Chapter 8: True Colors
Jubilee got out of her car in front of Chris's mansion and grabbed her bag, slamming the door. She met Chris, coming down the front steps, with a similar bag in his hand, and she smiled as she ran up and kissed him. "Chris! Oh, I missed you!" She gave him an enthusiastic hug. After a moment, she disengaged her arms and fell into step beside him. "I decided this morning. I'll move in with you."
Chris stopped walking. "You will? You really will? Oh, Jubilation!" he hugged her. "You've just made my day!" as they continued walking toward his car a little way down the drive, he asked her, "What made you make up your mind?"
"Oh, just stuff," she said lightly, unwilling to tell Chris about Logan. "I got yelled at this morning when I got home for being out all night," she hedged. "It's not really fair. They treat me like I'm still a kid."
Chris threw back his head and laughed, and Jubilee chuckled weakly. She didn't see what was so funny, but Chris did have a peculiar sense of humor sometimes. "I'm sorry, darling," he said finally. "I was just thinking…it's got to be destiny, because I just got this for you yesterday." He dug into his jacket pocket and produced a small black velvet box. Jubilee's heart nearly stopped when she opened it.
Inside was a huge diamond ring. It had to be at least four carats, if not more, and was set in a whitish metal that Jubilee would have bet money was platinum. "Chris," she said, awed. It had to have been horrendously expensive. She struggled to find something else to say, some way to tell him she didn't like it, and couldn't.
"Here," Chris took it out of its box and took her hand. Carelessly pulling off her middle finger the dainty sapphire-and-diamond band Logan had bought her long ago for her birthday, he put the diamond on the finger next to it. "Now it's official. We're engaged."
"Uh, no, Chris," Jubilee said, suddenly uneasy, "I think I want to wait on the engagement for a while longer." She started to pull the diamond ring from her finger, but Chris took her hands, preventing her.
"It's okay if you want to wait, but go ahead and wear the ring," he said. "A pretty girl like you should have pretty things. As nice as your friends are, they don't give you much jewelry." It was true, they didn't, but it was mostly because Jubilee didn't wear jewelry most of the time. The only piece of jewelry she wore on a daily basis was Logan's ring, and her small diamond stud earrings, a present from Ororo one Christmas.
Chris put the sapphire band into the black box and closed it, and Jubilee started to reach for it, but he tucked it into his jacket pocket carelessly. "You haven't got pockets," he said to her. "I'll keep it in my jacket for safekeeping while we're at the club pool. You never know about the pool attendants, they might riffle your bag and steal it while you're swimming." Jubilee nodded slowly. Maybe it would be safer with him; she didn't know about these fancy country clubs. She resolved to ask for it back when they got to his apartment.
Chris dropped his bag on a lounge chair in the sunlight, and then took her arm and showed her around. There was, in addition to the huge Olympic-sized pool in the back, a sauna, separate changing rooms and showers for both men and women, a weight room, and an open room with small tables and chairs where small groups of people sat and talked while they sipped drinks. It was all very posh, and expensive, and Jubilee tried to maintain an exterior of calm and cheerfulness while squirming inwardly. She wasn't comfortable with all this luxury.
She was even less comfortable with the possessive way Chris held her arm and took her around. She felt as though he were showing her off to his friends and the other people there at the club, and it made her uneasy. She felt like Chris thought she was a trophy, and she was not happy with that feeling. Added to which, he hinted at the fact that they were engaged, when they weren't, and she was too polite to take the ring off in front of everyone and give it back to him.
The sun climbed higher, and relief finally came in the form of stifling heat. She excused herself from Chris's arm, collected her bag, and disappeared into the changing room. When she came out she was wearing her bikini and not wearing the ring. It was a little too big for her finger anyway, and she was afraid it would slip off her finger and she would lose it in the pool. She dropped her bag beside the chair next to Chris's, spread her towel out over the chair, and then dove gracefully into the pool.
She did a few laps around the pool, just as she did at home in Charles's pool, then hauled herself out and went over to the diving board. Chris was standing there already, and as she walked up he took her arm and said, "Where's the ring?"
"I left it with my stuff," she said. "Don't worry, I hid it in the bottom of my bag. No one's going to take it."
