#THE_SACRIFICE
EPISODE 8
©Sir Zach
Grace was becoming impatient with Jade’s attitude. She had locked up herself in her room and had refused to come out, not even for breakfast or dinner. She slightly knocked on Jade’s door before using the spare key to open the door as she walked inside.
She fli-cked on the light and found Jade sitting on the side of her be-d in stupefaction.
“Jade” She called out sofly as she walked closer to the be-d.
“Jade you have to talk to me at some point you know that right” Grace, Jade’s mother said in a soft tone as she sat down on the edge of Jade’s be-d.
She couldn’t deal with Jade’s silence anymore. Jade had been all taciturn. She had ba-rely eaten neither had she stepped out of her room talk more of the house. She hasn’t even been to work, which was unusual.
She still hasn’t forgotten how Jade had returned home drenched with her eyes swollen when she c@m£ back from the hospital. She had locked herself up and ba-rely opened the door to take her meals, even when they were delivered to her.
All her attempts to make Jade open up to her had proved futile. Jade had been in her room with her windows shut and had remained on the same sp©t. If truth be told, she was nearly looking like a mummy.
“I know something is wrong. I can tell when something bothers my daughter” Grace added when Jade remained silent as she looked outside the window with nothing in view.
Grace couldn’t handle Jade’s sulky mood anymore. She had made a resolve to make her reveal what her problem was today or she’ll keep badgering her till she budged. Her daughter has always been a cheerful and vibr@nt girl. But now, she had ba-rely said a word or revealed a smile.
“I’m sorry for hitting you. I really didn’t mean to. I…I was just upset” She apologized when she thought that might be the problem, but who was she kidding, Jade had never been that petty. But what else could she think of?
Grace frowned when all she got was Jade’s silence. She angrily got up from the be-d, “This must be about Cale right?” She asked when this realization dawned on her. “Did he hurt you? Did he cuss at you? Hold on, did he break up with you?” Grace scowled when she saw how Jade’s emotions fli-ckered as her eyes welled up in tears. How could she not have thought of this possibility?
“That bastard!! I’m going to kill him” Kelvin yelled angrily as he flung Jade’s door open before stepping in, startling both Jade and Grace. He had been peeking throu-gh the door, anxiously waiting to know what the problem was. He tried calming himself down when his mother glared at him in a way that said ‘would you keep your voice down’.
Kelvin wasn’t used to seeing his sister looking this sad, dishelved and broken. He had stayed at her door for a few nights when she sobbe-d silently not knowing whether to go in and console her, in as much as he wanted to, her door was locked. He knew she’d eventually talk about it, but the wait was devastating.
Jade raised her head up to look at her mother and little brother who were impatiently waiting for her to say something and she broke down with tears rolling down her eyes. Grace couldn’t bear to see her daughter like this, as she hurried over and pu-ll-ed her into a ti-ght hvg.
Jade buried her head on her mother’s shoulder as she sobbe-d loudly. Kelvin’s eyes slowly turned misty with tears. The last time his sister had cried this much was when their father died.
“It’s okay princess, st©p crying” Grace comforted her, with Kelvin standing beside her with his hands patting her back.
Jade g@sped for air as she recalled the horrendous sight at the hospital. She took in de-ep breaths as she tried really ha-rd to recompose herself, “Mo…m, it… hurts. It hurts so much…that I can’t breathe” Jade said as she continued to sob with her hands around her mother who hvgged her ti-ghtly. She continued…
“You were right. You were both right. Cale isn’t good for me. He is a cheat” She said as her dam of tears broke again and tears rolled down her eyes.
“Shhh…it’s okay” Grace said in a low and sad tone as she patted her hair. Her heart bled for her daughter’s misfortune. She had not expected much from that slyful and incompetent moron who had been milking her daughter dry and using her non-st©p. She had always known he was not good for her. She had hoped Jade’s eyes would be open to the kind of person he was, but she didn’t expect it to be this way.
“What did he do?” Grace asked Jade in a restless and agitated voice, when Jade’s sobbe-d died down.
Jade slowly raised her head from her mother’s shoulder with her eyes lowered as she hitched.
“I saw him k!ss!ngStephanie…” Jade started.
Grace look turned murderous as Jade narrated what happened between sobs. Her poor daughter has sure suffered alot. She had always known Cane or Cale….whatever he called himself was not a trustworthy person. It was a pity that Jade had to learn with a broken heart.
Kelvin’s inside turned as Jade spoke. His hands clenched in to a fist as his blood boiled.
