4:30pm... 2 and a half hours before the big date with Jade… and I was getting cold feet. Should I really be doing this? What if she stands me up? What if it's all just a game to her? I was ready to lay all my feelings out bare for her to see while she still tried to hide. But I was hopefully; too hopeful to prepare myself for any heartbreak that could come from this.

Or maybe I was thinking too much into it again.

I sighed and threw myself back onto my bed for the umpteenth time, feeling the bubbling of worry in the pit of my stomach which really didn't help. I'd been sat on the edge of my bed for the past ten minutes, fiddling with my phone, switching between two numbers in my contacts as I contemplated who to call, if anyone at all. The nerves of just the thought of going out somewhere with Jade alone were getting the better of me, no matter how much I wanted this, and her number stayed highlighted on the screen the longest while I tried to decide whether or not I should call the whole thing off, tell her I was sick and couldn't make it.

The second number was Cat's. She was the only person who knew about me and Jade, and therefore was the only person I could go to for advice. She'd also known Jade the longest and the best out of everyone, which was definitely a bonus.

I finally picked a number and my thumb hovered over the call button before I quickly pressed it and put the pear shaped cell up to my ear, listening to it ring as I waited for the girl to answer. I bit my lip, counting the rings; God, I've never been this nervous in my life.

"Tori!"

I almost jumped when Cat's high pitched squeal sounded at the end of the receiver. Taking a second to get my breathing back right, I swallowed.

"Hey Cat!" I said with false cheeriness, hoping she wouldn't see through it. "How's it going?"

"Good." She said, sounding distracted. "I just had to stop my brother giving a kitten a haircut. I think the kitty's okay now, but it's got little patches of hair missing…"

Cat trailed off and I just knew she was stroking said kitten that was probably curled in her lap. I smiled despite myself.

"So, looking forward to your date tonight!" Cat came back, her voice full of excitement.

I spluttered. "I- what- how did you-"

"I was waiting for you two outside your door when Jade asked." The red head said with a giggle. I rolled my eyes; should've known. "Sooo! Are you excited? Where's she taking you?"

The fact that Cat was talking to me like this was any other date started to put my mind at ease, until I realised I had no idea where we were going tonight, just that Jade said she'd pick me up at 7.

"Uh." I ran a hand through my hair as Cat waiting patiently for an answer. "Actually, I'm kind of nervous and I don't know where we're going either."

There was a laugh from the end of the phone and a lot of shifting that sounded like Cat had rolled onto her back. This was followed by a small meow.

"Aww! I'm sorry kitty! Come back!" Cat called; I heard her rolled back over and scrabble across the floor, obviously in search of the near bald kitten. "Ow! Bad kitty! You hurt my finger!"

I could practically hear her pouting and the image of a small, patchy kitten gazing up fearfully at a sad Cat who was sucking on her hurt finger flashed up in my mind. I smiled at the image, but this was majorly diverting from the reason for the phone call.

"Cat, can we get back on track?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't offend the girl.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, Tori!" Cat giggled again; this time a heard her shuffle around and the squeak of springs as she crawled onto her bed. "Anyway, you'll be fine!"

"Are you sure about that?" I asked with a nervous laugh. "How do you this isn't just some big plot to kill me and dump my body for no one to find?" Yeah, that thought had crossed my mind numerous times.

"Tori" Her tone was exasperated, and she turned from bubbly, happy Cat to serious Cat in a matter of seconds. "Jade's not trying to kill you, okay? Whatever's happened in the past is her just defending herself against things and feelings she doesn't understand."

She paused and I had to pull my phone away from my ear to check it was still Cat's number I'd dialled, or see if there was some screw up in signals and I was talking to someone else; this didn't sound like the Cat Valentine I knew at all.

"Tori? Are you still there?" Okay, that definitely sounded like Cat.

I put the phone to my opposite ear. "Yeah, sorry. Continue?"

