|| Only Hate the Road || ||ZOE||

JEYNE SCHELL

Main~1c484c
Speaking~20343b
Emphasis~59a98f
Other's Speech~1e5442

There’s something special and liberating about the summer; at least that is what Jeyne thought. There were more weddings in the warm months, which meant more sales at the Red Wedding Dress Shop. Yet that is not what made Jeyne so joyous in those endless days of radiance; no, the endless hours that she spent with Rajas were what made her days so special. Just being able to spend those days that felt like weeks with her one and only love made Jeyne feel like no other. Even mama and papa Schell did not mind if she spent the night out at the so-called Cold House.

Yet those days were ending. The days were almost nonexistent. As the love of her life’s family loved to say: Winter is Coming.

Long gone was the warmth of summer. Even if Jeyne never left the house and store, she’d be able to tell the weather because of number of jackets coming into the shop. Of course, she also rejoiced at the shrinking number of people entering the store for wedding dresses and the likes – less people meant less new faces and less stress. She had already gone through enough stress in her life with the deaths of Aria and Bran. Jeyne could not help but to feel like Bran’s death was her fault – if it weren’t for her, Rajas would have volunteered as tribute.

No matter how hard Jeyne tried to reject that thought from her mind, she could not set it free. Somewhere deep down she knew that Bran’s death was not her fault, but the Capitols. She had even thought about running away with Rajas because of how unfair their rulers were. First Rajas’ dad, next two of his siblings! It was so obviously not okay that Jeyne struggled to even think about it.

That had nothing to do with her job at the moment. She was supposed to be selling dressing and being friendly and all of that fun stuff – but Jeyne never really was good at that. She needed Rajas to be there with her, to help her stand up straight, to help her make it through the days without feeling all sorts of awful. But Rajas was busy, he said. He could not make it over to the Dress Shop. She hated when he made excused, even if they were legitimate.

And so she waited, if only because she had no other option. There was a dearth of patrons in the store, something that Jeyne was hardly sour about. In order for the shop to not close down, there needed to be more patrons. Her parents had discussed as much at last night’s dinner. Of course, if the shop were to close down, then Jeyne would have to go live with Rajas. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Even with a thought like that in her mind, Jeyne did love her parents. Even if they were mean to her, she did love her parents. That’s why she suffered through shifts at the dress shop every day, even if there was a blizzard outside she would suffer through her shifts. Her love for her parents paled in comparison to her love for Rajas, but it was still substantial.

And it was that love that kept her standing behind the counter waiting for customers to come in, even if it seemed like they were really never ever going to enter.