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When we got hurt as children, we went running to our parents, they would scold us and treat the wound until it was cured.
As we became older, we realized that the wounds we showed our parents were the ones that healed quickly because so...
We never see our worst days coming, we don't get to prepare for them. The day terrible things happen to us, we ask the question why us. The days after the day we lose ourselves to something negative, we find trouble accepting. The day we look back to the trauma we endure, we ask ourselves what if.
But strength, strength is the gift of the trauma we endure.
I walked out of my room that morning down the stairs to find the hallways empty. My parents were sleeping in and Jace had gone out for practice. As I reached the living room, I didn't expect to find Jade standing in front of her board.
"Are you painting again?" I asked her.
She immediately turned, startled to find me as she dropped her stroke and bucket of paint.
"No I'm not," she responded to me as she bent down to pack what she dropped.
"Why did you quit painting?" I asked her. She took a quick glance at me and shook her head with a small scoff. "You quit dance class, the piano lesson, you basically quitted on all of those things we enjoyed doing together," I prompted her.
"Sometimes I can't believe how you turned out to be the smart one," she scoffed again before she turned to me. "Enjoy? That's not the way I remember it. It was suffocating, June."
"Suffocating...," I drawled but before I could ask Jade what she meant, she already walked away, carrying her box of paint.
Session 9
"How was this week, June?" Maya asked me that evening.
"This week was really good, Oliver got arrested," I then heaved a sigh with a conspicuous blush on my face as I continued, "yesterday was the best day in my life in recent years."
"Oh and why is that?" She asked me.
I paused and threw her a big smile before continuing, "Jesse and I...," I drawled not knowing how to put it out. "He loves me, Maya."
She shook her head and threw me a bigger smile. "That's what communication does," she chipped in and I nodded in agreement.
"Also, I felt really thankful to Jade after the trial. She's done a lot to protect me, now I know that." I told her again.
"And did you make her know that you're thankful for what she did?" She asked me and I nodded in response.
"Today is the first time I talked to her about why she quit all those things we did together," I explained to Maya.
"Yeah? And what was her response?" She seemed to grow interested in that conversation.
"Vague as usual, not opening up. She only said the memory of it suffocated her," I answered.
"Every human is built to have a point where they feel like crashing down, onto someone's shoulder every once in a while," Maya started.
"Okay, Jade doesn't look like it." I responded.
"Everyone has to be able to bend when needed to, if not they'll break. Your sister has the desire to open up. She has it in her to hopefully let down her facade to someone who actually cares. If that's what she wants to see, show her. If she needs to hear you ask her sixteen times, do it." Maya advised me.
••••••
As Jace picked me from therapy that evening, I was still trying to figure out what Maya said. Jade didn't look like the kind of person who wanted to open up to anyone.
"We're picking Jade up from Ella's," he randomly mentioned to me as he pressed on his phone while we waited for the signal of the traffic light. I only nodded to him and didn't say anything.
I knew that name so well, I had heard it a hundred times in our home. Although, I couldn't really make a face out of that name, I just understood that it was one Jade's friends, the one who she was the closest to.
As Jace parked at Ella's driveway, he tried calling Jade but she didn't pick.
"Do you want to go get her? Her line's not going," he asked me.
I looked back to Ella's front porch and only after an exhale did I open the car door. I found myself knocking on the front door in no time. The door opened to reveal a woman who I assumed was Ella's mother.
"Hi, I'm June, Jade's sister. We're here to get her," I told her.
"You have a beautiful name, June. Come I'll take you to where they are," she responded with a big smile.
"You have a really good taste in the theme of your paintings," I casually mentioned as we walked along their hallway, not able to not notice the similar theme of all the paintings.
"Your sister does me the honor," she responded with another smile. As we got to the door of the room, she knocked a little and then opened the door.
"Hi, Kelley," I could hear Jade greet her.
"What are you painting today my dear?" Ella's mother asked her.
Jade was painting?
"She's painting a flower, only a different shade this time." I could hear another voice, I assumed it was Ella's.
"Your sister is here to get you," she announced my presence.
That was when I decided to enter into the room. It was like a storage room, you could tell from the pile of stuff that was stacked away in the corner. The Ella laid on a chair while she pressed onto her phone and my sister, she was sat in front of a paint board painting what actually did look like a flower.
"What are you doing here, June?" She jerked up immediately, backing her board as she seemed to get worked up by my presence. Like a kid caught saying bad words.
"Jace asked to come get you," I answered her immediately as I wondered why she got so defensive at my sight.
"Why didn't you call me?" She asked again as she took off her painting clothes and closed the boxes of paints on her table.
"Oh yeah, your phone has been vibrating, sorry." Ella responded, the awkwardness evident on her face.
As Jade struggled to get ready to make us leave, I took my time to stare at her paint board. If you looked closely, they weren't just flowers, they had thorns.
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