"She really likes you, Tori." The red head said, willing me to understand. "Really likes you. She may still being trying to work that out herself, but I can tell."

"How can you tell?" I asked quietly.

I think she shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Uh, no!"

She sighed. "Look, Tori, just stop asking questions and go with the flow." I couldn't help but laugh at that. "And stop stalling! You've got a date in almost two hours, and I know it'll take you forever to find an outfit you want to wear."

"How do you know that?" I defended with humour.

"Same way I know that Jade really likes you, I just do! Now, go! Get ready for your big date! And make sure you at least call me afterwards to tell me how it goes, if Jade doesn't beat you to it!"

I shook my head. "Alright, Cat. And thanks, you really made me feel a lot better."

"That's okay!" Her cheery tone was back. "See you Tori!"

"See ya!"

Xxx

I hate to admit it, but Cat was right, it took me a good hour to find an outfit I wanted to wear to meet with Jade. Pieces of clothing now lay littered across my bedroom where I'd taken one glance at them and thrown them over my shoulder in an attempt to search for something just right. But I didn't know what 'just right' was, so, after pretty much emptying my entire wardrobe over the floor I opted for something simple and everyday that hopefully said I wasn't making a big deal out of this and that it was just a casual, uh, date… with a girl that's supposed to hate me.

I stood in front of my full length mirror adjusting the clothes I'd chosen so everything was perfect: black boots, black, slightly faded skinny jeans, a dark purple, off the shoulder shirt… I still wasn't entirely happy, but it'll have to do. I collapsed into my desk chair, glancing up at the mirror before searching the table top for all of the make up pots that sat there, trying to decided which was best: a lot of make up? No make up at all? No, Tori, you're going for casual, remember? You don't want Jade to think you're trying too hard. Ug, why can't I have someone do this for me?

As if on cue, my bedroom door was flung open and in barged Trina waving my toothbrush around in the air and squeezing a tube of toothpaste in the other hand; thankfully the lid was still on.

"Tori! I dropped my toothbrush and didn't want to use it after it had been on the gross floor, so I borrowed yours. I hope you don't-" She was cut off when her foot caught a pair of jeans I'd left on the floor causing her to stumble and my toothbrush to fly out of her hand, narrowly avoiding my face as it clattered onto the desk behind me. "What happened here! It looks like someone set a bomb off in your wardrobe!"

I gingerly picked up my toothbrush that was now covered in Trina's mouth germs and tossed it back at her. "Trina, I'm kind of busy right now." I said, turning back to my mirror and watching her reflection as she studied the clothing on my floor, probably picking stuff out for herself. "You can keep the toothbrush, by the way, but you're buying me a new one."

"Oooh!" I should've known she wouldn't leave. Trina came skipping over to me and rested her chin on my shoulder, gazing at herself in the mirror. "What are you busy with, Tori? Anything I should know about?" She teased then gasped overdramatically. "Are you going on a date!"

I wasn't planning on telling her, but this is Trina, and she has a way of finding out whenever I go on a date. She was hiding in the house when Ryder came over, and she was always hanging around whenever Steven was here, and those were only the most recent, so it was only a matter of time before she found out about this. It was like she had a sixth sense for it. Of course, I wasn't going to tell her who it was with, what was I supposed to say? 'Oh, you know, I may be crushing on Jade and we're going out to try to sort things out and I kinda, possibly am hoping to get something more than friendship out of this. Oh, yeah, and she's a girl.'… that even sounded stupid in my head, Trina would never be able to get a grip on it.

"So, who's the lucky guy so I can introduce myself and he'll see what he's missing out on!" My sister asked. I rolled my eyes.

"It's, um, someone you don't know. And it's not really a date; we're just kind of meeting up." I tried to say nonchalantly, knowing that wouldn't work, but it was worth a try.

