Crossroads: Jade & Cat

Tori was on fire.

I've watched her sing for years and there was never a time when she didn't impress me. Not once. Even when I thought I couldn't stand her, I had respect for her. Hell, I admit, I was her fan.

As I sat in the audience of that club, next to Trina, I knew her life—our lives—were about to change.

Performers often talk about the energy of a room. That the film or concert or play generates these shared emotions within the people watching which propagate. The more you give them, the more excitement and responses they give back. That exchange is like an addiction; it's one of the most rewarding parts of being a performer. I missed the hell out of it, although I did get to experience it from time to time during my movie premieres.

Singing is the ultimate rush for a performer who loves it. You invest every ounce of your very being into the words and melodies. The more personal or emotional the song, the deeper the connection you form with the audience. But as many times as I sat in the crowd and cheered Tori on, I have never, ever felt energy like I did in that club. Tori was glowing. She hit every note. Every move she made was graceful and perfect. She put herself out there in a way I had never seen from her, and every single person in the room was fully, deeply invested.

Per Arthur Gantz's guidance, this set was mostly covers of varying styles. He let her include an original song at the end, but Tori didn't tell me which one. She started off with a song by Halestorm. I absolutely adored that. Halestorm was practically the soundtrack that got the two of us together all those years ago. We sang one of their songs at Karaoke Dokie the night before we started filming Searching for Sarah. We danced to one at the premiere party. I confessed my feelings for her by singing another one. And I proposed to her after we sang one.

I dig symmetry.

Lizzy Hale was a hero of mine. The music she wrote was poetic, eloquent, crass, and vulgar. She sang of big ideas and petty hurts. She put her sex life out there through lyrics and her emotions as well. I adored her almost as much as I adored Danielle Harris.

So for Tori to pick "The Steeple" as her opener felt like a nod to us as well. The lyrics to that song were so powerful and they summed up her journey perfectly.

Redemption's here at last, back where it all began. Tori's first love and greatest talent had always been music. She was home on that stage, and every stage I'd ever seen her on. This is my kingdom, this is my castle, this is my cathedral. Fuck yeah, it was. And she owned it.

To the ones I call my own, I'm back where I belong. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I wonder if she heard me.

It's been a long road out of hell up to the steeple; but this is my church and these are my people. She spread her arms out to encompass the crowd and holy shit did they eat that up.

It began to sink in just what was happening. I glanced over to Trina, who was every bit as mesmerized as I was. As everyone was. As the first song closed out, the applause that erupted in that little club would have rivaled Mount Vesuvius on volcano day.

Tori seem surprised. She ate up every ounce of energy they gave back to her. I caught her wiping a few tears away. I hadn't seen her this happy in…well, I didn't know how long.

"Ohmygod, Jade!" Trina shouted over the applause. "Do you see this?"

"I see it. I hear it. It's crazy."

"I know! I'm so excited for her!"

She grabbed my hand in excitement and bounced up and down a few times. On instinct, I shot her my most terrifying glare—which I admit, wasn't as terrifying as it used to be. She saw through it too.

"You don't scare me anymore." I didn't budge. "I'm a third degree black belt in three different martial arts." She shifted a bit as my glare held. "I could seriously disable you in the space of a heartbeat." I fought my urge to blink and she shifted again. "Come on, we've been sisters-in-law for years." Finally, her giddiness and confidence faded. "Fine, you big jerk."

I laughed inwardly. Tormenting Trina Vega never got old.

Usually during a concert, the energy in the room ebbs and flows, but Tori kept these people energized the entire time. She did another Halestorm song and a few other favorites of hers before capping off the set with her original work.

"I wrote this song for someone special, at a time in my life where I was very confused, and kinda hurt, and definitely. And she doesn't know it—"

For the third time since her last song, the crowd's boisterousness forced Tori to quit talking. She laughed and gave them a second to quiet down. "Yeah, yeah," she said. "She doesn't know that she was the inspiration for this, and I definitely wasn't brave enough to let her know. But you'll be happy to know that eventually, she was brave enough to tell me what I meant to her, and after I almost screwed that up, we started on a journey that has been the most amazing in my life."

My heart was in my throat. Oh god…she's talking about me? What?

