The Neogene Project

Chapter 14 - Alive

Chapter 14 - Alive (Unedited)

Jade shot up in her bed. A thin layer of sweat coated her skin. Jade tried to take a deep breath but her heart was beating too fast. Jade let her hand reach out and grasp her phone. Without looking, her hands did what they did every night. She slid the phone unlocked and held down the number 1. Her phone automatically speed dialed Rowen. After the first ring, Rowen picked up.

“Hey,” Rowen’s soft voice whispered through the phone.

“Hey,” Jade breathed back. For a while no one spoke. Only the calming breaths of Rowen were heard through the speaker on Jade’s phone. The couple had started a routine. Whenever one of them had a nightmare or couldn’t sleep, they would flip out their phones and call each other. Usually they would talk until they got too tired. Overall, the strategy was a great way to calm down before going to sleep.

“Jade, Trenton’s gone,” Rowen spoke with a waiver to his voice. Jade momentarily stopped breathing. Everyone was leaving. Aria’s death had caused such a huge hole to be shoved into everyone’s hearts that no one could stand Eatonville anymore. First Aria’s family moved to New York. And now Trenton was gone.

“Where too?” Rowen waited a while before responding to Jade.

“California,” Rowen answered. It was quiet on Jade’s line after that. Her thoughts got the best of her and she couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to move away. To escape the problems that Eatonville caused. But Jade shook her head before her thoughts could get too far. She couldn’t think like that. Moving away would only cause her to think back on Eatonville more often. She had to move on and not move away.

“I love you,” Jade whispered into the phone. Rowen’s breath caught on the other end before he answered back with a smile clear in his voice.

“I love you too, Jade. I love you so much.” After that the two talked for over an hour. They talked about projects, the winter formal, what would make for a good lunch. After a while Jade grew tired. Reluctantly she said goodbye to Rowen and they hung up. Sleep enveloped her and soon she fell asleep, her phone tucked under her pillow.

“Jade, hurry up or else you’ll be late!” Jade’s mother screamed from the kitchen. Jade hurriedly let her last curl drop from the curling iron before dashing out of the room. She grabbed her glasses and bag from her room before dashing into the kitchen and grabbing an apple. “No contacts today?” Jade shook her head at her mother before heading out and hopping into the passenger seat inside Rowen’s car. She gave one last wave to her mom before Rowen headed off to school.

“Trenton’s mother called me last night,” Rowen began. Jade turned to him and waited for him to continue. The car halted at a red light as they waited for it to change. “She said Trenton had gone to live with his father in California. She said it was so sudden and unexpected.” Rowen ended his sentence with finality but Jade knew that there was something more that he was hiding.

“Rowen, don’t you dare hide something from me now. No soft coating things for me. I can handle stuff,” Jade snapped. Her exhaustion was slowly catching up to her and much to her dismay Jade found herself becoming a rude and snarky girl. And it wasn’t something that she seemed to be able to help.

“His mother said...she said that Rosemary was the one to pick him up to drive him to the airport.” Jade felt her breath leave as she took in Rowen’s words. Despite her best efforts Jade felt her imagination go wild. What if Trenton had never actually lost his memory and was actually still a spy for Rosemary? What if Trenton was actually Rosemary’s minion and all of this was his set up? “It’s not what you think,” Rowen said quickly. Jade snapped her head to look at Rowen.