"Jade! What are you doing? I have work to do!" Evie complained as Jade pulled her arm until they were behind a tree and some bushes away from the pool area, "Jade! Stop it!" Evie finally broke free of her grasp.
"Tell me, am I Jessica Stanley?" Jade finally said.
"Who?"
"Of course, you don't even read romance books and you're already a perfect protagonist!" Jade threw her hands up.
"Jade, what are you..."
"You told me in your car that I was wrong, that the boys were just being nice to me. Zeth told me that too, but I decided not to believe him. And now I see that you two were right." Jade began, pacing, "And in your car you told me that I was the one who was left out of the equation, that you had met the guys way before they met me, that I was the third wheel."
"EV-13, we're in trouble," BC-13 said over the comms, "I can't contact MO-53. I'll go to the hotel entrance."
"Copy that, I'm on my way," Evie began walking, but Jade held her by the wrist and shook her head.
"Do not go."
"Jade, I'm working." Evie looked down at her.
"I promise I won't be long, just listen to me," Jade almost kneeled and Evie nodded.
"Fine, make it quick," Evie crossed her arms, tapping her foot, "KC-47, come in. Take my place at the foot of the stage."
"The more things change, the more they stay the same," Kasey said over the comms, "I've been here since I saw JD-46 dragging you behind the bushes. Don't worry, EV-13. Your Crystal Gems are in good hands. Just don't do a Rose Quartz and disappear at the last minute."
"Thanks, KC-47." Evie sighed, "Okay, Jade. Talk."
"Fine. Thanks. So, I always thought I was the protagonist of this story because I considered myself ugly, I am incredibly insecure and I always thought the cure to this was the guys telling me that they love all my flaws, but it was just my perspective. The truth is that they don't care about me."
"No," Evie frowned, "They do care about you."
"Well, I don't think that's the case," Jade turned to look at the stage where the boys were singing at the top of their lungs amidst neon lights.
"Let's perform a ritual spell tonight!" Zeth, Finn, Draco and Frank sang in unison, "We'll get naked 'round a hash bonfire! Let's dance with the devil! One more time! And never speak of our! Black magic nights!"
"Sing!" Draco shouted and the Mashers in the pool area did.
"Kiss me now. Touch me now. Love me now"
"BLAAAAACK MAAAAAGIC NIGHTS!" The boys belted so loud that they even had to lean backwards to hit their high notes, "Ohh! Woah! BLAAAAACK MAAAAAGIC! NIGHTS! Ohh! Woah! Oh!"
"That song..." Jade turned to look at Evie, "That song is about you too, right?"
"I already told you that I have never slept with any of the guys!" Evie insisted.
"Then why don't I believe you?" Jade lowered her gaze, "You know? Romance protagonists are always described as introverted and shy... And guess what! You are an introvert who feels left out and reads books! I saw your collection in your apartment!"
"Wait, what?" Evie frowned, "You say I'm the protagonist of a book? Please! I don't even know how that works! I don't read fiction Jade, the books in my apartment are on psychology, languages, history, medicine, that kind of stuff."
"See? You are not like most girls!"
"If a girl says 'I'm not like most girls' that means she is exactly like every other girl ever." Evie rolled her eyes. "And I don't see what's wrong with being like most girls. I've always wanted to be like that, you know? Normal. Average. I've always wanted to feel like I'm more than the weapon I was turned into since I was a little girl."
"And what about the evil blonde? Your story has that too!"
"What?"
"For Fucks Sake! Look at Kasey! The blonde was your enemy and suddenly you became friends! Romance book cliché! Your fake-sister is the stereotypical blonde cheerleader girl who..."
"I understand nothing."
"Black haired, pale skinned girls like you and me always have a prettier, blonde rival," Jade said, "She usually makes our lives miserable but she's no better than us because she's shallow and..."
"Being pasty and introverted doesn't make you a better person than 'shallow' outgoing blondes, Jade."
"But you are the shy book-reading stereotype!"
"So what? I can be uncomfortably reclusive sometimes, that doesn't make me a book protagonist." Evie grunted again.
"It never gets to the point of being unlikable." Jade shifted her shoulders, "You are a warm and loving influence around your friends. Even though you don't love BC-13 the way he loves you, you are still nice to him and you have never wanted to hurt him with your rejections. Monster Mash is Edward, You are Bella, BC-13 is Jacob and I am Jessica!"
