Chapter 5; Happy Birthday to Who?::
Sunlight burst through a bay window in the huge hotel room and landed on Jade's face. She squinted and groaned, pulling her heavy white comforter over her head. It couldn't be that late in the morning. It hadn't felt like she'd even slept that long. She pulled the blanket away from her face, furrowing her brow against the light, and rubbed her sleep-blemished eyes. It took her a moment to remember that she wasn't in her own apartment. She blinked at the room and then sat up slowly, rubbing the back of her neck. She looked at the digital clock next to her on the bedside table: 11:02 am. It felt so much earlier, which seemed odd to her because, in truth, it should feel later. She was stuck on Evansville, Indiana time, after all. She picked up her red phone and looked at the display. One missed call and one voicemail message. She called her voicemail box.
"Saturday, September 13," the cool female voice told her, "9:24 am." The voice changed then.
"Hey, it's me," Mike's voice rang through her ear.
"You must still be out from the plane ride," he told her, "I was just calling to see if you wanted to have breakfast. I'll just let you sleep. Just go ahead and call me back whenever you're up and around and we'll find something to do. The opening for the show isn't until about 8:00 tonight. So, there's no rush. Just call me. I'll talk to you later. Happy birthday." The message ended and the cool female voice returned to her ear.
"To delete this message, press '7'. To copy this message to another person--" the woman was cut off. Jade pressed "9" and saved the message, leaving the voicemail menu. She smiled sadly and looked down at her phone, checking the time it would be in Rochester, Indiana. 2:00 pm. No one else had even text to wish her a happy birthday. She took a deep breath and swung her legs off the bed. Screw them then. If they didn't want to take the time to make her feel appreciated, even on her birthday, she didn't care. She was going to the make the best of her trip. No one could take away the fun she was supposed to be having. She trudged her way to the bathroom, starting the hot water in the shower, and stripped off her clothes. She showered quickly, washing her hair, and then toweled off. She stared at herself in the mirror. She didn't like the way she looked anymore. She used to be quite vibrant. She was happy long ago. It seemed like another lifetime when she had truly laughed and meant it. She sighed and untangled her hair with a comb.
~*~
She yanked her iPod headphones out of her pocket by the cord. It caught in her jeans pocket and she jerked on it hard. She looked up suddenly and watched a blue sports car pull into the cul de sac parkway in front of the hotel. A moment later, as she was stuffing the right earbud for her headphones into her ear, the door opened and she watched Mike step out. Of course he'd have a car like this. She wanted to roll her eyes. He stepped away from the car and smiled at her.
"Hey." She smirked and nodded at him, deciding against the music she was going to listen to and pushed the iPod and headphones back into her pocket.
"Sleep well?" She nodded.
"Pretty well," she murmured at him. He watched her eyes trail behind him, back to the car again. He turned around and looked at it.
"Gawdy, mm?" She wondered what he'd meant by that. He'd bought the car. It was his fault if he was getting extra attention because of it.
"I had to rent this," he mumbled, "I wouldn't have gotten THIS flashy of a car, but this is the only hybrid they still had on the lot. Lot D at the airport obviously isn't too high security. Someone keyed the entire left front of my Lexus."
"Oh." It was kind of sucky that someone would deface such a gorgeous vehicle.
"So, I'm stuck with this beast until Monday. You want to go have lunch? I'm supposed to meet my wife in a few minutes."
"You're dragging me along to meet your wife for a lunch you're supposed to have with HER?"
"No, she's expecting you, actually. She wanted to meet you."
"Okay. I guess."
"Let's go," he grinned. Jade sighed and pocketed her phone, climbing into the passenger's side. Mike pulled out of the cul de sac and sped off down the road toward a traffic hold-up.
