Cracks in the Sun (Euphoria)
This is a little snippet of my euphoria character synopsis. All of this is done by Rue’s narration.
Jaden Art was the definition of a sheltered child.
Her entire life, her family kept things from her. She was the moment for them, they wanted her to be happy. And in return, she bloomed. She was one of the wealthy families, sitting at the house at the tip of the hill of the block known as ‘rich row’ her family seemed like your average wealthy black family.
Her father, Andrew Art, was an big investor in Jacob’s construction. Him and Cal went way back to College, promising that they’d always look out for each other. Andrew would buy land, allow Cal to put buildings, and boom. They both made their money. Andrew was handed his company by his father, and the rest was history. Well of course, just like every wealthy black family, Andrew was faced with certain scandals. All that were just out to get him like OJ.
That’s not a good comparison now is it, he’s more like Kobe Bryant or Tupac with the false allegations.
Andrew always kept his mouth shut, the coke wasn’t his and the pills were prescribed he’d always say. And every single time he beat them, now he wasn’t technically telling a lie. They weren’t his, and he did have certain medications. But Andrew was hiding and covering for someone. But it’s not like that matters, the cases were always thrown out and swept under the rug just like every other rich person case.
Now her mother, Lashawn Art, was first in it for the money. Her mother would tell her when she first came to America to either get rich or marry into it. And Lashawn did just that, but along the way they did end up falling in love. And it wasn’t one sided anymore, they were both full blown in love. They had two beautiful kids and the rest was history. Some what. Lashawn was somewhat of a trophy to Andrew, he was always eager to show her off. To get her the biggest of diamonds and the flashiest of clothes. Lashawn loved to be envied, you could say that green truly was her color.
Lashawn would always tell jade to never settle for less, to find someone who would go to the end of the earth and come back with the biggest diamond possible and then and only then, consider marriage. It worked for her didn’t it?
Now the woman did have her faults, her faults came as her son. Demetrius Art.
Demetrius was a wild child growing up, he was never humbled. His mother adored him and his father fed his ego. He was fed with a silver spoon, on a silver platter, in a fucking diamond chair. He was a dick needless to say. Remember what I said about Andrew covering for someone? This is someone, his own damn son. Andrew was hoping that one day Demetrius would grow up and get serious, that one day he could take the boy around the office and teach him stocks. But Demetrius was far from growing up actually, he was living it to the fullest.
Demetrius met Fez during middle school and the two of them were practically inseparable. Everything Fez did, Meech did. Everything Meech did, Fez followed. Demetrius didn’t get into the gangs, the dealing, the problems, until his sophomore year. He learned that dirty money was a lot more quicker to get compared to investing, waiting, dealing your cards. With dirty money it comes right to you, with the needles out high and junkies coming to get higher.
His father found out about his side hustle and lost all faith in Demetrius, but instead of confronting him. Arguing, or even talking about it, he ignored it. Hid it from the world, and just like that Demetrius became forgotten to the company and to many people. But hey, his father’s leadership talk did end him up somewhere. He became the leader of Cobra Kings during his first year of college all the while raising his 4 year old son and making sure he was alright.
But back to the person at hand, her. Jaden Art, the golden child. She was Junior chess champion six years in a row, regular chess champion four years in a row. Jaden was never really a people person, she was quiet and shy. She would always freeze when people talked to her and they only found it cute. Jade was everything that her mother and father wanted. A quiet, obedient, soft spoken child. It always took her a little push to talk, to make friends. Andrew ‘forced’ her to be friends with Nate Jacobs. If you ask me, Nate was full of shit since we were kids. If you ask Jade, Nate didn’t become full of shit until eighth grade.
Now Negatively Nate Jacobs being your first friend never seemed good, but he did give jade the push she needed. She met Seven Mckay, from Seven she met two more friends. Sierra and Sekani. Together they called themselves SSS and it just kinda, stuck. Jade was slowly coming out of her shell and needless to say she was proud of herself, she started talking more, smiling a lot, she was like the sun to some people. They could look at her for hours…
Jaden Art continued to be, well her. She was always sweet, never judged anyone. Some would say she was even a saint, others would claim she was just being stuck up. But that all changed when her brother got kicked out of college and was put on house arrest her first year of high school. Demetrius was losing money, he owed people, and he could feel himself slipping at the thought of his family getting hurt. He couldn’t find a solution to move the drugs and money without getting caught until…
“Meech? Are you okay?”
His baby sister, naive and worried. She’d do anything to make sure he was straight. He swallowed a lump in his throat as he picked up a black book bag.
“Hey, can you take this to Fez for me? Make sure you keep your head down and watch everything around you”
Now that should’ve set every red flag off in Jade’s head but she smiled and nodded her head. “Yeah!! Uh!! And we’re gonna watch movies when I get back right?” Demetrius mustered all the courage to put a smile on his face, nodding. “Yeah, Sixteen candles. It’s our day now” Jade took the book bag and walked out of the room, Demetrius watched her from his bedroom window that day. Guilt pooled in his stomach, unknowing to jade, she got herself into the game.
It was like that for two years, every time Demetrius was in gang or legal trouble jade would deliver his things to the buyer, the seller, to whoever. Jade was happy to help her brother, it meant they got to hang out more. And that’s all that really mattered to her, she truly really cared for him. But after awhile, Demetrius stopped needing her help. He stopped coming by, and eventually she rarely saw him. She was lonely in that big house by herself, her mother was too deep in her head and her father was so busy trying to impress his business friends with how beautiful his daughter was.
Jade learned that getting out more was for the better, hanging out with Seven. They even had a thing for each other sophomore year much to his brother’s annoyance. Or, getting high with SSS to even forget everything that burdened her. Now jade hated drugs, she was the goodie two shoes who actually followed the dare pledge. But when she got high that night, she never wanted to come down.
“Holy shit, look at Shante” Sekani giggled seeing the girl pull Seven in for a kiss, his hands couldn’t stay restricted to one place. They went up her hoodie, in her pants for a bit. For a moment she was focused, on him and only him.
Then the high came down and she felt like shit. There were unexplained marks and hickies on her neck and stomach. Seven became clingy and wouldn’t leave her alone. But the very next day, the girl had to do what she’d did best and put on her pretty yellow dress with the bow high on the back. Followed by the mask she always wore and practice so hard in the mirror to make sure it didn’t falter as she prepares to head out with her family to do whatever rich people activities they’d do.
And just like that, that was her life. It was short and sweet, something that people drooled over to have. To me, I could as tell she was a bit miserable. You can always tell, because when the sun shines you can always see the cracks left behind. But that was the beauty of being her, everyone was too blind to see. I wasn’t though, I saw her for her. And I guess that’s why I fell in love…But this isn’t about us anymore. Only her, and the prettiest of sunshine was going to get her wake up call to what such a cruel dark world we really reside in.