"Hey, BC-13 and I are co-workers, whether I love him or not," Evie raised an eyebrow.
"Well yeah but, you are very responsible, you learned to take care of yourself at a young age, and you unintentionally attract a lot of male attention because of your pretty face and radiant personality and no matter where you go, everyone is always looking at you. Book protagonist!"
"I'm five-foot-nine in these boots, Jade. Obviously I'm going to catch people's attention."
"Yeah, right. You are quite literally the 'Femme Fatale' cliché!" Jade threw up her hands, "Heels are very hard on your feet, so most of us women don't wear them 24/7 like you. Walking in heels? Hard. Running in heels? Even harder. Fighting in heels? Impossible. But you are so perfect that you can do all that and even jump and flip!"
"My feet got deformed years ago Jade. I can't walk, run, fight or jump without them. My flip flops are wedges, and I already suffer from knee pains. And my tendons and ligaments hurt quite often, not to mention my toes are killing me right now." Evie rose a foot, "Besides, I'm not the stereotype of the protagonist because I like to wear makeup."
"Discreet makeup, you don't even paint your nails." Jade snapped her fingers and pointed at Evie's black eyeliner.
"Nail polish smudges and chips, sometimes right after you put it on." Evie shifter her shoulders, "And not every girl wears scandalous makeup, or makeup at all."
"Using just eyeliner counts as not wearing makeup. Protagonist! I'm telling you!"
"Do you know how hard it is to take care of the guys?" Evie laughed sarcastically, "I don't have much time you know? My makeup can take anywhere from two to five minutes."
"Please! Those are excuses!" Jade was already too anxious. "Evie, in the books, the girl whose past is super important is what always kick-starts the story, you could say that the origin of everything in one way or another is always the protagonist," Jade looked at her in the eye, "That girl is you. Without you, Frank wouldn't have had the accident, Zeth and Draco wouldn't have opened their Youtube channel to raise funds, they wouldn't have made it to the news and Monster Mash as it is today would not exist. And you didn't have to change anything about yourself because the boys already love you! You are perfect! Like all those book protagonists! You didn't need character development!"
"I am not the Evie I used to be," Evie told her with a shake of her head, "I am who I am now because I've worked on myself. I'm not even the same Evie I was a few nights ago. I'm no longer afraid to love or admit what I feel."
"Please! The protagonist always has two best friends, and you do too. BC-13 is the nerd, I am the emo. Now you have the other friend, Kasey, the girl who is super outgoing, and BC-13 has a crush on you."
"I don't only have three friends." Evie was already losing her cool.
"And all of them might also have a crush on you. And there is a high chance you have a tragic sob story, and you do have a younger sibling."
"Kasey is like my sister because we pretended to be once," Evie rolled her eyes, "But we have no blood or family relationship. I am a descendant of a lesser House of Lightning Strike, Kasey of the Felines of Lyonfort, we are not sisters, not even close."
"Why does it have to be all about you all the time and not about me then?" Jade whispered.
"Jade. You go forward and take a step back all the time," Evie said, "One day you become a better you and the next..."
"The next I'm back to being the horrible me that pretends to be something I'm not and wants attention," Jade sighed, turning to look at the stage beyond the bushes and trees of this area.
The guys were singing the third song of the show.
"Devil's back! I've committed a sin!" Draco, Zeth, Alex and Everett sang at the top of their lungs. The drum beats were loud. This was an amazing punk song. Danceable, direct and not overly edgy. Draco bounced around the stage while Alex ran after him, making sure he didn't kill himself. Zeth and Everett remained professional singing and only giving each other a glance and a brief laugh, "I know why! He sinks his teeth into me! I've been bad! I've been naughty... Someone please! Go call me! An exorcist!"
"You sing!" Zeth ordered and the crowd replied instantly.
"This devil's! Crushing me under his feet!"
"And I can't! Get up, I'm feeling so weak!" Zeth continued singing, adjusting his headset microphone, walking to the edge of the stage to give high fives to his fans while the dancers swayed among the audience, "Devilâs back! It's inside of me!"
That was one of Jade's top three favourite songs.
But now she wasn't feeling the music.
Melody was right.
