Chapter 4: The Set Up

"Are we clear on the plan?" Andre asked his three friends who now stood in front of the janitor's closet, huddled together.

"I got the key from Luther." Robbie held out the shiny gold key.

"Oh! Can I hold it?" Cat bubbled.

"No!" The three boys shouted at once.

"Okay, okay." Cat pouted. They didn't want another incident like the one where Cat swallowed Jade's house key.

"Beck?" Andre looked at his friend.

"Yep. I just texted Jade that Sinjin is playing with her favorite scissors in the janitor's closet." Beck replied. "She should be here in 10 seconds."

"And Tori is already in there waiting for me. She thinks I wrote us a new song." Andre smiled.

"SINJIN!" They heard Jade screech from down the hall.

"Places people!" Andre whispered.

As Jade came raging around the corner, Beck simply pointed to the closet. The girl stormed in, and they shut the door behind her, locking it.

"Sinjin I swear to god-" Jade paused as she saw only Tori looking befuddled as she sat on the upside down trash can.

"Um- Sinjin isn't here." She blinked.

"But I just got a text from Beck that he was." Jade looked confused. "Why are you in here?"

"I'm waiting for Andre to bring the sheet music for a new song he wrote." Tori answered.

"Oh no." Jade sighed, the realization hitting her.

"What?" Tori scrunched her nose.

"It's a set up."

"Huh?"

Jade spun on her heels and went to open the door, jiggling the handle but finding it locked. She banged on the door. "Hey! We know you're out there. Let us out!"

From the other side of the door, Andre replied. "Not until you two talk! We're tired of you avoiding each other like the plague! You're stressing Cat out."

"Oh I'll stress you out!" Jade banged on the door, making Andre jump on the other side.

"Look, you guys need to talk about the kiss!" Beck yelled.

By now Tori had realized Andre was not coming with the sheet music, and was standing next to Jade by the closet door. "Could you- shhh! Yell it to the whole school why don't you?" She threw her arms up in the air..

"Well, you two need to talk. We'll let you out in an hour, until then, you're stuck together." Beck replied.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Jade banged on the door again.

"And don't try escaping through to the library because we moved Sinjin's giant marble statue he made for Art history on top of the trap door." Robbie explained.

"Robbie, you open this door right now or I'll come to your house tonight and stab you to death with my new scissors!"

Robbie simply made a deflating noise and turned to Beck and Andre for help.

"You are not getting out of there until the hour is done!" Beck reaffirmed.

"Cat?" Tori begged. "Cat are you out there?"

Cat giggled. "Hi Tori!"

"Hi Cat! Could you please let us out? I will buy you all the bibble you can eat!" Tori bribed.

On the other side of the door, Tori and Jade could hear a mad scramble as they assumed Cat tried to steal the key.

"Cat no!" Beck held the key out of her reach. "Don't you want Tori and Jade back for our lunch time?"

"But- bibble." Cat groaned.

"I will buy you bibble Cat." Andre placed a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Cat pursed her lips for a minute and then nodded her agreement.

"Damn you Beck Oliver!" Jade screamed.

"Now, now. Play nice." Beck knocked on the door playfully. "We will be back in a hour."

Tori and Jade both banged on the door, calling out to their friends.

After ten minutes, they finally gave up.

"Well. They can lock us up together in a closet but they can't force us to talk to each other." Jade huffed, throwing her bag to the ground.

Tori simply watched as the girl slumped to the ground and leaned back against the wall. Tori mirrored her actions, sitting across from her in the tiny closet.

Jade took out a pair of black handled scissors and began to cut the sheets of paper beside her into random shapes. Tori simply fiddled with her hands, watching Jade.

Minutes ticked by and the only sounds were the occasional snipping of Jade's scissors.

Tori took a deep breath, finally resolving herself to talk to Jade about their kiss. "I should apologize." She quickly breathed out.

Not breaking her concentration, Jade kept cutting shapes and asked, "For what?"

Tori swallowed. "For- well, you know- for kissing you - unscripted and all."

Jade shrugged. "It made the play better. I'm not mad at you for making us both look like better actors."

"If you're not mad at me," Tori scrunched her eyebrows together, "then why were you avoiding me these past few days?"

Jade blinked in surprise at her question. "Well, why were you avoiding me?"

"Because-" Tori blushed. "Hey! I asked you first!"

Jade rolled her eyes. "You're such a child Tori, honestly."

"I am n-" Tori paused as she realized her tone did sound childish. Jade simply smirked at her triumphantly.

They sat in awkward silence again until this time Jade spoke up.

"I avoided you because- because I was kind of embarrassed." Jade admitted, begrudgingly.

"Embarrassed? Of what?"

"That I- May have- kissed you back." Jade explained.

"Well how could you not have though? I mean, it was in front of a live audience. It would look weird if you hadn't kissed me back." Tori reasoned.

"Why did you kiss me anyway?" Jade finally looked up from her scissors. "Was it just you getting wrapped up in the role or- was it more than that?"

"I-" Tori groaned, putting her head in her hands.

"What?"

"You're going to laugh at me. Or hold my answer against me for the rest of my life."

"I won't. I promise. I just wanna know the truth."

Jade looked genuinely at Tori, making the next words just fall out of Tori's mouth.

"It was me Tori, kissing you as Jade. Not Walter and Nancy. Me and you. I wanted to kiss you." Tori looked anywhere but into Jade's eyes.

Jade was silent.

So Tori continued. "After our fake date, I don't know!" Tori ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "I just felt- close to you, and I haven't felt like that about anyone in a very long time and I think I just got confused. And then we were playing a loving couple in the play and- everything happened so fast! And you were just standing there looking so- kissable and I just- I was weak okay?"

Jade still was silent.

"Can't you please say something, I'm dying here." Tori groaned.

"I understand." Jade finally spoke up.

"You do?" Tori looked up at the girl, her hopes rising.

"It happens all the time in show business. We get confused between our feelings and the feelings of the characters and-" Jade paused. "Mistakes happen. Kisses happen."

Jade swore she could see Tori visibly deflating. "Right." She responded, sadly. "Mistakes happen."

Just then they heard the lock click and the door to the closet opened.

"You guys talk it out?" Beck stuck his head in the door.

"Yeah." Tori stood up. "We are all good here." Tori smiled as she walked out of the closet, but even Jade could see the obvious sadness on her face and the disappointment evident in her tone.