The next morning, Tiffany woke up bright and early, despite the rude awakening at 4 AM.
She yawned, not too worried about who was in their house that night. All that mattered was that her and her boyfriend were safe, whom she kept secure for the entire night.
"I guess he's still asleep." she mumbled to herself. She slowly let go of him, assuming that he would be asleep for at least another two hours.
She got up and went to the kitchen to brew herself a cup of coffee and cook some eggs and bacon for herself. Meanwhile, Justin stayed asleep on the couch, obviously going through a lot in his own mind. Tiffany was very worried about him, not knowing what he was thinking about.
As she cooked her eggs and bacon, she began to wonder what was happening.
He IS on his phone a lot. Maybe there's someone he's talking to? I hope... No, he wouldn't cheat on me. What am I thinking?
She peeked her head in, seeing if JD was awake yet. He was still fast asleep, his phone sitting on the coffee table.
"I think I'll take a look." she said, quietly grabbing his phone without making a sound.
She successfully retrieved the device and looked at it. It was pretty obvious that his lock-screen password was 'T1ffany', as that was her idea in the first place.
"Okay, babe. Let's see who you've been talking to..."
In that moment, she realized that she was being rude. It felt like she was invading his privacy, looking at his contacts and checking his social media.
"W-What am I doing?" she said, immediately setting the phone down.
Her nice girl instincts kicked in, feeling remorse for attempting something like that.
I wouldn't want him going through MY phone. God, what the Hell is wrong with me?
She peeked her head back in, ready to put the phone back exactly how she found it.. But to her surprise, he was sitting up, looking as if he had just awakened.
"Good morning, sleepyhead." Tiffany said, greeting her boyfriend.
He sat there, being completely unresponsive. It seemed as if he had a lot going in his mind as soon as he woke up.
She cautiously set his phone back on the coffee table, hoping that he was still too drowsy to realize that it was missing.
"W-What were you doing with my phone?"
Shit, he caught me.
"Nothing. I was just uh... charging it for you."
He grabbed the device and saw that it was at 89%, knowing that was the norm for him. Although it seemed suspicious that she suddenly volunteered to charge it for him, he accepted it for what it was.
But the look on his face gave off more bad vibes. Tiffany could see right through it.
"Are you feeling alright?" she asked, wondering what was wrong.
"I attempted suicide again, I've got a major headache, and a potential stalker outside of my house. Yeah, I feel great!"
The sarcasm was at it's max. She sat next to him, realizing he was still upset.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No, I don't. We talked about it yesterday. It doesn't change the situation."
He sat there, in pain and full of worry. Tears began running down his face. JD was definitely having another mental breakdown.
The moment she saw it, she knew it was a good opportunity to finally convince him to get therapy.
"Hey, remember what you said yesterday?" she asked.
He faced towards her, not knowing what she was referring to. "I said a lot yesterday. Can you be specific?"
"You said the next time you have a mental breakdown, you'll attend a therapy session. Well, looks like we're gonna be seeing Dr. Beckman this week."
Fuck, I did say that, didn't I?
"Fine. You win." he said, realizing that she was right. As much as he wasn't happy with what was going on, he figured that he'd at least give Beckman's therapy sessions a chance.
He put his hands on his head, feeling major pain from the head wound.
"Fuck, my head hurts."
Tiffany looked at him, seeing that he was in pain.
"I'll go get you a pain reliever." she said, walking away to fetch a pill and glass of water.
He sat there for the moment, feeling like there was something wrong with him. He knew he had problems, but this time felt much different. What am I?
The blondie came back with the pain reliever. He took it, hoping to quell the massive thumping pain in his head.
"Just take it easy today, okay? I'm off so we can just chill out for a bit. Maybe, watch a movie? Whatever you want."
He nodded, still appreciative of his loving girlfriend. She called Beckman to confirm that he agreed to attend therapy. It was a long time coming, but he knew that Tiffany could only do so much to help him.
Later that day, there was a knock on the door.
"I'll get it." Tiffany said, answering the front door.
She was greeted by the now sober ex-party girl. It had been a while since her and JD crossed paths, so it would be surprising for him to see what she looked like now.
"Hey, Bestie." the blondie greeted.
She then took a lollipop out of her mouth. "Oh, hey."
Tiffany let her in, knowing that she was here for a visit.
"Hey, Justin? We have company."
