Just A Stage Kiss

Chapter 6

Tori's POV.

"I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chap stick"

"Ug, Trina! Can you turn that off, please!" I called over the sound of the radio and my sister's obnoxious singing. "Trina!" When she didn't react, I reached forward myself to shut off the car stereo and stop the song that was usually one of my favourites, but right now it felt like it was mocking me.

"Aw!" Trina whined once she'd shut up long enough to realise there was nothing to sing along to anymore. "But I thought you loved Katy Perry!"

"I do. I- I just have a headache." I sighed.

It was true, I did have a headache after a restless night trying not to think about the only thing I could think about. That kiss haunted my mind every time I closed my eyes and the worst part was: I liked it. I kissed a girl and I liked it... and that girl was Jade West. I knew all along that my feelings for Jade were different to that of the others in our little group, I was always so determined to be accepted by her and liked by her no matter what she said or what she did to me. I thought it was just because I didn't want anyone to hate me and that she was friends with all of my friends, so why couldn't we get along? I never quite knew why I needed her friendship so bad, but now I realise that it wasn't friendship I wanted. That kiss, it was like the final piece of a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle falling into place and the reason why I needed Jade's approval made sense: I had a crush on Jade West.

I came to that conclusion at 4 in the morning, hours and hours after the kiss had taken place. I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling littered with tons of glow in the dark stars, kind of like my locker at school, replaying the kiss in my mind and after filtering through so many other implausible reasons as to why my stomach felt like it would explode with butterflies when her lips met mine, that was the only one that made any logical sense.

"Tori!" Trina's voice yelled, snapping me back to reality. I turned to see my sister had parked the car and was already out of the door, looking back at me with an annoyed expression. "We're here. So are you going to come to school or hang around in the car all day? Because I'd happily lock you in here, if you want, but I'm taking the keys."

"I'm coming." I said, slipping out of the passenger side door and slamming the thing too. Now Trina seemed satisfied and she almost skipped off towards the school while chattering on about how she'd managed to convince Beck to stage kiss her twice last night 'In practice for the play.' Poor guy. Part of me wanted to ask if we could swap partners, so I worked with him and Trina with Jade, just so I could forget these feelings I'd gained since last night, but I knew Sikowitz wouldn't let us. Not to mention, a huge, newly discovered, part of me wanted to continue with the project just as an excuse to kiss Jade again. It was a terrible thought, using school work as an excuse for my own selfish pleasure, but I couldn't help it.

"Ah! So you are alive!" a voice said, breaking into my train of thought that had once again led back to the kiss. I jumped in surprise and turned to find Beck leaning against a locker, smirking slightly at my reaction. I didn't even remember walking to my locker, but, alas, I was currently trying to jam my history book into the small, metal compartment, with no luck.

"Huh?"

"Well, Jade obviously didn't kill you last night." He smiled, running a hand though his hair as always. "But, you do look like the living dead. Everything okay?"

"Thanks." I replied sarcastically, finally succeeding in getting the book back into its place. "And I'm fine, just didn't sleep too well last night."

"Oh yeah, how come?"

Before I could reply, the reason behind my sleepless night came sauntering up to where Beck and I stood. She flashed me a smirk then cupped her boyfriend's cheek, pulling him down into a kiss that caught him off guard, but didn't stop his enthusiastic response. I cringed, suddenly hating the sight of seeing the couple kiss, even though I had seen it many times before. There was a small, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that I could only equate to jealousy, and I wished I didn't feel it. I turned back to my locker, making sure everything was where it should be, and then slammed it closed a little harder than I normally would have.