AN: This story will deal with adult situations including rape, self harm, and drug abuse. Read at your own risk. Please, if you ever feel suicidal or like hurting yourself reach out to someone, you're important and this world is better with you in it.
Tori never expected things to turn out the way they did, in high school she had it all. Great friends, she was popular, and most importantly she had been wildly talented. Not that she wasn't now, she could still sing and she imagined she could act still. Not that it mattered, she got black balled before even graduating. It was a series of events that would haunt her for the rest of her life, but she didn't want to relive them now, the important thing is her life had been stolen from her before she ever got to live it.
After leaving Hollywood Arts her dad was killed on duty, her mom moved onto her dad's partner Gary really fast, and Trina ran off with some random guy. Her mom ended up divorcing Gary after only a couple of years of being married and took almost every last cent he had to his name. Tori had no clue where her mom lived now.
Tori herself ended up getting some waitress jobs after graduating, but depression set in. She really had wanted to be a pop star, it was her only dream. So it didn't take long until she started using drugs to self medicate. Holding jobs became hard, she showed up to work high all the time and soon enough she hardly showed up to work at all. She started prostituting herself to afford her habit, soon enough she was living out of her car. She was raped several times during this period of her life.
Her friends you may ask, well they had moved on. They all got some sort of job or other in the business. Jade was a singer/song writer, Cat did movie makeup, Andre became a big song writer writing many of the last few years biggest hits, Beck had broken into the acting scene mainly indie films at the moment, Robbie did voice overs and for some pretty big movies and cartoons.
Tori had been clean a year now though, she was in a long term rehab in Northern California and was doing great there. She had no clue her life was about to change pretty drastically though.
"Tori," Mark called. Mark was a floor staff here at the rehab and was a pretty great guy. "A miss Jade West is here trying to sign you out into her care."
…
Jade West had spent the last several years trying to find a Ms. Tori Vega. She had been easy enough to keep track of right after high school, but had been off the radar for a long time now. Rumors had reached her right before she lost track of the girl, drugs, prostitution, some nasty shit. Jade had done her best to try and track her down and take her out of the mess she had gotten herself into but she was untraceable. Which meant she was most likely homeless, jobless, and getting herself into a worse situation every day. All this time Jade had been determined to find her, the rest of their friends had basically forgotten about Tori by this point, but Jade never could.
She had a crush on Tori ever since the girl had started Hollywood Arts, not that she ever acted on it. Too much to lose and not enough to gain. It didn't mean she wanted Tori to have this life though. Finally a private detective she had hired recently had found her. She was in a rehab about 350 miles north of LA. Jade was in her car the next day headed north, it was time to bring Tori home.
…
Tori's mouth was open wide in shock, why in the hell would Jade be here? She hadn't heard from the girl in almost seven years and now she shows up out of the blue to check her out of rehab. "Can I see Jade first? Before I checkout I… I need to talk to her," Tori asked.
"Sure of course," Mark told her, "By the way, why did you never tell us you knew Jade West? Could have been a bit of a celebrity yourself," Mark teased winking at her. She never told anyone because the keyword there was knew Jade West, past tense.
Tori was brought to the visitor's room, a room she had never been in herself as she never had visitors. The first thing Tori noticed was that Jade was as beautiful as ever which made Tori self conscious. She knew her eyes still had the hollowed out look drug users get, permanent scars were on her arms from when she use to shoot up all the time. No, time had not been kind to Tori. Or Tori hadn't been kind to herself was more like it.
Tori sat down at a table across from Jade. There was nothing but silence for a good five minutes. "So," Jade started, "I see you've had an interesting last few years." Jade made a terrible attempt at a joke.
"Why are you here Jade," Tori asked trying to get to the bottom of the situation. "I haven't heard from you, any of you, for seven years and now you're here to check me out. I can't help but be a little confused."
...
Jade sighed, god she didn't realize how awkward this was going to be. How could she explain things? 'Oops, sorry but I lost track of you but I swear I was trying to find you and help you' didn't sound very convincing.
