With eyes red and swollen, pale cheeks splattered with dried tears and hair a tousled mess, Jade lost a great deal of coolness that she normally carried with her, but the dangerous glare that was tossed Tori's way was still as sharp as ever. At the last second, Tori was able to stop the door from closing, her hands pushing against it with all her might and foot sticking between door and frame. "Please Jade. Let me in," Tori pleaded, trying to keep Jade from crushing her foot. Jade's grip on the door lessened a little but not enough for Tori to be able to get inside.

"I don't want to see you," Jade lowly pushed out, daggers shooting out of her eyes and piercing through Tori's skull.

"I know and I understand. I do." The brunette gave the door a slight push. "I was so stupid yesterday and I came to apologize. I'm really sorry for everything I said yesterday."

"Great. Then you can go now."

Jade made another move of closing the door but stopped when a hiss left Tori's mouth. Blue eyes looked at the sneaker clad foot jammed between the door and the doorframe before they flicked back up to the pained face of the tan woman, Jade's hands pulling the door back again to ease the tension for Tori's foot. "Let me in for just a couple of minutes," Tori said after pulling her foot back and shaking out the slight pain, "I promise I'll leave when you have enough of me."

Tori shot her what she hoped was a charming smile and could almost see the wheels in Jade's head turning and clicking. After a couple of seconds of carefully staring at Tori, Jade hesitantly pulled the door open. Relieved, Tori walked inside. "I'll give you five minutes," Jade told her after closing the door, arms defensively crossed over her chest.

"Okay," Tori breathed and smiled before a frown took over. "I really didn't want to hurt you yesterday, Jade. I know I overstepped my boundaries."

Jade snorted and shook her head as she looked away from the brunette. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Yeah." Tori nodded, gripping the strap of her bag a little tighter. "I really am sorry. I… You were right, I didn't know Amelia and I… I shouldn't have acted like… like I acted." Tori pushed out an embarrassed chuckle but Jade's face stayed as hard as stone.

"Four minutes."

Tori's eyebrows shot up, her weight transferring from one foot to the other. "Oh. Yeah, um…" Tori didn't really know why her heart was pounding so hard in her chest, but she was almost sure it had something to do with Jade's eyes, which moved back to her face and harshly glared at her. A sigh was pushed past Tori's lips and after briefly closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, Tori started again. "Jade, I meant what I said yesterday. You are my friend and I care about you, so much. And of course I'm not mad at you for not telling me about Amelia. That just slipped out of my mouth but… I didn't mean it."

A muscle in Jade's jaw flickered, her eyes still flashing dangerously. "Three minutes."

"Could you stop that?" Tori's voice was strained as she frowned at Jade. "I'm trying to apologize to you."

"For what exactly?"

"For what-" Tori's eyebrows furrowed. "Didn't you listen to a word I said?"

"I did," Jade calmly said, her face relaxing a bit.

Tori looked at her warily and made a motion with her hand. "Then what-"

"God Tori, just go, alright?" Jade closed her eyes and turned away from her, waving her hand towards the door. She sniffled, a hand running through black hair and her feet slowly carrying her over to the kitchen while Tori stayed glued to the spot, looking after Jade with a deep frown on her face. In a last weak and desperate attempt Tori sighed and took a step closer to where Jade was standing. "Jade… I didn't want to… destroy our friendship like that." Jade glanced at her but didn't say anything. "I'm sorry. I can't say that enough. Hurting you is really the farthest thing from my mind."

Jade stayed quiet but this time, she really looked at Tori. Her eyes flicked all over her face, then locked on her eyes in a strong gaze. "I have a question," she quietly stated and Tori nodded for her to go on. "Did you know about Cat and her stupid idea?"

Tori frowned. "What idea?"

Jade narrowed her eyes as she watched confusion flicker over Tori's face, wondering if it was genuine. She called her name and asked her what she meant and Jade's face softened as she realized that Tori really didn't have a clue what Jade was talking about. "Cat wanted to hook us up." Tori's frown only deepened, the confusion on her face almost comical. "How… How do you know that? I mean, did she… did she say that?"

Jade shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "Does it matter how I know about it?"

"I… I guess not." Tori's hands clasped together and her brows tugged down as she let her eyes travel over Jade's tired face. It kind of made sense, the way Cat always pushed them together. And truthfully, Tori really wouldn't have anything against it. Jade was interesting, beautiful and Tori would lie if she said that she wasn't attracted to her in the slightest bit. But she also knew that her attraction for her was futile, seeing as the pale woman was still too attached to her fiancée. "You're mad at her," Tori stated and watched as Jade's face took on a whole new level of incredulity.

