Part 3

3.

Michael was waiting at the train station. He's more clean than usual. He got his act together. No drugs. No alcohol. All for his upcoming baby. Ever since the revelation of raising a child with Jade, Michael had been going to counseling and getting his life together. It was tough for him but the thought of his baby helped. It didn't help his worry of Jade, though. Her train supposedly arrived about an hour ago. She hadn't  responded to his texts or calls. Michael started to roam around the train station for her. He turned a corner and heard her scream. He knew this scream from foggy memories of that terrible night between them. He ran to save her. He got to the women's bathroom to see her on a gurney with EMTs around her. She was bleeding from her lower half. Jade screamed and cried as she noticed  Michael. She yelled that she lost her baby. Michael couldn't contain his emotions. He brokedown and cried as well. He followed the ambulance to the nearest hospital. They did all they could to clean her up and figured out what happened to her. Michael was waiting to find out what happened to his love and his baby. He had thoughts of guilt and sadness because this moment wouldn't had happened if he didn't rape her. If he didn't drink and snorted coke that night. He was so angry at himself. He wanted to do something drastic to himself but he never made a decision. He was distracted when he saw the doctor coming. The doctor took his time to say what he was going to say. He told Michael that it was a forced miscarriage. The doctor saw scars in her that suggested that Jade killed the baby. Michael was floored. He wondered why she would do such a thing. He asked the doctor if he could see her. The doctor lead the way and left them alone. She was half asleep. He spoke quietly asking her why this happened. She fully woke up and started tearing up and chuckling. Michael was confused. Jade wasn't. On her way back home, she started to evaluate her life away from home. She loved it. She missed the hustling that came with New York City. The only thing she thought was in the way was her dead relationship with Michael and the baby. She also was resenting the baby and it was causing her to do terrible things to herself. She started smoking and began to drink. Every night. She was hoping she could force a miscarriage. It never came to pass. She got on that train to make everything seem normal. But deep inside she was panicking. She wanted to escape this life she created. When the train arrived home, she quickly ran off, saw Michael waiting and dodged him to go to the bathroom. She started to hyperventilate. Crying. She didn't want this baby. She thought of the one thing she could do. She decided to take out a ruler she had in her bag. She looked at it with comfort. This was her only way out. She thought it was, therefore it was her truth. She took a deep breath and begins to damage herself and the future human being that was in her. Blood was flowing from her vagina. It hurt. It hurt badly for Jade but she continued as she cried. She wasn't sure if she was crying because of pain or of relief. Then she stopped. Threw the ruler in the ground and screamed. Medics got alerted and came for her. As she got carried to the ambulance, she saw Michael. That's her story. She told Michael. As she told him he goes from confused to depressed to angry. Jade started to laugh even louder. With more hysteria. Michael started to walk away with shame. Before he fully left the room, he snapped. Michael turned around to find a pillow to stop her from laughing. Jade struggled, but Michael's anger was much too strong to budge. Jade slowly gave in. She stopped moving. She's sad that it came to this but she also found peace. She finally achieved the ultimate escape from life. Death. Michael achieved prison for life. It all seems so sad, doesn't it? But who's to blame? I think most would blame Michael. But there are reasons that it could be Jade's fault. Or could we all be wrong and it could be the parents or friends' blame? Or drugs? Or society pressures? Or maybe it's no one's fault? It's all up to you, in my opinion. I just think the point of the story is to learn from these ill-fated people and events. Because whether it's her or his fault, we can't change that. All we can do is move on with a expansion of knowledge and hope we don't fall into these patterns in the future. Or else we could become the next She or He...

Part 2

2.

