Found a Guy I Could Trust
Here's my story for the second bade prompt. If you would like to join this, follow badeprompts on twitter and wait for the announcement of April's prompt submissions. My received prompt is "Found a Guy I Could Trust" so I hope you like it. (:
8 year old Jadelyn West runs up to her dad excitedly.
"Daddy! Can you take me to the park? Please?"
"Not now, Jadelyn. I have a lot of work to do."
"But dad, you said that yesterday and you promi—"
"Jadelyn, I said no. Go play with your brother."
Jadelyn frowned and turned away from her dad for the third day in a row. Every time he promises to play with her, he suddenly finds work to do. But she obeys his request and goes to find her 9 month old brother.
B&J xx J&B
Jadelyn, now 10, covers her ears for the fifth time that day as her parents scream downstairs. Something about how her father is never home anymore. Which is true, but she doesn't want to hear them fighting about it. She tries to ignore it and color in her new coloring book. Coloring everything black and purple, her two favorite colors this week, she thinks about how pretty the colors are together. She decides that she wants to buy clothes with these colors instead of all the pinks and whites that crowd her closet.
…
"But dad! I want to buy these clothes. Not the stupid clothes you always make me wear." Jadelyn says the next day, while pointing to a magazine.
"Jadelyn, I will not have my daughter wear those clothes. Anyway, you don't need new clothes. You have plenty."
"Yeah, I have plenty of ugly clothes."
"Jadelyn, go to your room. Now."
Jadelyn rolls her eyes, and stomps up to her room. She loved her dad most of the time, but lately he's just been getting annoying.
B&J xx J&B
13 year old Jadelyn sneaks out of her second story window and onto the fire escape below. She climbs down the ladder and runs across the yard. Once she knows she's out of view of the security cameras, she takes off her jacket to reveal to her 5 week boyfriend, Jake, the new outfit she bought yesterday. A black tank top with blue and white jeans and the combat boots frames her figure; and by the look on Jake's face she can tell he approves.
They decide to go to the ice cream parlor a few blocks down, and after they order their usual, they go for a walk in the park. Jadelyn looks around and remembers rarely going here as a kid because of her dad. She frowns at the thought but then focuses on the guy beside her; the guy that actually loves her. On their way home, Jake convinces her to come to his house, and she agrees even though she knows she should be heading home soon.
Jadelyn follows Jake into the medium-sized house and up to his bedroom. After talking for a while, Jadelyn finds herself making out with him on the bed. With things heating up, Jake's hand finds its way under Jadelyn's shirt. Instinctively, Jadelyn pulls away, backing up from him.
"What are you doing?"
"Come on, no one's home. No one's going to find out."
"You're disgusting, Jake. I'm going home."
Jadelyn stands up off the bed and makes her way to the door. Before she makes it halfway though, she feels a hand on her wrist. Jake tightens his grip on her, not letting her move. Jadelyn struggles but that only makes him mad and makes him twist her wrist backwards.
"Jake, stop it. You're hurting me."
"Come back or else I'll break your wrist, Jadelyn."
Jadelyn winces in pain. She can't remember Jake acting like this in the 3 years they've known each other. When she doesn't move and doesn't talk, he bends her wrist farther back and she can feel it about to break.
"Jake…"
They're saved though by the sound of the front door. Jake immediately lets go and puts on his innocent act. Jadelyn stares at him in disbelief, and at the first moment possible, she dashes out the door, tears streaming down her face. She stops a few streets before hers and sits on a bench and cries, wondering how she could have been fooled so easily.
B&J xx J&B
6 months after the Jake incident, Jadelyn finds herself in L.A. with her mom, staring in front of their new house. 2 months ago, Jadelyn's parents divorced and so now her dad lives off in San Diego while she's with her mom here. She watches the movers go in and out of the house, and then back again; a repeated cycle that goes on for what seems like forever. When they finish, she's finally allowed to go inside the house and she makes her way to her room. She lies on her mattress that is just on the floor for now. Picking up a small box, she flips through pictures of her life. She realizes that most of them are of her by herself or her with her mom or brother. There's only one of her and her dad, one that was taken at her first birthday party. She frowns at the picture, realizing how her father had never really been there for her. He always had work or something else to do. She puts the pictures back and starts to unpack.
