| Chapter One |
[12 Feb 2009|01:10pm] |
The sun had started to rise just over the houses within the little gated community called Lakefront Estates, and it seemed to catch a bit of a warmth that peered through the slits of the blinds that seemed to filter through into the bedroom.
It was this morning sunshine that seemed to keep the young woman from being able to sleep any longer. She rolled over to look at the clock to see what time it was. Nine fifteen. Well, she slept longer then she expected to at any rate.
Sitting up in bed she stretched out her aches within her lower back when she heard a knock on the door, seeing her grandmother peek her head into the room. “Good Morning Jaden.. You up for some Eggs?“ she asked her.
Jaden nodded a little, “If you feel like making them sure, thank you.” She thought for a moment before she looked back at her grandmother, “Jason had to work the early morning didn’t he.”
Her grandmother nodded her head a bit, “He left you a note by your dresser, apparently he isn’t working too late so you guys could go and get the grocery shopping done today.” she told her, referring to Jaden's twin brother who was not in the house. As she shut the door she said in a slightly louder voice, “Ill be right back with the eggs…”
Jaden shook her head a bit to get rid of the cobwebs in her brain as she got out of bed, running her fingers through her short dark brown tresses. She was not what you call super thin. She was your average bodied woman. A lot of people used to tell her that she was absolutely beautiful, but she didn’t really believe it 99 percent of the time. Her high cheekbones were flushed with her sleepiness as she yawned, and went over towards the dresser to pick up the note:
Jewel-
Working from 5am-11am today, so I should be home in plenty of time to be able to go shopping with you for Grams. Sleep in and be ready when I get home, or I’ll find the ice again to get you out of bed.
Love,
the better looking Hosten ;)
She rolled her eyes at the ice threat. “Oh please..that doesn’t work with me, its what I have to use on you brat…“ she mumbled out loud to herself as she folded the note and put it in the one box that she kept all her notes between the two of them.
Going over to her closet, she picked out the simplest of outfits to wear today. Her favorite pair of jeans and her black tunic shirt. She was always one for looking simplistic, but eclectic in her own way. It was just her style. She dressed how she wanted to dress.
“I probably should get a quick shower, it’d probably help to wake me up just a little…“ she mumbled aloud to herself again as she dropped the clothes on the closed toilet seat and prepared herself for her shower. Turning on the hot water, she stepped in, and let the waters warmth penetrate every aching section of her body. It was days like this she felt the way she was catching up on her age. Especially when she was prone to all the negative energy that seemed to permeate through her life.
After getting out of the shower and getting dressed, she was towel drying her hair as she looked at her computer screen that was up. It wasn’t but a few weeks ago that she had been given the advice by her councilor that she had been seeing that keeping a blog -- or some sort of journal would help her with sorting through her emotions when she needed to write down her thoughts. Jason had told her about half their friends out of state and from their old hometown were on this one particular blog site. So with much coercion, he got her to create a journal name of whistlerr -- based off of their favorite movie, Blade Trinity.
Taking a moment, she logged into her personal blog account, and sitting in front of the keyboard for a long moment, she stretched her fingers and began to let them play across the keys as she typed.
Let's see.... what or where should I start with my life and what I’m doing here within this new journal that I’m keeping? There's so much I could start with....
Well, for starters, my name is Jaden Alyssa Hosten. But most people just call me Jade. I'm 26 years old, and i moved from Marian, New York to the sunny state of Florida in the City of Angels Haven. Trust me, living up north with your family then making the change is something that's hard to come by.
Now why do you ask why we made the change? Well let me tell you.....
My mother had lost her job, and our father decided to pack us up and just move everyone, including my grandmother to Florida. The benefit is that we'll be near my older brother Gabriel who is down here. The bad thing is my family and I were giving up all we had up here.
And my family? Well, it consists of my mother Angelica, whose one of the strongest women I’ve known in the world. I also have a wonderful grandmother, named Aubrey Martin. If youre curious, Aubrey is my mother's mother.
I mentioned about my older brother Gabe: he's four years older then I am -- I also have a twin brother named Jason. And in case you’re wondering, we are in fact identical twins, though people say they cant tell. We may not look 100 percent alike, but we've got that bond that most twins share, which is something that is impossible to break apart.
Now, the only other one I haven’t mentioned about is.....
A sudden sound of breaking glass was heard out in the hallway, followed by the sounds of a man screaming and carrying on about things in the living room. Jade tensed up tightly as soon as she heard it, as she bit her lip hard. "Great..." she mumbled to herself, "He's here."
