#THE_SACRIFICE
EPISODE 6
©Sir Zach
Jade stood outside the room with complex emotions as her hand rested on the door knob.
She looked at the room number again just to be sure she was standing in front of the right room. ‘121’, that’s the right room number. Then why did it seem like she had heard Cale saying something about getting married?
Jade slowly opened the door, she was death struck by the sight of Cale k!ss!ngthat familiar blonde hair woman. She felt like she was frozen. A shiver ran down her spine. She didn’t un-derstand what was happening right now.
‘Why was Cale k!ss!nghis Cousin? Wasn’t Stephanie supposed to be his cousin? So why were they k!ss!ngso pas-sionately?’ Her heart was contracting too fast and too ti-ght. She felt like she couldn’t breath as her che-st rose high.
“Ca..Cale?” She called out in a quavery voice. Cale pu-ll-ed away from the k!ssbut he wasn’t fast enough for Jade to have missed him k!ss!ng’her’.
Cale was shocked to see her standing by the door. He almost hit himself for being found out by Jade. He had thought she’d be at work and would only drop by later. Who would have thought…
Jade slowly took a few steps into the room as she looked from Cale to Stephanie “Cale…why were… you k!ss!ngyour cousin?” Jade asked with difficulty as her voice quavered and her eyes slowy turned red. She didn’t know why she still asked such a rhetorical question. Maybe she wanted to know if he had lied to her about Stephanie being his cousin or this was incest.
Jade stood there like she was glued to the floor. Her eyes couldn’t believe what just happened in front of her.
She had come to take care of him and here he was k!ss!nghis ‘cousin’
“What cousin?” Mrs Stuart asked when she walked into the room and over heard Jade say ‘cousin’. She had a frown on her face as she was confused about what was happening. When did Cale have a cousin? Her frown de-epened when she saw Jade’s expression that looked like her world was crumbling down on her. Jade had heard her voice but she was too distorted to look at her right now.
Jade looked at Cale intently expecting some kind of answer that would make her believe what she had just seen wasn’t real. Something like, Stephanie took advantage of his sick predic@m£nt and f0rç£d herself on him. She wanted him to say something, anything at all. Anything that would make her feel she had misun-derstood him.
Sometimes when we’re in love, we’d rather believe the lies than face the truth even when it’s staring at us right in the face, just because we don’t want to lose the other person.
“Jade is not what you think” Cale tried explaining guiltily as Stephanie sat down with a smug smile on her face, looking plea-sed with the turn of event. She had not expected Jade to walk in on them, but she had hoped Jade would be in the know about her relationsh!pwith Cale. She had thought of ways of revea-ling their relationsh!pto Jade, but it seems she didn’t have to do anything anymore. Mrs Stuart observed the smug look on Stephanie and she got an inkling of what the commotion was all about.
“You!! get.out!” Mrs Stuart said to Stephanie as her eyes flashed red in anger. Stephanie shuddered at Mrs Stuart out bur-st. She gave Jade a last look that interpreted, ‘I’m not sorry about this’ before stepping out of the room.
Jade felt like the room was spinning at the moment. ‘Its not what you think? Isn’t that the typical guy excuse when they got caught?’ She had hoped for something better. Something better than that statement of guilt.
What was she suppose to think, when her man was k!ss!nghis supposed cousin. She saw the pleading and guilty look Cale was shooting at her, and it made her feel worse.
She felt like dying at the sp©t she stood. She felt crushed to dust. She saw her man embr@cing another girl and k!ss!ngher so pas-sionately. And he was expecting her to think what?
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Cale felt a pang of guilt in his heart when he saw Jade’s broken expression. He felt bad for seeing her like this. He had messed up, and he knew it. Jade had been a sweet girl. She had loved him a bit too much.
Jade unconciously took a step back. She didn’t want to hear any explanations anymore. She held her tears at bay, as she dropped the nylon bag and bowed to Mrs Stuart who was equally broken by all this before dashing out of the room.
