Dark Side of Justice

It was a restless night, and I tossed and turned around for hours, before I finally came to terms that sleep was not necessary at that point.

It wasn’t until around 7 am, before I decided to get up and get ready. It was a big day and I could hardly pack with my hands shaking from pure excitement. It had only been 3 months since I stood on the stage at University of Denver and got my diploma after 3 excruciating months after the bar. But very soon after, I got the opportunity of a lifetime.

As I stood folding clothes and sorting out my pictures, I thought back to my high school life. I was popular, liked and wanted. My caramel blonde hair reached just below my shoulders and waved beautifully all the way down.

Whenever I walked down the hall with my two girls, every look turned to us. We were fashionable, we were fierce and we were respected. Some days I loved being me, but most days I hated it. Even though I was kinda happy I wasn’t the victim in high school, I often just wanted to blend into the crowd and have close friends who I could actually talk to.

My friends weren’t really friends. I would rather call it a superficial friendship, where we would do stuff together, but never talked about the real stuff.

Anyway, you could say that I was the girl every girl wanted to be and the girl every guy wanted to be with. Both junior and senior year, I was crowned prom queen and I had countless of bachelors asking me to be their prom date. I never accepted to be a guy’s prom date. I decided to go with my friends. I guess it was something about taking back control, I don’t know. I just went with it, because it was easier than to argue.

Once I was done with high school, I went straight to college and was quickly accepted into a sorority, which made my mother lose her marbles with joy. I was more like.. “Meh..“.

In college I got faced with more issues with my own mentality, but I’ll get back to that later. It was in college, I started really exploring my sexuality and my God! It was fun! I learned quickly that guys made me feel powerful when I brought them into my bedroom and claimed them for the night. So yeah, I found sex and I loved sex.

I didn’t give two shits what people thought about me, I always took someone home with me when I joined a party. Although I had fun at parties and in my bed, reality was that I wanted to be taken seriously once I was done with college and would migrate into the adult world, so I chose pre-law as my major and psychology was my minor. I have to be honest.. My first semester in college was mostly about partying and living my “best” life, but when 2nd semester started, I started studying hard. It was 4 hard years in college and afterwards it was 2 even harder years in law school.

But when I took the bar, I graduated at the top of my class and I was ready to take on the world. I was now a verified defense attorney. I immediately started applying for jobs around the US. I didn’t care where my career took me. I was more than ready.

One day, I got a phonecall. It was one John Gibbs calling me from the firm Gibbs and Taylor’s in Phoenix, Arizona. And there you had it. I was offered a position as a defense attorney in that firm and I accepted with excitement. Everyday since that day, I was preparing for my big move. It was only a few states away, but I would need an apartment, a new car, a new doctor and everything! Man, adulthood sure is stressful.

My mom was conflicted. She was happy about me getting a real job so soon after graduating, but she hated the fact that I was moving to Arizona. She was annoyed with me the first week after I got the job and hardly spoke to me, but that changed when I had enough and confronted her. It was a big fight.

I should explain.

My mom was like me in high school. She was queen bee and dated the quaterback from the football team. Unlike me, she loved the sweet high school life. But...

My mom was carrying around a secret at 17. She had denied it for months, because she knew that it would change everything. But eventually, she couldn’t hide it anymore.

She had gotten pregnant with me at 17, and when she finally told my dad, he snapped and wanted nothing to do with her.

Yea, my grandparents were furious with her at first, but they never left her side during her pregnancy and the first few years of my life. My mom missed out on everything. Prom, graduation, collegeparties and sports games. She doesn’t blame me for it, thank God, but she tries to live her life through me and my popularity.

Anyway, this is the big day. I’m moving to Phoenix, Arizona to kick off my career.

My name is Piper Daniels, and I am now a defense attorney at Gibbs and Taylor’s.

“PIPER!“. Yikes, I got startled by my mother’s voice screaming my name.

“Coming!” I yelled back and took a deep breath, before making my way down the stairs to my mother. As soon as I saw her, I was filled with dread. I knew she didn’t want me to leave, but she knew she was being irrational.

“What’s up, mom?” I asked as I crossed my arms and shrugged lightly.

