Easter with the West's and the Vega's.
Their apartment was roomy, large high ceilings, huge rooms, large windows; a second floor that over looked the living room in the first it was perfect. And it was well lit. Jade hated it. It angered her to be surrounded by so much light. On days like this, when she was at the apartment alone, she'd spend her time drawing all of the curtains closed over the windows, plunging the apartment into darkness. But today she had to leave her solitude. She dragged on a pair of dark was jeans and buttoned up a plaid shirt over her tank top. She shoved her fingers through her hair, disturbing the perfect curls on her head for a moment before they fell back into place.
She ran a wipe under her eyes to remove the smudged makeup lingering from the day before and then made her way out of the house, picking up her keys, wallet and phone as she made her way out of the brightly lit apartment. She headed straight for the elevator, punching the button for the lobby violently. She slipped her sunglasses onto her face and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting for the doors to ding open.
Jade made it all the way out of the building and in and out of the coffee shop down the road before someone was calling her name. A ball of red headed energy materialized beside her, hooking her bare arm through Jade's, "hey Jade!" Cat grinned gleefully.
"Hey Cat." She replied, taking a long sip of her coffee as she made her way down the sidewalk, "what're you doing here?"
"Tori is having me make sure you don't skip out on her, so I'm here to drag you to the store!" she grinned with delight, pulling on Jade's arm as she dragged in the direction of the bright yellow VW Bug parked on the curb. Jade let out an annoyed groan, but didn't fight at the red head yanked her into the car.
"She is aware that I've been working 15 hours a day for the past two months and I'd like one day to myself, right?" Jade grumbled when Cat got into the other side.
"Do you even know what tomorrow is?" Cat asked, turning to look at Jade quickly before her eyes returned to the road. Jade scrunched her face up and drummed her fingers on her coffee cup lid in thought.
"Sunday?" she guessed.
"Easter, Jade, it's Easter. You and Tori are going to her parent's house with the kids? You've got to hide eggs and buy cute clothes and candy? And now Tori's had to wait until the last minute to do it!" Cat all but shrieked, feeling sympathetic anger for her friend.
"Jesus, Cat. I've been working, last night I was lucky I made it into the apartment before I passed out. Excuse me for not looking at a calendar!" Jade screamed right back, her hand fisting around her coffee cup, the lid popped off, Cat sighed and her shoulders slumped as she mumbled an apology to Jade, who begrudgingly mumbled one back as she refitted the lid. A few seconds later, though, Cat cranked up the volume on the radio with an excited squeal the outburst forgotten.
Jade's face scrunched up in confusion as she stared at the radio, "is this your new song?"
"No. An old one, I can't believe they're playing it." She grinned. Jade smirked, settling back into her seat and sipping her coffee as Cat started to singing along, "wish in the well, shooting star in the sky, we can do anything if we try."
Jade tuned her friend out easily as her mind drifted to things she'd be stuck doing tomorrow. Fake smiles, fake cheer, seeing her parents, seeing the Vega's, the kids being hopped up on sugar. Jade was not looking forward to the holiday and when they rolled up outside the Target she was even more annoyed about the holiday, the store was packed full of people. And if there were two things that took up the first and second spot on her list of hatred it was shopping around a holiday and people.
When Cat parked the car she turned to look out the window and found Tori leaning casually against their blue Ford Fusion, looking down at Jade with a smirk and a coffee in her hand. Jade pulled herself out of the car and smiled at her girlfriend nervously, running her fingers through her hair, "hey babe." She chuckled, trying to appear casual.
"Don't you 'hey babe' me, Jade West." She snapped, "I've been to two stores already today and I've found nothing. You promised you'd take a day off to go shopping with me!" and then Tori stalked toward the store, Cat pulled Jade along behind her, but Jade sped up to get beside her girlfriend.
"Tori, I'm really sorry. It's just we're so close to being done with filming and I just wanted to finish as quick as possible so I could be home for awhile and spend time with you guys, I'm really sorry." Jade wrapped her arms around her girlfriends waist, pressing her chest against Tori's back and resting her head on the Latina's shoulder, peering at the dress Tori was examining, "no way is any child of mine wearing that. She doesn't have boobs and we don't need a dress that has a design to make it look like she does."
