Scared of Beautiful by Jacqueline Abrahams Read Free Book Online Page B

room. She’s on her cell, and whomever she’s talking to is clearly not telling her something that she wants to here. She whispers as I walk into the closet, and I catch fragments of her conversation. “Just because you think…no…I’m not doing it…don’t you dare remind me…don’t even fucking pull that card…fine!” I hear her phone snap shut. She staring at the door expectantly, waiting for me to walk out of the closet. “We need to talk,” she says ominously.
    “Are you sure you want to talk?” I ask. I get the distinct impression that that’s the last thing she wants to do.
    “Okay, talk then,” I say when she doesn’t answer, and sit cross-legged on my bed. I’m not mad at her about this morning, mainly because she had no idea what happened last night. Unless she did, in which case I’m furious. But for now, I decide to assume that she didn’t.
    “So, Jackson tells me that you think that he and I fucked each other last night, or this morning or whatever,” she lays it out there, just like that. Not sure why that surprises me. Jade is straight up like that. I avert my eyes, and suddenly feel like there’s nowhere to look, mainly because I really don’t want to get into this with the only friend I care to have on this campus, but also because I have really been trying since this morning to block the image from my mind.
    “Jade, really, you don’t need to…” I start, but she cuts me off.
    “I do. I didn’t sleep with Jackson. I have never slept with Jackson. We were friends because he dated my best friend in high school. But we, him and I, have always ever only been friends. He seems really into you. So for him, I’m going to tell you why you can believe him.”
    I want to stop her, because she looks uncomfortable as hell right now. But I don’t, because I’m curious. “He thinks,” she continues, “that no matter what he or I say to you, you’ll think the worst, therefore I’m going to give you a completely valid reason as to why you should believe us.”
    She stops and takes a deep breath, and I resist the urge to tell her to spit it out already. “I don’t sleep with Jackson’s type,” she finishes.
    I raise my eyebrows curiously. “And what type is that?” I ask.
    “The type with a dick,” she deadpans. “I don’t sleep with people like Jackson because Jackson is the wrong gender. I am not attracted to people of his gender. I’m attracted to people of your gender. And mine.”
    “Oh,” I say quietly. Jade looks at me expectantly, and I struggle to answer because too many thoughts race through my head at once. I’m mostly relieved about this morning’s situation, but more so I’m confused as to why Jade has decided that this was something she needed to keep from me. What better way to find the answer than to just ask, right? “Why haven’t you told me until now, obviously only because Jackson asked you to? Is that who you were speaking to just now? Did you really think I would judge you?”
    She plays with a long strand of hair, which I know is a nervous habit of hers. She sighs and looks directly at me, and I can see gratitude in her eyes, as if she expected me to react very differently from the way I am.
    “The only people who knew in high school were my best friend Shana and Jackson, her then boyfriend. They didn’t care; but in middle school I was a tomboy, dressed like one, hung out with the boys. Shana was a blonde bombshell, and everyone loved to be around her. By the time high school started, Shana and I were as close as sisters, and I admit, I borrowed some of her popularity. I had filled out in all the right places. and my hair had grown longer. Shana taught me how to curl it, and hey presto , I wasn’t the weird. boy-looking sidekick anymore. I was popular, because to be popular, all you needed was the right look and the right friends.” She says the last sentence laced with sarcasm.
    “Shana wasn’t your typical mean girl. She was popular, but