Ch. 49 - Jax
J ax’s hands shook as she drove home from The Rose and Thorn. Beautiful, wonderful Tess had agreed to close up with Breanna, allowing Jax to duck out early.
Her mind swirled. Her stomach churned.
Breanna and Cal Jr. together?
First, ew.
Second, anger.
So. Much. Anger.
Jax burned with rage on behalf of Theo and Layla. She had half a mind to pull off the road, drag her two friends onto a conference call, and spill the beans immediately.
But Breanna had claimed she was going to break up with Theo tonight. Maybe that part was handled. But what about Layla? Jax’s hands tightened on the wheel. Theo would be okay. He and Breanna had been drifting through their relationship for years, simply coasting on the momentum of their shared unhappiness. Hell, maybe the breakup would come as a relief.
But Layla? Poor, innocent Layla with her sparkly hair clips and 30-pound wedding binder? The news that her Prince Charming was banging a bar wench would crush her heart bug-on-windshield style .
Jax would have to handle the situation delicately. And also, once Alanna got wind of the situation, the structural integrity of Cal’s balls would be under serious threat. Alanna might straight-up murder the man. Jax wouldn’t blame her . . . but she also didn’t love the idea of being an accomplice to murder. She’d need time to think about how to relay the news with the least amount of fallout.
Looking out the windshield, Jax discovered to her surprise that her apartment building loomed in front of her. She was home, which led her to the second most pressing problem on her to-do list. Haley and today’s epic rage quit. Would her roommate blame Jax for not covering for her? Would those two bottles of wine she’d swiped from the winery be empty?
God and Santa only knew. Jax sent up a little prayer to both entities. Hopefully Haley would be calm and reasonable about the whole situation? If Haley offered up a level 11 profuse apology to Breanna and begged Theo, she could probably scrounge back her job.
Jax drove through the parking lot of the complex, turned the wheel to slide into her space, and—
“Shit.”
Prayer rejected. Thanks for being a dick, Santa, Jax thought as she stared at the matte black Honda Civic sitting in her spot. Wheels canted. Car lowered. Every check mark on the driver’s guide to ultimate small D energy.
She recognized the car. Haley had apparently called over her old boy toy and dealer, Tristan, to share her woes. The pit already growing in her stomach courtesy of Breanna and Cal Jr.’s adventures in home wreckage now doubled in size.
After parking on the side street outside the complex, Jax hoofed it back to her apartment. The pit in Jax’s stomach grew into a black, rotting pumpkin as she climbed the stairs to the apartment in time to the heavy bass beats thudding through the front door.
When Jax swung open the unlocked door, the volume of the music nearly melted her eardrums. The pungent odor of pot smoke filled the small apartment. Two strangers sat on her couch, one rocking a set of horrendous white-boy dreads, the other staring with uncomfortable intensity at cartoons playing on the television.
In the kitchen, a barefoot girl with massive black plugs stretching her earlobes made pancakes on the stove. An ominous tendril of black smoke curled from the pan.
Jax balled her hands into fists. Because of course strange high people were meandering around her home. Haley was apparently playing her fav hits. All they needed was dried vomit on the toilet seat and a completely empty fridge the next morning.
Jax spun around, looking for her roommate. When the search came up empty, she stomped to Haley’s bedroom and shoved open the door. A distinctly unpleasant tableau greeted her. Tristan and Haley made out on her bed among a sea of stuffed animals, his mouth practically devouring her face with sloppy kisses.
Haley glanced her way. “Jax! The fuck?” she shrieked, untangling herself from Tristan’s slimy, pale limbs.
Jax spotted the two empty wine bottles on the carpet next to the bed. A baggy of pills stood open on the nightstand.
“Oh, Haley.” Jax’s anger drained away through a sieve of profound sadness and disappointment. What she didn’t feel was surprise. Some part of her subconscious had been waiting for this—expecting it, really—since the moment Haley returned early from rehab.
Jax’s soul hurt.
“You wanna join in?” Tristan asked, sweeping a wave of oily hair from his face .
“Hard pass,” Jax said.
Haley sat up on the bed and readjusted her lacey white bralette. Her shirt lay discarded over her eyeless Kermit doll. Thankfully she still wore her tight jean shorts.
Haley met Jax’s gaze and seemed to register the sense of utter despondency screaming from Jax’s soul.
“I know, I’m a screw-up, so what?” Her tone was dismissive, but Jax could see embarrassment in her flushed face.
Jax shook her head. She felt so God damned tired. Once upon a time, they could stay up all night talking about absolutely nothing and not a single moment felt wasted. Once upon a time, the words sparkly hermit crab would cause them both to dissolve into laughter, because obviously. Once upon a time, Haley had been her favorite person in the world.
And now, Jax felt like she was looking at a stranger.
She left the bedroom, closing the door behind her. She hadn’t even decided whether to just hide out in her room or head out somewhere, anywhere but here, when she heard a faint, plaintive meow.
