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Post by Summer Jackson on May 21, 2011 22:50:10 GMT -5
A part of Summer had been worried that Michael would not have shown up at the court house in the morning again after yesterday and that had actually been the cause of the anxiety attack she had suffered that morning. Of course, her parents both made sure thoughts of such things were pushed far from her head and assured her that he would be right there when they got to t he court house. They had to have been relieved when Michael had, in fact, gotten there before Summer and her family otherwise they may have had another break down on their hands. Instead, they had a daughter that actually felt some sort of joy which had to be a relief in nothing else. Michael’s arms around her calmed her almost instantly, the feeling she got right before they would go to sleep at night and it made her feel so much better about today already.
Summer had to admit that she was a little surprised when Michael came back in for a second kiss when she only gave him a slight peck. She welcomed the kiss right away but when he lasted longer than she would have expected she pulled away just enough to get a couple words out. “Babe, Mikey, my parents,” she kissed him again for a second, her hand on his shoulder and able to feel the muscling through his shirt. She pulled back again and smiled at him. “I love it,” she said, hoping it sounded sincere because she would love to find a nice private place and let the kiss go longer, “but they’re right here,” he said, able to feel their presence behind her without turning around to look. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, though. We can be alone later, I promise,” she let her hand run down his arm for a second before wrapping her arms around him again and asking to be held for a little while longer. It just felt so right and now that he didn’t appear to want nothing to do with her slowly she felt what little self esteem she had returning to her.
After some time Summer went to talk to her lawyer and when she returned to Michael she had to admit that she was planning on just being held for a little while longer before she went into the courtroom and Michael entertained himself with a book until she came back out, but no, Michael had to throw a curve ball at her. “What?” was all she could say when he told her what was on his mind as she stared at him with a curious expression over her features. “To support me,” she almost snapped at his next statement, making it more obvious than she wished it did that she was unhappy about the current turn of events. She had prepared herself all morning for Michael not being in the court room and now he had to tell her he wanted to be there. She ran her hand over her head and down her ponytail as she diverted her eyes away from her boyfriend.
When he spoke again she just nodded and took a seat on a bench. “You said that yesterday… If you want to be there, then be there, okay?” she said, making sure that he knew that, even though she wasn’t completely happy with his change of mind she was not going to tell him that he couldn’t see the trial if he wanted to. “You have every right to be there. But if you won’t kiss me tonight I’m gonna let my father have his way with you, you understand me?” she said, realizing that was the second time she said it today but this time being a little more serious about the whole thing. If there was going to be more of her exes talking today Summer probably would have put her foot down about the whole thing but with how things were now she was just going to relax and see what happened. “I love you too,” she added onto the end.
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Summer gave Michael one last kiss before going their separate ways so she could talk to her lawyer one last time before the trial started. By the time Michael entered the court room Summer turned to smile at him and reached over the low bar to take his hand. She played with his fingers for a second before squeezing his hand and dropping it with a smile. It wasn’t long later when Scott and his lawyer entered the court house, Scott now in handcuffs after the stunt he pulled yesterday in grabbing for her, which only made Summer smile slightly on the inside. Then the trial started. There wasn’t much left to talk about that was overly serious. A few character witnesses came to talk about Scott, all were quite unbelievable, when it came down to it, especially during cross examination. After the couple of people were finished Summer’s lawyer called the psychiatrist that had diagnosed most of her current disorders to the stand. Michael new about of these, Summer assumed it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, or so she hoped.
Once the first therapist had finished speaking, explaining what each disorder really was from her post traumatic stress to the paranoia to the social anxiety her current psychiatrist took the stand. Michael knew the woman. From time to time Summer would have Michael come to the sessions, especially if they were currently working through something Summer was having trouble explaining to her boyfriend. If Mike didn’t take today’s testimonies better than he did yesterday she may have Mike sit down with the doctor alone but she’d see if that was going to be needed. While on the stand the doctor explained how the mental disorders, while Summer was working through it, was still something that affected her life and how it could be connected back to being raped.
The two lawyers then took turns with their final statements, basically retelling the story of their clients and adding in the extra testimonies that had gone on during the trial. It was then that the jury left the room, Scott was handcuffed again and lead out of the room before Summer would even consider standing up. She walked out of the room and back over to the bench before turning back to Michael, holding out her hand so he would hopefully take it. “You okay?” she asked, looking up to him, still surprised by how tall he seemed to her without her heels… and being standing up. “Not as bad today, huh?” she asked, hoping she was going to get a positive response towards the whole thing.
Soon her mother came up to them. “Hey there honey, I brought along some cards and games to give you something to do while we wait, it could be a while,” she said, nodding towards her very large bag that was hanging over her shoulder. Summer nodded and turned to Michael. “Wanna learn euchre? I bet we can get daddy to play,” she asked, glancing at her mom to make sure they had a deck suitable for the game, when she got a nod.
