Prey (3 page)

Marie removes her arm from around Jade shoulders. “You know, Jade, I’m reminded how much I dislike you every time we hang,” Marie joked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You have everything. You have the good grades. You have the ability to eat whatever you want and still stay a size two. And to top it all off, you have him,” Marie set her eyes on the cherry-red Corvette.

Jade also set her sights on the convertible, trying hard to hold back a smile.

The Chevy’s engine revs once last time before the car shuts off. The driver’s door swings open. Marie and Jade already know who the car belongs to, yet they continue to stare in anticipation.

Out of the vehicle exits a tall, dark and exceptionally good-looking young guy known by nearly all the students at ISU as Drake Anderson. Drake was the campus rock star and everybody knew it.

Drake stood near his car, glancing around the crowded lot, the sun reflecting off his designer sunglasses and glaring brilliantly off his diamond-stud earrings. As he proceeded across the parking lot practically every female eye within range had become fixated on him. During his time at ISU, Drake’s built an impressive persona for himself as a rich kid, bad boy, which really leaves little question as to why he’s the object of affection for nearly every woman on campus.

Despite all the flirtatious attention, Drake ignores the gawking women and maintains his focus and continues to make his way toward Jade and Marie. A faint breeze picks up, pressing his white tee-shirt up against his torso, revealing his firm, muscular undertone.

Marie cleared her throat. “I better get going,” she said, forcing herself to look away from Drake. “I have to be at my hair appointment in half an hour.”

“Call me when you get home from your date so I’ll know you got in safe.”

“Will do. Talk to you later, girly.”

Jade and Marie hug each other goodbye before Marie walks off en route to her car. Seconds after Marie’s departure, Drake walks up behind Jade and wraps one of his ripped arms around her shoulders and the other around her waist.

“Guess who?”

Jade spun around and cuddled him affectionately. Drake attempts to kiss her, but she turns her head away, prevent their lips from meeting. She promptly loosens up on her once tight embrace.

Drake picks up on the snub and with a puzzled expression, he releases her from his grasp and asks, “Did I do something wrong, babe?”

“No. I’m just a little tired. I was up all night getting ready for today.”

“Oh, okay.” Switching to another topic, Drake asks, “So what’d you think of my parking job? I should be using my skills for NASCAR, huh?”

Jade smiles and shakes her head. She’s well aware of how Drake likes to walk the fine line that separates arrogance and self-confidence.

“Whatever you say, Drake,” she replied. “Aren’t you late for English?”

“Only by a few minutes.” Drake wraps an arm around Jade’s waist and leads her back towards the school. “You know I have to make a grand entrance.”

After taking several steps alongside her confident boyfriend, Jade stops and pulls his arm from around her. “I don’t see how you pass any of your classes. I can count on one hand how many times you’ve actually gone to class on time.”

“You know exactly how I pass. I pass because all of my teachers love me. The men teachers envy me and the women teachers are wooed by my charisma and charm,” he declared with a boastful grin.

Fed up with his cockiness, Jade ends the discussion by turning her back on Drake and heading for her car. “That’s it for me,” she joked, throwing her hands in the air. “Goodbye, Drake. Talk to you later.”

Laughing at Jade’s reaction, Drake yells out to her as she crosses the lot. “Jade, I was just playing! You know how I like to joke around! We still on for tonight?!”

Jade turns to face Drake, backpedaling. She answers his question with a nod and a smirk. Drake smiles upon receipt of Jade’s answer and presses on to his class. Jade spins back around and keeps moving until she’s arrives at her car.

She tosses her backpack in the backseat of her ‘06 Ford Taurus and sets herself down in the driver’s seat. She starts the engine and rolls down the windows, allowing the buildup of accumulated heat to be released. Jade takes a second to enjoy the cool breeze of incoming air before shifting into gear and driving off.

What Jade fails to realize is that she’s being closely watched.