"Of course I am! I'm not a doll that she can just play with like this!"

"I'm sure she just wanted to help you. But," Tori accentuated and held her hand up when Jade's eyes flashed with anger again and her mouth opened to retort something, "I understand that you're mad at her. I would be too if I was… you know, in… in your situation."

Jade nodded, flabbergasted that Tori seemed to agree with her and didn't try to tell her that she was possibly overreacting like Aiden had tried to. Maybe she didn't do it, just because she didn't want to get kicked out by her, maybe she really understood her, Jade wasn't so sure, but it didn't really matter to her anyways. "Well… I'm going to go talk to her." With that Jade turned around, leaving Tori confusedly staring after her.

"What, now?"

"Of course now," Jade said as she came to a halt and turned back around to face Tori, "I can't wait to hear what she has to say." There was a pause in which Jade's eyes traveled over Tori's face, contemplating something. "You should go now."

She was ready to turn around again but was stopped once again by Tori's voice. "Are we okay?"

Pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows didn't give anything away. "We'll see," Jade murmured before disappearing into the bathroom.

…

"Hi… Jade…" Cat stuttered out when her eyes fell on Jade standing on her doorstep. "Come on in."

Boot clad feet didn't make any sound as Jade stepped over the threshold, her hands stuffed in the pockets of her black jacket. Blue eyes fell on Cat's curly haired fiancé unsurely standing in the doorway of the living room. He cleared his throat, then walked closer and flicked his eyes from Jade to Cat. "I'll leave you two alone," he quietly said and walked past Jade, and into his office.

"Um… Do- do you want something to drink? Or eat? Come on, let's go into the kitchen."

Not one word had left Jade's mouth since she got here and that didn't change as Cat carefully led her into the kitchen, quietly asked her to sit down at the table and poured her a glass of water. The redhead watched as her friend took a careful sip before lowering the glass to the table. A tense feeling built up inside of Cat when the room stayed silent. She stayed glued to the spot, not having the courage to sit down across from Jade.

Eventually, after the most uncomfortable silence Cat had to endure in her life, Jade shook her head and gripped the glass in her hands even tighter to the point where Cat was scared it would break at any second. "Why did you do that?"

Jade's voice was quiet, hurt, and Cat felt herself being punched in the stomach at the thought that she was the one who caused her best friend such pain. The redhead breathed out a shaky sigh and looked at her hands. "Tori… she seemed… into you."

"She seemed into me?"

"Y-Yes, and… then I thought… that maybe you and her could…"

She left her sentence dangling in the air and shrugged her shoulders, not daring to look up at the woman sitting at the kitchen table. She looked like a sad little kid, Jade thought as she surveyed Cat with pursed lips and creased eyebrows, but her sympathy for the redhead was kept within limit right now. "Do you even know what you're saying?" Jade asked and narrowed her eyes. Cat glanced up. "You push Tori into this, into… into your little plan of forcing me into a new relationship and don't even feel bad about it. You used her, Cat."

"What? No, I didn't use her. I wanted-"

"Yeah, I get it," Jade interrupted, waving her hand dismissively, "You wanted to play matchmaker. But you forgot to consider one thing. I don't want anyone else. And you knew that. But still, you pushed Tori and me together like you're a freaking fairy and we were some kind of stupid Disney characters! We're people, Cat! Real people! You can't just play with us like that!"

It was eerily silent after the last word left Jade's mouth until Cat's quiet voice broke through. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Or Tori."

"Why did you do it then?"

Early on in her and Jade's friendship Cat had learned that a silent and calm Jade is even worse than a yelling and insulting Jade. And now, Jade silently sat there, her eyes storming with emotions, jaw tightly locked and breathing deep. Cat knew that, even though her friend was quietly sitting there and maybe even appeared calm to people who didn't know her that well, Jade was seething.

"I just thought… you know, you needed to… you needed to move on sometime and-"

"And you thought, 'oh, what better way to make Jade move on than to find a replacement for Lia'?"

Cat's eyes blinked rapidly, tears already starting to well up. "No! N-no, it wasn't like that!"

Jade's arm flared out, hitting the glass of water that stood on the wooden table and sending it flying to the floor. Cat flinched as the shrill sound of glass breaking reverberated in her ears before Jade's loud and angry voice almost made the walls in the kitchen shake. "How was it then, Cat?!"

"Not like you think! I just want you to be happy!" Cat's voice cracked as she almost screamed at Jade, tears now spilling over and running down her cheeks. Jade stood up and walked around the table, the shattered glass scrunching under her black boots as she walked to stand in front of Cat. "You want me to be happy, huh? But you know what you make me? You make me even more miserable! That's what you do!"

