|Jade|
I'm never early to school. I'm never early to anything, really, but when I woke up twenty minutes before my alarm and felt the hollowness of my house, I just couldn't sit there in it. So I showered quick, didn't bother styling my hair, yanked on a pair of jeans and a tattered t-shirt with fishnet sleeves and got out of there as soon as I could.
My house used to comfort me with its emptiness. It was a physical representation of how I had always felt - vacant, scooped out, like I had been built for living and no one cared to move in. Beck had rented me out, tested out a few things, and when he left there was still dents in the carpet, squares where pictures had hung on the walls, now gone. And it had hurt, it still hurts, because the ghost of him haunts me sometimes, but there's a new tenant. Someone else has moved in.
I chew my thumb as I lean against my locker. Monday mornings lack more people than usual. Students move sluggishly by me, yawning, complaining in small groups about how the weekend had been too short. I smile faintly at that, shifting my teeth to my knuckle.
The weekend, for me, had started like a foggy morning, only for the sun win out in the end. The sun and the moon, I remember fondly, not able to smother the grin that blooms on my face. Dinner last night had been eventful, to say the least - Tori had all but squeezed my hand dry beneath the table when she stuttered out to her parents that I am now her girlfriend. Strangely, I hadn't felt all that nervous about it. I had met her mother's gaze with a tiny smile, and Trina's fork clattering in the edge of her plate had been drowned out by Tori's mother erupting in congratulations.
"Oh, sweetie, that is fantastic. Jade is a doll."
That made me laugh, and when I turned to Tori's dad, he was eyeing me suspiciously, like, well, like a cop would, but then he clapped a hand on Tori's shoulder and said, "Well, I can't say I'm not surprised, because I kind of thought you and Andre ..." He shifted his hands.
Tori had giggled at that, shaking her head. "Nope. Andre's my best friend, but that's all." She turned to look at me, eyes glowing, a bitten smile on her face. "Jade's a little something more."
My cheeks burned at that, and her mother was cooing again like we were babies dressed in matching outfits, and her dad proceeded to, awkwardly, inform the two of us that we were lovely young ladies and he didn't mind at all that we were - and he had to swallow here - girlfriends. Trina, surprisingly, said nothing. That was more troubling than anything she could have said, but I dismissed my concerns immediately. I've never cared for Trina and I'm certainly not going to start now.
Before I had left for the night - I insisted on walking despite the numerous times Tori offered to drive me home; I wanted the time and space to think - Tori had kissed me in the doorway without hesitation, despite Trina and her father leering behind her. I've always known that Tori is a brave girl, but sometimes the amount of guts she has stuns me.
"Hey, muchacha."
I don't react right away, not really paying attention to anything other than my own thoughts, but I'm yanked from them when a fist collides with my shoulder. I look up sharply, only to relax upon seeing Andre. Andre and I haven't really been friends so much as friends of friends - he hung out with Beck a lot, so we were often in the same places together. The only time I had ever really hung out with him alone was when I helped him with a song last year. He's a nice kid, though, and I'm glad that if anyone is Tori's best friend, it's him.
"Hey." I toss my eyes toward the doors again before turning to face Andre. "Seen Tori?"
A grin spreads his lips wide. I narrow my gaze as he shrugs knowingly. "Not yet. She should be here soon, though."
