Unexpected

2. Helen

We saw a whole movie that lasted at least two hours. Jade watched it paying attention, I had other thoughts on my mind.

"Do you want some ice-cream?" she asks me yawning, looking at me from the sofa.

"What's the taste?" I ask her, but I'm sure she bought just what I like.

"I bought a tub that includes pistachio, chocolate and strawberry. Before you say it— I know, I'm the perfect best friend, no doubt about it," she says bragging.

"I love you, J." I get up from the chair and take two spoons and the tub from the freezer. I go back and put it on the glass table. Jade sits down and we start enjoying our ice cream.

«Mhm,» I say after cleaning the spoon with my tongue, «at this rate we will never be able to record that damn song. Miss Williams always has something to complain about."

Jade rolls her eyes. "And you? You complain all the time!" she exclaims, making fun of me.

"It's not true! I just say things the way they are," I shrug.

She snorts. "Look, Helen, let's not take this subject."

Exact. "Well, then... did you texted him? Harry, I mean," I ask her to change the subject.

She bursts out laughing. "Of course not."

I look around before saying, "You did well. He doesn't deserve the attention of someone like you honestly, you've already made a mistake just giving it to him more than once."

She looks down. "What? Why do you say that?"

"Well, he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who can keep up with someone."

"But he did with me," she shrugs.

"Only because you looked for him and he wanted to have fun. Trust me, he thinks like this. I don't know him, but you can see from how he behaves in general that he's this kind of guy." I take a break to eat another spoonful of ice cream. "With guys like him you have to use the technique you do him-you forget him."

"I know... but believe me, there's something about him that—"

Our phones both vibrate at the same time. We turn them on immediately and are shocked in front of the screen.

A video from Grace. Recorded by Michael. Where everyone is drunk. Where Harry's drunken, hoarse voice says horrible things. "Fuck, that one, Jade, if she comes to the party she'll just... haunt me, and I want to get her off my balls."

Someone else's voice says, "Didn't you fuck her more than once?"

Harry again, "Sure, but only because she's naive and lets me to. I don't give a damn about that girl basically. Instead, her friend's—"

The video ends here.

Oh my God.

"Helen... what is this? I can't believe it..."Jade says in a broken voice, like her heart.

I get up from the armchair and immediately go to hug her. She cries and sobs in my arms, wetting my red Seattle U sweatshirt with tears. "He's an asshole, he can't treat you like that."

She sniffles and then says, "I should have listened to you maybe."

I don't say anything. But dear Henry can rest assured that he'll be treated the same, like shit. If before, when I saw him in the Music class, I gave him a smile just to greet him from afar, now not even a glance, or at most I could square him from head to toe with a disgusted face. But it must be said that it was to be expected. I tried to explain this to Jade a thousand times, but she always saw good in him. He is handsome, attractive and intelligent, but I don't understand why he behaves like this. Whatever it is, it doesn't justify him.

"Jade, let's go to that fucking party on Friday to show him you're not naive," I tell her, looking straight into her eyes, with a determined air. "We'll sit in the middle of his group of friends, along with Grace, and you won't give a damn about him. On the other hand, focus on someone else if you can." She has to show him that she is not what he believes. Jade isn't stupid, it's just that she fell deep into Harry's trap.

She looks at me dejected, her brown eyes dull and red from tears. "I'm not sure I wanna go..."

I sigh. "So you make believe you're afraid of them, of mindless assholes. You have to go there, listen to me." If she doesn't go it'll be worse.

She slowly nods and swallows. "Okay, but... help me pick another guy to make him lose his mind," and she giggles.

"Of course," and I smile at her.

We sit on the sofa scrolling through friends on Jade's Snapchat. This also serves to distract her from that disgusting video. Then, since we are not sleepy yet and tomorrow the lessons start later, we decide to go wild with karaoke so as not to think about our problems.

"I'm very tired!" she says laughing and we throw ourselves on the sofa. "I think I'll go to bed now." Soon after she gets up and says goodnight to me and goes to her bedroom.

Once I am left alone I rewatch that video. How disgusting.

We haven't said anything to Grace yet, she sure is too drunk to understand what happened. But how many I would like tell Harry. So many that I couldn't tell them all at once.

It's precisely for this reason that after our first and last time together I gave up on him right away. Despite everything he is fascinating and it's easy to lose his mind for him. I knew he couldn't give me what I wanted — other than fun — and I knew I wasn't the one for him, so I immediately decided not to see him again, not even to have a good fuck.

Jade doesn't deserve to be treated like this, nobody deserves it. It would be fun if he were the one to chase a girl who constantly rejects him, driving him crazy.

* * *

It's five in the morning and I haven't slept a wink yet. This story is haunting me. It's clear that the video was sent by mistake. Grace wasn't going to send it on purpose, especially on our group chat. I can't get Harry's words out of my head.

Before I can think about it, I have the phone in my hand and I'm scrolling through the contacts to the letter H.

No, Helen, don't do it, don't do it.

Too late.