( 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉. )
▬▬▬∘◦ ☆ ◦∘▬▬▬

MONEY CAN'T BUY HAPPINESS. Sure it can help buy particular objects that you feel will bring you happiness, but it's unable to get a hold of that emotion to inject it into ones body.

If Jaylene were given the chance to choose between money and happiness, she'd choose happiness without giving it a second thought. She had longed for that feeling for the longest time, and she finally felt that overwhelming emotion last night when she finally kissed the boy she'd caught feelings for.

Even after all the family drama she'd encountered back on figure eight, she was still able to push it all to the side for a couple hours in order to feel some sense of happiness. And it felt amazing. After the longest time ever, she finally felt like a normal teenage girl again. The thought of pouring pills down her throat had left her mind for a few hours as well, but it quickly returned when her small fantasy came to an end.

When she made it back home that morning, she snuck back into her bedroom where she found the mess she'd left the previous night. It only managed to remind her that she'd nearly relapsed again, but she couldn't talk to anyone about it. Nate was the only person in that household that she was able to tolerate at the moment, but she couldn't bring herself to remind him about that night he found her.

Most of that night was a complete blur to her, but that wasn't the case for her younger brother. Every little thing was  constantly playing in a loop inside of his head, sorta like like a scratched up disc. He was constantly reminded of her unconscious body lying on the bed, barely breathing.

And what scared Jaylene the most about her situation was that if she did relapse, she'd be sent back to rehab in order to complete another program. Sure she was surrounded by other people who were on the road to sobriety, but those were lonely times that she never wished to relive.

So, instead of continuing her search for something that would help her take the edge off of everything that she was feeling at the moment, she decided to take a quick shower to get the sand off of her body. Ever since the swim she took with John B., the salty particles had clung onto her body and had bothered her all through out the night.

Although she'd taken longer than expected, she finally got herself dressed and began tidying up the mess that had been made. And not even five minutes in, a knock was heard on her bedroom door, causing her to close her eyes and loudly sigh.

"Just a minute!" She shouted, running a hand through her damp hair before pulling the door open to reveal the maid. This quickly caused Jaylene to soften her features as she gave the older woman a smile.

"Well, don't you have quite the mess up here." Celia scolded the teenage girl when she caught a glimpse of the clothing items scattering the ground.

"I clean when I'm mad." Jaylene replied, receiving a strange look in return from the brunette across from her.

"Okay. I'll finish cleaning up here, but you need to head downstairs. You have a visitor." She informed Jaylene, making her way past the confused girl.

"A visitor? It's like eight in the morning." Jaylene furrowed her eyebrows as she glanced back at the woman who was now heading towards the piles of clothes that had been created last night.

"It's that Smith boy. I tried to get him to go away, but he insisted that he absolutely needed to speak to you as soon as possible." Celia replied with a roll of her eyes, indicating that she wasn't very fond of Jason.

"Jason's here? God, I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch." Jaylene dug her nails into the palms of her hands, giving the older woman one last glance before storming down the stairs that led downstairs. Halfway there, she realized that she probably looked like a furious child who was ready to throw a tantrum, but she was ready to call out the boy who had completely degraded her the previous night. She knew he had been intoxicated, but she believed the saying that claimed that drunk words were sober thoughts.

Something told Jaylene that he'd been waiting to go off on her for some time now. She'd broken up with him through a phone call once they were hundreds of miles apart, and six months later, she tried her hardest to avoid him because she wanted nothing more than to try and erase the past. And after seeing her with John B., those bottled emotions finally broke free.

"You've got some nerve showing up to my house after slut-shaming me at Midsummers yesterday." Jaylene watched Jason jump in surprise when she unexpectedly appeared, arms crossed over her chest with her eyebrows harshly knit together. "Did you just now think of more insults that you could throw at me? Is that why you're here? To continue bashing my dead mother and me?"

"I was drunk, Jay. I didn't know what I was saying." His voice practically came out in a whisper, but she was easily able to make out every single word.

"Oh, is that it? You were drunk?" Jaylene mockingly laughed, evident anger latched onto her tone as she stepped closer to him. "So what? Should I just forgive you and jump right back into your arms? Pretend like you didn't hurt my feelings? Am I just supposed to be a a brainwashed airhead who allows you to manipulate me and belittle me any chance you get? Is that it, Jason? Is that what you want?"

"Is it so hard to believe that I came here to apologize?" He scoffed in disbelief, receiving a dramatic eye roll in return. "Sure I was drunk, but you weren't being completely honest with me yesterday."