And Jade had never noticed.
She always believed she was the protagonist of a romance book, but in reality, Jade had none of that in her.
Evie did.
Evie was a loner, mysterious and relatively shy, perfect in every way, unique and different to the rest without even trying, too mature for her age, the girl who lived among monsters, the girl every other girl envied, the girl that all the boys wanted and didn't party or get drunk.
Evie refused to be with her ideal guy and always played difficult with Frank even though he loved her, Alex wasn't shy about saying Evie was sexy so Jade could add the wolf who is interested in the protagonist, Everett had written in his notebook that Evie was the 'sexy bodyguard' and furthermore, Zeth seemed to trust her as much as he trusted Egor Hunch. Even BC-13 loved her!
Evie was a Mary Sue to say the least, stubborn, independent, intelligent, and all because her past made her special, the strong female character she was now...
And Jade was only special because of a past that she didn't even live or remembered.
Evie was the perfect book protagonist, not Jade.
And Jade was just the jealous friend, the annoying girl who is just there to ruin a true love story.
She was not too sure about what she was doing, and this Black Window-ish uniform? It was a little uncomfortable in the crotch, so that added to the discomfort.
"They have written so many songs about you, Evie. You're love, betrayal, heartbreak, joy, anger, sadness and security for them. I'm just the third wheel."
"But you can be so much more than that, Jade. You can be the best version of yourself with a little effort." Evie said, putting her hands on Jade's shoulders.
Jade looked away, her eyes locked on the stage beyond the bushes.
"Evie... You said that in this job, you have to be willing to die for the guys," Jade said, looking Evie straight in the eyes, "The protagonist who would die for her man... That's you. You put yourself at risk all the time for them!"
"Because it's my job, Jade. And I decided to take that risk," Evie replied, "I would die for them because they saved my life, they gave me direction, a purpose. That doesn't make me the same as the protagonist of a book. And I'm actually thinking about quitting. I just want to be Evie now, not a bodyguard. I think now I just want to be a normal girl with six pretty abnormal boyfriends."
"Do you love them?" Jade asked and Evie nodded, "And you... Have you been with them intimately?"
"Jade, I'm not going to talk about any of that."
"Is that a yes?"
"What happened between me and the boys in that regard is none of your concern."
"Fine, I'll take that as a yes."
"Take it as you wish."
"I wouldn't be surprised if you and Frank but... You said 'boys' and not 'boy' so..." Jade gasped, "Wait. Really? The prudent and elegant court lady turned out to be quite the sinner?! You?! With who?! With how many?!"
"Okay, enough! I'm not going to let you stand here calling me an 'S word' just because you're obsessive, possessive, and upset! It's none of your business and even if it was, it wouldn't make any difference if I slept with all of them or just Zeth! It's my life and it's my decision!"
"Funny. I never mentioned Zeth," Jade growled and Evie blushed, eyes widening, swallowing thickly. Jade cocked her head, "It's Zeth. Zeth was the one who wrote 'Black Magic Nights' right?"
"Please! Zeth pays my checks," Evie waved it off with a hand, "He's my boss, I wouldn't see him that way."
"But you do," Jade grumbled, "I think Zeth trusts you too much for being a simple employee."
"I beg your bloody pardon?" Evie looked at Jade with fury in her eyes.
"Zeth is too secretive, yet you seem to know more about him than any of us, maybe only Draco." Jade was fuming, "Zeth said you were the first person to know his parents' name."
"I don't see how that's important." Evie frowned.
"I don't know anything about Zeth." Jade shifted her shoulders, "Do you?"
"Well, yes, but is this some competition or something?" Evie did not get the point of any of this.
"Tell me something no one else knows about the boys," Jade challenged her, tilting her head, "Come on, I'm listening."
Evie raised her eyebrows, taking a long breath, then said the first thing that came to mind.
"Draco and Zeth are half-brothers," Evie whispered, and Jade blinked many times, looking in all directions.
"W-Wait... What? You are joking!"
"I am not. Zeth is the son of Thotmaz Rahman, Draco is the son of Dimitri Von Stroker, they are both sons of Amytt Rahman," Evie clarified, and Jade shook her head, walking backwards slowly, "Draco was Queen Zafira's half-brother and Great Adviser, we all knew that back in the Hunter Academy. Everyone knew that Queen Zafira had a twin brother, but no one knew it was Zeth... Until he told me." She took a deep breath, evading Jade's shocked eyes, "No one knows this, not even BC-13, no one in the Human World but me. And now you."
