Some Lonely Feeling ✧ H.S. A.U.

Chapter 21;

I woke up running my arm past my mouth groggily. Here I was yet again, another morning where I was left with nothing to do. I outstretched my arms hastily as I rotated my body letting my feet hit the floor. I pushed away the rest of the blue covers that were left on my right side as I walked across the room to my mirror. Ew, I thought as I took my brush up to my hair, attempting to untangle all the unruly strands down my back. After successfully getting the mess tamed I picked up my hair straightener and began straightening it. 

Though the idea in my head was most likely not a good one, I decided to go through with it anyway. Hopefully I still had Jade's parent's house number. I figured it would do no good calling Jade considering she would, a; ignore me, or b; not have a phone to call at all. The only thing encouraging this assumption was the fact that the day I left her she was already a week away from being kicked out. A week? It was a week right? I pushed away the tedious details. The point was that if she couldn't afford to stay in her apartment, I doubt she had any money to pay for any other assets. It hadn't really been all that long since I had last seen her. Eh, a couple weeks maybe. Okay, I think three or four. I was actually quite nervous to call her parents considering they never contacted her regardless, or even worse the thought of calling them and in result finding out she died or something scared me. That's a bit extreme, but it still was concerning seeing that she was at a really bad point last time she was seen. 

When my hair met all my standards I went to my closet where I reluctantly pulled out a pair of light blue jean shorts. I then picked out some pink tank-top I hadn't worn in forever and an over-sized sweater that was a somewhat dark cream color; kind of like coffee. After critiquing my looks, still only being half satisfied, considering I remained with no makeup on; I went out into my living room. I went over to a stand where I forcefully yanked open the drawer, rustling through a jumble of papers. After searching under everything from sketches, keys, and other pointless objects there it was; a small piece of paper where I had written the number. It had now dawned on me how weird it was that I didn't previously just have it in my phone, but I assume at the time I had the idea that I would never use it, which made sense. 

I then, after successfully finding what I was searching for stumbled quickly over to my couch. I sat down stiffly taking in a deep breath. Alright, I thought, I might as well fix something I screwed up. But soon after thinking this I realized this was not something I had screwed up- for once actually, but I still had a desire to see Jade again. I wanted to see her regardless of how she had acted the past few months. Actually, to be truthful, though she was being a bad friend, her actions somewhat made sense. I had spent a great deal of time thinking it through and I began to figure that she may have been doing drugs and her alcohol addiction had been going on for quite a while, yet somehow this completely flew over my head. I assumed it was mainly because she was good at hiding her problems; good a masking things. Right? Or was I that clueless? No, I couldn't be. Drug addiction isn't a simple thing to hide but I was convinced that if she were to have shown signs I definitely would have known. 

I quickly began dialing the number after my moment of deep thought grew old. It rang over and over and it seemed like they were never going to pick up. How about an answering machine? It would help. Or maybe it wasn't them... 

I was soon proved wrong when I heard the familiar voice, "Hello?" she answered.

"Hi," I said, "Um, Mrs. Branch- it's uh, Claire," I stuttered.

There seemed to be an odd pause until she finally replied, "Oh my Claire! Hello," she said politely, "Why are you calling?"

I let out a deep sigh, "Well, actually I was calling to see if you've talked to Jade recently," I mumbled crumbling the paper in my hand for slight entertainment.