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The unrestrained fall wind sways the weakened, almost dead leaves off of their respective tree branches. They sway back and forth in an eerie unison as it allows the wind to weave through in and out, having an effect on anything and everything in its path.

The brunette's unbridled locks sway along with the course of the unapologetic wind with some strands sticking to her chapping lips. She stares emptily out onto the football field with no exact target for her line of sight. She looks out into space, her mind running with endless thoughts leaving her ultimately, speechless.

"What do you think about that Jade?" Lucia inquires with a subtle nudge into Jade's shoulder. Her mellow eyes focus in on the brunette who noticeably jolts back into reality, giving both her and Alexander a disorientated look.

"Jade, you good?" Alexander questions leaning in as close as he can with the distance he's at on the bench. The same award-winning pearly-white smile on his face as he directs his attention to Jade. The brunette still doesn't understand how someone could look so jovial and smile so big as if the world wasn't complete shit.

"I'm fine. What's up?" Jade blandly assures still looking visibly fatigued with dark, gloomy saucers beneath her eyes.

"Well," Lucia starts off dramatically as she glances over at the boy sitting to her right before looking back at Jade, "My buddy Alexander here is saying that denim on denim isn't a thing, but I don't that's necessarily true. I think it's possible but there's only a select few that can pull it off."

"Like who?" Alexander chimes in, sassily raising a brow at the strawberry blonde to his left with her silky colored strands of hair neatly pulled up into a tight high ponytail, making her look all the more preppy.

"Kim Kardashian," Lucia reasons, raising a brow back at the boy.

Alexander immediately rolls his eyes, "Next."

Lucia places a finger on her chin as she thinks with scrunched brows, "Kendall?"

"She's an actual model. They're meant to wear ugly ass shit to try to make it look good," he reasons, crossing her arms and his legs simultaneously as he enjoys Lucia's exaggerated thinking expressions.

Lucia goes back to the drawing board as she drops her eyes, "Hmm... Rihanna!" She basically screams in her excitement.

Alexander thinks in silence before slightly nodding his head in approval as his arms uncross his chest, "Fine, I'll give you that one. Riri is the ultimate baddie."

Lucia proudly smiles at him, lifting her chin up to show it. Alexander shakes his head at her sudden overconfidence.

Alexander has become fond of the girl that seemed to always be around Jade. As he began spending more time with Jade at school, it's became inevitable to avoid the girl that latched onto her like a puppy. Seeing that Lucia was most likely everywhere Jade was at school, Alexander couldn't avoid meeting the extremely peppy, larger-than-life personality.

The group of three now sit at the benches beside the football field, "chilling" with Jade after school. Chilling basically meaning that they have nothing better to do so they decided to just hang. Alexander didn't mind, finding it much more interesting to rant with Lucia about fashion and other pop culture topics anyways. Oddly, Alexander has found his newfound friendship with Lucia and Jade to have been the most genuine once since being basically shunned by the rest of his "friends" on the wrestling team. It's the first time in a while where it feels like he belongs somewhere at Kingsman Bounty.

This place on the cheap, wearing benches has become their "spot" of some sorts as it's become routine for Jade to wait for Kinsey after practice.

Of course, Lucia doesn't forget to hound Jade on her and Kinsey's developing "relationship", but she never does it in front of Alexander, knowing how sensitive Jade is whenever she brings it up. She rather keep that between the two of them until Jade decides to woman up and ask the darn girl out.

Lucia and Alexander continue their conversation on fashion while Jade isolates herself a few inches away by staring out into the field with her legs open and her forearms resting on her knees.

Their banter goes on and on until they notice one player jogging up to the bench, which catches both Lucia and Alexander's attention, causing their voices to drown out.

The bubbly strawberry blonde turns her head over to the boy covered in sweat with his sandy hazel hair matted down. A charming smile appears on his face as he draws closer to the two. Once he gets close enough, he rests his upper arms atop the steel fence barring the benches from the field. An intrigued Lucia shifts her body towards the boy, while Alexander quietly observes the change in attitude of his gossiping partner-in-crime.

"What's up?" the player starts, smirking a bit at the girl he knows he already has in the palm of his hand.

"Hey, Andrew," Lucia greets, allowing each syllable to roll of her tongue in a flowery manner as she attempts to act shy in front of the boy.