"So, Jade West—"

The crowd screamed. She laughed again and gave them a moment. "Jade, I wonder if you remember this."

Her eyes met mine and I swallowed hard. She blew me a kiss and a familiar tune came on. I had no idea she'd ever been inspired by me to write a song. I tormented her so much in high school, what kind of song could she possibly—

And then I heard the lyrics as she began. Heart stops, turn into a robot, now my eyes are bloodshot, I'm still awake."

Oh. My. God.

Fire and rain, pleasure and pain…

It was the song from the showcase our senior year. The one I had absolutely loved. My mind leapt back to that day. Watching her from backstage. Wondering why she kept looking at me. I'd been so buried under my mixed up feelings for Cat and the bullshit my mom dumped on me, I guess I didn't see it.

I admit, I had to fight back a few tears. Knowing that song, her best from those days, had been inspired by me was overwhelming. I covered my mouth and shook off the tears.

"Are you okay?"

It was Trina. Her hand was on my knee, but I didn't even care. I nodded. "Yeah. I just never knew…"

"Me neither, but I barely remember it. I was trying not to throw up before I went on."

I nodded absently. For the hour and a half of Tori's concert, I had been able to put aside the weight in the pit of my stomach. Hayley warned that she was going to call Tori and tell her about something I had done involving Cat. I could only assume she meant the fact that we'd had sex; I was Cat's first actual partner and she was my first girl. It had been a very short but very intense few days and just a pair of encounters, but it had been–up until Tori–the most intense sexual experience I'd ever had. And while those feelings had faded for both us and we settled into a close friendship and sisterhood in the years since, the fact that I never mentioned it to Tori bothered me. Of course, it also bothered me that she never told me who her first was, so I guess we were kind of even.

The closer we came to the end of the song, the more my apprehension grew. In my heart, I didn't think that Tori could possibly be that upset to learn about me and Cat. I mean, it's not I actively hid it from her. It never really came up. It was, for me, the best of what was a very difficult time, a time neither of us was all that interested in talking about.

It also begged the question how the hell Hayley Ferguson knew about it. I knew Tara and Tori had dated around that same time, but I didn't think Hayley was around for any of it. Hell, neither of them even competed in the Final Showcase.

The song wound down, and I was on my feet screaming at the top of my lungs in support of my amazing wife. She was the single most talented person I knew, and I wasn't going to let her forget it.

There is nothing, nothing, that feels better than wrapping my arms around Tori Vega and crushing my boobs against her. As thin as that girl is, she generates some serious heat. It's like going into your favorite room and wrapping yourself up in your favorite blanket.

I did my best to push away my concerns. I still had time, after all. I intended to tell Tori about Cat before that bitch could call her and ruin it. If I could, I'd try to convince her not to answer the phone at all. But the plan, so far as I had one, was to simply let her know about it first.

Beyond that, I had so much to tell her about. My decision to leave Grim Productions, Hollywood Arts being gone, the crazy people who fought about my career choices, seeing Sikowitz, Hayley turning up…

That one hit different, to be honest. What are the odds those two chowderheads would both suddenly show up again at the exact same time? So far as I knew, they were besties back in school. It seems curious that Tara would suddenly appear with this grand career opportunity and Hayley would launch her smear campaign against me at the exact same time.

But all that would wait for a little while. In that moment I was holding the woman I love. "That was the performance you've ever given. Ever."

Her arms tightened around me; her love and gratitude radiated everywhere our bodies touched. I just wanted to push her on the couch and take her right there.

"I'm so glad you're here," she breathed. "What happened at home? Did it go okay with Liz?"

I pulled away a little. What the hell was I going to say to that? I wanted to tell her, but not then and there. I wanted to just enjoy being with her first. To make up for the last week. "Did it okay okay with Liz," I mused. If she only knew. "I guess it depends on what you mean by okay."

I could sense the frustration at my evasiveness. She hated when I danced around the things I didn't want to discuss. "Don't do that," she said. "Tell me what happened. I've been really worried about you."

She wasn't letting it go. Time to be more direct. "I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about you. Because the way that crowd carried on tonight, I Think you're about to have some big problems. Like what to do with the zillion dollars you're going to make off your first album."

Her cheeks lit up, but she fought it. "You're not going to distract me with flattery Jade."

