Tori's POV
It had been two and a half months since the prome incident and I was STILL thinking about it.
Jade ruined me that day. Even though I didn't let it show she really REALLY hurt me that day. Prom has always been so important to me and then she literally ruined it in every possible way.
I was crushed. I was absolutely crushed. But then...THAT happened. Stuff like this ALWAYS seems to happen with Jade. We'll have our regular moments where nothing is too extremely bad or too extremely good and then we'll start leaning into extremely good territory which is then followed by extremely ganky territory and sometimes vice versa.
She made it so hard to understand. Was she really nice on the inside? Did she do it just to play mind games? Is she only ever nice to me out of pure pity? God it was just SO confusing and I hated being tossed back and forth between both polar extremes but I was also kind of addicted to it and I don't know why.
The prome incident was by far the weirdest. After she had ruined and crushed me so badly she also somehow managed to make it such an amazing night. The fact that she danced in the rain with me and sang to me was so sweet I thought I was in the middle of some dream, I would've pinched myself but Jade shoving me away hard to the ground was good enough to bring me back to both reality and remind me that it WAS real.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when Andre started playing an amazing song on his piano.
"Wow what's that song for?!" I ask in awe.
"It's for my songwriting class," he answers. "The thing is, I still don't have any lyrics for it yet and it's due in three days," he sighs. "But, when I do come up with the lyrics I want you to sing it," he tells me.
"I'm so in," I respond.
"Hey tori," I hear lane call out to me as he approaches us, "you know that RnB class you signed up for last semester?"
"Yeah I'm SO psyched for that class," I respond.
"Yeah well calm down cuz you can't take it," he deadpans. "You have to take Tech theater first."
"Wait she has to take the class or just pass the exam?" Andre asks.
"Yeahhhh what if I just pass the exam?" I ask excited.
"The exams in three days," he looks at me like I'm crazy.
"That's all I need! I'll study like nonstop!" I plead.
"Okay," he gives in.
"YAY!" I run over and hug him.
...
I've been trying so hard to study today but there's SO much material. Luckily I found out that Robbie had the highest score in that class and he agreed to tutor me, but that meant I wouldn't have anytime to sing for Andre so I had to apologize.
Jade's POV
I was on my way to the recording room to help out Andre since Vega was too busy to help him and I was clearly the more superior choice.
After the whole prome incident I've been avoiding Vega more than ever. I was so sickeningly nice to her that day I had to be as distant and ganky as possible so she wouldn't get the wrong idea like we were friends or that I didn't hate her or something.
Speaking of hate, I burst through the door to the recording room yelling "I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!"
"Kill who?" Beck asks me as Andre stands petrified in the corner.
"SINJIN HE SAT ON MY NEW SCISSORS!"
"Okay calm down," Beck tells me.
"IM NOT GONNA CALM DOWN THEY'RE BENT THEY'VE LOST THEIR SCISS," I yell before throwing the scissors at the wall which then satisfyingly stick into the wall. As angry as I was about sinjin if I'm being honest I was just using it as an excuse for stupid Vega ruining my mood.
Beck stands there having lost his words then looks between me and Andre and manages to get out "you kids have fun," then quickly makes his exit. Yes beck run away, run far and fast or else you might be next.
...
Me and Andre had been working on his song for hours and it was dark now and I was bored out of my mind so I decided to take a break.
"Hey," I call out to Andre, "you ever try this when you were a kid?" I ask reaching out to grab his hand.
"Woah woah what you doing," he pulls back alarmed. He fears me. Good.
"Just gimme your hand don't be a baby," I complain annoyed. He gives in reluctantly. I end up doing this trick on him I learned on how to make your hand feel all tingly.
"Ooo do it again!" He says like a little kid.
"Nooo we have to finish writing your song," I say annoyed by him.
"Man it's after midnight let's just bail," he complains.
"Uh-Uh," I laugh a bit at his eagerness to quit when it's his ass on the line.
"I been trying to finish it for three hours!" He complains.
"Wow great now shut up and sing something," I shoot back. He sings random lyrics that don't make any sense at all along to the tune.
"I'm gonna try something," I say then grab the headphones to record.
I'm not sure where the words came from, between thinking about how sinjin ruined my scissors, Vega's annoying existence and the countless boring hours I've spent with Andre, it just randomly popped out all on its own.
"What'd you think?" I ask him now. He sits there speechless. "You like it?" I ask. He barely managed to get out the squeak of an mmhmm. Annoying.
Tori's POV
I went to go open the door for Andre at 3am because he had been spamming my phone with calls and texts saying there was some sort of emergency. I was starting to think maybe Jade stabbed him or something.
"IM TRIPPIN OUT TORI, IM TRIPPIN OUT!" He cries out to me panicked. Okay now I'm starting to think Jade threatened to kill him.
I let him in and then made him cocoa mainly because he wouldn't shut up until I did. We sat on my couch now and I waited for him to spill just exactly why he was freaking out so much.
