Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.

A/N: Real life sucks, huh? Finally got this one done and edited, so enjoy.

"Hey Tori…"

I frowned and ignored her, focusing on my book.

"Tori..."

"NO!"

Cat almost looked offended, "You didn't even hear what I have to say!"

I sighed heavily and looked at her, "Alright, what do you want?"

"I wanna try X."

"Go fuck yourself."

I had zero patience for this bullshit at the moment, and I was pretty certain it was showing. I didn't really think I had any other option other than snapping at her, it wouldn't go through to her either way.

Cat laid down on the couch and groaned, "I mean, it's not like you don't have it, right?"

I got up and went to my kitchen to grab a drink, "Cat, I shouldn't even have done it, but I absolutely will not give you anything other than weed."

She followed me, still seeming adamant, "Come on, think about it, we could just do some X, have a little party, forget about things for a while..."

I turned around, getting right in her face, "Don't fucking test me. I refuse to be your token stoner friend who gives you whatever you want just because you asked for it. I'm quitting anyway, I don't want this anymore. Find someone else to give you shit that'll fuck up your life."

It was silent for a while, with me nearly glaring holes in her and her just standing still. A moment later she just cracked a small smile.

"Good, step one's complete, now, we toss them."

I stepped back and couldn't control the confusion on my face, "What?"

"You really think I'm the type? I was seeing how far your control went. I'm here to help you, remember?"

"You never cease to confuse the hell out of me," I mumbled, grabbing a Pepsi from the fridge and going back to the couch.

"It's my job. Anyway, we've got 3 hours til Jade's fight, what do you wanna do?"

I looked at my phone and bit my lip, "We could…Umm..."

"Let's go visit my friend," Cat proposed.

"Who's your friend?"

Cat took my question as confirmation and starting putting on her shoes, "His name's Dr. Matthew Anderson."

I raised an eyebrow and made no move to get ready myself.

She quickly noticed and shook her head, "He's got a PhD in psychology. I thought you two would get along well."

I thought about it for a brief moment before figuring it wouldn't hurt to talk to him. I put on my boots and grabbed a jacket from the closet by the door. "Let's go then."

Cat pulled into the parking lot of a large building on a college campus, turning off the car and motioning for me to follow her. We entered through the main entrance and went straight to the office. "Here to visit Dr. Anderson if he's available?" She said to the woman at the desk.

She glanced at a piece of paper on her desk, "He's still in the building but his last lecture ended a few hours ago. Do you know where his room is?"

Cat nodded, smiling as the woman handed us two visitor's passes, "Thank you."

She handed one of the passes to me and led me down one hallway, turning a few times before entering a room. It was designed like the usual lecture hall, and a man was sitting at the desk on the far end.

"Matt!" Cat called out to him, waving as he looked up and smiled.

He met us halfway and gave Cat a hug, "It's good to see you. What brings you here today?"

"I brought a friend to meet you. She has interests in literature, philosophy, and psychology, similar to you," she winked.

Dr. Anderson looked at me and offered a smile, extending his hand, "Very good to meet you. My name's Dr. Matthew Anderson, but you can call me Matt."

I smiled back, shaking his hand, "My name's Tori."

He looked at me carefully a moment before saying quietly, "Oh...You've got a lot going on, don't you? Why don't we sit and talk a bit, if you'd like?"

"Um..."

"Yes," Cat answered, ignoring me.

Matt pulled up two chairs to his desk and sat down, "You know Cat, you can't make someone talk if they don't want to."

"How about questions?" She proposed, looking at me for confirmation.

I nodded but didn't say anything. I was doing my best to stay calm, but was gonna give Cat an earful for the interrogation later.

"Okay," He sat back and crossed his ankle over his knee, "Let's start at the easiest part, shall we? If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?"

I bit my lip and thought about it carefully, "I'm not entirely sure yet. As you may have gathered from what Cat told you, I'd be interested in using my mind, not just some desk job."

"So you like things that make you think?"

I nodded.

Mat made a fist with one hand, resting his chin on it, "What's your highest level of official education?"

"Middle school."

"Would you like to go back to school?"

"Yes."

