Jade and Tori go to Jade's lake house for her birthday, and Tori has a little gift to give her.
Rated: T.
"How much farther away is it?" I complained, fidgeting in my seat. Jade didn't answer me; instead she just turned up the radio and continued to stare at the empty road ahead. I crossed my arms over my chest angrily.
"It's not too much farther, Vega. Calm down." She reached over and patted my thigh gently, leaving her hand there while she drove. Eventually I gave up on pouting and took her hand in mine, watching the trees pass by. Soon the radio was gone, we were too far away for that. I didn't mind one bit.
We were going to her family's cabin for the weekend since it was Jade's birthday and her family was out of town-not that they ever did anything for her birthday-and she mentioned that she wanted to come up here for awhile.
"So do I finally get to see this willow tree you always draw?" I ask, she shrugs her shoulders and just smiles in response, the car rolling to a slow stop as she pulls into a convenient store parking lot at a gas station pump.
We get out and I head to find something to eat while she pays for some gas, I grab a bag of chips and a sprite for us to share and then head for the counter. Some teenager was standing behind the counter, eyeballing me while I searched for some powdered sugar doughnuts for Jade.
When I finally found them I turned around and dumped my purchases on the counter and dug around for my money, "so you like doughnuts?" the guy asks, his tone is really creepy, like he's trying to flirt and doesn't know how.
"No, my girlfriend does."
"That's hot." I narrow my eyes at him and he just grins, leaning on the counter and not ringing anything up, "you and your girlfriend like to experiment?"
"Excuse me?"
"You wanna have a threesome?" as soon as the words were out of his mouth Jade was leaning across the counter and grabbing the front of his shirt, yanking him forward across the counter.
"You disgusting, low life, pervert. You quit leering at my girlfriend and asking those disgusting questions, you ring up our food and then we leave, and if you even look south of her eyes for a second I will jam my scissors into your neck." She drops his shirt and puts her arm possessively around my waist while he rushed to ring up my things and jammed them in a bag, pretty much throwing the bag at us. I paid for it and Jade dragged me out of the store, the glare not leaving her face until we were half way down the road.
"You didn't have to threaten to stab him in the throat for being a freak."
"We get enough of it from Robbie." Jade mutters, "and I'm nice enough with him."
"Yeah, okay." I grumble, turning so I'm staring out the window, that's when the lake comes into view, and behind it is a large lake house, "Cabin?"
"Okay, under exaggeration. It's a house." Jade says, turning off of the road through a path of amazing trees and then finally broke through to an open area and pulled up to the large house. It was very gorgeous, built out of light wood with two stories and a wrap around porch, inside everything was wood as well, and very expensive looking.
"You used to live here, I can't believe this."
"Yeah, I always loved this house. I was so sad when we left." She frowned and nodded toward the stairs, adjusting her bag on her shoulders before marching up the stairs. I quickly followed her and she led me into a room that looked like it had never been lived in, "guest room, the bed is bigger so we can share it."
She drops her bags on the ground; I set mine down and walk up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and resting my chin on her shoulder. I kiss the side of her neck and hold her tighter. She rests her hands on top of mine and turns her head toward me, kissing my cheek before pushing my arms away.
"Let's fill the fridge, and then I'll show you my tree." Jade leans over and kisses my cheek again before leaving the room. I follow her down to the kitchen and we put our food on the fridge and were about to walk out when the phone rang.
"It's probably my mom, it'll just take a second." We go back into the kitchen and she picks up the phone. It's her mom and it's not just a second. Just like every other time her mother calls it turns into a conversation about how she disapproves of everything Jade does, "I'm sorry." She whispers at me, glaring at the phone.
"I'm going to go explore, come find me when you get off the phone." I tell her, she nods and drops her head onto the counter while I walk out the door and jog down toward the lake, soaking in the warm air, Jade constantly kept her AC cranked to full power. The lake is large and still, there's only one other house, and I can barely see it from here, but I see the dock.
I circle around the lake until the house disappears behind some trees, and then I find the willow tree. It's large, with long hanging leaves and branches. I dipped under the low hanging branches, enjoying the shadows from the leaves and the way a few rays of light slip through.
Above me the branches twist and hang in strange odd ways that shouldn't be possible, they've twisted and bent into odd positions for reasons I couldn't see. I sat down near the base, the new spot giving me the ability to see under the trees leaves and across the water.
"Thought I'd find you out here." Jade says, ducking below the branches and sitting down next to me.
"How's you demon mom?"
"I think she got promoted to 'Satan's minon'." Jade mutters, "she got a call from the school about a producer wanting to pick up my play and started lecturing me about how useless my skills are and how the only thing I ever did right was Beck, I really just want to punch her in the face."
"She's a moron." I grab Jade's arm and pull it across my shoulders, lacing our fingers together while I leaned against her, "and I want to punch her, too."
Jade smiled and kissed my temple, slouching against the tree, "this was always my favorite place as a kid, see that branch right there?" she points up at one not too far away from us and not even close to the ground, "I fell off of that when I was ten, broke my arm and rolled into the lake in the middle of winter, the neighbors dog swam over and saved me from the water."
"The dog saw you?"
"Yeah, he was always playing in the water and I guess he must've heard the splash, or my scream, and the owners followed on their little paddle boat, they had no clue what he was doing. They're the ones that took me to the hospital-my parents were out and the nanny was busy searching for me outside since I'd run away from her."
"You must've been a handful as a kid." She doesn't respond, but she smiles wider and rests her head against mine, humming and swaying slightly.