"I-I think I'm in love with Jade," he finally says. I start coughing because hearing that made me inhale the wrong way. When I finally got control over my throat and breathing again I finally responded.
"You think you're in LOVE... with JADE?" I repeat in a question to him to confirm I wasn't going crazy.
"I think so," he sighs.
"Okay what happened tonight?" I asked suddenly concerned.
"I don't know, we were just working together, ALL night at school and I just saw her singing and she just looked so... so pretty and sweet," he croaks out.
"Dude you CANT love Jade," I say.
"I KNOW!" He cries out.
"Okay good so just forget about this," I try to encourage him.
"I CANT AHHH," he cries slapping himself on the head.
"Why can't you?" I ask.
"I got this thing where if I don't let my feelings out I get all wonky in the head!"
"Look," I start, " I don't think you're in love with Jade."
"You don't?" He says confused.
"No. I think it was late," I start thinking back to prome night subconsciously, "you two were there together alone and you were tired. And you forgot jade is a mean person with deep psychological problems," I add at the end.
...
The next day Andre is DEFINITELY wonky still so I devised a plot to help him get over jade by showing him how terrible she was. I invited him over and then dressed up as jade and proceed to be as ganky as Jade would be.
"If you think that was mean just imagine us as boyfriend girlfriend, then I'll be 10 times meaner," I say angrily only to have Andre try kissing me then which definitely got me out of character FAST.
"ALRIGHT THAT'S IT I QUIT JUST WRITE A SONG ABOUT JADE AND SING IT OR SOMETHING I DONT KNOW!" I yell out frustrated.
"Actually... I did kind of write a song about jade but I can't sing it to her cuz she'll know it's about her since I say her name a bunch in it," he says.
"Then replace all the Jade's with baby or something I don't know," I sigh out tired of this all, collapsing onto my couch.
"Actually I think that could work!" He shouts excitedly. "Thank you so much Tori," he says excitedly then hugs me and runs off. Great. Hopefully this mess will be over soon.
Before I know it Andre has me up on the stage the next night singing the song with him.
I'm not sure what it was about that song but singing it felt right.
...
"Look the song definitely helped," Andre says making me smile, "I'm not all wonky anymore."
"That's great!" I say giving him a friendly punch.
"Yeah. But I still like jade," he responds.
"WHAT?!" I yell in shock.
"Yeah, I mean the song definitely helped get my feelings under control and I certainly don't plan to try anything while she's with Beck, but if ever down the road they don't work out, I'll definitely still be waiting."
"Good to know..." I trail off not sure what to say.
"See you around Tori," he waves goodbye and takes off for the night.
I'm in the middle of getting ready to head home myself when I hear a voice I haven't heard directed at me in weeks.
"Vega!" She hadn't talked to me much really since prome and any time she did she was being a big gank. Something about hearing her call out my name normally like that made my heart race.
I turned around to face the goth. "Where's Beck?" I ask knowing she had been hanging with him tonight.
"He left," she shrugged.
"Okay soooo" I say unsure what she wants. She just stands around and looks at her surroundings as if waiting for something. I stand there still clueless.
"You could offer me a ride," she complains annoyed.
"Do you want a ride?" I ask.
"Sure but I'm driving," she says.
"Uh no you're not, Trina is."
"Jesus Vega I always forget you're too idiotic to understand the idea of driving," she complains.
I roll my eyes and start walking down the hall.
"What's been up with Andre?" She asks suddenly.
"What's up with you and Beck?" I ask.
"What makes you think anything is up?" She questions.
"Well you need a ride so..."
"Answer me and I'll answer you," she responds.
"Okay Andre has a crush on you," I say casually but am actually terrified that she might start something with him.
"Gross. Me and Beck got into a fight," she says nonchalantly.
"What do you mean gross and what did you fight about now?" I press.
"Gross because I could never like Andre like that, hell I barely like him as a friend, the last thing I'd ever let him do is see the other side of me. And nothing it was stupid stuff per usual. He just thinks I've been distracted lately or that I've been extra ganky to him."
We start to get close to the exit and make our way to the parking lot where Trina is probably waiting for us or well me anyhow.
"OTHER side of you?" I ask her confused. She shakes her head.
"Yes Vega contrary to popular belief I'm not always a ganky violent bitch."
"So you mean you can be nice? Or... soft?" I ask giving a quick glance up at her.
"Careful Vega you're treading on thin ice there, if you continue you might just break it and get EATEN BY A SHARK!" She yells the last part before wrapping her arms around me tightly picking me up slightly off the ground and spinning me around making me scream and laugh before she put me down.
I suddenly stop and sit down on the curb of the schools driveway not quite ready to face Trina in the parking lot. The goth took a seat next to me. We sat in silence for a while. I simply looked at the sky lost in thought not caring how long Trina was stuck waiting. Finally after what seemed like 5 minutes, I broke the silence.
"Jade?"
"Hm?" She responds.
"Why do you hate me?" She looks at me now with a blank face, no shock, no anger, nothing, just simply in thought.
"Because you're perfect," she almost whispers.
