Three is a crowd

Chapter 5

Jade felt sick.

It was better when she didn't know who everyone was; when she didn't know any details. Now she knew it all. A spiteful Lara had told her everything. After Lara had found out about the impromptu trip to the beach, she was mad she was not invited. Lara was one of those people who couldn't help not being included especially on Jade and Nevaeh's outings.

Of course, Jade had told her it wasn't planned. They didn't think to invite anyone else. She didn't dare mention that there were plenty of opportunities to invite her but they didn't want to. Lara however wasn't convinced.

She took Jade's embarrassment as a chance to kick her down.

"Everyone was there. It was a pool party hosted by Declan," Lara said and Jade watched her wide eyed.

Part of her thought Lara was being spiteful, everyone couldn't have been there. She probably didn't even know the people there and they didn't know her, no harm done. However the other part was mortified, what if those people put two and two together? What if they saw Celia and Jade together and they knew she was the Jade?

Lara started listing off random names Jade didn't even know and Jade felt like sinking into a hole.

"Your reputation is ruined," Lara finished and Jade couldn't move.

She felt cold all over and despite the fact that it was scorching hot outside, Jade pulled her comforter over her.

"Everyone thinks I'm shallow," Jade whispered and she almost burst into tears.

"They do," Lara replied spitefully and Jade glared at her.

"You're not helping at all," Jade snapped feeling her anger turn into annoyance.

"Well i-"

Jade raised her hand to shut Lara up. "- just get out of my room."

Lara left leaving Jade to wallow in self pity like she wanted to. Her life was over. It was over. Suddenly the best option for Jade was sleep. She would feel better if she slept. So that's what she did. She slept for almost 19 hours before Nevaeh and Celia woke her up.

"The damage is not that bad," Celia began and Jade glared at her. "Here is what happened I was at Declan's party and well I happened to bump into his DJ while I was grabbing a beer. Long story shot we argued over our musical tastes and we decided to let the public decide. I connected my phone to his stuff so I could play my music and then you called and I didn't think. I just answered and well..."

Celia's version made Jade really feel like crawling into a hole and never coming out. Lara's mean version was censored, Jade couldn't live this through.

"It's really not bad. I once had a viral video of me puking at a party but I got over it," Nevaeh soothed Jade who glared at her as well.

"The puking video was in freshman year and no one could tell it was you," Jade snapped and Nevaeh huffed. "Is it on the University's instagram page?"

Jade waited to hear the worst and Celia nodded somberly.

"It's just a couple of memes about girls who...You know what it's nothing serious," Nevaeh said and Jade's eyes widened in mortification.

It was probably something serious from Nevaeh's high-pitched tone.

Jade grabbed her phone from beside her bed and scrolled through the memes making sure she read the comments underneath each post. Someone named pink_dragqueen had mentioned Jade with laughing emojis and Jade almost threw her phone to the wall.

"Great. Just great. Now the whole campus knows what I said. Thanks pink dragon for tagging my name to the post," Jade grumbled and Nevaeh rolled her eyes.

"You're being a drama queen. Get over it," Nevaeh said.

Before Jade could say something back, her phone buzzed and it was a notification from her instagram. Her face paled as she looked at Jack's recent posts.

"What's wrong?" Celia asked staring at Jade.

"Jack's shitty band just got signed to a record label."

The room fell silent. There was one thought running through the trios' minds.

Had Jade been the one holding Jack back?

"I was the one holding him back," Jade whispered horrified.

"It seems so," Nevaeh blurted and Celia elbowed her while shooting a dirty look in her direction.

"You know what, enough of this!" Celia yelled getting up. "We are taking back control. Jade take a shower, you smell and after that both of you meet me at my apartment."

Jade and Nevaeh watched Celia stride out and they knew they had to listen.

"Meet you in 20?" Nevaeh asked and Jade nodded grabbing her toiletries.

"Before I go do I really smell?" Jade whispered by the door and Nevaeh shook her head with a grin.

"Nah, Celia was just messing with you," Nevaeh replied and Jade smiled in relief. "Just take that shower though. You look like crap."

Jade glared at her friend and discreetly sniffed her armpits. She smelt great. So what was Celia going on about?

***

It turned out Celia had asked Jade and Nevaeh to meet them at her apartment because she was taking them and Lara to Midnight Sun, the only club that sold alcohol cheap enough for broke college students but somehow it also catered for the elite students. Thanks to Celia's hot rich girlfriend, they had VIP tickets which meant tonight they weren't mixing with the rest of the crowd. The VIP tickets had lifted Jade's sour mood but only slightly.

The club had purple and pink neon lights flashing everyone giving the room a certain purple glow. As usual it was packed with sweaty bodies swaying to the loud music off the speakers and it smelt stuffy like alcohol and sweat.

Jade sipped a cocktail while watching people grind against each other then she spotted pink_dragqueen grinding on some dude. On the ride to the club Jade had done a little stalking. She knew who pink_dragqueen was, what she looked like, what major she was doing and her life goals. So, it wasn't a little stalking. Jade's first instinct was to confront her but she decided to tell Celia which of course was a grave mistake.

"That's the drag queen girl who tagged me," Jade shouted into Celia's ear over the loud music.

"Let's get her," Celia shouted already walking toward her.

Jade realized that she had made a mistake. She ran after Celia but as usual Celia couldn't be stopped when she set her mind to something. As Celia pushed through the throngs of people to get to drag queen Jade cursed and struggled to run in the high heels Nevaeh had insisted she wear, they were high, way higher than Jade was used to. She was practically towering over everyone.

Then she bumped into someone just as she heard Celia's voice yell at someone. She looked up and couldn't believe it. Her heart seemed to stop as she took in the person before her.

"Nigel?" she asked and the figure nodded smiling at her.

She suddenly broke out of her trance when she heard the sound of a bottle breaking. Jade blinked and cursed before pushing Nigel out of the way. Different scenarios played in her mind. What if Celia had cracked that bottle on drag queen's head?

Jade breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that there wasn't any blood. Instead there was a crowd around Celia who was holding a large piece of broken glass waving it at drag queen's purple face.

"Come at me hoe!" Celia yelled and the music seemed to have been lowered.

Everyone stood and stared, waiting. Jade suddenly couldn't breathe and see clearly. Everything was hazy and she was gasping desperately for air. Everything was suffocating her, she couldn't breathe and she was having a panic attack...

Thank you for reading! 

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