Saving Justice

Chapter Four

"Oh my God, Venice!" The shocked expression on Saddie's face speaks volumes.

Aubrey laughs because of our friend's reaction. She reaches out my hand and smiles. "Congratulations, Ven."

We went to indulge ourselves at the café just outside the center after our shift. Even though I have plans later tonight, I decided to go with them to announce that I'm already engaged with Cole.

Aubrey had a chill reaction, while Saddie looked genuinely shocked after I showed my ring and personally told them that I'm getting married this coming fall―as Cole and I had agreed on last night.

"Thanks, Brey." I gently smile back.

Aubrey actually belongs to Cole's circle of friends, way back in college. She's the reason why Cole and I met. It was during a pool party of their mutual friend. She decided to take me along to wind up after our midterm examinations during our second year of taking PsyD.

That's when I first met Cole.

"Wait a minute!" Saddie turns to Aubrey. "Why aren't you surprised at all?"

"Why would I be?" Aubrey raises an eyebrow. "It's expected for the both of them to get married once Venice settles in her job. I'm sure Cole has saved enough funds to start building a family with her."

"I can't deny that I also imagined myself attending their wedding, but I didn't expect that it'd be this early!" Saddie reasons out. "I mean, she's the first one to get married among us three!"

"Saddie, you just broke up with your ex three months ago, and my boyfriend's still two years away from coming home. Of course, Venice will be the first one to get married," Aubrey says. "And how is it still early? We're already turning 29 next year."

Saddie makes a face. "Wow, Aubrey! You didn't have to include that asshole into your narrative just to prove a point."

While raising both of her hands, Aubrey apologized, "Sorry. Not my intention to offend you."

I sigh as they bicker with each other. When will they be able to hold a long conversation without arguing?

"Okay, stop it, both of you..." I get in between them before their petty fight gets bigger. "Can we all just be happy that I'm finally getting married?"

"I'm happy for you, Ven. You know that I'm rooting for you and Cole right from the start," Aubrey says and rests her case.

"I'm also happy for you. I really am." Saddie goes behind me and hugs me on my neck. "I'm just really surprised, but I'm happy."

I chuckle. "Silly, Saddie. Of course, I know that."

Saddie can sometimes be sensitive, while Aubrey is always frank. You may find her inconsiderate, but she's a great friend. After moving here to Illinois for my doctoral degree, she's the first person I've made friends with after moving here. Adjusting to the new environment became easy because of her.

At first, it was just the both of us, but after Saddie transferred to Illinois from Miami, she also became our friend. Since then, I have always become the referee whenever they start fighting about something so trivial.

"Anyway, are you going to treat us to dinner tonight?" Saddie asks and sounds hopeful.

Feeling slightly apologetic, I shake my head. "Not tonight," I answer. "Cole's going to pick me up in about..." I trail and check the time on my phone. "Ten minutes."

"You just came back from a trip with him, and you're going on a date tonight as well?" Aubrey asks. The way she looks at me and stresses the word 'date' suggests something so lewd.

"It's not really a date," I clear it out to stop her from her indecent fantasies about Cole and me by stressing the same word. "I have to go to their house and talk to his cousin."

"His cousin?" She, now, sounds curious. "Is this about wedding preparations?"

I shake my head. "Nope," I say. "His cousin needs some psychological help, and she's quite hard to handle. She refused to get diagnosed when Eleanor asked her, so I have to step in."

Since we're all in the same field and have the same profession, Aubrey and Saddie become serious and attentive as we talk about Justice's condition. They throw different suggestions based on their past experiences with their patients.

Our conversation went on and on until Cole arrived to pick me up. I promised the girls to treat them to dinner next week before I left the café with Cole so that they would let me go.

•••

There is a light traffic jam on the way because of rush hour. I use that opportunity to take a nap. Cole wakes me up after an hour when we have already arrived at their house.

Eleanor is still preparing dinner, so I took the initiative to help her out. Cole leaves me with his mother and walks up to his room to change his clothes into something more comfortable.

"Will you sleep here again tonight?" Eleanor asks while we arrange the plates and utensils on the table.

"Nope," I answer. "But I'll come here again tomorrow for Justice."

She nods her head. "You know, if it gets hard for you to come here every day after work, you can live here for a while," she suggests. "I'm sure my husband won't mind, and Cole will especially like it that you're here."

"Thanks for the offer. I'll think about it," I say. "But as of now, I don't feel the hassle yet." And my apartment isn't that far from their house. It's just a short ride.

I continued to help Eleanor when Natalie also came into the kitchen to help. Eleanor gave me a new task: calling for Justice for dinner. I knew she asked me to do it because of our plan.

Fueled with determination, I lightly knock on the door and patiently wait for her to open it.

"Justice?" I call out her name and knock again.

This time, she opens the door so little that I can only see a part of her face on the opening. She looks disturbed with her face expressing aggravation.

"Hi," I greet her face before anything else.

She languidly stares like she's going to shut the door in front of my face any moment now.

"Dinner's ready," I add before she even starts pushing me away.

