made any sense because driving from Colorado to Nashville, you wouldn't do that in your right mind without stopping. And it was overnight. And I don't even think that's possible to do overnight. In my head, I was like, okay, this seems super unrealistic. And then the whole thing with the dog being in the car and then not knowing where the dog was.

I did visit my friend in North Carolina and I knew that Lauren was in the area because she moved from Nashville to North Carolina. So I asked her if she would meet me for a drink and she did. And I ended up staying at her apartment that night, but I never got to see Jess because she stayed in her room and apparently they were in a fight and she wasn't happy that I was there.

I am gay, so I didn't know if her roommate was into her or if she was gay or whatever. I would just assume that the roommate was jealous that she was having someone else in her room, in her bed. But it wasn't sexual or anything. It was just me sleeping over at a friend's house. But I didn't know if her roommate knew I was gay and if she thought there were any other incentives for me, which there wasn't.

She did come out to the living room once, but Lauren told me that I should stay in her room and let her handle it. So she did. She was telling me how close she was to her roommate when we got drinks. But she also said that she felt like she couldn't have friends. And she's so happy to see me because I reminded her of who she used to be before meeting this person. And I was like, well, Lauren, why'd you move in with this person? Why are you here? Why'd you leave Nashville? And

And it just all went back to this idea of Brody. And I said, well, goddamn, have you met Brody yet? And she was like, no, I still haven't. And I'm like, okay, Lauren, there's got to be like a reason. At this point, I'm not going to be that supportive friend. Like I'm concerned for you. But I didn't think it was her roommate. I was confused at the situation. I did think that her roommate was jealous because of me. I didn't know why. Here's Lauren.

When I first moved to North Carolina, I was not talking to Brody as often. I had made it clear that things weren't going to change. If he wanted to see me outside of therapy, when that time came, he could come to North Carolina. I didn't know at the time his sister lived 15 minutes from where I was moving to, but I knew it would be very easy for him to get a job close by and we could revisit it then. But that wasn't

what he wanted. He wanted to continue talking. He wanted to continue building this relationship without seeing each other or without calling each other. It was just so elaborate. She would just go into so many details about Brody and how he would act and the things he would do and funny stories that would happen when they would go camping together or when they would go to festivals together.

In the beginning, she was on his side a lot and would be like, "Oh, that's just him. That's how he is." And then it became like, "You just need to stop talking to him. He's not healthy for you trying to play this role of a protector."

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September, I believe Lauren was in New York with Jess. I was home still working.

So what I remember from that night was Matt and Brody had been reunited. He went home and they were excited to see each other and they were going to go out for a drink. It was like an Oktoberfest going on in Des Moines and I was out with my friends, of course. And Brody had texted me saying, have you heard from Matt? It wasn't super late at this point. And I said, no, why? And he

He had just gone home. He said he was going to meet Brody at home. I had texted Matt and I said, hey, is everything good? That was the last thing I ever texted him or heard from him. There was no reply to that. And the next morning, Brody reached out to me and said that Matt never went home. Matt's mom had called Brody and said that she had found him in his truck.

And for like a month or two, he wouldn't tell me exactly what happened. I was trying to pry, but still be like sensitive. In other stories, it was an overdose.

I remember it was much later, Brad told me that he had shot himself, but he didn't die right away because he went to the hospital and he was on life support of some sort. And basically Brody had to decide if they were going to keep him on life support or take him off and let things go naturally.

And that was a big kicker in the story because Matt had always been chasing Brody when he lost it, when he was making threats, when he was overdosing. Matt was always the one driving around trying to find him. Or in that first instance that I wasn't around for, Matt had found him there. But Matt had made sure that Brody wouldn't be the one to find him because essentially the takeaway was Matt couldn't handle always seeing Brody like that.

Matt essentially took his life because of the trauma of Brody's suicide attempts.

