Chapter 8

Jemima was far from alright.

Well everything looked like it would’ve been alright as they walked out of the luxurious restaurant, with their hands on each other, their chatter and giggles echoing throughout the empty dark street…until she opened her mouth to ask Kaden where they were going next, but the boy suddenly detached himself from her so fast that she barely had time to react or even register what the hell was going on.

She watched with an offended dropped jaw as her boyfriend rushed over to the new girl, who was sitting on the curb in front of the restaurant, loudly crying into her folded arms which rested on her knees.

What are the fucking odds?

Jemima felt her blood boil, her fists clenched angrily on her sides, she fought the urge to hurl her designer six inch heels at the pretty brunette.

"Alexa?" Kaden crouched down in front of the girl, worry clear in his blue eyes that were locked on the distressed girl,"what happened? Are you okay?"

Alexa lifted her head up, strands of her brown hair falling in front of her puffy tear-stained face, glossy blue eyes looking at him with confusion evident in them. "Kaden?" Her voice was meek and soft, barely above a whisper. "What- what are you doing h-here?"

Jemima rolled her eyes so hard they nearly rolled out of her face.

"That's not important, why are you crying?" Zayden cupped her face and swiped at the tears with the pads of his thumb.

He touched her like it was second nature.

The action came so easy to him as if he didn't even have to think about it, he was too comfortable doing that for Jemima’s liking.

And what did he mean not important!?

She exhaled deeply through her nose, trying not focus on her boyfriends hands which rested so comfortably on another girl's face.

She really disliked the new girl.

"My- my date stood me up, we've been talking for a couple weeks and he just stood me up, I don't know- it's stupid I know, but I- I just feel so pathetic." More tears rolled out of her eyes and onto Zayden's hand, who’s thumbs were rubbing circles on her jaw.

That's why she was crying on the side of the road like she was in some dramatic soap opera!??

Jemima was seriously contemplating throwing her shoe at the girl.

"Aw that's so horrible, however will you recover from the tragedy- anyway, Kaden, we’re leaving."

The girl's head snapped to her direction at the sound of her voice, her face turning into one of pure shock as if she just noticed that Jemima was there as well. She scrambled to her feet and away from Zayden, nervously wiping her hands on the fabric of her knee length deep purple dress.

Jemima's face scrunched up in disgust when her eyes traveled down to the girl's feet. Out of all the shoes to pair with a dress or even wear to a date- the girl had on an ugly pair of black sneakers that had some random purple designs on them. As if the horrible pairing of the dress and shoes weren’t bad enough, she had absolutely no accessories to complete her look, her neck and ears were bare, the only accessories she had on were those horrible hipster looking bangles around both her wrists- Jemima would hardly even call those accessories.

The girl looked a damn mess, her date must've sensed it too and decided not to show up.

"Oh my God! I'm totally ruining your date! I-I'm so sorry," she furiously wiped away the tears on her cheeks, "I- I'll get a cab home-"

"The hell you will," Zayden scoffed, stepping closer to grab her dainty wrist, "we're taking you home."

"The hell we are!" Jemima nearly growled like some animal, her already irritated mood sky rocketing at the fact that Kaden even thought of such a ridiculous idea.

Kaden looked at his girlfriend in shock as if she was being irrational, "well we're not just gonna leave her out here all on her own! It's late and who knows what creep is lurking around the corner, and taking a cab this late is always sketchy."

The boy made very valid points, but she couldn't have been bothered to care. All she felt at that moment was pure anger at the fact that their perfect date came to such a horrible end all because of the new girl popping up out of nowhere crying about some mundane issue as if there weren't people in the world literally dying.

The night was still young and Zayden had told her that he had so much more planned for the night, but with the way things were looking, they're date had clearly come to an end.

And it was all because of lil-miss-crisis.

"I'll order an Uber for her then," Jemima pulled her phone out of her purse and opened the Uber app after unlocking it, "where do you live girl?"

"Jemima," Zayden stepped closer to her, and the way he said her name made her look up from the bright screen of her phone, a questioning eyebrow raised.

"We're dropping her home," he said finality in his tone, his eyes silently telling her that he was not going to change his mind, “I’m not leaving her out here.”

Jemima's lips folded into her mouth, her dark angry eyes shifted from her frowning boyfriend to look behind him and at the nervous girl who stood awkwardly with her arms around herself.

Alexa looked away and off to the side when her nervous glossy blue eyes met Jemima's silently raging brown eyes.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth, biting back her anger, then without another word, marched her way towards Kaden's car, where the valet awkwardly waited.

The valet bowed as he opened the passengers door for her, she muttered a low 'thanks' after jumping in. After the door was shut for her, she watched through the window as Kaden grabbed Alexa's hand, mumbling something to her before walking her over to the car, where he opened the backseat door for her like the perfect gentleman he was.

Jemima scoffed, and crossed her arms.

The car slightly moved when Alexa got in, and the moment Kaden shut the door after her, the two girls locked eyes through the rear-view mirror.

Brown on Blue.

Jemima could've sworn that somewhere in the distance, lighting stroke.

A war was silently declared right there, and Jemima would do anything to come out on top.

The drivers door opened, defusing some of the tension in the car, and Kaden jumped in, "boy, what a night," the clueless boy sighed as he started the car.

"This is a very nice car," Alexa softly commented from the backseat, the sound of her running a hand over the leather seat irritated Jemima for some reason.

"Yeah? You like it?" Kaden said with a smirk on his face, and she wanted to throw her shoe at him instead.

"Yes, it's very nice."

Que the eye roll.

"Thanks," his smirk was a full smile now, then he finally turned to his girlfriend with the same smile on his face as if everything was okay, "I'm dropping you off first babe, since your house is closer."

Was he serious!?

He wanted to drop her off so he'd stay alone in the car with her!?

Jemima looked away from him and stared out the window.

With a sigh, Kaden started the drive to her house, and before you ask, yes the ride was very silent with a thick tension in the small space.

"This is you," Kaden said after pulling up in front of her apartment building.

She blinked as she looked up at the building, as if seeing it for the first time ever in her life.

He really was serious!

She mumbled a forceful ‘thanks’, then after fumbling with her seatbelt to get it off, stumbled out of the car and angrily banged the door shut.

He didn’t even get out to open the car door for her!

She stomped through the glass doors of the building and headed towards the elevator. “Boyfriend of the fucking year!” She grumbled while angrily pressing the golden button to call the elevator down.

An aggravated sigh left her lips when the elevator didn’t come down the second she pressed the button- she was irritated and impatient. She turned her head slightly to the side, throwing a quick glance at the glass doors to check if Kaden had left already.

Her lip twitched at what she saw.

Her boyfriend didn’t drive away yet.

Instead, he had jumped out of the car to open the backseat door for Alexa, then opened the passengers door for her and held her hand to help her in as if she couldn’t get in a car on her own. He even shut the door for her before jogging to the other side and jumping into the drivers side, and then he drove away.

Oh?

A bitter chuckle left her lips and her fists balled up by her sides, she felt her anger reach a whole new level and all she saw was red.

Oh, there was about to be a war alright.