Even in her frustration, she was so incredibly sexy. "Really" Because your ass in those pants–"

Then she said something I never thought I'd hear her say.

"Jadelyn West."

I hated that name. Absolutely hated it with every fiber of my being. Not because I disliked my name, but because of the way my mother used it. She and my dad were the only two who ever called me by my full first name. My dad always meant well with it. Despite his progress, I couldn't get him to understand that I didn't like anyone using it. But since Tori hadn't seen my mother since high school (as I hadn't, thankfully), there was no one else who could have told her.

I tried to laugh it off, but ten years ago there's a good chance I'd have slapped her for it.

"I see you've been talking with my dad."

"He told me about that the night we got married, actually. I just never felt the need to use it."

The exhaustion that the eight cups of coffee I drank on the plane finally began to creep in. I rubbed my eyes. "Look, I just barely got here in time for the concert. And the past week has been a real shitshow, which I will happily fill you in about later. For right now, I just wanted to come and see you, and congratulate you on the best show you've ever put on." My eyes wandered down her body; she looked so good. "And quite possibly get a handful of that ass in those pants, because, girl, damn."

The message seemed to get through that time. Her worry seemed to vanish amidst the glow in her cheeks. She slid closer and turned around, thrusting her butt at me. "You mean this ass?"

I admired the perfection she had managed to stuff into those tight pants and I seriously couldn't wait. I grabbed a handful of firm cheek and the moisture between my own legs flowed. "I'm going to have so much fun getting these off later."

Tori spun around and pressed her body into mine. The heat between us was off the charts. I pulled her even closer, squeezing that perfect ass with both hands, prompting a lusty groan from her sweet lips. I leaned in but didn't kiss her. My lips played over hers, almost touching but not quite. The heat built and built. I was seconds away from tearing her clothes off. I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in every inch of her.

Which, of course, was the perfect time for Arthur Gantz to show up. Tara stood in his shadow.

In my younger days, my natural instinct would have been to shriek at them both and chase them out of the room. Instead, I contented myself with biting my tongue and a seriously annoyed glare. That, kids, is what we call character growth.

Sometimes it sucks.

Tori noticed my distraction and guessed correctly. "Tara?"

"And daddy."

She swore under breath as I let her go. I stood aside as Arthur gushed and ranted and raved over Tori's performance. Huge numbers. Very popular. Everyone loved her. As if there were any doubt. When Arthur mentioned that he wanted Tori and I to stay through the weekend (and offered to upgrade our room as well), she looked at me.

I understood. I'd been upset before when she told me she had to stay; she was checking with me. I appreciated it, of course. But I'd canceled the film festival when I pulled out of Grim Productions, so there was no need for concern. I nodded my okay with it and forced a smile that even felt fake to me.

"Um..we should probably talk about–"

"About what sort of upgrade," I said, offering Mister High and Mighty Rich Guy my best patronizing smile. "Because that sounds pretty awesome."

Arthur took that as an agreement and started rambling about enjoying the weekend and Tara would set up their meeting for Monday and blah blah blah. He asked Tori to stop down in the lobby to meet some fans, which she agreed to. When they finally left, Tori wasted no time turning to me.

"Jade, what about the film fest this weekend?"

I sighed; she was not letting this go and it was getting frustrating. "Don't worry about it." Please, for the love of chrysler, don't worry about it.

"I am worried about it! We were going to announce–"

"I pulled it okay? I pulled out." My voice sounded harsher than I intended, but I stood by them. "Liz thought it might be best. For now, anyway." Technically it wasn't a lie; it was definitely best not to announce a film you weren't going to make. Liz agreed with that. "So don't worry about it." Tori stared at me; her eyes probed deeply into mine, as if she were undressing my heart with them. It was so uncomfortable. "Hey, at least we get an upgrade, right?" I doubted I could distract her, but I was certainly going to try. "That'll be pretty sweet. Or should I say suite? Huh? Get it?" As if I could imply that I was using the different spelling. It didn't work. If anything, her concern deepened. I was losing control; or maybe I never had it.

"What happened back there?"

I fought the urge to scream. "If I were ready to tell you, I would have told you," I snapped. "But hey, at least we're stuck here for a few more days with daddy's little princess. Nepotism is alive and well on the east coast, I guess."

