Disclaimer: The Show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
The Last resort
Chapter 5 – Road to ruin.
Tori's POV
I quickly sat up in bed, while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Then I blinked a few times to see if Jade was a figment of my imagination, But Jade remained sitting on the foot of my bed, staring straight ahead.
"You're not crazy tori, you're just a cheating whore."
"urg..." I said while running my hand through my hair.
"Ah...I wasn't..." I began to say before Jade finished my sentence.
"Expecting me."
I sat up a little further in bed as I finally began to fully wake up. "No."
Jade then glanced over at my neatly packed suitcase that was sitting on my old desk. "You were going to leave, weren't you?"
I put my head down. "Yeah...After last night I pretty much guessed that I wore out my welcome, besides failing miserably."
Jade sighed. "You didn't on either account. I was out of line. After Cat yelled at me, I tried to call you. But your phone was turned off. So I decided to try and sleep, with the intention of coming here this morning. But instead of sleeping I simply cried most of the night."
I quickly grunted in annoyance as I got out from under the covers and sat on the bed. "I'm sorry she shouldn't have yelled at you. I just told her to watch over you. "
"Whoops, failed again Vega."
"No." Jade replied quickly. "Cat just said I was trying to help and I shouldn't have blown up at her. I deserved it."
I was still trying to figure out why Jade wanted to know about my cheating, now at all times. It seemed very strange. "I'll explain, but I'm not sure if this is the right time, after all with Krista..."
Jade quickly reached over and grabbed my wrist. "When I was Catatonic I could hear bits of what you said to me you described it as impulsive. It's important. I need you to explain yourself." Her voice, though still hoarse was almost pleading.
I was a bit confused, but I took a deep breath and started. "We had been fighting a lot. As I recall it was a couple of things. The thing with the money, you were saying I was spending too much. I felt neglected by you. You were jealous of Mark who was playing my husband. We just weren't talking; I should had tried harder to communicate. Instead, I just got angry, resentful. That morning we had fought over the fact that you were jealous of Mark. I left angry and went to rehearsals with Mark."
I paused and took another deep breath. My heart was beginning to beat faster. I was worried how she would react. "I liked Mark, he seemed nice and we had really good chemistry on stage. We seemed to click. But I was still your girlfriend. Up to that night I never even considered cheating on you. We didn't finish until well after 9 o'clock in the evening. As I was leaving Mark asked me if I wanted to join him for a drink or two. We talked for I don't know how long. I spoke of how we hit a bad spot and he just played the understanding good friend. I just felt so good to talk to someone about it all. But at one point he stopped and said how you were taking me for granted and he told me he had fallen for me. I was very flattered and told him so."
At this point during a slight pause Jade looked over at the open window. I could see a look of surprise on her face as she noticed it. "You left the window open....for me?"
"A pathetic attempt at wishful thinking. But then again everything you do is pathetic Vega!"
I couldn't help but blush slightly. "I wasn't expecting anything. I just kind of did it for old times' sake. Besides, with your arm I don't think you'll be climbing any tree's anyway."
Jade looked down at her arm. "I guess you're right."
Before I resumed my story, I could have sworn I saw just the hint of a smile. But as always, it vanished in an instant.
"He said, Tori I'd very much like to kiss you. Not a stage kiss but a real one. When I kiss you on stage, I always want more. At that very second, on a horribly stupid impulse, I said go ahead. I was mad at you. I loved the attention, I...never should have done it. The kiss was full of feeling and once I crossed that line. It was all too easy to let him kiss me again, put his hand on my leg. I just let myself get caught up in the heat of the moment. Next thing, I know I'm in his apartment. He said all the things guys say; that I'm beautiful, special how he'd treat me better. Looking back, I think he knew I was vulnerable. I think he really liked me but he saw a weak link my armor and exploited it for his own gain."
Jade just kept listening quietly, looking sad as ever. Her eyes avoided mine as I told the story.
"Almost as soon as we finished, I snapped out of it. I realized I had cheated on you, the woman I loved more than life itself. This was going to devastate you and I knew it. I had done something so horrible that I could barely think. I told him this was a mistake, threw on my clothes and left. I cried all the way home and when I got there you were already asleep. I knew I could have kept it to myself and pretended it never happened. But as I sat there in the bedroom watching you sleep; I knew I couldn't do it. You looked so peaceful, so beautiful so perfect lying there. I knew if I didn't tell you, the guilt would eat me alive. So, I stripped down and crawled in bed with you. I remember pressing my body against yours and crying. I knew somehow that this could be the last night I ever spent with you. I woke up the next morning and could smell you making breakfast for me. You know the rest."
"The best day of my life, when I got rid of your skanky ass."
Jade nodded. "You told me you slept with Mark, I blew up, threw a frying pan at you and told you to get the fuck out. When you tried to speak, I told you we were finished, I never wanted to see you again and told you to get the fuck out of my apartment." Jade said it with a far away, but sad look in her eyes.
I had begun to cry at this point. "Jade, not a day has gone by where I haven't wished I could take that back. I am so sorry I hurt you. It was a stupid impulsive decision made out of anger and it totally ruined my life. I could blame, Mark or the drinks or the anger but ultimately it was me and only me. It was the stupidest thing I've ever done and my life will never be the same."
Jade put her hand over her eyes as tears began run down her cheeks. "I did the same thing, except I killed Krista."
