For so long Cat Valentine was the one I followed. I crawled on my hands and knees behind her, jumping at the slightest resemblance of a threat. She was my shield at the time and it only took me a few years to stand up and run, kick her to the curb without a second's thought. And she came back. Beck tells me the other students who've seen me change say I left a trail of fire behind me when I took off. Cat followed, she limped to me with flames smoldering her and I gave her nothing because I thought she'd already played her part and I was too absorbed in my newfound glory. I crowed and crowed and Cat quietly doused the flames in the shadows. But of course I grew selfish and what was once mine always had to be mine and that included Cat.
It was like she was delicate songbird I had captured in a cage and slammed the door shut on. I abandoned her in favor of something that promised more immediate protection, Beck, in other words. And my neglect made her vibrant feathers grow dull, her elegant shoulders drop, her bright and expectant eyes turn dead. And that was the way everyone met her. A dulled mirage of something truly beautiful, more than I could ever be. Every action and harsh word I spoke clipped another feather, tightened the noose around her neck and rusted the latch on her cage further. Yet those few times I let her out of her prison with more than a quick glance and lingered on her instead, she would sing for me. Or at least she tried. It was just a weak shadow of what the glorious melody used to be. The notes were broken and her throat choked with the dust lying thick in her cage. And sometimes I left her for so long someone - usually Tori - would finally manage to get the cage door swinging wide open. She would take a few tentative steps out then return back into the cage with hops on weak legs. I tried to make her go once. I tried to let her go because I thought we were ready to part ways and Tori seemed to always be prying at that door...but she circled back to my hands with her tattered feathers and thin-framed body, liquid eyes somehow still holding an affectionate spark.
That spark put a black burn on my dormant heart and gave it a painful jolt of realization, so simple and yet so complicated at the same time.
She still cared.
I put her through an emotional hell and she still waited with her head drooping with exhaustion, but eyes patiently locked on me.
I needed to make things right again. I'm going to.
"What did I do wrong this time, Kitty Cat?" The words blurt out before I can stop them and their familiarity hits me like a freight train. It hurts with the ferocity of white-hot razors slicing the softest of flesh and my eyes begin to water with my non-physical pain. But then Cat's hands are holding my face, her forehead is touching mine, and God it just feels so soft and safe with her so close. She's tender where Beck is hard planes and lines, smooth where he's rough and calloused. I remember all of this from memory and it just...its hurts and feels so good at the same time to remember. To remember when my world was bursting with vivid color and I always had that flash of faithful red at my side.
"You were just over thinking again, that's all."
Her melodious laugh swirls through my ears as her hands ruffle my hair. "You need to quit thinking so much, Jadey. You're going to be a very stressed old lady if you keep this up."
I find myself smiling through the salty tears, Cat doing the same as she brings me back to my true home. She held my gaze for a length of time, and suddenly the mirage bursts into beautiful reality and the latch on her cage breaks. Cat was there in her pulsating glory and all the color, the sheer beauty of her simply before my eyes like she was before Hollywood Arts...more tears spring into my eyes and I kiss her hard.
I don't know if I should be surprised or not when she kisses me back, lips as delicate as the rest of her, but when I finally relent for air she lets out a breathless chuckle.
"I've missed you too, Jadey."
Personally, I'm not too impressed with this one...should I keep going? Make this into a story of sorts or do you all like it the way it is?