Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious for if I did I would be making this story an actual episode.
A/N: Like I promised, here is the second chapter :D. It is much longer than the Introduction and I am happy that people have read the first chapter and want to read more :D This inspires me. Also, I have realized that asking for reviews does as much as asking for money, not much. So, if you want to review, I would be happy, but this is the last time I will mention it. And one last thing, I am in school so there is schoolwork that I must do which may put off my writing but I have a WebDesign class that I do absolutely nothing in so I will be writing then. With that being said, I am hoping to post chapters every Friday or before, at least once a week, because I know how I hate waiting so you readers probably hate that too.
Ok. I am done being talkative. Enjoy :D
"Cat!" I screamed. It surprised me how fearful I actually was when barely anything scared me. Scary movies? Nothing. The threat of a bomber at school? Makes me laugh. But seeing Cat there in the bushes, her velvety red hair a clumped mess, everything soaked, her clothing cut and ripped, possible signs of blood, all of that made my legs give out and I slumped to the ground in front of the poor girl.
Cat's deep, brown eyes opened slightly and focused on my face.
"Jade…" she croaked before closing her eyes again.
I almost teared up at the sight of her like this. Not Cat. Not sweet, innocent Cat that no matter what anybody said, she would ignore them and stay in her happy place. She's the only person I know that never let life keep her down. But Cat, here in such an unhappy place, where she clearly did not belong. This was my world, not hers. She doesn't deserve to be anywhere near this place.
Those thoughts gave me the strength to keep in the tears and pull her body out of the bushes. It took a few minutes but I had to make sure, for my own sake, that she was still alive. I sprawled her out on the ground as the rain continued to batter both of our bodies and I laid one ear on her chest. The magical sounds of a heartbeat raised my spirits and I realized that never before have I ever been so happy to hear a rhythm.
Content for the time being that she was still alive, I dragged Cat to my house, cursing the weather multiple times, and finally slammed the door closed.
Once she was on my conveniently placed couch, I took a good look at her. She was still soaked, which wasn't good at all for her immune system and I actually felt so much pity for the girl, which I never feel at all. What was happening to me? One freak night and I turn from comfortably careless to whacked up worried? I mean, Cat's different than the rest of them, I have to admit. If people actually looked, they would see that I'm not as rough with her. She's delicate, like a flower. At this moment though, she looked like a broken doll.
"Cat…" I whispered, and stroked her damp cheek. It was cold to the touch and a thought that swam through my brain made me blush scarlet. Her clothes were going to have to be changed otherwise she might get sick.
I sighed and lifted the girl muttering, "Okay, Caterina. Time for a bath."
Getting Cat in the tub was much harder than it may sound. I'm pretty strong, but the girl didn't help, being passed out and all, so dragging her was much better than lifting and dumping her into the warm water. It's a good thing that Cat woke up when she touched the water, otherwise I would've left her there because I didn't think that I could've gotten her back out.
"Hey Cat," I casually said to her with a smirk, leaning against the sink as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Jade? Where-where am I?" Cat looked around in her confused way, as if she didn't realize that she was in a bathroom.
"My house. I have no idea how you got here but you were stuck in the freezing storm so I made a nice bath for you."
"A bath!" Cat freaked out and her cheeks turned red as she searched around her body. The heat in her face calmed down when she realized that she still had her clothes on. What can I say? It was either I wasted energy on the clothes or dragging her to the bath.
"Calm down. I didn't see anything I shouldn't have. You can change when I leave the room, anyways." I turned my head to the pile of clothes that I picked out for her. "You should clean up, though. You're a mess."
"What's that supposed to mean…" she said half-heartedly. It was obvious that she was exhausted. The broken doll thought appeared in my head again and I wanted to just hold her against my body, as if I was a good shield from the badness of the world. I shook off the thoughts and returned to seriousness.
"You're just really dirty and I think you cut yourself in places. So, really, you have to wash up or you're not staying the night." I tried to ease up on the comment but also tried to stay firm. I still needed to be Jade, no matter who it was in my bathtub.
"Jade," Cat's eyes looked straight into mine and my heart warmed for a second without any warning. The warmth worried me about what I actually was feeling. "My arms hurt. I can't really move them."
I let out a soft sigh. The fact that she still needed to take her clothes off had to pop into my mind.
"Your clothes, Cat," I said as I looked away from her, partly ashamed that I was still thinking about what may lie under the clothes.
"You can leave on my bra and panties," she noted quite happily, as if it was such a good idea to leave on such little clothing. But her skin and cuts needed to be attended to. I didn't even understand why this was all so hard to do. We're best friends. Wasn't it not all that crazy to see a best friend in only panties and a bra? She had the same things I did, anyways. I still didn't know why it was a problem. Maybe…maybe I cared more than I thought I did about Cat. Maybe…
"Fine," I let out finally. Without another second to waste, I kneeled down by the tub and took off her soaked shirt. It was heavy, but it would've been difficult to take off beforehand, also. I was extremely careful when it came to lifting it over her head and noted the caution. If it was anyone else, I probably would've tugged it off. But it was Cat. Why must Cat be so different from everyone else?
