Short Stories

Short Story 13- Dear Jade and Lana (Pt.1)

She flatlined as both girls cried with their dad. Its official, their worst fear came true. What now? They go home and don't talk about it. Each person goes to their rooms and sit on their beds. None of them know what to do. Lana is itching to break something, cry, get angry at the world. Jade wants to cry but she knows as soon as Lana reacts, she's gonna have to clean it up, so she holds it in. And their dad? Well their dad stared blankly at the wall. He takes a deep breath and looks through her bed side table. He pulls out two letters, one marked Lana, the other, Jade, in beautiful cursive handwriting. He goes to the girls room and softly knocked on the door. He quietly enters and hands the girls their envelopes. They look at him confused, he just walks away. They look at each other and Jade opens hers.

"They're from mom." Jade says breathlessly, like she couldn't believe it.

"What?" Lana asked.

"The letters, they're from mom." Jade started crying and Lana started pacing around their room, "Lana? What are you doing?" Lana started playing with her hands and scratching her upper arm. Jade knew what was coming next, "Lana calm down and breathe. Breathe with me, ok? Match my breathing." 

But Lana wasn't listening, she started crying and Lana hated when she cried. It made her feel weak. She started ripping posters off her side of the room, shoving things to the ground. She took things out of her closet and ripped the covers off her bed. She started ripping pictures apart and screaming in pain and rage. She got to their mom's journals and camera. Lana was about to smash the camera when Jade screamed, "ENOUGH!!! LANA WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?! THAT'S MOM'S!!!! YOU CAN'T GET THAT BACK IF YOU BREAK IT!!!"

Lana stopped and stared at Jade. Jade never got angry. She scared herself as well as Lana. Lana shook her head and walked out the door.

"Where are you going?!" Jade yelled after her twin.

"Out!" Lana yelled back. Jade knew she was going for a walk, so she started cleaning up the room. Putting things back in their correct place.

Lana always felt bad when she got home after on of her meltdowns and Jade had cleaned everything but that was at the back of mind. There was a party that she got invited to by her friend. When she got there the music blasted and people were dancing. She went looking for the drink table and found the strongest thing she could find.

Jade sat on her bed once the mess was cleaned up and read her mother's letter.

Dear Jade,

So I must be gone if you're reading this. We knew it was coming, we just didn't know when. When you were little I had a list of all the things I hoped for you. I hope she makes friends, I hope she stays with her sister, I hope, I hope, I hope. But the thing is baby, you exceeded all of them. When I wrote this, I wrote a new list of all the things I want you to do.

- I want you to go out and experience the world

- I want you to meet new people

- I want to try new things

- I want you to get a s/o

- I want you to experience heartbreak

- I want you to grow from said heartbreak

- I want you to be successful

- I want you to stay with your sister and your family (that includes your friends)

- I want you to live life to the fullest

and most importantly,

- I want you to be happy in life

Jade Seraphina McCoy, I love you so much and I wish I was there to see you grow and become the amazing woman I know you can be. I'm sorry I'll never see anything past your fifteenth birthday but you have dad and Lana. You have people, lean on them, don't shut down, and down shut them out. They will always be there. I will always be there with you in your heart. I love you.

Love,

Mama

By the end of the letter Jade was sobbing. She out the letter back in its envelope and went to her dad's room. He looked up at her.

"Hey dad." Jade said softly, she sat next to him.

"Hey Jadey."