"What's going on here?"

Both pairs of eyes – angry blue ones and desperate brown ones – flew towards the source of the adamant voice and found Robbie standing in the entryway of the kitchen, his dark eyebrows tugged down. Jade sucked in a breath through her nose before turning back to the redhead. "Was he in on this too?"

Cat's wide eyes moved from her fiancé to her best friend. "No! No, he-"

"Don't freaking lie to me!"

Cat flinched away. She squeezed her eyes shut, one hand lifting to muffle the loud sob that broke through her throat. Almost in an instant Robbie was by her side, part of his body stepping in front of her to shield her from Jade. "Will you tell me what's going on here?"

"Oh, gladly," Jade spit out, a menacing grin on her lips, "Your precious little fiancée wanted me to fall in love with Tori so that I would forget about Amelia."

"That's not true," Cat shouted from behind Robbie, tears still steadily streaming down her face, "I would never want you to forget about Lia! She was my friend! And Tori wasn't supposed to be a replacement either!"

"No? What then? Did you think we would fall madly in love with each other and live happily ever after? God Cat, grow up!" Jade's chest heaved up and down, her nostrils flaring and eyes flashing with an intensity that neither Robbie nor Cat had seen in a long time. "You're my best friend! You are supposed to understand and support me and not go behind my back just because you're sick of me being alone!"

"I'm not sick of you," Cat shouted in a shrill voice and dug her fingers tightly into Robbie's arm, "I told you I want you to be happy!"

"Stop saying that!" Her nails dug into her palms, so tightly, and Jade turned around, resisting the urge to throw or punch something. Instead, she kicked at the shards underneath her, sending one particular big one flying through the door and into the living room.

"Jade, calm down," Robbie forcefully told his friend, not even blinking when Jade whirled back around and hotly glowered at him. "Don't tell me what to do."

"Do you think Lia would like to see you like this?" His question made her tense, her nostrils flaring again as she took in a deep breath. "You're angry, I get that, but don't act up like this. We can talk about this. Calmly."

Cat sniffled behind him but Robbie kept his eyes on Jade, who ground her teeth together and didn't do anything other than stare at him. Eventually, she took a step forward, the glass crunching under her feet, and shook her head. "Stop using Amelia as your way of reasoning with me," she murmured lowly, "It's cheap."

After shooting one last look at Cat, the redhead being a silently crying mess, Jade made her way out of the kitchen without uttering another word and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

…

It was late, the sky already tinted a dark blue and twinkling stars hiding behind thick clouds, when Jade stood in front of Tori's door with her arms crossed and eyes a stormy shade of blue and green. "Jade, I… come in."

The woman completely clad in black shook her head and simply said "I talked to Cat."

The words hung in the air for a while, with neither one of them saying anything, before Tori slowly nodded her head. "Oh. What did she say?"

Jade shrugged her shoulders, her arms breaking the shield she held up in front of her body. "Not much. Nothing… worth repeating." She paused, frowning. "I wanted to apologize to you."

The words that left Jade's mouth made Tori's eyebrows crease in confusion and her lips form a puzzled smile. "Apologize. For what?"

"Cat shouldn't have dragged you into this. I mean, I…" Jade shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Cat and her crazy ideas. She's always been like that but this time… she just crossed the line."

Tori let her body fall against the doorframe, crossing her arms. "She just meant well. It may have been the wrong approach but… she didn't want to hurt you. I'm sure about that."

"I know," Jade sighed, running a hand through her hair, "but I'm still… mad. Disappointed."

Tori smiled weakly. "I know."

One corner of Jade's lips lifted in half a smile. Then, she took a deep breath, looked at her feet and shook her head. "Well, I just wanted to drop by to tell you that. I'll get going now."

Tori nodded but before Jade could go, the brunette pushed herself off the doorframe and hesitantly called after her. "Jade?"

Jade turned back around, raising expectant eyebrows. Taking in a deep breath and training hopeful eyes on Jade's, Tori repeated her question from earlier that day. "Are we okay?"

Tori's heart slowed down as she waited for an answer, an answer that would hopefully be a little more positive than just 'we'll see'. But Jade stayed quiet, her face full of hesitation and her bright eyes staring at her. She opened her mouth and Tori felt hope arising inside of her just to have it crushed again when Jade reconsidered and snapped her mouth shut. "Goodnight Tori," was all she said before she quickly flew down the stairs and disappeared into the snowy night.