"Jade."

"I'm sorry. I'm being petty. I mean…I'm always petty. And vindictive."

"Jade."

"It's kind of my thing, really."

"Jade, stop it."

She squared herself to me. What the hell was that look?

"I'm going to head back to the room."

"I'll come with you."

I held up a hand. "You've got some fans waiting, as I recall," I reminded her. "Don't worry. I'll get our stuff moved ot whatever magical suite he's bumped us up to."

I turned to leave. It killed me, absolutely killed me, but I needed some space. I'd been back with her for not even half an hour, but I already needed to clear my head and figure out how to handle this. Time was ticking, and Hayley would be calling all too soon. But it wasn't the sort of thing I could just blurt out.

"Jade, wait, please."

I winced and turned back. Wait for what? I thought.

A range of emotions crossed Tori's face. She seemed to be struggling with what to say. When she finally settled on something, it was, perhaps, the last thing I ever expected to hear.

"I had sex with Tara."

My jaw clenched. There's no way. There's no fucking way she just said that. Once again I found myself fighting my baser instincts. Clarify. Clarify! Is she talking about right now?

I drew a slow, deep, exhausted breath. "When?"

Tori's dark skin paled until it was closer to mine. "Years ago," she said quickly. "Not…not now, I mean. Not recently. Not since…oh, shit. I mean, it was, she was…" She took her own calming breath before that sentence got further away from her. "She was my first, Jade. It happened years ago. Before the final showcase. It was her. I wanted to tell you for years but I always kind of danced around the question. I'm so sorry. But it was her. Tara."

The tension went out of me. I knew she wouldn't have cheated. There wasn't a dishonest bone in that flawless body, not when it came to me. "So not since we've been here. Not since back then."

"Of course not."

I was flooded with relief. I didn't know why she told me this now. I didn't care. I was just glad I didn't have to add my wife being unfaithful to the list of problems we had at that moment. "I'm going back to the room."

The new suite was swank. Maybe one of the nicest I'd ever stayed in. Arthur certainly had the money to burn so I didn't mind taking advantage. After the week I had, the little voice that sometimes tells me to be practical was silent. Probably just as exhausted as I was.

I packed Tori's things from our first room and the staff was kind enough to take them up to the new one, along with my bags that I hadn't bothered unpacking when I arrived earlier in the evening. I left them packed in the new suite, except to pull out the bottle of champagne I bought to celebrate Tori's first show.

My phone went off. A text from that same number: Tick tock goes the clock. Tori's in for quite a shock.

I'm not sure what was more infuriating, the taunting, or the stupid rhyme. If she was trying to go full-on villain, it was working. It took every ounce of restraint I had to keep from responding or calling the number myself. But I would absolutely not let that little skunkbag get to me.

Okay, she already got to me. But I wasn't going to let her know it. I'd tell Tori when she got up here, and then her little plan would be thwarted.

To be honest, I was doubting the wisdom of my decision. I'd been so sure I was right when I chose to take the high road and not take Hayley down. I was trying to show her compassion. I didn't expect any compassion in return, but I sure as hell didn't expect her to go after Tori. That anyone could hold a grudge this long over something so stupid was just…mind-numbing. And yes, I'm fully aware when I saw her in Liz's office, I was ready to go after her. But that was for her trying to ruin my career more than the karaoke thing. I mean, I let go of my anger towards Tara a decade prior; I'd have done the same with Hayley if she hadn't decided to come after me.

I put my phone down and started checking my watch. It had been an hour since I left the venue and still no word from Tori. It was getting late, and as the infuriating text had reminded me, time was running out.

At the ninety minute mark, the champagne was chilled enough to open, so I did. I poured a glass. I poured another. I poured a third and started pacing. My excitement to see Tori quickly deteriorated into a tangled web of hyperactive nerves. A thought occurred to me: what if she didn't get back before the call came?

Oh, shit. I shouldn't have left. I should have just done it while I was there.

Given the size of the crowd and how much Tori enjoyed talking to curious fans, it shouldn't have surprised me that it took so long. We were down to the last fifteen minutes when she finally entered the suite. I heard the door open from my spot on the balcony overlooking the city. Forty stories up is one hell of a view. Gives a lovely perspective on how small people and their problems really are.

