Tori stumbled to her feet as her doorbell rang after some vicious tugging on the door handle. Swaying, she stepped on her own toes as she fumbled over to unlock her front door, opening it to reveal a girl in a full black dress with a huge scowl on her face.
"Why am I here on a Friday night, Vega?"
The girl with the death stare marched into the house, watching her shorter counterpart with hawk eyes. She crossed her arms and tapped her feet impatiently while the other girl struggled to form words. "…caught …broke up …tonight. I need …to drink with."
Jade caught Tori as she fell face first into her arms. Her brows knitted at the sight of the obviously drunk girl before her. If she had not seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that Tori "Sweet Sally Peaches" Vega drinks alcohol.
Carefully, she draped the inebriated girl's arm around her shoulder, helping her to the couch. A half-empty scotch bottle laid quietly on the floor, next to a crushed beer can.
After laying Tori on the couch, Jade picked up the trash around it, as well as Tori's phone. She shook her head as she noticed the nasty crack line across the screen. As she pressed on the side buttons, she was surprised to see the phone still light up.
Temptation to snoop through the phone jolted through Jade's body. She was shocked to find the phone locked with a pass code, since Tori didn't ever lock her phone. She tried various combinations of numbers, from Tori's locker code and to the date of her birthday, but none of them worked. Frustrated, she set the phone on the table and turned to look at the sleeping girl beside her.
Sighing aloud, Jade picked up the unconscious girl in a fireman carry and carried her up the stairs before tucking her under her quilt and dozing off beside her.
Jade woke up to a whining sound beside her. She opened her eyes to see Tori wrapping her own head in her palms.
"Vega? You up?"
"My head hurts…" Tori began, but opened one eye to look at Jade. "Jade? What are you doing here?"
Jade scoffed, "You called me, remember?" She pushed Tori back onto her pillow, putting a hand on her head, "Just lie back down and close your eyes. I'm gonna get you an aspirin and some water."
Once out of Tori's bedroom, Jade made her way downstairs to the Vegas' kitchen. Mrs Vega sat in the dining area, stuffing her face with some pancakes, with an empty egg carton next to her. She did not even acknowledge Jade's presence as Jade rummaged through the drawers for the pill bottle.
She soon found a half empty bottle of the medicine. Scooting back up to Tori's bedroom, Jade shook the other girl awake, pressing two pills and the glass of water into her hands. Tori took the drugs and laid back onto her bed, holding Jade's hand with pleading eyes. "Please don't go yet, Jade. My head and heart hurts, and I don't want to deal with everything alone."
Jade snorted, "Why me, Vega? Why not find your boyfriend Eric to accompany you?"
On hearing the boy's name, Tori burst into tears, holding her face in her hands. Jade exhaled aloud, "Ugh. You're such a cry baby, Vega. Fine, I'll stay, but on the condition that you will explain to me why you were drinking and crying."
Tori nodded, tears dripping off her chin. Jade rolled her eyes as she pulled some Kleenex from the night stand next to her, "Clean up your stream of snot, Vega, and sleep your headache off. Then you've got some explaining to do."
To Jade's annoyance, as soon as she climbed back under the sheets next to Tori, the other girl wrapped her arms around her waist and sniffled into her neck. She wanted to wriggle out of Tori's grasps or dig out the Cuddle Me Cathy from the drawers to throw at Tori, but the shaky breathing coming from her back made her decide otherwise.
Might as well enjoy the free heating in winter, she thought to herself as she heard the breathing from her hugger slowly even out.
When Jade woke up again, the orange glow of the setting sun shore through the open window onto the sheets. She felt a warm body entangled with hers, her mind jolting her back to where she was.
In Vega's bed, next to her. Crap!
She tried to wriggle out of Tori's bone crushing hug, but as soon as she started to get free, she heard the whining behind her start again, and Tori's limbs snaking themselves tighter around her. Sighing in defeat, she resigned herself to being "Cuddle me Jadey" for a while more.
Tori woke up after a few more minutes. Opening her eyes, she was surprised to find Jade still tightly enveloped in her grasp. For a moment, she thought she had accidentally squeezed Jade too tightly, somehow suffocating her in her sleep, but her worries dissipated when Jade turned around to look into her eyes, a scowl on her face.
"About time you woke up, Vega. I almost died in my sleep thanks to you."
Feeling her face burn, Tori withdrew her arms around her sleeping partner. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hug you so tightly. Um, thank you for coming over last night."
Jade rolled her eyes and sat up on the bed, crossing her arms and looking expectantly at her. Tori wrapped her arms around herself, exhaling. "Right, an explanation. So… I dumped Eric last night."
"Like how you dumped Sherwood Daniel?"
"Well, it's not like that. Daniel was fine, but his parents hated me for not being their preferred race. I dumped Eric because I found him cheating on me."
"Really? I thought he always wanted to hang out with you at your house. Now I'm curious to know who he has been cheating on Sweet Sally Peaches with. Tell me, Vega."
Tori took a deep breath. "Yesterday was our three months' anniversary. He originally said he would pick me up for a date at Nozu, but I waited and waited, and he did not show up. I called him to find out where he was, and was surprised to hear his phone ring from inside the house. I followed the tune to Trina's room, and opened the door to find them nak…"
Jade snorted, "Say no more, Vega. I don't need to have that disturbing image in my head. What happened after that?"
"I dumped him on the spot. He did not even apologize, and Trina yelled at me to lock her door on the way out. I ran into my room to cry, and decided to try drinking it away after I heard them leave the house. It really hurts, Jade. Why does every boy I date end up being a jerk?"
"You know, Vega. Maybe you have been dating the wrong people for years. You obviously have rotten taste in men."
"Your comments are hurtful, Jade."
"Cooping yourself up in the house and drinking yourself to death is called self-harm, Vega. Since you are obviously better now, being able to tell me your breakup story and all that crap, let's go somewhere."
Tori looked around in confusion when Jade pulled her out of the car after an extremely long drive in the night. She realized that Jade wasn't kidding when she said she loved driving at night by the way her emerald eyes shore in the darkness, like a cat out hunting.
The heartbroken girl was led out onto a long walkway, the light of the rising sun in the distance. She was pleasantly surprised by the heat of Jade's palm when it clasped around her own, as they strolled along path with calm blue waves below them.
The pair stopped to take in the sea breeze at the end of the pier. Tori was excited to see the sea lions as they started to come up to the rocks to bask in the sun, making those funny "oom oom" sounds as they did.
Jade stared into the distance, an uncharacteristic smile on her face. "My grandfather, the nose-less one, used to take me here all the time when I was younger. He would tell me war stories and we would watch the sea lions on these rocks."
"Thank you for bringing me here, Jade. I can see why you like it here. It's beautiful."
Both girls sat at the edge of the pier and watched the sea lions frolic as the sun rose. Tori leaned into Jade, who had wrapped her arms around the shorter girl. Jade's husky voice purred in her ear, "Want to sea-lion with me, Vega?"
Tori turned to look into those shining orbs and grinned. She had found a new home for her heart.
A/N: Just something to take the edge off. I promised her that writing alleviates, not aggravates. For reference, this is the Coast Guard Pier in Monterey.