He looked up and saw her... A girl with brunette hair, a purple long sleeve shirt accompanied by a crucifix necklace, and a lengthy black skirt.
The moment he saw her, his jaw dropped.
"W-Who is this?" he asked, almost not recognizing the ex-party girl.
"Who do ya think?" she asked. He recognized that high-pitched voice anywhere. It was a voice he first heard three years ago at Lusties Nightclub when he met Nikki.
"Audrey?" he said, still in disbelief of what she looked like.
"Yep! Hey, loser. It's been a while."
He rubbed his eyes, making sure that he wasn't hallucinating. Never in his life would he have thought that Audrey Belrose, the red-haired, rich, spoiled mega bitch that drinks and does drugs, would seemingly convert herself into a clean, somewhat nicer, Christian girl.
"W-What happened to you?"
She smirked at him. "Jesus."
Jesus? She can't be serious...
"Jesus corrupted you." he said, not liking this new bible-thumper schtick.
"Oh, please! Jesus didn't corrupt me, he saved me. After what happened a couple of months ago, it was about fucking time I found Jesus."
He frowned, thinking that this was a major downgrade from the girl he met before.
"I'll leave you two alone so you can chat." Tiffany said, leaving the room.
Audrey sat next to him, knowing what had happened.
"So, what ails you?" she asked him.
"What ails me?" he asked, not being too familiar what that phrase.
"Yeah, what ails you? Tiffany told me you were sinning." the ex-party girl said, being completely vague.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Ugh... I heard you were trying to kill yourself again. Happy now?" she stated, starting to get annoyed.
Oh... THAT.
"Y-Yeah. What about it?" he asked, feeling uncomfortable.
She looked at him for a moment, then she finally let the words out.
"Just... why?"
Ugh... Am I about to get another lecture about how suicide is against God's wishes? I heard enough of that shit from my family.
"I'm not obligated to explain myself to you." he said, trying to dismiss the subject.
"But I thought you found peace or some shit? Didn't you have a spiritual awakening after you woke up from the coma... That I caused?"
During that last statement, Audrey's tone changed quick. He knew she still felt some remorse about what had happened. He also knew that it was the drugs talking and the aftershock of losing her uncle.
"You didn't cause it, Audrey. I just reacted the wrong way and got hit by a semi-truck. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. End of story."
"But still, I feel bad for exploiting you during your family gathering. I shouldn't have snorted that cocaine before I came over. But after I was sent to rehab, I had a lot happen to me. I figured Jesus was a better way of coping."
He then remembered what she went through in June. She was dating some Korean guy, who ended up being in debt to the Wilson Family Mafia. There was a target on both of their heads, until the Korean basically wiped out the entire criminal operation, leaving the very few that were left to flee. JD still had yet to talk to her about it.
"So, let's talk about you." he said, trying to change the subject and avoid touching up on the topic of suicide.
"What about me?" she said, getting off track.
"Are you OK after what you went through?"
She looked down, seeming to get a tad emotional.
"Y-Yeah. I'm OK. Even after I was kidnapped, beaten, bound, and gagged, I managed to get out of there alive. Even though Clyde disappeared, I could care less about him. He was just a sadistic, sociopathic man. Yeah, he was a big hunky Korean, but he was awful. He even tried to sacrifice me in exchange for his own freedom."
What the fuck? Guy sounds like a total dick.
"I'm sorry to hear that, Audrey. I can only imagine what that was like."
She slowly nodded, feeling unsettled talking about what happened months before.
"I'm better now though. I have an awesome choir group, a good church to go to every Sunday, and a decent amount of friends left. It's just... It's not the same after what Aunt Brooke did to me."
He didn't say anything, but rather put his hands around her, hugging the ex-party girl, now gone full Christian.
"It'll be OK. It might have been for the best. Brooke just didn't want to take responsibility and care for her family anymore. She's probably a lost cause at this point."
"Y-Yeah. You may be right."
They hugged for a bit, having a rather wholesome time together. It seemed as though Audrey had finally changed her ways. She was once a bitchy, loud-mouthed , drunk and drug-addicted party girl that somehow managed to rehabilitate herself.
Although it was very surreal seeing her with brown hair and wearing a Baptist outfit, he still knew she was the same person underneath. She just lightened up a bit.
Tomorrow was going to be Justin's first therapy session with Dr. Howard Beckman. Even though he still didn't trust him, it was all for Tiffany's sake, as she was worrying herself sick.