Tori's POV

I'm awoken by a beeping sound coming from behind me. I will It to go away but it doesn't, increasing in volume instead. I groan in annoyance and roll over, hitting the top of the damn alarm clock in an unnecessarily reprehensive manner, as if it would sense my displeasure with it and not go off in the future. 6am? Why the hell would Jade need to get up at 6? School doesn't start until 8.30. Why would anyone need two and a half hours to get ready? I sit up on the bed and turn to look at Jade's still sleeping form.

There's a sliver of light coming through a crack where her curtains are not fully pulled together, making her pale skin look more radiant, her smooth black hair look even shinier. The light illuminates her features perfectly, making her look like an angel basking in the glow of a heavenly light. Rather fitting, I think, since she is definitely one in my eyes.

Through the course of the night, the comforter previously covering us moved to rest on her waist and I currently had the perfect view of her back. I notice a few scars littering the plane of her back, and a wave of sadness washes over me. Someone actually had the heart to hurt her till she bled. I'm tempted to reach out and run my fingers over them, but I don't want to wake Jade up.

I continue watching her, completely mesmerized by her beauty. She eventually feels my eyes on her and starts to stir. She groans and slowly sits up, exposing her top half to me, and I can clearly see the bruises that whoever left her. Her jaw has gone back to normal but the bruise on her chest has gotten darker. It's worse than the ones that Trina gets after her karate practice, but it's nothing that won't fade away in a couple of days. There's another fading hand shaped bruise on her arm, looks to be about a day or two old. Even with the scars and bruises, she still reflects a perfect image of grace and beauty.

She doesn't acknowledge me at all, she just gets up from the bed, moving over to her mirror to check her bruises. She seems satisfied with her healing process, and goes into the bathroom to get washed up. I fall back onto the bed, resting my hands behind my head. I've got the largest pair of scissors I've ever seen in my life hanging in a frame between my eyes. If that frame were to break, I'd be a dead girl for sure. How is it that a girl who sleeps peacefully with a potential murder weapon hanging above her head, can allow herself to get beat up that badly and do nothing about it?

I hear the tap shut off and the bathroom door swings open, Jade emerging wearing a grey hoodie and some running shorts. She comes over to the bed and sits cross legged beside me, and it's only then that I notice scratch marks on her inner thighs. "So...I guess you want to know what's going on huh?"

I nod and she reaches under her bed, pulling out a bottle of vodka. "Fine Vega, but you better not tell anyone, ever. Deal?" I shake her outstretched hand and she takes a swig of the liquid, straight out of the bottle.

5 years ago, Jade's POV

"Come on Jade, it's storming. We've gotta leave soon, you don't want to be late for your dinner party now do you?"

Donned in a mid-length black dress, I slip on my silver heels and fly down the stairs. Beck and I had been dating for about 6 months now, and his family had invited me over for a small family get-together dinner. A warm smile is etched on my mother's face, proudly gazing at me. My father, who is sitting on his arm chair, also wore a similar expression. Me dressing up nicely was a rare sight, since I always insisted on wearing my intimidating black outfits.

"You look beautiful tonight, young lady," my father comments, as I walk past him and towards my waiting mother.

"Absolutely beautiful," she adds, giving me daughter a hug and a light kiss on my forehead.

"Thank y-"

"Yeah yeah, she looks like a fairy princess, now let's get a move on, before my life slips away completely." Jessica yells, standing up from where she was waiting on the porch steps.

I give my father a small smile and wave as mother ushers Jessica and I out of the house, quickly running through the rain to mother's Corolla, and drive off.

Jessica turns on the radio pulls down the sun visor mirror and touches up her make up, while I sits in the backseat, fiddling with my phone. "So Jadey, what's going on at Beck's tonight?" she asks, looking at me through the mirror as she caps her eyeliner.

"Hmm..nothing much, just a family dinner and dessert," I replies, not looking up from my phone.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you'll be having dessert tonight" she hints with a smirk. My downcast face flushes slightly and mother shakes her head, clicking her tongue disapprovingly.

"Jessica...don't tease your sister like that. You know she won't be getting up to such activities, will you Jade?" mother counters warningly, looking at me through the rear view mirror as she pulls up to a stoplight.

"No, mother, I'll behave myself," I respond obediently. Mother nods and fishes out her phone, scrolling through it while waiting for the light to turn. It eventually does and she puts the car back into drive, slowly accelerating forward.

