Chapter 6; Gambling Away a Friend::
As she stepped into the small venue where the artists convention was being held, Jade felt her nerves catch up with her and she stared at the floor.
"You okay?" Mike asked. She glanced up at him quickly.
"What? Oh, yeah." She smiled down at the floor.
"Just nervous, I guess." He nodded.
"That's okay. Just remember what I told you last night." She nodded. His words from the night before rang through her head. Everything about that moment lingered clearly in her mind's eye. She'd finally calmed down enough to tell him exactly what was wrong. That no one truly loved her. No one cared. She was always pushed to the side to make room for the people that seemed so much more important than she was. And she'd lain her face on the carpet, lying on her side, with Mike sitting above her head. He'd taken a deep breath and told her, with so much confidence that she was sure he truly meant it, that she meant something to him. She wasn't any less important than anyone else on this earth and if someone else couldn't see that, then fuck them. He let her know that nothing, NOTHING justified the fact that people acted like they didn't care. And then she'd sat up and hugged him and told him thank you. Thank for you caring. Thank you for being there. Thank you for taking her away long enough to show her that someone truly could care about her. And she'd only been there for two days. She couldn't imagine the ways he could break down her walls if she was there for another week.
She sat down in a chair next to Mike at a long table and set down the bottle of water he'd given her in the car. Everyone was chatting in a lively manner. Most of the people seemed like they were around her age. A few of them looked a little younger, some a little older. Mike looked like the oldest one there. That must have meant he was the director of whatever this was meant to be. A girl in a black button down top with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows sat down next to her and dropped her satchel bag onto the floor behind her. She smiled up at Jade, throwing her long, black french braid back over her shoulder. Jade strained a smile back at her and then looked up at Mike as he sat at the end of the long table. The room seemed to quiet down immediately. Mike grinned at all of them.
"Morning." A few people gave him happy hellos, others merely grunted. Mike shuffled through a bunch of papers.
"My name is Mike. And I play in a band called Linkin Park." Several people nodded at him. He swallowed.
"So, let's introduce ourselves, I guess. Since there are only seven of us. Tell us how old you are, where you're from, etc." He glanced at a brunette girl sitting on the opposite side of the table from Jade. She cleared her throat quietly.
"Uhm," she started, "I'm Carrie. I'm nineteen years old. I drove up to Los Angeles from San Deigo." Mike nodded.
"Nice to meet you Carrie," he smiled and then looked at the young man with black hair sitting next to Carrie. He sat up straight.
"I'm Ryan. I'm twenty-two years old. I came over here from Las Vegas." Mike smiled and nodded. And it went that way. Carrie, 19, from San Diego. Ryan, 22, from Las Vegas. Jonah, 20, from Washington. Greg, 23, from Los Angeles. And then it came to rest on the girl next to Jade. Jade had been studying her a bit. She was quiet. She didn't seem to pay attention when people talked. That intrigued Jade. The olive skinned girl put down the pen she was doodling with and cleared her throat.
"Err, my name is Clare. I'm, uhm, twenty-three years old. And I'm from San Diego." Mike grinned at her.
"Awesome to meet you, Clare." Jade looked at him and wondered exactly how he could put on such a good façade and pretend to be "happy to meet" everyone. Perhaps he truly was. Mike coughed a bit. Jade looked up.
"Oh. Er, me?" He nodded at her, smirking amusedly. She nodded.
"Uhhh..." She didn't like talking in front of people. "I'm Jade. I'm, hum, twenty years old..." Her palms were slick with sweat.
"Jade came here from Indiana," Mike told the others. They stared at her. She blinked down at the table, trying to avoid their gazes.
"You came all the way from INDIANA?" She looked up at Ryan and nodded meekly. The guy scoffed. Mike blinked at him. Jade glanced over at Mike as if trying to convey the reiteration that people just had a natural aversion to her. Mike swallowed hard and blinked down at his papers.
"We're just going to the Japanese American National Museum to take a look around. I had an artshow there in July. All of my work was taken off display at the beginning of August; but there are still a lot of really incredible pieces of art in the gallery. So, we'll just walk over there." Everyone raised from their seats. Jade lifted herself and stared at he floor, playing with a loose string on the front of her tight fitting, black Linkin Park shirt. Everyone else seemed to clear the room quickly. She walked slowly and it took a few moments to realize there was still someone with her. Expecting to see Mike, she looked up and noticed Clare, the olive skinned girl, watching her.
"I hope he didn't hurt your feels. Ryan's kind of a jerk. I've been to a lot of conventions with him." Jade blinked a few times before licking her lips and then shrugged.
"He didn't bother me that much." She gave Clare a sort of half-smirk.
"I think it's awesome that you're here all the way from Indiana." They followed the group out into the September sunshine, squinting against the sudden burst of light.
"I mean, just for an artist convention." Jade didn't say anything for a moment.
"That's not why you're here," Clare nodded, understanding. They trailed a few feet behind the group as they crossed the road to an enormous building.
"No. This was one of the reasons I came. It was supposed to be more of a vacation for me."
"Oh, so, did you hear about the convention online or something then?" Jade shook her head, hurrying to catch the door Mike was holding for them.
"Thanks." She looked at Clare.
"No, I came here with Mike." Clare stumbled a bit in her walking. Jade paused.
"You alright?" Clare nodded.
"Yeah. Bu--...You came to California with Mike?" Jade nodded.
"Mike Shinoda?" Clare glanced up at Mike who was leading the group into a wide, vibrantly lit room with white walls and wooden floors.