It was inferred. It wasn't ever said. Matt didn't get along with his mom. I was always kind of surprised by that detail. And then Brody had told me that he had left a letter that he never read to me. I never got verbatim words, something along the lines of, you need to treat her right. I knew she was the right girl for you. Just like really crazy emotional mind fucking games.

This is when her and Lauren went with Lauren's family to New York on vacation. We get to New York, my parents, my brother, and Jess and her son. We had a good time at first, and then all of a sudden she started acting more crabby, and everyone was catching on to it. My parents were like, what's going on? Like, why is she in such a bad mood? It made the whole rest of the trip not so fun. And it was my birthday trip.

I remember getting a text from Brody one night and he had said that Matt had overdosed. I had assumed that that meant, okay, he's just like Brody. He'll be fine. I was that brainwashed, like he'll be just fine. He's always fine. Brody's always fine. Matt's going to be fine. And I was a little bit desensitized to it. And so I acted a little bit casual towards the conversation and just being like, how's he doing? And

And he slowly got worse and worse. And the brother, Brad, texted me and told me about it and said that they didn't think he was going to make it. And I was kind of blown away by that because I didn't think that it was that bad.

Jess was acting about the same as far as I recall. She wasn't acting sad or crying or anything at the time. She knew what had happened and she was concerned, I guess, but just not distraught by any means. But she was acting a lot different towards my parents and making everyone's time miserable, honestly.

I found this text an example here of the way that Brody would just drop these terroristic text messages in your phone. You asked where Matt was. He's like, I don't know where he is. You're like, when was the last time he spoke? Brody, before I left you, where is he?

Brody, I don't know, Lauren. You, oh, I'm sorry. Brody, you're not, but it's cool. You, okay? Brody, later. You, bye. Brody, mad overdose, by the way. Enjoy your time. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for. Yeah, like, what the fuck? And if he really did overdose, why are you sitting there mad at me and wondering what I'm doing and wondering who I'm with or whatever the case may be?

Here's Monica. Really, all I can remember is it's when I was done talking to Brody. We still had each other on Snapchat, and he had posted something sad on his Snapchat, which isn't out of the norm. The only thing he really posted on his stories was either...

songs or something sad or a picture with him with another girl or something. And then Jess had texted me like, oh, did you hear what happened? And she was texting me about it. And I called her because I could tell that she was very upset. I was asking her, do you think I should reach out to Brody and just let him know I'm here for him? Or was that not a good idea?

I don't remember her response to that, but I know she was very distraught and very upset about Matt's passing. I do remember being at a restaurant with my friends and I got up and walked to the front door to talk to Jess. Here's Monica's friend, Mick.

Monica had to step away from the table because she had gotten a call that Matt had overdosed while we were at dinner together. It brought up the whole Brody situation and it was something she was trying to move on from. She had started dating her now boyfriend and she was trying to move on with her life. And it was just another situation where she got thrown back in to the whole mess that is Brody.

So watching her visceral reaction to having that be brought back up was hard as a friend because you never want to see your friends go through anything like that. And to just see the remaining like trauma be brought back into her life is just hard.

But looking back on it now, you start to wonder if was that her seeing that she was hanging out with other friends or like starting to date other people and her way to come back into her life is just so strange and manipulative.

I don't think she knew how to feel. She was obviously very upset. The dinner ended shortly after that. We went our separate ways and I think she needed to process what all went on because it brings up a lot of trauma from the previous situation.

I don't understand how anyone could be so heinous and so manipulative to make a fake profile, get to know these girls, and then come up with these stories in order to meet them in person and befriend them and try to be roommates with them and put them in your son's life and do all of these things in order to manipulate them into being her friend.

I don't understand the thought process behind it. It puts a pit in your stomach of just how cruel people can be. Using their experiences in order to manipulate the story, they would confide in her and then she would use their words against them as Brody. Here's Monica.

just called me. She was very upset. And I was offering like, do you need me to come now? Do you need help? Are you okay alone? Are you like just trying to be a good friend and be there for her any way I can? Because this is not something that I have ever experienced or had to go through in my life. So I didn't know exactly how to be there for her and help. So I was like, whatever you need, let me know. She was very upset and it seemed very real.

