The next day, Jade was back to how she was treating me before our talk after the fight. She was mainly standoffish, sort of scowling all day like she was thinking really hard, and she wouldn't say more than two words to me.
When we were outside at rec, I decided to approach her again. She was just kind of standing off to the side, staring into space. Kind of a waste of the one hour we were allowed outside. When I walked up to her, she glared at me for a split second before realizing who I was. She tried (and failed) to stop glaring and asked me what's up.
"I was wondering if you wanted to do a circuit with me," She raised her eyebrow at me.
"A circuit?"
"Yeah, like a workout circuit? It burns a lot of energy and I- you know you don't have to if you don't want to that's totally fine-" Jade cut me off and put her hand on my arm.
"Sure blondie, I need to burn off some energy anyway, I've been having a hard time sleeping," I nodded, relived she didn't shut me down immediately.
We spent the rest of the time mostly in silence, but at least we were doing something together. By the time our hour outside was up, both of us were close to exhausted and slightly sweaty. Jade's hair was sticking to her face, her shirt was a bit damp on her back, and her face was tinted red. As much as I hated to admit it, she looked absolutely, undeniably attractive.
Jade didn't really talk the rest of the day, but she didn't brush me off either. She didn't seem upset when I sat across from her at dinner and she let me ramble about random topics, chiming in every once in a while (but that was rare). If I was annoying her in anyway, she didn't say anything. And based on how she'd been acting the past few days, she definitely would have said something.
I left her alone when she went to make a phone call, but surprisingly, instead of retreating back to our cell immediately, she took a seat next to me. I glanced at her slightly while her attention was trained on the tv, and surprisingly she seemed far more relaxed. She wasn't scowling. Whoever she called deficiently put her in a better mood.
"Why are you staring at me blondie," she muttered, not taking her eyes off the tv. My eyes shot to the ground.
"I um, it's nothing really," I trailed off, feeling my cheeks heating up. Jade glanced at me and smirked.
"Whatever, I'm gonna go back to our room, wanna come?" She offered, completely catching me off guard.
"Uh yeah sure," I stood up and followed Jade, a little uneasy at her request. She instantly sat back down at her desk, not giving me a second glance. I slowly took a seat next to her.
"Relax blondie, I can feel your uneasiness from here," She teased without looking up from what she was doing, "I asked if you wanted to come with me cause last time you were out there on your own you got the whole pod tear gassed, and I'd prefer to have my bunkie in one piece,"
"Oh um, thanks," I was slightly taken aback by how nice she was being. This was definitely not the same Jade I had met literally three days ago. Not that this was a bad thing, just different.
She continued drawing or writing whatever (I didn't want to push my luck and look over her shoulder) so I decided to lay down and try and pass the time. Maybe even nap. I was laying down for probably a half hour and was nearing sleep when Jade's voice broke the silence.
"Have you gotten your number yet?"
"What?" I asked, sitting up on my bunk.
"Have you gotten your number?" she repeated, turning to face me from her desk, "The one you use to order commissary?" Commissary was anything that isn't provided in basic hygiene and can include anything from snacks like ramen and Cheetos to iPods with earbuds- all of which cost real money.
"Oh, no I haven't," I said.
"Um, do you wanna borrow a book or something while you wait for it?" She asked tentatively, as if she were unsure about asking me in the first place.
"You read?" I asked stupidly. As soon as those words came out of my mouth I regretted it, nearly wanting to smack myself in the face. Thankfully Jade didn't seem to take offence from it. She actually let out a small giggle.
"Is that so hard to believe?" She smiled at me, "But yes, I do read. It passes time and makes me feel like I'm not stuck here," She stood up and pulled a bin out from under her bed, handing it to me, "Those are the books I have currently. I've been trying to get more but for some reason my requests never seem to go through," I nodded slowly and started going through the small book collection she had. Her taste in books was rather varied. She had a couple popular titles like the first Harry Potter book and the second Hunger Games book, but she also had quite a few books I've never heard of. I picked up one of the unfamiliar titles and handed her back the bin.
"Ah, Wonder. Not my all time favorite but it's definitely up there,"
"What's your all time favorite?" I asked.
"To Kill a Mockingbird. It's actually the book I keep requesting but it gets denied,"
"Well um, thanks for the book," She nodded, recognizing my thanks and went back to whatever she was doing at her desk.
I laid back down and opened up the tattered copy of Wonder. As soon as I was done with the intro to the book, I decided that Jade definitely has good taste in books. From then on out, I would be taking her book suggestions very seriously.
AN: Sorry... it's been a hot minuet. For some reason, about halfway through I got the worst writers block so I started working on multiple oneshots cause I kept getting ideas halfway through writing other oneshots and the epilogue even though the story is nowhere near there??? Cause that made sense in my brain. Anyway, hopefully I've kicked that writers block so I can update this story again.
stream holiday for clear skin!
