Jade's phone begins lighting up on her bedside table, the combined noise of the vibrations against the wood and the loud marimba tone quickly pulling her out of the deep sleep she had fallen into. She reaches out and unplugs the phone in one swift motion, aggressively pressing the button to silence the device once again.
Although she's made quite a bit of improvement in her adult life, Jade has never been much of a morning person. The responsibilities of adulthood forced her to adapt to earlier wakeup times, but she would still rather sleep in every day if she could.
With a groan, she throws the blankets off of her body and pads across the room to open the curtains. She can't help but wince as the sunshine hits her face and enters the bedroom, filling it with warmth and light. Jade then turns and begins making her way down the hallway, eager to get her hands on her first cup of coffee of the day. Thankfully, it's not that far of a walk. While her house has plenty of room for the two people who reside there, it's not that big in the grand scheme of things...which is exactly how Jade prefers it. Excess is overrated, at least in her opinion.
After making herself a cup of coffee and taking a few moments to herself, Jade walks back towards her bedroom. Only instead of crawling back into her own bed like she very much wants to, she stops at the doorway to the second, slightly smaller bedroom next to her's and gently opens the door to peak inside. It's still dark, the sound of soft breathing coming from inside. With a sigh, Jade pushes the door open further, allowing the light from the hallway to illuminate the room enough for her to navigate through it, and moves slowly towards the bed.
Willie, her golden retriever, had been asleep at the foot of the bed and lifts his head and becomes quite alert when he sees her. Jade smiles a bit and pats the dog on the head before moving to gently shake the teenager still fast asleep in the bed.
"Av..." Jade whispers, shaking her daughter gently "Avery...you forgot to set your alarm again."
"Noididn't..." The girl mumbles, still half asleep as she rolls away from her mother
"It's 6:30, come on..." Jade sighs "You'll be late for school."
"Who cares!" Avery groans, throwing the blankets off of her body "It's the last day! Nothing important is happening anyway!"
"Your English final is important!" Jade reminds her
"Would you say that if you weren't a writer?" Avery asks, wiping the sleep from her eyes as she sits up
"Of course I would." Jade smirks, taking a sip from her coffee mug "Now get dressed, if you miss the bus I'm making you walk."
"You'd never make me walk, it's way too far."
"You're right." Jade agrees "But work and school are in completely opposite directions, so I would appreciate it if neither one of us had to be late today."
Avery Olivia West is easily the single best part of her mother's life, even if she had come along unexpectedly. The fifteen year-old is strong-willed and opinionated just like her mother, but is much better at staying calm and collected when she needs to. Physically, she's almost a carbon-copy of her mother, the only difference being that Avery inherited her father's dark brown eyes as opposed to Jade's crystal blue ones. The teenager is incredibly intelligent but also creatively talented, and athletic when she wants to be. Her mother is amazed by her every single day and sometimes, it feels like Avery is the only thing that Jade has ever done right.
She discovered she was pregnant about six weeks after she graduated high school, during a visit with her grandparents in South Carolina. Barely eighteen years old and terrified, she had no idea what to do. The only thing she knew for sure is that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with Beck Oliver, and he was very clearly the one who had gotten her pregnant. He was the only boy she had slept with in the past month, or in her whole life for that matter. Part of her thought that maybe he would want to be involved, but the other part of her knew he would want nothing to do with any of it because of his new career. As the days went on and she thought more and more about it, she decided she was already quite attached to the little human growing inside of her and she was going to keep it...but she wasn't going to tell Beck.
That fall instead of going to Duke like she had intended, Jade moved to Charleston to live with her grandparents full time. Or rather...she moved to Sullivan's Island, the tiny little beach town outside of Charleston where her grandparents had chosen to retire. Her father traveled a lot for business, her mother and step-father were still busy raising her much younger half-brother, and Jade wanted the same fresh start in a new place like the rest of her friends were getting by going away to school. Her grandparents were willing, so South Carolina seemed like the logical choice. She's been there ever since.
"TIME CHECK?" Avery calls out
"6:42!" Jade calls back to her "Get a move on!"
She hasn't seen Beck Oliver since the night they broke up sixteen years ago.
Well...she's seen him on TV and in movies...and on billboards and in magazines...but she hasn't seen him in person and had a conversation with him. Not that she would even want to. They hadn't left things well the last time they saw each other, the night they broke up.
Her friends and family weren't entirely supportive of her choice not to tell him about the baby, but they understood. It didn't take long for Beck to develop a reputation as Hollywood's most charismatic asshole, and they agreed he wasn't someone that Jade needed in her life...or the baby's either by default. Avery doesn't know about Beck either, or at least his true identity. She's never really pushed Jade to give her that many details though. All she knows is that her father had exited her mother's life long before she knew she was pregnant, and that she wouldn't have known how to get ahold of him anymore. Which is mostly true...Beck changed his number a few months after his TV show premiered. Jade never got the new one.
"Coming!" Avery exclaims as she hurries down the hallway and into the kitchen
Jade already has a bagel and a glass of orange juice waiting for her, and the teenager will only have time to eat and drink about half of it before she has to run out the door to catch her bus.
"Are you picking me up after school?" Avery asks her mother
"No." Jade shakes her head "Take the bus home and walk to the restaurant, just like always."
"Even on the last day?"
"Even on the last day." Jade chuckles "I still have work to do, it's not my last day."
"Fair enough." Avery sighs as she pulls her backpack on "See you later."
"Forgetting something?"
"Oh!" Avery jogs over and kisses Jade lightly on the cheek "Love you, Mama."
"I love you too." Jade smiles "Have a good day at school."
Once she's sure her daughter has made it safely onto the bus, Jade will shower and start her own day.
Her grandparents had only lasted about three months in Charleston before they decided they were bored of being retired. The summer Jade turned sixteen, they bought a diner, the Sandy Isle, only a few blocks from the beach. It's a cute little place, perfect for both the locals who are there year-round and the tourists who visit in the summers. Jade waitressed there while she was pregnant and for the first six years of Avery's life while she was taking college classes and writing her first book. She then transitioned to helping with the business side of things, keeping track of the spending and earnings and handing out employee paychecks.
Unfortunately, her grandfather died not long after Avery's tenth birthday. At that point, the restaurant was too much for her grandmother to handle on her own, but Jade could tell she wasn't ready to let go of it just yet. So, she stepped in and became her grandmother's business partner, fifty-fifty just like her grandfather had been. She still had time to write and raise Avery, but had an additional income to fall back on...and her grandmother, Judy, still had her restaurant.
It's not where Jade thought she would end up at all, but that's okay. Sixteen years ago her plan was to graduate from Duke with a double major in theater studies and english, then move on to take the entertainment industry by storm by writing some of the best screenplays Hollywood had ever seen. Life had another plan for her though, and now she has an english degree from the College of Charleston and a business minor. She's the best-selling author of not just one or two but three novels, and mom to a really spectacular kid.
Life always has a funny way of working itself out, even if it might not seem that way at the time. What someone wants and plans for might not always be what they get, but it works out one way or another. This is Jade's life working itself out, she's happy. Or at least she is in the moment. In the process of working itself out, life can sometimes throw a wrench or two in as well...and it has another one headed her way.