As I was pulling off her pants, she started to become more animated, telling me another crazy story about her brother.
"…and we were at the ice cream stand because my brother knows that I love ice cream. The ice cream man didn't want to give us any, so my brother tried to take it from him and the ice cream man then beat my brother up. It's okay though, he still got me my ice cream. Strawberry flavored. He was in a bad shape, but he got better."
"Your brother seriously sounds like a stunt man from everything he's gone through," I told her. I couldn't believe that I actually paid attention to the random stories that she tells us. Normally, we all tend to just nod our heads and pretend we're listening. I know Vega never listens. That stupid girl wouldn't even pretend just to save Cat's feelings. Now that I was actually listening, the stories seemed so far fetched that if it actually happened, I wouldn't doubt that Cat's mind is a little off. It would explain a lot. Plus, the girl is telling these things like she actually witnessed them up close and personal. Not even I would try out all the crazy shit that her brother did.
"It's not his fault. Bad things just happen to him. Like bad things happen to the poor birds in China. Did you know that there aren't any birds there because the Chinese eat them all? That's so mean! The birds deserve to live there just as much as people do."
"Cat rewind for a second." I had been washing her hair out with conditioner, noticing how nice the red hair felt between my hands when the words bad things popped out in her comments. "Going back to bad things happening, it was a pretty bad thing that I found you in my bushes earlier. What were you even doing there in the first place?"
Cat was quiet. My hands stopped running themselves through her hair as I anticipated her response. The quietness definitely said that whatever happened, it wasn't good. And there aren't many things that aren't good in Cat's world.
"My parents were unhappy with me…" Cat finally whispered, placing her finger on a slight cut that had been above the water to stop the blood from leaking, then taking it off to let the tiny bit of blood bleed some more. She didn't have to move her arm because it was right there, but the site worried me a little. She didn't even mind the blood when she normally freaks at every little drop in a horror film.
"Why?" I asked, so in tune with what she's saying.
"I…I can't say," she made sure not to look at me. It must've been bad. "But I can say that they ran me out of the house. They didn't even let me pack anything. They just yelled and yelled and they opened the door and I ran for it. I didn't know where else to go, Jade. You're the only person that I trust…"
I completely stopped cleaning her up and just kept my hands intertwined in her hair. Cat's parents weren't all that bad. I've been to her house plenty of times before and, although they disapprove of me completely, they weren't nearly as bad as mine. They didn't even get pissed off mad when I started to cut up a ratty doll of Cat's because it looked way too childish for even Cat to have.
I was about to try a comment but Cat then continued in her same hushed tone.
"I didn't know how bad it was raining until I got outside but I knew that my parents wouldn't let me back in. You should've seen their faces, Jade. They were so angry. They never get so angry with me. And I didn't even do something bad or illegal. I just ran and it was so windy and it was thundering so bad that I tripped a couple of times and I almost ran into a speeding truck." That explained the screeching rubber. "The truck barely missed me. Gosh, Jade, I was so scared. It almost hit me. The feeling of the truck and the banging of the thunder and lightning caused me to fall again and I hit my head so I tried standing up and running to the nearest house. The wind kept pushing me in so many directions. I had no control. I was so scared that I was crying and…I guess I just fell into your bushes. I thought that I saw someone's house light on so I started yelling for help. I guess it did the trick. But I'm so sorry about your bushes, Jade. I didn't mean to…"
"Shh. It's not your fault. I'd never be mad at you over some stupid bushes." I was more mad about the possibility that the bushes hurt her. I was actually thinking about cutting the bushes for hurting Cat. Really, I should question my own sanity.
"But-"
"Cat," I interrupted. "It's fine. I'm just glad you're okay. Now close your eyes, I'm gonna wash you off."
Cat did as told and I rinsed off her body, watching how the suds from her hair rolled down her body like a waterfall, leaving her body glistening. Besides the cuts and scrapes, she looked so much better than the broken doll that I found before. But she was still vulnerable.
Cat sighed happily and I shut off the water, letting myself have one last look at her glowing body while hiding the stupid blush that I could just feel coming.
"Okay. Out of the water," I commanded. I had to stay in control. I couldn't let feelings that were just jumping out of nowhere stand in my way.
I had to help her out because of how weak her body was and I just let her lay down in my bed in the other room, not even bothering to put the other clothes on. She wasn't really wearing anything anyways so the warmth of the blanket should overrule the wetness of the underclothes.
Cat already had her eyes closed by the time I pulled the blankets up to her chin and I was able to hear a soft sound coming from her nose. She looked cute while she slept.
Wait, what am I thinking? All these thoughts about being cute and protecting her. I guess I've always felt like I needed to protect her but today, seeing her in such a broken form, that feeling grew stronger. And other feelings were just popping up out of nowhere. I swear, if any more feelings decide to join the party, I might as well kill myself because right now there's way too many.
I was about to exit the door while thinking about the philosophy of why feelings exist and almost missed probably the most confusing thing I have ever heard Cat say.
"I love you, Jade."