Note: This is completely inspired by the new video on the slap where Cat busts into Jade's house and makes her sing a song with her. This also takes place RIGHT after the video, so if you haven't seen it, go watch it first (:
Summary: But this time, I'm not giving into her because I feel like I have to. I'm not so sure it's really because I want to either. These kisses; I'm giving into them because I need to. Cade. Halloween-ish! (:
Disclaimer: I am not Dan Schneider.
She's Got It
Part I
By xHeSaidSheSaidx
"Go home, Cat."
The more times I say it, the more it begins to lose its meaning and the less demanding I start to sound. She's sitting on my bed with this stupid expression on her face that I just want to slap off, bouncing up and down in her typical annoying fashion while toying with that stupid green stretchy ball she brought over with her when she decided to invite herself into my house and invade my personal space. She pays no mind to my quickly growing to be meaningless words and continues to sit there contentedly, tossing the stupid ball up and down in the air as she giggles to herself, lost in some world that is only inhabited by her.
I really don't know when Cat decided to grow a backbone;-what made her be so… completely unfazed by me. Anyone else that had the slightest bit of intellect would've hauled ass out the door the second I told them to get the hell out, but not Cat. She's the one person that will simply giggle when I scream or snap at her. Sometimes she'll even go as far as to pat me on the head and tell me that I need to cheer up before suggesting that we go out for an ice cream cone to "brighten up" my mood, and today is no different.
"Cat, I sang a song with you and let you make a stupid video out of it. I even took time out of my life to go across the street and drag that stupid guitar player over here, all to get rid of you as fast as possible, yet you're still here. What more could you possibly want?" I flounce down on the bed beside her with a huff, not thinking twice about being straight up with her. It's not like she'll realize I'm less than enthusiastic about her very presence anyways, no matter how clear I make it. That's just the thing about Cat, she gets offended when you're not even trying to insult her, but you could outright call the girl an idiot and she would have a hard time seeing the harshness in something so obvious and clearly stated like that.
As if to confirm my point, she scoots closer to me the second I sit down even though I had taken the time to make sure there was a good two feet of space between us. The next thing I know, she's tossing the green ball at me and it takes everything that I have to not pick the stupid thing up and chuck it right at her face, aiming right for her dumb little dimple as she giggles at me. I can't even bear to look at her sometimes. The ever present happiness that radiates off of her just makes me sick, the constant smiles she has plastered to her face create a nagging in me as the desire to puke up my lunch and that dimple makes me want to rip out my eyebrow piercing and shove the jewel straight through it, as if that will diminish some of that irritating innocence she possesses.
"I want ice cream," she tells me with a smile so innocent I think I might gag. I cross my arms and shake my head at her random answer to my very clearly rhetorical question. I couldn't really care less about what more she wants.
"I don't have any."
The gasp that escapes her throat catches my attention for a split second, and I'm glancing over at her then to see more of her reaction to my news, only to see that she's pouting at me, a glossy bottom lip thrusting out over the top one as she bats her lashes.
"Let's go get some then."
She must've known my answer to her question before she even asked it, I could tell just by that pleading look on her face. She seems to know that whenever she does that or talks to me in that whiny baby tone that eventually I'll cave, and I absolutely detest that fact. But I refuse to cave this time, I already let her talk me into singing a song with her not even ten minutes ago, and here she is with the nerve to ask me for something else. I know she's not very bright, but she can't be a complete moron. She should know I don't do favors.
"No."
I put my foot down and look away from her again as if I don't notice how her pouty look intensifies and the next thing I know, she's pressed up against my side, twirling a strand of my hair around her skinny little fingers.
"Please Jade."
There it is. That baby talk that I hate like nothing else in the world, not even freaking Vega gets my blood boiling as much as Cat's whiny, pleading voice does. At least with Vega, I have a very special voice specifically dedicated to mocking her whenever she pisses me off, but Cat is hard to mock, her voice is already naturally high and irritating, and being straight up with her obviously doesn't work either, so my only defense left is to shrug her off.
"Go get your own ice cream," I tell her in the flattest voice I can muster. If you asked me why it's so hard to get Cat off my back and for me to not cave and support my decision to the fullest, I wouldn't really have much of an answer. I want to say it's because she's one of those people that doesn't know how to take 'no' for an answer, hell she refuses to ever do so. Like I said, most people know their limits with me. If I tell you to back off, you better back the hell off before things get ugly, and usually, this "threat" works on most people, as I know for a fact that they're never willing to find out what I'll do to them otherwise so they leave me alone. But Cat… either she likes to challenge me, or she's just stupid, or… in the worst case scenario, she's not afraid of me.
