Disclaimer. I own only the concept. Everything else belongs to other people.
Trigger warnings. Child abuse, rape, self harm, attempted suicide. Possibly others. This is rated M. I tried not to be too explicit. (I think we're past the worst of it.)
Note. This story is about Jade, but contains information she might not ever know. This chapter is heavy into things she won't know, at least not for a while.
:}
By the end of summer, Jade was starting to make headway dealing with her emotional scars. The last two blows to her heart still lingered, but therapy was eating it's way through, getting her back to where she was before she was abducted. On other fronts of her life, other events were conspiring to move her from just scrapping by, and moving towards financial stability, if only for the short term.
It started while she was spending those two weeks in the hospital. During that time, Doctor Bowers had a talk with Officer Gary, David Vega's partner. One of the things they discussed was the ongoing case against Jade. Gary told the doctor everything that could be shared at that time, including how they now knew Jade was not guilty of aiding in any sex crimes. While Gary didn't know the full significance of what he told her, it was enough to set the doctor in motion. Doctor Bowers called her contacts at Catholic Charities, who called the county and made arrangements for Jade to have a hearing challenging her placement on the sex offenders watch list. Jade's social worker got both police officers to testify, both about her innocents and the conspiracy that kept her on the list for so long. Jade was quickly cleared, and was no longer a registered sex offender.
While Jade's past was being cleared up, Doctor Bowers was taking care of other needs. There were benefits that came from being in the system, from having been in foster care for any length of time. The doctor was using her contacts to try and get Jade a few of them. The next one on the list was housing. Jade's social worker and case worker broke records in how quickly they filled out the forms and arranged an interview. They'd found a THP Plus program near where she was going to school, and put her name in for an open slot. With her criminal record cleared, Jade went from being unplaceable to highly desirable. They cleared the hurdle of her age, and all it took was a little while on a waiting list for her to get a new place to live.
Other funds were opening up as well. Jade qualified for a state run college fund for kids who'd been in group homes. The fund was fairly full. It was rarely used. Too many of the kids it was meant to help would never go to college. Jade's advocates managed to get the fund to pay for the next three years of her education, including book, food, and a stipend for housing.
The stipend didn't cover the entire rent, and that was deliberate. Many THP Plus programs required a rent be paid, with most of it going into a savings account for the resident, while others helped pay their rent at an apartment, or otherwise were variant forms of the original idea of helping these kids who'd been in the system transition out into the adult world. It was one of the reasons that the programs all required the potential resident to either have a job or be going to school. Jade was going to school, and would have a job to help her pay the rent. The stipend would cover the actual rent, and Jade would put a large percentage of her earnings into a savings account for when she graduated. It seemed perfect on paper, and by the beginning of September everything was set. Once they got her into a program in Valencia, just a couple of miles away from the campus, they let her know the good news about what had been done for her. They expected Jade would jump at the chance to move into the new, more secure place.
Jade didn't want to move. She hated the idea that she of being on assistance. Her various workers insisted that Jade avoid going deeper into debt to get her education. Jade still didn't feel like she'd earned it. Jade would have qualified for multiple scholarships if Richard hadn't been raping her, but she felt she hadn't earned any assistance from the government. They then told her that they would have Richard to pay back whatever she got from the system, sort of a way to force him to do his parental duty, something he obviously didn't do before. Jade still didn't want it. She didn't want anything from that man. Her therapist told her this wasn't a payoff, or anything remotely like it. It was a fine, punishment for trying to sell her, and if she refused, he might go unpunished. That's what finally got Jade to agree to the services being offered to her. While him not being punished was a lie, it still had the desired effect. Jade's education was going to be taken care of.