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Post by Michael Brentley on Jul 16, 2011 2:48:38 GMT -5
Michael knew he wasn’t exactly improving the situation with Summer’s parents by kissing her the way he did in front of them, but in that moment he didn’t care. He wanted to make things right with Summer, and only then could he start worrying about her parents again. It was going to take a lot to make any progress with Summer’s father at this point, especially after having taken a giant leap backwards during the past few days. Michael figured that he was never going to get along perfectly with Victor, but it was important for them to at least be able to tolerate each other for Summer’s sake. He planned on spending his life with her, so it only made sense that he got along with the family at some point. If Victor decided he never wanted to see Michael again, he that would be a tremendous burden for Summer since it was clear that she would want to visit them every chance they had.
He smiled when she said they could be alone later and nodded slightly. He really wanted to be alone with her right then, but unfortunately that wasn’t at all an option. At least he’d have something to look forward to…well, just as long as nothing occurred that day that could affect any plans to be close to one another. If anything did change, he knew he’d most likely be the one responsible for it, so he hoped that thought would help keep him in the proper mindset and not let any random emotions get the best of him that day. The only other thing he’d worry about was her father, but he figured that things would work out alright just as long as Victor allowed him to live for another day. Mike really did wish he could have earned some more trust and respect from her father considering how long he and Summer and been together and for the most part he had been by her side and loved her unconditionally for quite some time now. It didn’t help that he was her former teacher and Summer moved away from home because of him, but shouldn’t they be able to move past that by now? Well, now that he had had an apparent breakdown over this trial, it seemed he had less of a chance than ever of her father actually approving of the relationship.
After telling Summer about his change of plans, for some reason he had expected her to be happy and hadn’t at all prepared himself for the actual reaction she gave. It was so unexpected, he was tempted to immediately retract his statement and forget the idea, but that was impossible to do now that he had thoroughly convinced himself that being in that courtroom was what he felt was the right thing to do. As if that wasn’t enough, what she said next completely stunned him. He frantically thought back on what he said and everything that went with it, and he just couldn’t figure it out. The last thing he had expected was her to be as upset as she was, but he figured that was all just a result of her fearing that the same thing that occurred over the past couple of days was going to happen all over again. He couldn’t blame her for thinking that, but he had hoped she would have a little more confidence in him. She had told him before that she wasn’t angry with him over it, but it was very clear that she was. He undoubtedly realized how detrimental his behavior was, but he had been so overcome by everything that there wasn’t much he could do about it. He felt rather foolish and weak for all that had happened, but he was only just barely beginning to figure out exactly what had caused it and wanted more than anything to prove that he was strong enough now to prevent it from happening again.
Michael didn’t say a word. He stood there and watched her as she turned to leave. He attempted a smile, but it wasn’t very successful. What she had just said to him nearly made him want to leave and just forget about the whole thing. Did she really feel that way? It was as if he had committed some crime and could no longer be trusted or relied on for anything. It felt like he had just been stabbed in the chest. What if he did end up having to walk out of the court room again? What if he did need some time to think about things again? Now he almost started to panic. He sat down on a nearby bench to gather his thoughts for a minute. She was going to let her father have his way with him? If he didn’t already feel that the world was against him on this, he certainly did now. Michael had messed up and there was no understanding to be had by anyone. No one was going to want to hear him out no matter what and he now even feared losing her again. That fear burdened him far more in the last few days than it ever had in the entire time that they were together. Subconsciously he knew they were strong enough to make it through anything together, but that didn’t keep him from wondering if it was a possibility during times like these.
Once he was finally in the courtroom, he was glad to be able to interact with Summer to a small extent, so he couldn’t help but dwell on their earlier exchange. Michael sat back and listened to each witness and fortunately wasn’t too disturbed about anything that was said, which was relieving. He honestly didn’t feel that there was anything specific about the trial that had overwhelmed him. It was the compilation of everything and his own realization of Summer’s past life as well as what had happened to her. It made him think not only about what happened to her and how it had changed her, but it may have freaked him out a little bit about their relationship and the future. That was something he didn’t want to admit to Summer since he figured it would more than likely make things a lot worse. There were a lot of things he had never known about the rape and several things about her past life that went along with that. He was aware of most of it, but the trial had put everything in perspective and apparently he hadn’t quite been ready for it.
