CHAPTER SIX: ANGER

His world looked like a storm. I was going to be its center.
-Kiera Cass

"Demetrius," I pause right outside the door of Jae's apartment, turning to him. "If Jae says something or asks something that offends you, don't be afraid to call her out on it. She's just trying to push your buttons and to figure out your personality."

"Why does she have to be mean to do that?" He tilts his head, frowning. "There's more to know about someone than their anger."

"She doesn't do that to the girls she meets, unless she gets bad vibes from them, but she's more invested in the way men express their anger. If they react poorly, she drops then." Sighing, I shake my head to myself. "I don't know how Warren passed, he definitely has anger issues."

"Friendship is weird, and I don't understand why she doesn't trust your judgement." He moves his hand up lightly, tapping the side of my jaw, fingertips stalling as I blink up at him. "Smart."

"Thanks," I scoff. "I guess I'm decently smart. She does trust my opinion, she's not entirely dismissing me, she just wants proof I guess. I don't think she's made the connection that proof would be worse than dismissing him without it."

"She's... she's in love with him?" He asks me, and I shrug in reply. "Love makes people idiots and blind. Mostly when it's a toxic relationship."

"I don't think she's like, in-love in-love with each other. It's more like she just wants someone to love, and picked the first person available. They weren't even friends first, he just hit on her at her freshman orientation and in less than a week they were dating."

Red flags, right?

But alas, now we both have to come to terms with the freshman slum of getting high for the first time, finding out how shitty most of the population is all while getting less than eight hours of sleep.

"Do you... think she'll listen to you now?"

"Hmm, oh...I mean," I laugh a bit. "We're about to find out."

With that, I knock pretty loud, kicking the door a moment later causing a slight crash to come from inside along with deep grumbling.

"Open up, you beautiful motherfucker, it's your best friend!"

Within seconds Jae is throwing the door open and practically knocking the wind out of me with how hard she hugs.

If I honestly just quickly glanced between Jaelynn and her mother, my Aunt Penelope, or Nell as many call her, I don't think I'd be able to say which was which. They both have dark hair, though Jae's is black and Aunt Nell's is just a dark brown, and they have the same brown eyes.

They're both about 5'7" and have the same lean all-I-drink-is-energy-drinks body type.

Not to mention they sound insanely similar, with Jae just using the same blunt words and actions to fuel her life.

She's still her father's child, and can't go five minutes while watching a horror movie without acting like she's going to die herself.

Something I would be lying if I said I didn't miss every Saturday night.

"Hey!" I laugh out, her lifting me off my feet in the hug. "You got enough of me, Jae, put me down so I can introduce you to Zeno."

Damn, it feels weird to be calling him that, but it's what he wants people to call him and my personal preferences of his name isn't going to change that.

Demetrius, from behind me, puts one hand on my hip and uses the other to wave rather awkwardly at my best friend. "Hi, or um, hello? I'm Zeno Bonnes. It's nice to meet you."

"You too." Jae says amusedly, glancing between us. "Bit formal, huh?"

"He just wants to impress you." Admitting this, I get a scolding squeeze and smile to myself.

Jaelynn just shrugs, glancing the very tall Demetrius up and down before meeting his eye and saying, "You're already in Eris's good graces, that's not an easy place to get. Color me impressed."

Glancing back and seeing Demetrius's frown, I just take his free hand in mine and pull him to follow me back into Jae's apartment.

Instantly we're greeted with loud bickering between Warren and two of his friends who look to be playing poker at the kitchen table.

A thin-lipped glare instantly finds its way onto my face until Jae smacks me lightly in the arm and shakes her head at me, making me sigh.

"I redecorated, and Nemy made me new paintings to go in the space! C'mon, I'll show you around, your boy over there can go introduce himself to those three."

"Um-"

Both me and Demetrius protest in sync, but Jae is already stuck in her excited little bubble and pulling me towards her living room.

One of Warren's friends, who has become Jae's friend more than her boyfriend's and is literally the only one out of them who I actually respect, DeAngelo Aldine, gets up when I point to him and point back at Demetrius.

"I like him." I shout-whisper at the mechanic, who looks back at me hopelessly. "Sorry! She's insane."

After we finally got past the kitchen tile, Jaelynn let's me go and half-faces me in a way I can instantly tell she doesn't give two shits about showing me the new painting.

It's kind of unnerving, being able to be seen by two men I know I distrust, but aren't willing to turn around and start a fight by glaring at them, or bother to keep them in sight.

So I just half-face her and the kitchen, not keeping them in view but definitely not turning my back to them.

By just looking at me, they can't harm me.

At least not physically anyway.

Raising an eyebrow at me, Jae pulls a knowing yet smug smile on her face. "So... tell me about that boy back there."

As a nervous habit, I rake my fingers through my hair and pull it up in a ponytail, biting my lip as I shrug. "Tell you what?"

"Why you never stop talking about him when we're on the phone," Jae says amusedly, brown eyes rolling. "And why I'm meeting him. Listen, I have nothing against him, trust me I don't-"

"It's just that most people don't like me or stay around me long enough to ever actually meet you?" I fill in with another smile, rolling my eyes in return. "He's my soulmate, Jae. I won't make excuses for how close we are."

Jae frowns at me slightly, head tilted. "You don't even know if we're soulmates, how are you sure about him."

"We grew up together, Jae-bear, that's why I don't know. How am I supposed to tell that we were always supposed to meet, if we never really had to meet each other? You're a part of me, I know that, but being part of my life because of an unavoidable collision of our souls is something completely different."

Honesty, sometimes, should be avoided in place of a nice little lie, or at least that's what Jae has told me.