I do think it's weird that it sounds like me and Bree and Lauren, I'm pretty sure he died for us all on the same day, even though Brody was still talking to them and not to me. They don't really know the intentions. I offered to go with her to the funeral if she needed someone to go with and be there and support her as a friend. She didn't end up going to the funeral for obvious reasons.

Here's Lauren. She would come in my room sometimes when I would be working and just fall to her knees, wailing, just bawling. And it came to a point where that was normal for me. And I didn't even go and console her. I would just be like, what's wrong? Because she just was always distraught in some way or another.

One thing that was definitely transparent with the conversations me and Brody would have was my mental health was not well going through what I was going through. And I did not hold back when saying that, and he obviously did not either. The emotional abuse really took a toll on me, and I couldn't get out of bed some days. It got to the point, especially during the threats of suicide, I wouldn't eat for days. I wouldn't get out of bed for days.

I would lay in bed and cry. I had no control over the situation and I felt so helpless. And it almost felt like he would make me feel that way on purpose because he would say,

I'm going to kill myself and there's nothing you can do about it. Or I'm going to kill myself and you don't know where I'm at. Playing all these mind games that mess with your head even more. That's one thing that I can't stand is not being in control of the situation or not being able to help when I need to help. So that really messed with me and I had to speak with a therapist on multiple occasions and had to speak with them about that. But at the time they didn't know what was going on and I didn't know what was going on. So the therapy didn't really help.

medication helped and I'm still taking medication to this day.

One time I was trying to get ready for a date, not with Brody. I matched with him on some dating app. He lived close by. We had been talking for a little bit. I had already moved in with Jess. I was talking to Brody, but I was also very, very miserable. And I wanted to look at my options. And that's perfectly fair for me to want to do. So I decided I want to go on a date with him. I'm getting ready and Jess comes in and she's crying to me about something.

I have the text from that. So it was October 20th of 2021. I said, hang on a bit. My roommate is upset. I said, it might be best if we reschedule. There's a lot going on tonight. And I don't feel like my head is in the right space after talking to her. He said, I'm so sorry. I wish I could help. I said, sorry about myself out. I have a pretty flexible schedule, though. We can reschedule or we can rain check. Yeah.

And then he just kept trying to hang out after that. And I never did. I have texts from her from that day. So she said, do you want to come down with us? I said, I just got out of the shower. She said, that's okay. I won't be home for a bit. You said you just took a nap. I said, yeah, I fell asleep after my shower. I said, I'm feeling very unloved by you. And it's making me anxious. She said, you're a big girl. I said, I'm so anxious. I want to die. She said, I don't know what to tell you. I said, you make me feel weird. She said,

She said, okay, because you're a grown human and you're telling me that, what should I say? Don't go then. I don't know what else to tell you. If you have a bad feeling, you probably shouldn't do it just because you're bored. I've never had a friend ask me to support them on a date. They just do it. I said, no, you just act weird. I'm not nervous about the date. And she said, I don't think I'm acting weird. I have things on my mind. You just said you were anxious. So clearly you are. I said, because of you. And then I guess we must have talked in person after that because there's nothing else on here.

I remember crying that night because of her actions. She's just horrible.

She would say that a lot. Like anytime I would struggle, she'd be like, well, just put two feet in front of the other. You're a big girl. You can do it. When I told her recently, I brought this up about the guy that stayed over and how weird she acted. And she was like, oh, are you going to cry about it? Because I kept telling her how weird she was being that night. And I was like, no, I just wanted to let you know, like you were really weird to me because I thought we were at this point where we could kind of talk about those kind of things at this point in the friendship.

It was my junior year of college, I believe, or sophomore year. I was in a separate home. It was still basically on campus. It was across the street from campus, but it was kind of tucked away with like a bunch of trees. So it was hidden in the corner, but it wasn't far. It was more so actual neighborhoods with families and things like that.

