closed starter for @bruiscdmouth
she hadn’t even wanted to go to the stupid party.
it was the middle of midterms, and jade had spent the past few days buried under paper after paper, her living room swallowed by stacks of textbooks and highlighted articles, enough to rival a small library. she had to do well. she was so close to finishing the semester strong, her GPA still clinging to a perfect 4.0. at least, it had been steady until she started dating freddie.
when he was away, she was sharp. disciplined. focused. but when he was home, he became a twenty-four-hour distraction, pulling her attention in every direction and dragging a few of her grades down with it. that alone had her on edge. add in the pressure of exams, and she’d become snappier than usual, quieter, too.so she’d locked herself inside her apartment, canceled everything on her calendar. everything except this one party.
it was some charity gala she’d agreed to weeks ago without bothering to check the date. by the time she realized it fell in the middle of midterms, it was too late to back out without causing tension. she’d spent the entire day toggling between getting ready and editing a paper, mascara wand in one hand, phone in the other. even when they arrived, she was still making last-minute corrections, thumbs flying across her screen, barely speaking.relaxing felt like a performance. she tried, though. smiling for photos. laughing at the right moments. playing the supportive girlfriend while freddie worked the room.
and then he promised the guys they’d hit the after-party.
by midnight she was drained. by two in the morning she was exhausted and trying to manage a drunk boyfriend who could barely string a sentence together. that was when it happened. jade was guiding fred toward the valet when one of the gala attendees approached her. older. well dressed. familiar in a way that made her stomach drop. she didn’t recognize him at first,until he spoke.the scent of whiskey clung to his breath as his hand settled on her side, casual and proprietary. he mentioned their time together a year ago like it was a shared joke. like it was harmless.
it wasn’t surprising. it was something she’d feared from the moment she and they became serious. running into someone who knew what she’d done before. someone who had paid for her. but the reality of it was worse than she’d imagined. standing there, in a room full of people who respected her boyfriend, with her past brushing against her skin, it felt suffocating. it was the final straw. jade leaving fred with his teammates and ordering an uber home.
that had been 3 days ago. midterms came and went; she aced every exam. her GPA held steady. but she ignored freddie’s calls. his texts. the trip they’d planned. instead, she stayed home, curled up on the couch with gregory, binge-watching mindless tv and letting the silence settle around her.









