Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Broken Hearts
Chapter 2 – What I missed.
No ones POV
Jade normally didn't like the dances, they had at Hollywood arts. Actually, Jade didn't like a lot of things, Hollywood Arts dances, being one of them. But tonight, she was actually looking forward to the annual, beginning of the year dance. It was always held the Saturday before the start of classes and gave people a chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
Jade had always gone to these affairs, despite her loathing of them. She viewed it, as a chance to hand pick the people she would torment during the upcoming year. Also she took the opportunity to reestablish herself, as the most feared and beautiful person on campus. A position she took great pride in.
Tonight she was actually looking forward to it for a number of reasons.
Dressed all in black, she walked in with a smirk on her face and her new man at her side. Her very first thought however, was "where's Vega".
Quickly she scanned the crowed for the Latina, but she was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, Jade growled in annoyance.
"Where is she?"
"Your friend Tori", said Eric, her new boyfriend.
Jade kept scanning the crowd. "Yes, she's not here. She's supposed to be here."
"Calm down, there's lots of people here, I'm sure she's round somewhere. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to show me off. After all, I'm totally irresistible. I've said so myself." Joked Eric.
Jade narrowed her eyes and glared at Eric in mock irritation. "Who said I want to show you to anyone. You're mine and they can keep their greedy eyes to themselves. One more thing, I'm the irresistible one in this relationship, don't you forget it."
"Hey Chica." Said a familiar voice, behind them.
Turning round she saw a smiling Andre walking up.
"Where's Vega!" Snapped Jade instantly.
Andre briefly frowned. "I'm fine thank you. My summer's been great."
Jade's scowl got more distinct.
Defusing the situation, Eric smiled and extended his hand. "You must be Andre. I'm Eric Hodgson. I'm starting at Hollywood arts on Monday. Pleased to meet you."
Andre shook Eric's hand. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Andre Harris, you must be Jade's new boyfriend."
Before Eric could speak, Jade cut in, sounding increasingly impatient. "You didn't answer my question, Where's Vega?"
"I saw her a half an hour ago, but I haven't seen her since."
"You two talk, I'm finding Vega." Jade commanded, before disappearing into the crowd.
For a moment there was an awkward silence before Andre joked nervously. "She's gone, now's your chance. Run like the wind."
For a moment Eric, looked like he was offended, but suddenly burst out laughing and slapped Andre on the back. "Good one, I like that."
The ice broke, Andre and Eric soon began to talk.
Meanwhile, Jade walked all around, the asphalt café, where the dance was being held and didn't find Tori. After looking in the bathrooms, Jade found herself beginning to get angry.
She texted Tori. "I'm here, Where R U"
There was no response.
Though angry, Jade found herself a bit worried; it wasn't like Tori to simply vanish.
Finally she spotted Trina, trying flirt with a handsome senior guy who looked marginally interested in her. Jade then stormed up to Trina and barked.
"Talentless wonder, where's your sister?"
Trina looked at Jade, with daggers in her eyes for a moment.
"She said she had a headache or something and went home. Now if you mind, I was talking to someone."
Jade then turned her attention to the guy that Trina was flirting with and glared at him intensely.
"LEAVE, NOW!"
With a fearful look, the guy quickly fled.
"Hey, he was going to ask me out!" Protested Trina.
"I doubt it, but if so, I did him a favor, later ugly Vega!" Jade said dismissively, as she walked off.
Jade walked a bit and huffed, feeling very disappointed. She had barely seen her friend all summer and was looking forward to seeing her again. She was eager for Tori to meet Eric.
As she stood there, lamenting on the fact that Tori wasn't there, Jade for a brief instant, thought she saw Cat out of the corner of her eye.
She turned off course and there was no one there. Cat being there was quite impossible, as she had died last October. But thinking of Cat, her mind quickly drifted back to last year's dance.
Flashback – Exactly 1 year ago
Everyone was enjoying the beginning of the year dance and looking forward to their junior year. Well most everyone, while Andre, Robbie, Cat and Tori were having a good time, Jade and Beck weren't.
They spent the first hour of the dance either giving each other the silent treatment or arguing. Their relationship was on the rocks and everyone knew it. They would break up for good, 3 days later.
At the moment, they were standing off to the side and arguing. The rest of gang who was watching from their table, had no idea what it was about. All they knew, is that there had been a lot of arguments between them lately.
"Can we stop fighting for a while and just try to enjoy the dance." Beck said, tired of the back and forth.
"Fine, but we're not done." Jade snapped, before walking off towards the gang's table.
Jade, looking seriously unhappy, plopped down in a chair next to Tori, who immediately greeted her warmly.
"Hi Jade, great of you to join us. We're about to dance in a minute."
Jade quickly scowled. "Just because I'm sitting next to you, doesn't mean we're friends."
Tori promptly ignored the slight and returned her conversation with Robbie about the upcoming school year.
A few minutes later, Tori stood up and said. "Enough talk, let's dance."
Andre, Cat and Robbie all stood up and moved with Tori towards the dance floor. Tori after going a few feet, stopped and looked back at Jade who was still sitting.
"You coming Jade?"
"I hate dancing."
"No you don't. You're a good dancer. Come on,"
"Yeah Jade, come on." Added Andre.
Jade was about to steadfastly refuse, when Beck sat down at the table. Jade promptly got up and walked with the group to the dance floor.