It happened at night. I had just gotten out of the shower and I remember feeling like someone was watching me. That was not a normal feeling for me. It's hard for me to talk about because it is so triggering and I struggle a lot with talking about it. I was getting ready for bed and I felt that feeling, but then there were also leaves crunching by the window. I heard that sound over and over and over again.

I called campus safety and they came by, they looked around, they didn't see anything. My roommate was home at this time. So I talked to her about it and she's the one that convinced me to call campus safety. They come by, they don't see anything and then I get in the bed and I can still hear the leaves crunching around my window for probably five hours.

I think it happened at 11:00 at night and it went on until 3:00 in the morning. By the time that I got in bed and stuff, I had convinced myself that it was an animal because I didn't think that they could really see anything. The lights were off. There's not really a point in them peeping through the window.

So I went to bed and then I woke up the next morning. I had a knock at my door and it was my neighbor who I'd never met before, but I actually was in class with her. She asked me if I was okay and she told me there was a man looking through my window for several hours.

She did not call the cops. She did not call anybody. She just let it happen. I called the police. That was the next morning. They happened to look around the house, but at this point, you know, there was nothing for them to see, but I became extremely paranoid. My roommates left because they either had a sorority to go to, or they had family in the area that they could go to. So I was staying there by myself and I,

And if I heard anything, it was very triggering. I thought that someone was climbing into the chimney. I called the police probably three or four times in that same month because I kept hearing things and became really paranoid about it. I was diagnosed with PTSD because of it. I'm sure that I shared it with her. It's not something that I hid from people. It explained a lot of why I was feeling the way I was and scared and isolated.

I was so scared of being out in public. So my thought process was if I left that apartment, something bad could happen to me. That was just a really, really traumatizing time for me. I had to go to McDonald's and sit in the parking lot till people would come home or till I was around people or the sun was up. It just was not easy. And I didn't think I was ever going to go through anything like that again. That really messed me up.

Jess was out of town and me and her son were going to watch a movie that night. So we had gotten blankets and everything and brought them to the couch. We were just going to have a cozy night in. It was the weekend, so we were just relaxing. As it gets dark, I start to hear these sounds that almost sound like they were in synchrony. So it was like a bang. And then every 30 seconds, there was another bang. And then it kept getting progressively louder.

I called Jess because I was concerned with what it was. I'm also naturally paranoid and hypervigilant, so I wanted someone else's opinion, I guess, on it. At this point, the dogs were barking. The son had climbed in my lap because he got scared too. So I call her. She very calmly just tells me, "If there's someone banging outside, go upstairs."

So I get up to go upstairs and I hear bang, bang, bang on the window directly behind me this time. We run upstairs, grab the dog. I call the police.

Whoever was knocking starts shining their flashlights into the window and I'm on the phone with the cops. I completely freeze and I'm fully having a mental breakdown in my head because my worst case scenario happened and I didn't think it would ever happen again. So I was just trying to navigate that the best I could with taking care of a child in that moment.

And I told the cops to please hurry. That's all I remember saying. I don't think I said anything else besides please hurry. They finally showed up. I was very shaken up. Here's Lauren's mom. I get a phone call. I don't recognize that number. And I said, I'm not answering that. I don't recognize that number. And Mike said, you need to answer. It could be an emergency or something. So I answered it.

It was Jess. And she's all upset, crying, crying. Immediately, immediately, something was off. Something was off. It wasn't real. She was not real. It was a fake thing. And she was crying, saying that somebody had been banging on the window. She couldn't get in touch with her. And she wanted me to try to call Lauren. And I'm like, if you're so worried about him, why are you calling me? Why aren't you calling the police?

But she was kind of saying, can you please go? Can you please call and make sure they're okay? I'm just so worried. I'm so worried. I told Mike, I was like, something's wrong. Something's not right. I felt like Jess had something to do with it immediately. And I told Lauren that. I said, I don't know what it was. I don't know where that came from. I mean, it was immediate. As soon as I knew it was Jess and she started talking and crying, I just knew something wasn't right. It was creepy.