The questions continued on and on, until he must've sensed I was at my limit of sharing and he suggested we stop and go get something to eat. Cat checked the time on her phone and frowned, "I'm sorry Matt, but we've got something going on in about 45 minutes, can we take a rain check?"

He smiled, "Of course, just call me. You ladies have a good night, and it was a pleasure meeting you, Tori."

As soon as Cat and I got in the car, she abruptly announced, "I want some pizza."

"Should we order some?"

"I do believe it is necessary, yes."

"This pizza is pretty much heaven," Cat nearly moaned.

I laughed, "As much as I love pizza, I don't think I'll ever understand your fascination with it."

"It's a bachelorette's best friend."

"But you have a boyfriend."

She shook her head, her mouth still full of pizza, "I didn't a month ago. And you wanna know what I ate when I wasn't being a fucking vulture over Andre's cooking? Pizza!"

"Our next bout is to introduce the former second division champion to the new ranks. One look at this matchup says these women are quite similar, with two inches of height on Zeno and four years younger, Jade West is one of the younger fighters we've had."

"It's starting!"

"Yes, Cat, I can see that. Don't talk with your mouth full, it's impolite."

She just had a stupid little grin on her face.

"Zeno has it cut out for her tonight. West has been trained by the legendary fighter Randy Pierre, and is currently undefeated in her MMA record, with 9 wins, no losses, and no draws."

A song I couldn't recognize started playing and the cameras switched to a woman and 3-4 men, plus 3 security guards keeping the crowd away from her.

"First to the cage is the challenger in the blue corner, Jessica Zeno, who has a professional record of 6 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw."

"And then next after this commercial break..." Cat mumbled. "They really know how to draw these out."

I huffed, sitting back and pulling my legs up to my chest, resting my chin on top.

As soon as Jessica was in the cage, I heard the sound of Nico Vega's Beast as the cameras panned to Jade, Beck, Randy, Andre, and some other guy I hadn't seen before.

"Who's the curly haired one?"

Cat glanced up from her phone, "Oh, Robbie? He apparently trained with Jade when she was like, 19 or 20. Jade said he quit fighting cause he never could take a punch to the face and just settled for training her."

I watched as Jade went through the usual protocol of a search and vaseline on her eyebrows and cheeks before stepping into the cage. "What else has she been up to?"

"Well, I've known her for like, a month, maybe two, so I doubt I know more about her than you would."

"You've known her more recently," I sighed, looking back at the screen to see the cameras panning between the two fighters' trainers outside the cage.

Cat got up and refilled her wine glass, "Oh, she's funny when she's been drinking."

"Funny how?"

She laughed, "You know all the different types of drunks? The angry, the sad, the flirty, then there's just the funny. She's the funny drunk. Though to be fair, I've only seen her drunk once or twice, incredible tolerance for alcohol. I guess it's just the way her body works. Though don't get me wrong, she can be a real flirt."

"That so?" I mumbled, watching every movement Jade made on the screen.

"Yeah, kinda how I figured out she's not all vagiterian."

I nearly choked on my drink, wiping a bit off my chin and just laughing, "What the fuck did you just say?"

Cat shrugged, laughing as well, "Vagiterian, you know, gay. I'm surprised you haven't heard that one before."

"Slang like that doesn't flow well around my little group."

"Why's that?"

I tilted my glass around, stirring the soda, "It's just not common conversation – doesn't matter. Now, if you wanna talk slang for drugs, I've heard it all."

Before we even realized it, on the screen Jade was touching gloves with her opponent and the fight was underway. This didn't seem to bother Cat in the slightest, "Is there a lot of it?"

"What?" I asked, not really paying attention to her.

The other woman had charged at Jade without hesitation, throwing a couple sloppy punches, something Jade had told me they do to mess up their opponent, not actually harm them. Jade seemed to be anticipating the onslaught however, and took the hits easily, clinching the fight and keeping her busy while she set up her own attack.

"Drug slang, is there a lot of it?"

I nodded, "Yeah, a whole shit load. It's almost like they run on one bit of it then just accommodate whatever they slur in their highs. Yeah this is what I was sayin' but this is what came out of my mouth, so let's say this from now on."

Cat laughed, "You guys are out of your minds."