Yet I could sense my own problems growing larger as Tori approached. She hesitated when she saw the open bottle of champagne. She grabbed a glass and filled it, then joined me.

"So how was it?"

She drank and then sighed. "Tedious," she said. Her voice seemed off.

"You poor thing." Oh, that sounded great. Nice job, Jade. "Sorry," I added. "That came out wrong."

She turned to me. Her eyes were puffy and red. I knew that look. She'd tried to hide it, but it was painfully obvious.

"You been crying?"

She turned and drank. "Maybe."

She had my full attention. I turned to face her. "Tori, what's wrong?"

She took another drink and turned back to me. So much seemed weighing on her. Maybe it was just the shadows of the evening compared to the brighter lights in her dressing room, but she seemed crushed by unseen weight.

"I'm sorry about…Tara. About not telling you."

This again? Why was this suddenly such a big deal?

"I should have told you years ago," she went on. "I sure as hell should have told you the morning she called me to meet with my dad. Or a dozen other times between then and now."

I polished off my glass and set it on the table. I wanted to give her a chance to say what she needed, but this needless apology was wasting precious time. I glanced at my watch. Shit. It was almost 11:30.

"Please say something Jade."

I didn't know what to say. That this entire thing was pointless? That I had something more important to tell her? What exactly was I supposed to say?

"What do you want me to say?"

She stammered over her words. "Say you're pissed. Say you're furious. How dare I lie to your face over and over again? How could I do this to you? Say…say something! Anything!"

She isn't going to let this go. "Fine. I'm pissed. How dare you. Etcetera. Happy?"

I hoped we could drop it so I could move things forward, but no. That reply apparently made her feel mocked. "No! You're just placating me! Which by the way, is pretty damn insensitive."

I couldn't handle another word. My frustration bubbled to the surface and I did something I rarely did anymore. I got angry. "Oh! Well excuse me for being insensitive. Chrysler knows if there's one thing Jade West is, it's a sensitive human being." I glanced at my watch. Fuck! Minutes to go.

"I'm sorry, am I keeping you from something important?"

It hadn't occurred to me that Tori would have noticed me checking my watch. I was so desperate to get this out in time…

"What?"

"You keep glancing at your watch. Do you have somewhere more important to be?"

This was derailing fast. I needed it to end. "What do you want from me Vega?"

It was her turn to raise her voice. "I want to know why you're not furious at me for lying about Tara!"

What I said next, I said without a shred of thought or consideration of my decade-old promise to Tara. I said it out of frustration and fear and anger.

"Because I fucking knew about it, Tori!"

That stopped her in her tracks. She lost her grip on the champagne glass. It shattered on the balcony.

Strictly speaking, I knew she'd slept with Tara. I didn't realize at the time that it was her first time, but what did that even matter? Why wouldn't she drop it? Time was almost up.

"What?"

"Please don't make me say it again." I checked my watch. Two minutes. "Shit."

I was about to force the issue and just get it out, but doing that now would make it seem like I was just trying to change the subject. It would probably do more harm than good. This entire night had descended into a shitshow and I was the emcee.

"How? How could you know have known? For how long?"

"Does it really matter?" One minute. Damn it to hell. Do something. Say something.

"I've been sick with guilt for nearly a month," Tori snapped. Her voice was low, almost a growl, and that is something I never wanted to hear again. "Do you have any idea what that's been like? On top of everything else?"

I glanced at her at that remark. "What else? What does that mean?" I got the feeling I wasn't the only one hiding something. Tori refused.

"No. No, you answer my question first. How did you know? For how long?"

I drew in yet another calming breath. A waste of time, for all the good they were doing tonight. "I'm sorry you made yourself so sick over it," I said slowly. "Is that what you want?" I was hoping acknowledging what I put her through was enough.

Guess what? Nope.

"I want to know how the hell you knew about it." I glanced at my watch. Time was up. And so was Tori's patience. She screamed at me. Raised her voice. It echoed through the narrow corridor of buildings at our height. "Why do you keep doing that!?"

It was now or never. I drew in a breath to tell her. And her phone rang.

I watched in horror as I caught the number from the caller ID; the same number that Hayley had been texting from.

"Don't answer that."

She glared at me. "Why not?"

