I woke up, disoriented. I wasn't on the couch nor in my bed. I woke up to find myself sprawled out in the middle of the hallway. I had one sock on, and I was shirtless. Mystified, I tried to think back to last night to find out what happened.
"I should go home now," Jade murmured, opening the door.
"Hey, wait!" I quickly glanced away when she turned to look at me, trying to keep myself from blushing. "I'll be right back." I ducked out of the hallway and into my room, throwing open my closet and riffling through the piles of rumpled fabric until I came upon a giant grey sweatshirt of mine that I was fond of. It was huge even on me, but it was warm. I hurried back to where Jade stood and pressed it into her arms. "Take this," I told her.
She looked at me. "This...? I have jackets, Connor. It's not a long walk back. This is yours, you should keep this. And I'll wash your clothes and give them back to you--"
"No, no." I pressed it into her arms with a little more force, insistently. "Keep it. I'd be happy to give them to you."
Something I couldn't read passed through her eyes, but her entire expression softened then. "Okay. I appreciate it, thank you. Would you like anything in return?"
I shook my head. "You giving me your time is enough." Never in my life had I been more cheesy.
She smiled. "It is not much. In this case, I suppose I owe you more of my time."
Ouch. Did she actually mean that she owed me time? "Uh...thanks, but you don't owe me anything."
Her eyes widened. "Wait, my bad. That came out wrong." Her face instantly reddened, and she ran out. "B-bye! See you tomorrow!" I watched her speed-walk onto the sidewalk until she disappeared past the tree in the front yard, and I couldn't see her anymore. I should have offered to drive her home, no matter what a short distance it was.
I stumbled to my room, but crashed into the wall, my thoughts dizzying. So many things I should have said, things I should have done instead...They all tormented me, and I could only pray for Jade's safety, worried sick about her well-being. I slumped to the ground. If anything happened to her, it would be my fault. Feeling nauseous, I closed my eyes, and waited as everything turned black.
Well, it still didn't explain where my sock went. And why I was no longer wearing a shirt. I guessed it didn't matter though...
"Morning, Connor!" Tori popped out from the kitchen, her hair done up in a bun, wearing a soft sky-blue sweater and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. I jumped out of my skin and awkwardly tried to cover myself with my arms.
"Oh GOD! Tori, what are you doing here? How did you get into my house?"
Tori gestured to my front door. "You left it unlocked."
"Okay, but that doesn't explain why you're here!"
"Oh, that? I decided to come by and crash for the day." She popped a forkful of pancake into her mouth. It was then that I noticed the plate in her hand. My stomach growled.
"C-crash..."
"Hush, Connor, I made pancakes for you too, don't worry!" I shied away. Tori might work at a food establishment, but her cooking was terrible. Or at least that was what I remembered from personal experience. "Come on, pancakes are the best things I make!" I guessed she had read my mind. "No, Connor, I'm not psychic. You're just saying everything out loud." Oh. That wasn't embarrassing at all. "You WILL eat my pancakes. And you WILL like them." Making sure not to say the next part out loud, I thought and here come the death threats.
I kept my arms crossed over my chest. "Not hungry."
Tori sighed and grabbed me by the shoulders, forcefully steering me into the kitchen. I flinched. Her hands were as cold as ice, and she was touching my bare skin. It felt unpleasant. And I really wanted to go back to my room to pull on a shirt. Just then, it occurred to me.
"Hey, can you explain why I'm missing a sock and a shirt?"
She gave me a cursory glance and smirked. "You must have been dreaming of something very interesting." My face felt like it was on fire.
"Shut up! Was not!"
"You can't prove it," she said in a singsong voice, her lips brushing my cheek. "Come on."
Reluctantly, I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat down. Tori set down a plate of still-hot pancakes in front of me. I cut out a chunk and stuck it into my mouth, and was surprised. It WAS good. They were soft and warm in the middle, and moderately crispy on the outside. It melted a little in my mouth, and it was sweet and rich with the taste of butter. I stifled a moan as it hit my empty stomach.
"It's good, isn't it?" Tori asked with a smug smile. "Bet you're hungry. I'm also betting that you hide how much you actually eat from Jade, you little monster." Okay, so maybe I did eat less when Jade was around so as not to scare her off, but it was totally worth it. For her, it was. "Now, are you going to apologize for insulting me without any reason?"
Without needing a single word, I gave her a pointed glance, remembering all the times she used me as a guinea pig to try out new recipes before cooking them for her boyfriend, and all the times I was bent over a toilet bowl puking my insides out. She clamped her mouth shut and turned to the stove, where she took the frying pan and dumped it into the sink.
After I finished eating, I helped Tori with the dishes. "Don't you have work today?"
"Nah, my manager gave me the day off." Tori wrinkled her nose.
"Lucky. When is Jade coming over?"
I resisted the urge to stomp my foot like a child. "What makes you think Jade is coming over?"
Tori rolled her eyes. "I am an expert when it comes to guys. I can tell that you're expecting someone, and it totally wasn't me."
I put down the dish I was on and dried my hands on a dish towel. "What if it was a guy?"
"I can tell that, too. It's definitely a girl. When would your guy friends ever put down their gaming consoles to leave the house, anyways?" She had a point, now that I thought about it.
"And if the girl's not Jade?"
"When would there ever be another girl?" Offensive, but another good point.
I stuck out my bottom lip, pouting. "You're mean, Tori."
