Dare || m.c.

➵ 3.6 - jade

Michael had kissed her. She hadn't been expecting it. She had been having a full blown panic attack, the fear of drowning clogging up every corner of her brain. And then out of no where, he had kissed her, literally taking her breath away.

In all honesty, Jade hadn't been repulsed by it. The few seconds it had lasted for, Jade actually liked the way his lips felt on hers. It was an almost fleeting touch, softer than the time he had kissed her knuckles. Still, it left her reeling. She didn't know if she could give Michael what he wanted. Being his friend was one thing, but becoming something more was dangerous. They were finally starting to get along without fighting about something and Michael had to go ahead and kiss her.

She might've told him that she needed time to make up her mind, but really, she didn't want to think about it at all. Deep down, she knew if she thought things through rationally, she would see that she didn't hate Michael. She would realize that he wouldn't use her like Zach did, not after everything they'd been through. She knew she might actually have to come face to face with her feelings and that terrified her. So she chose to deal with that like she dealt with everything else and ignored it.

Right now, she was about to leave to go and meet Sheila. Ashton was supposed to be back about ten minutes ago from his date with Beth, but he was late and Jade wasn't sure why. He was never late when it came to Jade, so this was unusual. And Jade didn't want to call him, either. He was finally doing something for himself and Jade didn't want to ruin it because of her complications. But she still needed to go and see Sheila.

Someone knocked on her door and Jade stood up from the bed. "Yeah?"

Sandra stepped into the room and held the cordless phone out to Jade. "It's Ash," she said.

Jade took the phone from her and Sandra walked away. "Hey, Ash."

"Hi, J," Ashton said from the other end. "I'm so sorry I'm late. There's so much traffic, I don't think I can make it there on time."

"Oh." Well, that sucked. Jade didn't have a car and she had no idea how would get to Sheila's now. But she didn't want Ashton to feel about it. She wasn't his responsibility. "Don't worry about it. I'll figure something out."

"Are you sure?" Ashton asked and Jade heard a bunch of cars honking over the phone. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry, Ashton," Jade said again, sitting down on the bed. "Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah, I did." Even without seeing his face, Jade could hear the smile in his voice. He sounded happy and that was all Jade wanted.

"Good. Now don't stress about me. If I can go, great. If not, oh well."

After talking to Ashton, she thought through her options. She could call a cab, which would take a while and also quite a bit of money. She could bail, which sounded good in theory, but Jade wanted answers and if she chickened out now then she would never do it. She could ask Sandra to drive her, which did not sound appealing to her. That left Michael, but she wasn't sure whether or not to ask him.

After sitting on the bed for another ten minutes or so, Jade thought Fuck it, and decided to see if Michael would take her. He knew about Sheila, he knew about Lacey, he knew everything about her life that he shouldn't have known, so there really wasn't anything to hide from him.

Jade found Sandra out in the backyard, her gardening gloves on. What she was doing out there in the middle of May was beyond Jade. "Hey, I'm going to run to Michael's," Jade told her. "I'll be back before dinner. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Sandra said, glancing up from her work. "Does Ash have Michael's number? Just in case we need to get a hold of you."

"I'm not sure," Jade replied, tucking some hair behind her ear. "I'll text him the number."