Juilliard or Else (9 page)

"What?" I asked and she just shrugged her shoulders at me without a word. I stood up from my chair and went to lean over the rail. I peered down at the busy street and passing taxis. I could feel Jade's eyes burning holes into my back.

"You're easy to read, chick." I heard Jade stand from her chair and felt her stand beside me. "Parents are rich and you're lonely. Am I right so far?"

Did my body language really give me away that easily? I was lonely, but now that I was out from under Carol's dirty nose, I could be my own person. I finally felt free, and Jade teaching me how to smoke was a bonus.

"Evil step mama?" I eyed her, but she was right, of course. I turned my head back down to the street. She continued on, "Yeah, I've got one of those, too." Jade looked back down at the busy traffic with me. "My mom killed herself four years ago."

My heart sank and broke for her. Jade had lost her mother; was that why she cuts? I didn't have the nerve to ask her as that would be stepping out of line. We had just barely met and I didn't feel comfortable going down that road. You never knew – she could completely turn on me and become my mortal enemy. She had that mortal enemy glare down to a T when she gave it to Rachel.

"My dad remarried the biggest bitch in New York. God, I hate her."

"I bet she isn't as big of bitch as Carol," I huffed out.

"Explain, Gabs." Jade turned around and rested her elbows on the railing, crossing her feet at the ankles, waiting for me.

"Well, about two hours ago, I found out she's actually my stepmom and my birth mom died when I was born."

Her brows shot up in surprise. "The bitch just told you?"

Shaking my head, I replied, "No, my dad did."

"Whoa…now that's messed up."

I nodded in agreement.

"I can tell you've been living in a black hole. We need to loosen you up – show you what you're missing. And first things first."

I started to giggle at her. "What?"

"You need to get rid of that nasty ass bun at the back of your head."

I didn't have time to reach up myself before Jade was already undoing it for me. When my blonde hair curtained around my face in little waves, the sliding door opened and Rachel poked her head out. "Jade, are you being a good example?"

"Shove it up your ass, Ray," Jade snapped.

I chuckled and shook my head. Jade gave off the vibes of being an honest, up-front person when it came to confronting Rachel. She didn't give a crap what people thought, and so far, it's what I liked most about her. I wanted to be that person and take charge, so I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah, up your ass, Rachel." Rachel's face dropped at my foul words. Jade's head faced me with a huge grin, her blue eyes gleaming in approval. Maybe talking that way wasn't my style. "Sorry," I mumbled, but broke out laughing right after. Maybe that was a little much, but I couldn't help myself. My body folded in half at Rachel's saddened face. I laughed so hard my stomach started to hurt. My face heated up and my cheeks were starting to hurt from my smile. I looked back towards Jade; I knew she was letting me enjoy my moment of happiness and she was.

"I can see Jade has taught you well so far," Rachel murmured, "and took your hair down."

I shrugged my shoulders and muffled my laughter with my hand.

"What shall we do tonight, Ray, to help Miss Tight Wad loosen up her panties?"

By the way Rachel's eyes looked, I could tell she was up to no good. "Show her porn?"

"No," I protested as I held up my hands. "I'm good. I know all about Sex Ed."

"Porn isn't Sex Ed unless you watch a naughty student mixed with a nasty teacher with a ruler," Rachel told me. "I'll order Chinese. Jade, get the laptop ready." Rachel pulled out her phone from her pocket while shutting the glass door to call the restaurant.

Jade nudged my arm with her elbow. "You're already loosening up a lot. Want another cig with me?"

"Sure."

The more Jade and I talked, the more and more comfortable I felt being around her. She explained that her mom killed herself after her boss accused her of stealing money from his company – a lot of money. Her boss had tons of evidence to use against her, framing her to shield himself, they later found out. Jade said that the day her mother died, her grandma came to take her away to stay at her house, but gave her no explanations as to why she was staying with her. But Jade never saw her again until the funeral. They even had to have a closed casket service because her mom shot herself in the mouth and Jade's dad couldn't fix it.