Whatever it is, I'm sick of it because in almost all situations, she breaks me, and I'll eventually cave, for whatever reason, and that fact alone is enough to make me want to strangle her sometimes because whether she know it or not, that injures my pride.
"Come with me," she's saying, pleading, begging, and even though I have a feeling what the eventual outcome of this situation will be, I shake my head stubbornly again and tell her no, without even attempting an excuse.
"Come on, it'll be fun!"
I almost find it cute that she actually thinks she can use persuasion to get me to change my mind and agree with her. Almost. Other than that, it's flat out ridiculous. She knows very well that ever since Beck made me help plunge through all those pints of ice cream to help out Vega to win her stupid private Ke$ha concert, that I refuse to ever do so much as pick up a spoonful of that sickening sticky substance ever again.
I hate ice cream, almost as much as the dipshit who invented it.
"Great! Be sure to tell me all about it," I answer Cat as I get up and drag her off the bed to escort her over to the door in a not so gentle manner. Ignoring my sarcasm, she turns to me with a smile when we reach the door and I drop my arms down to my sides with a huff.
"I won't have to, you're coming with me."
"I can't! I have a lot of homework-"
Great. Now she's got me resorting to making up excuses. With anyone else I wouldn't even bother. I wouldn't even have to. They would've got the message long ago.
I want to tell her to get the fuck out and leave me alone, to go away and never come back. I want to take the liberty to push her out the door myself, and yell up the stairs to my mother (yes, my room is in the basement. So what?) to not let her back in as she crawls away in pain after me shoving her forcefully to the floor. But all I can do is stand there and glower at her as she continues to pout at me, cutting myself off mid excuse. She doesn't even say another word; she knows she doesn't have to. She only grips the door handle tightly and forces me to make eye contact with her, and she looks just like a little baby kitten and I just know she's been watching a little too much Shrek to gear up for that stupid new Puss-N-Boots movie that I have a feeling she's going to try and drag me along to as well.
She can tell what's going to happen next just by the way I cut myself off mid sentence without another word and shift my stance slightly, and she's right, because then at that moment I find myself rolling my eyes and grabbing my car keys out of the pocket of my black skinny jeans. I don't really know it was that compelled me to break this time, but the next thing I know she's squealing and clapping her hands together wildly in satisfaction, hot on my heels as I shove past her out of my bedroom door and let out a low curse under my breath because god damn it, not only am I giving into her, but I'm doing it for the second time today.
If anyone were ever to know about how Cat Valentine broke me twice in the same weekend, let alone the same day, ten minutes apart from each other, it would absolutely crush my whole intimidating demeanor. Kids, fellow teens, teachers- they would fear me no more, because this is Cat we're talking about. Innocent, sickeningly sweet, couldn't-hurt-a-fly Cat with the mentality of a seven year old; the kind of person I, Jade West, should be able to destroy no problem with the flick of a finger. Everything I live for would be made a farce. She better shut her face about today.
At this point, I'm not sure if I hate ice cream or myself more.
We pile into my car and drive- my black Pontiac sunfire, the only remotely nice thing my parents have ever put together some money and bought for me, and I'm left wondering how the heck Cat got to my house in the first place. I know there can't be too many options; she doesn't drive, so either her mom brought her over or she walked. I don't ask her though, because I really don't care that much, and I just figure she had her mommy chaffer her anyways kind of like she's making me do right now. I tear out of my driveway without a word and set off for the first nearest ice cream place I can think of that I remember is right next door to the tattoo shop I go to for my piercings, ironically enough.
When we reach a stop sign, Cat leans over and presses on the radio, messing with the dials for a moment until she comes to some pop station I would never be caught dead listening to and starts belting the words at the top of her lungs. I don't have the energy to tell her to shut up, or even demand that she turn it down. I look straight ahead and try my best to ignore her while propping my head up on my elbow that's resting on my driver's side window and grip the steering while as if in a chokehold with my other hand, praying that this madness will be over soon.
It's only a couple of more blocks down the road when we start to pass through a rich neighborhood and she takes notice to some of the overdone houses on the sides of the street, decked out from top to bottom in all sorts of Halloween decorations. Some of the houses I must admit do look like they have the capability to pull off the frightening look come Halloween night which is two days away, but others give off more of a "Casper the friendly ghost" vibe. Those are the ones, of course, that seem to attract Cat, because when she stops singing and turns down the music all of a sudden and I glance at her out of the corner of my eye out of sheer curiosity, those are the ones I see her gawking at stupidly.