~*~
He held the door for her at the café they'd parked at. She wasn't used to the politeness of anyone toward her. She smiled a thank you at him, strained, and walked into the place, waiting for him. Mike grinned and led the way through the tiny place toward a small table where a brunette woman was already sitting, staring out the window. Jade studied her for a moment. She was wearing a salmon colored sun dress and beige, dressy flip-flops. Her brown hair was hanging lightly around her shoulders in slightly curled tendrils, a few of which were pulled up in a very loose half-pony. She looked thoughtful. Her chin was rested on her hand and she was staring out the window to her right. Her left leg was rested lazily on top of her right, and the foot jangled slowly back and forth, up and down, in a sort of nervous movement. It was in that few moments, studying her, that Jade realized why exactly Mike had wanted to marry her. She was very pretty in her own distinct way.
Mike stepped up to the table and smiled at her. She jumped out of her thoughts and then smiled up at him.
"Oh hey." He gave her a grin and then bent to kiss her cheek lightly, resting his hand gently on the small of her back for a few moments. Jade stood awkwardly behind Mike, almost feeling like she was intruding on a private moment.
"This is Jade." Jade forced a fake smile. Mike's wife looked at Jade and smiled widely, as if her face might stick that way.
"Hi! I'm Anna." She stuck her small hand out and caught Jade's, shaking it. Jade felt a slight warmth spread through her chest. She almost wanted to give Anna a real smile. She seemed like a genuinely beautiful person.
"Shall we?" Mike motioned toward two extra seats at the table. Jade nodded then and sat down lightly, feeling almost out of place in the area of wardrobe. Anna looked very nice in her sundress. Mike was wearing a white and blue pinstriped button down shirt, rolled up at the sleeves, and nice jeans. Jade, on the other hand, sat limply between them at the round table in a black baby tee, baggy jeans, and a pair of skateboarding shoes. Her ash blond hair hung stupidly in a messy ponytail, her side-swipe bangs hanging in her face. Neither of her two hosts seemed to mind, however, and they smiled at her. Anna took a deep breath and then looked at Jade hard, but almost lovingly.
"So, this is the girl that's been driving my husband nuts?" Mike shot her a playfully angry glare. Jade smirked up at her and then glanced back down at the table. She wondered what exactly Mike had told Anna. Did she know where all the scars on Jade's body had come from? She thought about them one by one: the two long, brown and white ones on the back of her left hand; the one on her right arm, just beside the bed in her elbow; and the one on her right calf side, longer and wider than any of them. She felt so out of place. These two, as they conversed, seemed so perfect for each other and for life. They seemed like they had nothing to worry about. They helped people in natural disasters around the world. They rebuilt homes for people. They raised money. They were just perfect people. Why was she sitting here with them? What did she have to offer? She felt a sudden sense of loss and despair. She wanted to go home, suddenly; to just wallow in her own sorrow, knowing that nothing she could ever do would go to the lengths that the two amazing people sitting to her left and right had.
"Jade?" She looked up from the white table cloth.
"Huh?"
"I asked you how your birthday was going."
"Good." She gave him a mock smile. He gave her a small one back, as if he could see the pain she was feeling through her eyes. She heard Anna sigh on her other side.
"I'm so sorry; but I have to head out."
"Plans?"
"Yeah. Jennie wants to talk more about that offer from Atheneum." Mike nodded slowly and then watched her walk to the other side of the table.
"I shouldn't be gone long. Don't worry. I won't miss the opening." Mike smiled and stood to hug her before she left the café. He looked at Jade.
"She's an author. She's getting her first bok published soon." Jade nodded.
"You just wanna get something back at the hotel? I never really liked tiny little cafés."
~*~
"So, I was inside of the freaking porta-potty and they tipped it over right in the middle of the place," Mike blurted out. Jade snorted loudly, popping a grape into her mouth.
"And then they sprayed me with four cans of Lysol and made me stripe down to my underwear before they'd let me back on the bus." It took everything in Jade to keep up her façade and stop herself from laughing loudly. They'd eaten through their lunch, which consisted of turkey sandwiches, fruit, two Sprites, and some Jell-O, all from the hotel room service, and were conversing about things that had embarrassed them throughout life. Mike rolled back on the wheely computer chair he was sitting in and grabbed the remote for the television.