"It's not that," he said quietly through clenched teeth. "I bought it for you, that means I want you to wear it. I expect to see you wear it. Go and get it."
"It's too large," Jubilee protested. "I don't want to lose it in the pool if it slips off."
"If you lose it I'll replace it. I want to see it on you. Go put it on." He just barely softened his demand with a 'please.' Slightly upset but unwilling to make a scene in front of all these people, Jubilee went, retrieved the ring, and slid it on. It felt heavy and awkward on her finger, and she found herself twisting it nervously as she dove back in. She swam with one fist clenched, trying to make sure it wouldn't fall off. It was almost a relief when Chris finally came to collect her at the end of another hour and they got into his car to go to his apartment.
It was in a very posh uptown complex, and Jubilee dropped her bag on the floor beside the door and looked around as she walked in. Chris had said he had some painting done to it, but she couldn't see a difference from the last time she was here. Chris locked the door and dropped his bag beside the couch. "Put your bag beside mine," he snapped at her. "Don't leave it by the door. I don't like things around the doors."
Jubilee blinked. His sudden change in attitude was startling. "Chris?" she asked, walking over to where he has sat down in a chair and was taking off his shoes. "Chris, what's wrong?"
"Take off your shoes while in here, remember?" he snapped. "I don't want the carpet stained." Stung, Jubilee stepped on the heels of her shoes, pulling her feet out of them, then walked back to him. "Chris, what's wrong with you? Why the bad mood all of a sudden?"
"There is nothing wrong with me. There is, however, something wrong with you." He emphasized the 'you'.
Stunned, Jubilee took a step back. "Me? What did I do?"
Chris got up and paced angrily into his dining room, where he opened a cabinet and took out a tall glass bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a full glass, tossed it down, poured another one and polished that one off as quickly as he had the first, then poured himself a third and sipped it as he looked at her. Jubilee walked over, taking the glass from his hand and putting it down on the dining room table. "Chris, please, I don't understand what you mean. What did I do to make you mad?" She winced inwardly at the defensive tone of her voice.
Chris pushed her hands aside and picked up his glass again, refilling it from the bottle. "You refused to wear my ring. I got that especially for you, do you know that? It cost me nearly three thousand dollars. If I spend that kind of money on you I expect to see you wear it. I didn't notice you'd taken it off until one of my friends pointed out to me that my girl wasn't wearing the ring. He asked me if you were available. Do you know how humiliating that is?" His voice rose a notch. "It's humiliating, to have my friend ask about my fiancée. I want everyone who looks at you to know you're mine, and that you belong to me. I don't want to see you with anyone else."
Jubilee's eyes narrowed. "I have not promised to marry you yet, Chris, I only said I would move in. That's not called 'being engaged'. I want to think about it. And if I chose not to wear something, that's my choice, not yours. You don't make decisions for me. I don't belong to you. I am not some piece of property you can haul around to make you look good, and then put up on a shelf when it's not convenient for you. And for your information, I know exactly how much you spent on that ring. I also know you bought everyone in your golfing circle Rolex watches. Five thousand dollar Rolex watches. The three thousand you supposedly spent on my ring is just chunk change to you." Jubilee turned away from him and went to where she'd left her shoes, sitting down on a low ottoman as she started to put them on. "You know something, I've changed my mind, Chris. I don't think I'll move in with you just yet." She slipped on her sneaker and started to tie it up.
The hand that came flying in from off to her left caught her completely by surprise. She gasped in shock as it connected with her left cheek with enough force to sweep her off the ottoman and send her sprawling to the floor. She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes at the unexpected pain and looked up.
Chris stood over her, fuming. "You don't get to change your mind, Jubilation," he said, his voice icy. "I've already told my parents you were moving in, and that we would be getting married. If you leave now it's going to make me look like a fool. And I refuse to look like a fool. Take off your shoe. You're staying."
"Absolutely not!" Jubilee spat out, getting up and fetching her other shoe. "In fact, I don't think I want to see you anymore. I thought you loved me, but all you really love is yourself. Grow up, Chris. Logan was right, you're a selfish egocentric person. I don't know what I saw in you." She slid her foot into her other sneaker and stood up, walking…
Straight into a stiff left hook.