When I told her my thoughts about us being best friends, I apparently broke her heart.

Something that could have been avoided.

But still, this isn't something I would ever be okay lying about, even if my lie just came in the shape of 'I don't know'.

Tightening my hair tie, I wrinkle my nose at Jaelynn. "I love you, Jae, but I can't apologize for the things I can't control."

"I get it, and soulmate or not, we're still best friends." Rebounding nicely, Jae winks at me before flicking my ponytail. "When did you re-dye your hair? The ombre green was really nice."

Biting my lip again, I show her my purple nails too. "This seems more... me. I've had green, silver, black, red and that weird ass rainbow hair. It seemed weird I never dyed my hair my favorite color, I wanted to change that."

Jae grins at me. "Well it looks good."

"Zeno agrees." I wink at her. "Can I please properly introduce you two now? I know you'll like him."

"Sure, but can I please low-key tease him about liking you?" Jae pleads. "Without doing that my job as a best friend will be incomplete."

Giggling, I shake my head at her. "Of course, he's cute when he blushes."

"Well come on then, let's go meet your boy."

Laughing together lightly, Jae walks me back to the kitchen with our arms connected, bumping each other playfully.

"Yeah, I have a fucking problem with you and the way you just talked about Eris like you wanted to fuck her." Is the first thing I hear Demetrius snarl out, back tense. "I have a problem with the way you just talked about women like all they're good for is to please you or whatever, and I especially have a problem with the way you look at her."

It's safe to say this wiped the smile off our faces.

And Warren, catching his girlfriend and me walking back in the room, pales. "Shut the fuck up, man-"

"I've been here for less than ten minutes and you've already managed to make a rape joke, make horrible comments about someone I care about, and demean your relationship with Jae by being a jackass and saying you'd willingly date her best friend. Get over yourself and your inflated ego and learn that you're not fucking funny, you're just an insulting prick."

Sometimes, I really hate being right.

Demetrius seething this out makes his shoulders stiff, anger seeming to roll off both him and DeAngelo in sync.

Putting my hand on both of their shoulders, I frown down at them. The mechanic squeezes my hand in reply, and DeAngelo puts a supportive arm around my shoulders, nodding at me.

"We got you, girl." DeAngelo says, raising an eyebrow at me as his black eyes glance between me and Jae. "You want us to kick him out?"

"No," Jae answers for me, arms crossing over her chest. "I got this. Warren, please stand up."

Hesitantly, Warren does so, glancing nervously around.

He seems to have realized by now that he's trapped between two bigger men and one seriously pissed off chick who's taken at least five years of karate.

Once Warren is standing up straight, I could see the tension in Jae from a mile away and didn't even blink as her fist curls and was sent straight to Warren's face where a snap! gave the tell tale sign of a broken nose.

That's my best friend.

"Get the fuck out of my apartment." Jae shoves him towards the door, finger pointing over to Zeke. "There's no excuse for what you did. Dee, did they do all that?"

"Undeniably." DeAngelo answers, arm tightening over me and stepping off the stool as Zeke bristles in place. "Why don't you let me and Zeno here escort them out? I wouldn't put hitting women out of their moral range past this point."

The tension in the room at this point is undeniable, with Zeke holding onto Warren, who is still looking at Jae like she just betrayed him somehow along with DeAngelo now standing behind my best friend and both of Demetrius's arms wrapped around me.

They're protecting us from someone we shouldn't have to be kept from.

If there was ever a moment for Jae's heart to break, this would be it.

DeAngelo ends up walking the two right out to the street, finding amusement in the fact they have to walk home as he's the one who drove them.

They made a rape joke about me.

And suddenly I'm feeling less than safe, but I doubt Jae's feeling any better -having dated a man like him for this long.

The spiteful side of me really wants to say I told you so.

"Jae, do you want to scream or ignore it for tonight?" I ask, ignoring myself at the moment once I see the devastation on her face. "We can do anything you want."

Jaelynn lets out a heavy sigh, running a hand over her face. "Let's watch a horror movie and play monopoly and anything else that I hate that's also fun."

"Oh!" I snap my fingers and point up at the air. "We could go punch congressmen."

DeAngelo pauses at this, turning to me with concerned eyes. "Let's stick with things that won't get us arrested."

"Dude," I sigh. "That cuts my list in half at the very least."

"I'm going to call one of my friends, she has taken interest in Zeke's pretty face. She needs to know." My best friend shakes her head again, still processing the information. "God, I hope she listens to me."

Wouldn't it be ironic though, if she didn't?

Okay, clearly I missed my anti-bitch medicine today.

"After that," Jae continues. "Let's just watch a shitty horror movie and yell at the characters."

"I'll make popcorn." I chirp, giving her two thumbs up. "Where does Warren work, by the way."

"As a personal trainer?" DeAngelo is the one to pick up the conversation, turning to me even as his worried eyes follow Jae into her bedroom. "The local YMCA across the street from our college campus. Why?"

"Because," My smirk speaks for itself. "I think his work would just love to know what kind of person is around all their customers."

After informing his work of the things he's said, as well as getting DeAngelo- -who works there part-time as a front desk worker- -to confirm it, we decided to do the most relaxing yet annoying thing we could think of.

Or rather, relaxing to me, annoying to DeAngelo, angering enough to Jae that she gets to let her anger out on something that's not another human being and scary to Demetrius.

A horror movie!

That didn't change the sudden itching on my skin, the squirming of my body and the slight numbness in my mind, half of it I didn't realize I was experiencing until Jae wrapped her arm around me and squeezed.

She was trying to comfort me.

I don't know why it didn't work.

The rest of this weekend getaway should be... interesting, to say the least.