"So it's true, you know everything about them," Jade took one last step back and Evie nodded somewhat sadly, "It's you. You're a modern protagonist. I became an archaic, obsolete..."
"Jade! Enough with this protagonist syndrome!" Evie shouted. Oh. This was a first. Evie?! Yelling at her?! She had never heard Evie yelling or lose her temper, she was always elegant and didn't even raise her voice when Kasey became a problem. "Okay, listen. There is no such thing as a book protagonist in real life. We women are complex, just like anybody else. We aren't damsels in distress, and we aren't all-powerful super humans."
"But you are!" Jade shouted, "You're the perfect strong female lead!"
"But what does that mean anyway?" Evie frowned.
"That you do man things like fighting and shooting guns! All the boys love you, you're strong and technically you started a rebellion against the Hunters!" Jade walked in circles frantically.
"Who says that's a man's thing?" Evie lowered her eyebrows, "If I put on some trousers I'm doing manly things then? If I put on a dress and make-up I'm doing womanly things? There are policewomen out there! Shooting guns and fighting for justice, not in heels, and I'm not the first nor the last woman who knows how to fight!"
"Yes, but you're not a policewoman," Jade looked down, "You were trained to kill."
"So what? An oppressive backstory, kicking every guy in the balls, and everyone suddenly loves me, right?"
"You're perfect, you win every fight on your own and..."
"Hey, that's never been the case," Evie lowered her eyebrows, "I haven't always won and when I have, I've always had help, almost always BC-13. I couldn't have beaten Basil Iskov if it weren't for the guys singing over there, you know? And I wasn't a damsel in distress and they weren't my knights in shiny armour. We were all a team, and that's what I always wanted. A place to call home." Evie took Jade by the shoulders, and shook her a little, "Wake up, Jade! This isn't about being the protagonist, it's about being part of a group that supports you and loves you and cares about you. Kasey got it, Paul and the Fifth Octave guys and even Anton got it. Why can't you?"
"I can't because I don't want to be just another face among the crowd," Jade looked down, "I don't know how to change, I only know how to pretend I do."
"Then try, Jade. For yourself," Evie replied.
"I quit then," Jade said, removing her bodyguard badge with a slight groan, handing it to Evie, "Because this is not what I want, it is not what I am. I mean, I studied philosophy and literature! What was I thinking?!" Jade stared at Evie then, as if waiting for her to do something, to speak or even tell her that she was stupid, but Evie didn't move. "This is the part where you say I must stay and that I have to fight for the guys and this job."
"Do you still think this is a Wattpad book or what?" Evie chuckled, staring at Jade's badge in her hand, "Jade, I'm proud that you are leaving."
"I beg your bloody pardon?"
"If you think I'm going to beg you to stay and live a miserable life doing something you don't enjoy, you're very wrong." Evie crossed her arms. "Maybe your happiness is somewhere else. Draco told me that you're very good at writing songs, and they have a lot of contacts. Maybe that's your destiny. Maybe that's why fate put the boys in your way, maybe that's why you should leave, move forward and maybe then you'll find your true place. You can continue being the boys' friend and work something else that doesn't put you at risk, you know?"
"Yeah... But maybe my destiny isn't near them," Jade said, looking over her shoulder at the dancing boys on stage, "Maybe there's someone else for me. And maybe..." Jade looked straight into Evie's eyes, "Maybe they are the ones for you. And I tell you this from the bottom of my heart. I now understand that this was never about me. They belong to you." There were tears running down Jade's cheeks, but she couldn't stop smiling. She took a step back, "You told me all of us Mashers see are pretty faces, awesome voices, and abs of steel, that I just wanted to be with them because that's how I'd fulfil my little 'Wattpad Fantasy' and..." She left her words hanging between them for a few moments. "And I think it's your turn to fulfil that fantasy. You deserve it, more than anyone, because it is obvious that they care about you, and you love them. I became your antagonist, the girl who stands between you and the boys." Jade pointed to the stage and Evie turned to see the boys dancing, "Now go with them. I won't stand in your way anymore."