She was freaking out, freaking out, freaking out over it. I went up there and got Lauren and the son and brought them back to our house and they stayed for a few days. Well, Jeff needed picking up at the airport. I think I had taken her to the airport when all this happened and I still had her car. Her car was left at our house. So we had her dog, her puppy. So when I go pick her up at the airport, me and Lauren and the son, we get there and the

She sees us driving that car with his dogs in it, and she is not a happy camper. She's not happy.

Can't remember what. I can't drop my car, but I can't drop my car. I put the animal cover. You know, you got those pads that you can put over a seat. I had that strapped over her seat. She was so mad that the dog, she just kept bringing up that I had brought the dog in her car to pick them up. So I go rescue your son from this horrible situation where someone's going to kill him and my daughter. And I rescue your son and your puppy, bring them to our house and stay for a few days. And I pick you up in your car and I have the dogs with me. What was I thinking?

Anyway, so I brought that up to her later because she kept bringing that up about the car. Finally, I said, I will go vacuum your car out. When I took that pad out, I'm not kidding you, there might have been three or four hairs in the car. But I told her I would go vacuum it out. No, I'll do it. I'll do it. And I said, well, you know, it's a big deal. I'll vacuum it out. I'm the one that brought the dogs. I'll vacuum it out. And she just would not let it go. And finally, I said, it really bothers me that you're not appreciative that I came and got your son out of the situation. You were terrified for him, or so you say.

and your puppy and stay with us a few days. And then all you can talk about is the car having a few hairs in it from these dogs. You're not thanking me at all. So obviously you weren't too concerned about the whole situation at the townhouse. Not hugging the kid like, oh, I'm so glad you're okay. She just got in the car and she was talking about the dogs. Here's Lauren.

My anxiety just kept getting worse and worse after that. I got my wisdom teeth removed a few days or so after and I was on Oxy and it really heightened my emotions, heightened my anxiety. I thought that I was losing my mind.

I think it's just important to highlight that I was struggling a lot and I was making it very clear from the beginning. I told Jess I didn't drive. She really tried to push me out of that, but it wasn't to help me. It was to benefit her. And Brody used to use that against me all the time. I wasn't putting the effort into the relationship. Because I couldn't drive, I wasn't giving enough and I needed to work on that before we could see things through.

I didn't have any motivation or want to change at the time. It was just a complicated time for me and his input was just to benefit him/Jess.

At one point, I was reading back in the text messages and I read that the banging sound came back like a month later. But I didn't tell Jess about it because I was scared at the time to tell her for whatever reason. Once I did tell her, she basically got mad at me for not telling her sooner. It really, really took a toll on me. I felt like I wasn't going to be normal. I still feel that way. I feel like because I'm so paranoid with everything, it's hard to like...

I don't know, get to a certain point with me, like break those walls down.

This is one of the texts I got from Brody. You keep letting everything in life control you. You don't try to overcome any of it. You're the most paranoid person I know. And I'm friends with girls that have had similar things happen, but they don't let it stop them from living life like you do. I think it's important to be realistic and honest with you rather than telling you how you handle things as normal because it's not at all. Here's a text message I sent that says, I'm hearing things 24 seven. I don't understand. And I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I'm terrified to stay in the house and Jess and I might break the lease because no one feels safe. The dogs are paranoid and bark over everything. They never used to do that. Weird things keep happening. I have no idea what's going on. And his responses sounds like a lot of irrational words. We have cameras at every entrance and all the windows are covered and locked. And I have an alarm system with sensors every time something opens. But I'm so traumatized that I'm hearing things and convincing myself of things that aren't possible.

