Page 17 of Jade

“I won’t make you do that today. We probably need to get moving. It’s lunch time soon.”

Jade frowned, realizing their time was almost over. “Will you at least eat with me?”

“Of course I will. Also we should make plans to have a real date soon. Since we’re, you know, dating.”

“It’s a date,” she quipped, gathering her things and packing her backpack just as her phone alarm went off letting her know it was time to head to the cafeteria.

Ryan closed his notebook and Bible and took her hand. They walked to the cafeteria together.

Chapter Seven

Jade

“So… how many times have you gotten in trouble with him so far?” Mariah questioned as they sat in Jade’s room. Her friends were helping her get ready for her first official off-premises date with Ryan. While they spent time together every afternoon, and ate together at least once a day, this was different. They were heading out of Utopia and onto the strip for a nice dinner and a ride on the huge Ferris wheel that overlooked the strip.

“Just the once,” Jade answered, throwing clothes all over her bed as she looked for something to wear.

“Wait! Just once?” Luna gawked. “Jade, it’s been almost two weeks!”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve thought about being naughty. But it just seems like so much work. It’s easier to just be good and do what he asks.”

“So wait, let me get this straight. You got him to give you rules and then you just… followed them?” Margo asked, gaping. “But where’s the fun in that?”

“There isn’t any,” she replied glumly. Jade was used to Margo, enough to know she was mostly teasing, but she also related to Margo’s questions, more than she usually would. Being good was getting old. Every time she was with Ryan she had this excitement in the pit of her belly, like one wrong move and she’d find herself thrown over his knee, with her bottom bared while he whaled away on her tender backside. She’d never understood when her friends insisted on creating shenanigans and trouble and usually went along with it just so she wouldn’t be the odd one out. This feeling of actually wanting to be naughty and get in trouble? That was new to her.

“So… you want to get in trouble?” Ellie gasped, a delighted smile spreading across her face. “That’s new!”

The rest of her friends joined her enthusiasm, chattering and teasing away, talking so quickly and loudly Jade couldn’t really tell who was saying what.

Staring at the options she’d laid out on her bed, she decided to go with a green sweater, black pleated skirt, and Mary janes. She usually paired the outfit with fishnets and combat boots but that look didn’t really seem appropriate for her first date with a pastor.

Ignoring their excited chatter, she quickly dressed and stood in front of the full-length mirror Baze had put up on the back of her door.

“That looks nice,” Tessa said, coming up behind her.

“It looks plain. I look plain. This color makes me look washed out,” Jade complained, knowing it did anything but. “I usually wear makeup with this outfit,” she lamented.

“So wear makeup!” Ellie exclaimed, bouncing. “Yay, makeover party!”

“I’m not allowed,” Jade muttered, still frowning at her reflection.

She should have known better than to admit that in front of Luna and Margo. They immediately jumped on her admission like a dog with a bone, and they wouldn’t let go.

“That’s one of the rules!” Luna squealed. “But I see you wearing makeup like… every day! Naughty!”

“I’m allowed to wear it up here. Just not around him.”

“Oh, then you must wear it tonight!” Luna exclaimed as if she’d just come up with an earth-shattering revelation of the best idea on the planet.

Jade had been slowly coming to the same conclusion herself, but to hear Luna say it out loud felt particularly scandalous.

“You don’t think it’s too naughty, do you? I mean, it’s really blatant. What if it ruins our date?”

“If a little naughtiness ruins your date, then he isn’t Daddy material,” Margo said confidently. Mariah and Luna exuberantly nodded their agreement.

“Look at it this way, before you decide. If he cancels dinner and spanks you instead, but he’s not mean or mad about it, would you consider that ruined? It is a possibility so if the answer is yes, don’t do it.” Luna offered surprisingly sound advice.

Jade considered it. “I mean if we plan to go to dinner and do stuff and we don’t, then our plans are ruined. That’s just a fact, but if you’re asking if I would consider the night ruined if that happened, no I don’t think I would.”