Jade found another job towards the end of summer. With her name off the sex offenders list, it was easy for the now experienced goth to get a job waitressing at another restaurant. The pay was exactly the same, if you didn't count tips. However, she was now working in a much nicer restaurant. Jade's income with tips was going increase over fifty percent despite working fewer hours. Jade decided to take the reduced work load for a couple of reasons. First, she would be taking a heavy class load to satisfy her double major in Acting and Filmaking. Second, Jade wanted to keep time open for the occasional tech crew gigs she might get, or just busking. The crew work was giving her practical experience as well as getting her know around Hollywood. Jade was starting to plan for the future. Jade was starting to believe again that she had a future.
Jade had learned some harsh lessons from her past. One was that she could never tell when things were about to go sideways. so planning for the future meant more than having friends who would miss her. She still couldn't believe anyone would care enough about her to miss her when things went wrong again. No, planning for the future meant saving enough cash for her to live on for a while, for the next time things changed and her life fell apart. She had no idea what other landmines Richard and his friends had laid out in front of her. So by the beginning of fall, Jade had moved into a new place, with a new job, and her life was starting to get easier.
Richard, meanwhile, was having his own rude awaking. Despite the investigation around what happened to Jade, his comfortable living arrangements had not been disturbed. The evidence against him was too circumstantial, and his lawyers were very good. However, there were potent repercussions that rocked his world. The ongoing investigation was starting to put too much pressure on the people who'd been helping Richard deal with Jade. Each time the police moved, Richard felt his world contract just a little bit.
Many of the people who'd helped with Jade didn't do anything more than change a few words in a document or make suggestions about her future. There were even a few who'd helped get Jade emancipated thinking they were doing her a favor. These people were now being questioned, often watched. Those who altered documents found that the police didn't like any form of corruption, and were just as happy to arrest and charge them.
Through all of this, David and his partner Gary dug through the growing mountain of documents and other evidence, following what was often thin connections until, with the proof that someone set Jade up to be taken and sold into slavery, they rattled people and got more information. Little crimes opened up new avenues in the investigation, and bigger players started to emerge. The investigation expanded beyond just what was done to Jade, and any form of corruption connected even tangentially to anything involving Jade's ordeal was investigated.
Initially Gary wasn't too happy about the course of the investigation. Police officers like to make arrests at the end of their investigations, if not before. The reward for their hard work, Big arrests were what got the upper brass to notice. However, the more he and David dug, the more walls of influence they ran into, and it looked for a while like the 'old boys club' would stop this investigation before any meaningful arrests could take place.
David, however, was feeling good about their work. Each wall they ran into was another power player rattled by the investigation. Already, many of Richards friends were distancing themselves from him. There were many ways outside the court system to take down a man like him, and as Richards legitimate friends found out what kind of man he was, many pulled their support from him. Maybe it was just a councilman who didn't speak up for Richard, but that was one more layer of protection gone. Each such individual soon found they had to denounce him, or each thing they said or did would be questioned. While at one point, loyalty enhanced their value as friends, their usefulness to other fixers was now dependent on letting him go. He became a stigma, being his friend meant doing nothing while the police accused him of the most heinous crimes.
Then there were Richards most valued friends. These were people who had money but were never seen in the public's perception. They were the ones with the most to lose, since this kind of police work could drag their secrets out into the light. Being people with money but out of the public eye, they wanted protection from the little things they had done. Many a man thought Richard had procured for them a night with a willing teenage girl, not aware that the girl was being coerced into prostituting themselves. Suddenly infidelity was no longer the biggest scandal they faced if their history came to light. Others had benefited from favors bought with illicit means. These men often had little to fear from the police, but their reputations would be damaged, and reputation to them was worth a lot of money.
Ironically, of the friends he'd traded favors with, it was some of the people who'd never received or done one unethical thing that stood by him the longest. They were the ones who believed he was the upstanding citizen he pretended to be. They had no reason to believe he was anything other than the good man he pretended to be. Like the victims of a great con, they found it easier to hang on to that belief than admit they'd let this serpent of a man that close to their families.