Alexander harshly rolls his eyes at the interaction, staring out into space unbothered as he refuses to look at the asshole's face. His defensive wall comes up as he crosses his arms once again and leans back into the bench of the next row.

"Why you hanging out with this cocksucker?" Andrew snickers, shamelessly carrying a wide smile on his face while he side-eyes Alexander.

Lucia's eyes widen and the shyness on her face almost immediately shifts into irritation. Another asshole, I don't even know why I try with these guys. Her disappointment becomes evident on her face as it drops and she relaxes back into her seat on the bench.

Alexander doesn't even flinch at the words as he slowly turns his gaze over to the boy. "Hey, it's not that bad. You should try it some tim-oh wait, that would be a little too gay for you, right?" Alexander sarcastically remarks, squinting his eyes at the boy as he revels in the way his arrogance transforms into sudden aggression. His fists clench and his teeth bar as if ready to pounce.

The boy starts to climb the fence to move up towards Alexander. He doesn't get to far in his mission as he is suddenly yanked down by an overpowering force.

It's Antonio.

The thicker, taller boy with a more golden shade on the tips of his curly hair now, replacing the yellow uncooked ramen noodle color from before, pulls the tempered boy down the steps with a solid grip on both his hips. He looks up almost apologetically at Alexander after securing Andrew's position back onto the grass.

"Don't mind my dumbass friend," he assures, eyes trained on Alexander's and only Alexander's eyes. Alexander's stone-cold expression softens a bit once meeting the soft brown eyes. He feels heat overcome his face as his stare lingers. Antonio's face holds a benevolence that Alexander hasn't seen in a while from any guy at Kingsman Bounty. His bright eyes lighten up Antonio's expression all the more, accentuating his natural handsomeness.

Finally, Alexander snaps out of it and averts his eyes away, "It's fine, just let the fuckface know that it shouldn't happen again." He tries to cement the statement as something serious but it only comes out as a suggestion. He's never been so flustered by anyone, ever.

Antonio nods amicably before patting Andrew's shoulder, leading the boy away from the two.

While he continues to mentally reevaluate himself, Jade remains staring blankly into space. She's been doing a lot of that lately in every class, during every car ride with Kinsey, and at home. On the outside it seems that nothing is going on in that brain of hers, but it's quite the opposite, as endless cycles of useless thoughts keep her trapped in space and time.

It's been days since that encounter with her mother and Jade doesn't know how to feel after experiencing such an influx of emotions all at once. The argument repeats over and over like a broken record as every word spit with great malice back and forth between her and her mother left no good taste in her mouth. There was one bitter word shot after another as both tried their absolute best to hurt each other as much as they could.

Unfortunately for Jade, she has no inherent talent in acting. She can't act as though the words didn't affect her. Every single one hit hard and reminded her of all the insecurities she's harbored in from such a young age. It's something she just can't shake so easily.

"Hey, buttercup. Get off your ass and let's go."

Jade rapidly blinks her eyelids in response to the familiar voice. The rich, soothing voice.

Her blank eyes glance over to the blonde smirking brightly at her with her hair a whole mess and sweat rolling off her forehead. Jade's face doesn't change as she stares into the dauntingly sharp blue saucers staring right into her soul, refusing to look anyplace else.

Jade lowly huffs and disrupts the eye contact to grab for her bag beside her. Her sunken mood not being altered at all with the sight of the person that she hates the least in the world right now.

Kinsey cautiously watches the way Jade avoids her eye contact. Her smirk drops and her arrogant expression is replaced with a more solemn one.

Jade hasn't been Jade, or rather the Jade that Kinsey got to know, for the past couple of days. The blonde most definitely noticed as her personality seemed to have deflated in a way. It's not that she's become more boring or anything, it's just that Kinsey could tell that she's put her walls up and is being more abrasive than usual.

This all for some reason that Jade continues to refuse to share with Kinsey. The blonde still has no idea as to what led Jade to enough tears and pain to call her that night. She wasn't granted any explanation, or answer to all the questions she's been asking within the past couple of days as they worked on their project as usual. She's got nothing, so she's been left with doing her best to get Jade back any way she can.