"Couldn't fix it?" I asked, wondering what she meant by that.

"My dad's a plastic surgeon – best in the biz."

We both heard Rachel yell from the inside that the food was here. When we walked back into the living room, the first thing I heard was loud moaning from the laptop sitting on the coffee table. I definitely blushed at the loud sex noises the couple was making…well, mostly the screaming girl was making, as she was clearly enjoying herself.

Rachel had paper plates, napkins, and plastic forks for us, surrounded by Chinese food. Eating my food in utter silence, I watched the couple on the screen go at it like dogs. Well, technically I think I stared at the floor or at my food more than at the erotic couple. This is what they really did for entertainment? Jade explained that the porn was a good touch just to lighten me up and help me come out of my shell more. I couldn't help but smile at her for that. She knew I had a stepmom who was hard on me. I explained very little to her about Carol other than she was not my birth mother.

I was loosening up some, but still felt tense. I didn't like the videos; porn was just nasty. Jade quickly helped with the mood in the room. "What would happen if Big Bird walked in right now as they were going at it on the desk?" she asked, growling around the egg roll and taking a nasty bite out of it.

Rachel choked on her food and rice sprayed everywhere. I burst out into loud laughter.

"Where did that come from, Jade?" Rachel asked when she settle down and had control of her breathing.

Jade winked at me and said, "I don't know. I had a Sesame Street song stuck in my head." She shrugged her shoulders and I knew she was trying to distract me. It very much helped. I no longer pictured it as strangers having sex for money and being taped, but more along the lines of a sexual fantasy they were trying to get. But no way was Big Bird involved.

"When have you ever watched Sesame Street, Jade?" Rachel asked and Jade ignored her. I silently thanked Jade for helping me.

After five porn videos and more Sesame Street sex talk, we were still laughing. Rachel speculated what would happen if Elmo walked in and used his high-pitched voice asking,
'Hey guys, whatcha doin?'
I had to admit, she did a perfect Elmo voice. Jade was making us laugh with a Big Bird impression of a couple having sex, clucking around the living room like a chicken, while moaning up against the wall.

I was lying on my back with my legs under the coffee table, feeling dizzy from our rambunctious laughter. My stomach was aching from all the fun and laughter we were having. Why was I afraid to meet these two girls? They were awesome. I loved them.

After we settled down, I slowly sat up, not wanting to feel anymore dizzy than I already was. We went through the fast basic questions you do when you meet someone new: favorite color, TV shows and so on. I really wanted to watch this
Client List
Rachel raved on about.

I found out Rachel loves to shop and invited me along to go with her and her mom tomorrow. Of course I agreed. At the beginning I was so afraid they wouldn't like me enough because I came from a rich family, but it turned out that their parents were wealthy as well.

Jade stood up and announced she wanted coffee. "It's coffee time! Coffee, coffee, coffee! Coffee time," Jade sang while picking up our dirty paper plates.

I looked at the clock on the DVD player to see it was five thirty and couldn't believe it was already so late in the day. I was having so much fun with Rachel and Jade. We all put our coats on and left the apartment arm in arm. Rachel and Jade's favorite coffee stand was just a block away from our place.

"I bet you anything Ray will order hot chocolate," Jade whispered in my ear as we walked in. And Rachel went right up to the cashier and ordered her hot chocolate just as Jade predicted. "Hot chocolate, Ray? It's a coffee stand." Jade rolled her eyes and ordered hers next:
Venti regular coffee, extra light and extra sweet with a pumpkin scone on the side. I couldn't stand pumpkin anything; something about the spices made my nose turn up just at the smell. I studied the menu, reading over the mixed drinks. I didn't ever drink coffee, so I just ordered the first thing I saw – a Mocha Frappuccino.

