New story, set a couple of years after high school. This will be a multi-part one. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks!

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Tori Vega was attempting to change a lightbulb, a task she was unenthusiastic about and technically unprepared for, when there was a knock at the door of her apartment. She roundly cursed whoever it was in advance, climbed down from the kitchen chair and flung the door open, only to discover that Fate wanted her to come out to play. She found herself staring straight into a pair of clear, blue-green eyes.

"Jade?" Six months ago she would have given anything to see those eyes again, now she felt as though she'd been kicked in the gut. They stood there, face to face, frozen for a moment.

"Hi," Jade said eventually, and Tori was gratified to see that the other girl at least had the grace to look uncomfortable. She made no move to let her in.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just... I was passing, and... I thought I'd come and see how you were."

It was clearly a lie, but she let it go. "You're about six months too late for that."

"I know." Jade gaze dropped to the floor. "I'm sorry," she said. "Maybe I should just..." She resettled the rucksack on her back, and headed away down the corridor.

I should just let her go, thought Tori. That would be the smart thing to do. Just let her walk away. "Wait." Damn it, Tori.

Jade turned, hesitantly, and Tori backed away from the door to let her through. "Come in."

"Are you sure?"

Tori nodded, and Jade retraced her steps, pushing bulkily past her into the apartment. Tori closed the door, feeling a sense of irrevocability, as though she'd invited a vampire over the threshold.

"You can sit down."

Jade did as she was bidden, dropping her bag and perching bolt-upright on the sofa, hands clasped together on her knees as though on her best behavior. Of course, now she was here, Tori thought grimly, hospitality and conversation were probably going to have to happen. "Coffee?"

She waited. Normally at this point there would be a long list of specifications and instructions on the correct and proper way to make coffee, which Tori knew off by heart but which Jade had felt it necessary to reiterate every time, lest Tori forget that she once, once, did it wrong.

Jade really was on her best behavior, it seemed. "Uh, yeah," she said. "That would be great." Tori went grudgingly into the kitchen, feeling robbed of a chance to be offended.

"I see you've redecorated," Jade's voice called from the sofa. "It's... nice."

Tori was pretty sure that Jade didn't think it was nice, not least because she'd chosen it to be exactly the opposite of the way Jade had decorated it in the first place. "Thanks."

"So, how have you been?"

Tori didn't answer. 'How have you been?' was definitely not, in the circumstances, a question that could be answered though a kitchen doorway. She carried two cups of coffee back through to where Jade was still sat patiently. She put them down on the table, a little too hard. "Coffee."

"Thanks. I was just saying-"

"I heard you."

"Oh. So...?"

"How do you think I've been, Jade?" she snapped. "I've been having a marvellous time, thank you very much, sat here in an empty apartment I can barely afford after my girlfriend left me for another guy without a fucking word. It's been a blast. I stopped crying every night after the first couple of months, but I still put in a few hours every now and then just to keep my hand in. You know, just in case my ex turns up, unannounced, to bring it all up again."

Jade's face crumpled. "I'm sorry," she said. "It wasn't supposed to be like that."

"Really."

"No! I just... It all happened so quickly."

"Don't give me that," Tori scoffed. "Don't tell me you of all people were caught up in the whirlwind of romance. You knew exactly what you were doing, you just decided that your career was more important than I was."

"No, I-"

"How is Marcus, anyway?" She pronounced the name as if it was spelt 'Dickwad'. "Has he done everything he promised? Is your career a glittering success? I haven't heard much of you on the TV, but then I've had other things to do. You know, what with the two jobs I have to do to keep this place up."

"I... There are a couple of things in the pipeline."

"Are there? Oh, good. It's nice to know it was worth all the-"

"He hurts me," Jade blurted out, suddenly. She pursed her lip quickly, as if ashamed that the words had escaped.

Tori's rant ground to a halt. "He what?"

"He hurts me. Sometimes." Jade wouldn't look at her. Her voice was small and dry, barely a whisper in a desert.

"Oh no. No, Jade." The bottom had fallen out of her world six months ago. Now it felt like it had collapsed completely. "You can't."

"Can't...?"

"You can't do this. You can't come here," she said, angrily, "after everything, and tell me this."

"I'm sorry, I just thought-"

"Do you have any idea how that feels?" Tori could feel her fury rising. "Do you have any idea how it feels to know that all this time I've been sat here on my own like a fucking idiot while your fabulous new boyfriend, the one was supposed to launch your amazing career, the one that you left me for," she said, bitterly, "treats you like garbage? Do you have any idea what that does to me, to know that? That you ruined our life for-"

"Tori! Please!" Tori stopped, shocked into silence. "This was a mistake, okay?" Jade said, fighting back tears. "I'm sorry I bothered you. I'd better go." She hefted her bag onto her shoulder, and made her way to the door.

For a moment all Tori could do was watch her, dumbly. And then somewhere at the back of her mind a tiny part of her - a tiny, treacherous Tori - said, she deserves it.

The instant guilt that washed over her for even thinking that kicked her back into life. I'm making her feel bad about someone else hurting her. What the hell?

"Jade, wait," she said. The other girl turned, and Tori could see her make-up was smudged with tears. "Look," she said, quietly. "I'm pretty mad with you about a lot of things, Jade, but I'm not mad at you for this. I'm sorry."

Jade said nothing, but nodded. Tori's pride spent what seemed like an eternity wrestling with her conscience, and lost.

"If you want to," she said, reluctantly, "if you need to, you can stay here for a while. Unless you've got other plans?"

Jade shook her head. No.

"Then you can stay on the sofa. But listen," she said. "This... doesn't mean we've made up, okay? I'll help you, but I don't know that I can forgive you. Do you understand?"

Again, Jade nodded. Yes.

"I'll let you have the spare key. You know where everything is, anyway."

Jade finally spoke. "Thank you," she whispered.

They stood facing each other for a moment. Eventually Tori cleared her throat. Her self-respect had taken a battering anyway, she might as well make the most of it. "Jade?" she said.

"Yes?"

"Do you know how to change a lightbulb?"

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