As Jade stands from the creaky steel bench, Kinsey backs up a little to allow the brunette enough space to step down. She doesn't even bother to speak to her friends as she starts her departure.

"Hey, Jade," Lucia calls, staring up at her friend a little strangely, "You're not gonna say bye?" She questions. Alexander notices this as well and cocks a brow up at Jade.

Lucia's been noticing how off Jade's been lately, but with the short time she's known the brunette, she's doubted whether or not it is just a part of her standoffish personality. But this doesn't seem the case as Jade simply nods at the two close acquaintances with no verbal response. No snarky comment or look of disgust? Lucia questions as she starts to find Jade's behavior really, really off-putting.

"Jade," Lucia calls again abruptly as she grabs the arm of the extremely over-sized black pullover jacket that Jade has on, "You okay?"

"She's fine," Kinsey interrupts, knowing that Jade wouldn't even bother answering that question truthfully, or at all for that matter.

Her sharp eyes make a transition over to Lucia's soft emerald ones. The natural intimidation from Kinsey's almond-shaped eyes makes the strawberry blonde look away immediately upon impact before looking up at Jade frozen in her stance on the bench. "J-Just call me if you wanna talk, okay?" The most serious and genuine expression displays across Lucia's face as she tries to reassure her friend that she is there for her.

Jade doesn't look back at Lucia and shrugs as a sign of her comprehension. She steps down one more step and her plain high-top Converse finally makes it onto the dying grass with a weak padding sound.

Now, she ends up directly in front of the blonde.

"It's not your job to answer for me. I'm perfectly fine," Jade informs strictly with dispassionate eyes training up at the blonde.

Their heights are not too far off with Kinsey slightly taller than Jade by a couple of inches. Kinsey's eyes fall on Jade but the brunette doesn't do the same as she once again avoids the eye contact and shifts her body away from Kinsey to start walking away towards the parking lot.

Jade doesn't mean to appear withdrawn but she doesn't feel like being around people. She doesn't even feel like doing this life thing anymore at this point. Not when she feels genuinely tired of living when everything seems to go wrong at every step she takes forward. What does she even feel? That's the question she's been trying to find an answer to since waking up to remember that she decided to call Kinsey while she was having a mental breakdown.

Embarrassed.

That's what she is. People shouldn't know her struggles. I don't deserve their pity or their attention for that matter.

The brunette continues trudging up the grass hill to the concrete walkway leading to the parking lot with her middle-parted hair tucked behind her ears and the wind blowing untamed in her face.

Kinsey follows behind in an overall perplexity. What do I do? How do I make this girl I think I've fallen for feel better?

As Jade makes it up to the shiny red car in the almost emptied student parking lot, she glances back to see Kinsey and James barely a foot on her tail. Upon seeing the brunette male besides Kinsey, Jade unnervingly taps her fingers against the handle of the passenger side door.

They get closer and closer and Jade sees Kinsey with the car remote in hand as the heavy looking bags hang desperately onto her shoulders. A deep clicking sound reverberates, signaling that the car doors have been unlocked.

Jade pulls at the handle and proceeds to get in, until...

"I call shotgun!"

The brunette female doesn't even bother to combat it so she proceeds to pulls the handle, folding over the passenger seat to climb into the backseat of the car with her backpack tightly hanging off both her shoulders.

The two best-friends finally arrive at the car and James makes it around to the passenger side, happy to see that he continues to get his way, as he slips into the vacant seat left by Jade. The boy doesn't even bother to say anything to Jade as he settles into the vehicle. Kinsey follows in after, stuffing her bags into the trunk as she doesn't want Jade uncomfortable in the back with her smelly ass bags.

The blonde soon gets into the driver's seat and starts the car up. As the car warms up, Kinsey warily glances at Jade through the rear-view mirror hanging at the front of the car, noticing the sunken nature of her under eyes and how her small body seems to be lost in that huge jacket.

Jade finds Kinsey's eyes in the mirror for a millisecond before looking away and out the window again. Normally, Kinsey would call that out but right now she's being especially careful with Jade for some reason.

The three adolescents are soon out on the main road. Kinsey and James take up most of the space of the car as their talk and laughter fill up the enclosed atmosphere. Jade silently acts as an extra in the background with her lips tight and her hands cuffed in the jacket sleeves that are obviously too big for her.