"Fucked right up, and it'd be hard to find a junkie that didn't own up to bein' whack. Some may tell you they can quit anytime, not actually addicted, but nah, they know when they're screwed." I sighed and shook my head, "Once you're in, you're done."

She looked over, her smile turning into something else, "You're talking about yourself, aren't you?"

I didn't answer. Looking back at the screen, I caught the final moments of the fight when Jade tripped up the other woman and trapped her arm, forcing her into an arm bar submission. I smiled a bit and got up, going to the kitchen and refilling my glass, this time with vodka in the mix. When I got back, Cat had already turned the TV off and was typing something on her phone.

"Don't suppose you got one of those for me?"

"Does it look like it?"

She cracked a grin and nodded, "You gonna tell me what you meant?"

I picked up a joint and held it between my lips, lighting the tip with an old lighter discarded onto the table. I managed to shake one light out of it before it was done, tossing it as close as I could get it to the trash can, but missing by a few inches. I leaned back and inhaled deeply, waiting until the smoke burned my mouth and my head was in a fog before exhaling.

"You know," I mumbled, looking over my perfectly rolled joint, "The funny thing about all this is no matter how much I want out of this, I'm probably never going to get away."

"What makes you say that?"

I chuckled, "Thing is, when you're in deep like this, the only way you get out is if you end up dead or nobody puts a hit out on you."

Cat plucked the joint from my hand and took a hit of her own, "So what you're telling me is...you're fucked."

"And not in the good way," I quipped, managing to get a smile out of her.

"Leave it to you."

Suddenly we heard a buzzing noise coming from the coffee table, my phone, to be exact. I sighed and picked it up, closing my eyes and cursing when I saw who it was. "Yeah?"

"Got a package waiting for you behind the warehouse."

I rubbed my eyes and exhaled heavily, "I can't drive right now, I'm off my fucking face."

"It wasn't a suggestion. Go get it."

"You got it, babe, but if I die in a wreck its on you."

He let out a small laugh, full of contempt, "You'll be fine. To make it up to you, I'll bring something special back, what do you say?

I got up and turned towards my room, motioning to Cat to stay put. "What are you offering?"

"How about you don't worry about that. You've got a job, get it done."

He hung up and I sighed, tossing the phone onto my bed. I dressed quickly and grabbed my jacket from its place by the door, "I'll be back in a bit."

"You shouldn't be driving," Cat called out.

I ignored her, closing and locking the door behind me and heading down to my car.

"Getting a bit personal, are we, Taylor?"

The man looked over and gave me a cocky grin, "Some business best stays in the shadows, don't you think?"

I checked behind me once more, leaning against the wall, "Right. What have you got for me?"

Taylor handed me a brown paper bag, which I immediately stuffed into my pocket. "Got back in touch with one of the old dealers, new shit comin' in. Steven said he's bringing more down but wanted you to distribute that while he was away."

"Never knew him to go up north for gear."

"Yeah, well, you'd be surprised how limited flights to Miami are right now. Besides, he had to take care of other business. Go on now."

My brows furrowed and I shook my head, "I can't get this shit out before he gets back."

"I wasn't asking, love. You owe me, you haven't forgotten so soon, have you?"

I gritted my teeth and looked away, "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

He shook his head, "No. No, I'll hang this one over your head for quite some time."

"What's it gonna take?"

"Tell you what, you do right by me, and I'll forget what I know."

"Just like that?"

Taylor shrugged and turned to walk away, "Far as you know."

I swore under my breath, turning back to my own car.

I toyed with the gear, thinking about exactly how screwed I was. After arriving home, Cat had given me one look before telling me when we'd be leaving and letting me go. She never asked questions, and for that I was grateful. I tossed the stuff under my bed and tried to go to sleep.

"Tori why does this feel so...weird…?"

"I don't know, babe."

"It's that blue shit isn't it? It's...it's a hotshot."

"I swear I didn't know!"

"Oh shut up. I know this isn't you. This is what I get for talkin'. Grant an old friend a dying wish, would you?"

"What?"

"Fuckin' end him."

"Tori! Come on, get out of bed!"

I sat up and rubbed my eyes, sighing heavily. Cat jumped on my bed and looked at me curiously, "Are you okay? You look kinda...tired."