I couldn't speak. I tried to force my mouth open but nothing would come out. I was fucking everything up so bad and I just couldn't stop. She was about to swipe to accept the call.

"Tori, please don't."

Okay, dumb ass, now tell her the rest.

"I slept with Cat."

Her phone fell into the shards of the broken champagne glass. Tori stared at me, and it broke me. She looked at me, not as my wife or my friend or my frenemy or even my rival. She looked at me like I was a total stranger. I felt the sting of tears and a lump in my throat. I choked it down, nearly gagging in the process. I wasn't going to lose it. Not here. Not like this.

I tried to find the next sentence, the next thing to say. But Tori suddenly doubled over and groaned in pain.

It scared me. I'd never seen anything like that happen to her before. Hell, she bore even the worst of her monthly cramps with the grace and dignity of a royal. But this…it was like someone kicked her in the stomach with a steel-toe shoe or something.

I forgot everything else and rushed to her side. "Tori? What's wrong?" Panic strangled my voice; my heart raced. What the hell was wrong with her?

She leaned away from me, and suddenly it felt like I was the one being kicked. She breathed deeply and slowly straightened. Whatever it was, it seemed to be passing. Her breathing slowed. But that look on her face, that horrible look, was still there.

"What the hell was that?" I asked. What was she keeping from me?

She wouldn't be drawn. Tonight as a night Tori Vega was not going to let anything go. "What do you mean, you slept with Cat!?"

"Tori it was years ago, in school."

Maybe I made another miscalculation. I was wrecking everything. Every time I opened my damn mouth.

"Are you mocking me? Because I told you about Tara, you have to make fun of me about it!?"

Oh, chrysler, what the hell was happening? She winced and her breathing changed again; it seemed like she was breathing through some kind of pain. "Of course I'm not mocking you!" Who the hell did she think she was talking to? "My god Tori, what kind of person…I mean it's me for chrissakes!" She winced again. "What the hell is happening to you? Are you in pain?"

Her teeth clenched again. "Why did you tell me this now? And what the hell was that phone call?"

Saying that seemed to trigger her memory that she had dropped the phone. She quickly retrieved it and saw a second voicemail.

"Please don't," I said, not caring how desperate I sounded. There was no telling what Hayley might have said. I wanted to get out in front of this and try to help Tori see the truth before Hayley's lies got to her.

"Tell me who it is."

I opened my mouth. I tried to say it.

Hayley. It's Hayley Ferguson.

That was the last straw. My silence had pushed her too far. Against my protests, she listened to the voicemail. The pain and anger that washed over her scared me like nothing before. I didn't have the strength to hold back the tears.

Tori backed away from me. Not backed. Limped.

"Where are you going?"

She didn't answer. She turned and disappeared inside the hotel room. Goddamn it, Jade! You fucking idiot! Why couldn't you just tell her! I hurled my champagne glass off the balcony. It sailed across the street and shattered against the side of an office building. I didn't even watch the shards fall.

Go after her. Don't let her leave. Don't let her walk out that door.

I rushed back into the suite and immediately heard voices. I ran to the small hallway that led to the door and stopped short. Someone stood there with Tori. I thought it was a guy at first, until I saw the velvety-red ponytail hanging out the back of the baseball cap.

"Cat?"

If I live to be a thousand, I will never be able to wrap my head around the absolutely impossible timing of Cat Valentine's arrival.

Cat's dark eyes lit up when she saw me. "Jade! Oh God, Jade!"

She had been hugging Tori, but released her and ran to me, pulling me into a crushing embrace. The look Tori gave me gutted me all over again.

"Just in high school?"

It was a dagger in my heart.

I pulled myself from Cat's arms. "Cat, what's wrong? I thought you were in Seattle with Sam?"

It had been a few years since I'd seen either of them. After Cat's initial run on broadway, they lived in New York for a while as Cat got her music career off the ground. But they decided to move back to Seattle when Carly came back from Italy. They went to college together or something, for a while at least, while Cat turned out a few albums and, quite frankly, became ridiculously popular.

Her lips were trembling. "I need your help," she pleaded. "Sam…she's gone."

My heart sank to my knees. I was scared to ask her to clarify, but I needed to know exactly what we were dealing with here. "Gone as in…abducted? Or gone as in…dead?"