She debated on if she should be going out into the living room. When it came to her father carrying on like he was doing, she knew to stay away. Why? Because she was his test subject. She was always the one who found to be the martyr for him. It was nothing the boys did wrong, the boys were fine in his eyes. But with her, it was another story.
She heard another crash as she got up and crept out of her bedroom, hoping that she was going to avoid the Chernobyl.
"JADEN ALYSSA!"
Oh no.
She turned her heel slowly as she saw the fuming face of her father stalking towards her, "Why the hell haven’t you done any sort of yard work for your grandmother?!?!" he screamed as he got up right in her face. "You are so useless and pointless, I don’t know how the hell your grandmother puts up with you!!"
Angelica bit her lip hard as she watched her husband start to wail off on their daughter, and she mouthed to Jaden He had a bad day... She hated to let a lot of this continue, but she knew that when it came to Michael blowing off steam it was better to let it just continue and not push it.
Jade felt a twinge of anger and frustration shoot through her system, "I'm sorry Father, I didn’t realize working 40 hours a week to help grandma get out of the debt we're stuck in at the moment with Jase counted as doing nothing." she said respectfully, but in an incline to sound like she was being defiant.
Michael Hosten glared at his daughter and with a swift motion of his hand, he smacked her HARD across the face. The whole room was in a mere standstill for what appeared to be a brief moment, even with Gabriel who had just walked into the room and witnessed the inital slap.
Without so much as a mere thought flying through his head, Gabriel Miguel Hosten reacted out of instinct. Running towards their father, he proceeded on tackling him. The action caused their momentum to roll them both away from where Jade was standing.
Jaden literally fell back, trying to catch her footing just as she saw Gabriel tackling their father and holding him down. He could see the fury blazing in her elder brothers eyes as she bit her lip hard.
The room was abuzz now with all sorts of people yelling at each other, between Aubrey and Angelica yelling at Gabe to get off Michael, to Gabe and Michael having it out with words on the floor. Jaden stood at the back corner of the room with her hands over her ears, trying her best to block the screaming out of her head. She hated when her family got like this. She absolutely hated it.
Gabe held his father down, trying to force his entire being to not want to slug his father right there, "How many TIMES are you going to pull this same bullshit?!?!" he seethed through his gritted teeth. "I NEVER.....want to ever see you TRY...."
He was stopped short when he felt the slender hands of his baby sister grasping onto his shoulders, and the deadpan voice as she spoke, "Leave it Gabe.....let's just go...?" She pleaded, not wanting to see any more fighting happen in front of anyone right now. She was still feeling the stinging pain of the slap radiating through her now crimson flushed cheek. She wasn’t sure if he'd haul off and punch their father, but she prayed her touch would recoil him and make him get up and they could just leave.
Gabe thought for a long moment before he finally climbed off their father, and got up and put his arm around Jade's shoulders and walked out of the house without so much as a word. He knew that he had to half respect his father, and in a small regretful way he regretted jumping on him.... but when it came to their fathers reaction to Jade, he couldn’t just sit there and let their father beat the hell out of her.
The moment Jade and Jason were born, they were considered precious treasures to Gabe. He became more of their guardian as well as their brother. He loved his baby siblings and teasingly called them treasure names. Jaden was his "Jewel" and Jason was the "The Lure" -- being he had just as a hot temper when it came to protecting Jaden, especially when he could Lure people in with his unique and odd personality.
As they started to walk away, Jaden thought she almost saw their mother silently chewing Michael out for what he did as she heard Gabe say to their grandmother, “When Jason gets home, have him call my cell and meet up with us okay?”
Aubrey nodded and kissed Gabe on the cheek, before lightly touching Jaden’s burning face, “Get her out of here for now Gabriel… get her mind off of it.” she whispered quietly.
Gabe nodded silently in understanding to her, and guided Jade out of the house. He put her in the passenger seat of his convertible, and just revved up the engine, pulling away. The two of them sat in silence before Gabe reached over and took a hold of his baby sisters hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze - reminding her silently that he was right there with her, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
It had been at least a half an hour of them driving around before Gabe’s cell phone rang and he hit his on-star button to answer it, "Hosten...."
"What the hell happened this time?!?!" the shouting voice of Jason came over the speaker phone, "I just drove by the house and grandma told me to call you. What's going on? Is Jade with you? Is she okay? He didn’t touch her did he?"
