Heartstrings | Jade x Tori

Chapter 7: Friends

"Yeah, and that was before I got broken up with. Now it's a perfect excuse to get wasted, and you're coming with me." She snapped, as if this information was the most obvious thing in the world that I should have already known.

"Why are you so desperate to drag me along, Jade? I thought we weren't friends and you weren't gonna hang out with me if we went." I decided to challenge her with. She narrowed her eyes at me, but genuinely seemed as if she didn't have an answer for once. Wow, did I just win against her? That's rare. "Wait, am I your friend now?" I asked, now actually feeling my heart beat a little faster at the prospect of me possibly being added to Jade West's mental friend list. She groaned at me and rolled her eyes, and refused to look me in the eye as she spoke.

"Maybe a little." She murmured under her breath, barely loud enough for me to catch. 

"What was that?" I teased, now unable to contain my smile.

"You heard me the first time." She snapped, warning me to not push her, and I understood, happy she'd admitted it at all.

"Well, I guess I'll take it." I laughed. "Wait, is this only because I helped you out the other night?" I added, the realisation hitting me that maybe this wasn't real friendship, and just Jade needing somebody to vent to.

"No!" My new friend snapped, a little too quickly for her own liking. "I mean..... no." She repeated, a little quieter this time. "Besides, it's not exactly like that was the first time you've helped me, was it? I guess you've never really been that bad." She added, yet again refusing to look me in the eye.

"Wait... Are you trying to say you've always seen me as a friend?" I questioned, her implications hitting me.

I mean. The years of torture I endured from her definitely weren't the best, but to learn that maybe, just maybe, I'd meant anything at all to her the entire time was actually a heartwarming feeling. I was right. She wasn't all bad, and her heart wasn't all bad. Maybe her head was a little in the wrong place sometimes, or maybe she'd just never known how to admit she didn't hate me until I'd gained her trust a bit more, but it felt like I had finally started to peel back some of the layers that were covering the girl that is Jade West. For real this time. And considering I'd spent a long time attempting to get her to hate me less, and to actually like me, learning that maybe she'd never actually fully hated me in the first place felt like a massive weight being lifted off of my shoulders. A weight I had for some reason found myself obsessing over one too many times.

"I wouldn't go that far, but I guess it was a little bit hard to tell myself I hate you sometimes." Jade finally admitted, still refusing to meet my eye. It wasn't a downright confession, but I could still tell that to her, those words were supposed to be meaningful to me, and they were. Her arms were crossed and she was staring down toward her lap, but I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of her.

"Well, that means a lot to me." I smiled, my gaze still fixated on her, hoping that she would glance up at me even for a second.

"Whatever." She jokingly responded, and a smile pulled at the corners of her lips, despite the fact she was still looking down. 

I practically jumped out of my own skin when the loud ringing of the lunch bell filled my ears. Shit. I've been in here a long time, and I never went back to class. I guess I'll have some explaining to do to Sikowitz later... and our friends... 

Jade hopped down from her spot, her boots clunking as they hit the ground. She reached down, grabbed her bag, and made her way toward the closet door. She rested a hand on the handle, but before she left, she turned to look at me, finally meeting my eyes again for the first time since she'd admitted we were friends.