"I'm gonna be honest with you Tori, I'm not completely sure why I'm here myself. I never forgot about you I swear. But you haven't been so easy to find. I hired several private investigators over several years to try and find you. Any time they came up with anything it was outdated useless information. It was like you were always three steps ahead of being found, or I guess I was always three steps behind on finding you. Either way I heard things, and I tried to help. I was just too late." Jade finished doing her best to not get emotional.
Tori was still strikingly beautiful, but in a sad way. Her eyes were deeper set now and had the hollow look of a long time of drug abuse, she was slightly under weight despite being in a rehab for the better part of a year, and she was sad. You could just look at her and tell she was sad, it radiated from her, it shown in her eyes. And it broke Jade's heart to see it. They had all failed Tori, she had failed Tori, and there was nothing she could do to ever undo all the damage done to this poor beautiful girl.
"And you expect me to believe that?" Tori asked.
"I don't expect anything from you Tori," Jade said softly, "but if you give me a chance and come home with me I can promise you a bed, clothes, a roof over your head, and support." Jade tried to avoid eye contact with Tori as the girl contemplated Jade's offer.
"Fine, I'll go with you. But Jade, I need a good environment. I don't want to relapse," tears formed in Tori's eyes and Jade saw the extent of the broken girl before her. Jade took Tori's hand a gave it a firm squeeze to let her know she understood. Jade would be on her best behavior.
…
An hour later Tori had gathered up all her stuff, the few pairs of clothes she had, papers with songs written on them, papers with poems, drawings, this was all she had to her name. As sad as it may be Tori didn't have a real home for a long time so she hadn't really had any possessions, all her current clothes had been provided by the rehab. Jade and Tori filled out some paper work, signed a few papers, and Tori was signed out into Jade's care.
They drove in silence for some time before Tori broke it, "So are you still in touch with the rest of the gang?" Tori asked.
"Yeah, I mean we don't hang out all the time or anything. Occasional lunches, a phone call here and there, you know how it is," Jade said. Tori nodded, she most definitely knew how friends could grow apart.
"You and Beck still together?" Tori asked her getting a bit nervous, she had always had a crush on Jade. She just never acted on it back in school because of Beck.
"Nah, broke up right after graduation. Too busy of schedules, both of us trying to break out into the business and all," as Jade finished Tori tried to hide her smile at her words.
Several hours later they arrived at Jade's condo in Hollywood. Tori had never been in a house that was this fancy. Jade led Tori to her room. It had a beautiful view and was, simply put, huge. She had her own bathroom and walk in closet.
Tori and Jade spent the rest of the night talking and eventually eating dinner. Tori did her best to not talk about her past seven years in detail. She was appreciative of what Jade was doing for her but she just wasn't ready to go there yet. Finally it was time to head to bed.
The next morning Tori woke up to the smell of delicious food. She wandered out into the kitchen to find Jade cooking bacon and eggs. "Oh my god that smells so good," Tori said as she sat down at the table. Jade laughed, "Yeah I bet it smells much better than the rehab's food." Tori gave her a shy smile as a response.
"So, I got you a job. I mean you don't have to start tomorrow or anything but I called in a few favors and a movie that's being shot could use an extra makeup artist on hand. Once you feel a bit more settled in you're welcome to start any time." Jade finished. Tori got up and took Jade into her arms. "Thank you," she whispered into Jade's ear. Jade squeezed Tori and responded with, "No problem at all." Tori decided she'd take a few days to collect herself before starting the new job Jade had secured her. She spent the day lounging around the house, so glad to be in an actual home. Jade had to leave to do some song recording around noon but she welcomed Tori to watch TV, eat anything in the fridge, use her personal gym, anything at all.
Tori spent some time in the gym and then flipped through TV until Jade got home. Tori hadn't even realized she missed Jade until she walked in the door. All of a sudden she was back in high school, shy around Jade, noticing how beautiful she was, and wishing she could hold her hand.
Jade put on some movie, Tori wasn't even really sure what it was a she was having trouble paying attention. She was so close to Jade, what would it hurt if she tried to hold her hand? She doubted after everything Jade had done she'd throw her out over that. So Tori took Jade's hand into her own, trying to act nonchalant and like all her attention was on the movie. Thanks to this Tori couldn't see the smile that spread across Jade's face as she gave Tori's hand a squeeze.