She shrugged, placing a dish on the dish rack. "Yeah? Well, I never tried to hide it. Now shut up and continue washing."
"Yes, ma'am..."
......
The time was 3 pm, according to my watch, but there was still no sign of Jade. Tori was reclining on my couch, her phone in her hand, texting like her life depended on it. Or maybe it did. Tori rarely spent a minute without texting her boyfriend. The two were so deeply in love, it almost sickened me to watch them. Though, at the same time, I was happy for them. Mainly for Tori, because she deserved someone wonderful who treated her well, and she definitely had that in her boyfriend. I really wished she would be open and honest with her boyfriend about how her cooking mostly sucked, though, so I would no longer be resigned to trying her various concoctions, half of which I doubted she actually found on the Internet while browsing through recipes. Or if they were, she was probably looking at the wrong websites.
Out of habit, I started to chew on my bottom lip nervously. Was Jade okay? I didn't think she would take this long. Maybe she had work, but if she did, I was hoping she would tell me so I could drive her. Being without a car and technology, but still having more money to herself than me, I wanted to care for her. She was saving most of her money for university, I knew that, and she barely let herself spend any of her money--at least any more than necessary--but she could lean on me. I wouldn't mind. She could lean on me as much as she needed to.
Tori finally put down her phone about another half hour later, blowing air out of her mouth, making her bangs flutter. "Tell me about Jade."
I yanked on the T-shirt that laid on the floor next to me. "If I don't want to?"
"That's fine, I guess. I want to know, but if she doesn't want you to tell anyone, I don't want to pry." I thought about it. I didn't think Jade would care. There probably wasn't much that Jade cared about.
So I told Tori all that I knew about Jade. Tori's eyes were shining when I finished, though I wasn't sure if they shone with interest or tears. Or maybe it was both.
"Jade sure is special."
"Very special," I agreed. "I'm honoured to be her only friend."
"Hearing you tell me about her makes me feel a bit protective of her. Would you mind if I tried to be her friend, too?"
I shrugged. "It's not my call, it's hers. You could try to ask her. If she agrees, okay. If not, I can try to change her mind..."
Tori smacked me in the forehead with the heel of her palm. "You can't force her to change her mind, dumbass. You just don't do that to girls!"
"Excuse me for not having much experience with the opposite sex," I grumbled.
Tori scoffed, shoving her hands in the pockets of her jeans as she leaned back, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling. "Yeah, and you still complain though you could have asked me for advice anytime." I said nothing. Tori was right, and the fact that it hadn't occurred to me to ask her for advice probably offended her. Tori bounced back quickly from offense, but then again, I wasn't treating her the way I should be, though she had done so much for me.
"Sorry," I murmured. She sat closer to me, wrapping her arm around me and holding me tenderly to her side.
"It's okay, Connor. I respect your decisions and I'll support you no matter what. I just wanted you to know that I am here for you." I nodded, and she rested her cheek on the top of my head.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to see Jade. She was wearing the sweatshirt I gave her, and a pair of holey jeans and her usual battered sneakers. Snow was falling lightly outside, tiny little flakes that drifted lazily to the ground. Some was in her hair, which was windswept, floating about her head in fine strands. In her arms was a laptop case.
"C-Connor," she puffed out, breathless. Her cheeks and nose were pink from the cold, and her fingers looked stiff. Grabbing her by the wrist, I pulled her inside.
"Did you just get off work?" She nodded. "Is that where you got that from?" Another nod. "Who gave it to you?"
Ten minutes later, Jade sat on the couch, her legs folded beneath her, wrapped in a blanket with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands. "I was at work when Stella came up to me and told me she had something for me." She gestured to the brand-new laptop which sat atop its case, a wireless mouse and a pack of batteries next to it. Her brand-new cell phone sat in her lap, and there was another matching one in my lap. "Stella bought me this, and I was really shocked and kind of upset that she would spend so much money on me, but she insisted..."
"I'll have to say thank you to her," I interjected. Jade's eyes met mine for the briefest of moments, and she continued.
"Stella told me she got this because she wanted me and Connor to do stuff together. She says she got us phones so we can contact each other...She already paid for the SIM card and bought a plan for me and everything. Unlimited calls and texts, and she said she'll pay all of it for me. She's acting like my mother, but she isn't, and I really don't deserve this kindness from her...or from anyone..." Jade trailed off, looking down at the phone, guiltily. "I should get her to return the phone and the laptop. You should keep yours, Connor..."
"I don't think she wanted you to react this way," Tori interrupted. "I think she bought those things for you because she cares about you." Jade's gaze flickered to Tori.
"I guess so...And I'm sorry, I don't know your name."
"The name's Victoria Mason, but you can call me Tori. I'm 21 years old, and I have a steady boyfriend whose name is Blake, and I've been dating him since freshman year in high school." I froze. I didn't know that last fact, but if they've been dating for that long, why did Tori still use me as her guinea pig?
"Nice to meet you," Jade said, her voice soft.
"I like to think of myself as Connor's much-loved big sister," Tori announced, quite proudly. I blushed and playfully shoved Tori away.
"That's nice. I think that's how Stella treats me."
Tori nodded wisely. "Yes, I'm pretty sure that is how she actually feels about you." Jade tilted her head slightly, seeming to process this information.
"I see. Well, thank you."
I stared down at the reflective screen of my new cell phone. "You should keep this stuff. Tori's right."
Jade smiled. "Okay." And so, we began to discover more about the world, therefore more about each other. Together.