All of a sudden, the squealing of rubber against rubber is heard over the sound of the rain pounding heavily on top of the car. A horn blares out of nowhere and a pair of headlights shine glaringly into the car. There wasn't enough time to react. The car hit us face on, and I thought that the impact was going to shatter my body on the spot. It happened so fast, one moment I was hearing the bloodcurdling scream of my mother, the next moment I was blinking away my blurry red vision, and I could hear the sound of a car rushing away. I could see cuts all over my body, pieces of glass lodged in my arm and bent metal pressing painfully into my body. An excruciating pain shot up from my legs, and I looked down to see them crushed between the driver's seat and my own. The fact that it was raining didn't help at all, the water seeping painfully into my cuts and eyes. I heard Jessica groaning softly in pain, her breath coming out in soft shallow pants. My mother, on the other hand, was completely silent, and I feared the worst for her. I try to pull my body from the wreckage but I'm completely stuck. Through my blurred vision, I manage to spot the light of my phone within my reach, somewhere in the rubble. I gritted my teeth and powered through, reaching for my phone to make the 911 emergency call. I still had a bit in me left after I made the call, so I sent a short message to Beck.

To: Beckett Oliver
Hey Beck, I won't be able to make it for dinner tonight, emergency family business. I'll make it up to you, I promise.
x Jade

I hit send and then my world turned black.

I woke up to the feeling of being lifted and placed onto a soft surface. I hear someone yelling at me to stay with him. I try my best to lift my heavy eyelids, and I finally manage to when they put the oxygen breathing mask on me. There's a man in a dark blue shirt staring down at me but I pay no attention to him, frantically looking around for Jessica and mom. I see another man zipping up a black body bag and tears start to well up in my eyes. No, she can't be dead. The man pushes away the stretcher and starts zipping up another body bag. Fuck no, they can't both be gone. No, I need them to stay here with me. A lump forms in my throat and my tears start to fall freely. I sit up, trying to get to them, but a sharp pain shoots through my body and I black out again.

Present, Tori's POV

I watch as Jade takes another long swig of Vodka, finishing up the entire bottle by herself. She's been doing it the entire time while she's been telling her story. She's slightly tipsy for a while now, lying down on her bed, fiddling with Mr Bugsy. She's been crying a little, making her nose red and eyes puffy. She didn't continue her story, just kept on playing aimlessly with Mr Bugsy.

She looks so childlike, but yet so broken and helpless. It's then that my eyes were really open to see Jade West for who she really is. Since the very first day we met, I've put Jade on this pedestal. She always held herself with strength and confidence, commanding respect from people, never letting anyone get in the way of anything she set her heart out to do. Plus, her amazing acting, singing and script writing on top of all that, it made me look up to. I saw her as a figure of perfect, something that couldn't be broken, like a bulletproof sculpture, intricately carved by the careful hands of God, put on display for all the word to admire. But now, I see her as flesh and blood, who is just as, if not more, delicate and fragile as me. Someone with actual feelings, someone who could be hurt by the world. I saw her as a human.

This realization pained me. How many other people saw Jade the way I used to see her? How much pain and neglect has she endured because people thought she couldn't be broken? Who did Jade have to lean on? Certainly not her mother or sister, nor her father with their strained relationship. She used to have Beck but since they've broke up she's been alone. There's been nobody there for Jade.

"Jade, I'm so sorry...I didn't know," I say to her, my own tears welling up in my eyes.

"Why would you know Vega? Nobody knows, except Cat, not even Beck knows. I just told him that they moved away to a boarding school in New York. And don't be sorry, they've gotten off easy, skipped out on this hell hole we call life." She says, throwing the empty vodka bottle into the trash bin next to her study desk. Even while tipsy, her aim is still impeccable, the bottle landing nicely in the bin, shattering inside.

"Wait, Cat knows? As in ditsy, Caterina Valentine, the hugger, Cat knows?"

She nods, "Don't under estimate Cat, that girl is a lot more than she lets on."

Well, you learn something new everyday. "Thanks for sharing that with me Jade, it means a lot to me, that you'd tell me something that you wouldn't even tell Beck."

"Don't mention it Vega, really. Don't ever mention it," she warns, sitting up from her reclined form on the bed. "I'll tell you the rest of the story some other time. Now move your sweet ass, we've got a play to perform at school."

Whoa guys, did you know that changing the character A and B search between Tori and Jade actually makes a difference in the results? Because I didn't. I think should get on that horse and fix that because honestly that's just darn stupid.

So that's what Jade meant when she said her mom and sister no longer live with her, and that she hopes they're in a better place. All comments, suggestions, and critiques welcome!