"You know Cat, if you make that face for too long, your face will stick that way," I tell her for my own amusement because I know she'll believe me and as if on cue her look of awe drops down to a look of something I didn't quite expect, which is sorrow. I turn my attention back to the windshield then as we exit the neighborhood and start passing through a more normal, middle class looking one.
A random urge in me almost causes me to ask her what's wrong: some sort of craving for knowledge, but I hold back. Then, as if she read my thoughts, she comes right out with it. Sort of.
"I wish we would've decorated this year for Halloween, but my parents have been too busy watching over my brother ever since he got put on this new medication that makes him act ten times crazier as some sort of side effect."
"Isn't your brother's medication supposed to calm him down?" I blurt out my question, and I really have no idea how the hell I even know that in the first place. I mean, I guess it kind of makes sense. She talks about her psychotic brother all the time, I'd have to be completely oblivious to not know something about him thanks to Cat.
"I don't really know," Cat says and then goes quite for a moment. I glance at her again for a split second and I see her frowning thoughtfully to herself again until she speaks up another time, going back to the Halloween topic.
"I didn't even get to carve one pumpkin this year," she tells me sadly and I find myself resisting another urge, this time to roll my eyes as she continues on and informs me that her parents even promised they'd take her to the pumpkin patch to pick out her very own pumpkin but had been too busy with her brother for the last two weeks to take her.
"They broke their promise, but I guess I understand," she finishes, or so I think she does, but then out of the corner of my eye I see her glancing over at me and it only takes me two seconds to figure out what she's thinking, but I don't acknowledge it. Instead, I answer in not quite the way I would to someone else, because if it was Vega complaining about this to me I'd tell her to suck it up and find someone else to whine about her problems to, but I'm not exactly sincere about it to Cat either.
"That sucks," I tell her with no actual emotion to indicate any kind of true sorrow for her. As shocking as it may seem to everyone given my dark manner, I don't really care much for Halloween. All it is is a night where little kids put on stupid costumes and run around in annoying giggly little groups with their mothers trailing along behind them as they go around collecting candy, while in the meantime their slutty sisters are over at some house party three hours away where no parent can find them, using the night as an excuse to dress like a complete whore yet sit there and get offended anyways when someone else calls them out on it.
Plus, like I posted on my Slap page the other day, I can never tell on Halloween whether I'm walking through a fake spider web or a real one. Although, I do enjoy the part where I get to chase the little kids that come to my door away with a (totally fake, I swear… *cough* heh heh…) chainsaw down my driveway when they come to my house. That's the only fun part of it for me. But as far as the costumes, and the house decorations, the candy, and the pumpkin carvings, I really couldn't give two craps less.
Of course, Cat has a completely different mindset, and I just have this dreadful feeling that I already know what she's going to say next, so I grip the steering wheel tighter and bite down on my lip, hoping that just this once, I'll be wrong.
"We should go to the pumpkin patch Jade! You and me!"
Bingo.
"No, we really shouldn't."
"Why not? It'll be-"
"No Cat, it won't be fun," I interrupt her. "There is absolutely nothing fun about stomping around in a disgusting mushy field for two hours just to find the 'perfect' damn pumpkin and then have to haul it all the way back to the car."
I know this because Beck, my own boyfriend, dragged me to that horrid place with him just last weekend and I made him give me a foot massage after. Seemed fair to me, but I would never do it again willingly.
"Jade…"
She says my name so weakly that I actually squirm in my seat when she says it and refuse to meet her gaze again. My mind screams at me to tell her to fuck off, but for some reason, some stupid ass reason that I've yet to figure out, I hold back from being completely rude to her and decide to make a point instead.
"We're already going to get ice cream Cat, just like you wanted. And look outside; it's too cold to be hanging around a pumpkin patch."
"It's probably too cold to get ice cream," Cat mutters back with a point of her own, apparently not realizing the contradiction to herself in that statement.
"You're right, so I'm going to drop you off at home, then turn around and go back to my own house and forget about any of this."
"No!"
She sounds so horrified at the thought of not getting ice cream and I can't help but smirk because I've finally managed to instill some fear in her, but I keep driving, because we're almost to the ice cream shop anyways so there's no point in turning back now, no matter how much I want to.
"Jade come on; let's just go get a pumpkin!" She gaps as another idea hits her. "And then you can help me carve it! And we can take pictures of it too! And post them up on TheSlap,! And-"
"No."
I'm not giving in on this one. I refuse it. I refuse it! She's already made me surrender twice today. But this? This pumpkin patch bullshit? Um, not gonna happen.
"Come on!"