Then, towards the end of July, things started to happen. As the domino's started to fall, Richard Mathews began to feel isolated. Many of his totally legitimate contacts, more often than not essential for arranging payoffs to his informants and suppliers, were horrified to find out what that man was into. Slowly a picture of the web of corruption and influence was being uncovered, and Richard was becoming the curse dragging his contacts down.
Still other members of Richards old circle were horrified at what he had done to the sweet little girl who sang and danced for them at parties. The thought that Richard might be trying to sell her for favors, or just as bad if he kept her as his own while selling others daughters, made these men sick. Often conservative men of wealth, they followed their moral compass religiously. Many would have forgiven beating her to ensure she obey, but the implied incest was enough to make them denounce him and follow through. To them, he became a monster.
By the end of summer, Richard was a pariah, none of his old associates wanting to ever hear his name again. Some were caught and tried for a variety of crimes. While powerful friends could stymie a local police inquiry, the FBI was involved. They didn't do much beyond step in every time the local politico's got in the way, but that cleared a lot of hurdles in getting to the truth. That led to arrests, and new rounds of alligations.
Then there was the most damming thing from the investigation. Richard was safe, but a lot of others weren't, when the slaver and his breaker suddenly, involuntary gave up a lot of their clients. It came down to technology. The hard drive recovered from the slaver had been erased, but the computer forensics team, working with the NSA, recovered almost all the data from it. It had taken over two months, but now the police had information they could move on. Dozens of people found themselves under scrutiny, and many were arrested for slavery. It was not the end of the problem, but it did make a dent in the LA underage prostitution rings as well as the underground slavery rings. Repercussions would be felt across the U.S. Slavers and breakers across the country started getting investigated, and that would lead to more arrests. That was when Gary finally started to feel happy. The hard work got results, and that would enhance his career. David felt good when almost a hundred enslaved youths were sent back to their families, or to institutes to help them recover.
Richard saw everything he'd build slipping away, so he did what he always did. He looked for someone else to blame. It's what he'd been doing from the beginning. His mind drifted back, going over how he'd ended up in this hell hole, and he started assigning blame. He blamed Miranda for basically selling her child to him in return for a better life. Maybe she could, in her mind, interpret it as he could discipline Jade as he wanted, but she'd made it clear that he could do whatever with her little girl. She had been willing to do just about anything for the prominent place in his life she had wanted.
When they agreed to get married, Miranda had said he could sleep with whomever he wanted, and that she'd sleep with whomever he wanted if it meant a better life for her. The brat was never mentioned, beyond the understanding that he could do with her as he wanted. So he put his rules down, and punished Jade for every infraction. He often used her to take out his frustrations when a deal went bad, or other things pissed him off. He had to stay cool and collected for his clients, so the girl became his release. And of course, it wasn't his fault. God rewarded him for what he did, and the girls own family seemed to think it was the best thing that could have happened. Richard was never punished, so he had to be in the right.
It was not his first taste of power, he liked trading favors as an aside from his boring job. He'd been trading favors since high school, often helping another jock with homework, or arranging someone else to take the fall when the quarterback got that slut pregnant. No, Richard had been building his power base for over twenty years by the time he met Miranda.
It was the freedom that incited him. He had always protected himself, and what he did to Jade just made him feel like no one could touch him. He felt truly alive as he pushed to see how much Jade would do to stay with him. He was always ready to talk to one of her teacher, waiting to see if anyone caught on to what he was doing. As he went unpunished for his actions, he felt like he was a god. His wife, she was part of his business world. Selling time with her was just a way for him to get more favors, and he used them to enhance his life. It was Miranda and Jade's fault these things happened. If they'd wanted it any other way, they'd have left. It was their choice, so it was their fault.
Richard wanted Jade as self reliant as possible, so she'd be more fun to break later. Convenience turned to a goal as she got older and found ways to get around his rules. He didn't care. His plans shifted as she slowly morphed into a commodity. By the time she was twelve, he knew he wanted to sell her. His big problem started when he figured out how to control her. He didn't mind hurting Miranda, it was her fault for not standing up to him, for selling her daughter and just not being enough.
