Raina takes it upon herself to make her presence scarce. "I'll go inside and help the girls look for the bags."
On her way into the house, she grabs Blake by the arm, likely inviting her to go inside with them. Blake looks over her shoulder and spots Jade. Her mouth opens in shock, but she silently follows Raina into the house.
"Where does she think she's going?" Jade points to Blake and Raina retreating into the house. "I want to talk to her."
"She stays out of this, Jade. You can talk to me and only me."
"I want to see Clover."
As she approaches me, I glance down at the gift bag she's holding. The sun is setting now, but I can see it's decorated with party hats and looks like it has enough glitter on it to cover my living room. "I'll make sure she gets that, but I'm not letting you talk to her. Not tonight."
"You're seriously not going to let me see my goddaughter on her birthday?"
"Yeah, you lost that privilege last night when you threw a party and brought drugs into your home when my daughter was sleeping upstairs." My voice is laced with so much fury that I'm even scaring myself a little.
"Kass, you don't know what happened."
"I truly doubt there's any way that you could explain this that would make me any less furious with you."
She stops a few feet away from me, clearly keeping her distance. I would too if I were her.
"I only invited a couple of people, and it just got out of hand. I was trying to get people to leave, but I couldn't."
"What kind of adult doesn't have control over their own house parties?" She doesn't respond, so I answer my question for her. "An irresponsible one with shitty friends. That's who."
"Kass. You have to believe me. I would never have put Clover in harm’s way. I get that she got a little spooked, but?—"
"A little spooked? Jade, she sat in the closet, shaking for over twenty minutes, waiting for someone to come get her. A man wasbangingon the bedroom door, trying to get in. She wasn't a little spooked; she wasterrified!"
She's taken aback. The remaining sunlight reflects off her face, and I can see tears streaming down it. "I didn't know." Her entire presence has shifted. She stomped in here looking to pick a fight, but right now, the woman standing before me is crumbling. "I'm so sorry, Kass. I would never want to make Clover feel that way. The party got out of hand, and I really should have done more to stop it. I just—I just—" She can barely get her words out through her sobs.
"Damn right you should have stopped it. Or at the very least, you should have called me, Jade. You should have called me for help or to come pick up Clover. And I think you know you fucked up big or else you wouldn't have waited until the end of the party to show up."
"You're right. I was just afraid you wouldn't," sniffle, "let me," sob, "see her again."
She may be breaking down in front of me, but I don't give a shit. I don't let up. "You were right. Why would I letyou see her again when you clearly aren't responsible enough? You're afuckingmess, Jade. You always have been. I made the mistake of trusting you again; that's on me. But you put a little girl, whom you claim to love, in danger. Just like you put her mother in danger."
The mention of Daisy has Jade falling to her knees in the grass. Her hands cover her face as she loses it. I don't know what to do other than stare down at her until she's done.
It takes several minutes for her to gain enough composure, but she still can't look up at me. "I'm so sorry."
In the minutes it took her to calm down, I was thinking.
"I don't think you're a bad person, Jade. You're just fucking stupid and irresponsible."
"I know..."
"I'm not going to press charges."
This gets her attention. She looks up at me with the most pathetic face I've ever seen.
"I could, but I'm not going to. Maybe this is another one of my horrible decisions, but as of right now, I stand by it."
"Thank you."
"It's not for you, though. It's for Clover. She's been through enough in the past couple of years, and I don't want her to go through a trial or any sort of questioning."
"I understand."
