Shards of a Heart

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Then

"Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Cee!" The group of friends surrounding me on a picnic outside my small house sing loud and obnoxiously, never failing to make me blush. Jade leans down and shouts the last "happy birthday to you" in my ear. I screech and pull away while she blows out the candles on my cake.

"JADE!" I push the back of her head just hard enough so that her face smacks straight into the white frosting. She pulls back, a nasty grin on her face. Taking a chunk from the smashed cake, she hits my cheek with it before I can jump away from my spot at the table.

"Thanks guys, I just love eating mashed cake," Camdon announces sardonically.

"Like you were going to eat it anyway Mr. 'I only like chocolate cake'" I retort before dabbing frosting on his nose. He rolls his eyes and tries to lick it unsuccessfully. While he's distracted Jade sneaks up behind him and dumps most of the cake on his head. He shakes his long beach blond hair out, an amused look playing on his face. I roll my eyes at Jade who looks like she's deep in thought. I don't know what she would be thinking about that hard at the moment but wait because she points her finger at me.

"Cee!" Jade jumps in epiphany. Whatever she remembered must have been exciting. I grin as she runs to her truck across the lawn of my farmhouse where she carelessly parked half on the drive and half in the grass. Camdon continues to brush frosting out of his hair while a few of my other friends try to help him, failing in doing so. Jade shuts her car door forcefully, resulting in a loud slam as she sprints back over to us, her black hair flying out behind her. She had curled it today, but by now it had already lost its volume and bounces slightly off her back as she slows down, hardly out of breath.

"You said no presents," she breaths, smirking. "But you're not my mother so I don't have to listen to you Celia Gray" I squint my eyes at her, pursing my lips and shaking my head as she presents to me a small purple box. I take it but don't open it right away.

"Let me guess" I stare into her emerald eyes and bite my lip. She looks down and I notice her playing with a silver ring I hadn't seen before. "It's the matching ring the one on your finger."

Jade's mouth opens in exaggerated astonishment. She slowly closes it and purses her lips. The corner of her mouth twitches and she raises an eyebrow at me. "Of course you knew... you're smart like that. But," She grins brashly "you'll never be able to catch me to get it back." With that she snatches the purple square back from me and takes off across the yard. I stand there for a second, surprised, before darting after her.

"Get 'er Cee!" Camdon's voice travels over the browning autumn grass to my ears. A grin spreads across my face as I chase after Jade, zig zagging around my old barn while the November air whistles around me. In a flash, she opens the unused milk house door and shoots in. At her tail, I grab the closing door and barrel in, nearly knocking over an old can. The opposing door swings violently shut and I make a mental note that I need to fix the hinges again before pushing through it. I skid to a stop, looking both ways in the vacant barn. Jade disappears into the pasture to the left and I pivot swiftly before taking off again, my footsteps resonating like stilettos on the ceramic floor of my high school. When I make it through the door at the end that leads into the empty pasture that used to hold hundreds of cows, the wind slaps my face hard. I breath in the cool air and pull my sweatshirt sleeves down further.

Jade looks up from where she is leaning against the shed and sticks out her tongue. She pulls the side door forcefully until it opens, slamming behind her due to the wind getting stronger. I continue over to the door, but I hear the sound of an engine and stop. A second later, my dad's gator comes into view, exiting the main door of the shed, driven by Jade. She smiles confidently, but I open the shed door laughing at her stupidity. With a kick, I start my dirtbike and give it gas. It leaps forward and I tear out of the shed. The gator is headed down the trail to the woods, so I loop around backwards back to the pasture.