"Awww, is little Tori embarrassed about her date?" Trina cooed, smirking at me over my shoulder. "Come on, they can't be that bad… unless it's that Sinjin kid. It's not that Sinjin kid, is it?"

I laughed a little. "No, Trina it's not Sinjin."

"Oh, good!" She actually looked relieved. "You had me worried there for a second."

"Trina, not that I don't want you here, but can you leave?" I asked, starting to feel irritated by my sisters' presence. Honestly, all I wanted was some peace and I really wasn't ready to tell her anything about me and Jade when I was still fuzzy on the details myself.

"Aww, come on, Tori!" She drew out my name in a whiny plea. "You can tell your older, prettier, better sister all about this mystery man of yours!" Suddenly, she gasped again, a look of gleeful realisation on her face. "Oh my God! Is it Beck! Are you going on a date with Beck? Jade will kill you when she finds out!"

"TRINA!" I yelled over her rambling, tempted to hit her over the head with the theatre history book beside me. "It's not Beck! It's not even a guy- a… a guy you know, I mean." I stammered over my slip up, hoping she wouldn't notice. Thankfully, Trina just sighed in defeat.

"Fine!" She huffed "You're just worried he'll take one look at your fantastic sister and fall head over heels for me instead!-"

"Believe me, that's the last thing I'm worried about." I muttered under my breath.

"But, I will find out who he is." Trina attempted to threaten as she backed out of the room. "Mark my words, baby sis. I will find out."

Xxx

Five to seven. I don't usually curse, but oh fuck, was I nervous! It wasn't just nerves, though; I was kind of excited too, thinking about the possibility of where this could lead, if it all went right. But if it all went wrong…

I'd tried to sit down on the couch and wait comfortably for Jade to arrive, but I couldn't keep still, I was just overflowing with nervous energy that I needed to get rid of. I automatically started pacing up and down in front of the tv, wringing my hands, looking up at the clock every five seconds to watch the time pass, just waiting. As I glanced up to see the bigger hand tick- four minutes to seven- something caught my eye. A high heeled, nosey something who was trying to hide under the kitchen table while watching me.

"TRINA!" I shouted, storming over to where she crouched.

Trina jumped, smacking her head on the underside of the table as she did. "OW! TORI! Look what you made me do!" She cried, pushing chairs out of the way as she crawled to her feet.

"Serves you right for spying on me!" I retaliated.

"Am I bleeding?" She moaned, patting her head then checking her hand for blood.

"Who cares! Just… just go upstairs and out of my way!" I shrieked, pointing to the stairs.

Thankfully, she did as I said, not without a lot of complaining about possible concussion. I looked up at the clock again to see it tick: one minute to. Well, at least Trina had distracted me from my worry, but that all came flooding back as the sound of the doorbell rang through the house. Tripping over my own feet in my hast, I practically threw the door open to reveal a slightly stunned Jade, who raised her brows at me, her hand hovering in the air where she was still slowly withdrawing it from the bell.

"Someone's in a rush." She stated as I slammed the door closed behind me, hoping Trina wouldn't come running back downstairs.

"My sister's hanging around." I replied. "I don't really- She wouldn't under- Can we just go?" I stumbled through, feeling awkwardly embarrassed now.

Jade nodded and lead me silently into her car. She was wearing black, slightly flared jeans, a silver studded belt glinting out from under a plaid shirt that covered a black tank top. Good, she'd gone for casual too. That was good, right? I suppose it's better than me going casual and her dressing up all smart and sophisticated… Okay, Tori, you've really got to stop over thinking things.

"So, where are we headed?" I asked, forcing my voice calm.

"Just a little restaurant I know." Jade replied. We were already on the road and driving away from my house, there was no turning back now. "It's kinda out of the way, so you don't have to worry about us running into anyone we know."

"I, uh, I wasn't worried-" I spluttered, but she interrupted.

"It's okay, I understand. This is weird for me too, you know."

"Right." I said quietly, sinking back into the car seat as I tried to relax.