"Jade," Kinsey calls abruptly, "What do you think of-,"

"You expect her to respond, she never says anything when we're in here."

"James, what the fuck?" Kinsey scolds, darting a vexed gaze at her best friend to her right.

"What? I'm being honest. She doesn't talk much whenever we're at school. To be quite honest with you, I'm starting to wonder if she's mute or something."

"You have your entire life to be an ass, why not take a day off," Jade protests, sending the brunette male a bored expression before rolling her eyes off to the side. The brunette isn't shaken by his words because she's heard it all. You get bullied enough about it throughout elementary and middle school that you become nearly invincible to it.

Both James and Kinsey almost break their necks as they look up into the rear-view mirror to look at Jade with wide-eyes.

It is true that the brunette often never spoke when they were all in the car. It became her thing.

It just always felt awkward enough being in the presence of these two really close friends so she didn't even bother to speak most of the time. The underclassman would always ignore James' backhanded comments and let it slide, but today didn't seem to be another one of those days as the brunette is simply tired of everything.

James brings back his signature asshole smirk before opening his mouth, "What can I say, I'm a hard worker. I rather maintain my fuckery on a daily basis but thanks for the very few words of wisdom," James concludes, leaving a dreary silence as a result of the bitterness in his tone.

Kinsey looks beyond annoyed and simply too tired to talk her friend down. The blonde simply focuses on driving him home as fast a possible while Jade finds herself lost in trying to look through the fogged-up window to peer at the dozens of pine trees desperately trying to hold their ground amidst the bustling fall wind.

Before she knows it, the car makes a stop. Her head naturally snaps over to see that it's James' house. A light within her sparks almost every time, enjoying seeing the sweat-drenched asshat leave.

Once he says bye to Kinsey and not Jade, he shuts the door closed signaling for the brunette female to instantly make her move to the passenger seat. She hops over the console the same way she usually does and plops into the unnervingly warm seat. She hates it every time but it's become her routine whenever in Kinsey's car.

"Tell me," Kinsey blatantly requests upon Jade settling into the seat.

"No," Jade replies emotionless with the blank expression on her face directed forward to the road ahead of them as Kinsey starts driving off.

"You're gonna have to eventually tell me someday."

"Just bring me home," Jade requests, suddenly not feeling in the mood to hang out with Kinsey today. The brunette just wants to go home and wallow in herself until the night comes and relieves her of the inconveniences of being awake.

Kinsey's face tightens at the sudden request as a pit forms in the depths of her stomach. "Not until you tell me what happened," she concludes.

Jade tightly snaps her head over to the blonde driving, "I don't fucking owe you an explanation."

"Yes, you do. Especially, when you call me crying in the middle of the night."

Jade sighs in defeat as she remembers the night almost explicitly. She remembers how Kinsey basically coaxed her to sleep with her voice and how she stayed with her on the phone throughout the night. As the memories flood in, the brunette starts feeling ashamed of her harshness, lowering her voice, "I-I just don't want to talk about it," she cements in a more tame tone.

"You can't avoid it for long. This isn't just some shit you shove under the rug," Kinsey continues nagging.

"Why do you care!" Jade snaps, demanding an instant silence in the car. "Okay, I guess I called you in the spur of the moment but can we act like it didn't happen and continue on," Jade almost pleads as her voice comes out hoarse a bit from the sudden rise in her voice.

Kinsey tightens her lips calmly, unshaken by Jade's blowup, "Not when you can't let it go either. You completely changed."

"What do you mean changed? You barely know me enough to know that I've changed."

Kinsey tightens her jaw as her own temper threatens to rise. Usually, anyone that would have the absolute gall to talk to Kinsey like this would have already gotten a piece of her mind and her first but with Jade, she seems to have found the ability to suppress it. "Well, you get to know a girl once your tongue has been stuffed down her throat more than once."

Jade's mouth starts miming helplessly for words as the memories, oddly her most memorable recollections of her time in Kingsman Bounty, come flooding in. The times she allowed herself to let go. It's odd to think that the most fun she's had in this new town has been with the arrogant jock that she despised.

Jade remains speechless.

"Yeah... that's what I thought," Kinsey mutters, before completely bypassing the street that would lead to Jade's home. The brunette notices this sudden change in direction and her eyes widen slightly as she looks through the side view mirror to see the sign with the name of her street engraved in it linger behind them.

Kinsey glances over at the brunette's shock with a sly smirk.

Jade sighs calmly before composing herself as she reaches for her phone from the depths of her signature skull-painted backpack. Kinsey watches tentatively as the smirk slowly leaves her face as she wonders what she's up to now.

Jade proceeds to unlock the phone and taps a few times before bringing it up to her ear, hiding the flat black-colored phone beneath her hair. She pauses for a couple of seconds with the phone pressed up against her ear.

"Hello, yes. I'd like to report a kidnapping," she starts in a nonchalant tone with her face blank.

Kinsey immediately snatches the phone out of Jade's grip with her unoccupied hand. Jade doesn't even struggle as she allows the blonde to take it away. She cracks a smile as Kinsey desperately glances down at the phone to see nothing besides the boring default background image on the lock screen.

"You really think I'm that fucked up enough to actually call 911," Jade expresses in a dead, but joking tone as the corners of her lips threaten to rise in conjunction with the scared shitless expression on Kinsey's face. Kinsey tosses the phone into Jade's lap as she tries to simultaneously glare at her and keep her eyes on the road.

"I wouldn't put it past you, especially, since you've been acting like such a prick for the past couple of days," Kinsey declares.

"I'm not the prick, you are," Jade combats, looking away and crossing her arms as she looks out the window.

"Would a prick be taking you out for tacos."

Jade's face instantaneously softens, but she tries to maintain her hard exterior with her wary eyes moving away from the window to the blonde driving. "Tacos?"

Kinsey rolls her eyes and mutters, "I know you're a fucking sucker for food."

_________

The two girls now busy themselves with stuffing their faces with tacos in their respective seats of the obnoxiously vibrant red Mustang parked in the parking lot of the restaurant. It was Jade's idea to avoid any sort of social setting by eating in the car since the only person she wants to be around right now is Kinsey and only Kinsey. The silence seems to be filled with crunch after crunch of hard-shelled tacos. At least that's one thing they have in common.

The two girls unapologetically enjoy the inauthentic fast food that has them nearly speechless.

Kinsey stuffs the last bit of her fifth hard shell taco into her mouth before chewing it into nonexistence. Her gaze soon finds the brunette sitting next to her in the passenger seat of her car, simply dwelling in the way she's enjoying her food.

Jade hesitantly catches a glimpse of the gaze mid-chew, "Stop fucking watching me, it makes me uncomfortable," Jade complains muffled as the food she is chewing on gets stuffed into her cheeks as she tries to confront the blonde without choking.

Kinsey's faint smile doesn't waver, neither does her gaze as she continues looking at the brunette with satisfaction while her body partially faces her direction with her leg bent in the seat comfortably. "Will you tell me?"

"No,"

"Will you at least give me a hint?"

"Nope,"

"Does a dog have six legs?"

"No,"

"Do you like me?"

"Yes-wait," Jade halts as she chokes on the remnant of taco shell in her throat.

"What? I had to get your attention somehow," Kinsey smiles back, running her tongue across the top row of her teeth.

"So, you really what to know if I like you?" Jade questions, gaining her confidence back as she cockily leans back in the chair, her arms crossing before her. Her eyes narrowing curiously at the blonde to her left as she turns her body towards her as well.

"No, I was just kidding, "Kinsey insists, despite the blush building up in her cheeks. She hurriedly looks down into the box sitting on the center console to see if there are any more tacos. I don't think I'll be able to handle it if she says yes.

"Well, I think you're pretty," Jade states bluntly.

Now it's time for Kinsey's head to snap up. The wrapped up taco in her hand falls back into the box as she loses her grip to stare at the brunette with wide eyes.

Jade leans in with a devious grin to whisper, "I'm just kidding."

Kinsey rolls her eyes before grabbing the fallen taco from the box again to start annoyingly unraveling it out of it crinkly paper. Hopefully, food with distract her from this brief disappointment.

Jade sends a suggestive wink Kinsey's way, causing the blonde to almost choke on the bite of taco she just took. This causes laughter to erupt from the depths of Jade's soul as she becomes proud of being able to be the one that gets Kinsey flustered.