Pursing her lips, she sighs and closes the door while she's still inside. I'm frankly astounded by how she acted. I blink a few times, dumbfoundedly looking at the door.

Patience, Venice. Patience.

Getting ready for my third attempt to knock on her door, I breathe in and out deeply. I'm still trying to collect myself again when the door suddenly opens.

Justice goes out of her room without saying a word and walks downstairs.

It takes some time to catch up with Justice as my feet are rooted to the floor. I only move and follow her after a few seconds of getting struck down because of bewilderment.

Unfortunately, she's already about to enter the kitchen when I catch up with her. I can't talk to her about her mental health in this setup. I shouldn't. But I doubt if I'll get a chance to speak with her alone. I need to think of another way to approach her.

Dinner ended, and I made no progress with Justice. I wasn't able to start a conversation with her about it. Just like the other night, she quickly finished her food, went back to her room, and locked herself inside.

And so, I decided to call it a day and went home.

I told Cole that I would take a cab home, and he didn't need to drive me to my apartment, but he insisted.

With a sigh, I turn my face to Cole, who looks tired because of work.

He told me earlier that he dealt with a lot of paperwork after being on leave for two days. I caress his face with my sympathetic gaze. He should be resting now, but instead, he's driving me home to make sure that I'll get home safe.

Going to their house isn't a hassle for me, but it is for Cole. Maybe I should try to consider his mother's offer. It is beneficial for both of us anyway.

•••

The next day, I got off my shift earlier since I had no more patients left for the rest of the day. I hailed a cab to take me to Fenwick High School. Cole will work overtime today, so I took this opportunity to pick up Justice from her school. I got her schedule from Eleanor. Her dismissal time is around 3:10 to 3:15 in the afternoon. Same with Natalie's. I arrived 10 minutes earlier and waited for her at the main entrance.

Fifteen minutes later, I finally see Justice walking out of the establishment. Her hands are holding the strap of her backpack. Instead of looking forward as she walks, her eyes are on the pavement. It seems like she doesn't have any friends. She's isolating herself here as well.

She still doesn't notice my presence when I walk up to her.

"Justice," I call out her name.

She looks shocked as she lifts her head to look at me. But the shock on her face is just there for a brief moment. She makes a straight face as soon as she sees that it's just me.

"You're going home alone?" I ask her. "Where's Natalie?"

I ask about Natalie's whereabouts, even though I have already informed Natalie about it. I ask her to hang out with her friends first. She hesitates at first, but when I tell her that I need to talk to Justice alone, she agrees eventually.

To my surprise, Justice suddenly speaks to answer my question. "She's still inside with her friends."

I'm so amused to hear her talking to me. I guess the silent treatment is slowly melting away. This is great! This is already some kind of improvement from our relationship.

"If that's the case, let's wait for her, and we'll go home all together later," I suggest.

She purses her lips. I see her feet are fidgeting, itching to go already. It's good that she's hesitating. It means that she's considering my invitation.

"I want to go home already..." she quietly says, indirectly rejecting my invitation.

I smile, seeing that she's finally communicating with me instead of acting like I'm non-existent. I like to believe that she's starting to warm up to me.

"Let me send her a message and ask her to go home with us then," I say and pull my phone out from the bag. I quickly type in a message to Natalie.

To: Natalie

You can come out after ten minutes. Let's go home together with Justice. We'll wait for you outside.

The reply from Natalie comes within a minute.

From: Natalie

Okay!

As everything's going according to plan, I smile and look up to Justice again. "Natalie's coming out within ten minutes," I tell her. "Want to grab a drink with me first? What do you want?"

Still hesitating, she points to the vendo filled with different brands of carbonated drinks. "Cola," she says.

"Great!" I hate drinking carbonated drinks.

I head over to the vending machine and get a can of cola for her. While waiting for the machine to dispense the cola, I critically look at the available carbonated drinks to figure out which one is less carbonated.

But seriously, why does this vendo only contain carbonated drinks? They should have put sports drinks and bottled water in it as well. Always drinking carbonated beverages is not good for your health.

Feeling hopeless and defeated, I drop another 50 cents on the vendo and press the button for a root beer. After that, I get both cans in the dispenser box and give Justice her cola.

"Thank you," she says.

She then shakes the can, which makes my eyes go wide open. Why is she doing that?

What.

The.

Hell.

The cola makes a fizzing sound. Bubbles pop up, and the drink overflows on the can's opening. As expected. Shaking the can will only increase its carbonation; that's why it exploded. But Justice looks like she doesn't mind about it all. Maybe she likes it more that way.

Frustrated with what I have just seen, I carefully open my can. I feel slightly relieved when my root beer only produces a light fizz.

But what's the point if this is just as bad as the other carbonated drinks?

I hastily take a sip of the root beer, but I suddenly realize that I'm straying far from my agenda. I'm so focused on the drink that I almost forgot to form a conversation with Justice.

After gulping down the first sip I took, I turn to Justice, who is currently drinking her cola with satisfaction etched on her face. "Anyway, Justice..." I cautiously try to get her attention once again. While she indulges in her drink, her eyes drift on mine. I gulp down my uncertainty and talk. "Your auntie talked to you about getting therapy, right?"