"You want to watch anything in particular?" Jade shook her head, eating another grape. Mike flipped on the television and her cellphone burst into life. She flipped it open to read who the text message was from: Allie. She smiled, realizing that her old friend from high school had finally taken time to remember her birthday. She opened the text.
"Send this message to 10 girls you love!" Her heart fell. It was a chain mail message. She stared at the phone, the corners of her eyes suddenly stinging, and pursed her lips.
"Anything interesting?" Mike asked, chewing on a piece of an orange. She didn't answer him. He turned toward her.
"Jade?" She looked up quickly, biting her thumb nail and then blinked hard.
"What? Oh, uh, no not really. Just some really long chain mail thing from someone in Indiana."
"Oh." Jade looked back down at the phone. She could feel his eyes on her. She really wished he's stop watching so much. She hated people paying attention. If they paid attention, it just meant it was going to get her hopes up that someone actually might care, and then it'd hurt worse then they went away. And they always did. She glanced at the clock on her phone: 6:06 pm.
"Uhm. It's 6:00. Shouldn't you be getting ready for the opening?" Mike's feet fell from the desk in front of him and he glanced at the digital clock.
"Argh, yeah." He stretched is arms high above his head and stood up. Jade watched him, trying not to think about how no one seemed to care. She didn't want to break down while he was still there. He looked around, making sure he'd grabbed everything.
"I'll have Anna come and pick you up around 7:30. I have to be there at 7:00 or I'd come and get you." She nodded, trying to keep her breathing even. He smiled weakly at her.
"See you in a little bit."
"Bye."
"See ya." She heard the door click closed. Without warning, Jade buried her face into her pillow, balling her fists into the white comforter of the bed the house keeper had made earlier. Tears started to leak from her eyes and a strangled moan escaped her throat. No one cared. She didn't know why Mike was trying to pretend that he did. To make himself look good, perhaps? She stuffed her face farther down into the pillow, screaming into it. It made her throat feel as if it were ripping at the seams. She hated the world. She hated everything about it. How could people be so cruel? She was so easily forgotten. Hell, for all she knew, Mike would forget she was even in California and she'd never go to the artshow. He'd be so wrapped up in his own life...
She tangled herself in the blankets, sniffing loudly, and cried out through the room. It echoed. She didn't want that. She buried her face in the pillow again. It would be so easy to end it all right them. She could just push her face into that pillow and never resurface. It would be so easy. Someone would just think she fell asleep and suffocated on the pillow. No one would ever know she'd done it to herself. She moaned out into the plush fabric and shoved her arms underneath it, pressing it closer to her face. A knock sounded through the room. Her head shot upward, and a tiny moan escaped her throat. The knock came again. She rubbed her hands over her face roughly, trying to rid herself of as many tears as she could. It was probably just the cleaning lady anyway. She lifted herself from the bed and smoothed out her shirt. It took ten steps to get to the door. She counted them all, hoping her face didn't betray any sign that she'd been so prepared to die. She pulled the door open. Expecting a lady in a gray uniform with a cart, she was taken aback to see a slightly out of breath Mike who looked at her oddly.
"I..forgot my keys. Are you crying?"
"No."
"You're an awful liar." He didn't look the slightest bit happy anymore.
"I'll get your keys." She looked in the vanity mirror as she passed it. Mike was right. She was a horrible liar. Her hair was disheveled and her face was a deep red. It was obvious she'd been crying. She sniffed loudly and grabbed the black and red lanyard that was sitting on the computer desk at the other side of the room. She turned quickly and ran head long into Mike. She grunted.
"Sorry." He looked down at her and licked his lips.
"What happened to you?" She stared at the floor.
"Nothing. Everyone just needs to cry every now and then, right?"
"Not the way I heard you crying." It felt like someone kicked her in the gut. He'd heard her. She hadn't even considered that. She looked past his shoulder to the wall behind him.
"It doesn't matter."
"It matters to me." And just like that, her face crumpled and she fell against him as her knees gave out. She felt him ease her to the ground and her hold her still as her body was racked with sobs that echoed through the room, shaking her from the inside out.