I could feel the exhaustion deep in my bones as my phone started ringing for the fifth time and I finally pushed myself into a kneeling position on my bed, smacking my hands around until I hit the stupid black device, dragging it toward me and sliding the answer button, "what?"
"Jade, you were supposed to be here getting ready an hour ago." my manager, Ellen, bitched in my ear. I glanced at the clock, it was five.
"Oops."
"Don't start that sarcastic attitude now, Jade, get your ass here now." and she hung up on me. Sighing I pushed myself out of bed, shimmied into a pair of sweat pants, tucked my phone into my pocket and headed downstairs, swiping my sunglasses off the table before I stepped outside, pausing to grab my keys from the table beside the door before shutting and locking the door.
"Its hot as balls in here." I groaned, falling into the seat as the heat soaked into my skin. I started the car, cranked up the AC and put my seat belt on before pulling out from our house and onto the road, sighing heavily.
Trina fucking Vega just had to torture me.
She was dragging the group of us to her movie premier, Tori was going because Trina is her sister and Beck and I were being forced as her faithful partners to come along as well. But I just wanted to sleep, having spent the last five months in England, far away from California and Tori and Beck, and now I was going to some stupid premier for Trina.
Pulling up outside the studio and parking beside Beck's SUV, stepping out and marching into the back entrance of the little beauty shop in full tantrum mode, just so everyone knew how much I didn't want to do this, "Jade West, I am sick of this shit." Ellen barked at my entrance.
"Yeah yeah." I muttered, glancing at Tori and Beck who were both pretending to read the magazine's in their hands, "look I just got home at five am, excuse me if I'm a little tired."
"Babe, come on, just sit down." Tori sighed, reaching out her hand and tugging me toward her, leaning up and giving me a quick kiss before gently pushing me toward a chair, which I fell into with little resistance, feeling a yawn building deep inside me while one of the stylists came over to fix my hair and do my make up for this fun little excursion.
"Jade, just think, in 7 hours we'll be happily in our own bed, all three of us, okay?" Tori gave me a weak smile and then stuck her nose back into the magazine she wasn't reading. I glanced over at Beck who was simply lounging in a chair, the little make up he was wearing already complete and his hair styled messily.
An hour later found me back at home sitting in my room staring at a dress I somehow had to put on without messing up my hair, the whole makeup then clothes thing made no sense. I'd somehow managed to get my shirt off with limited damage to my hair but the dress was going to be another story.
"Jade! Ten minutes!" Tori yelled from her end of the hall. I scowled at the dress and sighed, shimming out of my sweat pants and underwear, slipping on a pair of underwear that wasn't going to show through and then taped on one of those annoying strapless backless bras and picked up the dress. It felt like it was made of water and was more expensive than my car and wearing it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Slipping on the heels they'd sent along with the dress I glanced in the mirror and smoothed out what little bit of my hair I'd messed up.
"Jade! Beck! Lets go!" Tori yelled again, it sounded like she was downstairs now.
"I'm coming!" I stepped out of my room and headed for the stairs, noting that Beck was still in his room. Tori was downstairs already, texting someone, probably Trina, "how long does it take to put on a suit?" I asked, noting that Tori was also in a suit, well a suit jacket and matching shorts that showed off her amazing legs.
"Fuck Beck, and fuck Trina." she declared, stepping toward me, putting her arms around my waist, "I just want to stay here with you." she dipped her head and kissed my neck softly, sending an electric shock through my body. It was the first contact I'd had with either of them and now I could feel my legs quaking.
She pulled back, probably to say something incredibly dorky, but I cut her off, leaning in and kissing her softly, realizing how much I'd missed being home as she melted against me, her soft lips sliding against mine as her body pressed against me, soft and warm and welcoming and home.
"No fucking until we get home." Beck declared, I groaned and broke the kiss, glancing up at him where he was paused on the stairs, "your sister will kill us." he leaned over the railing and gave each of us a quick kiss before walking into the kitchen.
"I hate her." I groaned, glancing at the two of them, "I just want to rip the suits off both of you and take you here in the living room."
"When we get home." Beck promised, coming up behind us and herding us toward the door, "we don't need Trina interrupting us to kill you." he opened the door for us and followed us out, opening the limo door for us as well.
"Your sister is going to kill the three of you." Marcus declared as we pulled away from the curb.
"Yeah, but I think Jade can take her." Tori laughed, kissing my shoulder before leaning her head against it.
Marcus chuckled, glancing at me in the mirror, "lovely to see you again Jade."
"You too, Marcus." I replied, "hows your daughter?"