Despite her annoyance with being on the latter end of the joke, Kinsey can't help but laugh as she falls victim to the contagiousness of the brunette's laugh. The pure giddiness of it is enough to make her want to mimic it herself.

As the laughter in the car starts piping down, Kinsey speaks up, "At least I got you to express another emotion besides sadness today."

Jade side-eyes the blonde almost fondly as she realizes how good it feels to let out a laugh, especially having not done so for a couple of days.

"Ay, being depressed is my personality trait. Who would I be if I wasn't forever depressed."

"You'd be a happy Jade," Kinsey directly responds with no sign of reluctance, or hesitation in her voice.

The answer nearly knocks the wind of Jade. How does she have a fucking answer for everything?

"That Jade doesn't sound too interesting," Jade says lowly as she reflects on the answer. A happy Jade would be a Jade without issues, without fears, without restraints. That could never be me.

"Whatever Jade you are would be interesting," Kinsey states.

How can she make something so cheesy sound comforting?

"I have issues..."Jade begins, looking down into her lap as her fingers start nervously fiddling with one another. The wind from outside blows through the small peep in the window kept open so the girls don't suffocate in this car. The combination of the opening and the wind creates a faint whistling sound as it tries to pass through the small opening. The sound is faint in comparison to the massive energy within the car as the two girl's bodies face each other with tacos wrappers surrounding them.

Kinsey's face straightens and her focus is all on the brunette. Not on the piece of hair hanging loosely in front of her ear. Not on the cars bustling on and emitting carbon dioxide into the air behind her. Not even on the people going about their daily lives, walking on the streets.

She is focused on Jade and only Jade at this moment.

Jade warily looks up at the dirty blonde to be met with that resting bitch face. She's thinking and focused. Focused on me?

"All I'll tell you is that there's fucked up family shit going on," Jade breathes out, feeling as though she just told the blonde her entire life story.

"Is anyone hurting you?"

"N-No," Jade responds immediately but also with hesitance after the word falls off her tongue. Her mother never hurt her physically, but those words, those darned words, hurt just as bad as a knife to the gut.

"You're sure?" Kinsey questions upon noticing the brunette signature lip swipe with her tongue. Her eyes now bore into Jade, studying the way her body reacts to her question.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. It's not that serious," Jade assures in a teetering, convincing tone as if trying to coax herself into the same lie.

Her gaze steadies up on Kinsey to cement the statement. Kinsey bites the inside of her lip as she decides whether or not to press further and try to squeeze more out of her.

The blonde ultimately comes to the conclusion that she doesn't want to push Jade farther away so she cracks a devious grin while facing the girl.

"Whose your favorite celebrity girl crush?" Kinsey asks completely out of context.

"W-Why the fuck would you ask me that?" Jade stutters as her eyes dance over towards the unbelievably clean windshield. She wonders how Kinsey gets them so clean.

"Oh come on, every girl has some sort of girl crush," Kinsey pressures.

Jade sighs, "You go first then."

"Nah, you'll get jealous."

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Jade whines while shoving back Kinsey's shoulder with her hand.

The blonde surprisingly jolts back at the force and gives the brunette a shocked expression in return. "Have you been working out?"

"Fuck no, why would I bother wasting my time on that when I could be reading," Jade genuinely answers with her brows knitted at the blonde.

This is one aspect of Jade that Kinsey could never understand: Her undeniable love for reading. But Kinsey doesn't mind since that's what makes Jade all the more different and interesting, which is what she admires most about the new girl. Kinsey feels different when she's around her. She doesn't feel like she has to put up any walls. The walls that suffocate her and keep her trapped on a daily basis as she tries to be the Kinsey Scott around everyone she interacts with. She feels free almost.

"And that's where you lose me," she replies.

"Oh come on, you should try it sometime. It isn't that bad... maybe I'll let you borrow one of my books," Jade narrows her eyes down as she gets flustered when trying to be nice to people.

"Is little miss bookworm actually willing to give a peasant like me one of her most prized possessions?"

"Well, y' know," Jade starts, nervously tilting her head, "I have to give the servants some sort of incentive," Jade replies in a highly eloquent tone as she plays along with Kinsey.

