The Last Tour {COMPLETED}

Chapter Eight: Lose It

Chapter Eight

Lose It

Jade woke to loud banging on his hotel room door. He opened his eyes reluctantly and shifted on the bed, but made no move to get up and answer th­­­­­e door.

The banging halted again, then went on a second burst, this time louder.

Jade let out a long sigh and blinked at the full morning light flooding through the bedroom windows. He had slept in, if it was this light already. That wasn't surprising. Last night had been...rough.

Nonetheless, because he knew exactly who was banging on his door, and only because it was that particular person, Jade sat up slowly, pushed his blanket back, then dropped his feet on the floor. He stood up, fighting the dizziness and blur that instantly descended over his mind, then stepped quietly over to the door.

He interrupted the knocker halfway through the third set of banging by unlocking the door. And that was all that was necessary. The doorknob turned on its own and the door flew open, Rudurhans Kakaya striding through a few seconds later.

"You think it's funny to keep me waiting, huh?" he demanded, his voice icy.

"I was sleeping," Jade replied simply.

"No shit," Rudurhans spat. He folded his thick arms across his chest. "So what do you have to say for yourself, Leeman?"

Amber appeared in the doorway behind her father, and Jade glanced at her.

"What are you mad about now?" Jade whispered. He stepped back towards his bed, and suddenly feeling faint, dropped down onto it.

"Oh don't give me bullshit, you son of a bitch," Rudurhans laughed coldly. He produced a wadded newspaper page from his pocket, then strode forward and shoved it in Jade's face. "Front and back."

Jade caught the wrinkled piece as it fell, then flattened it on his lap. "Jade Leeman Faints Mid-Concert" the front page headline read. Jade bit his lip and silently hurled a flood of curses at whoever had chosen the wording for the title. Of course they had used the word "faints." Not "passes out" "blacks out" "wipes out" "falls unconscious" "renders unconscious" or any of the other endless synonyms they could have used. No, "faints."

But as Jade flipped the loose page over, he found the back was even worse—"Girl Finds Jade Abandoned Outside in Gas Station"

"Is this shit true?" Rudurhans demanded, thrusting his finger down onto the page, nearly ripping the abused paper.

Jade's eyes scanned the article. She went to the paper right after I left her, he realized silently. Sold her story to them...used my—

"Why the hell am I asking? She had your damn jacket as proof!" Rudurhans exclaimed. "So either you went out and slept with her—and that's how she got a hold of your jacket—or you seriously talked to some stranger at a frickin' gas station! In the middle of the fucking night! Alone!"

Amber smirked audibly.

"It's just a jacket," Jade said softly. "It's not like they really know it's mine..." He ran his finger over the black and white photo of the jacket the girl had shown the paper printers as evidence to back up her story.

"Yeah, a genuine maroon-red RittWelt, tailored to fit your exact measurements—looking mysteriously very like the jacket you wore during the concert last night—fucking hell Jade, that bitch couldn't even afford to have a counterfeit RittWelt tailored in your dimensions!"