Tori's tan fingers dropped the dress and moved onto the next, a purple one with thick straps, "Maddie would love that." Tori picked it up and tossed it into the cart wordlessly while they watched Cat bounce around the other racks mindlessly- and in Jade's opinion pointlessly since she had no kids.
"We just need to find something for the Twins and Jayson." Tori informed Jade in a clipped voice. Jade sighed, gripping Tori's arm and turning her around. She grabbed Tori's chin in her hand and kissed her softly, feeling Tori sag against her in surrender as she returned the kiss, "stop doing that." Tori demanded.
Jade grinned at her, taking a sip of her coffee as she walked around Tori to examine the rest of the dresses. A few minutes later Tori cheered and held up a white dress that slowly turned to black at the bottom and a black sweater. Jade nodded in approval and held up a similar dress that turned pink, tossing it into the cart they located Cat and went into the boys department.
It didn't take them long to find a pair of black slacks and a green button up shirt to go with them before they were marching down the candy isle filling up the cart with candy, egg dying kits and stuffed animals. On their way out something caught Cat's eye and she was off running.
"Cat!" Tori yelled, shoving the cart after her as she and Jade chased after her bright red head, "Cat! Get back here! Cat!" when the pair finally caught up with Cat she was chatting up a guy with curly dark hair wearing a pair of slacks and a rumpled black t-shirt. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed.
"Cat, you can't go running off, we need you to go get the kids from-Robbie?" Tori's sentence fell away from her mouth as she finally took in who was standing in front of her. He might not look as dorky as he had six years ago, but it was without a doubt the same kid from Hollywood Arts.
"Hey Tori." He greeted, his eyes scanning over the dark haired girl next to her, "Jade?"
"Shapiro." She greeted, tipping her coffee toward him before taking a sip. His eyes wandered to their intertwined fingers and he smiled softly, "as great as it is to see you again, we've really got to get going. I'm sure Beck doesn't want to watch the damn kids all day, I know I wouldn't and they're mine. Come on, Cat."
"Bye Robbie!" she gave him a quick hug and he called his goodbyes to her before the three girls joined a line, checked out and ran from the store, Tori rushing to avoid anyone recognizing her, Jade rushing to get home and relax and Cat ran because it looked fun. They filled up the cars, returned their carts and went their separate ways.
Tori put the car in reverse and pulled out, then back in drive and steered out of the parking lot, "I'm sorry I made Cat haul you to the store. I've just been so frustrated by all of this and you weren't ever home unless the sun was down and I was already about to fall asleep. I just, I missed you and for the past five years we've been doing these things together and I was just worried you wouldn't show up." Tori frowned. Jade reached over and rested her hand on Tori's leg, rubbing her thumb across it soothingly.
"I'm sorry, I've been working extra hard lately to try and get finished soon, I'm so sorry." She whispered, pulling her hand back as they pull into the parking garage of their complex. In a rush the pair pulled out the bags and ran those upstairs, tossing them into the closet as they rushed about cleaning the apartment for when their friends showed up for the pre-Easter lunch.
"I swear this is the most pointless thing you make us do, every year." Jade complains as she tosses a wipe into the garbage can. Tori just rolls her eyes and tosses her wipe into the can as well.
"Because it's the only time we're all in the same state and not buying lots of gifts or spending all of our time with family." Tori says while shoving the can under the counter where it belonged, "now I'm going to shower, if you want to stay out here and complain, then fine." That said, Tori sauntered out of the room heading toward their bathroom. Jade followed almost instantly.
Lunch went smoothly. Beck, Andre, Robbie, and Cat showed up, Beck bringing his wife Vanessa, Andre with his girlfriend Hannah and Robbie showing up with Rex-much to Jade's amusement and Tori's annoyance. Rex had kept most of his jokes appropriate and the few he let slip that weren't went right over the kids heads, and one of them even Cat didn't understand.
Now, though, Jade was sitting at the table with Maddie, Jayson, Taylor and Jessica dying eggs while Tori was on the phone with her mom working out last minute details. "Hey mum?" Maddie asked, "Can I put this in my hair?" she held up the cup of purple dye.
"Oh! Can I, too?" Taylor piped up.
"I don't know how mom would feel about that…." she turned her head to look into the living room where Tori was talking to her mother, oblivious to everything happening in the kitchen, "leave it on for at least five minutes, girls." She grinned, standing to help Madison get her shorter light brown locks into the dye and then going around to undo Taylor's braid so she could dip her dark hair into the cup as well.
