Happily Ever After

68: The People of the Court...

Buckle up, friends! This one's going to be a long one, mentioning the following; the car accident, depictions of violence, drugs, and the mentioning of SA

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The teen smiled from ear to ear, grateful for the fact that an adult was looking out for him, like the parent he never had. "Thank you... and we will,"

Sarah alerted Maya that Alex had temporarily moved in with Nate Thompson after Nate's mother, Naomi, had heard about how Trish Jacobs had now been away from home for the past two weeks. The two boys had spent the day together, and once Naomi dropped Alex off and saw the state of his house, she sat him down and asked him to tell her everything.

Alex didn't like to divulge the dumpster fire that was his biological family problems, but something about the gentleness of how Naomi had asked, or how kind her facial expression was... but he did. He told her everything.

Once the mom got the truth out of Alex, a lot of which that Sarah herself didn't know, that Trish had left Alex no money, and that he had run out of the meals that Carina and Maya had made, she had deemed that unacceptable.

So, Naomi had driven Alex straight back to the Thompson house, explaining to both her confused husband and son that Alex was now living with them. It seemed that the friend group had some pretty amazing parents in their midst (as well as pretty shitty ones).

Leaning that, Maya and Carina breathed a sigh of relief. Now he was living in a stable environment with two parents looking out for him. This family structure was unfamiliar to Alex, yet he was thriving.

After the events of the whole pregnancy thing, Jo offered to take Sarah out for coffee, to which the teen accepted gratefully. She and Jo were relatively close in terms of age, and by relatively the gap was only around fifteen years.

Since Sarah was pretty ahead of schoolwork, Jo dropped by on Friday morning to pick her eldest niece up for the day. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"I thought we would get some coffee and go to the park," Jo suggested, and the teen nodded with a smile.

Once Sarah was buckled, the OB handed her phone over, so that the redhead could select some music. As expected, Taylor Swift blasted through the radio, and despite the cold (ish) weather, they drove with the windows down so the wind could run through their hair.

They picked up their drinks, and walked over to the park. It was a relatively cool day, with some spots of clouds in the sky, and they settled on a bench, enjoying the peacefulness that nature brought so effortlessly.

"What's going on in your head?" Jo asked, having seen the change in her niece's body language and Sarah sighed. "I mean... I'm still processing the fact that I got pregnant, but also when people make me drinks, because of... well, you know. I still get nervous... and speaking of, the trial is coming..."

The redhead bit her lip, feeling tears pooling in her eyes. "It just feels like ever since that day... and the day of the accident, my whole life has been leading up to this moment. Jo, I cannot fail. My nightmares are coming back, and I just- my family was murdered. I can't do this all over again, and I'm so scared,"

Sarah choked on a sob and she rubbed her eyes in frustration. "No more. I will give them no more of myself, no more sadness," she insisted with a sniffle.

Jo moved over, wrapping her arms around Sarah, holding her niece close to her chest. "It's okay to be overwhelmed, and to be sad. I can't imagine what you're feeling, and all this pressure that you are holding yourself to. You don't have to carry this by yourself, Sarah,"

Sniffling, the teen nodded as she sipped her drink. "It's... it's hard to let people in sometimes," she whispered. Nodding, Jo rested her head against the teen's shoulder.
"I know it's hard, but when you keep things in, you have all this weight on your shoulders. Lean on us, okay?"