STRIKE ME DOWN ❦︎ GEN V

chapter six : becoming numb

Jade was walking across the courtyard coming from the stadium when she saw Marie leaving a table she was sitting at with Cate. Cate makes eye contact with Jade and waves her over to come join her. Jade walks away not sparing another glance at someone who she thought was her friend.

Three years ago...
Luke and Cate walk into the dorm she shares with Jade. They saw her packing for another work trip for the school. Jade turns seeing both of them with solemn looks on their faces.

"Guys? What happened, are you okay?" Jade asks worriedly.

Luke steps forward with tears in his eyes, "Uhhh, it's Sam... he's gone." Jade's eyes swell with tears as she holds her hands up to her mouth. She shakes her head in denial, "No, no he was doing better! I-I What?" Jade argues. Luke brings her into a hug as she cries. "He killed himself, Jade."

Jade pushes Luke away from her, "You're lying, Sam wouldn't do that." she yells and rubs her temples as she paces the floor. "That doesn't make sense, they did something to him."

Luke and Cate watch as Jade breaks down, they've never seen her like this before.

"He wouldn't-... we need to go there right now a-a-and see for ourselves. They're lying to us Luke! We need to go there now!" Jade exclaims and pushes past them to grab her bag.

"Jade he was sick and maybe he just couldn't take-"Cate tries to reason with her, but she just made it worse.

"Shut the fuck up, Cate! You didn't know him, you don't care. You're just pretending because Luke's here." Jade yells getting in her face. Luke pulls Jade away telling her to calm down.

"Hey, look at me. Jade! Look at me." Luke says holding onto Jade's face. He sees the pain in her eyes, the same pain he also feels. Her lips tremble as she stares into Luke's bloodshot eyes. "He can't be gone, Luke. He can't. We should've done more, for him." Jade whispers as she starts crying again. Luke nods as tears also fall from his eyes, he holds onto Jade as she sobs against his chest.

Luke looks up at Cate and signals her to go ahead. Luke pulls out of the hug and wipes the tears off Jade's face. "I know you loved Sam...he was your brother too. I'm sorry that we have to do this, but you'll feel better, and you happy is something he would've wanted too." Luke states as he takes a step back and Cate walks closer to her.

Jade looks at them in confusion then she realizes what they're about to do. "No! Luke, I can't forget. Please don't, I need to remember. I have to remember."

Luke sniffles and clears his throat, "Both of us don't need to feel like this, I'm sorry Jade."

Tears are streaming down Jade's face as Cate reaches out to touch her arm with her bare hand. "We are not friends, we will never be friends." She whispers to Cate.

"Forget about Sam and your time with him. Luke doesn't have a brother and you've never been to the Sage Grove Center." Cate softly speaks and a final tear falls from Jade's eyes.

•••

Andre has been trying to get a hold of Jade since this morning. He's checked the dance studio, her classes, the student union. Nothing. He sighs and walks past a group of girls, "Omg did you see Jade's outfit? She looks so hot." "I know! My roommate was at the stadium watching, he said she has a different vibe about her." "Did you see how she took down the guy with ice powers? Fucking badass!" "Girl, he was definitely giving her 'fuck me' eyes." "They would be so cute together... I think his name is Steve. He's also ranked in the top ten."

Andre stopped in his tracks and pulled out his phone opening Twitter. He sees the trending posts and threads of Jade Russo resurfacing back on campus. "Fuck." He runs back to the dorms and opens the door to her room hoping to find her there. But it was empty, all of her things were gone, not a trace was left behind.