"Jayson? Jessica?" Jessica nodded happily, pulling her chocolate hair down and dipping it into the blue cup in front of her. Jayson looked at Jade and shook his head grumpily crossing his arms over his chest. Jade sighed running her fingers through her hair, Jayson hadn't liked Jade since they met.
Tori's son with those some chocolate brown eyes and curls of brown hair detested Jade and Madison as soon as they'd met and usually ignored Jade when his mother wasn't around. The twins, who were a four years younger than Jayson, were born after Jade came into the picture, and didn't share there brothers contempt.
Jade ignored his behavior and grabbed some paper towels from the counter for the girl's hair. As each pulls their hair from the cups she squeezes the color from it and the girls grin and inspect each others hair happily. Jade had been happy that the girls had liked Madison who was only a year older than them. She was one when Jade and Tori started dating again, Tori was pregnant at the time.
"Okay, kids help me clean up." The girls jumped up and each grabbed two cups, Jayson grabbed one, tossed the plastic container into the sink, the color shot up the wall and Jade spun around and grabbed his arm, forcing herself to be gentle, "Jayson Vega, get paper towels and clean the blue dye off the wall, and then go to your room."
He glowered at her and jerked his arm out of her weak hold, grabbing some paper towels he set to work cleaning. The girls carefully dumped the cups around Jayson while he kneeled on the counter to clean the wall. When they were done they retreated to the living room to avoid Jayson's attitude. He might have been Tori's son but he had Jade's temper.
Once he was done he threw the paper towels into the sink and stomped up to the second floor of the apartment, into his room and slammed the door. Jade's glaring eyes turned to Tori who was already starting to bubble up some excuse. Jade put her hand up to silence her girlfriend and walked out onto the balcony, slamming the door closed hard enough that she worried she might break the glass.
Tori stepped out onto the balcony a few minutes later. Jade was leaning on the rails glaring blindly down at the ground below them, "Jade…what happened?"
"I asked them to help clean up and Jayson picked up a cup the threw it into the sink so the blue splashed up the wall, so I told him to clean it, he half assed it, threw the paper towel in the sink and stormed off to his room." Tori faltered and Jade turned to her, "you can't keep making excuses, Tori. His dad left, I get it. But he's ten years old and he can't keep hating me forever. I get shitty parents, trust me I get it. But he treats me like I'm the villain, like I can't be trusted. It's been six years, Tori."
"I know, I'm sorry. I just-."
"Look, I'm not going to tell you how to raise him, you're doing a great job. But you've got to talk to him, at least find out why he hates me, because I don't want to be that step parent that tries to hard and makes everything worse." She turns toward the door, looking at her daughter sitting with the twins, "maybe Maddie and I should just go to my parents and then come home and let you guys have your day with yours."
She heads back inside without a word, closing the door gently behind her. "what are you girls up to?"
"Watching the new Barbie movie, will you watch with us, mum?" Maddie asks. She'd started calling Jade mum and Tori mom when they'd moved in together.
"Of course!" Jade said, settling in between the girls. Jessica and Taylor leaned on each other and Madison crawled into Jade's lap. Jade managed to keep her focus on the horrible movie until the end, and then she carefully picked up Madison and Taylor who had fallen asleep and trailed Jessica upstairs to their room.
She laid Madison on her bed and then tucked in Taylor and Jessica, kissing them both on the forehead and then she picked Madison back up and tucked her under the sheets, finding the baby blanket she cherished she tucked that in her arms and kissed her forehead, brushing her hair away from her face, "I'm so sorry baby." She whispered, and then kissed her forehead again before heading down the stairs.
Tori was coming out of Jayson's room when Jade looked over, she gave her a half hearted smile and went downstairs into their bathroom, locking the door. She brushed out her hair and brushed her teeth before climbing into the shower, washing her hair and skin quickly. She toweled off and put on her silky pajamas before opening the bathroom door. Tori was sitting on their bed, she stood up when Jade came out and walked over to her, putting her arms around Jade's neck and pulling her into a hug.
