Mona Harps (Pt One)

Chapter eleven: Jane

It was early November now, The weather was getting cold, at least cold for Georgia. I was leaving school one afternoon when I bumped into a familiar face, It was Jane, The girl I rode on the bus with back then. Even though it's only been a little more than two months it feels like forever.

      "Oh my God Jane!" I exclaimed.

"Mona?" Oh my gosh, I never thought I would see you again! This is so cool!" She shouted to me in the hallway.

"So, what's new? How have you been lately?" I asked her.

"I'm pretty good, i've been going back and forth between my mom and dad a lot, but my dad finally got full custody of me and decided to enroll me in public school." She replied.

"Wow, I'm happy for you!" I said.

"Thanks, anyways, how have you been?" she asked.

"Well, it's safe to say I'm doing better than I was when we first met. I've really struggled to find my way back to happiness, and I'm still working on it, but I'm getting somewhere and that's all that matters." I said to her.

"Completely true, I'm on that mission of trying to find peace and happiness myself." She replied.

I nodded. There was a quick awkward silence. A few seconds later I scratched my neck and asked, "So do you wanna come hang out at my house sometime? It would be nice to catch up."

"I'd love that! I can have my dad drop me off at your house tomorrow afternoon if you're free." She replied.

"Yeah, I'm free! Here's my address." I said, writing it in my notebook and handing it to her.

She smiled and said, "Well my dad's waiting outside, I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Oki doki! see ya!" I replied.

The weekend after that Jane came over. The first thing I saw was a big bruise on her forehead that she tried to cover up with concealer. I wanted to ask her what happened and if she was okay, but instead I just greeted her with a smile, And Aunt Janice did it for me. "Oh my goodness, are you okay darling? That's a pretty big bruise you got there." She asked her in concern.

"Oh my God I thought I covered that up, but yeah don't worry, I hit my head on my bed frame a couple of days ago, it's not a big deal." Jane practically whispered. We let it be after that. Me and Jane went up to my room and studied together. 

     She pointed at a picture of me and Ron cuddling that I took with my Polaroid and asked, "Is this your boyfriend?"

"Oh yeah, that's my boyfriend, Ron, he's really sweet." I blushed. I liked calling him my boyfriend, something about it made me smile.

"He looks nice." She smiled.

"So um, the truth about my bruise on my forehead is, well, my mom came up to my dad's place yesterday evening and she threatened him that if he didn't give custody of me back to her she'd burn our house down, then she slapped me on the face before she left," Jane said with a sullen expression.

"I'm sorry Jane, maybe, if your dad's okay with it, you could stay here for a while, since your mom doesn't know our address," I stated.

"Well, maybe that would be a good idea. Just for a while, that is." She replied.

         We talked to Aunt Janice about it and she was fine with it. She was always such a go-with-the-flow person. Something I aspire to be more like. That evening Jane's dad said it would be okay for Jane to stay with us for a while after he had a short talk with Janice about the situation. After that, she moved her stuff into my room, and we were gonna be roomies.

     I kinda felt bad that we were taking Rita's space. She had been at therapy for almost a month now, Not much progress was being made, she tried to sneak out multiple times, and even somehow got someone to smuggle liquor into her dorm. This was killing Janice's mental health. It was straining on mine, I can't imagine how she must've felt.