Like Stealing Diamonds From a Blind Girl

25. A Broken Familia

25. A Broken Familia

Jade couldn't believe his luck. It was like someone had handed him a second chance on a silver platter. An opportunity to make things right. To fight for her just like his mamá had told him to.

He had come to a few conclusions and these conclusions brought everything into perspective. He had feelings for Blaire. Real feelings. He didn't exactly know what type of feelings or where they were going but he knew they were there and that he needed to pursue them.

He spent the rest of the day going through the motions of school, not quite paying attention to any of it. He was hatching a plan, a plan to win her back. He would take her places, say they were there to study. They would be places that would touch her, make her see him as a good guy not the bad guy. He would show her his sensitive side, the side of him that very few ever got to see. He would make her laugh. He would win her back. It didn't matter that he never really had her to begin with. Neither did it matter that she deserved far better than him.

But first, he needed a really exceptional topic. Something that would spark her interests and make her eager to begin their research. Something he could fascinate and dazzle her with. Something that would impress her.

He did not have an inkling of what that might be.

School ended and Jade hopped onto his bike and began the short trek back to his house. He would have liked to stop by the hospital on the way but now that his mamá was staying there, there was no one to pick up the twins from Exeter High. He would have to go home and take the car to go get them himself. They could all go to visit her together after that.

If only events had gone as planned.

What happened next was a series of confusing and unwelcome surprises. Ones that would change everything.

It began when Jade entered his home to find the twins already there, sitting at the kitchen table. With their father.

There was no yelling. There was no smashing of things that shouldn't be thrown. There were only three figures sitting silently at a table. Tallin was sobbing. The other two faces were still and somber. For a moment he could only stand motionless and stare at the queer sight before him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked pointedly at his father, “I told you if you want money, talk only to me. I told you not to come within a hundred feet of this house!”

“Jade–” Tallin began.

“Get out!” he yelled.

“Jade–” she tried again, more forcefully, but he was not ready to listen.

“GET OUT!” he roared at the man before him. A man he despised for everything he had put them through.

“I'm sober,” the disgusting man blurted, “Haven't taken a sip in 26 days.” To this Jade had no reply.

“Sit down, son,” his father gestured to an empty chair by the table, “we have something to talk about.” The man spoke with perfect clarity, every consonant properly enunciated. It was something Jade couldn't remember ever hearing. His father's angry words and his slur had gone hand in hand as long as he could remember.

“You think you can waltz back in here after what you've done and just expect us to accept you back into our lives because you've been sober for a few weeks?”

“Just shut up for a second and sit down,” Tallin snapped. Another tear sloshed down her already damp cheek.

“I'm not going to just forgive him for his years of abuse!” he cried. He didn't know what was going on but that monster of a man wasn't going to get off so easily.

“No one said anything about forgiving anyone,” Tyler barked, “just sit the fuck down. It's important.”

“Watch you're mouth.”

“Siéntate,” sit down. Jade ran his fingers through his hair and sighed defeated, before sitting between his two siblings at the table across from his father. All three faces avoided his glare. There was more silence.

“Well?” Jade prodded. His father cleared his throat.

“It's about your mother,” he began reluctantly. He stopped speaking then which only led Jade to the suspicion that there was more and it wasn't good. A ball of dread fell to the pit of his stomach heavily as he waited for the man to continue.

“There were... complications, and well... she didn't...” he came to a long pause as if looking for the right words, words that would do her justice, “She didn't make it.”

“What do you mean she didn't make it?”

“She's dead, Jade. She's fucking dead!” Tyler banged his fist onto the table which shook with the force. Tallin's face hit the table next with a light thump before she covered wrapped her head in her arms and loud, shuddering sobs filling the room. Their father's face remained stoic as a statue.

Jade stood from his chair, his heart pounding uncontrollably fast. He looked around him at what was left of his broken, messed up familia and then walked calmly to his room where he planned to lock himself up for the rest of his life.

And so he did.

Until she showed up a week later.