“I’m really going to kill that bastard!” Kelvin said throu-gh gritted teeth. He was literally sweltering with anger.
He has never been fond of cale, as a matter of fact, he loathed him. There was something about Cale that irked him. He had never found him to be a trustworthy fellow, but his sister was so blindly in love and there was nothing he could do. After all he was 7 years younger than her, ma-king him 17 and Jade 24. So he couldn’t possibly order her around right? There were times he wished he was older, then he’d f0rç£ her to break up with that j£rk.
Kelvin wanted to bury his fist in that moron’s face. He really de-sired to punch that be-dlamite, as well as wipe the floor with that per-verted face of his. But he also knew that didn’t matter for now. All he wanted was to console his sister and cheer up her dampened spirit.
“You don’t have to cry about him anymore okay. He doesn’t even deserve your tears. He’s such a d!¢k head” Kelvin said, ma-king his mother glare at him as he wiped off Jade’s tears. Kelvin had a foul mouth, but only to those who messes with his mother and sister. He was one to protect his family, age regardless. He was still in High-school, but you can’t remind him of that. He basically sees himself in college alre-ady.
“How many times have I told you not to use such words before me?” Grace asked eyeing him.
“Mom, are you really going to scold me now for cussing at that di…” He bit his ton-gue when he almost made same mistake twice.
“I’m your mother and you shouldn’t be saying such words like d!¢k or d!¢k head even when that d!¢k head is really a s¢v-mbag. So just call him that, s¢v-mbag” Kelvin looked at his mother incredulously. In his mind he was screaming ‘hypocrite’, but he wouldn’t dare say it out.
Jade’s mood lifted up a bit when she heard the banter between mother and son. That was a regular episode in her life which she had missed this past few days.
Grace gave Kelvin a questioningly look, when the door bell rang, she wasn’t expecting anyone tonight, and she was sure Jade wasn’t.
Kelvin observed his mother’s look, “I’ll go check who it is” He said before leaving the room.
“Amy” He greeted, when he opened the door to find Amy there.
“Shh…Is she still in there?” Amy asked in a whisper.
“Yes, but mom is with her. But why are you whispering?” Kelvin asked raising a brow.
“Your mom is there? That means she opened her door?” Amy asked sounding normal avoiding the question about her whispering. She had wanted to surprise Jade in a way she wouldn’t refuse opening the door. But now she didn’t have to.
“Yes”
“So did she say what happened?” Amy asked curiously. She had tried reaching Jade over the phone but she couldn’t. It wasn’t until Kelvin asked her to come over to cheer up her best friend, did she know Jade had locked herself up.
“Well…She and Cale broke up” Kelvin said hesistantly. He didn’t know if it was in his place to tell.
“It’s about time. l guess God has finally heard my prayers”
“But don’t say I told you okay” Kelvin told her.
“Sure I won’t. Thanks for the heads up kiddo” Amy said with a smile before heading for Jade’s room.
“I’m not a kiddo, I’m an adult” He refuted.
“You’re 17” Amy corrected as she continued walking to Jade’s room.
“I’ll be 18 in a few months” He yelled across the living room but she had gone off.
“Good evening Ma” Amy greeted Grace with a polite smile, which Grace replied with a smile of her own as she got up from the be-d so Amy could sit with Jade.
“I’ll be outside” She said as she walked out of the room, while Amy nodded.
Amy looked at Jade and she felt sorry for her. Jade had invested her emotions, love, time and resources to an undeserving j£rk and got her heart broken.
“Girlfriend, you look like $h!t” Amy said as she sat down beside her.
“I know” Jade replied in a quiet voice.
“Well that’s not an issue for me. I’m sure going to fix you up, cause you literally look like a zombie and I can’t have a zombie with me tonight” Amy said as she stood up to pu-ll Jade up as well.
“I don’t want to be fixed. I just want to lie down” Jade said trying to lie on her be-d.
“Come on, you’re not lying down and we’re both going out tonight” Amy said pu-lling her up from the be-d.
“But I don’t want to go out Amy” Jade said.
“Yes you are” Grace said in a domineering voice as she walked back into the room. “You’ve been in this room for days. Just go out and have some fresh air okay” Grace said with pleading eyes.
“Come on baby” Amy said pu-lling Jade from the be-d and pushing her into the bathroom.
“Thank you” Grace mouthed out to Amy before walking out of the room. She was grateful that her daughter had a friend to keep her company at such a difficult time. Hopefully things will turn out better.
__________
Jake was completely buried with work at the office. This past few days has been so hectic for him. He had shuffled between taking care of his grandfather and running the company. He couldn’t rely on his silly brother Blake, who had never taken anything serious not even his job at the company.