Jaylene shook her head in disbelief, fighting down the strong urge to slap him across the face due to how downright pathetic he sounded. "Wow! Is your mind so fucking twisted that you're unable to form a sincere apology without somehow placing the blame on me?" She coldly glared at him. "Did you miss my speech yesterday where I exposed all my family secrets? One of those secrets being that I was actually away at rehab because I overdosed on oxy?"

"I heard everything loud and clear, but that's not what I'm here to talk about, so can you stop playing the victim card for just a quick minute?" Jason's tone quickly changed from sweet to annoyed.

"You know what? Fine. I'll forgive you for hurting my feelings...again. And by the way, I'm trying my best to recover from that traumatic experience that I had to go through, but you could obviously care less, right?" She grazed her tongue against her teeth as she watched his facial expression change in the blink of an eye.

"Wait, Jay. That's not what I meant at all." He stepped closer to her, cupping her face which only caused her to grimace in disgust, but she didn't back up. "I do care about you, okay? And I know you said that you weren't ready for a relationship, but what if we take it slow—"

"I moved on, Jason. Despite how fucking lonely I was at rehab, I was also given the chance to reflect on all my past mistakes. And you happened to be one of them which finally made me realize that I deserve better than a guy who will try and handle me like I'm some sort of object." She looked up towards him, confused as to why she was still trying to spare him his feelings when he'd hurt hers. "Please don't make this any more complicated than what it actually is."

Jason released her from his grasp, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration before looking back towards her. "What is it about him that completely fascinates you? He's doesn't deserve someone like you. We aren't meant to clash with their world, Jaylene."

Jaylene sighed, knowing exactly who he was referring to. She figured that he'd seen the two share their first kiss yesterday. But unlike yesterday, she wasn't gonna deny that there was definitely something going on between her and John B. "It doesn't feel forced. I feel genuine happiness whenever I'm around him." She truthfully replied, knowing that her honesty would sting, but it's how she felt. "And it's been so long since I last felt like that."

Jason scoffed, anger flowing through his veins as he shot Jaylene a disappointed look, but he wasn't able to tell her what a horrible mistake she was making due to Henderson making a sudden appearance.

"Son, my daughter has made it perfectly clear that she has no intentions of involving herself in a relationship with you. So, either you willingly step off of my property, or I'll gladly have someone escort you out." The older man spoke. He seemed calmer than yesterday, but Jaylene still didn't wanna speak to him. "Jaylene and I have family matters to discuss." He added, causing Jason to look towards the two Rosewoods before exiting the mansion without a second thought.

The brunette haired girl squeezed her eyes shut, completely unprepared for whatever it was that her father had to discuss with her. She didn't know what kind of excuses he'd come up with.

"What you did yesterday wasn't okay, but instead of avoiding eachother, let's sit down and talk about it." He kindly offered, watching her shoot him a disgusted look as she raked her fingers through her hair.

She brought her hand towards her face, tapping her chin with her pointer finger. "That's why you didn't want Nate and I on the cut, right? You knew that the truth would come out." She allowed a frown to form on her face as she recalled the previous week. "Yes, I'm disappointed with your actions, but I'm even more disappointed that you lied to my face. Whenever I asked you about mom, you always made it out to seem like you cared about her, but you didn't, did you? Or else you wouldn't have cheated on her."

"I need to explain—"

Jaylene shook her head, quickly cutting him off before he could continue with his excuses. "Explain? It's 2019, dad. There's still no excuse that justifies cheating."

"Jaylene." A voice called out from the doorway that led to the hallway, causing the brunette fo mutter a quick profanity under her breath at the sound of her stepmothers voice. "I know I'm the last person you wanna speak to, but I want us all to talk about this together."

"You envied her, didn't you? You were so jealous that you went through great measures to achieve that same lifestyle she lived. You called yourself her friend, but you didn't hesitate to stick a dagger in her back when the opportunity finally slid your way." Jaylene glared at the woman who had now approached them. She hadn't really realized how punchable Lorelei's face was till then, but she restrained herself from allowing anything to turn physical. Instead, she continued speaking, a great amount of determination laced in her tone. "What was the real cause of death, Lorelei? You were supposedly the last person to see her alive, so what the hell did you do to my mother?"

authors note. Hiiiii. I took a small break from wattpad to help clear my head, but I'm back to posting new chapters at least twice a week. Forgive this filler chapter :(. I promise the next chapter will mostly stray away from her family drama & focus more on the hunt for the gold! 👀

Also, thank you so much for 45k reads! I appreciate all of you & I love reading the feedback! ❤️