Here's a text from Brody that says you're scared to drive your car or do anything else, but you'll download a dating app to meet people and then black out with them the first time meeting them. You're ridiculous. You're so irrational. It's unreal. I just talked to Brad and Mel about it. And even they are like, what the fuck? Scared of a neighbor that's probably harmless and thinks he's after you, but you'll give strangers your address. Making me feel honestly just worse about what I was already going through.

After the peeping Tom happened a couple of days after Brody told me that his sister knew someone who lived in the neighborhood and that that had happened there too, except they saw kids doing it. And he was just trying to reassure me that he knew it wasn't anything dangerous, which once again, I don't know how Jess plays a part in that. Another thing with the peeping Tom that I wanted to touch on is that I was

feeling so scared and isolated. I didn't have him that I could call, but yet I'm sitting there texting him as I'm hearing something. It just seemed so silly to me that he wouldn't talk to me. And it really hurt my feelings too, that he wouldn't talk to me when I was scared to death. I

Obviously, I'm not caring about the conversation that we have. I just needed support in that moment. And he was not giving that to me. So I would call my mom and dad while I was folding laundry downstairs at night.

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Here's Lauren's mom. So I saw the real Jess when Lauren had her wisdom teeth out and I went to stay with Lauren for a couple of days. Jess did not want me to come in and stay in for a couple of days. Now, I've had her and her son at our house several times to stay for days and overnight. She did not want me there. And Lauren said, OK, then can you help take care of me after my wisdom teeth get out? She goes, no, I'm not taking care of you. You're an adult. So I went and stayed with her a couple of days. And buddy, I saw a whole different Jess when I got there.

She was so rude, so horrible to me. I would never treat someone like that who came to my house, that their daughter was supposed to be my best friend. It was horrible. So that's when I gave it to her because I finally had a big talk with her. And after that was never the same because she knew I was on to her little personality thing. Fake.

She would not come downstairs, which any other time when I would come to watch Bachelor, we all watch TV together. We'd curl up on the couch, have a blanket all around us. And me and her and Lauren and the little boy would sit there and watch TV and have snacks. We invite her down there. I don't know how many times she would not come down.

So her bedroom upstairs was like an open area. The wall didn't go all the way to the ceiling, and that's what she used for a bedroom upstairs. She ended up taking a blanket and pinning it or nailing it to the ceiling so it covered her open area so it looked like a wall there, and she would not come down and sit with us. She just was so rude. One morning when I was there,

I said, good morning. Because she walked down and she was like shuffling around. She wouldn't speak. She was getting stuff and getting really irritated. And I said, good morning, Jeff. And she said, good morning. And she was just so hateful. And I was like, I cannot believe she's treating me like this. And then she gets on the phone laughing and talking and everything and being so sweet. When she got off the phone, she was totally back to her old hateful self with me. And I was like, what's wrong? No.

Here's Lauren again.

I remember talking to a therapist sometime after Brody. Basically, the therapist said that just because you're comfortable staying home doesn't mean you're not depressed. I had always seen depression as being sad all the time, but I was content doing nothing. I was content staying home and not making friends because of the fact that I was causing so many problems anytime that I did do anything that

that it just seemed like a better idea to not once again wake the bear.

It definitely became more clear post-discovery. I think I could only work with what I was seeing in front of me, and that was just Jess being a friend to me. I never saw her be interested in me or be interested in any woman for that fact. She would talk about her relationship with men, so I never thought that she was obsessed with me in that way. I knew there were red flags as a friend, but I didn't think they were as big as they are.

waving right in front of my face. Next time on Something Was Wrong. She's mischievous, like she's up to no good. She has an air about her. Jess would weaponize us against each other. I think she's actually evil to her core. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe, friends.

Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production created and hosted by me, Tiffany Reese. This season, our theme song, You Think You, by Gladrags, is covered by Palehound. For music and tour dates, go to palehound.com.

If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones, leave a positive review, or follow Something Was Wrong on Instagram at somethingwaswrongpodcast. As always, thank you so much for listening. You think you know me, you don't know me.

At all You don't need to be taught to song

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