Michael couldn’t deny that he had thought about seeking some form of therapy over this, but there was a bit of pride that always seemed to get in the way of that. He felt this was something he should be able to sort out on his own and shouldn’t have to turn to someone else to figure it out for him. Of course, with all the difficulty he was having with the whole sorting it out thing and knowing the effect it had on Summer, he wasn’t going to take therapy off the table just yet. Once the jury left the room, Michael forced a smile as Summer approached him and stood up next to her. “Yeah, not bad…” he said in a soft tone after clearing his throat a little. The trial really hadn’t been bad at all. He was happy that he had been able to sit through it without any apparent setbacks. What Summer had said earlier still lingered with him, however. “Whatever you want to do,” he said, praying that he was doing okay in pretending to be perfectly fine, but he had a feeling he wasn’t fooling anyone. It was tempting to pull Summer aside to discuss what was on his mind, but he figured she had enough to think about already with the verdict. Might as well use this time to start making yet another attempt to get along with her father, right?
((LOTS of rambling, sorry! Just wanted to get one posted, even though I'm a bit rusty!))
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Post by Summer Jackson on Jul 29, 2011 9:18:29 GMT -5
Summer felt that Michael had been assuming what she would want from him as opposed to listening when she would tell him what would make everything easier for her. She never would have told him to come into the court room in order to make her life easier but the relationship was a two way street. If Michael had never heard the details of her attack she wouldn’t care. In fact, it may make life easier for her in the end but if he wanted to hear them then he could hear them. They were together, after all and it was a big part of her history. If he thought he wanted to be there and hear everything then who was she to stop him? What was starting to bother her, however, was that he didn’t seem to understand that she would rather him just wait outside of the courtroom and be there for her when she came out and in a mental state he had always been in when it came to their relationship. He never asked her and when she told him he still didn’t seem to be listening and it was starting to get to her. She could only pretend she was all right with his decisions that affected their relationship for so long.
She also wondered how he would think she would have any confidence in him after the last two days. Yesterday he had been so affected by what he had heard that he couldn’t even sit there with her, give her any sort of intimate attention and even went to take a walk while she was sobbing on a coach in her parent’s house. Yeah, her confidence in him had waivered significantly after that. She love him, cared for him and knew they would be able to make it through this but if he couldn’t push past what he had heard in order to make her feel better than she wasn’t sure what he expected of her. He just seemed to forget that she was having a hard time as well. This was not easy for her, it took her three years to buck up the courage to do this and, honestly, Michael being in the courtroom made it even more difficult. She wanted Michael to come just so she had him there to support her and tell her it was going to be all right when she wasn’t sure anymore and now she felt that she was just there to tell him it was all going to be okay and it didn’t seem fair at all.
After they were out of the courtroom and Summer had gone up to her boyfriend for a few second she actually thought that he was all right and everything was today but after she asked about the card game she was pretty sure something was up with him. “What now!” she whined, almost ready to stomp her feet and have a mini temper tantrum, but was able to control that for now. “We’ll talk about it later, all right?” she asked, reaching for his hand and praying that he would allow her to take it. She rested her head on his shoulder as she waited for him to say it was all right if they could just talk about what was on his mid later and when went off to the table her mother had found to start teaching Michael to play the card game of her family. It was a basic rule that, if anyone married into the family they would be required to learn how to play euchre and since she had every intention of marrying Michael they may as well stop now.
They spent about an hour trying to teach Michael how to play. It was a tricky game with some weird rules not everyone understood right away so Summer found herself leaning over and telling him what should be played more often than not. It would be easier if they could get one of her sisters to play later that night and just have Summer there, leaning over Michael’s shoulder and helping him out all the time but this worked for now. After an hour, though, Summer could barely play her own hand, much less help Michael with his. It was getting obvious that her mind was elsewhere and her nerves were starting to get to her. She spent time bouncing between pacing and sitting and her parents or her boyfriend. She was soon finding herself fighting back panic attacks when she wasn’t even sure where they were coming from. After a dose of medication and sipping some water she was at least calm enough to hold a conversation, but she was still jumping two feet every time a sound came from behind her.
After a while, about three hours of waiting for a verdict to come back, Summer took Michael over to a bench a bit away from her parents and sat him down. “Did you… so did you want to talk about it now?” she asked, knowing he would have an idea what she meant. She had one leg bouncing up and down and her mind was racing a million miles an hour. “I… talking about anything’s gonna help right now, I think,” she said as she forced a deep breath through her lungs. Michael had seen a couple of her previous breakdowns and had even had to deal with them once or twice when she started to go on about what she could do if Scott were to get away with it and about how he was going to come after her and do it again and everything else. The length of time the jury was taking was starting to worry her and it was very obvious, and it didn’t help that all she had to do was sit around the courthouse with her parents and her boyfriend, whose mind was also not fully on the matter at hand if she had any idea. She just wanted everything to calm down between them so she didn’t have to worry about him pulling away from her again if she happened to need him for something.
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