Man, I can't stand Jade West. She's just so bitchy and now I've got detention because of her. The rest of my friends have it, but you know… It's a complicated story, but given that you are taking the time out of your day to read this, I kind of figure that you're a relatively smart person. I'll try to explain it to the best of my ability. Remember, it's a complicated story, so bear with me.
It all happened two weeks ago. We were sitting in the hallway at school. Robbie, Cat and I were working on a script Sikowitz had told us to write two weeks before the day that the event took place. We were sitting down by my locker when Jade came roaring by. But it wasn't her typical "GET OUT OF MY WAY!" type of attitude. She looked…dare I say it… upset. Not like, angry, but genuinely sad. When she stormed by, she turned the corner and I heard a large crashing noise; like some books were thrown against a locker…or a person. It did sound like something she would do; throwing someone against a locker, that is.
I got up from where I was sitting, leaving Cat and Robbie still sitting down by my locker. Before I turn the corner to where the crash was, I smiled as I saw Robbie move closer to Cat, indicating he was going to flirt with her. My smile quickly vanished when I saw Jade threatening a child that looked to be a freshman with a pair of her rusty old scissors. She had the poor boy pinned against the locker, holding the scissors to his neck. I approached them.
"Jade! What are you doing?!" I yelled.
She gave me a deathly stare, but I stood my ground. She let loose of the boy's collar and he ran away. She walked towards me, twirling her scissors on one of her fingers. Jade never really scared me. The only time she scared me…like, truly scared me…was when she would make eye contact when she was upset. This was one of those times. Remember when I said that she looked genuinely upset? Well, that thought immediately left my head when she was about five feet away from me. She was still twirling her scissors. I was scared; I didn't let it show, though. Somehow I think she knew I was frightened. She always had a knack for sensing fear.
"You want some of this, Vega?" Jade asks.
I back away slowly, still holding firm eye contact. Then, I gain the courage to stand still. She kept approaching me even though I'd stopped moving. She was never scared to get close to anyone when she was angry. Our foreheads were practically up against each other's; our eyes never left one another's.
"Maybe I do; why would you care?" I ask firmly.
"I care because you interrupted my personal business; and now, no thanks to you, the dumbass kid got away. So…I'll ask again…do you want some of this?" Jade asks.
I can feel her scissors running against the skin of my neck. I don't move a muscle on the outside, but on the inside I was praying to God that she didn't do anything crazy. Nobody likes dull blades; especially when they are dull scissors.
The rest of the gang shows up in the hallway as the bell rings. Other bystanders leave for class. I hear the sound of lockers slamming and feet running against the hard ground. I pay no attention to anything but Jade.
"I think I do want some." I say, confidently.
She throws her scissors to the side. She smirks, and then laughs; which really scared me all the way to my very core. She steps back. I'm surprised she's giving me this much space to work with. I knew we were about to fight. But what really surprised me was that no one was here trying to break all this up. No one; and I mean no one was in the hall but André, Cat, Robbie, Beck, Jade and I.
I had become so sick and tired of her behavior. No one was doing anything about it. Helen, the lady who took over for our previous principle not too long ago, just didn't care about what happened to the kids. I think she just did what she had to do; or just enough to not get into trouble with the superintendent. Sikowitz was scared of Jade, so that ruled him out as a possible mediator. There were a total of four people that I knew of who were brave enough to stand up to Jade: Beck, Cat (but only when she's on her period), me, and Vice principle Dickers. That man was a nut job! But he did do his job, which I really respect him for.
Jade laughs again. Then she draws her fist back and throws a punch, which I block with my forearm. I countered her punch with a strong knee to her thigh. Being a police officer's daughter has its hidden perks. She steps back, rubbing her thigh. I can't help but feel a little bit of pride wash over my body. But the thoughts that pleased me such as those quickly left my mind when a mind-numbing blow to my jaw sends me into a locker. I wipe some stray blood from my lip. I lunge forward at her intending to throw her across the hallway, but a large body stops me.
"Settle down, Skinny Jeans!" Vice-Principle Dickers exclaims in my direction.
I see Jade laugh quietly after he scolds me.
"You settle down, too, Fudge Sack!" He yells at Jade this time.
I just stay still with fear as to what he might do. I don't want to clean the Black Box again. I was getting sour cream out of my hair for a week. I don't want to be forced to stay after school to help a teacher grade papers. I didn't want to sweep every single hallway and every single room.
"All of you have detention this Saturday! Be there, or get suspended for a week." Vickers yells. The whole gang groans.
"Man…wouldn't that be a bummer." Jade says.
"Oh, and that's probably what you want people to think, isn't it West! You kids think she's cool? You think she's bitchen?" Vickers asks.
"Whoa, whoa, hold up! I have two points; who says bitchen anymore, and I don't want them to think I'm cool. They know I am." Jade says.
I can't help but laugh out loud at her comment. Vickers eyes me and I quickly stop laughing and stand up straight.
"That's another Saturday, West!"
"Well, damn! I was planning on doing something on that day. Oh, well." Jade says, sarcastically.
They both go back and forth until Vickers finally gives up I think Jade got like four days of detention. It made me laugh, really. I was like, "Yeah, bitch! Keep getting detention!" I know that's not a nice thing to say, but I mean it. I'm so glad she has to go through all of that. I enjoy reading her Slap posts saying how much she hates school and that the teachers just decide to pick on her. But what's really funny is that she knows good and well that she deserves it. She just doesn't want to admit it.
