Short Stories

Short Story 14- Dear Jade and Lana (Pt. 2)

It took four months after she died for Jade to finally be done with Lana's self-destructive behavior. She stepped in front of the door.

"Jadey, what are you doing?"

"You know I hate that nickname."

"You used to love when mom called you that."

"You have no right ti mention mom!" Jade yelled, exploding at Lana. Lana was pissed but mostly confused and she just wanted to leave.

"Excuse me?!" Lana yelled back.

"You heard me! You have no right to mention mom!"

"She was my mom too!"

"Oh really?! You sure don't act like it!"

"What?! Because I'm not shutting myself away?! Because I don't ignore everyone and everything?!"

"I'm the one who makes sure dad is ok! I make sure you both are fed! I clean the house! I do the laundry! I do the chores! I became mom! WHAT DO YOU DO?!"

"I'M LIVING MY LIFE!!!"

"NO! YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE GOING TO HOUSE PARTIES! GETTING HIGHER THAN THE GODDAMN SKY AND SO DRUNK YOU CAN BARELY STAND! HAVE YOU EVEN READ MOM'S LETTER?! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE SHE DIDN'T DIE AND LEAVE US!!!"

"WHAT?!"

"HAVE YOU READ THE LETTER?!"

"OF COURSE I HAVE!!" 

"OH REALLY?! I CHECKED!! THE ENVELOPE IS STILL SEALED!!" 

At this point they were screaming at each other. All their pent up anger came spewing out with no real way to stop it. They just kept going and going until Lana screamed,

"YOU KNOW KNOW WHAT?! I'M DEALING WITH YOUR BULLSHIT JADE!!!"

"DON'T LEAVE THIS HOUSE!!!"

"YOU CAN'T CONTROL ME!! YOU'RE NOT DAD!!!" Lana screamed and pushed Jade out of the way. She slammed the front door as she left.

"Took you long enough." Vienna said as Lana got into her car. Lana just rolled her eyes.

Jade had no clue where her twin went. She did what she did every night. Jade waited for Lana to come home. No matter how drunk she was she was always home by two am. The hours ticked by like years. Each minute was painfully slow. As it slowly got closer to two, Jade got more and more worried.

Deep down, Lana knew she should go home and apologize but she was too drunk to care. Three rolled around and the party was slowing down.

"Come onnnnnn!" Vienna slurred, "let's go to my house!" Lana giggled and nodded. 

The longer Lana was out, the more tired Jade got. She fought to keep herself awake. At some point pure exhaustion took over and sleep succumbed her. She woke up to the sun streaming in the big living room window. She looked for her phone, which she found on the floor where it must have fallen in the middle of the night. A blanket fell off her. She didn't even realize it was laid on her, which meant Lana came home sober enough to do something for once or her dad got out of bed to do more than just shower. Neither option was believable but you never know. She went with option A and ran upstairs to their room to find her twin. She opened the door and looked over to Lana's bed. It wasn't messy with pillows thrown everywhere and blankets falling off. It was still neat from when Jade made it yesterday morning. That means Lana didn't come home last night. She looked at the clock on the wall, nine a.m. Jade ran downstairs and into the kitchen. She found her dad there sipping black coffee, something he hasn't done in a while.

"Dad?" Jade asked, confused.

"Hey Jadey, where's Lana?"

"Um, sleeping?" she lied but it came out more as a question than a statement.

"Ok." he said and smiled.

"Ok." she said and started to leave but stopped when her dad spoke up.

"Go find her, Jadey." Jade whirled around and stared at her father.

"How?"

"I'm not deaf or blind, and you are a terrible liar. Go find her."

"Ok. I love you." Jade said and hugged him.

"Love you too."

Jade ran out of the kitchen. She pulled on her old beaten up converse and grabbed her keys. She instantly called Lana, no response. She called again, straight to voicemail. She called over and over again, panic increasing each time, and it going straight to voicemail each time. She called and her that little beep at least 30 times.

"Lana Wren McCoy, I swear to fucking god, if you don't answer your fucking phone, I will beat you myself!!! I have been to every single one of your fuck up friends house. Not a single one of them have seen you. Where the hell are you?! I'm getting-"

Then it went dark.