"I'm really sorry." Tori whispered, Jade put her arms around Tori's back and held her close, "you have to come with us, I know Jayson probably would like it if you didn't, but I don't care. I need you with me." Tori leans back to look Jade in the eye, "so we'll have lunch with your parents at noon and then head over to my place. I know you'd rather skip out on your parents, but it's the first time they've invited us since we got together."
"I'd rather never see them again." Jade corrected, "But if you really think we should go, then I will. Now legs go fill some plastic eggs."
They sat sprawled out in the living room with dozens of plastic eggs and candies. Tori was dutifully stuffing them while Jade kept popping candy into her mouth, "woman! If you don't stop that!" Tori threatened, holding up a plastic egg.
"Oh no!" Jade mocked, "oh no, please don't throw a plastic egg at me master!" she laughed and threw another jelly bean into her mouth. Tori launched herself at Jade, grabbing her shoulders and knocking her back. Jade's legs kicked up as Tori landed on top of her, Tori grinned down at Jade and then she slammed the egg on her head, confetti rained every where and Jade sputtered, sitting up quickly and shaking her hair clean.
"What the hell are those?"
"Eggs, hallowed out and filled with confetti paper." Tori grinned, holding up the carton, "You should really pay more attention to me when I'm shopping. And quit eating candy." So they went back to stuffing the eggs, and Jade continued to pop the jelly beans into her mouth.
Jade's alarm went off at seven and Tori slept through it, so Jade got up alone and started to hide the Easter eggs around the house. Then she built each basket carefully and quietly, and when that was done she took the new outfits and laid them out on each of the kids beds, starting with the girls.
She was just smoothing out a wrinkle in the shirt when Jayson sat up, blinking at her as if trying to get her into focus, "sorry, didn't mean to wake you up." Jade whispered and then walked toward the door.
"It's okay…" he pauses, "Jade?"
She turned around silently, "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about yesterday."
"You wanna talk about it?"
"No."
"Fair enough." Jade replied, "I'm going to go make breakfast, if you're up for it I could use some help." Jayson didn't say anything so Jade opened the door and left the room, letting him wake up fully and decide what he wanted to do. A few minutes later he came downstairs and started to open the sausage and bacon without a word while Jade mixed the pancake batter.
"My dad never used to do this." Jayson said, "he didn't really believe in celebrating Easter or Christmas. Mom made him and he was always so grumpy about it. He hated getting us things like candy and stuffed animals and outfits to wear to Grandmas. I kinda thought you were like that, because you didn't seem into it that first year." He glanced over at her and Jade sighed.
"When I was younger my parents weren't around. I had a nanny and she'd give me a piece of chocolate on Easter or hide eggs if my parents weren't home, but they never did that. The only holiday they acknowledged was Christmas, and it was only because of all the Christmas parties they had with their companies. Easter was a new thing for me, and your mom has all these traditions and I just didn't want to get in the way."
"Is it true we're going to your parents?"
"Yep." Jade answered shortly. He nodded and turned back to the food he was cooking without another word. Tori came to the table shortly after that and the girls trailed in lazily behind her, just in time for Jayson to start setting plates of food on the table. By the time Jade and Jayson sat down the others were finished and started to clean up. There wasn't much talk until after they finished and Tori and Jade sat down on the couch while the four kids stood in front of them.
"Ready?" Tori asked
"Yes!" they all chorused.
"Go!" Jade yelled, they tore through the house grabbing eggs, trying to fill up their carton the fastest. Jayson came in first, Madison second, then Jessica, and finally Taylor-who found her last egg with the help of Madison.
"Alright, put your cartons away." Tori said, "and then look for the plastic eggs and fight over the baskets." They did as they were told and spent the next hour searching every nook and cranny for plastic eggs they didn't find while they were on the hunt of their hard boiled eggs. Jade wasn't really sure just how many eggs she'd hidden, but around 10:30 she figured that she'd found the rest of the ones they missed and called it quits, looking down from upstairs at the kids all sitting together swapping the candy they didn't like with each other.
Tori was in their room changing and yelled for everyone to start getting ready, with groans they all went their separate directions and Jade moved slowly downstairs. While everyone else was ready Jade was just pulling on her dress, zipping it up and stalling by putting on her shoes in the slowest way possible. When she stepped out she smiled at Tori who gave her a frustrated look and pointed at the clock. It was five minutes after eleven.