Months later. Jade just graduated high school. Weeks away from heading up to New York City for her first venture into the so-called "Real World". She decided to have a party at her house with all her friends and family. She was in love as well. With Michael. They slowly but surely became a couple. It seemed like she had everything. If only that was the whole truth.  A few weeks before her party, Jade and Michael had a situation together. They were definitely having sex on a regular basis. They were spending as much time as possible together. But life was getting in the way. Jade became extremely busy with school work, college visits, long nights of studying. She was very determined to get away from home. She wasn't happy in her hometown anymore. She felt too big for the little pond she was in.  It created a strain on her relationship with Michael. He took things negatively. Started drinking and snorting as much coke as he possibly could. Anything he could do to numb the pain of his current situation. It became his norm to come home, piss drunk, falling over and didn't remember what happened. Jade got pissed off about it and decided to wait till Michael came home one day. So, as he rolled up to his apartment, in a sloppy state, she stood up on the stoop. Silent. Looked at him furiously and realized he was out of his mind from alcohol and drugs. She knew about his drug problem but never told him. He finally had a moment of clarity in this tense and dense quiet, feeling terrible and angry at himself. This was his only beam of light in his life and decided to feed his depression instead of nurturing their relationship. They both proceeded to yell and scream at each other. It got extremely heated. He begged her to go inside to talk about this. She came inside to finish him off and end this relationship. But it didn't end that way. They went inside and they started the rumble again it. This time, it became physical. Jade was screaming, crying, slapping his face. He tried to hold her down. She began to punch him. He got mad. He was drunk, high, and mad. He smacked her. He smacked her unconscious. Michael noticed her knocked out and proceeds to hold her and kiss her to make it better. His feelings mixed into arousal. Jade woke up slowly. Feeling and seeing Michael inside her. She tried to stop him but Michael was restraining her. She was screaming but no one came to save her. Tears fell from her disappointed eyes. Michael finished and forced her to go away. He doesn't see Jade for weeks. Michael called her everyday. Tried to see Jade at her house and school, but never caught her. Of course, he went straight to his drug and liquor dreams to fill that void. He got a call one night. It's Jade. She told him to come to her party and that they needed to talk. Michael tried to stay sober when he arrived at the party. Tried to dress up and comb his hair nicely. Even carried flowers. He wanted to apologize. He wanted to make everything better. For Jade. For himself. For their relationship. Jade found him and puts him in a room. Jade went right to the point. She was pregnant. 

Part 1

She or He -A Drama Told in Three Parts

1.

There once was a girl, she died. How? I'll tell you. But I'm gonna start from the beginning. Jade was 18 years old. On the cusp of graduating high school. She was a straight laced student, but made sure she had fun with her friends. She was also promised a full ride to most of the schools she applied to. Yale. Brown. NYU. She wanted to major in Journalism. Had aspirations of starting her own news outlet. She was rightly so on her way to those dreams. Sadly, her dreams were interrupted by murder. If only she hadn't met Michael. That might had been her first and crucial mistake. Jade and Micheal met accidentally. Jade was running late for a meet up with her friends, Crystal and Paula. She rushed out of her house and drove down to the roller rink. Of course, she walked in, trying to come up with excuses as to why she was late. She entered. She scanned the room. None of her friends were there. Jade's confused. She pulled out her phone to discover that she was looking at an old text and that they were suppose to meet at the local bowling alley and actually two hours earlier than she thought. Crystal and Paula knew how busy Jade could be at times, so they weren't phased by her being late. But when Jade called her friends, they were already on their way to go home. Jade sat on an empty stool at the roller rink. While her friends were cool with the events of tonight, Jade was disappointed. She was really eager to tell them that she actually got into NYU. It was the reason why she was late in the first place. She found out today and proceeded to celebrate with her parents spontaneously. So now, she's alone by herself. At a roller rink. "Should she stay or go?" were the thoughts running through her head when Michael finally decided to talk to Jade. Michael, a 25 year old roller rink employee, noticed Jade walking in and thought she was magical. Beautiful. Sexy. It made him very nervous, so he ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror. Breathes heavily but wanted to stroll up on her nice and chill. He thought of different ways to introduce himself. He had great ideas, but none of the courage. He looked disappointed with himself and decided to take a few bumps of cocaine to gain some courage. One bump. Two bumps. Three bumps. One more for good measure. He shook off the guilt of starting to take the drugs he sells. See, he used to be an avid coke user, but thought it was more efficient to sell it than use it. But since the death of his mother, two months ago, he's thought of using again. He finally made a choice that night. Depression is something potent. Overwhelming to someone with weaken tendencies. Michael was one of those people, sadly. When he finally felt the effects of the drug, he was invincible, in his mind. Nothing stopped him from rolling out to the counter and spewing charming and very effective lines of flirting to Jade. She was, at first, very hesitant, but slowly and surely, she got caught in his web of mystery and attraction. If she met with her friends, the events proceeding that night wouldn't have happened. All the gore and sadness that came out of one spontaneous meeting of two people. Connection is a double-edged sword.