I sit there quietly. "You don't have to try in order for people to like you, you don't have to work for any acting or lead singing roles because they all automatically go to you, you have a happy family, you have everything Tori... everything that I don't. Why else would I hate you?" She says honestly.
"But Jade. Family isn't always blood, and I don't even know why they always give me roles because you're genuinely a way better actor than I am, maybe it's just because everyone's scared of you," I joke.
"Are you?" She asks almost timidly.
"What?" I asked confused.
"Are you scared of me?" I sit there looking the goth girl in the eye and for the first time seeing behind all the walls she normally has up.
"No. I mean yeah you can be scary, or do things that scare me, but you yourself aren't someone I'm afraid of jade, because I think deep down I know you'd never do anything to hurt me, that even as much as you claim to hate me or say we're not friends I know you wouldn't hesitate to rip someone's head off if they ever screwed me over," I say giving her a soft smile.
We go back to sitting in silence. I can feel my phone vibrating a bunch and know it's Trina blowing up my phone but I ignore it.
"Why do you do this?" I ask suddenly breaking the silence again.
"Do what?" She asks calmly.
"This thing where one minute you're an absolute gank to me or ignore and avoid me and then the next minute we're just this. Normal. Calm."
"Do you want a truth or a lie?" She asks.
"Truth," I answer.
"Well you know why I hate you Vega so when I let myself not hate you then all I can do is hate me for letting myself not hate you. If that makes any sense. And it's hard because you make it so god damn easy to just want to open up to. But I hate being vulnerable. I hate feeling vulnerable. Yet you make it so easy. So the only way I can stop myself from letting go too far is by distancing myself from you and making you know I can never like you by being a bigger gank than usual."
Jade's POV
I wasn't sure where all these words were coming from but they somehow poured out by instinct. The small latina didn't say anything after that. She just simply leaned towards me and rested her head on my shoulder.
We sat there a bit longer taking in the cold silent night air and the shining stars above us. Just before we got up to get to the parking lot Vega said one last thing.
"I wish you didn't have to hate me. I wish you we could always be like this," she says softly.
"Me too," I practically whisper the words before quickly getting up and dusting myself off letting Vega lead the way to her annoying sister's car.
"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST TORI ITS ABOUT GOD DAMN TIME IVE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR AN HOUR ITS 12AM I WANT TO GO HOME AND GET MY BEAUTY SLEEP ITS NOT EASY BEING THIS BEAUTIFUL YKNOW!"
"TRINA!" the younger Vega yelled. "We have to take jade home first."
"Ha yeah no, if she wants a ride tomorrow sure but we are going straight home because I did NOT sign up for this!"
"I really need to learn to drive," the latina groans out.
...
Surely enough Trina did not drive me home and instead drove us to the Vega household saying I can sleep on the couch or something.
"You don't have to sleep on the couch you can sleep on my bed and I'll take the couch," the small latina offers.
"Vega I've seen your bed before, it's big enough for the both of us and even if it wasn't I'm pretty sure it can't get any worse than you, me, cat, Trina, and Robbie all trying to share a bed in yerba," I point out.
"I guess you're right," she says. "I have some shorts I can lend you," she says now digging through her drawer and tossing me some shorts. "I'm not sure I'll have any shirts that would fit you though."
"That's fine I sleep in my bra," I say nonchalantly. Vega has a look of surprise on her face. "Don't act like you don't do it too," I say heading over to her bathroom to slip the shorts on real quick.
"Not all the time!" She defends. "Just every once and a while."
Well it's gonna get pretty warm with the both of us so it's your choice," I shrug. She stands there in thought contemplating a bit before she ends up removing her shirt.
She has a beige lace bra on similar to the black one I was wearing but a bit different. God why does she have such a perfect body. Another reason why I hated her.
I had went to the bathroom to brush my teeth with the spare tooth brush Vega gave me but when I came back out Vega was passed out on her bed not even under the covers.
I shook my head then walked over and pulled the blankets out from under her then placed them on top of her before climbing in myself and turning out the lights. It was the easiest time falling asleep I've ever had possibly in my entire life.
The next morning I was awoken by the soft feeling of something running down the side of my face. My eyes fluttered open to see Vega had been tracing the side of my face. As soon as she saw my eyes were open I instantly saw her face turn bright red which made me smirk until I realized why the situation was extra embarrassing to her which was probably because I had my arm wrapped tightly around her, our bodies pressed together, left in our lace bras and shorts while she traced my face and suddenly my smirk disappeared and I felt a bit of heat rush to my face as well but... neither of us could seem to move.
We stayed there and just looked each other in the eye, Vegas hand still resting on the side of my face.
We stayed like that for maybe another minute or two until she finally spoke.
"Hi," she croaked out softly in her morning voice.
"Go brush your teeth Vega your breath is gross," I complain. Her face gets a little red and she does in fact get up to go brush her teeth. While she was doing that though I took the opportunity to change and get downstairs where Trina was thankfully already up and ready to go so by the time that latina gets back from the bathroom I'd be gone.