I remembered her saying that after she woke from her catatonia. But I didn't know what it meant. I guessed it had something to do with the route it took but wasn't sure.
I had no idea how she would react but I had to ask. "Jade what did you do?"
Jade looked at me, I could see all the pain and guilt in her eyes as the tears streamed from them.
With a voice that sounded utterly heartbroken Jade began her tale. "We had just picked out our wedding rings the day before and we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate how everything was going so smoothly. As we drove our new car there, it had begun to rain. But we made it to the restaurant just fine. We had a wonderful time; Krista was so happy. She looked so beautiful Tori. As we begun to drive back, I remembered how the salesperson said the car would handle extremely well, especially in the rain. It handled like a dream so far. In a stupid impulse I decided to take the long route through that neighborhood. It had lots of twist and turns. I wanted to see how it would handle on twisting type roads in the rain."
With a creeping sense of horror, I begun to realize what happened.
"The car handled well and I was getting a kick out of it. I wasn't going super-fast, but fast enough. I got cocky and kept doing it. But Krista began to get scared. Jade please stop, you've proven your point, she told me. Just a few more I said, don't worry. Then we hit that first S curve. When we hit the first one, she got really scared. She pleaded for me to stop."
Jade let out what could only be a mix of a painful cry and a deep sob. "SHE WAS SO SCARED AND I JUST MADE FUN OF HER. She pleaded for me to slow down. I just said don't be such a chicken. Then we hit that final curve and...and..."
I moved next to Jade, who was becoming more distraught by the moment.
"We began to slide and she screamed. It happened in an instant she screamed out my name in terror and then we hit the tree. I KILLED HER. I KILLED HER. I came to, my arm hurt but then I looked over at her. She was covered in blood, I remembered saying. Please wake up baby, please wake up, but she was dead."
Jade couldn't continue the story and simply fell into my arms, crying hysterically. As I put my arms around her, my mind tried to grasp the amount of guilt Jade had to be feeling. A second later I remembered.
We had been together for 2 years and had gone on vacation in the mountains to ski. On our way up we were taking this somewhat winding mountain road. There were a few parts where the was a drop off to one side. I suddenly flashbacked to that day.
No one's POV – Tori's flashback.
Tori quickly grabbed the dash nervously, as Jade sped up. "Come on Jade. This isn't funny." Tori said.
Jade smirked. "What's wrong with you Vega? Aren't you up for a little adventure? Life on the edge."
"Not literally."
A second later the tires squealed a bit as they hit a corner too fast, but otherwise the car stayed on the road.
Suddenly Tori barked out in anger. "Enough Jade. Stop this right now! You're scaring me. SLOW THE CAR DOWN!"
Jade huffed in annoyance, as she slowed the car down. "Spoil sport."
Tori's POV
I was so mad at her, as much as I loved her she could be such a gank at times. I didn't say another word to her the rest of the drive to the resort. As soon as we got there, instead of taking the suitcases into the hotel, I walked off and found a bar. It took an hour for jade to find me. I had calmed down by then. When Jade found me, she apologized profusely and we had some pretty great make up sex.
That was what was supposed to happen two weeks ago. Had the storm drain not been clogged the street would have not been flooded. Krista would be scared and angry at jade, as I was. When they got home I imagine her stomping off to her music practice room to blow off some steam by playing furiously for an hour or so. Eventually Jade would apologize and say how much a gank had been. Krista would accept the apology and lead Jade into the bedroom.
But that didn't' happen.
Jade continued to sob in my arms. I think the part that really eats her is that she made fun of Krista's fear right before she died. That was typical Jade, however. She'd made fun of me a number of times. But she always made up for it. She loved me and she loved Krista, but Jade was Jade sometimes. Krista and I loved her none the less.
Jade looked up at me with her tear-filled blood shot eyes. "I didn't mean to hurt her, Tori. I loved her. I wanted to marry her and she's dead because of me."
I elected not to remind her of the past incident, it wouldn't help anything. But she must have recognized the look in my eyes that I was remembering something. Suddenly her eyes opened wide.
"Oh my god, I did the same to you!" She wailed in near agony.
I wasn't mad at her; I can imagine some people would be however. I also believed her that she never meant to harm Krista. Just like she never meant to harm me that day. It was just an accident, just a horrible accident. Like in my case, a simple impulsive and stupid move resulted in disaster. I could feel my own heart breaking, seeing how much pain she was in. I still loved Jade and seeing her like this was tearing me apart. I wanted to make the pain go away so much. I needed to help her, she'd already been punished with the knowledge that her reckless driving had killed her fiancé. Already one person was dead. If Jade didn't get some help, I could imagine there would eventually being two.
"I'm a monster, I killed my Krista." Jade said, between mournful sobs.
"You didn't mean this Jade. You had no idea that drain was clogged and the street partially flooded. You didn't know. You're not a monster. My dad once arrested a man who beat his 6 year old step son to death for getting into his tools. When my dad put the cuff's on him, he could see the guy didn't care even remotely that he savagely beat a child to death. He just said, I hated the little fucker, good riddance. That's a monster Jade, you're not."
I had no idea if that was the proper thing to say at this point, but I knew one thing for sure. I had my work cut out for me.
A sad and painful story. Sadly, people do stupid things all the time that result in deaths. Some are able to put it behind them and come to terms with the mistakes they've made. Some are not.