Most of the car journey was silent, a surprisingly comfortable silence. Jade was considerably a better driver than Trina, until she took an unexpected swerve, slamming me against the passenger side door.

"Sorry." She said genuinely, glancing over at me before squinting into the rear-view mirror. "I had to. I think someone's tailing us. I've seen the same car at least five times already." I clambered round to peer over my seat at the car behind. "No, not that one. I lost it when I swerved."

"Oh, good." I said, relieved. Why would someone be following us? It must just be a coincidence.

We arrived at the restaurant without anymore random turnings or bruised arms. It was a small, quaint place tucked away on the outskirts of town, the sort of place I'd never been to before with anyone and I couldn't hide my surprise when we pulled up; I hadn't expected Jade to take me to anywhere like this. The tattooed girl smirked at my reaction and stepped out, throwing and catching her keys in one hand as she walked around the front of the car. I went to follow, but before I'd even put my hand on the handle, Jade had opened the door for me, holding out a hand which I took without question.

"Thanks." I said, slightly stunned, even more so when I received a smile in return and, as I went to let go, Jade just laced our fingers together, tugging me towards the place.

I looked down at our entwined hands, then back up at Jade, who shrugged, still smiling. Wow, this is not what I envisioned, at all, although all my thoughts had involved either a sullen, sulky Jade who didn't really want anything to do with me...or a body bag. She even seemed a bit befuddled by her own behaviour as well, but neither of us wanted to let go, so we walked to the entrance hand in hand, Jade even holding the door open for me again as we went in.

The place was small and cosy, a few people sat at the round tables dotted here and there, enough to be busy, but nothing too bad. A kindly, old woman showed us to our seats the minute we stepped in; flashing us what looked like an approving smile when she noticed our joined hands. Jade sat across from me in the small, corner booth, complete with dark red, velvet seats as the woman came back with a couple of menus and took our drink order.

"No bolognaise for you." She winked, and I shook my head with a smile, surprised by how comfortable I was feeling.

"Yeah, yeah, and no shrimp for you." I said, opening the menu then closing it almost immediately in shock. "Jade!" I hissed, leaning over as the waitress made her way back "The prices!"

"My treat." She replied, taking her drink with a nod of thanks, dismissing the lady as we weren't ready to order.

"Okay." I said slowly as I sat back in my seat, putting the menu down and crossing my arms, eyebrow raised. This was too weird. "Who are you and what have you done with Jade West?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning forward over the table with her fingers clasped together in front of her. "Tori, look." She said seriously, taking a deep breath in. "I… I'm trying to make things up to you." Jade paused and ran a hand through her hair. "I did a lot of thinking last night and I realised that maybe I haven't been the kindest person to you."

I scoffed; I couldn't help myself. That was a bit of an understatement.

"Alright, so I've been a total gank to you ever since I've known you. But, I dunno-" She sighed. By the sound of it Jade had been planning what to say all last night, but just couldn't put it into words. "All this, whatever, that's going on between us, I think, maybe that's why I was like that, because I was in denial about it… or something." She shook her head and gave a soft laugh. "That's what Cat's been telling me anyway, and I guess she's right."

"She's pretty clever, isn't she?" I said, grinning despite myself.

"Yeah, that she is. I wouldn't even be here without her; I almost didn't come to pick you up." I frowned at this. "I called her before I came out, you know, this whole denial thing was acting up." Jade waved a hand dismissively.

"You and I both." I admitted, to which she laughed.

"Yeah, so." She sat back up straight again and began browsing the menu. "Just sit there, smile and roll with it. That's what I'm doing. Make this as normal as possible."

I nodded just as the waitress came back with her notepad and I made sure to order the least expensive thing on the menu, feeling guilty about having Jade pay for it all. It didn't take long for our meals to arrive and, by that time, we'd fallen into a comfortable conversation about school, our common ground, and the latest projects we had to work on. Jade was nice, kind of polite, but had to make a snide comment here and there- "Well, I haven't changed, I'm just being a bit nicer" She'd defended.