Kinsey tilts her head back as she chuckles at the extremely charming girl before her that doesn't give herself enough credit. "As the humble servant that I am, I'd be glad to take whatever incentive you give me," Kinsey states before theatrically bowing before the brunette with her dirty blonde stands falling all over her head after having taken it out the messy bun she had it in for practice.

Jade pats her knee as a peal of laughter consumes her body. A laughter that can only come when one is in the presence of someone so special.

As Kinsey rises from her position, her hair falls back into place, of course messily, but it's a perfect mess with her natural side part becoming evident. The direction of the light shining through the windshield of the car seems to perfectly hit her skin and bounce off those intoxicatingly sharp blue eyes, making them shine even more than they do on a regular basis.

Jade can feel her stomach do massive flips as she takes in the almost ethereal sight before her. The way those defined dark brows define the intensity of her eyes and the untanned areas of her face highlight the natural rose in her cheeks and the faint freckles that plague them.

The brunette is so lost in the sight that she doesn't even allow her mind to process anything before she blurts, "C-Can I take a picture of you?"

"Of me?" Kinsey questions unsure as her brow rises and she points a finger at herself.

Jade chuckles a little as she nervously stuffs a strand of hair behind her ear, "Yes, of you," she nods.

"I mean," the blonde coughs clearly caught off-guard, "of course, why wouldn't you want to. I'm pretty damn hot, aren't I?"

"Ew, never mind," Jade states, rolling her eyes as the blonde's arrogance makes a noble return.

"Just take the damn picture," Kinsey demands.

Jade slips her phone out from her lap starts to unlock it. As she does so, Kinsey starts talking again amidst the silence, "I didn't know you were into photography."

"You don't know a lot of things about me," Jade insists while smirking as she taps away on the phone.

"Hm," Kinsey simply responds, nodding her head and puckering out her lips in understanding.

"It's a hobby I took up lately. It's nothing that major, if that's what you want to know," she replies, glancing up teasingly from the phone at the blonde. She doesn't want to push her away.

"I'm content with that," Kinsey nods again.

Jade smirks while shaking her head at how especially playful Kinsey's being today. She finally lifts her phone up horizontally and allows the focus to adjust itself to the stunning blonde girl before her.

Kinsey decides to pose more naturally as she stares straight at the camera with her hand partially interwoven into her hair.

Jade lowers the phone a bit and backs up into the passenger side door to get a better view. Her hands shake a little as Kinsey's look through the camera starts making her nervous. Once content with the distance and positioning, she pulls herself together enough to tap the small white circle on the touch-screen. The clicks sound as she takes multiple pictures and Jade ultimately breaths out, having unconsciously held in her breath while taking the pictures.

"I'm made for this modeling shit, right?" Kinsey says upon relaxing after her pose.

"Nah, I need a couple more. They're just not coming out to my liking," Jade snarks, seeming unimpressed by Kinsey at all.

Kinsey shakes her head as she pokes her tongue through her cheek before settling back into her fake off-guard pose once again. This girl is driving me crazy.

_________

Jade steps inside her home and shuts the large door behind her. She instinctively locks it and types in the security code to the home alarm system control that is plastered onto the wall.

The usual empty feeling fills her once again as she makes her way down the hall and towards the living room. The room is completely dark and the brunette is okay with that. She, oddly, finds it to be a relief that no one occupies her home at the moment.

For the past couple of days, Jade and her mother have been avoiding each other like the plague, or it could most likely be just Jade avoiding her mother. She just doesn't know what to say to the woman after what went down. She couldn't find it within her to even say hi to the woman in the mornings. She would wait in her bed every morning until the annoying click-clack sound of heels died out, indicating her mother was gone.

She doesn't know how or if they'll be able to fix their relationship, but at the moment, Jade is more concerned about making her life less awkward by completely avoiding all interactions with her birth-giver.

The brunette slips her way into the kitchen and slaps the switch up with her backpack glued to her back. Kinsey just dropped her off after she spent some time working on the project at her house. The Scotts almost begged her to stay for dinner but she needed to come home to work on other homework.

The brightness consumes the space and allows her to find her way to the fridge. Her hand grips onto the lengthy stainless steel handle and pulls open the basically empty appliance to be met with very few of anything that could be cooked.