"Let's be friends so we can make out. You're so hot let me show you around. I see what I want and I wanna play. Everyone knows I'm getting my way. It doesn't matter what you say. I'm knocking you down, down, down. I'm knocking you down, down, down. I'm knocking you down." She sings laughing, "Cat will pay for that."
"I'm sure she will." I closed my eyes and rest against her happily, enjoying being able to just lay here with her. We stay like that for another 15 minutes, a splash in the water and someone yelling made us jump apart.
Over at the other dock I saw someone standing and watching the water carefully, and paddling across the water was a big chocolate lab. I hadn't realized how close we actually were to the other house until then, as the big dog got out of the water, shook all of the water off its fur and ran at Jade.
Jade sat forward and put her arms around the dog, scratching its head and talking baby talk to it. She called him Chopper, when he was done licking her face and turned and sniffed me before leaving a big slobbery kiss on my cheek, I laughed and pushed him away gently while Jade stood up and pulled me up with her, "come on Chopper." She tugged me along behind her toward the neighbors house.
"Chopper, there you are!" an older man said, patting the dogs head, "who'd you bring with you?" he glances over Jade and then at me, before turning his brown eyes back on Jade, "well somebody's sure grown a lot since she broke her arm."
"Hi Mister Brown." Jade smiled at him, "this is my girlfriend Tori, Tori, this is the guy who pulled me out of the water."
"Nice to meet you." I held my hand out to him; he took it and returned my words with a pleasant smile and a firm shake. The dog lumbered off toward the girl who'd been screaming at him from the docks.
"So what brings you out here? I haven't seen anyone in the house since you moved out."
"Just needed a vacation, so we decided to come up here for my birthday." Jade explains, watching the dog run around the girl happily, bouncing happily and barking.
"Happy birthday, then." He said, the girl called him and they exchanged goodbyes before he followed her. Jade took my hand and we walked at a leisurely pace back to the house. Jade went upstairs to unpack while I made us some lunch, noticing that the phone was now disconnected.
I set our turkey sandwiches by the barstools and got two bottles of water out, when I turned around Jade was right behind me; I bumped right into her and stumbled back into the fridge. Before I could say anything she was cupping my face with one hand and leaning forward, pressing her lips to mine is a slow, soft kiss.
She breaks the kiss a second later, grabs a bottle and sits down in one of the stools. I smile at the impromptu kiss and sit down in the other stool, twist open the cap of my bottle, and take a swig of water before I inhale my sandwich.
After we finish Jade goes upstairs to shower and I snoop around, trying to find her room. It's the last door in the hallway and painted a rather annoying shade of pink. There are pictures hanging across the walls, all of them her drawings.
Her small bed is tucked into the corner by the window, her sheets are purple and her bed is actually unmade, which shocks me. Why the hell was it like that? I figured maybe Jade had come up here after her mom pissed her off.
I circled the room, looking at all of the drawings. Pictures of her parents, the dog, the lake and the willow tree. Most of them have the willow tree in them, some just include it, some are just the tree. They're really spectacular for a ten year old, then again, Jade is pretty spectacular.
I turn and inspect her dresser, there's a jewelry box sitting on it, with children's costume jewelry, glass bead bracelets, clip on earrings, and bead necklaces. The only other thing on her dresser is a picture of her family, tucked into the edge of the frame.
Aside from the pictures, the room is basically empty. Since there isn't really much left for me to snoop around in I head back to the guest room and unpack my things, putting three days worth of clothing into her dresser, the only thing left in my bag is a small white box.
I pull it out and lay down on the bed, flipping it open. Inside the box is a small necklace with a willow tree on a small circle of silver, a swallow is built into the chain on either side of it, keeping it in place. I really hope she likes it, it had taken me forever to find.
After she told me about loosing the necklace of a willow tree her grandfather had gotten her and telling me what it looked like, I searched and searched until I found one that looked similar. I'd had it for weeks, and I'd been dying to give to her, all I had to do was wait for her to get out of the shower. I tucked the box behind me and closed my eyes to wait.
10 minutes later the bed dips down beside me and I feel her arms cross against my stomach, I open my eyes and look down at her; she's laying with her arms against my stomach, her chin resting on them, looking up at me.
"Hey beautiful."
She smiles at me, "Hi." I smile back and push myself so I'm sitting. Grabbing the box as I do. She sits up too, crossing her legs and looking at me while she fidgets with her hair that's dripping down her robe.
"Present time." I tell her, holding the box out, because I can't think of a good cute way to give it to her, I'm too nervous about her liking it. She takes the box after giving me a confused look, it looks like a ring box, and I wonder if she thinks there's a ring in it or something.
When she opens it her jaw drops and she stares at it, up at me and back at it, "how…"
"Well you told me about the one you lost so I tried to find it, this was the closest I could get I hope you like it." I bite my lip as she stares at it, I can't read a single emotion on her face, she's just staring at it with a blank look.
And then she sets it down and throws herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and hugging me tightly, "I love it." She whispers, kissing me hard. She pulls back and grabs the box eagerly, opening it and freeing the necklace from the box; she hands it to me and turns her back so I can hook it around her neck. She turns around and kisses me softly, "I love you."
"I love you." I tell her and kiss her again, laying back on the bed and pulling her down with me.
Request from Anon on Tumblr to write a Jori story involving willow trees, I hope its okay, Anon. I had no clue what do with the story at first, and then this idea came to mind.