Handle With Care

(Jade's POV)

When I returned home from group that following night, my mother and Clay were cuddling up to each other on the sofa, almost making me want to throw up all over the floor. Two years may have passed but I still find their love for one another utterly disgusting. "Jade, how about you come over here and join us?" My mom says in an overly sweet tone that makes my skin crawl. "No thank you, I've got stuff to do for group next week." I stated bluntly as I darted into the kitchen, poking around the cupboard to see if there was any snacks hiding inside. To my surprise, there actually was one protein bar left in the box. Eagerly awaiting the arrival of satisfaction, I practically inhaled the entire thing. "Ah fuck." I mumbled to myself once I realized I had probably ate Clay's stupid after workout refuel. Without wanting to bring attention, I casually walked passed them and almost made it to the staircase when I suddenly heard my stepdad's horrendous voice call me back. "Remember me and your mom are leaving tomorrow morning for a winery tour up north for the weekend, so you'll be on restriction." He had a devious smirk on his face the entire time he spoke, making my blood pressure rise.

"What?! Mom, are you fucking kidding me? I can't go anywhere?!" I now yelled, clearly pissed off. She just stayed quiet, resting her head against Clay's chest. "Mom, hello?! Are you fucking going to say anything? Or are you going to let asshole here do all the talking for you?" I snapped at her viciously, suddenly seeing Clay get up from his spot beside her. I backed off slowly, not wanting to make any wrong movements. "See, you know your place. You're a good little piece of garbage, not so worthless after all. Now get upstairs to your room and stay there for the rest of the weekend." As the tears kept building in my eyes, I just gave up, turning on my heels and dashing up the stairs hurriedly to my bedroom. I locked the door tightly behind me, making sure no one was able to get in from the outside before changing down into some comfortable clothes. With tears still running down my face, I tried my best to resist the urge to slash at my wrists again. I took in a few deep breaths, instantly thinking of what Chester had told me about thinking of being some place else, so I shut my eyes and tried it. I imagined that I was at a concert, moshing along to the music with my friends right by my side. I looked up at the stage, seeing Chester smiling down at me. When I re-opened my eyes, strangely enough, I actually did feel better. Believe it or fucking not.

I carefully took out the Linkin Park CD and put it in my portable player, carrying it with me as I climbed into bed carefully. As I relaxed in my pillows, soon my ears were filled with his voice once again. I turned up the volume to the maximum amount, the song 'Points of Authority' blaring in my ears. It definitely struck a nerve, causing a tear to escape from my eye and slip pass my cheeks. Memories of my old life in Arizona started to play in my head, making me feel extremely depressed. I missed my grandma, I missed my old school, mostly because all my friends were there, I missed my dad. I just wished that I could tell him how my mom wasn't the same anymore after meeting Clay and that I wished I could just go live with him.

But instead of crying, I just closed my eyes tight, letting the music take me away before I eventually fell into a very much needed sleep. I was more than feeling betrayed by how my mom was acting, wishing that I could tell her how I really felt but I knew there was ultimately nothing I could do about it, especially since Clay already threatened to do something about it if I had tried .

To my ever so growing happiness, when I woke up the next morning and unlocked myself from inside my prison cell, I noticed that the asshole and my mother figure were no longer around. I knew she had hired our maid Ava to stay over the weekend and keep an eye on me, but I was determined to get the hell out of here. I glanced at the clock on the wall, seeing it was already about eleven. Jesus Christ I could fucking sleep. I instantly decided to text KayT to see what her plans were as I snuck back into my room quietly to prepare my backpack for the day ahead. But instead of just replying, she called me. "Melody wants to go to Hollywood, there's this bad ass record store out there you'd probably really like. Want us to pick you up?" I looked down at my attire and cringed slightly. I definitely need to get dressed first. "Yeah come in shit, like um fifteen minutes okay? I just need to change. But park down the street a little bit, I can't have the maid seeing you guys." She agreed and said she would come for me after she picked up Melody which gave me enough time to change and brush my teeth.