…
The next day she looks up at the giant school in front of her. On the front it read "Hollywood Arts", and it looked like a pretty fancy school. She's only been inside once, when she auditioned to be enrolled, but she never got a good look around. She took a deep breath, and put on her tough face. No one would want to mess with this new kid. She wouldn't let anyone know her weaknesses or anything of her past. Here she was Jade West; no longer Jadelyn. Jadelyn was her past, and that was all it was to her now; the past.
She walks in and finds her locker to the left of the main staircase. The blank, gray rectangle stands out in the hallway. And you know that's pretty bad if the locker next to yours has baby bottle nipples all over it. She opens the locker and puts some of the contents of her bag inside. She has 30 minutes before she has to be inside the office for her schedule and tour of the school, and she wants to try to look around herself beforehand. Grabbing her Gears of War bag of the ground again, she starts to walk around, observing the details put into every locker and floor tile.
…
2 months after school starts Jade finds herself with no friends still. She has a few aquantices, people she would become friends with is they would let her. But she realizes that maybe her dark exterior turns people away, however she can't change now. It's too late to change; people will call her a fake. And this was how she liked to be anyway, no one ever tried to tell her what to do and everyone knew what she thought about them. She had a reputation now. The goth girl who is obsessed with scissors and never held anything back. But they also knew that she was extremely talented in acting, and singing. No one questioned that.
…
Again, after another 2 months, Jade finds herself smiling contently at the lunch table with her little clique of friends. She looks around the table; everyone was talking about the upcoming play auditions. Andre was sitting beside her. He was an amazing musician, and she loved the CD he gave her for her 14th birthday of songs he had written. She listens to it every once in a while, but mostly sticks with her hardcore bands. Beside Andre was Cat, who deep down she loved like a sister, but really she was like a pet. Pretty airheaded, Cat loves to do anything she thinks of. She can sing, act, juggle, and a few other things too. If she could learn to focus more, Jade could see her getting far in life. Then comes Robbie, and his puppet Rex. Robbie was a ventriloquist, and a pretty good one at that. You would swear that Rex was a separate human being until you saw Robbie slip up sometimes and move his mouth when Rex was supposed to be talking. Robbie could also sing, but he mainly liked to focus on his puppetries.
Then there was Beck, who sat to the right of her. He was obviously the ladies man of the school, with his caramel-colored skin and jet black hair that almost reached his shoulders, but was super fluffy. When questioned about it, he always says "I use a quality shampoo and conditioner" and that's all. He likes to act, and he's pretty darn good at it too. When he's on stage, you're hypnotized by his words and actions. She always hoped that he would act in front of her; Jade could watch him act for hours on end. This is why she really hopes that he'll get the lead in the school play while she gets the female lead. That, and those characters get to kiss; but she would never tell anyone that.
B&J xx J&B
6 months afterwards, Jade and Beck find themselves in a diner near Hollywood Arts, celebrating the play that had just successfully finished 30 minutes ago. Laughing and talking about the tiny mistakes that they did during the play – like how Jade's shoe kept almost falling off, or how Beck's suit jacket was too big so he had to keep rolling the sleeves up – Jade finds herself falling hard for the actor in front of her. This scares her to death. The last boyfriend she had was Jake, and she wasn't sure if she was completely over what happened with him. He broke her, found her weakest points and stomped on them. She hadn't realized how much he had hurt her until that day in the bedroom. She silently shakes her head, realizing that was the past. And Jade West does not live in the past.
…
The next day Beck finds his way to Jade's scissor-covered locker. He looks at her awkwardly and plays with his ring on his finger. Jade eyes him, a smirk growing on her face.
