Roll the Dice (Jori)

18

Sorry for the wait :(! School's been beating me to the lowest depths of Hell. But enjoy this chapter! (Sorry in advance. You'll know what I mean after you read it.)

TORI

The morning light was soft, creeping in through the sheer curtains of Beck, Trina, and Cat's hotel room. The night had been ugh--so terrible. My mind wouldn't stop spinning and turning, replaying everything that happened over and over again. I barely slept, but when I did, it was useless. I'd wake up in a cold sweat thinking Jade was going to come into the room and stab me in the neck with a pair of scissors. The fight had been so intense--or, whatever it was. I didn't remember how it started or why it started.

Beck welcomed me in. He'd been helping Andre out with some kind of project on his own laptop, since Andre had left his laptop in Jade and I's hotel room. They tried to make small talk, and I appreciated it, but talking was the last thing I wanted to do. All I wanted to do was cry, drink some kind of steaming cocoa, and watch Celebrities Underwater. But the reminder that Jade hated that show because "it makes people think the celebrities are going to drown, but then they never do" was enough to send me into another full-blown dread session.

Cat had been somewhat sweet, of course. A little weirder than usual, but otherwise sweet. She didn't ask too many questions about why I'd shown up at the door after storming out of my own room. She didn't ask why I probably looked like a freaking mess after trying to hold back tears. Was she a little...odder towards me than she usually was? Totally. The girl could barely make eye contact with me. Every single time I talked, she'd just study me, as if trying to figure something out. I think she'd even let out a whimper a few times. But, hey--I was grateful she let me stay. I had to get away from Jade. Too much had been happening all at once for Mrs. Brain to keep up with.

It was around nine o'clock in the morning. The redhead was still asleep. Beck and Andre were probably in the lounge.

I groaned softly, digging my face in the pillow.

Why can't this trip be OVER?

I felt an uncomfortable knot in my chest. The fight with Jade was just so...stupid. Over boots. Boots, of all things. But it couldn't have been about the boots, could it? Why would she have been upset about stinking boots? I'd set them on her bed for less than a minute! And they weren't that dirty!

I blinked a few times, rubbing my head.

I should really take a shower.

I found myself back at our hotel room when I knew Jade was out. She'd tweeted on her Slap page that she was "drinking one of the best cups of coffee in her life, despite the atrocious-looking baristas behind the counter." I rolled my eyes when I saw the tweet. She was such a gank.

I grabbed a cup of coffee that had been sitting on the desk for several days. I didn't care. I grabbed it, wincing, before taking a sip. It was ice cold, and I even thought there was some kind of thick film on the top of it.

I sighed, setting my phone down on my bed to take a shower, until something caught my eye when I glanced out of the window.

Jade's leather jacket.

It sat, hung over the edge of the patio chair on the balcony. Usually, I wouldn't have cared. But I did, for whatever reason. It was a weird sight to see; her black leather jacket simply hung over the chair, sitting there, untouched. I wondered why she left it. Maybe she had forgotten about it. Maybe she had been expecting to come back to it. Or, maybe she literally just simply left the leather jacket there with no meaning whatsoever, because it was a darn jacket for crying out loud!