The next morning, in the UMC hospital, Justine sits up on her bed slowly. She groans in pain when she sits up. She grabs her phone, looking at her notifications. Someone knocks on the door. Justine looks up from her phone.
"Who is it?" Justine asks.
"It's Cerena."
"Oh shit. Come on in, Cer!"
Cerena opens the door as she quickly runs in the room to hug Justine. Justine hugs her back.
"Oh my GOD JUSTINE!" Cerena yelled. "I'm glad that you're ALIVE! What the hell did you do?!"
"I happened to lock the doors to the arcade before leaving and saw red lightning."
"Red lightning?" Cerena asks. "Justine-"
"What! I saw red lightning and saw a comet heading towards the warehouse near the cemetery."
Cerena squints her eyes.
"And I headed over there and saw Carolyn and Michele fighting and it looked bad... so I tried to save Carolyn by fighting Michele."
Cerena stays silent, confusingly crossing her arms. "Justine– why would you do this?! YOU COULD'VE GOT KILLED!"
"I know but-"
"NO LISTEN JUSTINE PLEASE!" Cerena yelled. Justine shuts her mouth. "You and I both know that Michele is stronger than you. You know you're going to get KILLED no matter how you see it."
"But-"
"No!"
"But what if I-"
"Justine-"
"Okay! Yes... I know she's stronger than me. But I have ways to get around that. You saw how I fought her the other day in front of Carolyn's house!"
"You just got lucky, Justine." Cerena said. "This time you almost got killed by a triple cut scar from Michele."
"Yeah... that's true."
"You don't listen to me and now look at what happened to you!" Cerena yelled. "Why can't you just stop and think instead of going with your first instinct to save a person you care too much about?"
Justine opens their mouth, Cerena cuts her off.
"I don't want to hear any excuses from you. ¡Imbécil, te dije hace meses que no peleas con elle y lo hiciste DOS VECES!"
Justine stays silent, she looks at Cerena confused. Cerena breathes as she nods her head in disappointment at Justine, laying on the wall, looking down at the floor, breaking into tears.
"I could've lost you yesterday, can you get it through your head?"
Justine sighs.
"I'm sorry, Cer... I really am. Yes, I know I could've died yesterday night. I could've lost my life but you know. I died knowing that I saved a person from getting killed. I considered myself a hero for my hometown but that's only when you died. Nobody cares in Vegas if you save an high profiled person that is a normal fucking human being like everyone else. Excluding you, my dad, and the group, you know. You all would be sad but I would make someone happy that I died too, I know Michele would, along with my mother that never cared."
"Of course I would be upset! Your dad would be upset, Raya, Vivian as well. But you know who else would be upset?"
"Who?" Justine asks.
"Carolyn and Oscar. They would be upset as well. Dixie would be too." Cerena said.
"Oh yeah– you're right. They would be majorly upset. Not only that, Carolyn saw me dying too right in front of her."
Cerena nods.
"Damn..." Justine continued. She looks outside the bright morning window. The sun beaming in the windows of the Circa hotel shining the whole downtown area. Their phone lights up from getting a notification on their phone. She grabs it and looks at the notification. It's a text message from Carolyn.
Just checking up on you before I head in for a meeting ;) I'll come over afterwards if I don't have anything planned today. Carolyn texts. Justine smiles.
"She texted me."
"Who? Carolyn?"
"Yeah. She wanted to check up on me." Justine said, smiling.
Morning, Carolyn! Thanks for checking up on me, I'm doing alright! <3 I'll see you when you get here. Justine texts back.
She looks up at Cerena. "Anyways, how are you doing this morning? Is the group okay from what happened last night?"
"I'm doing well. I haven't told the group yet but I think Vivian found out because she texted me last night after she saw the same red lightning that you did and thought you were involved with it."
"Oh shit. No wonder why I got multiple phone calls from Vivian last night when I was sleeping." Justine said, "well. I got some explaining to do soon. I'll send them a message in the group chat."
"Okay." Cerena said, smiling. Justine smiles. She grabs the keys to the arcade and hands them to Cerena.
"Take over the arcade for me until I get released, I don't know when but the doctors will tell me later."
Cerena grabs the keys to the Arcade from Justine.
"Okay! I will." Cerena said. Justine smiles.
"Let me get Dixie for you, I don't want you walking back by yourself."
Justine whistles, Dixie wakes up and raises her head to look at Justine.
"Take Cerena to the arcade, please." she continued.
Dixie chirps, running up towards Cerena. She picks up Dixie, petting her.
"Are you going to be alright, Justine?" Cerena asks.
"I'll be alright, Cer." Justine said. "Hopefully I fully recover from the deadly cut on my stomach. Right now, I need to rest a bit."
"Alrighty!" Cerena said, smiling. Justine smiles. Cerena walks towards Justine's bed, hugging them. Justine hugs her back.
"Thank you, Cerena." Justine said. She breaks up the hug.
"You're welcome." Cerena said. She puts Dixie down on the floor and opens the door. Dixie walks out the door, Cerena follows behind.
"Oh! Wait!" Justine yelled, Cerena walked back inside the room. "Take care of Dixie for me please."
"I will! I'll make sure she's safe with me." Cerena said, smiling.
"Thank you, Cer!" Justine smiles. "Stay safe out there! it's going to get pretty dangerous soon."
"You too!"
Cerena walks out the room, closing the door behind her. Justine grabs her phone, scrolling through the notifications. She gets a text from Carolyn again.
Did the doctors say anything about your release? Carolyn texts.
Not yet, I'll ask when one of the doctors comes in for my check up. Justine responded.
Perfect. I don't have anything scheduled today other than meetings. I'll come over soon. I'll bring Oscar along. Lol.
Lmao. Alrighty! Have a great day Carolyn! Justine text. Sending her a smiling emoji.
Carolyn sends her a blushing smiling face. You too Justine! Get some rest.
Justine smiles. Sending a heart reaction. She lays down on the hospital bed putting her phone down next to her, looking at the ceiling.