Cat gasped and let out a whimper. "No! She left me! I woke up one morning and she was just gone! No note, no nothing! Some of her stuff is gone and her bike is gone! Her phone's offline! She left me!"

Shit. That's much worse than dead.

Cat fell into my arms, sobbing. I held her close, gently caressed her back and whispered to her. I had to get her to calm down before we could do anything to help her.

Tori watched all of this with barely contained rage bubbling below the surface. I could see what she was considering; the door was still open and she stood in its threshold. I begged her not to go, my eyes pleading. Please don't go. Please stay. Help me. Help Cat.

She hesitated…and then disappeared into the hallway, letting the door slam shut behind her. The slam was enough to startle Cat, who spun around.

"Where'd she go?"

I didn't have a good answer, and I certainly didn't want to worry Cat with all of my problems. "She needed some air," I said. "Come on. Get in here and sit down, I'll make some coffee."

"Do you have Jameson's to put in it?"

"Jameson's? Really?"

"Or Bailey's." She must have felt my eyes on her. "What? Like you don't drink when you're stressed?"

"You know I do. Just…not used to hearing it from you."

"Sam is crazy about you. I can't believe she'd just up and disappear with no warning."

We were sitting on the balcony. Well, Cat was sitting. I was cleaning up the shards from Tori's champagne glass.

"I thought so too," Cat said, taking another drink of her coffee. There wasn't any Jameson's, but there were a few miniature bottles of Bailey's in the fridge. Cat had helped herself to two of them, dumping one into her coffee straightaway and saving the other for her next cup. "But she's done it before. Remember? Right when we first started dating."

I remembered. A year prior, Sam's bestie Carly had moved to Italy with her dad. It had scared her, I guess. Sam wasn't the kind of girl to put down roots anyway, but she'd fallen in love with Carly. She'd been pretty devastated when Carly moved. It had ended their web show and put their friendship on hiatus. Sam got on her motorcycle and drove off. Eventually she landed in my stomping grounds where, to hear her tell it, she dove headfirst into a moving garbage truck to save the dizzy redheaded chick that she'd eventually fall in love with. Seemed a little far-fetched to me, but who knows?

Anyway, after a year of living with Cat, Sam got spooked. Graduation was coming and she seemed sure Cat was going to bail on her, so she decided to bail on Cat instead. Only she never went through with it. Thanks to some nudging from yours truly, Sam stuck it out, confessed her love to Cat, and the two had been together ever since. Theirs was the only relationship to predate even me and Tori.

Needless to say, the idea that it was over, that Sam had just up and left after a decade of being with Cat, was hard to swallow. It wasn't like Sam to do that, despite the fact that she had almost done it once before. I refused to believe it.

"I remember," I said. "But…I mean is it possible maybe…and don't freak out, but she didn't have any enemies or anything, right?"

"Of course she did," Cat said flatly. "Have you forgotten? It's Sam." She took another drink. "But no one who would want to hurt her too badly. No one who would take her or anything. I mean, she's kinda mellowed. A little. Basically."

I had to take her word for it, since I hadn't talked to Sam in forever. One of the sad realities of being adults and having careers is that the time you have to spend with your friends disappears very quickly. You promise to stay in touch and talk often, and you comment on their socials and send pics and suddenly four years have gone by and you haven't even been in the same room with them.

That's about how long it had been since I'd seen Sam. I crossed paths with Cat maybe three years ago, and we legitimately did text often and talk on the phone sometimes. But she had gotten big. Huge. Bigger to the music world than I ever got in the film industry. I was thrilled for her of course. She was my closest friend outside of Tori; besties and then some, as she used to say. And it absolutely shattered me that Sam had left her like this.

"What made you think to fly all the way out here?"

Cat shifted uncomfortably, and a flash of awkwardness hit us both. It was unnatural. Strange.

"Aren't you happy to see me?"

I hated the worry hiding in those endless brown eyes. "Of course I am. Always. I just mean why didn't you text or call us? Why come in person? It's not like it's a quick trip from Seattle."

Cat broke eye contact and took another drink from her mug. "I wasn't in Seattle. I was in Buffalo, looking for Sam. She had family there. And I needed to see you both. It's been so long and with Sam gone, I'm just…lonely."