This continued as we ate, but the longer we were there, the more Jade seemed to get distracted by something over my shoulder, squinting at whatever it was like she had done to the car that was tailing us before.

"What is it?" I asked, attempting to sneak a peek over my shoulder at whatever it was. A woman sat in the booth behind us, her face partly covered by the menu she was reading, but, as I watched, she shooed the waitress away when she came over to take an order.

"She looks sort of familiar, don't you think?" Jade asked quietly. I turned back to face her, frowning. The woman did look pretty familiar. "I think she was the one following us in the car."

"Really?" I chanced a glance back at the woman who looked up just as I did, freezing in the action of lowering the menu… oh my God.

"Trina!" I shrieked, jumping up from my seat, immediately followed by Jade and my sister, who, now I could really see, had only done her make up differently and puffed her hair up so it was bigger in what looked like a lame attempt at disguise. I would've wondered how she had the time to do such things between banging her head on the table and me getting into Jades car, but I knew she kept who knows how many make up and hair styling products in her car and had a habit of not keeping her eyes on the road.

"Uh, Tori!" She said in a fake tone of surprise. "Didn't expect to see you here!"

"Cut the crap, Vega." Jade barged forward, slipping back into the Jade I knew well, rather than the sweet, nice one I'd been chatting to just moments before. "You're spying on us."

Trina took a little step back, cowering under Jades accusing glare. We were already attracting some looks, so I hurried forward and stepped between them, although I faced my sister with a similar stare. I opened my mouth to say something, but Trina spoke first.

"Wait, us?" She asked, gawping from me to Jade and back again. "Tori, this is you date!"

"This!" Jade repeated through gritted teeth, raising her fist as she tried to push past me, but I held her back.

"I thought you were both waiting for your dates. But-" Trina continued, her brow furrowed as she pointed between the two of us. "You two? Really?"

"Trina, just go home." I pleaded quietly, a hint of desperation in my voice. Only my sister would do something like this to attempt to steal my date, which was no doubt what she was planning, up until she found out who it was. I knew she wouldn't understand. "I'll explain later, but could you please just leave us alone!"

She was about to protest, but Jade made a noise akin to a growl which Trina jumped at before nodding and practically fleeing the building, still with a look of utter shock on her face. I sighed as I collapsed back in my seat, head dropping into my hands in despair. Jade sat beside me and patted my back in an awkward, yet comforting way, although I could tell she was pretty pissed off.

"I'm so sorry." I said, sitting back up. I knew this was going too good to be true, trust it to be Trina to ruin it.

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to bratty, nosey siblings." The taller girl muttered. "Forget it. Let's finish up here and then I'll take you home and we can kill her."

I made a noise of agreement as I sipped my drink. "I might just do that."

Xxx

An hour later we pulled into my drive way. With the Trina incident pushed to the back of our minds, we managed to get everything back on track, our conversation now changing from school to our families. I'd learnt a lot about Jade tonight from things like her parents being divorced because her 'father screwed around with some bitch behind mom's back, got her pregnant then dropped irritating brat of a half-sister into my life' to little things like she ate her food in a specific order around the plate and wiped her mouth with her napkin both before and after she had a drink, habits she'd had since she was younger, so she told me when I was caught staring at her doing so. I think she learnt some stuff about my family life too, particularly about Trina, as the two of us spent about ten minutes ranting about how much of a pain she can be. Although, I did defend her in some cases, after all, she is my sister, and she's not all bad.

"Well, thank you for tonight." I said when we came to a stop outside my house and I undid my seatbelt. "It was… nice. Different, but nice… for lack of a better word." I added.

"Nice is good." Jade shrugged "Would you like a hand murdering your sister?"