"She's great, thanks for asking." he reached forward and rolled up the separating window between us. I sighed, glancing out at California rolling past us out the window for a few moments before resting my head against Beck's shoulder, reaching out and taking Tori's hand in my own.
I wasn't ready for this night, especially having just spent three months in England and knowing that in a few days Tori would be leaving on a six month tour and then a week later Beck was leaving to go to Canada for a few months to shoot a new TV show.
"Do you really need to star in that show?" I groaned.
"I think they'd all be a little angry if I didn't." he replied, "I promise I'll fly home every time I can."
"You can always come on tour with me, Jade. I know buses are a bit cramped but I'm sure the back room is more than big enough." Tori offered, squeezing my hand in hers, "You always wanted to travel."
"In a car with you two and each of having a backpack, and stopping wherever we wanted, not in a tour bus sleeping through the days and seeing stadiums in every city." I replied, feeling like a child for complaining about it.
"After I get back from tour you and I will drive up to Canada, kidnap Beck and go driving across the country." she promised, letting out a sigh of her own.
"You better." I groaned thinking of the movie we were about to spend hours watching and hearing about, "I hope your sister dies first."
"Me too." Tori groaned. Beck chuckled squeezing my hand and sitting up, "at least we're here. See the movie, get a little drunk, go home, have fantastic fucking sex."
"My kind of girl." I chuckled, leaning over and kissing her quickly before sitting up in my seat, forcing her to sit up as well as we joined the line of limos outside the Chinese Theater, "I swear this movie better be at least a little scary."
"Oh come on, Jessica Lange is in it, it cannot be that bad. Now come on, game face on." Tori teased, kissing me on the cheek as the limo door was opened. Beck adjusted his tie and slid out, pausing to hold his hand out to me. With a heavy heart I took his hand and slid out, stepping out to the blinding flashes of the cameras before reaching back and helping Tori out.
"Here we go." Tori whispered, gripping my arm as we moved forward, working like a well oiled machine as we stopped for photos and questions, only breaking apart for signatures and photos with fans before we rejoined and continued on to the next section until we finally made it past the wall of security and into the darker building with less camera and people I didn't completely hate.
"I hate your sister." Beck announced, scanning the groups of people, "there's Cat." he motioned somewhere and I spotted a flash of that bright red as we made a beeline for her.
"Tori! I thought you guys weren't going to make it." Cat squealed, giving her a crushing hug that I couldn't help but laugh at, "Trina almost ripped my arm off when I wouldn't call you because you didn't answer the texts."
"Sorry, where is she?" Tori asked, craning her neck, probably to look for her sister, and while I was watching her I was suddenly slammed into by Cat with a really painful force that nearly knocked me over. I gripped the back of her shirt, fully planning on taking her down with me if I fell.
"She's outside doing an interview. So you're safe for now." Andre announced coming up behind us and glancing at Cat's death grip on me before laughing, "I managed to avoid getting stuck." he leaned in to give Tori a huge hug quickly.
"Hey Beck." Andre greeted, giving him one of those quick guy hugs before turning to me and peeling Cat off of me, giving me a quick hug.
"Thanks." I whispered.
"Anytime, chica." he whispered back.
"So where's Robbie at?" I asked, glancing at Cat nervously and positioning myself between Tori and Beck to protect myself from any more unwanted hugs. Chuckling Tori reached out and wrapped her arm around my back, pulling me close.
"He's in the bathroom." Cat replied, taking a large gulp from the glass she was holding, "anyways he's freaking out because he's got his first big show in Vegas tomorrow night, so he'll probably be back and fourth all night."
"He'll be fine." I replied, leaning into Tori, "his performance is solid, he'll do great."
"Well I know he will, but he doesn't." Cat sighed, "anyways just don't bring it up because I'm not prepared to listen to him whine about it for hours and I can't exactly shut him up in public." she waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Cat.." everyone groaned, I had to force myself not to picture what we all knew she meant. A couple of months ago we'd been at Robbie's show when he'd make a crack about his girl only getting him to shut up when she – ugh I don't even want to think about it.
"I'm going to get some champagne, come on, Jade." Tori said, squeezing my hip and tugging me off with her, stranding Beck with the others.
"You don't drink champagne, Tori." I whispered when we were out of ear shot.
"No, but you do. And they have an open bar." she leaned onto the bar and ordered drinks, but it was too loud over here for me to hear what she ordered, but after she sat down on a bar stool and dragged me over to her, hooking her legs around the back of my thighs and leaning an elbow on the bar, "I missed you."