"What's up with you, Oliver?"
"Okay look, Jade. I had a lot of fun last night after the play and I was wondering if you wanted to do it again. Maybe we could this Friday night?"
Jade looked at him, her smirk gone, and her pale face even more pale. Memories of her past came flooding to her head. How her dad was never there for her. How her brother always stole all the attention for himself and laughed at her when she tried to get some. How Jake was a selfish pig. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out, and she closes it again. She mentally kicks herself and closes her locker and walks away, leaving Beck there confused and worried he had done something wrong.
…
Jade finds herself in her room that afternoon, cutting everything she doesn't care about apart. Something about being able to control the movement of her scissors and the way they slice through practically everything calms her. She keeps her focus on the old t-shirt she has in her hands, half of it already in shreds on the ground. She would make something out of it later, but for now she had to finish cutting this. She had to know she had control over her mind. She needed to know that nothing and no one could come and take her away from her little world. She needs to know this… until there's a knock on her bedroom door. She glances up at it, but ignores it and goes back to cutting the shirt. But that only lasts a few seconds before another knock is upon her door. She makes an audible groan, so the person on the other door knows she does not like their presence at the moment. She opens the door with an irritated "what", to find Beck standing in front of her.
"Hey, Jade."
"Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?"
"Can we talk for a little bit?"
Jade shrugs, she wants to kick him out and tell him not to come back. Tell him they can talk tomorrow at school. But she lets him in the room anyway and takes her position on the bed again, around the shredded pieces of her old shirt. "What do you want to talk about?"
"What happened earlier; why did you just leave?"
"You can't control where I go and when. I can leave you standing anywhere I want if I want to." Jade sighs, she hates being mean to him, but she needs to keep her guard up.
"I know… but I was just wondering if I can have an answer to my question."
"What question? You've asked me a lot of things today."
"If you wanted to hang out this Friday… just you and me."
Jade closes her eyes. She needs to remind herself that Beck is not her dad. Beck is not her brother. Beck is certainly not Jake. She takes a deep breath and nods. "Yeah, sure."
"Seriously? You really want to?"
"I don't know, I guess so. What's the worst that could happen?" She gives him a quick smile before returning to her content face.
Beck returns her smile with a grin. "Great. Want to meet at the park at 5?"
Jade nods, and after saying goodbye, Beck leaves her room then her house. When she hears the second door close, she groans. Out of all places, he wanted to meet at the park.
B&J xx J&B
Jade is 17 now, and as she looks up at her boyfriend, Beck, she realizes how much her life has changed in the last 4 years. She went from having a mom and dad, to just her mom, and now a stepmom living over in San Diego with her dad. She went from absolutely hating her little brother, to being able to tolerate him now. She went from not knowing what she wanted to do in life, to knowing exactly what her future contained. But, most importantly to her, she went from being alone and unsure about herself, to being in love and feeling loved. Almost 3 years with Beck has been a roller coaster, with their fights and temporary break ups. But also their kisses that show everyone that no one can ever separate them from each other forever. She reaches for her hand and plays with the ring she gave him for Christmas last year, thinking about the past three years with Beck.
She couldn't believe how different he was from the other guys in her life. He made time for her everyday, unlike her dad. He complimented her and made sure she felt noticed, unlike her brother. He joked around with her and let her feel like a kid again, unlike her old friends. He respected her and loved her, unlike Jake. He was the guy that made her open up more. He was the guy that made her soften up. He was the guy that knew all of her secrets, even of her life as Jadelyn. She sighs contently and looks back up at the TV to let him know she's still watching the movie with him, even if she's not paying attention. Today Jade is in a good mood. Nothing can bother her, because she realized that she finally found a guy that she could trust.
There it is! :D I personally like how this turned out, so hopefully you do too. Remember to review, even if it's just critism, so I can learn from my mistakes. And also follow badeprompts on twitter if you would like to join us this month with our prompt writing.
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