SHADES of GREEN ↬ m. wheeler

XVIII. MINT

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
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❝MINT❞

　
　

JADE WOKE EARLY—earlier than she might have on any other Saturday morning. The stressful midterms were finally finished, a slow week consistent of hours of studying, sleep deprivation, and maybe a few tears of anger.

　She had gotten the best sleep of her life the night before. After school, the Hopper-Byers family, minus Jonathan (who, according to Joyce, had gone to made amends), had taken Jade and Mike to the largest restaurant in town—which wasn't really saying much. They had not budged, had not admitted to Jade quite how they knew her so well, but she wasn't an idiot: She knew Mike had possibly gushed over the telephone, considering the smirks he always seemed to receive when it came to the subject of Jade, which was wild to her, hardly possible to comprehend. The fact that someone might feel so strongly for her...it felt unreal.

　Jade showered and dressed for comfort: Jeans too large for her, belted at her waist, and an oversized green flannel, open over a tank top. Before heading out of the house, she paused at the body-sized mirror by her closet. Examined herself closely. Searched for anything that might repulse Mike at any measure.

　Her eyes lingered on the exposed skin at her chest. Jade's white tank top well covered any cleavage—that wasn't her concern. Her concern was something much more difficult to hide: The skin itself.

　The previous day, after eating with the long-missed Byers-Hopper family, Mike had further voiced his wishes of Jade coming to his house. Jade was not quite sure what had led him to the eagerness, but it was evident in his eyes: He had come to a decision, and he was intent on seeing it through. Jade had agreed, albeit with hesitance and uncertainty, to come to his house in the morning.

　She was having seconds thoughts now. Jade had never had a boyfriend, much less a white one, and she had no idea how his family was going to react. Perhaps he didn't either. He had admitted that he'd only ever dated El, so if he was leading her toward a disaster, he probably didn't even know it. Mike had never said anything about telling his parents that he had a girlfriend—granted, she had never asked, but it might have been useful information, if she was expected to meet them.

　Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt a pang of insecurity, and hated herself for it. Not because she was black, but because she, even for a splinter of a second, wished that she had pale skin. Wished that she didn't have to meet new people and catch their judgmental stares. Jade had not had a boyfriend, had never met a boy's family, but she had acquired a few friends at one time; when she had come over to one's house along with the whole lot of the group—all white, save for herself—Jade had noticed the way the adults treated her differently. They watched her carefully, fed her the undesirable pieces, met her with ice and silent stares.

　Not everyone in her life had treated her unfairly, but there had been a fair several. She had been the victim of taunts in Arsenal Tech, despite the immense diversity. Whites weren't even the majority, but they managed to hold some power; granted, they could also fall victim. Racism did not merely stretch to non-whites, but it still felt horrible, nevertheless.

　Voices whispered in the echoes of Jade's mind. She heard the nasty comments that had been directed at her, mostly concerning the color of her skin. Saw the faces of girls covering their mouths and giggling, their heavily-eyeshadowed gazes locked on her. None were as bad, however, as the time she had visited her friend Tiffany's house, to the girl's request, and had overheard her parents whispering about not wanting a "thug" in their house.