She accelerates down the street, unknowingly driving pass someone who’s been monitoring her every movement for the last two days. The unusual stranger is wearing a hood over their head that extends out far enough to hide their face, keeping their identity a mystery. Worn over the hooded-sweatshirt is a filthy black trench coat, long and thick, and extremely out of place due to the eight-degree temperature. Judging by the broadness of the shoulders the suspicious person is more than likely male.

And while it’s unclear who this person is or what they want, one thing’s certain for sure…Whoever they are, they’re definitely interested in Jade.

CHAPTER 4

Jade arrives at the local shopping mall where she works. She walks by several stores, catching the eyes of numerous gawking men, some of whom are mall employees, while the majority of the others are customers. Jade ignores her admires and stays constant on her course.

She reaches the store where she works, goes inside and is immediately greeted by her co-worker and friend, Shana Smith. Older than Jade by only a couple years, the two are the youngest employees of the shop and it’s because of this bond that they’ve bonded with each other more so than with the other older women they work with.

Folding clothes and neatly placing them in a bargain bin, Shana greets Jade with a curious glimpse. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were off today.”

“I am. I’m only up here to buy this cute shirt I saw yesterday. I figured I’d get it while I have the extra money.”

Shana raised an eyebrow. “Please tell me you’re not buying a shirt from up in here.”

“Now you know better than that.” Jade replied. “The shirt I saw was a few stores down. I knew you’d be in here alone so I just came in to see how you were holding up.”

“I’m cool. It’s been a pretty slow day…As usual. There were a few people that came in, but they weren’t looking for clothes…They were looking for you.” She finished slyly, giving Jade a suspicious gaze.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you,” said Shana. “I see someone’s becoming a social butterfly in their first year away from home.”

Jade’s interest was on the rise. “Who were they? What did they want?”

“I don’t really know,” said Shana, folding the remaining clothes. “They wanted to know if you were working today. When I told them you were off for the next couple days, they started asking if I knew the exact time and day you were scheduled to come back.

“You’ve been holding out on me, girl. The guys that came in here asking about you were some of the finest men I’ve ever seen. Even the girls that were in here asking about you were pretty as hell.”

“Wait a minute,” Jade paused, “exactly how many people asked about me?”

“Let’s see,” Shana said, glancing up at the ceiling as she recalled the visitors. “First, there were the two guys dressed in business suits. The one that asked about you was really charismatic and sweet; the other guy with him seemed like he could be a jerk…A sexy jerk, but a jerk all the same.”

Baffled by Shana’s information, Jade tries to figure out more about her mysterious visitors. “Did they leave names, phone numbers, business cards or anything I could use to contact them?”

“They didn’t leave anything. I asked for their names and if they wanted me to relay any messages, but they said no. They said that they’d be getting in contact with you soon enough.”

“I guess.” Jade responded, contemplating the strange occurrence.

“That’s not all. There were four more people who stopped by after the two guys in suits. I only mentioned them first because they were the finest. An hour or so after those two had left, two women came in and then after them, two more guys stopped by. They all came in individually, though. The two women were gorgeous. I’d kill to have features like there’s. The third guy to come in was youngster. He was probably a year or two younger than you, but he was a sexy young thing, too,” Shana added.

Jade then asked Shana, “And they all were asking for me? Did any of them look familiar?”

“I’ve never seen any of them before,” Shana said, placing the last folded shirt in the bin. “Trust, I’d remember if I did. You don’t forget people who look like that. Maybe now that you’re here you can tell me what’s going on. Are you networking exclusively with models now or what? I knew I should’ve let you make that Facebook page for me when you asked to.”

Jade is befuddled. She doesn’t have any feasible explanation as to why she’s so popular all of a sudden. Going by Shana’s description, Jade has no clue as to who the people asking about her are.

“Thanks for giving me the heads up, sweetie. If any of them come back call me on my cell phone, okay?”

“Hold on, Jade, I didn’t tell you the weirdest part yet. The last guy who came by asking ‘bout you…I think he was homeless.”