The first time he raped Jade, his world changed. He could have the girl whenever he wanted. She tried to tell people, and he punished her for it. Hell, they gave her back to him, and added more to her punishment. She tried to escape, and he punished her for it, along with Miranda for not helping with this troublesome child. With each time he got away with hurting Jade, he felt more invincible. By the time she was thirteen and in Hollywood Arts, he'd delayed selling her twice to see how things went. As long as he was enjoying the game, he would keep her.
It was Hollywood Arts that first caused him to broaden his horizons. Jade was busy more often, and he was feeling the need to dominate something. His trade in favors bough a college girl to his attention. He arranged for her to get drunk and make a few "mistakes" at a party. He intended for her to entertain him, and she did. He forced her to sleep with him, then have a three way with Miranda. He thought about having one with Jade, but he liked the chase she gave him and didn't want this slut knowing that running was an option. So he sold her body for favors to several of his contacts. Finally, months later, he let her go. She was completely broken, cutting herself and using drugs so as not to feel. Also, by that point he had three other young women under his thumb. It was their fault, they could have said no, and just taken the consequences. Their reputations would eventually recover.
He also started being more careful about using protection. He'd been lax due to his vasectomy, but those 'sluts' weren't as careful. He'd have been surprised to learn that the VD was from one of his friends, and that the girl didn't have it before she started trying to pay Richard off. Still, he punished her for it. The punishment was bad enough that the girl chose to take her own life, just to escape him. Richard just shrugged it off. It was her choice. He didn't do anything, and he wasn't going to be blamed for her not having the guts to take the consequences of her actions.
It was shortly before Jade turned fourteen when he, for the first time, sold one of his "Slaves". He did it just to see if the breaker would take the girl. It was a new feeling. He'd made the girls keep his involvement a secret, and since a previous one had killed herself, he knew no one would look too hard at him once she was gone. He again blamed Jade, she wasn't exciting enough any more, and he needed the thrill. Also, he needed to know who to sell her to. Jade was talented, so she was worth more to would be buyers. He resolved to sell her soon, but delayed that choice as he continued to drive girls to fuck whomever he wanted and only let them go when he tired of them. He would sell some to his sleaziest friends, while he would give others to friends to play with until they "Broke it off". The Later girls didn't even know these guys didn't have the blackmail materials. And the guys usualy thought the girls were into them because of Richards influence.
Then one of the girls talked. It wasn't as bad as it could be. No one believed her. No one except her ex boyfriend. Problem was, the ex went to Richard, confronting him in his office, demanding that he back off. Richard pretended not to know what the boy was talking about, but now he was in a sticky situation. If he released the pictures he had of the girl, her boyfriend would have the evidence he needed to go after Richard. He didn't want to have his little empire rocked by scandal. But no one defies Richard Mathews, and certainly no college age boy was going to get away with threatening him.
Richard waited until he could act. First, he framed the boyfriend for some minor crime, just to punish him for disparaging the good name of Richard Mathews. It was hardly the first time he arranged for someone to take the heat for something he himself had done. Then, while he had an alibi claiming he was home, Richard kidnapped the girl. He called her to meet him in a public place about getting the pictures, but had a couple of guy's he knew grab her in the parking lot, and deliver her to him. He was going to teach her a lesson. He dragged her to a friends house, and along with another friend they took turns raping the girl. It was her fault. She talked. She should have known better than to have talked.
Unfortunately, the rough sex was more rough than intended. Richard likes to think he never planned on killing her, that the use of condoms would make it impossible for anyone to figure out who raped the girl. Miranda would give him an alibi, so it looked to him like it was the perfect crime. Then one of his friends offered him extra to let the guy strangle the girl, and Richard agreed. Richard then charged to dump the body in a park. None of it was his fault. He was just cleaning up after a friend.