Remember in the beginning how I said it was a complicated story? Well… I lied. It's actually very easy to follow.
And all of that brings us to the present. It's Friday night and the day before we all have detention. I'm going through my clothes to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow. I usually do laundry on Sundays. I do enough to last me Monday through Friday. I usually just add an extra pair of pajamas for Saturday, because usually, that's all I wear on that day. But I was all out of outfits, so I contemplated just wearing sweats and a t-shirt. I really didn't want to get ready tomorrow, but I realized I had no panties clean, so I decided, "Eh… might as well wash a nice outfit." I picked a striped dark red and black shirt, with a long sleeve black under shirt, some darker blue jeans, and my four inch high heel boots that made a cool clicking sound against the floor when I walk. I threw those into the washer and went back into my room. I shut my door and looked through my large purse.
I rummage through it and quickly realize that there is no hope in cleaning it the conventional way, so I dump the whole thing out on my bed and start organizing it all into piles. I find about seven lip gloss tubes and three pairs of sunglasses. A condom; where did that come from?
Then I found a crumpled up picture from about two years ago. Jade, Cat, Trina and I were at an all ages comedy club. We had gone there to celebrate Cat's birthday. She chose that place because she loved to laugh. And oh, boy did we laugh. I'd never seen Jade laugh so hard…ever. I suddenly noticed I was staring at Jade and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She was wearing a low cut, blue dress that stopped at her thighs. I was a sexy dress. Wait…what? What in the world am I thinking?
The doorbell to our home rang. I open my bedroom door and sprint down the stairs. The door bell is going off like crazy. "I'm coming! Good lord!" I open the door to see Jade, standing in the rain, hair soaked, skin paler than usual. She was visibly shaking. Her teeth were chattering.
"Uh, Jade?" I ask, cautiously.
"Can I come in? Please?" Jade shivers.
Jade said please. It was one of the scariest things I'd ever heard in my life. But what was just as scary was that she looked broken. She looked like she would crack at any moment and burst into tears. It hurt me, as much as it pains me to say it. My view of Jade West has completely changed. Jade West didn't cry. Jade West didn't say please. Jade West rarely came to anyone for help. But when she did, it seemed like she'd always come to me. She came to me when she and Beck broke up…the first three times. She came to me when she needed help producing her play. It never failed. It seemed like I was always the first option; like she'd always come to me first.
"Yes, of course. What's wrong, Jade?" I ask her, genuinely concerned.
"Nothing's wrong, Vega." She says.
Now I knew that was bullshit. Jade never came to me for help unless she had a problem, and it was clear she had a problem. Jade was very good at a lot of things, but one thing she'd never been good at was lying. You could read her like a book most of the time. I could tell that she'd been crying because of the bags under her eyes and her mascara looked to be a bit thin. The tears probably washed it all off.
"So…" I start, sitting down by her. "Are…" I start, but she cuts me off.
"Do you have any coffee?" She asks.
I get up, look in all the cabinets and shake my head no at her, feeling bad that we didn't have something that she needed to feel better. "Sorry, no, we don't. We have Belgian cocoa, though." I say.
"Shit. I guess that will do." She responds.
I put the water into the kettle and put it on the stove, then sat back down at the kitchen table with Jade. "Now…are you going to tell me what's wrong, or not?"
"When I get the cocoa, I'll tell you, okay?" Jade asks me. I nod.
After about five minutes, the water was hot enough so I could put the cocoa mix into the kettle. I pour it into a coffee cup and hand it to Jade. She quickly takes a drink. I sat down yet again, hoping to God that she wouldn't asks for me to get up again. She takes another sip.
"This cocoa tastes like ass." Jade says, flatly.
"Oh, it's no problem, Jade. That wasn't the last of my cocoa or anything." I say sarcastically.
"Okay, then." Jade responds.
"Now tell me what happened." I demand.
Jade begins her story. It all actually started when she threatened that kid. She told me that her grandmother wasn't doing well at the time and that that kid made an offensive joke towards people with the disease her grandmother had. It just made Jade go crazy. And honestly, I can't blame her.
"The reason I came over here today was because my grandmother died today. It's really taking a toll on me." She said.
"Jade, I'm so sorry." Suddenly, I felt very protective of such a fragile Jade. I held her tightly until she stirred in my grasp.
"Can I…stay here tonight, by any chance?" Jade asks.
"Absolutely; you can stay here as long as you need to." I stand up and lead her to my bedroom. We enter and I go to my dresser to get my last pair of pajamas for the week so she could get into dry clothes. She thanks me and starts undressing right in front of me. "Oh, god." I say, turning my head.
"What, Vega? It's nothing you've never seen." She laughs.
I slowly uncover my eyes and I see the two globes that sit on her chest. She quickly puts the pajamas on to cover herself. "I hate going braless, sometimes." She says.
"I really don't mind it." I say, blushing. I suddenly realize that I was a little bit aroused by Jade's attitude about her body. I can see her nipples through the thin fabric of the shirt I lent her. I close my eyes, trying to contain my arousal.
"So, I guess I'll just sleep on the floor." Jade says.
"No, you can sleep up here with me. My bed's big enough. Come on." I say.
She looks at me, contemplating whether she should get in bed with me. I patted the other side of the bed and she gets up from the floor and gets into my bed. She falls asleep quickly. I feel her cuddle close to me. I liked it. I wrapped my arm around her. I began to realize that I was developing "new" feelings towards Jade as I turned out the light. I lay my head down on my pillow and drift off to sleep, awaiting a long day of detention tomorrow.