"Look, I know you're frustrated, but that's why I'm here. Now if you tell me what happened to your eye, maybe we can start to figure everything else out too," Hannah asked. She'd been waiting for Nicholas to respond to her for the past 5 minutes. Finally he said,
"How do I know you're actually going to help me? For all I know you'll sit here for no more than 5 seconds before deciding that I'm just another mental case, and that I'm just not worth your precious time." His tone was cruel, his eyes cold as they looked at her.
"I guess you're just going to have to trust me," said Hannah. She had been assigned to Nicholas Reeves and his case a week earlier. She was told he needed help, but that he'd be tough to work with.
"That's quite the bruise you got there." She reached across the table to try to look over the boy's face more closely, but before she could he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms causally. The large room was a little more crowded on that Monday morning. Some of the residents at the juvenile detention center would have considered it their lucky day to have guests come visit, but Nicholas on the other hand didn't want to see anyone. Especially his lawyer; even though she was the only person who had come visit him since he had gotten there 2 weeks earlier.
"This isn't my first stay in here and I'm not saying another word until you swear you won't spill your guts the way the last one did." He was 16, but his personality and demeanor gave Hannah the impression of someone who was much older, someone with more responsibilities... Someone who appears to have to have been burdened by the world around him, or someone that felt like they were that burden. "We both know they'll just give me a slap on the wrist."
"I'm sorry to say this, but that isn't the case this time." Her voice was stern but sympathetic all the same.
"Do you even know why I'm back here?"
"No Nicky, I don't, so Why don't you tell-"
"Don't call me that." He said quietly.
"Why not? Nicky's a great name, I actually have a cousin who-"
"That's great, just please don't call me that again." His voice rose as he pointed a angry fist in her direction before forcefully pulling his fingers through his wavy brown hair, his eyes falling and fixing down on the table.
"My 4 year old sister is the only one that calls me that." He stated after a minute,
"I'm just here to help you figure out what to do okay? Do you know how long the boy that hit you has been in here... Do you know his name?" Hannah asked calmly.
"I don't know what they told you, but I got this before I came in here." His voice was low and shaky.
"I was under the impression that whoever did this to you was staying here," she said. "Trust me, if someone from this joint did this to me, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now." His voice was harsh. "Where would you be?" Her confusion must've been apparent, when he looked back up at her from the table she could see that his eyes were red, his hands which were folded in front of him on the table had both made fists which were both clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. His cheeks were now red like his eyes as he fought the urge to show any emotion at all. That's when Hannah realized that she didn't know much about Nicholas; she knew his sister and his mom meant the world to him, but that was about it. She had only started meeting with him recently and according to Nicholas, he and his last attorney didn't see eye-to-eye on much. "I'd be wherever Dad put me."
His eyes closed as his bottom lip started to quiver, "Just like every other time." "Hey, talk to me..." She encouraged, "I was just trying to protect them... I was always just trying to protect them." His words were almost completely inaudible. "What do you mean like every other time?" Hannah asked quietly, not wanting to draw any attention, as another boy got up from the table next to them and hugged a woman who was most likely his mother before he left the room.
"Every time I fight back, the same things happens; he calls the cops they come to the house and then they bring me here... I use to have to go to the hospital, until he told them that I no longer needed their help. They sent me home, and now I'm back here. So no, no one here did this to me." He began twiddling his thumbs seeming agitated, suddenly the realization of this case hit Hannah hard, so hard it was like she had been blindsided.
"Does he hurt your sister?" "No... He wouldn't do that. For some reason it's never her; I get worried that one day it will be, but it's always Mom and me." "Why haven't you told anyone?" "I can't; my mom doesn't say anything because she loves him and he pulls the same crap, I'm just uncontrollable and that he can handle it at home. Now I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time believing me too." Hannah didn't know this for a fact, but the possibility of his last lawyer not reading more into this and just taking his dad's word as gospel seemed more and more likely as the truth came out.
Hannah couldn't believe what she was hearing; here she was thinking that Nicholas was just another messed up kid who had gotten into another fight. "When you said that the people here would just give you a slap on the wrist... You meant it." He stayed silent as I continued, "How many times have you been to the hospital?" Her question was direct.
Nicholas' eyes were pleading when he spoke again, "So are you gonna help me or not?"