He came to the conclusion that it was Jade's fault. It was always Jade's fault. She was his first taste of forbidden fruit, and once he had his first bite, he could never go back. That's why, when her friend and that bitch cop got him busted, he had his friends hurt Jade. They could only do so much, he wanted her broken but still alive. He still planned on selling her. However, once she was in the system, she proved to be difficult to get back. People were watching her now. He'd handle that after he got his revenge on the others who'd dare interfere in his business.
His revenge went off, but not nearly as successfully as he'd have liked. He was in a cushy prison, but it's still a prison. His other plans for revenge ran into limits he'd not anticipated as well. His friends had no trouble breaking up the two cops who'd been responsible for his arrest, but exposing the affair the partner was having with the cops wife didn't end the marriage. Worse, the cop had a lot of friends in the department, so he was put on "Relaxed" duty in the public relations department instead of the shit duty Richard tried to get him. Richard didn't want the man dead, he had other plans.
His plans to have friends arrange the rape the cops daughter were derailed by her sudden shift into fame. Bodyguards made the guys he'd paid to rape her nervous. They'd refused to do it once they knew she was a cops daughter. They knew how bad things could get for them. Richard never bother researching the cops other daughter, convinced by that point that anything he did was going to cost him a lot of grief. He just had to be happy screwing up the cops life.
Then there was the kid who recorded everything. Something kept that kid out of reach as well. His lawyer friends had sued the kid with the weird name for invasion of privacy, only to discover the kids father had money, and the kids mother knew some freaky people. The lawsuit quickly got thrown out on some technicalities, and Richard found his friends caught in an end run. They backed off out of a sense of self preservation. The boy had served community service for his crime, and that was the end of the story as far as the law was concerned. Richards friends told him that further actions might bring reprisals, and he agreed that it was best to limit things to the what the law could do. He had that under control. Besides, he still needed to hurt Jade, and to further separate her from her old friends.
The restraining orders were pitifully easy to arrange. Most of the parents of Jade's friends were too happy to sign them, and Richard was ecstatic at what they accomplished. While Jade almost died, she was now estranged from her friends and family, and once she had some time to heal up, he'd just snatch her at his convenience. Doing well at the new placement only made it that much easier for his friends, well meaning friends this time, to get Jade kicked out and on her own months before she was ready. He let her suffer in the real world, confident Miranda would keep him up to date on her life, so that when she was taken she'd know just how bad the world could be. It was what the bitch deserved, and would make her that much easier to break when the time came.
He hadn't meant to let it sit on the sidelines so long, but Social services didn't know Jades address, just what she told them. It was Miranda's fault. She was supposed to keep tabs on Jade for him, not just spend his money. Still, after she started seeing that therapist from Catholic Charities, it was a matter of time before he had all the information he needed. He realized he had to act now, she was succeeding in life, and she wasn't supposed to. Jade was taken on the first opportunity available once Richard could shuffle the deal out of the prison unnoticed, sent to the breaker he knew for processing. It wasn't his fault things didn't go as planned.
The blow-back was far worse than he'd imagined. The cop he despised, along with his ex partner, were following his list of favors like it would lead to the holy grail. Richards friends were abandoning him far faster than he could have believed. Loyal friends were finding themselves indited. It was only because he'd made arrangements to protect himself he had any privileges left.
It was All Jade's fault. He'd felt pity for her, holding on longer than he should, and now he'd lost everything. Now he hated Jade so much more, thinking he should just have had her killed. He was a job creator, someone who mattered. He deserved better than this. It's not like he'd ever hurt anyone who mattered. They just hated him because he was successful. Killing Jade would end this stupid witch hunt, and let him get back to the business he'd been doing. He knew someone who could make that happen. It was almost Halloween, and he intended to celebrate her death for Thanksgiving.
Six weeks later, Richard Mathews would be in a maximum security prison facing charges for conspiracy to commit murder. His cellmate sold him out to the warden for almost nothing. A little forgiveness to stay at club Fed, and "the chance to put that child molester in a real prison." His presence in this drama ending with his sudden need to keep his part in the white slave trade secret. As a parting gift, his cell mate told him what happens in prison to men who rape little girls. He knew how much people suffered from repeated rape, and didn't want to be on the receiving end. This was where Richard disappeared from the story, at least for the next twenty years.