“It’s about time to leave for the airport, are you ready?” she asked with a firm voice and I nodded in response. “Let’s get going, then” she finished and walked out the door, leaving me to drag my luggage down the stairs myself. Ugh, I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes, hoping that he car ride wouldn’t be as awful as this.

The car ride wasn’t so awful. My mom was asking me about my social media and asked me if I had updated my status yet. I lied and said I did. Then she asked me how many likes I had gotten, which made me roll my eyes once again.

“I don’t know, I haven’t checked yet.” I answered, shrugging to push off her question.

“I’m sure you got many.” she answered.

The car ride was shorter than expected and as soon as my mother pulled into the parking lot at the airport, I saw her eyes filled up with tears and they started rolling down her cheeks, which made my chest tighten with sadness for my mom.

I know I portrayed my mom as being kind of a bitch, but she wasn’t. She didn’t have anybody else, but me and my grandparents. We were the only people that hadn’t left her.

I sighed and took her hand.

“Mom?” I asked softly and looked at her. “Oh, don’t mind me, I’m just being silly.” she replied and sniffed.

“Mom, I’m really going to miss you” I assured her and squeezed her hand, which painted a little smile on her face.

“I love you, honey.” she said and I leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek, saying that I loved her too.

And then we parted ways. As the car rolled away, I stood still and watched it disappear into the road along with other passing cars and it took me a few minutes to gather myself and head into the airport.

After a good hour or two after I checked in my luggage, I was finally seated in the plane. I spent the hours, doing some light shopping, like brand perfumes and stuff like that. I took the liberty to buy a new palette in the Sephora store. Also bought a coffee and a scone. All in all I spent perhaps 80$ at the airport. Oops.

The plane took off and I admired the view as we flew higher and higher above ground. I loved heights, I couldn’t think of anything more beautiful than the earth from above.

I thought of everything I was leaving behind. My past, my family. And a guy I was casually dating. He was a nice guy, don’t get me wrong, but I was glad to be ending it with him. He was a wuss, to be direct, and I found myself longing for that confidence, the ability to... Take control.

Sometimes I just wanted to be grabbed... And be claimed. A giggle escaped my lips as I thought to myself that I would need a towel if I didn’t push my thoughts in another direction. Yeah, I was longing to give up control. Who doesn’t at some point in their lives? I was independent and I pride myself on that, but it was different when it came to passion. I’m just sick of not getting those fireworks everyone talks about. It’s different now than back in college, because now, I’m a woman and I had explored vanilla sex to the fullest. Now I’m ready for some espresso-sex! And maybe.. Just maybe I would find someone in Phoenix to fulfill that need. But that was not my first priority. Work was my absolute first priority and I wouldn’t let anyone get in the way of my career.

The flight took about 2 hours and as soon as I arrived in Phoenix airport, I went directly down to the autoshop that was inside the airport to fetch my new car. I had chosen to be sensible and leased a Prius. Yea, I’m that kinda girl, but it brought me from A to B.

As a sat in my new Prius, with the back seats pushed down, so my belongings could fit, my thoughts turned to my new job. I was so excited to finally start working as an attorney. I was nervous too, of course. I didn’t know anyone there, I was completely new to the city and the state! But I wouldn’t let that stop me from being the best version of myself.

“1081 Crowfield Road, is this it?” I asked myself when I pulled over in front of a building with only 2 stories. I thought my building would be bigger, but it looked pretty okay to me. I took one box with me, only one, because I wanted to check out the apartment first, before I unpacked the car.

The truck with the rest of my stuff wouldn’t be here for another few days at least, so I would have to make do with what I had. And it was okay. This was the first time on my own for real and I was excited about it. I fiddled with the keys in my jacket pocket and was practically shaking when I put the key into the keyhole and turned it. The door swung open and I was greeted with a pleasant sight.

My apartment was gorgeous. It was everything I had hoped for and more. I didn’t know beforehand how it looked, because it was a surprise from my mom. This was amazing, and I made a mental note to call her and thank her for this.

But hey, there was even more to see. It was a one bedroom apartment, so I rushed to see how my bedroom looked. The door to the bedroom was open and I clapped both my hands on my cheeks in joy.