"You look great, Tori." Jade said, leaning over and kissing Tori quickly before slipping by her to the door, "I've always liked you in purple."
Tori scowled at her, "no stall, out the door." The kids rushed ahead of them while Tori and Jade hung back to lock the door. Jade pushed Tori up against the wall and kissed her slowly and Tori caved in, kissing her back and wrapping her arms around Jade's neck.
"Be gross on your own time!" Jayson called, "we've got food to eat!"
Tori laughed and so did Jade before the pair followed the kids to the elevator, "you look great in yellow, by the way." Tori commented. Jade rolled her eyes and pushed Tori into the elevator, stepping on behind her. The car ride took less time then Tori thought, mostly because Jade was driving and never seemed to actually go the speed limit, and soon they were pulling up at the large mansion Jade's father and stepmother lived in.
"Yay. Home sweet home." Jade grumbled, she leaned out and punched in the gate code and drove through, pulling up the winding drive way and parking in front of the doors. Tori walked up with the twins and Jayson while Jade gripped Madison's hand and tugged her up to the door in front of Tori, Jade's stomach twisted in knots. She was not looking forward to a meal with these people.
She knocked twice before one of the maids opened the door, "off to a fantastic start." Jade commented, stepping through the door and smiling at the maid she didn't know. The woman scurried off while Tori and Jade packed into the entryway.
"Mom, you're hurting my hand." Madison whispered. Jade released her instantly, whispering a sorry and rubbing her daughters small hand.
"Jade!" she spun around quickly, eyes wide with fear as her mother came around the corner and embraced her, "It's so great to see you my dear!"
"M-mom? What are you doing here?" Jade stepped out of the embrace and planned on just running straight out the door until Tori put her hand on Jade's lower back.
"We didn't tell you? Your father and I got remarried last year."
"News to me." Jade commented. Her mother turned her attention to Madison, she bent down and hugged her in what was supposed to be an affection manner, but Madison stiffened to the touch. Her mother straightened and seemed to brush away the reaction.
"Tori! How wonderful to see you again!" Tori faked a smile and stepped into the woman's arms for a hug. She'd met Jade's mother at graduation, the woman hadn't even had the decency to show up for Jade's wedding to Madison's father.
"It's wonderful to see you, too, Miss West." She introduced the kids and they all got the same hug as Madison, and gave the same reaction. Jade followed her mother nervously into the dining room where her father and half brother were already sitting at the table. Jade sat beside her step brother and Madison sat next to her. Tori sat on the other side with Taylor and Jessica on one side and Jayson on the other. Lunch was silent, and when it was over they left as quickly as possible, showing up a little early to Tori's house for dinner.
Miss Vega greeted them with warm smiles anyways, embracing Tori happily, and then the girls, and she gave Jayson a half hug before turning to Jade, "you okay?" Holly asked, Jade nodded, and then Holly swept her up in a hug. Jade hugged her back and allowed Holly to steer her into the living room where each of the kids got an Easter basket. Jade sat on one couch next to Tori leaning her head on her girlfriends shoulder while the kids told Holly about everything exciting in their lives.
A little after they arrived Trina and her 11 year old son Adam showed up, Trina sporting another baby bump, "hey guys!" she greeted, hugging Tori and Jade awkwardly together, "didn't expect you here so early!"
"Didn't expect you here so pregnant." Jade shot back. Trina rubbed her belly with a smile and slumped beside Jade, "where's Eric?"
"He's getting stuff out of the car." Trina said, waving her hand through the air dismissively, "so Tori didn't tell you?"
"Must've slipped my mind, sorry Trina." Trina shrugged, happy to tell her story about finding out about it and complain about everything that happened. Jade listened happily and Tori hopped up to help Eric bring in gifts he got for the kids, meaning candy, and Tori went to the car to get the basket she'd made for Adam. He thanked her and gave her a hug before joining Jayson watching some monster truck thing on the TV.
While the kids played Jade helped Holly cook and set the table, and after dinner Tori helped clean up the dishes while Jade helped Trina and Eric out to the car and then cleaned up the living room and packed their car. By the time they got back home it was nearly 11 pm and the kids dragged themselves tiredly up to their rooms. Jade shuffled into the bedroom, kicked off her shoes and slumped on the bed. Tori followed in suit and the pair soon drifted off to sleep.