The group, sans Beck, went to the dance floor and began do dance. Jade however stood slightly off as she didn't want people to think she was actually dancing with Tori.
They had made it through a few songs and Tori could tell even Jade was enjoying herself after a while. But after the 4th song, Cat started to leave the dance floor.
"Where are you going Cat?" Asked Tori.
"I'm a bit tired; I'm going to sit the next few out. Keep going." Cat said with a gracious smile.
The others said ok, with the exception of Jade who merely scowled.
As it were, the very next song was a slow song and Jade couldn't get off the dance floor fast enough. As the group reached the table, Tori looked at Cat.
"Are you ok, you look almost out of breath and a bit pale?"
Cat nodded quickly and smiled. "I'm fine. I haven't been doing much the last few weeks of summer so I'm a bit out of shape. All I do is take my brother to his doctor's appointments. Just give me a bit of time and I'll be dancing all night."
"Good."
"Cat, it's bad enough you're dense, stop being such a weakling too. What good are you?" Jade said somewhat harshly, as she sat down.
"Jade that was mean, apologize." Tori promptly responded.
Cat raised her hand to stop her.
"No Tori, forget it. Let's just talk and have a good time. No argument's anymore tonight. Lets' just all have a good time. Please." Cat pleaded.
Everyone nodded.
End flashback.
Jade felt a profound stab of regret, as the memory sunk back into her mind.
"Your heart was failing, you just couldn't keep up, couldn't you?. Did you know the end was near? Did you feel it? I just couldn't see it. You tired so easily those days and I just never saw it. Cat, I am so sorry." Jade whispered.
Jade was brought out of her reverie by a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she could see it was Eric. Andre was standing next to him.
"You find your friend?"
"No!" Jade said, visibly annoyed. "She wasn't feeling well and went home."
"I'm sorry, I'll meet her on Monday at school, I guess."
"I want to leave." Jade stated in a rather stark tone.
Eric shrugged, "Ok."
Andre looked to Eric and shook his hand. "Well it was great meeting you. See you Monday."
"Good to meet you Andre. Hey let's jam sometime, I'll bring my bass."
"Sure."
Jade who looked increasingly impatient, grabbed Eric's hand and yanked him into the crowd. A few moments later, Beck walked up.
"Hey, where's Jade going?"
"Leaving."
"She just arrived." Beck responded with a puzzled look.
"She found Tori wasn't here and wanted to leave."
"Wait, Tori left too. I just saw her a little while ago."
"Yeah, she apparently wasn't feeling well. I did meet Jade's new boyfriend, Eric."
Beck scoffed. "I saw him, he looked her type alright. All in Black. I can only imagine, what he was like."
"He is a Goth mind you. He loves the Scissoring and all that weird music Jade listens too.. But he's actually a nice guy; really outgoing. He's starting at Hollywood arts Monday. He plays bass. I even mentioned that you, I and Robbie, go golfing sometime and he wants to go with us. Says he has a new golf drinking game, which sounded fun."
"What's that?"
"It's called equalizer. After each hole, the person who has the least strokes, drinks a drink. The better you are the more you drink."
Beck Laughed. "That's a switch. Maybe, I'll stand a chance for once."
"It's funny, though." Andre pondered, as he watched Jade and Eric vanish into the parking lot.
"What, the golf game?"
"No, Eric, he's so outgoing and friendly. It's just a bit odd."
"And I'm not?" Said Beck, sounding a bit offended. "I dated her too you know."
"You're more the strong silent type. Come on, enough of the Wicked Witch of the West. Let's see some of the new girls, the upcoming year has in store."
"No argument there."
The next morning, Tori awoke with a stomach ache. While she had told her sister she had eaten some bad tuna salad, today she felt real pain. The pain however in her stomach was due to heartache. On top of that, she was tired as she had tossed and turned most of the night.
Part of her just wanted to cry, but she refused to cry. She wasn't even sure why she held her tears back, but she did. She turned her deep sorrow and pain inward and it seemed to settle in her gut of all places.
With a sense of dread she turned her phone on.
First, she looked at her texts. She had 4 of them.
From Jade" I'm here, where r u."
From Andre': Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well. Met Jade's new guy, he's cool."
From Beck: Hope you feel better.
From Robbie: Get better. See you Monday.
She then noticed that she had a single voice mail message. From Jade's phone number no less.
"I can only guess what she said. When she found out I ditched." Tori groaned as she hit play.
Jade's voice came through and as always sent a tremor through her now shattered heart.
"Vega, how dare you get sick on me and leave. You were supposed to meet someone special. Don't you dare be sick on Monday. If you are, I will find you, drag you out of bed, stuff you in my trunk and take you to school myself. Oh yeah, I hope you feel better, because you better get better."
Tori sighed. "Only Jade could wish someone well, threaten them at the same time and still sound wonderful."
Tori knew she had to face Jade and her new, seemingly cool, boyfriend tomorrow. Something that made her stomach churn even more. She knew that holding onto her love of Jade and the resulting heart break was to put it bluntly, pathetic, but she just couldn't let it go.
"Andre approves of him. You need to hate him Andre. Not like him." Mumbled Tori as she reluctantly pulled herself out of bed.
All she could do is walk to the mirror and practice her very best, fake smile.
I'm glad people like the story so far. Thanks for the reviews. Please keep em coming and let me know what you think.