“Oh, my God!” I exclaimed as I saw the beautiful bedroom. The soft carpet on the floor, the amazing white bed frame with matching bed sheets. Oh heavenly Lord, I was amazed. Not only do I get to live on my own from now on, but I get to live in a place like this?

I dropped my bag on the floor and rushed over to the bed. I jumped right on it and spread my body all over it. My God, it was soft. Just the way I liked it. I looked up into the ceiling and I just couldn’t stop smiling.

“I’m going to be happy here.” I assured myself, not being able to stop smiling. It was only then I felt my eyes sting from tiredness. I rubbed my eyes and had to really fight the urge to just stay in this bed and sleep. But no, I had to carry the rest of my stuff up from the car.

I sighed very loudly and heavily when I rose from my bed and started walking towards the front door again to carry up the rest of my stuff and unpack for a little while. And yea, I was definitely ordering take-out.

THE NEXT DAY

I was actually well rested for a change when I placed myself in my car with my coffee. It was about a 20 minute drive from my apartment to the firm, so I cranked up that music and held a little live concert starring myself.

The drive was short, or it felt like that, but suddenly I pulled up into the parking lot of Gibbs and Taylor’s. A sigh escaped my mouth as I got out of my car, ready to go to work. I had decided to wear a black dress that covered my shoulders and half of my arms, but was still designed so it was a little bit low cut. I looked good! My dark blonde hair was tied up in a half-updo and I had just put on some chap stick on my full lips.

“Hey, I’m supposed to meet with Mr. Gibbs? I’m starting here today.” I said to the beautiful receptionist who looked up at me with a doubtful look.

“Are you Piper Daniels?” She asked and I shot her a smile as I nodded.

“Mr. Gibbs’ office in on the 15th floor.” She then said and I thanked her before I headed to the elevator.

Once I got out of the elevator, all I saw was transparent offices and all I really noticed was the sign saying: “John Gibbs Jr, attorney at law” and I knew that I had come to the right place. I knocked on the door and right away he answered, telling me to come in.

I walked into the office and looked up.

“Hi, Mr. Gibbs, I’m..” Oh, my God. I finally looked at him. He was young! And he was very, very... Very good looking. He was dark-skinned and had long dreadlocks. I didn’t know lawyers had dreadlocks? And he had this no-effort-ish beard going on. My God, he was good looking. It was pretty hard to focus.

“Miss Daniels?” He asked, throwing me back into reality. Oh no. Was it obvious that I was checking him out? As my eyes met his, I felt really uneasy and shivers shot down through my spine.

“Y-yes, that’s me.” I stuttered as a reply. “Sit down.” he ordered and I jiggled over to the chair on the other side of his desk and placed myself.

“So, Miss Daniels, welcome to Gibbs and Taylor’s.” He said and crossed his arms lightly. I nodded and smiled at him. “I don’t have much time at the moment, so I’ll get straight to the point.” He said and looked directly into my eyes. I had a hard time maintaining eye contact during this.

“You are hired to be a defense attorney in the criminal justice department and I’m sure you will do just great. Normally, I would brief you myself and show you around, but a big case just came in, so one of my prosecutors will give you a tour.” He finished off and grabbed a paper on his desk and started reading it.

“Mr. Gibbs..” I said, but he immediately interrupted me, briefly looking up from his paper. “Questions later, please, Miss Daniels, and please-” He shot me a smile. “Call me John, Mr. Gibbs was my father.” I nodded and realized that the conversation was over, because he turned his entire body away from me.

Just as I rose up from the chair, I heard a loud buzzing sound and then a male voice. “I’m outside your office, John.”

John looked at me. “Go on now, Samuel will show you around.” And then I left the office. I shut the door behind me and then I sighed deeply, my eyes glued to the ground. I didn’t prepare myself for the possibility that my boss may be really hot. But damn it, he was gorgeous.

“Miss Daniels?”

The same voice from the buzzer just said my name and I looked up. What I was met with, I was not prepared for. I completely lost my breath as I laid my eyes upon that beautiful man in front of me.