I shook my head and got up, gathering an outfit from various parts of my room, "I'm fine, just a bad night."

"Tell you what, you go shower, and I'll do your makeup, okay?"

"If that'll make you feel better."

"Fuckin' a, that's a lot of people."

Cat grinned, "Are you surprised? She's popular."

She parked on the side of the road a ways from Jade's actual driveway, since there were about 30 other cars up the driveway and along the street.

"Party like it's a Sunday evening, right?"

"Praise Jesus," she laughed, hopping out of the car and meeting me on the other side to walk across the street.

When we got to the door, Beck was already standing there offering us two beers, "About time you guys got here!"

Cat took one and jokingly shoved him with her shoulder, "We're exactly on time."

"Come on then, they're about to light the fire!"

He led us over to the kitchen and then out the sliding glass door at the far end. We saw far too many people to count hanging around the grill, on the patio, and out in the yard around a massive pile of sticks and debris. Beck pointed in one direction before turning around to talk to Andre, who was tending to some hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill.

"There's Jade," Cat whispered to me, nodding in the same direction Beck had pointed.

Jade was looking as beautiful as always, wearing a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and the sides cut as well. She had her back to us, watching the guys building the fire, while another man stood next to her with his arm around her. He looked to be pretty muscular, but not too outrageously so. From the few times he looked Jade's way, he had an attractive face as well. I hated that I already felt jealous over him.

"Hey Jade!" Cat called out, giving me no option but to follow her the 25 or so yards to where Jade was standing.

She turned around, first noticing Cat, then smiling when she saw me. The man next to her turned around as well, whispering something to her that made her smack him upside the head.

"You bein' bad again, Marco?" Cat laughed.

"Me? No, never!"

Jade rolled her eyes and stepped forward to hug me, whispering to me, "I'm glad you came."

I just smiled back, knowing she could see the blush on my cheeks. A few guys yelling over by the almost-bonfire caught Jade and Marco's attention long enough for me to catch Cat's attention and nod over to Marco, silently asking her who he was. She just gave me a shit eating grin before asking him, "Hey Marco, where's your boyfriend?"

He turned back around momentarily, "He's been helping building the bonfire."

"It's like they're trying to make it as big as possible," Jade grunted.

"Bunch'a size queens, I'm telling you," Marco chuckled.

Cat smiled and tilted her head, "There's a bit of truth to every stereotype don't you think?"

"Jade!" One of the guys from the bonfire called over, "Come give us a hand would you?"

We followed her over to the pile and the same guy as before asked her in an accent I clearly recognized as Australian, "How'd you reckon we light this?"

"Empty boxes. Stick them in then light small bits on the outside, all around."

They proceeded to do exactly that, with four men lighting about 8 boxes all around the pile, waiting a few seconds before it erupted in flames. Jade just smirked and stepped back, "Told you."

We stood around watching the fire for a bit before I heard a familiar voice behind me that chilled my blood, "Hey Giggles, didn't expect to see you here."

Flashback

"Tori, this is Deonte, he's a very good friend of mine."

I looked up at the well-built black man and just giggled, still pinned after a hit, "Hey there."

"What's up with giggles here? First time?"

Steven shook his head, "Nah, just what she does. Deonte here can get you anything you want, and you trust him with your life, you hear?"

"He deals?"

"I will if I get a decent offer. I'm more of a sort of enforcer."

"Essentially he's the one that gets rid of the people who talk or get out of line."

I smiled and shrugged, "I won't get on your bad side then."

End of Flashback

My heart sank. "Deonte."

A/N: Wait...Who was Taylor? Or that girl? And why is someone like Deonte hanging around Jade's parties? Guess we'll find out later...

It's my understanding that bonfires such as the one mentioned here would be illegal in the city, especially somewhere like Los Angeles. However while writing this I was reminded of a party I went to a few years back when they made a bonfire so large you couldn't be within 15 feet without the heat being too much. They would throw in anything that burned, one guy even threw in a shovel and one threw in a wooden chair.

Also, this chapter was written in honor of the Ronda Rousey's 14 second win over the previously undefeated Cat Zingano.