Mrs Stuart had never expected her son to treat Jade this way, like she meant nothing to him. She shoot a dissappointed look at her son and said, “She didn’t deserve this. And you don’t deserve her”.
_____
Jade felt like she had been running because she was short of breath, but she had only walked out of the hospital.
Her spirit felt crushed and shattered in a million pieces….She took in de-ep breaths, trying to control her emotions and compose herself, but she was failing miserably at it.
She was desperate to be alone. She wanted to go somewhere, anywhere other than here. She continued sprinting out of the lobby of the hospital when she accidentally bu-mped against someone.
His built was solid…rock like, she staggered back a few steps when his hands suddenly held her steady. His savoury fragrant smell seeped throu-gh her nose to her olfactory nerve and her br@in decoded that familiar smell. But she was too distressed to be bothered by it.
“I’m sorry” She said with her head lowered before dashing out of the hospital.
She hailed down a taxi and plopped down on the sit, before realizing she had nowhere to go. She didn’t know what to do, or where to go at the moment. She couldn’t go home now, and her mother was still very much vexed at her. The last thing she nee-ded was the ‘i told you so’ sermon for her mother. Jade g@sped for air for a while and she tried ha-rd to control her tears, but she caved in.
The taxi driver had asked for her destination a couple of times but got no reply. He had only started driving when Jade asked him to st©p, ma-king him frown. He noticed her miserable countenance and he felt sympathetic towards her.
She felt she had ran out of air as she hurriedly jumped out of the cab. She couldn’t breath, her lungs felt deflated. Her che-st greatly ti-ght£ñed, ma-king her hit on it. She had never experienced an heart attack but whatever she was feeling now, felt like it. She tried to restrain the tears prickling her eyes but they flowed out freely.
She wanted to be alone, to hide from the eyes of people who will pity her. She nee-ded to find a place where she could unburden her tears from her prying eyes.
Her heart squee-zed her ti-ghtly, ma-king her pound on it f0rç£fully.
What sort of betrayal was this? Never did she think that she’d suffer betrayal and heart break most especially from the man she had loved with her all.
She stood dazed on the walkway when it suddenly started raining. How pitiful was she now, that even the heavens had began to weep for her? Could this day be any worse?
She raised her face to the sky as the rain trickled down on her face. Jade was torn inside out. She felt like she was been trampled on, because every p@rt of her b©dy was shaking. She didn’t notice neither did she mind the attention she was drawing to herself at the moment, must especially from the piercing eyes of the man she bu-mped into.
‘In what way did her love lack?’ Has she not given her all? Where had she gone wrong? How could she let her self be fooled for so long?’ a Plethora of such depressing questions seeped throu-gh her mind.
She felt like walking but found herself running as it rained heavily. She ran till her legs felt so-re. She was drenched in the rain and no matter how cold it was, she felt her b©dy was ablaze. She crouched down down and screamed her lungs out. She screamed till her throat bec@m£ so-re and her voice lost.
What was the meaning of her sacrifice? She had given up herself, broke her mother’s heart, disregarded her brother’s plea to love Cale cautiously. But she had been so foolish thinking her world revolved around him. She had loved him with no reserve.
Jade had met Cale in high school where she had crushed on him for the longest of time. He was the high school popular Jock, who was popular with the girls and was amazingly good looking. They had only started d@t!ngin their second year in college. She had given her all in this undeserving relationsh!p. She worked p@rt time all throu-gh school just to as-sist Cale. She had tried plea-sing him by doing chores for him daily. He had gotten his current Job all thanks to her.
What had she not done? Helping him study, helped him with his as-signments, written his fv¢king thesis, prepared every pres£ntation PowerPoint and reviews for him. She had loved his friends and family unreservably and continuously put in her best into the relationsh!p.
Many times she had fantasied about getting married to him, their wedding night and also about popping mini Cale’s and Jade’s for him. But why was this the result of her love?
How did she go wrong? In what way was she not deserving of his love?
What was the meaning of her sacrifice?
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 7