"I missed you too." I whispered, looking up at her to find that she was staring intently at my lips. I pushed up on my tiptoes and brushed my lips across hers, just barely, resting my hands on her upper thighs to get closer, "we should have stayed home."
"I know." she whispered, her lips brushing across mine, "we could go back to the limo, leave Beck here."
"We could." I replied, dragging my nails up her thighs, leaving faint scratch lines, "but your drink is here." I pulled away abruptly, walking off to find a flute of champagne while she paid for her drink. I managed to snag one off of a tray and narrowly avoid bumping into a rather Amanda, a rather annoying blonde girl who thought we were best friends because we shot our first movie together.
She was sadly mistaken and my harsh words did nothing to halt her path. Thankfully she hated Tori with a passion, so as soon as I found her I made sure to tuck right back into her side, wrapping my arm around her back and settling my hand on her hip, "see Amanda?" she asked, sipping from her drink.
"What makes you say that, my lovely lovely lover?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at her. She chuckled, rolling her eyes and kissing my forehead before directing me off in the direction of some of her friends. It was nice to just stand beside her and listen to her talk for hours, without feeling ignored ever. She'd always do something, be it just tightening her grip and glancing over to make sure I was okay standing there, or lean into me or kiss my forehead or just anything to make sure I was still okay.
"Okay, I have to go find my sister before her head explodes." she said, steering us away from her friends with a smile and a gentle squeeze of my hip before we walked off, "man I am so tired of this. I just want to get home already." she complained, "Becckk!" she whined, his head snapped around from across the room, which made me laugh.
He smiled spotting us and walked over, stepping up to my other side and wrapping his arm around my back, "Trina went ahead to get ready for the interview, lets go find seats where she can see us or she'll kill you before I get you in bed."
"No, no, you don't understand." Cat giggled, swaying slightly in her seat. I rolled my eyes, nobody ever understood Cat when she was drunk. Not even Robbie. I stared off toward the wall, tuning out the conversation, and everyone around me until someones fingers started walking up my inner thigh. My eyes snapped to Beck who wasn't actually looking at me, and then to Tori who was rubbing her hand up and down Beck's thigh on his right. I could help but stare at her with a smug grin, reaching down to push Beck's hand farther up my thigh.
"You know." Andre's voice broke the trance we were in and I realized it'd gotten a lot brighter in here since I last focused, "I haven't seen this much sexual tension in a room since the last time Trina looked in a mirror."
I scowled at him, glancing around the room. The after party was finally starting to disperse, "thank fucking god." I groaned, glancing at Andre, "too bad about Trina getting off on herself more than you though. Do you have to put a mirror on the ceiling?"
"Harsh, West." he frowned.
"Here to harass." I smiled, reaching over and massaging Beck's thigh, "I think we're pretty tired and ready to go to bed." Beck started coughing and sat forward, knocking my hand aside but standing, offering Tori and I an arm.
"I will never understand how the three of you manage a relationship." Andre chuckled as we walked away.
"The same way you, Trina and her reflection do!" I called back, leaning against Beck as we walked toward the door. Chuckling at myself and remembering the last time Robbie had said that, and the lovely joke I'd been able to crack then. The same way you, Cat, and Rex do. The look on his face was priceless, I was sad I didn't have a camera. But since then Rex had retired to only making stage appearances.
Getting to the limo was a line of flashing lights and annoyance, I just wanted to grab them by the front of their shirts and drag them into the limo, and once we got in there I wanted to do them then and there, but I respected Marcus too much for that.
"Sorry, there's a lot of traffic, we could be a couple of hours out."
"God fucking damn it." I groaned, slouching in my seat, "I'm never going to get laid."
"No probably not." Marcus agreed, smirking and shaking his head before rolling up the window.
"Alright fine." I groaned, shifting carefully to toss my feet onto Beck's lap and my head into Tori's lap, "so tell me about the things I've missed being in boring old England."
"Tori, you go ahead and start, I've just been sleeping and studying lines." Beck said, his fingers massaging down my calves to my shoes, pulling them off and setting them aside, starting to massage my feet while Tori told me about all of her writing and recording adventures.
At some point during the trip I fell asleep but when I woke up I smelled McDonald's and the car was no longer moving, "good morning, sweetheart." Tori teased, "we got dinner lets get moving." I nodded and sat up, following them both in the house. They stopped in the living room but I went up stairs and pulled off the ridiculously expensive dress, trudging back downstairs to sit on the couch between them with my dinner.
"I hate your sister." I grumbled, knowing that after dinner we were all going to crash before I got to take either of their suits off.