13 Floors in Every Direction

Chapter 7

Location: Jade and Lance's apartment in downtown New York City
"Misty." Jade is completely speechless, Lance smiles.

"Hi, Jade,"

"Come in."

"Jade this is my friend Matt." Jade shakes the man's hand.

"Nice to meet you, I'd introduce you to Lance but you have apparently already met," Jade says looking at Lance and talking in a very passive-aggressive tone. Lance just smiles.
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"Lance, I have a question, what is the difference between a million seconds and a trillion seconds?" Lance can tell she knows the answer and gets up to stand by Matt in the kitchen.

"No I don't but you sure look like you do."

"31,000 years." The way she says that was so dry and cold but Jade busts up laughing and Misty joins him.

"Are you as confused as I am about those two?" Matt asks Lance.

"Yep. So I was meaning to ask you a few things about Misty and your relationship with her." Lance can tell that the word relationship made Matt uncomfortable.

"Relationship, what relationship? We don't have a relationship." Lance noticed how fast he was talking.

"Oh is that right?"

"Yes, what are you trying to get at?"

"Matt I'm in the movie industry and most of the time when people talk as fast as you were about one word it usually means they are trying and failing at hiding something." Lance looks over his shoulder at Jade and Misty who are both dying of laughter. "You love her don't you?"

"Was it that obvious?" Lance nods slightly. "I just-" Matt laughs a little. "It's just so dumb, I mean I can't be in love with someone who has been alive six times as long as I have and will probably live six times longer then I will. It just doesn't seem logical. You know?"

"I think it's fine, I mean sure its a bit weird but hell this is 2018 the world is a bit weird. We might as well embrace it. They have been around for a long time, they are both tired and want things to just be normal for a bit. And really can we blame 'em. They um, they really just want to know they mean something to someone, it doesn't matter how long."

Matt smiles a little, "Thanks I needed that."

"No problem but what I really wanted to talk to you about was the way Jade has been behaving since I met him. Like I don't know if this is just how Jade is or if Misty goes through the same thing?"

"Uh, ok what do you mean?"

"Well, Jade will have these weirs mood swings for no reason at all. Where he'll just get like super depressed or way too hyper or just not acting like himself."

"Yeah Misty has that too, kind of I guess. Like she will have mood swings and she will get super dark and scary at times but its usually 'cus she's annoyed or hungry. But Jade also has PTSD and I don't know how that plays I to things with you two."
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Misty and Matt stay the night that night and were planning on catching their flight midday.

Jade's cheat and shoulders tighten up as he hears that blood-curling scream over and over again. He bolts upright with a short yelp of sounds. He is sitting in almost a pool of sweat completely out of breath.

"Jade?" Lance asks quietly not wanting to startle him anymore. "Jade are you ok? You sat up really fast." Lance asks propping himself up on one elbow. Jade just shakes his head putting both hands on either side. He gets up and leaves their bedroom leaving Lance.

Jade sits down on the couch in the quiet apartment shaking back and forth. Misty slowly comes around the corner, "Jade, are you ok? I heard you scream, nightmares again?" Her voice was soft and comforting. She sat down on the couch next to him. "Do you wanna talk about it?" There is a long uncomfortable pause.