Jaded Eyes (Jori)

7: Softened Stone

Jade glances at the clock on the desk.
19:53. I'm good.

Jade was safely in her room. She set down her backpack on the black bungee chair in the corner. Before moving herself to her bed, she pulled out her notebook and a pencil. Her bed hugged two walls; one at the head and one to the side. Jade positioned herself in the corner of the walls.

She took the headphones that were wrapped around her phone and popped each ear piece in. Heather by Conan Gray could be heard softly if someone were sitting right beside her. Jade opened her composition notebook to a page which was overflowing with words. The words didn't rhyme, but they flowed as if the pencil were god creating the rivers.

Jade knew that she had seven blissful minutes of peace before the chaos. Trying her best to take advantage of them, Jade continued to write and draw whatever she wanted to in that black and white splotched notebook. If the entry was good enough for Jade's standards, she'd grab the white paint marker off of her desk and write it on her black painted wall. Luckily for her, she got to add more white paint to this black wall with the following words;

There are cracks in the windshield, but I know the drivers seat will stay dry.

The paint pen drips a small drop on the sweater she threw on. She tried to rub it out as best she could but Jade knew she'd need to throw it on the washing machine if she wanted the stain gone for good.

The front door opened.

Jade shoved her notebook under her pillow and grabbed the nearest book. Jane Austen's Emma. It will have to do.

Footsteps drawing near the door on the opposite side of the room.

Deep breath...

"Hey, I'm home. What have you been doing?"

"Just finishing up on some school reading, mom." Jade heard herself say, showing her mother the cover of the book.

"'Emma', that's a pretty good book," the woman said while walking toward the bed and sitting down at the edge.

"You've read it? You hate reading." Jade told her mom with a shocked face. The emotion quickly faded once she realized this was a trap.

"No, but you've read it before. Why are you pretending to read it again?" The voice boomed across the room, and surely even the elderly neighbors across the street heard it too.

"I just thought I'd reread it because Jane's writing is just so-"

"Don't lie to me."  This time the voice was snakelike seething with fire.

Jade hated this side of her mother. Why are you surprised? She said that she'd be going out with friends. Friends means drinking. Drinking means rage.

"Okay, listen, I had to go to a friends house to work on a project for Mr. Samuelson."

"You had to go to a friends house for a project for school? You think I'm going to believe those words coming from your mouth? What's your boyfriends name?" The red faced woman spat.

"Boyfriend? I'm being serious. I had to work on a project for class with this weird new girl, Tori. She's from Idaho. Or Illinois? I don't remember." Jade couldn't believe how much her own mother didn't trust her.

"Fine whatever. You make dinner?"

Fuck, thought Jade. The one thing you had to remember and you fuck it up.

"Sorry, I forgot, there's just a lot of stress at school at the moment." Jade felt her body lock up.

"The one thing you had to remember and you fuck it up... why am I even surprised at this point. Such a screw up. You're lucky I even let you paint that wall." Her mom said pointing sharply at the black wall. The action made Jade flinch. Her mom continued. "I'll find something and you're not eating tonight, got it? You'll stay here. In your room." And then the old, cracked door slammed for the 136th time. But who's counting? 

Jade felt the backs of her eyes heating up. She looked up without moving her head and blinked a few times prohibiting the hidden ocean of tears from flooding her face. Taking a few deep breaths, she reached under her pillow and pulls out the notebook again. She's tries her hardest to write just one word to contain her focus but inevitably fails. When she realizes that writing was ruined for the night, she tries her luck with her phone.

Before she could even unlock it, a text appears.

Unknown.

Jade never gets any texts let alone from some random number. She ignores it and opens Instagram. She sees some photos that Cat took of a tree. The picture looks fuzzy and the lighting is just plain wrong, but Jade likes the photo anyway. She's the first like.

A few minutes go by with Jade scrolling through photos of people playing guitar, singing, dancing, and just being happy. Jades curiosity gets the better of her. She switches the to explore tab, clicks on the search bar and types in "Tori Vega". She clicks on a few accounts that seemed like they'd belong to the Tori Jade knows, but they were other people's Tori's. Jade gives up after four or five accounts when her phone buzzes again.

Unknown.

Jade gives in. She clicks the banner that appeared and two texts show up. The first reads:

Unknown: how's it going, 🧁?

"A muffin?" Jade questions quietly. She reads the next text.

Unknown: come on. I know this is the right number. Answer me, Jade.

"What the hell is happening?" Jade speaks to her phone as if it would answer.

Jade: Who is this? How'd you get this number?

Unknown: really? You don't know? I even sent a cupcake emoji.

Jade: that looks like a muffin.

Unknown: it has frosting on it...

Jade: wait a minute. Tori?

Tori: finally! Geez took you long enough. So anyway, how's it going cupcake?