Previously

"And you already know my other roommate" Cat says with a giggle.

"Vega, long time no see." I hear the devil say. I turn my head praying that the voice is not who I think it is and… oh dear god.

My voice comes out weak.

"J-Jade?"

Present

"Well well, look who's all grown up" Jade says with a smirk.

And I'm back in high school again. She still looks and sounds as evil as she did back then. I mean, I wouldn't have expected her to convert to pink and grow a heart anyway, but she literally looks like nothing has changed. And that smirk, that thing still haunts my dreams.

"Yeah… all grown up" I say, my voice wavering.

I imagine this moment being what it's like before a lion rips the face off of its prey. That's Jade for you. She smirks you into a corner and then intimidates the life right out of you. Oh god she's coming closer… I should yell rape again.

"So, what's the magical life of Tori Vega been like after you spilt from HA?" She asks with that same damn smirk.

"Good. Just… hangin out" I say. Is it obvious that I'm nervous?

Jade snorts out a laugh and rolls her eyes. "Right, well I'm heading out. Be back late." She says as she grabs her purse and leaves. I wonder what she carries in there. Probably souls.

The minute the door closes my eyes are trained on Cat. "Jade fucking West is your roommate?" I say through my teeth. Cat immediately wipes the smile of her face and nods. "Cat! You know what she was like to me in high school." I whine.

"Well you said it yourself, we've all changed a lot since then. Maybe Jade's different now."

"Cat, you saw that. She still wants to eat me."

"Yeah well it was worth a shot." She shrugs.

"Yeah a shot to the face." Rachel says getting off of the couch. I knew I liked her for a reason. "I'm off too, I have a date. You two kids have fun." She finishes heading out the door.

"Ok, let's get to it" Cat says leading me into the living room.

"Alright… what exactly are we gonna do?" I ask.

"Well, I'm going to get naked, and you're going to look at me"

"What? Cat no. You know I can't"

"Ok" She says pulling off her shirt.

"Cat I'm serious."

"I know" she says shimmying out of her jeans. DOES THIS CHILD EVER WEAR ANY SOME SORT OF UNDERWEAR?

My eyes immediately shut as a reflex. What, torturing me in from of an entire class isn't enough? Of course not. The universe just hates me. I mean, I like Cat, but she's basically just putting me through the same cycle I go through every Monday and Thursday. The only difference is that we're in a smaller area and it's just the two of us.

Usually this would be ideal right? You and someone who's, well… Cat, alone in a place that has a bed. She's willingly stripping right in front of me and wants me to ogle her body. Of course I would be crazy not to right? So it's official, I'm crazy.

"Tori, are you a virgin?" I hear Cat ask out of nowhere.

"W-what?" I sputter. This causes me to open my eyes and then immediately regret it and shut them again.

"I'm just wondering." She giggles.

"Would you please put something on so I can look at you?" I ask annoyed. I hear her giggle again along with her shuffling around for a moment. Then I feel the couch dip next to me… great.

"Ok, it's safe to look" She teases. My eyes open and I glare at her. She wrapped herself in a blanket and is now sitting right next to me. I know I can't actually see what's underneath, but just knowing how loosely that sheet is wrapped around her still makes me nervous.

"Right, well back to your question, I'm not." I say sighing.

"Really?" She says. She has this look on her face like even if God himself told her she wouldn't believe it.

"Yeah. This is shocking?" I ask.

"Well yeah. You can't look at someone naked yet you've… oh my god, tell me you didn't do it with clothes on" Cat says, her face stone walling.

"No, we didn't do it with our clothes on." I say rolling my eyes.

"Then how…?"

"It was just really, really dark. Like I had to turn my phone off to make sure it didn't light up the room if it rang."

"Did you enjoy it?" she asks concerned.

"Of course I did… after I got past the whole being naked with another person part."

"Hmm…"

"What are you thinking?" I ask. Then I literally see a light bulb pop up over her head. Should I be scared? Because I am.

"That's it! That's what we'll do" She says with a triumphant smile.

She. Wants. To. What?

"What are you talking about?" I ask nervously.

"It's so simple, I don't know why we didn't think of this before. You were comfortable having sex and- god this is so obvious!"

No it's not obvious! At this point the only thing that I'm thinking of is that she wants us to have sex so I'll be comfortable. All it makes me wanna do is curl up in a corner and cry about my life. I can't have sex with Cat. She's… Cat. And I'm not saying all this because I'm a homophobe or anything, because believe me I've considered girls, but something about this exact predicament scares the hell out of me. Like what I was getting at earlier, Cat is gorgeous, flawless even, but the thought of us… I can't… I just can't…

"Tori…? Tori calm down" Cat say breaking me out of my thoughts. Oh look, I'm sweating and shaking.

"I can't do it" I whisper.

"Do what?"

"Have sex with you"

"I… didn't realize you wanted to…" She trails off looking a little surprised. She's surprised? That's what she was just talking about right?

"I thought that's what you were getting at. I was comfortable when I had sex so…"

"Oh! No no, Tori that's not what I meant. I was referring to the idea that came from that." She smiles.

"Oh thank god" I say letting out a huge breath.

"Well gee thanks, didn't realize that sleeping with me would be so horrifying" She says dropping her smile.

"What? No, that's not why I said that. I was just nervous and I was all "oh thank god" because now I don't have to be. See? I'm sure having sex with you would be great. I mean if you're as good in bed as I think you are then I'm sure it'd be an experience to remember." I rush out. Nice. One. Vega. Now go home and jump off your balcony.