I usually liked the smell of the coffee Isabelle made for my dad in the mornings. I remembered when I asked if I could taste his one morning; he shrugged at me and pushed his coffee cup towards me. I winced at the memory because it turned out that I didn't like it. I'd have to see how this tasted.

When our drinks were made and we spotted an empty table in the back of the darkened room, I studied my surroundings of the small coffee shop. Above the table we headed towards was a balcony with a pool table and a group of laughing guys leaning against the railing. They were watching us as they stood there, holding their pool cues, some of them nodding in our direction.

We sat down at the table when Jade started talking, "So this Big Bird thing." We all busted out laughing. I took a sip of my mocha coffee; the warmth of the smooth drink went down my throat and warmed my belly.

Oh holy hell. I'm in love.

"Good, huh, Gabs?" Jade asked me and I nodded, taking another drink of my mocha. When I set my half empty cup down, a little ball of rolled up napkin landed in front of me… then another, and then another.

"What the hell? It's snowing napkins up in this shit!" Jade shouted. Rachel and I snorted and looked up to the boys still leaning against the metal railing as they rolled up the napkins and tossed them down at us.

"Hey, Red," one guy called down. "Come on up here. I bet you can't beat me in a game of pool," he challenged and balanced a pool cue in front of his face and over the railing. I just hoped he didn't drop it on us.

Rachel looked back at me from across the table and winked. What the hell? Was she really going to go up there with them? Rachel stood up from the table, hot chocolate in hand, and made her way to the set of stairs, which led up to the pool room. More napkins started falling around Jade and I, and when we both looked back up, one guy with long black shaggy hair and a lip ring remained. He sent a wink towards Jade. She snapped her head back at me so fast; if looks could burn, Jade would be up in flames.

"What?" I asked, staring at her.

"He's freaking hot," she mumbled, then started chewing on her lip while her cheeks turned crimson.

"Hey cutie," he called out and did a little whistle, but Jade didn't turn her head back up to him; she just slowly sipped on her coffee and picked at her scone.

More napkins started falling around us again, but when I looked back up, my eyes met with another guy wearing a gray sweatshirt with his hood up on his head. He gave me a jerk of his head with a wink, clearly telling me that I should join Rachel and come up the stairs.

I looked back at Jade who was still chewing on her lip. I reached over to pat her hand to get her attention. When she glanced at me, I smiled, feeling very brave and ready to try something that I've never done before. "Come on, I'll go too," I said, standing up from the table as I pulled on Jade's hand to come with me.

Every step we made to the top of the stairs, Jade stumbled. I couldn't picture her being this way about anything.

When we reached the top of the stairs, the guy with the black hair met us. He stuck out his hand. "Hey, I'm Jett."

Jade pressed into my side; I gave a little push with my shoulder into her side to get her to introduce herself, but she just stayed silent. When I did it for a second time, she finally mumbled out, "I'm Jade." I smiled at her, knowing she didn't see me. Jett reached for her hand to shake it, then he pulled her away from my side. I nodded at myself in approval with a side smile while my inner self clapped.

I watched Rachel as she bent forward on the pool table and the guy that challenged her was behind her, teaching her how to hit the ball on the cue just perfect.
I spotted an empty table by the rail and sat down, taking in my surroundings of the pool room.

Feeling the presence of another person next to me when they filled the empty chair, I turned my head to find the guy wearing the gray sweatshirt occupying the now taken seat. His hood was off his head and he was smiling at me. My knees started bouncing with my nerves.

Wow. Now he's cute.

I was immediately drawn to his bright, ocean blue eyes; his smile was hot as the one deep dimple in his left cheek deepened the more he grinned. I wanted to trace that dimple with the tip of my finger. His brown shaggy hair was styled in a messy look, like he just ran his fingers through it; it was long and flopped over one side of his head. His jaw line was strong and he had a perfectly shaped nose. He was the hottest guy I'd ever seen in person.