“Homeless?”

“Yeah. He was wearing this dirty trench coat and had a hood pulled over his head. At first I thought he was gonna try and rob the place. I mean, who wears a hood over their head inside a mall? Isn’t it like eighty degrees outside? He’s probably out there right now laying on the road somewhere suffering from heat stroke.”

“That is weird,” Jade confessed. Feeling uneasy about all she’s been told, Jade develops a look of concern, which clearly exemplifies the worry she feeling internally. “Thanks again, Shana. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Alright, Jade. Take care, honey” said Shana, reorganizing a rack of jeans. “Call me if you need me, sweetie.”

Jade said goodbye to Shana and left the shop. With her curiosity soaring to a new high, various questions arose in her mind.

Who were those people? Why were they asking about me? If I don’t know them, then how do they know me? How do they know where I work?

These are just a few questions that bounce around in her head. The more Jade thinks about it, the more paranoid she becomes. Her concern soon escalates when she thinks about what other things the strangers may know. If they knew her name and where she worked, how long would it be before they find out more personal information about her? How long would it be before they found out where she lived?

Hours have gone by since Jade first received word about her mysterious visitors at the mall. She’s spent an equal amount of time trying to think up answers for the questions she raised earlier.

Throughout the course of the day the thoughts that had once weighed heavily on her brain are now beginning to subside. It isn’t that she’s totally forgotten about the peculiar ordeal, it’s just that she feels she may be causing herself to panic over nothing.

She keeps herself busy by straightening up her apartment before Drake arrives for their date. She still has a couple hours to kill before he’s due to arrive, but she doesn’t want to take the small window of time for granted. She rushes through the cleaning of her apartment by gathering up all her clothes, books and other miscellaneous items and tossing them into her bedroom closet.

It takes Jade two round trips before she notices an improvement. On her third trip she returns to the closet carrying two thick text books that she picked up off her dining room table. She lifts the books above her head and slides them onto the overhead shelving that lined her closet. She got the books halfway onto the shelf before she encounters a snag. Using a little extra force, she manages to break the books free from the snag and get them all the way on the shelf, but in doing so, she knocks several other items off.

Jade sighs in frustration. Her initial impulse was to leave the items on the floor and continue to clean up. However, this option is quickly discarded when she notices that one of the items that fell was a black shoebox. When the shoebox hit the floor its top fell off which resulted in the contents of the box spilling out. Jade remembers this shoebox and the contents within it all too well.

Jade takes a seat on the floor right beside the turned over shoebox. She’s made valiant efforts in the past to stay clear of the black shoebox and its contents, and for the last seven months she’s done exactly that.

The reason why Jade forces herself to stay away from this ordinary shoebox is because it is where she keeps the agonizing memories of her past. Inside the box are photos that remind her of one of the most painful losses she’s ever had to endure. But it’s odd that the pictures that cause her so much pain and misery are actually pictures that were taken during some of the happiest times of her young life.

Jade picks up the photos and browses through them, taking time to reflect on each picture. Remembering the place, time and thoughts that were going through her head at that particular moment. In nearly every single picture with Jade was her previous boyfriend and her first true love, Alex Henley.

There were over fifty pictures of Alex and Jade that spanned out over different times and different places, but in every single last picture the two shared the one thing that never changed was the obvious love and affection they had for one another.

Each picture depicts Jade and Alex smiling vivaciously into the camera while they held each other tight. Slowly flipping through the photographs, Jade comes across the one picture that doesn’t have Alex posing beside her. It’s a picture that she and her father took the night she was scheduled to accompany Alex to his senior prom. It was the night that shook her young world to its very core.

Jade takes a hold of this specific picture and places all the others back in the box. She lies out on the closet floor, resting on her side as she reminisces on the life altering event that occurred no more than twenty minutes after that picture was taken two years ago. It’s a painful and tragic event that plays in her mind as clear as a Blu Ray Disc on an HD screen.