Jade would remain blissfully unaware of all that was transpiring. Instead, she was preparing for what to her would be the first happy Christmas in years. She was living in what, to an outsider, was a room about the same size as her last apartment. But other than the size of her private space, things couldn't be more different. First, she had a window with a view of a small courtyard. Next, Her room was one of just four rooms attached to an apartment in the THP plus program building/complex. Jade had three roommates who each had a small room like that, but all shared the bathroom, living room and kitchen as common areas. Jade still had her mini fridge and her toaster oven with warmer as her primary form of food storage and preparations, but she had access to the larger appliances in the kitchen. There was a laundry room for the building, but that was the same.
The biggest luxury to Jade was the bathroom. It was designed with two sinks outside the inner bathroom where the toilet and shower were. Jade could shower, or with advanced notice, take a bath. These, along with greater sink access, were luxuries Jade had not enjoyed in over a year and a half, not counting the time she was in the hospital. Her access to the TV and Blue Ray players were hardly used, except for the used copy of 'the scissoring' she got on line. Jade now had time to watch occasionally, and enjoyed the childhood pleasure of the horror film.
Financially she was doing far better than she had in a while. She was paying off her one and a half years of student debt, over forty thousand, slowly, as she could afford it. That took almost a third of her income, and it would probably not be done until after she graduated. Half of her income was set to be saved. It was policy for the program, but Jade had planned to save a lot as is. She needed her safety net for when things went wrong again. The rest went for food (beyond what was covered by her college food allotment), luxuries she decided to give herself, her cell phone, and saving for her scooter.
The restaurant was vastly different than the diner. In addition to the better tips, if for no other reason that the cost of everything there was at least twice what the diner charged, she had other perks. At the end of the evening, the staff was allowed to take food home. Jade usually brought home a half dozen meals per week, but only ate half of them. The others went to her roommates, so they each had one really good meal per week. The second thing was that Jade was judged on her abilities as a waitress. She could be nice when it was in her best interests, and she was smart enough to make almost no mistakes with the food and service. The results were that she was given all the shifts she needed to keep her income up, her class schedule was respected, and she made enough in tips to make up for having to be nice. All while dressing nicely but not in a demeaning uniform or showing off her body. Work for her was far better than it had ever been before.
Minimal expenses and a decent pay were giving her the problem of cash for things she wanted. Jade made a list, and while she was close to the scooter, she was also looking at a new computer, maybe a trip to Oakland during semester break to visit Ginny. Jade owed her former tormentor that much. Jade was making plans, and that worried her.
Christmas was coming, and Jade was looking forward to it for what could be the first time in her life. She'd taken extra courses this semester in order to "Catch up", even though she was ahead, and needed to step back for a week. Jade was looking forward to the break from classes to get some extra work done and maybe sleep in a couple of days. The biggest thing she was looking forward to was being by her self. Her roommates were great, better than anything she had previously experienced while in the system, but they didn't get her. Two were in community college, while the third was working. Jade was the only one doing both at nearly a full time schedule. But come Christmas break, they would be gone, back to visit their families. Jade would have her mother come and visit her on Christmas day, she still wanted someone in her family to love her, then work a shift at the restaurant. This would be as close to a family celebration as she'd had since she was sixteen. She had the money now to acquire that scooter she'd been dreaming off.
Her only real concern was some strange man had been showing up while she was at work, asking about her. When asked who he was, he just told them he was an old friend of Jade's. He was tall, good looking, and polite. Jade was at a loss as to who could be looking for her. She knew it couldn't be Beck. She'd called the police, but they just told her to relax. Hers was a secured building. Not that that had ever stopped anyone determined in the past. Jade was becoming paranoid about this stranger. She hoped to resolve this stalker issue before the Christmas break.
