NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Martha
Steph
Jay looked good. It was difficult for Steph not to stare. Even at chin length, there was a lot Steph could do with Jay’s hair to make it look nice and pretty. The subtle makeup added to her inherent cuteness.
That evening, while eating supper, the two girls decided to put on a movie. It wasn’t anything notable, just some cheesy horror movie of the “so bad it’s good” variety. Most of the entertainment value came from Steph and Jay making jokes to each other about it.
The upbeat attitude wasn’t to last, however. Once the movie was done, the dirty dishes scrubbed and put away, Jay’s bad mood returned. She didn’t seem interested in opening up, so Steph decided she had to ask about it first.
“What’s on your mind, cutie?”
Jay looked up from her phone. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
Jay was silent for a moment, staring off into space. The look on her face made Steph want to reach out and hug the girl, telling her everything would be ok. She just looked so sad about whatever it was that was bothering her.
“My sister,” she said finally. “I… I’m wondering how she’s doing.”
Steph had heard about Jay’s sister before. Not much, she knew that her name was Martha and that Jay and her hadn’t spoken in a few years.
“Do you want to try messaging her?” Steph asked.
Jay shrugged. “I can’t, even if I wanted to. I don’t know her number, I don’t have any social media or e-mail or anything.”
Steph frowned. That was odd. “What happened?” Steph asked. “Did you two fight, or-”
“She left,” Jay said in a forced monotone voice. “I was sixteen, she was eighteen. Right after high school graduation, she left. I don’t know where she went or anything. She left her phone too, and that was the only way I’d ever known to contact her.”
“Why would she leave her phone?” Steph asked. “That’s odd, right?”
Jay shook her head. “It made perfect sense, really. It was on dad’s phone plan. He paid the phone bill, he probably had some way of tracking the phone. And I don’t think she wanted him to know where she went. She might have had some sort of secret backup phone, but I never knew about it.”
“Why’d she leave?” Steph asked.
Jay took a shaky breath. “It was right after she graduated from high school. The graduation ceremony had happened a couple days before. Um, there’s probably some things you should know about first. Our mom wasn’t in the picture anymore by this point. She and dad had gotten divorced when I was eight. I would find out later there was this big custody battle, and she lost. I didn’t know that at the time. To me, it was like she’d just abandoned me and Martha. But, anyway, dad made all the rules. He didn’t like us being out and about in the afternoon after school, but he never outright forbid it. Looking back, I think he thought people would talk or something. But he did set a curfew of ten. If we weren’t back by then, he’d be upset.”
“So she was out past curfew? Wasn’t she eighteen by then? She could do what she wanted!”
Jay nodded. “It’s more what she was doing that night. I’m not one hundred percent on the details, but… she was at a classmate’s house, another girl, and they were celebrating their graduation in… well, I don’t know that they had sex, but they definitely weren’t just friends. She was with her, um, girlfriend.”
Steph raised an eyebrow. “Your sister is gay?”
Jay cringed. “Um, I don’t know for sure. I know she likes girls, but she could be bi.”
“So your dad found out and was upset about that?”
Jay nodded. “Yeah. He- um- he t-took her laptop and phone and locked her in her room when she got back the next morning. She was stuck in there all morning, but dad had to go to work, right?”
Steph’s eyes widened. “He locked her up?!”
Jay nodded. “Um, yes.”
“Jay, that’s illegal. Your dad literally broke the fucking law there.”
Jay shook her head. “I didn’t think of it like that before…”
“And then what?”
“I don’t know. I was in my room at the time, but when dad went to check on her that evening, she was gone. It looked like she’d grabbed some clothes and some other things, stuffed them into her backpack, grabbed her laptop from dad’s room, and just left. She left her phone, though, like I said. I don’t know when she left or how she got out of her room. Dad was furious, though, he accused me of helping her escape.”
Jay was staring at the ground by this point.
“She never messaged me after that.”
Steph grimaced. “Maybe she just didn’t remember your phone number? If it was saved in her contacts, she’d never have to, and it might have slipped her mind when she was leaving.”
That seemed to reassure Jay a little bit.
Steph had an idea. “Do you think we could look her up?”
Jay looked confused. “What?”
“Like, see if she’s on Facebook or something.”
Jay sighed. “I mean, I guess.” Jay said. “There’s gotta be hundreds of Martha Wilsons out there, though.”
“You’d recognize a picture of her though, right?”
Jay nodded. “I mean, probably? Unless she changed a lot or doesn’t post pics or something.”
“Do you want to try?”
Jay stared at the floor for a few more seconds, thinking it over. Finally, she nodded. “Yeah, we can try.”
Jay
They spent around a half hour scrolling through Facebook profiles named “Martha Wilson.” Jay was starting to feel like it was a complete lost cause, when she found her.
That was definitely Martha. Sure, her hair was much shorter than Jay remembered, she had more piercings then just the basic lobe piercings she’d had since she was sixteen, but that was definitely her. Older, yes. But… Jay had found Martha, it seemed.
“Steph!” she said.
Steph looked up from her own phone. “What’s up? Did you find her?”
Jay nodded. “Yeah, I think so.” She showed Steph her phone screen.
“Damn, she’s hot,” Steph said.
Jay blushed. “That’s my sister!”
“You’re plenty hot yourself, babe,” Steph said. “Also, I can see the resemblance between the two of you. You gonna message her?”
Jay nodded. “Nervous, though.”
Steph scooted a bit closer on the couch to wrap her arms around Jay. “Awww, cutie.”
Jay stiffened, but then let herself relax into Steph’s embrace. “What if she doesn’t want to talk to me?”
“I’m sure she will, cutie,” Steph said. “Just send a message.”
Jay nodded, tapping the button to send Martha a message.
Jay Wilson: Hey, Martha.
Jay frowned. She couldn’t leave it at that. She had to explain more. Explain who she was. Her display name said ‘Jay’, not ‘James’ (ugh, what a stupid name). Martha didn’t know that was a nickname Jay had started using. There was no way this would work-
Martha Wilson: James? Is that you??
