headphones, michael clifford

awful dinner.

Rachel, thank god, was not home.

She wasn't home for the whole rest of the week until stopping by around the 25th, 3 days before the court date.

Michael wasn't home — so Jade was hanging out in her bedroom, reading a summer book.

"Hey, princess." Rachel mumbled, knocking on Jade's door and causing Jade to spin in her chair and meet Rachel's face. She gave her a half-smile.

Rachel, unfortunately, was now home.

"Hey, mom." Jade said, putting her book down. "What are you doing here?"

"Just stopping by to see my daughter. What're you reading?" Rachel asked, sitting down on Jade's bed. "How are you feeling about the divorce?"

Jade ignored her first question. "It's fine. I just want it to end."

Rachel pursed her lips. "I agree, baby. I miss you. How about you and I go out to dinner soon?"

Jade's head sort of shot up from her reading position. She studied her mom's face before asking. "Dinner?"

"Yeah," Rachel stroked her daughter's hair gently. Jade flinched. "On Wednesday, yeah?"

Wednesday couldn't have come any faster.

One second, Jade was hanging out in her room listening to some artist and the next she was standing outside the shittiest restaurant she'd ever seen in downtown Los Angeles.

Normally, she wouldn't care about where she was seen, but right now — she did.

"Mom," Jade said softly. "I don't know if this place is... healthy?"

Rachel scoffed. "Whatever do you mean, Jade? This place has 3.5 stars. Couldn't be healthier."

Jade exhaled a breath and followed Rachel through the crowd of loud men and alcohol reeked of breath. They sat down at a table and Jade took one look at the menu and nearly barfed.

Unfortunately, moments later, a couple of Rachel's old modeling friends showed up.

"Rachel Meyer? No way!" a girl with a high pitched voice said, rushing up to Rachel and giving her a hug. "You look amazing!"

"Ethical," Rachel gasped. "It's so nice to see you. How are you?"

Ethical? Jade thought. What the fuck kind of name is Ethical?

"Is this your daughter?" Ethical asked, running a hand over Jade's hair — which Jade instantly moved away from. "She looks more like your ex-husband."

Rachel let out an exaggerated annoyed sigh. "I know. Anyway, what have you been up to? Anything fun?"

"Just getting up with the men here, you know what I mean?" Ethical high pitched giggled. "Is your daughter, Jenny, old enough to be here, Rach?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Rachel asked. "She's 15."

"Christ, mom, I'm 16." Jade mumbled.

"Oh Rachel! Have you not picked up on this?" Ethical grabbed Jade by the shoulders and immediately started ushering her out. "This is a strip club. No place for 16 year olds!"

"Mom!" Jade gasped as Ethical walked out with her as Rachel helplessly followed. "You brought me to a strip club for dinner? Are you mental?"

"Fuck, I didn't mean too," Rachel gasped.

"Now you have to take me home!" Jade insisted, looking at her mother as the thoughts ran through her mind.

"I can't," Rachel mumbled. "I wanna hang out with my friends. Can't you hang out in the car for an hour or so?"

"Mom," Jade inhaled slowly. Rage filling the air. "I haven't eaten all fucking day because you hyped up the so called restaurant so much that I was going to eat a lot. Now, I'm stuck in the downtown fuckhole of Los Angeles. Take me home or I'm calling dad."

Ethical chimed in. "Michael Clifford?"

"Fine! Call your dad." Rachel said. "I don't care. I'm going back inside."

Rachel turned around and stomped back inside before Ethical exhaled, looking at Jade. "I'm going to call you an uber to at least take you out of the downtown area. Are you alright with getting dropped off at the pier?"

That's how Jade Clifford ended up on a freaking pier, at 10 o'clock on a Wednesday night, shivering and watching as the uber her mom's model friend, Ethical, called for her to drive away.

She shakingly took out her phone and closed her eyes. "Fucking shit," She said before putting her phone up to her ear.

Michael, who was hanging out at Luke's house with his whole family around, plus Calum's family, looked down at his phone and saw Jade.

He smiled, and put his phone to his ear. "Hey, love. What's going on?"

"Dad," Jade exhaled. "I'm at the pier near that froyo shop you used to take me to. Rocko's. Mom brought me to a strip club, her friend called an uber for me – literally having it drop me off at a random location near the pier, and now I'm shivering and alone. Please come pick me up."

"Baby," Michael said, standing up and grabbing his hoodie. "What do you mean? She brought you to a what? Alright, hang tight, I'm coming to get you. Hang out in a populated area and don't talk to a single soul."

Jade agreed and hung up the phone before Michael shouted out that he was going to pick up Jade and would be back later.

He got in his car and drove to her location the fastest he could.

When Michael arrived, he instantly saw his daughter standing near a populated area with literally jean shorts on and a t-shirt. He rushed over and she instantly rushed into his arms.

"Are you okay? Holy shit," Michael said fast. "Come on, let's get you in my car."

Michael practically carried her to the car, putting her in the passenger seat belt and turning on the heat before he got in as well. "What the fuck happened?"

As she started to defrost, she began speaking real words. "Mom and I went to this restaurant downtown — when I say downtown, I mean the crackhead central downtown. We walked in, and already everything smelt and looked awful. We sat down and mom started speaking to this girl, named Ethical."

"Ethical Adams. I'm aware." Michael chimed in.

"And she was like, how old is your daughter? And mom was like, oh she's 15—"

"You're 16." Michael said.

"I know!" Jade groaned. "And Ethical was like, this is a literal strip club. Obviously, I lashed out and Ethical brought me outside with mom. I told mom to drive me home cause I didn't wanna stay, and she told me she wanted to hang out with her old friends. I told her she could either drive me home, or I'd call you — Ethical helped me and gave me an uber to the pier."

"For christs' sake." Michael mumbled. "I'm going to have a very strong word with your mother and my lawyer. This was not okay. You haven't even eaten today!"

Jade watched her dad ramble, angry and understandably so. She nodded at his statements. "I just wanna go home, dad."

"I'll get you home, angel."