Chapter 19

Jade

I waited late into the night but Julian never came back home.

I had planned to apologize to him for my drunken behavior yesterday. The vomit, the absurd demands, all of it. If I had to beg on my knees I had been prepared to. I just wanted him to know I never meant to embarrass him on purpose.

But now he wasn’t even here for me to do that.

I lay awake staring up at the delicate crown molding of the ceiling, the glow from the chandelier starting to hurt my eyes already.

My mind was wandering, memories from the past rising to the surface.

The most prominent one at the moment was from when I was six and I had gotten poked in the eye while playing in the park…

(Fifteen years ago)

It was the weekend so mom and dad were at another one of their business events.

I supposed I should be sad because they’d left me behind yet again, but I wasn’t. Leaving me behind only meant one thing—Julian was going to come take me to the park to watch him play football.

I giggled around the lollipop he got for me as I swung from the swings beside Maya, one of my classmates from elementary school. She was also my friend.

Julian was shirtless, running around the field with his friends opposite the playground where I was. They were chasing after a ball and yelling and it was pretty funny to watch.

A pair of boys my age walked past us and laughed. When I glared at them, they walked back to stand in front of us before one of them pointed,

“Look Mike! They’re so tiny that their little legs don’t even touch the ground.” Then they bent over and clutched their stomachs laughing.

I felt myself getting angrier by the second at being made fun of. I hated it. I hated bullies.

And so I jumped off the swing and stomped up to them, my pigtails flying. Maya called me back from behind but I ignored her.

Coming to a stop in front of them, I waited till they straightened and stopped laughing before fuming in their faces. “You two are a bunch of jerks!” Then I raised a hand and slapped the one who had insulted Maya and I.

He screamed and clutched his cheek, eyes turning red from anger and pain. Before I could stick out my tongue at him because he deserved it, he suddenly shot out his hand and drove one finger into my right eyeball.

I screamed way louder than he had, lollipop falling out of my mouth as I jumped and shrieked before dropping to the ground to roll around crying while holding my injured eye.

I had been performing my theatrics for only seconds when I heard Julian’s running footsteps coming for me.

“Fuck, what happened here?” He fell to his knees in the sand beside me and grabbed my flailing body. “Little Jade, why are you crying? Who hit you in the eye? Let me see.”

I was sniffling so hard and dripping tears out of my remaining eye that I began releasing hiccups. Snot and dirt had made an absolute mess of my face too but Julian didn’t look at any of that.

He carried me so I was standing upright in front of him before prying my hand away from my injured eye. It was screwed tightly shut and when he asked in a soft voice if I could try and open my lid, I burst into a fresh wave of pathetic tears.

“They did that to her!”

From my one eye I saw Maya pointing at the two jerks who were standing scared to our side.

Julian sliced them a glare so sharp I was sure they had peed their pants a little from it.

Feeling slightly smug now, I lessened my cries and was only sniffling and hiccuping now.

“Vince, take care of them.” Julian looked up at his best friend who had run here with him and collected his shirt Vince was holding out for him.

He bunched the fabric into a ball then used it to carefully wipe my face while Vince marched up to the two boys. He was tall and muscly and a bit scary-looking to be honest even though he was just sixteen.

When he got on eye level with them and began yelling in their faces about why it was totally unacceptable to physically hurt girls, they began shaking from fear and I almost felt sorry for them.

I had stopped crying by now and managed to open my injured eye only slightly.

“Does it feel better?” Julian asked while he cupped his shirt around my nose for me to blow into it.

I bobbed my head and looked up at him with one swollen eye and one reddened eye.

He chuckled at the funny sight I must have made, tugging on one of my pigtails. “We still have to go to the pharmacy though for maybe an eyedrop to ease the irritation. Then after we’re done, we can go get ice cream.” His gray eyes sparkled as he broke into a handsome grin, his teeth white and even. “Does little Jade want ice cream?”

I bobbed my head again, feeling my chest expand as I took in a deep excited breath.

“Nuh-uh. I’ve got to hear you tell me yes before I agree.”

I blushed and looked at my sandy shoes. “Yes, Juju.” I told him in a soft, shy voice.

“That’s my sweet girl.”

I blushed even harder as he got to his feet and extended his big hand for me to slide my tiny one into.

Maya held my other hand and Vince finally sent the thoroughly chastised boys away before walking along with us too.

Surrounded on both sides by the people who cared the most about me, I couldn’t have felt happier or more on top of the world.

Julian was the most important to me. My hero. And I couldn’t wait to grow older and finally get married to him, with Maya being one of my bridesmaids and Vince being his best man.