Jaided (7 page)

Chance rubbed her back softly until she was finished. "Better?"

She shook her head. She looked terrible and pale to Chance, and no better to Blaize, as the boys exchanged glances that could merit a death scene. She still wore her soccer gear and her shin guards clanked in the tile floor. Her hair looked like bats had nested in it.

"Sweet Jaide, Tremaine is on his way. He should be here soon."

She nodded and tried to stand on her own and take a step. Jaide felt her legs turn to wet noodles. She collapsed in the boys’ arms.

After they sat her down on her bed, Jaide leaned forward to remove her socks and shin guards. The move made her head pound unbearably.

She straightened and groaned.

"Here, I got it." Blaize knelt and pulled them off.

"Anything else?"

Her arms felt like lead. "My practice clothes feel icky." She slurred her words.

The boys looked at each other and then back at her.

"Uhh ... can you change?"

She gave an inaudible mumble.

"Jaide, we don't want to be inappropriate or anything ... maybe if ..."

"My clothes are ... all sweaty and gross," she mumbled.

"I'm sorry. We can change you if you want."

"I wouldn't mind ... would you
please
?"

They nodded. "Ok honey, you’re sure?"

She nodded consent slowly.

"What do you want to change into?"

"Clean sweats ... a tank top?"

"Ok, yeah, we can do that." Blaize pulled a black tank top and grey sweats from her dresser drawer.

"Ok so ... uhh." He looked at Chance, who nodded. Blaize stepped forward and handed the clothes to Chance. "I'll uh, hold her up while you ... change her."

Chance nodded again.

Blaize pulled Jaide into a partially standing position and Chance pulled off her practice gear and scooted on the sweats, nobly averting his eyes from the sight of her white cotton athletic panties. Blaize then sat her back on the bed in a sitting position and kept
his
eyes averted the whole time while Chance pulled off her T-shirt and the damp sports top underneath.

"Better?"

She nodded. "Sorry I'm so ... lame."

They shook their heads. "It's ok, baby,” Chance said, “just get some rest now, ok?"

She nodded and with his help, crawled under the covers.

Both young men sat down on Blaize's bed, just watching her sleep. "I swear I'm going to find those two fuckers,” Blaize finally muttered, “and beat the shit out of them."

"Yeah ... it's fucked up."

The two sat still, watching over Jaide for what seemed to them an eternity. They did so without uttering another word until someone gently rapped on the door. Leith and Bhrade each carried a tray. "Brought you guys dinner. How's she doing?"

"She's doing ok. She threw up earlier but there wasn't much in her stomach. She's just been sleeping. That’s probably best."

They nodded. "Well, see ya later. Call us if you guys want a break. We can stay with her."

They left, and Chance and Blaize munched on cold fried chicken and a fruit salad. Just as they were wiping their greasy hands and mouths on paper napkins, Jaide rolled over and then back again, tossing and turning, restless and moaning. Nothing they heard from her made sense.

In her mind, a dragon belched flames from its cave. She was tied to a post in front of the cave and quite naked except for her white athletic panties. She could smell her own vomit each time flames leaped from the cave, ever nearer. She knew she would never escape until the flames burned through her bindings and the ropes popped loose. She stepped out of the fallen burning ropes and ran away, across a paved four-lane highway. She dodged horse-drawn Sooner wagons from Oklahoma in some ill-defined race toward Mount St. Helens, where belching eruptive smoke enveloped that monstrous figure. The figure wore a black hood and sat astride an enormous stallion, waving a baseball bat as though daring her to face her destiny. She cringed and dodged the last wagon as it roared by and drowned her screams for help. Help. Help me. I’m running to flee a dragon and my own ugly, nasty father.

Chance and Blaize dropped their trays and scrambled across the room to Jaide’s bedside. Blaize grabbed one wrist as she thrashed, but it just seemed to make her struggle more.

"Tremaine said that ... "

"I know. Do you think I should?"