"Yeah." Clare looked at her oddly. Jade shot her gaze to the floor suddenly.
"I don't understand."
"Yeah, I know really. Why would Mike Shinoda pay attention to someone like me?" Clare stopped walking. Jade looked up and realized she wasn't beside her anymore and paused, looking back at her.
"That's not what I meant at all. I just--...Hmm...I don't really get why you came back to California with him?" Jade pursed her lips and pondered it for a moment, taken suddenly aback by Clare's embarrassment at how Jade had taken her comment.
"Hey!" They looked up. Mike was peeking around the corner at them.
"You guys coming into the gallery or are you just going to stand in the entrance all day?"
"Sorry," Clare called to him and started walking again, nearing the group a bit. It was a few moments before either said another word.
"So, why did you?" Jade looked at her.
"Why did I what?" Clare glanced at Mike, who was standing with his face, at most, two centimeters from a painting. She chuckled.
"Why did you come back to California with Sir Scrutinize?" Jade looked at Mike and a smirk graced her features. He looked like a complete idiot standing that close to the wall.
"It's a long story." Clare nodded, straightening outthe front of her shirt.
"Well, we're going to be here a while."
"I don't really--..I guess I don't really want to talk about it."
"Oh, that's okay," She looked away from Jade and at the others. Jade felt bad then. She had a chance to make a new friend, start new and fresh, what Mike had told her to do in the first place, and she was shooting it into the crapper by being a jerk. She bit her lip and then rolled her eyes, knowing she was going to have to put up a mask for a while.
"He's--.." Jade pondered the best, shortest way to explain it. She watched Mike for a few moments, showing Carrie and Jonah an oak sculpture.
"He's helping me with something."
"Oh. Well, that's nice of him. You want to look at this picture?" With that, Clare gestured to an enormous, framed black and white picture across the room and followed a path to it. Jade stood there for a moment. It had been so easy to deter her from the subject. Almost too easy. It was obvious Clare wasn't one to pry and that made Jade think that it might not be so hard or bad to get along with her. She followed her new aquaintance to the picture and listened as she explained the different features and elements the photographer had used.
~*~
"Okay, so," Clare was sucking down a blue slurpee from a plastic cup, "I'm giving you my cell number and my apartment number. If you want to chat or hang out while you're still here, give me a call." She pulled out a scrap of paper and then paused. Jade watched her, her eyebrows raised. Clare rubbed her forehead with her left hand.
"Argh, brainfreeze." Jade felt a laugh escape her throat. And then with a jolt, she stopped and watched Clare write down two phone numbers in a messy scrawl. It scared her that she was showing anymore emotion that what she normally would. She didn't even know Clare that well. How could another wall have fallen in the sort time she'd spent with her? Clare snapped her fingers in front of Jade's face, waking her from her thoughts with a start. Jade blinked.
"Wha--..sorry." Clare handed her the paper.
"I'm free any day of the week. See you, Jade." Jade watched her turn on her heel and walk away.
"Did I see a laugh there?" She jumped hard, grabbing her heart and then turned to see a grinning Mike. She glared at him.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." She started walking toward the parking lot where he was parked.
"So, that was fun, hmm?" he asked, unlocking the car with a blip. She raised an eyebrow.
"It was interesting." He fell into the driver's seat. She stepped into the car and shut her door before buckling her seat belt.
"It wouldn't kill you to enjoy yourself." She shot a glance over at him, suddenly quite offended.
"Excuse me. But I DID enjoy myself." He nodded, starting the car, and pulled away from the lot.
"Could have fooled me with that poker face." She rolled her eyes.
"Just because I don't jump around for joy like a retard doesn't mean I'm not having fun." He laughed.
"I think if I saw you do that at this stage in the game I'd have you committed. It was, however, nice to see you laugh." She looked at him.
"I didn't laugh. When did you see me laugh?" He shook his head, smiling.
"With Clare? I noticed you two were pretty buddy-buddy in the gallery. Is she nice?" Jade sat for a moment, mulling over the word "nice" in her mind.
"Yes, she's very nice."
"And it looks like you got her number." Mike motioned toward the paper in Jade's left hand.
"Kay?"
"I don't know. Maybe you could hang out with her while you're here." Jade's eyes widened at the windshield and she pursed her lips.
"Or...not?" Mike pulled a puzzled face.
"I said she was nice. I never said I wanted to be her best friend." Mike bit his bottom lip for a moment and then pulled into his home driveway, cutting the engine.
"I don't normally get annoyed with people. But you're doing a pretty good job of pissing me off." She looked at him as if she truly could care less.
"Why?"
"I brought you here to get you away from everything that was wrong in Indiana."
"Okay, so?" He took in an angry breath.
"And all you're doing is sacrificing all of this to stay walled up inside you freaking MIND. You're not in Indiana anymore, Jade! No one knows you here. And if you would give someone a freaking chance, they might prove to you that there are still good people in the world." Jade bit her tongue and stared down at her lap.
"Now this girl. She's nice. And she obviously thinks something of you or she wouldn't have put up with you and your zombieness all damn day." She shot him a slightly annoyed face. He threw his hands into the air.
"Whatever, Jade. You keep doing what you're doing and see how much you enjoy yourself in California. But I'm not going to continue to try to help you if all you're going to do is gamble it away by being a recluse of your own head." He opened his door and prepared to step out. She took a breath.
"I--..."
"What?"
"I thought you said you didn't want to help me."
"I changed my mind." He got out, slamming his car door. Jade watched him walk toward his front door. She sat there for a few moments, mulling over his words, and then groaned, opening her door and following him into the house.