A Poignant Fallacy

Scene 31- I Will Always Love You

Juliette is seen crying in her bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. Jackson slowly walks in and eavesdrops to assess how she was feeling. He doesn't walk in all the way so she doesn't see him.

In between sobs she lectured herself, "Why can't I be older?"

"I'm trying so hard."

"But you're not trying hard enough."

"How come you argued with Mommy?"

"The boys think you're such a baby when you argue."

"You're so stupid."

"The boys are never going to like you."

"I can't make them like me."

"They hate me!"

"Why do my brothers hate me?!"

She starts to uncontrollably sob. She bends her knees as she falls the the floor covering her face with her hands. Jackson runs in and scoops her up. He sits on the floor as he cradles her in his lap. He shushes her for a while to try and calm her down.

"Juliette, I don't hate you. I could never hate you baby."

She doesn't listen and keeps crying.

"None of us hate you. You don't need to be older honey. Please, baby, please stop crying. It hurts my heart to see you like this"

She looks up and stops crying and she realizes who's holding her.

"Get away from me!"

She doesn't want to be with Jackson. She pushes his arms off her and gets up to walk off to her bed. She gets on top of her bed and lays facing away from him.

He smiles to himself. He knows that she would have left the room if she actually didn't want him to be there. He sits there for a minute or two wanting to give her space.

Then he stands up and walks over to sit on the other side of her pink fluffy bed.

He decides to distract her and change the subject.

"Your room looks different."

Juliette mumbles without turning around, "Mommy had new wallpaper put in...and I got a new bed."

Jackson attempts to be lighthearted, "Well It's very pretty. It's very you."

Juliette makes a sassy remark, "Well then you probably hate it. And make fun of it too."

Jackson gets back on topic, "Juliette I'm sorry okay?"

Juliette sits up and turns around to face him, "Then show me don't tell me."

That was something their parents often said when they apologized for things.

Jackson sighs, "Okay. But consider it a group apology. We're all going to be kinder."

Juliette doesn't care about seeming like a baby or brat anymore. Clearly it didn't matter.

She whines, "No!"

Jackson has no words. He's stuck and doesn't know how to make things better. He decides to check in on her instead.

He says sweetly, "Listen JuJu, we don't hate you. I really don't hate you. I will always love you. I'm sorry that you felt like you weren't enough for us, but you're amazing."

Juliette grabs a pillow behind her and throws it at Jackson.

"Liar!"

He starts to chuckle a bit, but holds it in.

"JuJu-"

Juliette interrupts Jackson, "Jackson when I say that I want you to leave right now, I mean it."

Jackson is hurt. He didn't realize how hard it would be for Juliette to forgive him. He sat there for a moment looking at Juliette sadly as she lies facing away from him.

He sighed, "If that's what you want. I won't force it. But I really do mean it. I'm sorry. What we said was mean."

He gets up and walks out of Juliette's room.