Jaded Eyes (Jori)

28: Thank You

Jade had trouble falling asleep as fantasy images of Tori dancing around in the parking lot of the school in her yellow dress filled her mind. Just imagining Tori spinning around without a care in the world as the spotlights beamed all around her put a smile on Jade's face. She finally felt calm enough to sleep so she rolled over and hugged the body pillow which usually lays dormant against the black wall. She cuddled up to the side of it and she couldn't help but notice it was about the same length as Tori. She wrapped her right arm around it and pulled it in closer allowing her head to fall where Tori's chest would be. Jade took a deep breath in and could even smell Tori's perfume.

Jade allowed sleep to take her over and her eyes fluttered shut and the smile grew more neutral as the dreams came into view.

————

Or rather, the nightmares.

"She doesn't belong to you!"

"Baby, just come back to me. I'll treat you better."

"She'll never love you."

The voices flooded Jade's sleeping mind to create a sea of confusing emotions. Jade stirred, rolling over in her bed with her eyes still sealed tight. The body pillow had fallen to the floor, out of Jade's reach. She could feel her limbs becoming numb, frozen in time. Nightmares for Hade are scarier than real life events because it shows just how screwed up her mind was. How much she doubted herself in whatever label you want to give her and Tori. She felt inadequate.

Jade couldn't wake up.

————-

Across town, another sleeping beauty was having trouble as well. Tori never had nightmares, per say, not any that she could remember. But, she described a nightmare as a negative feeling right when you wake up.

Tori had such a nightmare.

Tori looked over at the clock.

03:45

Far too early to actually start getting ready, but after this strong emotion, she couldn't just fall back asleep. She felt like she needed to do something. Like she needed to...

She reached for her phone but she wasn't sure as to why. She couldn't remember. She unlocked it and opened Instagram. She scrolled through the feed a bit, liking a photo of Cat and Robbie in the studio with a guitar. She was the second like.

Jade was the first.

Jade.

She clicked on her username and saw the feed of random photos. Most abstract, only one with an actual face.

Her face.

She had a filter on it, clearly, but it still looked like her. Serious eyes, dark hair, not a hint of a smile. She checked the time stamp and saw that the picture was posted last year. Tori wondered what Jade was like a year ago. Has she changed much? Has she lost friends? Was she happy?

A simple photo, showing only the tiniest of emotion. The slight upwards tilt of her eyebrows showed just a bit of hope. If anyone else would've looked at this picture, they would have disregarded Jade as a heartless bitch, one who could destroy their life. But Tori sees hope. It's as simple as that.

Then Tori remember why she picked up her phone. She opened the messages app and found Jade's contact. She felt weird texting her so early in the morning, but she needed to say something.

Hey, I just woke up and I thought of you. I know it's really early, and you won't see this for a few hours but I just hope you're okay. Idk, I felt like I needed to text you.

Tori read over what she had wrote before she hit send.

————-

Jade kept rising and turning, growling under her breath. The growls slowly turned into whimpering and before she knew it she was wide awake with tears streaming down her face. She sat up quickly, unsure of her surroundings and slammed her back into the headboard. The sound wasn't enough to wake her mother but it was enough to scare Jade even more. She pulled the blankets closer to her, trying to calm her breathing and her heart rate. The moon created a glare through her blinds that made it look like the floor was cut into thin even slices. She looked down closer to her bed and saw the body pillow laying there. She reached over the side, and pulled it back up to her, putting it on her left side and hugging it slightly. She wiped her tears against the soft pillow case, leaving wet splotches all over it.

Her phone dinged.

She scooted closer to the nightstand and unplugged her phone from the charger, letting it fall to the ground. The screen lit up her face and her eyes took a second to adjust.

Tori.

Jade read each word as if Tori was truly sitting next to her, comforting her by rubbing her thumb on the back of her hand slowly. The tiny words on the phone had Jade in tears yet again, but this time they were happy.

Jade loved happy tears. The idea that something is so heart felt or so beautiful that the only response the brain has is to make its vessel cry is absolutely extraordinary.

Jade was unsure of what to text back or if she should even give a response seeing as it was almost four in the morning. Jade was also worried that any sentence that she would attempt to word would just end up being incomparable to those of Tori's mind.

Instead of trying to hard to think, she went with the simplest of replies:

<3, thank you

————-

Tori was shocked to see that Jade actually replied, but she also knew this answer was just a place holding until the morning when Jade could actually word her emotions.

Tori shut off her phone and brought the covers back up to her neck. She could've sworn for a split second that she felt Jade's arm wrap around her torso, but when she focused on it, the false weight disappeared. Slowly she drifted off.

————-

Jade awoke again to see the clock say 6:29.

Beep beep beep!

"Holy fuck!" Jade whisper-shouted. Of course she'd wake up just before her alarm. She grabbed her phone and turned off the annoying sound and laid back down on her bed. She closed her eyes for just a few minutes before finally getting up. She walked over to her closet and pulled out a white tee, some tight jeans, and a black leather jacket. She walked out of her room and into the bathroom across the way and set the clothes down on the counter. Jade undressed and hopped in the burning shower.

While shampooing her hair, she was finally awake enough to realize what today actually was. The homecoming dance was tonight at 7. She would have to discuss how she and Tori were going to get there at lunch.

After about ten minutes, Jade decided she was clean enough and got out. She changed into her clothes and went back to her room. She threw her pajamas in the hamper in the corner of her room.

She sat back down on her bed and collected her school stuff. Her laptop was fully charged and her folders were placed inside the bag. Jade reached for her phone again. This time, she saw a new text from Tori.

Be ready in ten. I'm picking you up.

Jade couldn't help but smiled. Though, it was really early. School wouldn't start for another hour and it would only take about half that to get there.

What are you planning?

Jade texted back, confused on why so much extra time was needed.

Just be ready.

Jade sigh defeatedly, grabbed her backpack and slung it around her shoulder and headed for the door.