Her Escape

In that instant Jade swung open the door, completely astonished and high off life that the day had finally come.

“What’s wrong? Aren’t you ecstatic? I mean we leave in an hour!”

Brianna returned her questions with a joyous smile as she jumped off the bed and ran towards Jade. Jade put one hand in front of her, while holding the towel with the other. Brianna stopped, slightly confused. Jade pointed to the shower, laughing. Brianna gave her a hug anyway and walked into the bathroom. Jade changed into the clothes laid out for her the night before.

Turning towards the pictures on the walls she smiled painfully. Remembering all the situations she couldn’t handle alone and she turned to those five guys for strength. Then she turned to a picture of Brianna on another wall and her smile gets easier as she thinks out loud.

“You have always been there for me.”

Taking a second to regain her excitement for the event she had been waiting for since February, she skipped cheerfully into her parent’s room and woke her mom.

Jade was home from college. She had just gotten back a few weeks ago. She studied in London; her dream was to be a band manager or a producer. Then later on in her life write for a newspaper or music magazine. Brianna had studied with her in London for the past two years. Sharing an apartment, they were more like sisters. Jade never really got along with her parents but her mom had offered to drive them in since she was going to the city anyway.

As she walked back there was a knock at the door. It was James, was Jade’s neighbor since the 3rd grade. He was in a band himself that was starting to pick up steam.

“Hey you guys almost ready?”

“Almost, I just got out of the shower and Bri’s in there now.”

“You have to come see one of my bands shows, sometime” he hinted.

“Yeah I have been meaning to since I got back but I’ve been really busy. When’s the next one?”

“Tomorrow night. You and Bri should come. You guys can hang back stage with us.”

“Yeah sounds good.”

Brianna walked into the room awkwardly wearing nothing but a towel. Her face turned red as she tightened her grip around the short towel.
“Oh. Uh, hi,” she greeted, embarrassed

Jade smirked and saved her, “Come on, James, let's go make breakfast.” He chuckled slightly and followed Jade out of the room.

She couldn't stop smiling, she was glowing from the inside out, eyes sparkling with a thin layer of dark blue eyeliner accentuating them. She yelled through the house as she flipped the last few eggs in a pan and began to scramble them.

“BREAKFAST!”

Brianna came rushing into the rooms, fully dressed now, asking immediately where the bacon was. Jade pointed to the table and made herself a cup of coffee.

“Anybody know where mom is?”
James and Brianna shook their head no, mouths full of bacon and toast. Jade headed through the doorway just as her brother, Justin, walked through it.

“Hey, you seen mom?” she asked.

“Nah. Where’s the food?” he brushed off her question. Jade motions to the table and walks towards her mom’s room.

Something was wrong, she could feel it as she slowly gripped the door knob. The door basically pushed itself open and in that moment her nervousness becomes more acute. She slowly blinked as she made her first step into the room. She opened her eyes to her mom still lying in bed and sighed, the tension draining from her body. She spoke with anger in her voice.

“Come on mom, we have to leave in 15 minutes! Lets go, breakfast is on the table!”

Her mom struggles to speak, her voice so slow and seemingly shattered.

“I’m not going. You can drive yourself there, right?” she asked, her voice filled with exhaustion.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Jade's momentary anger turned to concern in a matter of seconds.

“I just have a chest cold and I need my rest. Now get out!”

"Okay... I'll see you when I get back."

Ever since Jade had turned eighteen things had gone downhill. She moved out on her birthday and got her first tattoo. She started to become estranged from her family, only coming home on holidays. Even then, they didn’t have much to talk about and they resented her because about a year before Jade graduated from high school her father had died in a car crash. He had been on his way to pick her and Brianna up from a live show for a small, local band. A drunk driver ran through his beaming red light at seventy miles an hour, colliding with Jade's father's car. Since then, the family hasn’t been the same. They all blamed her. In some twisted way it helped her mom and her brother deal with the reality of it all. They didn't really mean to, it just ended up that way.

Walking back into the kitchen Jade got everything together and packed the car to camp out, in case her and Brianna were too tired to drive to drive home that night. Right as they were about to leave, she turned to Justin.

“Keep an eye on Mom. I don’t think she’s doing well,” she said quietly.

“Whatever. Just go to your stupid concert and do your Emo rocker thing.” he muttered back at her, aggravated.

“Bye, Justin. I'll be back by tomorrow, but I'll be leaving soon, looking for a job out of town.” she said sadly.

Jade walked out the door and got into the silver Pacifica, turning on the radio and pulling out of the driveway with Brianna sitting beside her and James in the backseat.

During the drive from New York to New Jersey they stopped for coffee three times. Coffee was something that Jade and Bri had become mentally and physically addicted to over the years. As they crossed a bridge Bri covered her eyes and cringed, she always had been nervous around them. Jade threw her camera to James. They all posed for pictures, keeping Bri’s mind off the bridge.

Officially in Jersey, the traffic hit. Suddenly they were at a dead stop. It was nine thirty the gates to the concert opened at ten and they didn’t want to miss a thing. Slowly the traffic thinned and they turned on some music. It was getting warmer by the minute so they opened all the windows and screamed the lyrics to the cars beside them, gaining more speed as the traffic finally dwindled to a manageable state. Finally they got to the parking lot, Jade and Bri were so excited they could barely stay still. James was able to keep his cool, but just barely. They got like this every year. They were at The Bamboozle Music Festival. My Chemical Romance was headlining with over fifty other bands.