Justice

Ch. 4

Her father spared my genitals that night.

Ever since the first date, we went on more together. We went to the movies, roller skating, to the boardwalk, I even took her to the school's carnival fundraiser. I won her a huge panda bear, and she made a cotton candy mustache.

We made out at the top of the Ferris wheel.

Needless to say, Isabelle and I were pretty much an item.

But I still actually asked her to be my girlfriend. It was over dinner at Bartolini's, the fanciest Italian restaurant in the city. She was eating chicken alfredo, and I had the three-cheese lasagna. I popped the question halfway through our meal.

We shared a chocolate mousse for dessert, taking turns feeding each other. It was pretty romantic, I have to say.

To my surprise, her friends found us being together "cute".

The only person who shit on our parade was Ethan.

Of course, I totally disregarded his whole message about staying away from Isabelle, but he really was overreacting.

He would corner me in the locker room and beat the shit out of me, saying that he thought I knew better.

I covered it up the best I could, but I still had to lie to Isabelle, telling her I was being clumsy or inattentive yet again. I don't know how many times a person can run into a wall.

Eventually, she stopped believing me, and I spilled the truth.

She was pissed.

I tried to calm her down, but I couldn't stop her. Basically, Ethan got cursed out in front of the whole senior class at lunch.

It was pretty embarrassing.

For him, I mean.

Despite having saved my ass by telling Ethan off, Isabelle was still upset that I had been lying to her. We were at the park on Friday night when she confronted me.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry about me."

"Why wouldn't I worry about you, Justice?"

"I was fine, okay? I can handle myself."

She scoffed. "Oh, sure, having a new bruise every week is totally handling yourself. For God's sake, Justice, he could've hospitalized you!"

"But he didn't."

She looked at me, brows drawn together and lips curved down.

"But what if he did? What would I do then, Justice?" She was in tears by now. "Was I supposed to stand there and wonder how my boyfriend got put in the hospital?"

I didn't like to see her cry.

I never wanted to hurt her. I never wanted to make her cry. I was already a murderer. I couldn't be an asshole, too.

I gave in.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't honest with you. Just please don't cry, Isabelle." I hugged her and she buried her face in my chest, letting the tears flow.