He lifted his head when he saw his office door open and Blake walked in without knocking.
“I guess your hands weren’t made for knocking right?” Jake asked with his brow raised.
“They are, but I didn’t know you’d want me to. Since you don’t have a woman at the office or do you?” Blake asked with a grin while Jake eyed him. He sighed inwardly, he wouldn’t stress himself out with this unreasonable br@t.
“So why are you here?” Jake asked as he returned his attention back to his work.
“Well it’s past closing hours and I saw your light was still on, so I decided to come check on my bro and I also want to checkout your new office. I did good right?” He asked smiling as he walked closer to Jake’s desk.
“Bro I love your office” Blake ch!pped excitedly as he took a look around. Jake’s office was so grand. It was way beyond a typical modern office. The view from this floor to roof windows was so beautiful.
“How about I work from here. I promise not to be in your hair” He asked excitedly as he took his seat across Jake’s desk.
“What’s wrong with your office?” Jake asked without looking at him, as he continued with his work.
“I really don’t like my office. I feel like grandfather is punishing me with it. It doesn’t fit my clientele. And I work really ha-rd you know” Blake complained with a pout, ma-king Jake scoff. Who was he kidding? Blake Beau work really ha-rd ? Then something must be wrong somewhere. Blake lazied around all day and leaves all his work to his secretary and other staffs of his unit. He was practically disliked by every male staff of the company for his laziness except the ladies who he blatantly flir-t with. Why won’t they love him, when he was rich, good looking and also have a great s-en-se of humor.
“So why are you complaining to me? Meet your grandfather, but on a second thought you shouldn’t do that. You can’t go stressing him out with you childish rantings” Jake said as he raised his gaze to Blake.
“If you nee-d a better office, work ha-rd and I’ll promise you a promotion but only if the board approves it” He said as he intensely looked at Blake, waiting for his obvious reply.
“Well you can keep your office, I don’t want it. Actually my office is grand enough for me” Jake was not surprised by his response. He had actually been expecting it.
“So can you leave now? You have seen my office. I have a lot of things to do” Jake said as he picked up his pen to return to the do¢v-ments strewn on his desk.
“C’mon let’s go, it’s late alre-ady. You’re the only person still in this building. Let’s go b!ow some steam off” Blake said as he picked up Jake’s jacket.
“I’m not the only one, you’re here too. And I really do nee-d to work. So you have to leave”
“Hold on, I remembered something. You didn’t tell me about the girl at the club the other night” Blake said with much interest as he took his seat back waiting for some ju-icy gossip. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten about something that important.
“What girl?” Jake asked feigning ignorance. He knew the girl he was referring to. Since he hadn’t been with another since that night.
“The one that said she was a vir-gin. Was she really a vir-gin? I really doubt it. Girls this days do alot for money. So tell me” He said thoughtfully, as his ears itched for Jake’s reply. Jake couldn’t help but stare at him in disbelief.
“So you really want to hear about your elder brother’s S-x life?” Jake asked as he leaned back on his chair and folded his arms across his che-st.
“What’s so bad about that? It’s not like the whole country doesn’t know about it alre-ady. I’m only asking for a tiny bit of detail. Don’t be stingy bro” Jake couldn’t believe his ears.
“So tell me how did it go? Was she a vir-gin?” Blake asked leaning on Jake’s desk with a broad smile on his face. Jake shook his head, he really couldn’t believe God had to give him a lazy and nosy brother.
“I’ll just wait for your curiosity to kill you” Jake said as he returned to signing on his do¢v-ments. He wasn’t the type to k!ssand tell, no matter how promiscuous he is and he sure wouldn’t start now.
“So you won’t tell me?” Blake asked with a disappointed look.
“No!”
“Tsk, you are such a bore. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going out” He said as he got up from his seat.
“I’m busy”
“But you left me here alone with grandfather and travelled. Now that you’re back are you still going to ignore and abandon me?” He said in a sad voice ma-king Jake look at him.
“Come on, let’s go to the karaoke. Just keep me company, I’ve missed you” Blake said as he looked at him expectantly. He knew his brother could never ignore his sad look. Jake kept looking at him. He knew all about Blake’s antics but he was just going to indulge him after all he had missed his brother too.
“Alright fine, let’s go. But just for tonight. And st©p pla-ying that guilty card on me, it’s getting too old”
“Then I’ll just have to look for something else to use on you. You can’t get rid of me.” Blake said before bur-sting out in laughter.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 9