I grabbed my backpack off of my chair, peeking my head casually out of my door. Ava was downstairs vacuuming the living room which didn't leave much choice for me to make an exit other then the backyard door. I shut my door as softly as I could, locking it in the process, before shoving my key into my pocket and bolting down the stairs. I rounded the corner quickly, racing for the doorknob. When I felt it turn and the door open, I booked it towards my freedom. I peered around the corner seeing KayT and Melody parked a few feet away from my house out of plain view and waiting for me. When I made it, I breathed out a heavy sigh of relief. We pulled away quickly before heading off in the opposite direction. "Nice to see you, inmate Martinez." Melody snickered as she turned to hug me. We had made it our inside joke that whenever I was able to get out of my house at all, that they could refer to me as an inmate. "Nice to be set free for now, warden." I said with a
smirk, proceeding to flip her off. "You guys have no idea what a nightmare it was to get out of there. So where are we going again? A record store?" I said with a slight questioning stare as I fastened my seat belt. KayT looked back at me from the rear view mirror, smiling. "Yep." She stated simply. I just shrugged in response "Sounds good to me."

After a good twenty minute drive, we arrived at a place called Amoeba Records. It was fucking huge on the inside, you definitely wouldn't have expected it to be this big. "Wow, this place literally has everything you could think of." I said as I immediately started to dig through the vinyl records. KayT and Mel just grinned before going off on their own ways, leaving me with myself. "Nice shirt." I looked up casually, noticing that it was a girl with long and dark curly hair that had said that to me, pointing at my 'Super Mario' t shirt. I smiled kindly, noticing that she was wearing a Linkin Park shirt. "I can say the same, they're really good, aren't they?" She just smiled wide, chuckling some. "Eh, sometimes. You know they're playing a show in a couple of weeks? I have some close friends who are going to be there." I gave her a semi puzzled look, noticing her name tag read 'Shae'. "Yeah, a friend of mine gave me a flyer for it. You going? I'm always looking for new friends to go to shows with, Shae is it?" Again she smiled before sticking her hand out for me to shake. "I'm Jay. Over there are my friends, Melody and KayT." We made more conversation, me learning that she was a bit older than me but liked pretty much the same stuff. So in the end we exchanged phone numbers, saying that we would text each other the day of the show. "Nice meeting you again." I waved before wandering around until I found the other two.

Something about that girl seemed sort of off, but she definitely was nice and had a good taste in music so I was glad to get to know her. When I finally reached KayT and Mel, they each had about twenty or more things stacked in their arms. I helped none the less because I didn't want them to break anything. Most of it was Linkin Park stuff and the rest was some old school punk albums, which instantly captured my attention. "You guys are a little obsessed, no?" I teased them, seeing KayT roll her eyes at me playfully as we walked over to the paying counter. A younger looking guy had helped bag up our goods, but not before making the moves on KayT. He was cute, but definitely not my type. She reluctantly gave him her number, even though she made it very clear she wasn't interested.

I had decided to check my phone once we got back into the car after realizing I had been gone for a couple of hours already, finding out that I had only two. One from our maid, Ava, stating that if I didn't get home by 3 she would call my mom and report me missing and the other was from an unknown number. "If you're able to come out, I was hoping you'd maybe want to go see a movie or something later? Text me back whenever you get this. CB." My eyes seemingly bugged out of their sockets when I finally figured out who the fuck CB was. "HOLY FUCK!" I practically yelled at the top of my lungs, scaring both KayT and Melody. "What the hell was that for?!" Melody exclaimed as she turned around to face me. I shoved my phone in front of her, seeing her eyes grow just as big. "OH MY GOD!" it was her turn to scream now, making KayT look at both of us like we were crazy.

"What the fuck is up with you two?" She glared as we stopped at a red light. Melody then proceeded to take my phone and shove it into KayT's face, making her then scream loudly next, us then all screaming when we realized that it was actually a real thing that just happened. "CHESTER, WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH YOU?!?!?! WHY ARE YOU SO GODDAMN LUCKY?!" Melody proceed to yell as she shook her head in disbelief.