A World Alone - D.R.

sixteen

Jade was stood alone in a corner, as usual. She had a drink in her hand, not gin this time, but anything would do at this point. Dan was busy in the centre of the room, laughing along with a joke made by someone in the group that seemed drawn to him like screws to a magnet.

"Not keen on parties?" Ellie had made her way next to Jade where she'd been gently scowling towards the group surrounding Dan.

"Not really," Jade sighed, taking a sip out of her plastic cup. "I really hate them actually."

"Yeah, it wasn't obvious or anything," Ellie snorted into her drink.

Jade rolled her eyes, "I just hate being forced into awkward conversations with people! Dan doesn't really get it, he's happy as Larry, chatting away with literally everyone."

"Are you surprised?" Ellie asked. "You have met him right?"

Jade sighed sharply, almost groaning at Ellie's very fair remark. "Yes, of course I've bloody met him! When I was really drunk and wasn't myself but then he freaking wooed me, and now he thinks I'm some kind of party animal," Jade downed her glass before swapping it with a new full one. "I have to be really really drunk to be as happy and fun as I was when we met, and thats not likely to happen anytime soon."

Ellie outright laughed at her this time. "That's such a shit excuse," She said, finishing her drink.

Jade scowled back, "Its just stress, I know it's just stress," She took another sip. "I still have the board exams to do, and I lost a fucking patient on Wednesday."

Ellie smiled at her, not really sure how to comfort her. She settled for a slightly awkward shoulder pat, and quickly removed her hand after seeing the look Jade gave her. Unsolicited advice it was then, "You could just talk to him about it," Ellie shrugged, seeing Jade's face this time, she didn't hastily backtrack, and stood her ground. "Come, ON, you can't expect him to just work that out if you haven't told him. He's a bloke not a mind reader."

Jade scowled, but she knew Ellie was right, but she didn't like it, and Ellie giving her good unsolicited advice didn't help Jade like Ellie, just helped her tolerate her slightly more. She took a deep breath in, and exhaled it in a short sigh, and downed her drink, and with a dour face, headed off into the throng of partiers around Dan to be a good girlfriend and mingle with all his work colleagues.

***

Dan and Jade's first fight was loud. maybe it was the alcohol in both their systems, or maybe it was just them.

"Why can't I have one night?!" Dan shouted, pulling at the hair in the front of his head. "You know how hard this year has been for me!"

"It's not about you, Daniel!" Jade voice cut across the end of his sentence. "I just don't like being in big stupid crowds of people!"

"That never used to be an issue" Dan's voice was scathing.

"I don't get fucking sloshed all the time the way i did when we met," Jade said, pulling off her shoe and tossing it at the floor in Dan's general direction. "that was a one off!"

"I'm not saying you need to get into that state again! I'm just saying I wish you would make more of a fucking effort when it comes to normal things people do!" Dan yelled, throwing himself on to the bed they'd been sharing for the week.

"So I'm not normal?" Jade said, her voice harsh and cold.

"No, you're not normal, you'd rather sit in the fucking library looking at mangled body parts than spend time with me!" Dan's voice was still loud. "I don't know what's wrong with you!" he flopped backwards to stare up at the ceiling.