company. | jori

Six: An Agreement

Tori

The tea bag in my mug gets swirled around as I place the tip of my index finger into the boiling water and stir gently. I glance out the windows of my home from my couch and sigh. It's early, but I was hoping Jade would've woken up whenever I did.

I raise the mug to my lips and take a sip, immediately regretting it as the scalding heat rids my tongue of any feeling other than pain. I curse myself silently and put my tea down, going to the kitchen to get an ice cube from the freezer, anything to make the pain numb.

It's a slow morning as I'm sitting around waiting for Jade to come down. I glance over at the glass of water and Advil I have set out for her and smile, thankful for the fact that I get to care for her this time, though she's not very high maintenance and got herself ready for bed all on her own last night.

Thinking about last night makes the cheeks on my face grow red and warm. Embarrassment and want course through my veins as I think about Jade's tongue against my lip. It was the most unexpected thing for her to do, though what good is hanging out with Jade West without the element of surprise?

For the next hour I find myself reading The Secret History, even though I just finished my third reread of it almost a month ago. Jade eventually meanders downstairs and I snap up, shutting the book and setting it on the coffee table. I watch silently as she yawns and heads towards the water I have set out, downing the pills and cup in maybe fifteen seconds flat, moving to fill up the glass with more water.

"I wrote you a note, too," I speak up and she turns around as if she just noticed that I'm here. She smirks and crosses her arms, leaning against my fridge.

"Why?"

"Because you wrote me one whenever you woke up before me," I explain, standing up and walking over to wear I placed the note, picking it up and handing it to Jade. Her eyes skim the paper and she snorts, folding it back up.

"This is the dumbest thing I've ever read."

My face bloomed red and I almost try to grab at it but getting that close to Jade would probably only embarrass me further. So instead I walk over to the kitchen and open the trash can for her to throw it out, watching as she walks past it and slips the note into her sweatpants pocket

—

We don't say much to each other for the next two hours or so, Jade eats silently in the kitchen and plays on her phone while I continue with reading. It's uncomfortable, for me at least, I can't speak for Jade. I remember what happened but that doesn't mean she does. We were pretty hammered, not close to blacking out but not necessarily far from it either.

"Do you remember what you did?" Slips past my lips without much thought, causing me to slap my hand over my mouth. Jade quirks an eyebrow up and spins in her chair to face the living room.

"Yeah? Why wouldn't I?"

"Well I just figured you would've said something about it if you did."

"What do you want me to say?" She rolls her eyes and stands, bringing her bowl to the sink and rinsing it out, placing it into the dishwasher.

"Well," my voice is quieter as I contemplate what exactly I'm expecting from her anyway, "I don't know." Maybe she has a point, maybe there's nothing to say, maybe it just happened and we didn't have to talk about it and now I'm ruining things by bringing it up.