Styles!
Without thought, Jax lurched toward the sound, then stopped in confusion. Where was it coming from? The music was too loud. She looked around, desperately searching for a glimpse of cheetah spots.
Nothing.
“Have you seen a small cat?” she asked the couple on the couch.
“Haley has a cat?” Dreadlocks asked.
“Who’s Haley?” said the other one.
Another sad meow echoed through the space. It seemed to be coming from somewhere near the kitchen.
Jax moved into the small room. The barefoot woman now sat at their table eating her burned pancakes with her hands. Jax turned in a full circle in the kitchen. No cat. She opened the door of the pantry and peered at the shelves.
“Meeeeeooooooow,” Styles cried.
Then, Jax knew. Her stomach dropped as she opened the small closet next to the kitchen. A tiny stacked washer and dryer greeted her. She tried the washer first. Empty. When she opened the dryer, two panicked green eyes met hers.
Jax reached in and plucked Styles from the dryer. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. Clutching the trembling kitten to her chest, she whirled around . . . and almost ran into Haley.
Her roommate stood just inside the living room, Tristan’s shirt hanging to her thighs.
“Really, Haley?” It was all Jax could say.
“He was running all over the place,” her roommate said, her words slurring. “Knocking shit over. And Teagan is allergic anyway.”
Jax didn’t know which one of the losers in her apartment was Teagan. Couldn’t have cared less.
Without another word, she walked past Haley and into her own room. As soon as she released Styles, he flew under her bed. Jax dropped to her knees and looked into the darkness.
“I’m going to fix this,” Jax vowed to the terrified kitten. “I won’t ever let that happen to you again.”
With her heart and mind set, Jax stood and dumped out her laundry basket. She pulled a few shirts and pairs of jeans from her closet and dropped them into the basket. After hesitating, she picked a few of the colorful shirts from the back of her closet and added them, too. She slipped her laptop into her messenger bag along with her phone-charging cable.
The door to her bedroom swung open. Standing in the entrance, hip jutted, Haley eyed the laundry basket full of clothes .
“So, what, you’re running away now?” she scoffed. Her eyes were glazed, her platinum-blond hair in tangles down her back.
Jax sighed. This had been a long time coming. She turned to her roommate. “Haley, I love you, but I can’t be your friend anymore. Not until you’re ready to take care of yourself.”
“You can’t be MY friend?” Haley’s voice rose. “That’s rich coming from someone who dresses in potato sacks every day and can’t get over one bad fuck.”
Jax accepted the vitriol. She expected nothing less. Raze, burn, and salt the earth was straight out of the Haley playbook whenever a friendship or relationship soured. It was why Haley had no long-term friends except for Jax.
It was actually kind of sad. Jax had never realized that before.
“The only reason I was ever your friend was because I felt sorry for you,” Haley continued, gathering steam. “You were always so obsessed with me. It was pathetic. You always followed me around, did everything that I did. The real reason you couldn’t cut it in college was because you couldn’t be by yourself. You just used that rape story as an excuse to quit.”
Jax slipped a framed picture of her family into her messenger bag. Her eyes caught the title of the romance book on her nightstand. She smiled a little as she added the book to her bag. That should do it, at least for the time being.
Jax turned to her roommate. “You were never my friend,” she said to Haley. “Friends care about each other. They listen to and support each other. I didn’t understand what real friendship looks like, but I do now.”
She moved to her closet once again and pulled out the car carrier she’d purchased before Styles’ surgery.
“Oh, fuck no. You are NOT taking my cat,” Haley growled .
Jax set the carrier on the bed. Then she stepped up to Haley until their noses were inches apart.
“Styles is no longer your cat,” she informed Haley.
“You can’t.”
Jax’s voice was cold. Sharp. “If you want to destroy your own life, I can’t stop you. But I’m not going to let you hurt Styles.” She locked eyes with Haley. “Styles is coming with me. And if you try to get in my way, I’ll give your parents a call. You know, it’s been a while since I’ve caught up with your mom. It’ll break her heart to know you’ve relapsed. And, wait a minute . . .” Jax widened her eyes in feigned surprise. “Your parents don’t know you dropped out of college last year, do they? I wonder if they’d still give you a monthly allowance if they found out.”
“You wouldn’t,” Haley hissed.
Without breaking eye contact, Jax pulled a lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped it, and put it in her mouth.
Watermelon. Mmmmmmm . “Just a head’s up, I’ll be contacting our landlord and taking myself off the lease.” She blinked at Haley. “You can leave now.”
“You were always such a nasty bitch!” Haley slammed the bedroom door shut.
For some stupid reason, Jax laughed around her lollipop. Once upon a time, she couldn’t have imagined a life without Haley in it. Now all she felt was relief.
Ten minutes later, Jax walked out of the apartment, messenger bag on her shoulder, laundry basket held against her hip, and the cat carrier clutched in her hand.
She didn’t look back.