I picture a visual image of myself slamming my head against the horn in my steering wheel to release the blaring sound. Maybe that would make her shut up. However instead, I stick to my word.
"Forget it, Cat! It's freezing out!"
Honestly, it's really not that cold outside. We live in the heart of Los Angeles for crying out loud, but thankfully she doesn't comment on that fact as she's too set on begging. In the midst of her pleading babble I hear her say something about how we can drive to her house real quick since its closer to where we are than my house and I can borrow a sweatshirt of hers. We're two stoplights away from the ice cream place now and finally, I can't take it anymore. I tried to tune out her voice but it didn't work, just like it never does. I'm crumbling beneath her again, but not completely. I tell her that it's the ice cream place or the pumpkin patch, that she can't have both. I tell her to take her pick, and she better think fast because now we're one stoplight away from the parlor.
"Pumpkin patch!" she answers almost immediately, and I shoot her a harsh glare when she informs me with a giggle that "just remembered" she has ice cream at home anyways.
I don't say another word, I pull an illegal U-ey at the final stop light before the parking lot of the ice cream place comes into view and I find myself shredding back down the road, ignoring her frightened gasps as cars around us begin to blare their own horns at me. I drive all the way back to my house for a jacket because it is a little bit chilly out, and I refuse to wear anything of hers as all of her clothing is nothing but an array of overdone bright colors and floral prints.
After I run inside and grab a sweatshirt I return to my car. I even somehow managed to form the decency to grab a hoodie for her despite all my hidden anger and irritation at the girl. It's a red one, and it's one of the only articles of clothing I own containing some color. It matches her hair and she seems happy with it when I open the passenger side door and toss it at her face before barreling back into the driver's side with my black one. I back down the driveway again and off we go to the stupid pumpkin patch, the same one that me and Beck went to.
That's strike three of her making me cave today into doing what she wants, and I'm not sure how much more of this I can take because I know for a fact she's going to drag me back to her house afterwards and make me carve the damn thing with her, but the only person I have to blame for it is myself and I despise that I know that. I could kick her out of my car and make her walk home right now if I really wanted. But I don't. There's a lot I could've done to get rid of her already had I truly wanted too, but I didn't.
I still can't figure out why.
Just like I figured, we end up back at her house after the pumpkin patch. Even worse? She enters the house carrying nothing but a half pound bag of candy corn she got from one of the outdoor shops there and I'm the one that's left to carry in the fifteen pound pumpkin since her weak little muscles couldn't handle the stupid fruit that she herself picked out anyways.
"Want some candy corn?" she asks me through a mouthful of the disgusting treat as I set the pumpkin down on her kitchen table. I narrow my eyes first at her face, and then at the bag of candy she possess.
"Yuck."
She shrugs and sets the bag down on the counter, unfazed by my negativity and not so polite denial. I shake my head to myself and realize then that the house is oddly silent and I come to the conclusion that no one else is home. There were no other cars parked in the driveway when I pulled in, anyways. I start to ask where everyone is out of complete curiosity, but she cuts me off before I can get a word in.
"I think the pumpkin carving kit is in my brother's closet! Be right back!" she squeals excitedly and leaves the room with a little extra skip in her step and I'm left wondering why the hell her brother would have that in his closet. I know he's a freak though, so there's no sense really in asking.
I take off my sweatshirt and drape it over a chair, waiting for her to return. When she finally does ten minutes later, I've already grown more impatient than ever before. I just want to get this over with. I think I've about had enough of Cat and her over cheerful ways today and if she asks one more thing of me I think I might explode.
"Found it!" Cat grins, holding up a little plastic box that I'm assuming contains tools for scooping out the damn pumpkin, but I don't really pay any attention to it as I'm suddenly too busy focusing on what she has clutched in her other hand.
The girl left to go find a pumpkin carving kit and came back with not only that, but a half a bag of… mini candy canes?
"Cat, what's up with the candy canes? You realize it's not Christmas, right?" I snap, narrowing my eyes at her once again.
Damn girl, one holiday at a time.
She seems to have forgotten about her candy corn already too.
"I found them in his closet too. It's not like they're gone bad or anything," she explains to me with a giggle. "Want one?"
I could tell her that's disgusting and deny her in a rude manner just like I did the candy corn, but all I can do is blink at her and say no. I really don't understand her sometimes. She's just so… weird. I for one would never ingest anything that came out of her brother's closet. And candy canes? Really? How much more random could the guy get? It makes me wonder how long they've been there, but I shake off the thought and get up to grab the kit from her hand that contains it.
Time to get this stupid pumpkin carved already…
A/N: Due to length, this is split into two. Continue or review (: