Emerald Summer

Chapter 6

I scramble to put my shirt and shorts back on. I'm trembling and my whole body hurts. Jade kinda backs away from Missy. She looks at me and staggers forward a little, "What the Hell do you think you are doing? Why were you trying to fuck my boyfriend? That's my boyfriend! What the Hell kinda kink shit is this?"

My mouth drops open. I scream between gasps, "I was not trying to steal him. Do you not see the broken lamp? He just raped me and Jade came in and saved me. I have asked you not to leave your mutts at home with me because one day one of them would stoop low enough to pull something like this! But you said no, you said that couldn't happen because I was too ugly or too weird! Well look what happened!"

She kinda looks down for a second. She looks back up with fire in her eyes. She says in a low tone, "If you don't like how I run things then you can leave. He was just drunk he didn't mean it. I'm going to take him to the ER. You better get to bed, we're leaving early. And tell your drug dealer friend to scat." She staggers past me and crouches down beside Todd, who's groaning and holding his head. I shake my head and growl. I shove past her and run off to my bedroom. Jade quickly follows. I lock the door behind her. My head is still spinning. I sit on the bed and start crying again. Jade sits beside me and puts her arm around me.

"What is wrong with her?" I ask. "He just raped me. There's glass all over the floor, my nose is bloody, he has a fucking knife in his hand, and she still doesn't believe me. I can't take this anymore. It's insane. Maybe I can stay in Minnesota with Serena's family. I hope after she gets sober she comes to her senses and breaks up with him."

Jade is quiet. I look at her. "I know. It's gonna be okay though. If you move I'll move with you," she eyes the gauze on my hand, "what did he do to your hand?"

"That was me. I accidentally cut my palm open slicing an apple. That's how I ended up in the bathroom. Missy and I had just gotten into a fight. She left and I was mad. I had already lost some blood because I'm a free bleeder and then that caused me to lose too much. I was weak. I was sad and I thought maybe I'd just bleed out and it'd be over. He came into the kitchen and pulled me to the bathroom to fix it. He's obviously a nurse or something. The next thing I know the door's locked and I'm pinned."

"Oh," she says, "then you need to drink water. You need to go to a doctor as well," She starts out the door. I wipe my eyes and stand. I grab her arm.

"No, I'm fine. We don't need to go back out. Missy will get mad and if that Todd guy regained consciousness he might go after you," I say. She shrugs and goes out the door.

I sit back down on the bed before I fall down. It has been a long day. I look at my phone. Oh my God, it's only eleven-thirty. It felt like hours. I lie back. I hear the door open and I shoot up with wide eyes. "It's just me," Jade says, "they left already."

I laugh nervously and take the glass of water. She sits back down on the bed beside me. Why is she being so nice? Typically she's snarky and makes jokes about everything. I mean she's a good person, she's just normally not so serious about everything.
"Jade, you're being really nice. Why?" It isn't a bad thing. I'm just curious.

"Do you want me to punch you in the arm or face or something? You just got raped. I thought I might take it easy." She shrugs and looks down, "besides, I wish someone would have been there for me. So I was there for you. I'm just glad I got the sudden urge to come over."

I try not to gape. I never knew. "Oh Jade. I'm so sorry. Why haven't you told me? And no please don't hit me."

She shrugs, "It's no big. There's nothing that can be done now anyway. I'm just glad I could help. And I won't hit you. It looks like you've had enough for one night." She smiles, ''But tomorrow you better watch your back. Now you need to go to sleep."

I smile and crawl under the bed sheets, "You should go to bed too you know." She nods and curls up on the end of the bed. I'm so lucky to have a friend like Jade. I don't know what I would do without her.

I feel someone shake me. I open my eyes slowly. It's just Jade, I exhale softly. "Good morning," she smiles. I smile back. "I had to shake you forever before you finally woke up. I didn't want to hit you."

I laugh, "You should've just hit me. I would've gotten up then." She shakes her head. I definitely feel a lot better after sleep.

"Come on," she says walking toward the door, "let's get cereal or something. You've got a long agonizing road trip with Missy ahead of you." Food.

"What time is it?" I ask jumping out of bed. I quickly make it and follow her out the door. I don't dare look into the bathroom as we pass. You know he's not going to be in there, he's gone now, stop being stupid.

"It's three-thirty in the morning." We walk into the kitchen. Missy is sitting at the table. I grab a bowl and pour some cereal. I sit down at the table across from Missy. Jade goes into the living room.

"I'm sorry," Missy says as I shove a spoonful of cereal in my mouth. "I was drunk. I didn't mean anything I said. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you and make my boyfriends leave when I'm not around. I'm sorry this happened to you and I'm sorry I was a bitch last night when I got home." My mouth hangs open. She actually apologized. She's never apologized before. Maybe me almost getting raped had some good come from it. Maybe she's going to turn her life around or something.

I smile, "It's fine. Let's just forget about it and have a good time on the trip." She smiles and nods. Maybe this is the start of something good. It has to be.

Jade pokes her head through the doorway, "Hey guys, I gotta go have fun on your vacation. Say hi to Serena for me" then she walks out the door before either of us can say a word. It's three a.m. what could she possibly have to do at three a.m.? I put my bowl in the sink and go to my bedroom to pack. I should've done this yesterday. I grab my suitcase and start packing. I grab shorts, shirts, tank tops, socks, bras, etc. and stuff them into the suitcase. I run back and forth from the bathroom to my bedroom looking for things I would need. I slide off my Misfits shirt and swap it for a Tool tank top. Basically my whole wardrobe is band shirts or fishnet stuff. I take off my pajama bottoms and pull on some black shorts. Then I slide on my boots. Finally. I look at the clock on the wall. That didn't take as long as I thought. It's only six o'clock, that's probably record packing time.

I walk into the kitchen to see if Missy is ready. She isn't in there. I walk into the living room. She is sitting on the couch staring at the wall holding a bottle of Jack. I can't believe this! I feel my eyes start to water. Now she can't drive. Now we cant go. "Missy! Why are you drinking? You have to drive. We were just about to leave! Now we can't go! I've been waiting all year for this and you managed to ruin it."

"It's fine. I can still drive," she slurs as she stood up. I shake my head. She staggers into the kitchen. My eyes light up and I get an idea. Jade can drive. Her parents won't care, as a matter of fact they probably won't even realize she's gone. I smile and pull my phone out of my pocket.

It rings and rings. She's not going to pick up. My heart sunk. Please pick up Jade. Finally she answers,"Hello?" I grin.

"Hey," I already know the answer, "are you up for a road trip? Missy got drunk while I was packing my things."

"Yeah," she says, "I'll be over there faster than you can blink. Look out your window." Confused, I walk over to the window. I see the trunk of the car pop open. Oh my god. I shook my head and laughed. She's such and idiot. She runs up on the porch and opens the door.

"Thank you so much, again," I smile, "I really don't know what I'd do without you." I feel kind of sad, I haven't ever really done anything for her and look at what all she's done for me.

"No problem," she says. Neither one of us have been out of state before. This is definitely going to be an adventure. I just hope this isn't going to be a total disaster.

Missy staggers back into the living room. "No," she screeches, "she can't go. She busted a lamp over Todd. My lamp. Over my boyfriend's head. Do you know how hard it was to get to the hospital drunk? I almost killed myself driving. He could've died." My jaw drops.