Her eyes scan over the blinding white of the empty vessel and settle onto the bag of apples in the far back corner of the second shelf. She sticks her hand into the already opened plastic bag and grabs a random apple before shutting the fridge.

As she rushes over to the sink to wash it off, she takes out her phone from the front pocket of her hoodie into her other hand.

While she munches on the sweet snack, she decides to admire the masterpieces she took altogether. She takes another crunchy bite into the apple and swipes through the multiple and varying images of Kinsey in her camera roll as she smiles unknowingly as if in a daze. Her doe eyes examine and study, not only her work, but the model.

She can't be real.

The brunette transfers over to her social media and takes a look at how many people have seen the one image of Kinsey she posted on her story. She just wanted to show her artistic talents to the world but it didn't feel too bad to show that she was in the presence of a girl like Kinsey also.

Something different seems to catch her eye suddenly. A direct message? A red circle pops up at the top of her page indicating that she got a new message. The brunette freezes momentarily because she never gets messages from anyone since she rarely uses her social media. Her skepticism splays across her face as she taps on the message with furrowed brows. Her eyes hurriedly ingest the words one by one before the apple in her hand slips and tumbles onto the glossy tiled flooring of the kitchen area.

An uncomfortable wave of heat and chills runs from the tips of her toes through to the top of her head. The grip she had on the apples that's now on the floors stalemates itself. Her fingers look as though they're holding something invisible in them as they remain crooked up by her ear. Her thumb on the screen freezes into place as her wrist starts to shake uncontrollably as a result of the fear and anxiety rolling through her body all of a sudden. She feels weak.

The profile picture of the girl with fiery scarlet hair smiling her ass off with deeply pierced dimples on both sides of her cheeks. The innocence displayed in the image adds to create the overall facade of the girl that's haunted Jade for years. The pain and fear continue to bull-doze through Jade's body as she rereads the message like a fucking malfunctioning robot.

scarletrose57

Hey babe, you seem to have moved on pretty well?

Jade's teeth grits into frustration as she can't decide whether to be pissed off or simply terrified that the girl she's been avoiding for years has contacted her out of nowhere. Why can't I catch a fucking break?

Before she knows it, tears start welling in the pits of her eyes as she thinks of her past and what that girl has done to her. Her shaking fingers come together enough to start typing back.

What do you want?

Jade expels a hefty breath once she presses send. She tries to regulate her breathing as images and memories rush back into her head at such an ungodly speed.

Not long after, her phone buzzes again. She hurriedly looks down at the messages through partially blurry vision as she doesn't bother to wipe the involuntary tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

Why so aggressive? My baby doesn't miss me after all this time?😘

Jade almost psychotically smiles as she processes the words. She immediately jerks her head back to keep the tears in place before staring back at the screen in disbelief at this delusion bitch. The brunette feels bile rising within her throat as she reads the words again and again... and again.

The flashbacks of the violence and straight-up bullying corrupt the entirety of Jade's thoughts as she vividly remembers those deathly stale blue eyes.

"Just leave me the fuck alone, please," Jade whispers to herself with her voice cracking a bit, oddly the same way it often did in middle school when she was under that stare. The stare that she once admired at some point.

Right now, Jade seems to be mimicking her younger, timid self with her shoulders hunched and fear rippling throughout her body. No matter how much stronger she thinks she's gotten, Jade can't ignore how much control this girl has over her.

And that's what she hates the most.

_________<~>_________

Hey loves, we're starting to move right along with this story.

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Why do you think of Jade suddenly pushing Kinsey away? Do you think this could possibly be a recurring theme for her?

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What do you think is going on with this mystery girl that seems to continue to haunt Jade to this day? What are guesses as to why Jade feels so immensely about her?

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I can't wait to hear about your theories. This story isn't just gonna be roses and cherries, even though that's always nice once in a while. I hope you're ready for this shit. Lol, I hope you guys enjoyed and stay tuned for the next chapter. I've finished planning out the rest of this story so I know everything that'll happen and I'll do my best to work my magic and continue making this story, not trash.

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Okay, that's all from me. Hope you guys have a great week! Don't forget to comment, vote, and give me a follow if you absolutely feel compelled to. Lol, bye for now babes! ❤️