Gabe sighed, "Killer, calm down okay? Before you get in an accident. Listen, just meet us at Lake Marsh near the benches. Also, if I find out that you were driving recklessly in that Mustang, I’m taking away the damn keys, ok? I mean it..."
The two of them heard the pissed off sigh that came from their sibling before he dejectedly agreed, "Okay Okay Mr Pain in my Ass.. just be careful with her and i'll meet you guys down there..."
"All right... later." he pushed the button again to silence the call, then looked back at Jade before putting his eyes back on the road.
When they got to Lake Marsh, they parked the car and just sat there for a long moment. Jade got out of the car silently first, as she leaned up against it with her arms wrapped around her waist. Gabe got out as well and moved to go around to meet up with her, but was taken by surprise when he watched her fling herself into his arms, and felt the wetness against his T-shirt.
Her tears.
Sighing quietly, he wrapped his strong arms around her and just held her, letting her cry as she had to. Seeing his baby sister shed any tears over the continuous bull that she had to put up with from her father was enough to make his heart break. There wasn’t much that got to Gabe, but seeing Jaden in any sort of pain, drove him up the wall.
"Jewel...." he muttered in a soothing tone as he ran his fingers through her hair, keeping her as close as he could. His other free hand ran up and down her back in a gentle manner- a little trick he used to use when she was little. "I’m sorry I snapped like that, but I told you... that son of a..." he stopped, knowing he shouldnt swear and carry on like that, "...jerk tries laying a hand on you...."
"I know..." she said as she sniffled before leaning back to wipe her eyes, her voice teetering between uneasy and okay. She looked up at Gabe as she sighed, "I've been doing good enough to just ignore him, but I cant take when he's just seeming to be getting progressively worse.... ripping on mom..... blaming ever single thing going wrong here, and I’m just trying to help Jase and Grams get the bills paid because that idiot keeps spending, so mom has to keep borrowing from us to survive...."
Gabe shushed her again as he held her closer, "Listen, I don’t want you to make yourself worry about what stupid things that jackass is doing, and Mom knows I’ll help her as much as I can. But I want you to just try to enjoy and make your life the best it can be, you hear me?" he cupped her face in his fingers, before brushing her eyes to get rid of any spare tears, he found himself smiling gently, "I want my little Jewel to be able to do nothing but sparkle, not grow dull with the weight of the world.."
Jaden couldn’t help but weakly laugh as she bit her lip. Her big brother was the one she always turned to when she needed advice. When it came to simple questions all the way down to guy issues. If Jase couldn’t help her, they called Gabe. Gabe was their knowledge and protector. "Gabe....." she tried to interject.
He put a finger up, "I mean it! that's an order." he then poked her chest teasingly, before cupping her chin in his hand, "You know you and Jase mean a lot to me... I love my two treasures."
Jaden smiled weakly through her misty eyes, "I know....and we love you brat." She muttered before she wrapped her arms tightly around him and hugged him as strong as she could. She was burying her face against his chest, drawing on his strength he gave her right then and there.
The moment between older brother and baby sister was cut short however just as the nearby sapphire blue Mustang came to park near Gabe's. Jason came out of the vehicle, jogging over with a look of pure anger and concern flashing in his eyes.
"Okay, what the hell happened?" he exclaimed as he went over to Jaden, touching her face to see the red mark still visible there. He then turned to Gabe, "Okay, can I kill the bastard yet?"
Gabe shook his head, trying to give a very light smirk as he ruffled his little brother's hair, "Listen to me you little killer shark, get in your car, and we're heading to Jensens. Jewel is deserving of a little splurge treatment by her two bodyguards."
He blinked in surprise at him, before he shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Yeah yeah okay. I'll meet you there." He looked over at Jaden for a quick moment, caressing her good cheek as he said in a low voice, “You up for it Jewel?”
Jaden nodded quietly as she held her brothers hand to her face for that split moment, “Yeah.. I’ll see you over there.” she promised Jason, looking at him to reassure him she’d be fine on the ride there.
Nodding, Jason looked up at Gabe for a moment, “The one over on Sunrise?” he asked him, making sure which Jensen’s coffee shop he was referring to.
Already having moved and in the drivers seat, he nodded to his baby brother, “That very same one. So hurry up and get your butt in the car and we’ll see you over there.”
Unable to hide a smile forming on his lips he started to jog back to his car, as Jaden got into the passenger seat of Gabe's vehicle. “Yeah yeah I’m going! I’m going!” he yelled as he hopped over the door into the drivers seat, just as the two cars pulled away.
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