She stops drinking and brings the can down. Now, she looks defensive.

"Actually, I'm the one who opened up to her about it because I think you need it..." I lose my train of thoughts for a while when she bows her head down. "Uh... I don't mean to be nosy, but I'm concerned about you. I'm a professional. I can help you out if you have troubling thoughts."

Now, she's back with giving me the silent treatment. The ten-minute timer ended already, but I did not hear her opinion about getting diagnosed and receiving help. It ended so quickly. When Natalie arrived, Justice started walking ahead of us.

Once we're finally home, I report to Eleanor what happened earlier when I picked up the teens from Fenwick.

"I opened up about it; she didn't respond," I tell Eleanor, feeling somehow remorseful. "But at least, I already got her talking to me. Maybe she needs more time to consider it... I'll try to talk to her again. On Friday, I don't have many patients scheduled. I can pick them up again from school."

Eleanor nods her head. "I think so, too." She looks problematic but then, she smiles at me. "Anyway, thank you for lending a hand, Venice."

"No worries." I smile and say nothing else.

•••

I continue trying to open Justice without a losing streak for a few days. I always eat dinner in their house, whenever I stay in the center until evening and can't pick them up from school. I try to strike a conversation with her and open up about my other patients to convince her even more. But unfortunately, she's still not considering the idea of getting help.

Now, I'm currently moving some of my stuff and arranging it inside Cole's room. He empties the other side of his cabinet for my clothes and other essentials that I need.

I have finally decided to move here for a while to help Cole get enough rest that he needs instead of taking me home every night. Eleanor was so thrilled when I told her about it.

"You should've brought all your stuff already, Ven," Ronan kiddingly tells me, supporting the crazy idea of his wife. "You can save money if you live here and stop worrying about your rent."

"Dad, we're getting married soon," Cole says.

"Exactly!" Ronan exclaims. "That's why she should just live here with us."

"Dad, we're going to look for our apartment or house soon," Cole shares to his father one of our plans before getting married. "After I finish the project I'm supervising, Ven and I will start hunting."

Ronan nods. "I know that, of course," he says. "But what I'm saying is Ven can live here before the two of you get married and live in a separate roof. There's nothing wrong with cohabiting nowadays. It's normal, and you two are old enough."

"We'll talk about it, Ronan," I just say before Cole starts a long argument with his father.

Actually, Cole doesn't mind me staying here for a while because of Justice, but he doesn't want me to live with him under his parents' house before we get married. He already told me his stand about it. If we're going to cohabit, it will be in a different place. I don't think he likes the fact of us relying on his parents when it comes to these things, mainly because he can afford them.

"Okay, okay..." Ronan finally steps back. "I leave you both to it."

I smile. "Thanks."

After Ronan left, Cole lent me a hand to arrange my things faster, then I took a quick shower and changed into more comfy clothes.

"I'll also take a shower," Cole tells me while I blow-dry my hair.

I nod. "I'll go to Justice's room after drying my hair."

He looks like he's going to say something, but he just zips his lips, nods back, and heads over to the bathroom. I just shrug off his hesitation and continue drying my hair. Afterward, I step out to check on Justice as I have planned. She still has no idea that I will be living here for a while.

I knock on her door three times. It's not yet time for dinner, so I doubt if she will open the door, but I'm surprised that she did. She looks so done with me, even though I haven't opened my mouth to speak yet.

"What are you doing?" Smiling, I ask her, hopeful that she'll answer my question.

She sighs. "Reading."

I beam even more. "You read, too?" I sound so excited. "I also love reading books!"

Her lips remain shut.

While faking a cough, my smile turns sly. "I came here to tell you that I'm going to live here for a while," I tell Justice, and she looks unbothered by it. "I told you that I'm going to do my best to help you, so I'm really going to do my best."

This time, she parts her lips and her eyes glimmer with shock.

"Anyway, I'll come to knock on your door again later when it's time for dinner, okay?" I inform her before I spin around to walk back to Cole's room.

I have plenty of time now, so I don't have to disturb her from reading to keep herself preoccupied. It's nice that she has a hobby like reading. It can help her mind from pushing away unwanted thoughts.

I stop when Justice suddenly calls my name in the midst of taking a step. "Venice..."

She sounds like she's hesitating big time. I turn to her again with my eyes opened widely. This is the first time I heard her say my name!

"Yes, what is it?!" I got too excited. I can't stop myself from smiling.

"Are you going to stay with me if I agree to get therapy?" she asks, her voice quiet.   

I try to hide my astonishment, but I fail to do so and stutter with my words. "O-of course!" I say with resolve. "I'm even going to be your therapist."

It's quiet in the alley, and I can only hear the faint sound from the television downstairs, where Ronan is probably watching some baseball game. Justice's eyes keep on wandering in another direction, so my eyes drop down to her fingers playing with the watch on her wrist.

"Then..." Her breath hitches.

I look back up at her face. Now, she's looking straight at me.

"I'll do it," she says; even without a conviction, she says she'll finally do it.