"Would you like to explain to my parents why we're murdering her?" I asked with a laugh.

"Good point." Jade smiled, but there was an awkward presence now, both of us knowing we had to say goodbye, but how?

"Well then" I said, fumbling with the door handle. "See you at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah…"

I nodded, going to opened the door, but Jade placed a hand on my knee, stopping me instantly.

"Wait, Ve- Tori." She'd been doing that all evening, going to use my last name then changing part way though. I think it was part of her plan to be nice to me, but, as she said, calling me 'Vega' was habit. I'd told her I didn't mind, but she insisted. "This stays between me and you, for now, at least. Okay?"

I nodded. "And Cat and Trina, I guess."

"Them too." Jade rolled her eyes. There was a slightly tense moment where neither of us spoke or moved, until Jade shifted round in her seat to face me full on. "I had a nice night."

"Me too." I said, letting go of the door handle to turn to her.

"Maybe we could do it again sometime? You're paying, though" She grinned.

"Oh, nice, invite me on a date then make me pay!" I joked, my smile faltering a little when I realised what I'd said. "Uh, not that you invited me on a date or-"

"Tori." Jade interrupted, smiling at me. "Call it a date if you want, I don't care. By definition, I would say it is."

I laughed a little in relief.

"I should probably be going now." I said reluctantly, jerking my thumb in the direction of my house.

"Oh, yeah, sure. But wait just a moment." I looked at Jade in confusion as she undid her own seat and shimmied around, closing the distance between us to capture my lips in a fleeting kiss that made my heart skip a beat as it leapt in my chest. She pulled back with a smirk, buckling her seatbelt up again. "Now get out before I make you."

"I'm out!" I said, jumping down to the drive way, beaming. "G'night!"

"Whatever." She replied, a smile still breaking her face, before I slammed the door too and made my way up to the house, Jade driving off behind me.

I got inside, expecting to find Trina waiting for me, but she wasn't there. This made me partly relieved, yet also concerned; where'd she go after she left the restaurant? I wandered slowly upstairs to my bedroom, looking around for any sign that my sister may suddenly just out at me from somewhere, but by the time I got to my room, there was still no sign of her. Weird. I opened my door and flicked the switch on, by now expecting to see her perched on my bed waiting to have a serious talk with me about what I'd been up to, however, in the place I thought she'd be sat a folded note with my name written on in her fancy handwriting, the 'i.' dotted with a little heart. Utterly baffled, I crossed the room in a few quick strides, flipping open the paper as I fell back onto my bed.

Tori.

I don't care what you are, who you're with or anything like that, just as long as you're happy. Remember that, okay? I'm your sister and I love you no matter what. And, I guess I'm sorry for following you, I probably shouldn't've done that.

The only reason I'm writing instead of telling you is because you take way too long to get home and I am not missing out on my vital beauty sleep just to have you explain things I probably won't understand.

We'll talk about this properly some other time, okay? Just be careful, Tori, Jade's hurt you enough when she didn't even like you, I don't want to see you hurt. I'm your big sister just looking out for you.

Good night, and lots of hugs and kisses- no homo.

Trina.

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the handwritten note I held, but I knew I wanted to get it framed and hang it on my wall somewhere. The last note I'd received from my sister was a shopping list, so this certainly made a change.

Grinning from ear to ear, I changed into my night clothes and climbed into bed, drifting off into a peaceful, very happy slumber.

A/N: Okay, to be totally honest with you, I'm not 100% happy with how this on turned out, but, I'm afraid it's the best I'm going to come up with, I can't write dates. (Excuse:1)
I promise the next chapter will be better, and more planned, as these last two have sort of been spontaneous, random words that poured out of me while I sit in front of my laptop. (Excuse:2)

Tell me what you think... if you don't like it, I'll make it up to you, I swear.

Cheese filled ending is cheesy. But it's 3am here, so wat'cha gunna do? =P (Excuse:3)