I'll tell you this much, the next time I saw Sam, I planned on having a very long chat with her about this. Cat of all people did not deserve to have her heart stepped on like this.

"I really am glad you're here," I said gently.

"Me too," Cat said in that innocent tone she often had back in high school. "I was hoping Tori would be here too. Shouldn't she be back by now?"

I winced as a sharp pain shot through my chest. "I don't know when she'll be back, to be honest," I said. I tried to make it as nonchalant as possible. It would have worked a decade ago, but Cat had obviously grown quite a bit. It wasn't as easy to sneak something by her anymore, not for the past four or five years since she found this new therapist.

"What's wrong? Are you guys fighting?"

"No."

"Jade. Look me in the eye and tell me no."

I put my best poker face forward and met her gaze. "No."

Even I didn't buy that.

"I haven't seen you in years and the first thing you want to do is lie to me?"

Wow. She was a lot sharper. More than I expected. I had to laugh it off. I got caught. Credit where it's due. "Technically the first thing I did was hug you. Then I offered you a drink."

Her lips twitched as if she were going to smile, but she kept her blank stare. "Answer me. Are you fighting?"

I rubbed my eyes for the hundredth time that night. I needed sleep. Or a steel pipe to the head. Or something. "Yes, Cat, we're fighting. But it's no big deal. You know how we are."

"I know she seemed really upset when she saw me. And that made me even sadder than I already have been."

"I don't think she was upset to see you; it's just how she looked after our fight."

"What are you fighting about?"

I sighed, growing impatient. I just dealt with Tori's fifty questions, I didn't want to deal with Cat's, too. "Does it matter?"

"If you want to fix it, yeah. Where'd she go?"

"I told you, for a walk or something."

Cat leaned forward. "Or something?" She stared intently at mme. "You don't know, do you?"

"Cat–"

"Let's figure it out. I'm sure you know her pearphone info. Track it."

"Cat, I'm not going to…wait, what?" I realized what she had said and it made a lot of sense. Far more sense than so much of what she used to say. "How do you know about that?"

"Seriously?" She seemed confused. "We've been using these things forever. Even Sam knows how to do it; that's how she figured out I was going to New York. Come on, open the Find My Phone app."

I watched in silent amazement as Cat's fingers flew through my app, managing to connect to Tori's phone.

"I assume you tried this with Sam's phone," I said, partly in awe.

"Duh," Cat said with a giggle that reminded me of our days in school. "How do you think I knew it was offline?"

Damn.

"Sweetie, it really sounds like wherever she went, she doesn't want to be found."

Cat shrugged. Shrugged! "Well I found your wife, at least. She's a block away. Looks like a bar or something."

I sighed. "Okay. What do you want me to do about it? She won't talk to me right now. She's pretty pissed, honestly. I really screwed things up. I–"

Her hand suddenly appeared over my mouth.

"Don't tell me. I don't want to know. Just let me go talk to her. I'll get her to come back so we can all talk."

I gently removed her hand from my face. "First of all, if you do that again, I'll bite it off. Second, what exactly do you hope to accomplish here?"

Cat's features softened, but something in those endless dark eyes was different. "Oh, Jade. Will you ever stop externalizing your insecurities with threats of violence in an effort to regain control of a situation?"

I blinked. "Huh?"

Cat blinked too, just as confused as I was. "What?"

Whatever I'd seen in her eyes, it had passed. "You just…started rattling off a bunch of psychobabble like you were a shrink or something."

The natural pink in Cat's cheeks deepend. "Oh. I'm sorry. That happens sometimes. Ever since I was in therapy."

My heart sank. What did the poor kid go through? "That sounds awful."

She smiled gently. "Don't worry. I'm feeling much better now. Anyway, let me go talk to Tori. Then we can all talk. It'll be like old times."

"But–"

She took my hand in hers and gently squeezed. "It'll be okay, Jade. Honest."

The earnestness in her eyes was profound; she really believed it. "Okay. I mean I guess it couldn't hurt."

She leapt to her feet and squealed, sounding more like the Cat I knew and…well, had conflicted feelings for. "Kay, kay. See you soon."

She wrapped her coat around her, pulled her ponytail through the back of her hat, and bounded out the door.

Good luck, Cat, I thought to myself. It's your show now…