“Stay here, please!” - holding out a fifty-dollar bill to a taxi driver, a beautiful brunette of about thirty with her other hand continued to ring, but there was no answer.
Jumping out of the car, Lynn Masters tried to alleviate the alarm rising in her chest. Jade often hadn’t answered her calls before when she wrote songs. Or…
- Jade, come on! Pick up the phone! She pleaded, climbing the steps and taking out the keys on the go. Fortunately, she had a spare.
A friend’s apartment greeted her with silence.
- Jade? - having dropped the call, she went to the sound of the telephone. Her heart beat faster with fear when she was not answered.
Before crossing the threshold of the living room, she already knew what she saw there, and immediately rushed to the sofa. Jade lay motionless, showing no sign of life. The syringe still stuck in the vein made Lynn feel cold. She rushed to shake her friend, simultaneously dialing 911.
- Jade! She screamed, trying to reach out to her, although she understood that nothing would come of it.
She suddenly seemed to fall into a vacuum, prostration, did not hear anything and did not see. When the paramedics arrived, she could hardly answer their questions. How long her ward was sitting on the heroine, Lynn did not know for sure. She started working with Jade six years ago, and even then she was a star of the world rock scene ... with drug, alcohol and nicotine addiction. For the past couple of months, she has been excellent. They recorded some new songs and were about to go on tour ... Yes, she drank and smoked, and, as Lynn suspected, sniffed cocaine, but at least was able to work. Her name did not descend from the top lines of all the famous tabloids, and, in spite of everything, tickets were sold out for Jade concerts instantly.
And all because she was very talented and had a unique voice of five octaves.
Masters did not stop looking, as the body of a friend was immersed in an ambulance. Jade's left hand slid off the stretcher and hung lifeless in the air.
Lynn struggled with despair. This situation is not repeated for the first time. But what if this one is the last?
- Miss?
Just now, she heard a paramedic speaking to her.
- Yes? She asked, looking up with difficulty from contemplating Jade's thin, musical fingers.
“We need her name.”
- Jade. Josephine Jade Moore Save her!
***
Six months later ...
Lynn turned off the engine and sighed wearily. The tension bound her whole body, and it seemed that long-forgotten fears had returned. But what if Jade is not cured? What if she takes on the old, only this time they will not have time to save her? The woman started, remembering that terrible day. If she came a couple of minutes later ...
Suddenly there was a creak of an open gate, and Lynn flinched. Jade walked to her car ... Alive, smiling, and completely unlike that exhausted by habits, a girl. She noticeably gained weight, and now had very beautiful shapes and not the bony figure of anorexic. Masters opened the door and got out of the car to hug her friend.
- Lynn! I'm so glad to see you! - Jade smiled from ear to ear. “You have no idea how bored I am!” - stepping aside, the girl straightened the cover with the guitar, which dangled behind her.
“You look wonderful,” Lynn kissed her cheek. - Come on, get in the car, we still have a lot of things planned for today.
Throwing her bag of things and a guitar into the backseat, Jade sat down in front and buckled up.
- What matters? - She was in too good a mood to argue and wrangle, as she usually liked to do.
“Well, firstly, we have an interview on the N *** channel after four hours, I told you about it that week, and secondly ...” Lynn gave her friend a critical look, “… we have to go shopping.” You cannot appear on the air in this outfit.
“In that case,” Miss Moore reached back, leaning back her hair, “we’ll stop by Christine after the interview.” I need her today.
- What for? - surprised Masters.
“Tomorrow morning I should already be in this ... camp and I don’t want anyone to recognize me, understand?” Kristina will hide my tattoos and ... - twisting a black curl over her finger, she added, - will repaint me in my natural color.
- Well, well ... they can still recognize you.
“We'll see that again,” Jade grunted.
Lynn smiled and pressed the gas.
***