A Second Chance (8 page)

‘
Th
o
se
are old days
that you’re
talking about
,
’
Jade
said instead, her eyes
veiled as she looked at her mom. ‘
It
has nothing to do with Brian and our break up. I haven’t seen Liam in years, and
I
don’t expect
that
to change anytime soon. Even Laura
—
she
only
writes me twice a year
,
and we
’
re barely in touch.’

‘She did call here last week
,
though
.
’ Mrs. Rowley glanced at her daughter, eager to read her expression. ‘
She a
sked
about you. She left her new number, said the old one wasn’t working anymore
,
and she wanted to talk to you whenever you’ve got time. I told her you were very busy with the wedding, since I had no idea it was called off.’

Jade
’s
palms
were
sweat
y
with sudden anxiety.
How
typical
. Her mother
was
so
proud
that
her daughter
was
finally getting married
,
she
would
talk about it to anyone, starting with the postman and ending with the cashier at the bank. No wonder
she
had
almost fainted when
Jade
told her about the
breakup
last Friday.

‘Did she mention what she wanted to talk
about?
’
I
t
was much safer to pursue this avenue
,
and she was curious to find out more anyway.

‘No, but she didn’t sound too cheerful.’ Her mom bustled around, searching through the pile of notebooks next to the phone. ‘
H
ere
it is
—
the phone number she gave me for you to call her. I forgot about it completely with all the other stuff going
on
this weekend.’

Her mother
made it sound as if it
w
ere
entirely
Jade’s
fault
that
her engagement
had fallen
through,
she
thought defensively as she smoothed out the sheet of paper with the number on it
;
as
if she
had done
it to spite her parents, destroying their dream of her as a married woman.
That
was
un
fair
and annoying.
Her
own feelings didn’t even seem to register in her mom’s mind.

‘I
’
ll try to call her
,
then.’ Glad to have a good reason to escape this stifling conversation, Jade rose to her feet and smiled at her mother, feeling guilty to
have caused
her so much grief and disappointment.

She grabbed the phone and took it with her to her old bedroom
, which had
served as a guestroom ever since she had official
ly
move
d
out of
the house four years
before
. During
her
years
studying
,
she had kept it
unchanged
, glad to be able to return to
the
familiar four walls that had witnessed
her joys and sorrows over the
twenty
-
three years she
had
lived
within them
.

The room
looked different now, she thought as she opened the door and walked in.
T
he
pristine white coverlet that
lay on
the queen size bed was perfectly smooth and
wrinkle
-
free, which in itself was an upgrade from the cheerful, colorful mess that
had
reigned
with
in those four walls in her day. The walls
ha
d
been carefully patched, all the places where her posters
had hung
painted over in a soothing cream color
—
a color
she absolutely hated. It was clean, functional
,
and
about
as interesting as a hospital ward. But she was staying here only for the weekend, she reminded herself as she plopped on the bed and closed her eyes. It was easier this way. Easier to pretend she still belonged here, the memories of her
colorful
quilt and cheerful
,
shabby furniture
waiting
to
pounc
e
at her with overwhelming
force
.

She wondered about Laura’s phone call. She
had
sent her an invitation
to the wedding
, her initial hesitation to see Liam’s sister lasting just a brief second before she dropped the
pale pink
envelope into the mailbox. She wanted her friend to come and share her happiness, even if it would remind
Jade
of her brother
.
After all, she was
marrying
someone else
,
and if
that
wasn’t making
the
statement
that
she was totally over Liam, nothing else would.

Well, if they talked tonight she would have a chance to straighten out the story, she thought with
self
-
deprecating humor, trying to prepare herself for the inevitable question
that
she
had
got
ten
used to hear
ing
all through the weekend:
What happened?

She could hardly admit that her fiancé
had gotten
fed up with her infatuation with Liam, now could she? It would make her seem like some kind of an obsessive stalker
who
doesn’t know when to call it quits and move on
.
So she would play it cool and just give Laura the official version
, that both
of them
had realized
their lives
ha
d
grown apart
,
and it was a mutual decision
.

She punched in the numbers and waited, impatient to hear her friend’s voice once again.

Laura
picked up almost immediately
,
and Jade smiled, remembering
her friend
sitting in her room, her brown eyes large and full of laughter as they talked about boys, music
,
and plans for the future.

‘Yes?
’
H
er
voice sounded different
;
the infectious cheerfulness that usually accompanied everything Laura said
was
missing.

‘Hi, it’s me
.
Jade
.
’
S
he
propped herself against one perfectly fluffed pillow and imagined her mom’s horror at this act of desecration. ‘Just checking what’s up? I
’
m at my parents
’
house
,
and m
o
m said you
’d
called
.
Why didn’t you email me instead? Or call my place?’

‘I… I don’t think I was thinking straight, Jadie.’ She sounded tired and sad, and
a
familiar sense of
protectiveness
took
over
for Jade
. She
had always been
the stronger one in their friendship, always ready to jump in if her friend needed her. When Laura
was
teased because of her glasses, Jade
was the one
who
punched the biggest bully in their class and
was
sent to the principal’s office. She
received
a detention and a letter for her parents that created quite a stir in
their
otherwise
uneventful
family
life, but she never regretted standing up for Laura. The girl who
had
teased her
had gotten
the message
,
and though she sent killer looks
at Jade
for the rest of the semester
,
she never
so
much as smiled at Laura’s glasses.

‘What’s going on, Laura?’
A
premonition of something terrible
sen
t
her pulse skyrocketing.

‘I… I know I shouldn’t have
called you
like that, out of the blue
.
’ Laura sighed and hesitated before adding, her voice almost a whisper
,
‘But I needed to talk to someone
,
and you were the first person that came to mind. I called you on the way from my doctor’s office, Jade. I was all shaken up and just dialed your old number. Isn’t it funny how we forget the
presen
t
when
we’re
stressed out?’

Jade wasn’t ready to continue
a digression
into
the impact of stress on one’s mind
;
her whole body tense
d
as she asked impatiently
,
‘You went to the doctor? Why, Laura? What’s wrong?’ It couldn’t be anything serious. Last time she
’d
s
een
Laura
,
her friend
was walking on clouds,
having landed
a job with a reputable architect company in San Francisco.

‘I…’
W
hatever Laura wanted to say wasn’t easy
.
S
he took a deep breath, the silence in the receiver filling Jade with panic.

‘You what?’
Jade
sat up on the bed, unable to lie down when she sensed bad news coming her way.

‘I had a lump in my breast, Jade. At first they thought it was just a cyst and did an ultrasound
,
but it wasn’t conclusive so they followed up with a biopsy.’

Jade
felt ice cold, her hand shaking so much she almost dropped
the phone
. She listened to Laura’s voice, desperately hoping
Laura
would not confirm the horrible suspicion building inside
her
since she
’d
heard the word
‘
lump
.
’
It couldn’t be, she thought as she waited breathlessly for her to continue
;
Laura was just
twenty
-
eight
and as healthy as ever.

‘I got my results back
last
Thursday
,
and that’s why I called you, Jade
.
I was in shock, you know.’ She still
hadn’t said
the word Jade dread
ed
more than anything else, but they both knew what was going to happen next.

‘It’s breast cancer, Jade
.
I have cancer
.
’
S
he was crying, and a knife twisted in
Jade’s
che
st
as she listened to her friend
’
s
sob
s
, unable to say anything comforting. What does one say? Her head felt
empty,
and she wished
she could
be there with Laura as they talked about
th
is
horrid thing that had no right to happen to her. She would hug her and hold her, her silent support worth more than any words she could come up with from
a
distance. Still, she had to try
.