They gazed down at her fitful sleep. A single tear sneaked out from beneath her closed eyelid. "I think you should try. What can it hurt?"

Blaize nodded. "Ok." He hesitated a moment before crawling under the covers with her. He propped himself up into a half sitting position.

She immediately curled up against his side, laying her head on his chest. He put one arm around her and the other hand pulled the blankets up to her chin. She cuddled close and Blaize sensed her relaxing completely in his arms.

Neither Chance nor Blaize slept during their vigil over Jaide, but eventually Chance broke the silence with a quietly spoken question from Blaize’s bed where he lay.

"What's the deal with you and Maddy?"

Blaize answered, "Honestly, I don't even know."

"She wouldn't want you to spend your years stuck on her. She really isn't alive anymore. You have to understand that."

Blaize didn't say anything for a while, then, "It's just, when I'm attracted to a girl, even if it's just a random pretty girl on the street, I feel guilty."

"You shouldn't."

"I know but it doesn't matter."

"You're attracted to Jaide, aren't you?"

Blaize nodded affirmatively.

"And it’s more than just a physical thing, isn't it?"

"I think so. I mean, you can't deny her body is stunning but, well, I like her for more than that."

Jaide shifted in her sleep a little.

"Have you told her that you like her?"

"No. You like her too, though, don't you?"

"Me, you, Bhrade, Leith, Matt, who doesn't?"

"You know what I mean, Chance."

"Yeah well, I don't know. I mean, she's really sweet and everything, but I just don't see her like that. I don't think any of the guys have a connection like you do with her. She's all yours, man."

"Right, and why would she want me? I'm fucked up."

"No one's perfect."

"Except you."

"Yeah right, man. Besides, me and her are just friend material."

"Yeah well, whatever. Isn’t Tremaine supposed to be here pretty quick?"

Chance shrugged. "Yeah, should be."

"Is he cool?"

"Yeah. I didn't even know he had a sister. He's definitely the overprotective type."

Blaize looked down at her. "I wonder what her nightmares are about."

"From what Tremaine said, it's nothing to be taken lightly."

"What do you mean?"

"I just think that her nightmares are more than just a girl thing, like being afraid of spiders, you know?"

Blaize nodded. "She told me her dad wasn't real nice."

Chance shook his head. "I don't know." He checked his watch. “Tremaine should be here pretty quick.”

A
large and robustly athletic Tremaine shoved open the door to glimpse Chance in one bed and a lump of covers in the other bed, with Jaide’s tousled hair splashed against an unknown boy’s chest.

“What the fuck, Chance!” he shouted.

“It’s ok, buddy!” Chance said quickly as Blaize disengaged Jaide and leapt across the room to stand by Chance.

Jaide remained quite still, her mind enmeshed in a tangle of her own dream’s confused cries for help.
She was enveloped in belching smoke from Mount St. Helens, and had a tremulous view of that hooded nemesis’s ravaging gestures with a bat that seemed shaped like a man’s hideous dangling participle.

Tremaine looked like he was about to have a heart attack. His intense gaze scoured Blaize. "Who the hell are you? That’s my sister, buster.”

Tremaine hit his knees against the side of the bed and shook her shoulder gently. "Jaide, wake up little sis." She didn't respond, still lost in the terror of sleep.

"Chance, what the hell was he doing near her?"

Stammering, Chance said, "Like you said, she was having a nightmare."

"I meant
you
, not some stranger."

"He's less of a stranger to her than I am, no thanks to you
Mr. I'm-an-only-child
."

Tremaine shrugged and turned his attention again to his sister. "Jaide, wake up for a second."

Her eyes opened slowly and at the sight of Tremaine, a wan smile crept into place. “Hi, I think.”

"Hey there, how are you feeling?"

She blinked a couple times. "Better, actually. Hey ... you're not supposed to be here yet, are you?”

"I know, but Chance called and I came as quickly as I could.”

