TW: Discussion of a suicide attempt. I know suicide has been discussed throughout, but it's a little more explicit here. There isn't a scene, but two characters discussing an attempt.
That certainly shut the audience up. "Aaron and I weren't friends," Jade repeated. "The letter on his corpse was written by me. He stole it from me on the first day of school. I didn't have the heart, to tell the truth. I wrote the emails to cover my tracks. The Mitchells are the greatest people I've ever met."
The audience began to boo again. This time it was for Jade. She felt as though she deserved it. 'At least the attention is off Katie,' Jade thought. Abbey gave her a bittersweet smile.
Katie was walking off the field. She had thrown the crown to the ground on her way. Jade ran to her date. "Katie, wait," Jade cried. Katie turned around to face Jade. "I might have lied about Aaron, but my feelings for you are real. No lies there. All those things I said Aaron thought were cool were things I liked about you."
"This is a lot to process," Katie sighed. "I'm going to need space. You'll need to find another way home."
Katie then left.
Jade took the bus home. Her mom was waiting for her in the living room. "I saw the letter online," Ms. Hansen said. "That was an assignment from your therapist, right? It wasn't from Aaron."
"Yeah," Jade said.
"I'm sorry," Mrs. Hansen cried. "I haven't been there for you. When Peyton left, I decided to be the best mother possible. I worked multiple jobs to give you the best life. By doing that, I ignored the signs that you were hurting. I feel like I am a terrible mother."
"We both made mistakes," Jade said.
"I wanna be the best mom I can be," Mrs. Hansen said. "From today forward, I will be. I'm going to be here for you."
Jade had tears welling up in her eyes. "I didn't tell the truth about how I broke my hand," Jade cried. "The branch wasn't that wobbly. I was standing perfectly fine. I let go of the tree and jumped."
Mrs. Hansen didn't listen. She just held her daughter close as Jade sobbed.