sad, beautiful, tragic // j.r.b

fourteen

Two updates in one day and an emotional rollercoaster 🫡 my bad 😭

TW: This chapter contains graphic depictions of sexual content and graphic discussions of sexual trauma/assault.

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"Will we have to amputate?" My father spoke halfway as a joke once the two of us returned causing me to hide a roll of my eyes behind my hair.

"Haha, very funny." I said sarcastically as I headed for my violin, practically cringing at the blood that now covered the fretboard. Dotted in fingerprints along the wood and strings.

"She's gonna need to take a few days off, and I know you say it's normal and it's happened before but she's in pain and her bruise keeps growing." Julien sounded professional, almost like a medical staff at a hospital as she trailed into the room with her hands clasped in front of her.

"Since when were you a doctor?" My mother was the next to speak up, certain I almost saw fire in Julien's eyes for a moment as she tilted her head with a small glare.

"Well she needs somebody to advocate for her. For once." She seethed with her arms crossing across her front, and I tried not to flush at the muscles in her tattooed arms with her sleeves up to her elbows. And all I could do was hope that my parents couldn't see.

"You know my opinion on it already, Diane, I've told you time and time again. Now let's leave these kids alone." My father already had his hand on her shoulder to lead her out, but not before getting a deepset scowl from my mom.

"Don't come crying to me whenever you fail your spring recital." She spoke with a stiff finger pointed my way that almost made me flinch back. And with my breathing growing shaky I didn't hesitate to reach out and grip Julien's elbow to pull her back towards me.

"Julien, no." I whispered in a quiet voice so only she could hear, pressing my hand back to her chest to hold her back. I wasn't sure I had ever seen her anger issues come out before, not to this extent at least.

"Sorry I just, saw she made you flinch and I went into protection mode." She let out a heavy breath and gently I could feel her forehead leaning against my shoulder as I felt her arms sliding around my waist, this time just like normal. "I'm sorry if I scared you, I- I know I need to work on anger management."

"You didn't scare me, JB." I whispered, lightly tangling my fingers through her still drying hair that hung down around her shoulders in loose waves. Always so effortlessly beautiful. "I know you would never hurt me. I'm just... sorry I dragged you here to meet some not very nice people."

"Absolutely not, I would've rather been here then not been here." She replied before picking her heavy head up and shrugging softly. "Your dad seems nice."

"He is, he's a lot nicer than... her." I frowned lightly to myself before beginning to zip up my violin bag and then reaching for my own backpack. Though I only winced at the sharp pain shooting through my arm as I tried to scoop it up onto my back.

"Hey, I've got it." Julien rushed to the rescue before I could even protest, sliding my backpack onto her own back and snatching my violin from my other hand causing my eyes to widen a bit in surprise. "Trust me, I'm a musician too, I know our instruments are our babies. I'm not gonna let anything happen to her, okay?"

"I trust you." I flushed with a tiny smile before feeling her hand slip into my own as we made our way out into the hall. Finally catching myself breathing a sigh of relief at the two of us being mostly alone. "It's not that I don't like to play, I do, I just- I like to play on my own terms, you know? What I like to play, not what somebody thinks I should play."