"New Beamer coming in handy then, eh?"

"Hell yeah."

She sat up slowly and Tremaine sat beside her. Jaide threw her arms around him and hugged hard, whispering, "I missed you so much."

"It's only been a week."

"I know. I'm pathetic."

"Nah. So, are you feeling all better?"

"Not 100 percent. Fucking headache beyond belief, kinda dizzy. I'm just really exhausted."

Tremaine took a deep breath. "Who drugged you? How did they get you to take it?"

"I don’t know. Does it matter, big brother? I don't really want to talk about it."

"Sorry."

"I can't even remember anyway."

"That sounds like a date rape drug."

She put her face in her hands with a frown.

Chance spoke up. "It was two idiots who didn’t make the soccer team. They slipped it into her spaghetti at lunch, but it didn’t kick in until the middle of practice. No harm done though, and I’m sure Coach got them expelled."

"But I don't remember anything since ... lunch. What if ..."

Blaize cut her off. "No, I was with you all day. Nothing happened. You seemed normal until practice."

Tremaine looked at him again. "Oh yeah? Who's to say you didn't take advantage of her?"

Blaize's jaw dropped at the accusation.

"Tremaine!” protested Jaide. “How can you say that? You don't even know him."

"Neither do you! You've known him barely a week."

Blaize fought the anger he felt at being accused. "I didn't know she was drugged until practice like everyone else."

"I believe you, Blaize,” said Jaide. “Tremaine, you apologize."

Tremaine raised his eyebrows. "Yeah ... I got a better idea. You're her roomie, right?"

"Yeah."

“Your name’s Blaize, is it? You come with me. Jaide, we'll be right back. I'm gonna have a little man-to-man chat with ... " He nodded at Blaize. "Relax Jaide, we're just gonna talk." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head while he motioned Blaize toward the door.

"Tremaine ..." Jaide’s voice trailed off.

"We'll be right back. Get some rest."

Tremaine started walking down the hallway and Blaize fell into stride beside him.

"So, do you like having Jaide as a roommate?"

Blaize shrugged. "At first I hated it, but it's not so bad I guess."

"So you like her then?"

"What do you mean? Like a friend or like a boyfriend?"

"You tell me."

"I ... I dunno, I like her as a friend, maybe more but I kind of have a girlfriend."

This stopped Tremaine in his tracks. "Hey man, if you are even thinking about playing her, just tell me right now so I can beat the shit out of you."

"No, it's not like that. I ..." He sighed. "Last year toward the end of school, I had a girlfriend. She got in a car accident and she's now brain dead in the hospital. She's ... a vegetable."

Tremaine continued walking but stayed silent for a while. "I'm sorry, man."

Blaize shrugged. "I need to move on. But anyways, like I said, me and Jaide are friends. I'm just not sure if I like her as more than that yet. We didn't know that you meant for Chance to sleep with her and not me."

"Nah, I guess I just panicked, you see ..." He hesitated. "Has she gotten nightmares before this time?"

"Just once that I know of."

"Well she gets them fairly often. They are about her past and ... they re-live things that someone shouldn't be made to re-live; and of course the mind embellishes them, too.”

"She hinted to me that her real father abused her."

"Yeah, well ... 'abused' is just about the nicest way you could say it. That man was so ... messed up. When I first met Jaide in middle school, she was really messed up. I took her to meet my dad who pulled a few strings, and we adopted her. It took her a year to get back to functioning like a normal teenager. She wouldn't eat for days on end, wouldn't sleep because she was afraid her father would find her. We couldn't put her back in school. She couldn't handle it. It took time but she got over it, except for the nightmares. Have you ever noticed how her eyes are a little red all the time?"

"Yeah, I have noticed that."

"It's from burst blood vessels. When she was just a kid, her dad would cause her so much pain by beating her, among other things, that it would cause her eyes to hemorrhage. They have gotten a little better over the years, but they are still a little noticeable. We are told it won't ever go away completely."