Then there was Tori. The singer had started calling her. It happened shortly after Jade upgraded from her pay as you go cellphone to a better plan with some extra's. Tori had one of her people look up Jade's number, and called her from the road. Ever since Thanksgiving, Jade got one call per week from Tori. For the first call, they just exchanged pleasantries. Eventually, they started talking. There was a lot they hadn't said, and it weighted on their conversations, but Tori's reaching out to her was something Jade couldn't refuse. Old question of a kiss lingered in her mind, along with the dangerous thoughts of "If only." Jade knew better than to get caught up in thoughts like that. Still, the reemergence of the Latina in her life had complicated thing. It started just before Thanksgiving with a call, strangely enough, from Luther.
Jade remembered the shot conversation. "Hello, who are you and why is your number blocked?" Jade felt some strange irony with that response, but said it any ways.
"My name is Luther Rucker. You may not remember me, but I delivered your pay check from the Vega video shoot. I'm calling to give you a heads up." Said the deep, male voice.
"Okay Mister Rucker, what's up?" Jade said, trying not to sound too annoyed. She'd thought her contact with the large man was done.
"First, call me Luther. Mister Rucker is the guy throwing jerks out. Second, I'm calling because, against my recommendations, Miss Vega wants to open communications with you. She has your phone number, and want's to start calling you, catching up on old times and such." he said.
"You're against this?" Jade asked, not really surprised.
"She doesn't need to know what you've been through. She needs to focus on the future. I figured, when you get there, the fame and all, you'd contact her." He sounded sincere, which worried her. He'd told her to stay away the last time they spoke, just before her birthday. This was a very different conversation, one she didn't want to get into.
"So what do you want, Luther? I could ignore her calls..." Jade started.
"So she can drop by your apartment unannounced? I'm sure your roommates would love to have a pop star just drop by, especially someone as famous as her, but you might not like the paparazzi covering the visit." he said.
"Wait, she knows where I live? I moved, I mean..." Jade started.
"She has money and contacts in the police. Of course she knows where you live. It became a priority to her last July. I suggest you just talk to her, call her Tori or whatever you used to call her, and let her feel like she's back in your life. It'll make her feel better, and hopefully this will pass in a few months." He told her. Jade remembered how the conversation just kinda ended there. They both said stuff, but Jade was left wondering just how much Tori knew, and what this Luther guy wanted from her. It was confusing. Moreover, why was she a priority in Tori's life Now, and not before? Jade didn't want to think about it, and when she started talking with the Latina, it left a hole in the conversations.
In the few weeks that followed, Tori had become a presence in Jade's life, if only by her weekly phone calls. There was a tension between them that went beyond Jade hiding her past. They would have to meet face to face, and Tori was going to be back for Christmas. Jade found she needed to think about anything else, just to avoid a panic attack, so she chose to think about the scooter she planned on buying after Christmas.
It was what she was doing that one day in December, two weeks before Christmas. She loved the feelings those thoughts gave her. The feeling of being free once again, of having the ability to just go places when she wanted to, was like a rush to her, and she almost didn't notice the strange car in the parking lot. Normally, Jade would ignore it. Many of the people living in the complex have friends visit and she didn't know all the possible guests, let alone the cars they might drive. This car, however, had her worried. She couldn't put her finger on why, but there was something about it that just stuck with her.
It hit her as she walked towards her door, she'd seen that car before. It was in a picture posted online, but she couldn't quite remember where. Too much on her mind, she figured. So when she walked to her door, her thoughts froze at the sight of the tall young man standing there chatting with one of her roommates, Aggie,. His name formed on her lips, and her mind screamed for her to run. 'Not now', she thought to herself. 'I'm not ready.' But her feet kept moving towards the door, and towards her brother, Max.
:}
FYI, while editing this, I added over a thousand words. Something is wrong with me.
So now we have Max back in her life. This is going to be fun.