She blinked the stars out of her eyes as she stared at the ceiling. Her right eye felt like it was about to explode, and the involuntary tears that filled her eyes were a testimony to that pain. She knew she'd have a black eye later, and oh, what would Wolvie say?
I should have listened to you, Logan, she thought grimly as she dazedly tried to get up. I promise I'll apologize when I get home.
She didn't even get fully upright before a shoe came up and connected with her face, sending her back down to the carpet as a red haze filled her vision. It took a few more seconds for her to clear the stars from her head this time, and when she did, she realized the red haze was blood from her bleeding nose. She felt it gingerly, wondering if it was broken, and rolled over onto her stomach, crawling to her hands and knees. She was almost upright again when an impact with her side knocked the wind out of her and sent her to the floor again.
Chris waited for her to rise again, and kicked her on the other side. She went down again. "Stupid girl," he spat, draining his glass of whiskey. "Get it through your head, you're not going anywhere!"
"I'm leaving, Chris," Jubilee said grimly, getting to her feet again. "Logan was right. Whether I chose to say or not, it's my choice, not yours." She wasn't moving steadily, due to the blows to her head and the swelling eye, and so it was easy for Chris to knock her down again. She stayed down this time, sobbing from the kick to her stomach as she curled over and choked, and he took the opportunity to go back for his sixth glass of whiskey.
Jubilee saw her chance. Lurching upright, she headed for the door as fast as she could. Her hands fumbled with the locks, trying to get them open. She had the first one open when he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. She went down, her forehead striking the door, and she reeled dizzily for a moment. He grabbed her ankle and yanked at it, trying to twist her shoe off.
Jubilee cried out as he twisted her ankle viciously. The anguish snapped her out of her pain-induced daze, and she pulled back on her ankle, getting her foot out of the shoe. A he stared at it stupidly, his brain slowed down by the whiskey he'd just consumed and all the champagne at the country club, she fumbled for the second lock. When her fingers couldn't get it open, she raised her hand and paffed the lock, then shoved the door open.
Seconds later she was running down the hallway toward the elevator, reaching it just as Chris came charging after her. She pressed the button for the elevator, but he was coming too fast, and the elevator wasn't coming fast enough…panicking, she lunged for the stairs and escaped into the stairwell.
Her uneven footfalls thumped on the metal steps. Home. She had to get home. At least out of here. She took the steps two at a time, stopping to rest only when the breathless stitch in her side was too intense to continue, and running on when she got breath back. Ninth floor, eighth floor, seventh floor, and on down until she pushed open the door at the foot of the stairwell and came out on the ground floor. Directly ahead of her she could see the pavement outside, gray in the gathering twilight, and she made for it as fast as she could. She heard Chris come out of the elevator beside the stairs, and he shouted and grabbed a handful of her shirt. Desperate to get away, she brought up her hands and 'paff'ed him, feeling his hand rip part of her shirt away as he did so, and then she was past him, running out onto the sidewalk. She turned a corner, blindly, and ran until she was sure that he wasn't following her. At which point she collapsed, unable to run anymore, in a doorway.
She hid there for a long time, shaking, afraid that Chris was going to come looking for her, but he never did. Finally she got to her feet and started wearily down the sidewalk, looking at the street signs through her one good eye until she found a familiar one that would take her home to the mansion. The streets were dark, and what few passersby there were stared at her incredulously, then moved aside to let her pass before hurrying away. No one stopped to offer her help, and Jubilee stumbled on in a daze of misery.
She didn't think things could get any worse, but as she found Graymalkin Lane and started to walk up it, the skies opened up and began to pour rain down on her. Jubilee moaned in misery as she continued walking until finally her tired feet stopped in front of the mansion's boundary walls. She wearily punched her code in the keypad, slipped between the gates, and dragged herself up to the front door. She pressed the doorbell, waited for it to open, and sighed when it didn't. She belatedly remembered that it was broken, and Charles had it disconnected until Scott got around to fixing it. Apparently Scott hadn't gotten around to doing so yet.
She leaned against the door for a moment, feeling the rain streak through the dried blood on her face. She raised a fist and pounded on the door weakly. "Open up, please open up," she cried, but a sudden clap of thunder drowned out her words and carried them away in the wind. She closed her eyes tiredly, her legs giving out under her and spilling her onto the doorstep.