"You really do have an anxiety problem don't you?" Cat says taking in my last comment. I nod slowly. "Ok, let me go get dressed and we'll go out for coffee again and talk ok?" She asks.

"Yeah…" I answer.

How does she even put up with me?

… …. ….. ….. …. … ….. …. …. … ….. ….. ….

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Because I'm hopeless."

"Tori, you're not hopeless. You just need to relax. Look, I have this amazing idea that I know will help you through this." Cat says before she takes a sip of her coffee.

We've been sitting here for, I kid you not, an hour and I've been completely silent. Cat will say something every once in a while and I'll just nod. I feel so stupid. I made a complete idiot of myself in front of Jade, then again the entire time I was with Cat. Honestly this is the dumbest thing to have a problem with. Ever. I'm an artist, I'm supposed to be inspired by these things.

"Cat, I've tried every trick in the book. From yoga to tranquilizers. It's not going to work."

"Yes it will. I know it will" She says intently.

"How?" I ask.

"Because it worked for me"

"You had a phobia of nudity?" I ask. She's a nude model so how…

"No, I just had a… problem. And I think the way I got through it can help you too." She says running her fingers over mine.

"What kind of problem?" I ask.

"A story for another time. For now this is about you and your problem." She says with a small smile. Cat had a problem? One that she doesn't wanna talk about? It must've been really bad.

"Alright, but I'll hold you to that story."

"I wouldn't expect any less. So, random change of subject, who was special enough to be your first?" She asks.

"My first what… oh! Uh… this guy I met at my first gig after high school. We needed a drummer so he stepped in. We really hit it off and over the course of that year we started dating and about three months into it… yeah" I say. I really did like him. He was such a great guy.

"Really, punk rock drummer? Perhaps six foot three?" She says with a grin. I laugh at that.

"Haven't thought about that song in a loooong time. But he was more five foot nine." I say with another laugh. I have to say, that duet I did with Cat and Andre was probably my favorite out of them all.

"So what happened to him?" She asks.

"Well, I wanted to be an artist and so did he. Just not in the same sense. He created music and I created images. He was going one way in life and I was going another so… we decided to end it. He was really sweet about it." I say allowing myself to drift back to that moment.

"He really was a great guy. We loved each other so much… just not more than our passions. I saw him off at the airport, the last time we saw each other, when he was flying out to Europe for a tour. That's when we knew it was over for good. He didn't even bother to wipe the tears from his eyes when his kissed me before going to his gate. Most people would look at that as making it harder, but seeing that emotion actually made it easier. It was like the tears we were both crying was a way of telling each other "Thanks for what we had"."

"Wow… that's beautiful. What was his name?" Cat asks.

"James and yeah, he was the inspiration behind my entire freshmen year. Every brush stroke and line drawn was his." I finish. Cat just has this warm smile on her face. "So what about you? Who was the lucky guy?" I ask. Cat gets this bashful look on her face then giggles.

"What?" I ask.

"Ok, promise you won't laugh." She says.

"Why? When was it?" I ask smiling.

"High school" She says. My smile immediately shoots off my face.

"It wasn't Robbie was it?" I say monotone.

"Ew no"

"Oh thank god. So if not him, then who?" I say, my smile returning to my face.

"Beck"

"… You and Beck? Beck Beck? Beck Oliver? Jade's Beck?" I say with wide eyes. She nods.

"How? When? Does Jade know?" I ask at a mile a minute.

"I think you know how the "how" part works. But it was our Senior year. Remember when they were "Calling quits for good"?" She asks.

"Yeah, but then they got back together three months later"

"Three months is still a significant time gap Tori. But yes, Jade knows about it now. I told her a few months after we moved in together, when she and Beck really were done for good. It was about a year after graduation."

"And you're still alive?"

"Of course. First she laughed, then she realized I was serious. She was only mad that I hadn't told her when it happened. After that she just got over it and… here we are."

"Wow. That's insane. Anyone else since him?" I ask.

"Well I may have had a girlfriend." She smirks.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah the year after high school. She was kind of like you only less pleasant. She was more focused on getting off than anything. I never really loved her. What about you?" She asks.

"For me it was just James. Easily put, we had a… very healthy relationship." I say looking at my empty coffee cup.

"Ah, I see" She says mirroring my action.

"So back to you and Beck. Why?" I ask. What, I'm curious ok?

"I don't know… guess I just looked at you too long that day" She says innocently as she stands up and walks out of the café.

… Are you… what… OH MY GOD CAT WAIT!

… …. ….. ….. … …. …. ….. …. …. … ….. ….. …

Hello everyone.

Ok, don't kill me, I know this was a total disappointment to what you were expecting. But without this we could not move on. I know you were expecting a little more Jade too, I promise, she's in the next one and all the awesome hoopla I was talking about will be in the next chapter. However if you're all taking numbers to kick me in the face, I wouldn't blame you.

So, now at least you get a see a bit more into Tori and Cat's past. So it's not all a bucket of unfulfilled promises. Wow that sounded depressing. Anyway…

You guys are awesome. I absolutely love hearing/reading everything you all have to say about all this. It keeps my motivation for this alive.

Speaking of you lovely review angels:

CrazyRedHairedChick333: Yay! I'm glad I made your day. Hearing that made mine.

Ash (): Part of the reason that this chapter is up on time is because I love kittens. Dang you…

Vampiree98: Well then be at ease my aquatic friend. Here is your update that will hopefully bate the line for the next one.

Alrighty then loves, that's all for this update. Remember, Reviews = Love, so spread it around. Thick.

A.Y.P.