The Devil You Know

Chapter 18: Out Of The House

The night came, and I was bored. Joel was knocked out and Grandma was in her room doing whatever grandma does. I looked out the window, wondering if Jade was ok back at her house. I was so worried. I thought to myself for a minute an stood up and got dressed, pulling my brothers large hoodie over my head and walking out of my room quietly.

Silent, I walked down the stairs and by some miracle I didn't wake Joel, I walked to the kitchen and grabbed his car keys off the counter and opened the front door quietly, I didn't do this all the time, but I wasn't as good as everyone thought.

I walked out to Joels car, getting in and pulling out of the driveway expertly. I took my phone out and dialed Jades number, after a few rings, she answered, her voice low and quiet.

"Come outside in five minutes, I got the car again" she chuckled on the other line.

"I'll meet you outside" she hung up and I continued making my at to her house. I pulled up on the opposite side of the street an watched patiently until the house door opened and out walked  Jade, looking around cautiously before jogging to the car and getting in. "Hey" she laughed, leaning back and we smiled at raj other.

We drove for a long time, we left at twelve and it was almost three, I had some money to refill his gas, so even if he noticed, he wouldn't really care. Jade was fumbling around now and we were talking about school.

"That joe kid keeps looking at me" she mumbled and I could tell she thought about it a lot.

"Yeah, he likes you, you can tell" she looked out the window and sighed. It was getting cold and I my hands were starting to freeze on the steering wheel. "Hey, open the glove compartment an hand me Joel's gloves" she nodded opening it and looking inside. She froze for a moment, examining the contents of the compartment. "What's wrong?"

"Naomi... There's.... A lot of drugs in here" she breathed and I stepped on the breaks pulling over to the curb of the neighborhood we were cruising around. I looked into it, seeing a whole bunch of shit, weed, crack cocaine, prescription drugs, OxyContin bottles of codeine... So much.

"what... What the fuck" I breathed, either Joel was doing drugs or Joe was selling drugs, either way, I was yelling at him the next chase I got. Jade and I stared in awe, taking out the drugs and examining them "holy shit..." I was tempted to take some, but I shook the thought out of my head. I had a lot of thoughts like that lately and they were getting harder to fight off. We put everything back and I started to head back to jades.

"Did he hurt you again?...." I asks seriously looking over at her, she shifted as nodded, lifting up her shirt a little and showing me so me bruises on her ribs. "Jade you have to tell Tommy and Brendan, you need to stay together, are TEY getting hit too?..." I remembered Tommy's black eye and his busted lip that Grandma made a huge deal about. Jade nodded and confirmed it and I gripped the steering wheel tightly.

"Naomi please don't ever walk out on me, I don't know where I'd be without you" she was teary eyes but she held herself together.

"Jade I would never, you know that." I rested my free hand on her shoulder and she half smiled. "If it ever gets bad and he's hitting you, you come over, all three of you, you understand?" She looked at me with her sad eyes but nodded, i would rather have them with me than being hurt. I pulled up t her house and she hugged me gently before she got out and walked back to her house. I waited for her to get inside safely before I headed back.

I pulled into the driveway, sitting in the car for a moment and thinking about the drugs... Maybe I could... No, no I can't, he would know. I sighed and got out and quietly snuck back into my house. I placed the keys back where they belonged and swiftly made it back to my room closing the door behind me and laying down awake until it was time to leave for school in the morning.