Jaded by Ela Lee

Author:Ela Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2024-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

I invited Adele over on New Year’s Eve, desperately needing to see someone. We FaceTimed countless toothy Yanks, all huddled around an iPhone. We played Uno and worked our way through bottle after bottle.

“What’s Kit up to tonight?” Adele asked.

“Skiing!” I said sloppily, rearranging my hand of cards. “Whoosh! Whoosh!” I mimed ski poles in each hand and began to giggle hysterically, throwing my head back on the sofa.

“Everything okay?” Adele’s face was humorless.

“Ugh, yes.” I waved my finger about Adele’s face. “Did you know we’re moving in together in January? He says it’s time.”

“Right.”

I’d lapped Del on a few drinks, perhaps she was a lot less drunk than I was.

“Anyway, I don’t want to talk about my stoopid boyfriend. Tell me about youuu, Del! And drink up!” I held the gin bottle upside down and pulled a maniacal clown smile when nothing came out. “Ooops, all gone!”

“I think you’ve had enough to drink, Jadey,” Del said carefully. The TV in the background showed crowds in Trafalgar Square, huddled penguins in the cold. The camera panned across children in pink puffa jackets holding sparklers, two front teeth missing in their wonderful smiles.

“NO! No no no no noooo!” I rolled onto my back like an upturned turtle and kicked my legs in the air. “You know I used to go out boozing SO much more than I do now? I miss it.” I leaned forward so my head was in Adele’s chest. “Do you know what always made the night so special?”

“What’s that?”

“BRIXTON McDONALD’S! That place is an INSTITUTION!”

“Okay, so go out more, Jade—who says you can’t?”

“No one does. I just get scared…” I trailed off wistfully.

“Scared of what?”

“I think I have wine in the fridge!”

“Right, that’s enough.” Adele grabbed the drink out of my hand and pulled me up into a sitting position. Adele was a storm of a person. Every choice she made was entirely hers. She had total confidence in herself that wasn’t marred by arrogance. She never verbalized a word of opinion about Kit, which was a message itself, because one of Adele’s loveliest qualities was her celebration of others.

“Wha—Why dya take ma drink?”

“I’m cutting to the motherfucking chase,” she borderline yelled at me. “What the hell is going on with you?”

I hung my head like a dog who has just trailed a roll of toilet paper around the house. I’d normally say everything was fine! I’m all good! Just tired! But the alcohol I’d consumed freed my tongue.

“I slept with Josh Parsons.”

“What?” Adele shrieked.

“Well, he told me I slept with him.”

The impetuosity of releasing something I had kept within panicked me. I had relinquished control. And now Adele was reacting in what felt like slow motion. Unrestrained passion and visceral protectiveness. It all terrified me. I saw her face make seemingly a thousand expressions at once before she gripped my shoulders and clicked her fingers in my face.

“Rewind. Start from the beginning. I need more context.”

“The Savoy.”

“I knew something happened that night!”

“You were right to be worried, Del,” I mumbled, rapidly sobering up.

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