There Will Be Blood (not mine)

36. Gargoyle

MADDIE POV

My leg bounced on the carpeted floor in Justin's living room. The tension filled the air to the point that was it was almost suffocating.

"Does anyone want to say anything else?" Eleazar asked the both of us. Justin was on one side of the sofa, and I was on the other. The separation was so far that I was actually getting cold over here.

Justin was tapping the fingers of his one useful hand on his knee. The other hand was in a small brace, evidence of his fighting a couple of days earlier at his stupid mob meeting. From what I'd heard, it didn't go very well, and Justin had gotten fairly feisty.

"Are you sure that you don't have anything to say?" Eleazar sighed and leaned back in his chair. "We still have half an hour on the clock."

"I've talked the whole time," I said to Justin.

"I don't know what you want me to say." He shrugged and sucked on his teeth annoyingly.

"Why don't we just talk about what we're doing here? I think we should start from the beginning. Why are we here?" He asked with his hands in the "thinking deeply" finger tepee.

"We're here because we have problems. We've already established that." Justin sighed heavily.

"Well, anyone in this life would have problems, but it goes deeper than that. Justin, Maddie has talked for our last three sessions. She's told you that she was hurt by your actions, and she accepts that you apologized, but feels like you're shutting her out. Did I get that right, Maddie?" He turned to me, and I nodded.

"First of all, you don't need to be here," Justin spoke with acid in his tone towards Eleazar. "Secondly, Maddie, I apologized, and I'm willing to do whatever you want. Just tell me what to do."

"I want you to talk to me. I have no idea what happened in Bermuda. All you said was that you kissed some girl and you liked it. How do you think that makes me feel?"

"I don't know what you want me to say. I tried to be truthful with you, and you know I don't mince words. I did something wrong and I told you. Did you want me to lie?"

"No, but it would be nice to know what you were thinking. I just don't understand how you could do something like that and just not think about the reasons behind it."

"Now we're getting somewhere..." Eleazar began.

Justin cut him off, "Shut up. The only reason you're here is because you're Jeremy's friend. I've check you out, and you're a quack. You didn't graduate, went to jail twice, and have no psychiatric experience."

Eleazar cowered back in his seat. To be honest, he wasn't really helping things.

"There were no thoughts behind it." Justin crossed his arms.

"You're lying. What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

"Let's go from the beginning. Justin, tell us the whole story," Eleazar suggested.

Justin didn't say anything for a minute. His eyes shifted to mine, like he was asking me for permission. I didn't know if I wanted to hear all of this, but I needed to understand how he could do that and not understand that I was hurt. He was still under the impression that because he apologized, it was all better.

I gave an encouraging head nod.

He let out a long breath. "Alright, well, I was injured earlier in the day and was hopped up on pain medication. When I woke up from my nap, I went to a bar to drink and that's where I met that girl. I think... her name was Ginger or something."