She is not bad

Chapter 14 : Flip phone

After their class, the group of friends decided to go to the diner to relax a little bit. Mike had been on his date the day before and was telling them how it ended. They went to the movie theater to watch a romantic movie before taking her to the restaurant. Everything went well until the kiss. He leaned to kiss her, but the girl kissed his cheek, thanked him for the night, and told him that he was an amazing friend. His friends burst in laugh which made him smile. He wasn't feeling bad about this, he kinda knew it wouldn't lead to a relationship. At least he won a friend. While they were talking, Max realized she hadn't talked to Gary for days now. Maybe she should call him, it wasn't really his fault if he became violent, she began everything.

- "None of you have seen Jane today?" Bev shyly asked.

- "Why? You missed her?" Mike frowned.

- "No, no. I was just wondering."

- "She was there in art class," Will answered with an angry tone.

- "How is it? It's a miracle she didn't bully you yet!" Max stated.

- "It's just a matter of time."

- "Maybe she won't, I mean, okay, she is the kind to look for shit, but—

- "But nothing, Bev. She is a dick. I won't forgive her for what she did to my mom!"

- "I, I understand..."

- "Talking about the Devil," Lucas intervened.

The boy showed the outside with his chin. They all turned and saw the brunette crossing the street, taking a long puff of her cigarette before throwing it on the pavement. Max couldn't believe it; Jane was everywhere she was going! Like if she was following her. When Jane entered, the woman at the table beside their turned in direction of the brunette and said:

- "Your cigarette!"

Jane rolled her eyes before going outside again. She crouched, grabbed her cigarette butt, and threw it in a bin. Jane went back inside and sat on the diner sofa facing the woman without noticing the teens next to them who were feeling bad for talking about Jane like that next to someone who knew her. Cassandra felt her heart break seeing Jane like that. The brunette was very pale with red marks under her eyes.

- "You had a nightmare?" the woman asked.

- "Um, yeah."

- "Why did you send me a message with Mallory's phone?"

- "Someone threw me in the water yesterday."

- "What!? What kind of person do that!? Are you okay?"

- "Yeah, yeah...But it ruined my phone and..."

Jane opened her backpack and took off a plastic bag with her clothes inside.

- "My hoodie lost some colors because of the chlorine."

- "Oh no..." Cassandra pouted, looking at the clothes. "We could do some shopping."

- "No, we can't. It's fine. I think I saved my jeans."

- "Okay."

- "There is something else."

- "If it's to tell me that you skipped school today, I already know."

Jane frowned.

- "Um, but I had a good reason! I passed my driving test yesterday."

- "Really!? Oh, Jane! I'm so happy for you!" Cassandra exclaimed with a wide smile.

The woman stood and went to Jane to take her in her arms and kissed the top of her head. Jane lightly grumbled, but she was too happy to have her driving license that she didn't care.

- "Okay, okay, calm down!" Jane calmly said.

- "I'm proud of you."

- "Thanks. I spent the day at the administrative offices to have my driver's license."

Jane searched her pocket and put the driver's license on the table. Cassandra took the card and looked at it with a proud smile.

- "That's amazing."

- "Yeah, it's cool. Is there news at home?"

- "Well, I broke the colander, and we have new neighbors, a single woman with her child."

- "Oh, okay. Are they nice?"

- "Yes, very nice. Maybe you could meet them, no?" Cassandra shyly tried.

- "I'm not...I don't know..."

- "Come back home, please. I miss you...And not knowing where you are and what you are doing is driving me crazy."

Jane clenched her jaw and looked down before nodding. Cassandra smiled, relieved, and grabbed Jane's hand to squeeze it.

- "What do you wanna eat?" the woman asked.

- "Oh, uh, nothing. I'm not hungry."

- "Did you eat yesterday?"

- "I...Maybe."

- "Jane, you need to eat. You're skinny, and you look like you're gonna pass out. Just eat something."

- "I, we could eat at home, not somewhere where a glass of water costs five dollars!" Jane said.

- "But you love burgers."

- "Yeah, I know."

- "Come on, we're not poor at this point. I agree that we have to be careful, but we can indulge ourselves."

Cassandra held out the menu of the diner with a smile. Jane sighed and looked at it. She was really not hungry. But she hadn't seen her aunt for a week, and she didn't want to make her sad. Jane was looking at the burgers when she felt someone tapping her arm to have her attention. Jane started before recognizing the redhead who got her out of the water the day. Bev smiled and put an object on the table that Jane recognized.

- "I...I dried it. I change the battery too. It switched on this morning, so..."

Jane grabbed her flip phone and opened it. She quickly wide opened her eyes when she saw the light and sent a message to someone to see if it was working. Cassandra's phone vibrated. The woman grabbed it, opened it, and showed the message to Jane.

- "Awesome," Jane said in a low voice.

- "Thank you," Cassandra smiled. "What's your name?"

- "Um, Beverly."

- "Well, thank you, Beverly. Jane, say thank you!"

- "Yeah, yeah, um, thanks."

- "No problem," the redhead smiled.

Bev leaned back to her friends and turned to them. She lost her smile when she met their angry eyes. She knew she was taking a risk, but she was happy to have helped Jane in a way. Will and Max were probably wishing her death now, but she saw in Dustin's eyes some support, like if he was encouraging her to continue. She was sure something changed since yesterday.