Helena’s apartment February 2nd 9:23 AM
“Do you want me to come with you?” Davey asked, desperately trying to get me to stay in LA.
“I’ve gotta do this by myself, it’s not gonna look good if you’re there with me,” I sighed, throwing some stretchy tee shirts in my overnight bag.
As much as I hated to admit it, I really wanted Davey to come with me. It would be hard enough telling my dad and his girlfriend about the pregnancy, but it would be even harder alone. It sounds lame, but I couldn’t help feeling bad about the way it was going to reflect on Jade when I showed up alone.
“I guess so,” he sighed. “What am I gonna do while you’re gone?”
“I don’t know, write another song,” I answered. He’d written twenty pages of lyrics in the past two days. All he did was write songs since he and Heather had broken up.
He raised an eyebrow defensively. I hadn’t meant to offend him, but honestly he was way too clingy. It’s not like we had any kind of real relationship and he knew that.
“Sorry,” I shrugged. “It’ll only be a few days; you’ll find something to do. Besides you can have the bed.” Not that it was really a treat considering the only night he slept on the couch was when he first moved in.
I grabbed my bag and the ticket sitting on my dresser, blowing him a kiss as I left the room. He shot me a look on the way out that made me uncomfortable. It was a look that said he was planning something; something I surely wouldn’t appreciate.
9:31 AM
I picked up my phone and speed dialed Jade the second I heard the front door close.
“Dude, what’s going on?” Jade’s voice was panicked. “Why haven’t you answered my calls?”
“I was busy, sorry.” I wasn’t about to admit the real reason I hadn’t picked up.
“Where is she going? When is she leaving?” he fired a long string of anxious questions at me.
“She’s headed for her dad’s in Phoenix and she’s leaving right now,” I answered nonchalantly.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he practically screamed. “I’m in Pasadena!”
“Well if you wanna catch her before she leaves you better get your ass back to LA. Her flight leaves in two hours,” I shrugged, slightly satisfied that I’d distressed him.
“God, why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he asked. In the background I could hear the roar of the starting car engine.
“It didn’t occur to me,” I smiled. If he thought he could get to her at this point he was crazy, but I still wanted to see how fast he could run.
“Fuck you,” he said and hung up.
Santa Anita Shopping Mall Pasadena, California 9:52 AM
My hands shook as I walked briskly through the mall in Pasadena. I had to force myself not to run as my eyes scanned stores. I didn’t quite comprehend what the stores were until my eyes caught the lighted store front of a jewelry store.
A bell rang upon my entrance and the lone man at the counter turned to greet me, “how may I help you?”
I ran a hand through my hair and leaned forward on the glass case. “I need a ring,” I said quietly, as if it was a big sin. “Quick.”
“Engagement?” he asked. I nodded. “What are you thinking?” he strolled over to the next case.
“Something simple, pretty, but simple,” I scanned the case though everything looked the same to me. My vision had been blurred by tears threatening to spill over and it didn’t seem to matter what the thing looked like.
“This right here is a beauty,” he pulled a three diamond gold band from the back of the case and set it on the glass.
“How about the one next to it?” I pointed to the silver band next to the spot where he’d plucked the other ring from.
“Ah, no one ever seems interested in that one,” he put the gold ring back and picked up the silver one. He set the black velvet box in my hand so I could examine it. I plucked the ring from the box and felt it in my hand.
“I wonder why, it’s really pretty,” I twirled it in the light, making the oval shaped black stone sparkle. “It’s perfect, how much?”
“This one’s valued at thirty-five hundred,” he gazed at the stone lovingly.
“Wait,” I set the ring in the box and looked him in the eyes. “As in three thousand five hundred?”
“I could knock a few hundred off,” he offered.
“That’s still a lot of money,” I shook my head.
“I can assure you it’s well worth it.”
I looked down at the ring still nestled in my hand. She was either going to forgive me for everything or refuse to take me back. I had no idea which, but I was willing to take the chance.
“I screwed up bad,” I shook my head, pulling out a credit card. “Do you take Visa?”
Los Angeles, California 11:20 AM
Setting the ticket in my lap, I folded my arms over the baggy t-shirt hanging loosely from my shoulders. I still wasn’t comfortable looking fatter than usual in public, so my wardrobe now consisted of shirts stolen from Jade’s half emptied closet.
My flight had been delayed because of rain and I realized that in a few short hours I would have to tell Dad everything that had happened in the last few weeks. He knew Jade and I weren’t on the best terms, but I hadn’t told him that he’d left completely. But the piece of information I was dreading telling him the most was that I was pregnant. I went back and forth on what would be worse: telling him the baby was Davey’s or watching him freak out about the fact that Jade had left me when he knew I was pregnant.
Dad had always loved Jade, always trusted him. It was going to kill him to see the state Jade had left me in. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep the tears from starting again. My eyes were tired and my cheeks were so red from the amount of crying I’d done that week that maybe people thought I was running away to a rehab clinic.
All of the sudden, I caught a whiff of a familiar cologne. I turned around to see a man sitting on the bench behind me, dressed in all black. A hood covered his head so I couldn’t see the face, but I knew that smell. I lifted my shoulder to sniff the fabric.
“Jade,” I closed my eyes, begging my head to stop playing cruel tricks on me. I turned around to look at the man again and saw him slyly smirking in the shadow of his hood. I drew in an agonizing breath and turned to face the window I’d been looking out. The rain seemed to be letting up a bit, even though the sky was still a dull grey.
I can’t wait to get the fuck out of this place. My thoughts were interrupted by a message on the intercom, “flight 143 for Phoenix will start boarding now.”
I could feel the man’s gaze follow me as I picked up my small carry on bag and headed for the gate. I turned to look at him out the corner of my eye to find him still seated on the bench with his arms crossed, smirking. Thank God he wasn’t on my flight; I was starting to get the creeps.
Phoenix, Arizona 3:45 PM
“Excuse me, miss?” I turned around to see a blue uniformed woman carrying a clip board. “If you’re waiting on your bag, it won’t be here for a while,” she said looking at the empty bag belt. “It probably got put on the twelve o’clock flight. We had a few mix ups with the rain in California.”
“Oh, I guess I’ll have to wait,” I sighed, almost thankful that I would have more time to gather my thoughts.
“It left about forty-five minutes ago, so if you don’t wanna be here for another two hours you could fill out a claim form and we could have it delivered to you tomorrow morning,” she offered apologetically, handing me the clipboard.
“Oh alright,” I took the pen from her hand.
As I sat down to start working on the long form, I caught a glimpse of the guy from the LA airport. He was booking it out the door with two bags which made me wonder where he was headed. I did a double take when he threw his hood back and waved down a taxi. I could have sworn he was wearing the same tattered Adidas that- no I was seeing things, my mind was trying to get me to break down again. I wouldn’t let myself fall for it.
I smiled weakly at the helpful woman as I handed the clipboard back to her.
“We’re extremely sorry about the inconvenience,” she apologized again.
“Don’t worry about it,” I shook my head, slinging my heavy tote bag over my shoulder. I turned to walk into the steamy Phoenix air, hoping the heat would evaporate the tears before anyone could see them.
X X X
Guess what.
This is the second/third to last chapter for this story.
Sobs, I know.
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