Friday after school, Jade lingered at the door to her last class for a few minutes, waiting for the halls to clear out before she returned to her locker. She was hoping she might be able to catch Tori alone; it would be hard enough to talk to her, even without catching stares from nosy classmates.

When she saw that most people seemed to have left, Jade headed to the front of the school. As she approached, she was surprised to hear Tori talking to someone. Jade assumed it was Trina or some annoying kid from one of Tori's classes, so she waited from around the corner, hoping that the other person would walk away and Jade would get her chance to address just Tori.

"I know Andre said you couldn't tell me, but this is different; I already know, I'm just asking for a confirmation," Tori said.

Jade leaned a little closer, intrigued. Couldn't tell her about what?

The other person started sputtering, and the voice was familiar, but Jade couldn't immediately place it.

"Well, okay, I guess… but you can't tell them that I told you. Especially not Cat!" Oh, it's Robbie. He can get so flustered about Cat, Jade thought with a slight smile.

"Thank you," Tori said. "I won't tell Cat. So… what happened. Trina told me that Jade—" Jade's eyes widened as she heard her name— "well, that she sabotaged someone named Sarah Gershton—"

At the sound of that name, Jade involuntarily inhaled sharply. Her mind was quickly filled with flashes of Sarah's face—smiling wide during the bows of a play, frozen in the middle of a laugh while joking around at the park, making a silly face at a photobooth. And then more memories flooded in, first the good, then the bad. Jade leaned against the wall, trying to make sense of all the thoughts and feelings that had just swarmed into her head.

Tori had trailed off when Jade had made noise, and now Tori rounded the corner. When her eyes fell on Jade, her jaw dropped. Tori looked guilty and ashamed, but Jade was too preoccupied to care much about what Tori felt.

"Jade…" Tori started, then trailed off, clearly unsure what to say.

Even though Jade had originally intended to talk to Tori, hearing Sarah's name had thrown her for a loop, and Jade knew that a coherent conversation was no longer a possibility. She had to get home so she had a quiet place to think. Alone. So she looked Tori in the eye, gave a sarcastic smile, and said, "I'll just leave to your gossip and rumors." Then she walked out of the school quickly, ignoring Tori's protests.

Jade headed to her car, but as she approached she realized that a small, cramped car was a bad place to try to deal with her thoughts about Sarah, which were complicated enough on their own. Frowning, she looked around for other places to go, finally settling for one of the tables in the Asphalt Cafe. Since it was the weekend, no one was hanging around outside the school, so she had the space to herself.

Jade stared blankly across the school grounds, letting her eyes unfocus as she concentrated on the tumult in her mind. Whenever she thought about Sarah deeply, it felt like her mind was fighting itself; there was one part of her that remembered all the laughs and fun they had shared, and another that just remembered the stinging feelings of loss, anger and betrayal. It gave her a headache. As much as she resented how their relationship had ended, Jade still couldn't bring herself to hate Sarah. She had such an easy time hating random classmates that she had barely met, but when it came to someone she knew so well… Jade just couldn't bring herself to forget all the good memories.

But even those numerous happy snapshots weren't enough. Because every thought about Sarah, no matter how joyful it originally appeared, was always immediately followed by bitter sadness.

Jade brushed away a tear, then another, then gave up and buried her head in her arms on the table.

Jade didn't know how long she sat there, crying in silence, but she eventually heard a few people noisily leaving the school. Jade tried to block out those sounds, but then a voice wormed its way into her head.

"Actually, Robbie, I think I'll just wait for Trina to finish up with her rehearsal and drive me home. I'll see you on Monday."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you go ahead."

"Bye, Tori!"

There was silence for a few moments, then Jade heard the sound of footsteps approaching. She's staying at school longer to talk to me? Why the hell would she want to talk to me after literally asking around for dirt on me?

"I, uh—"

"Go away, Vega. I don't want to hear it."

"You don't even know what I was going to say!"

"I know that no matter what it is, I don't care." A lie, but Jade hated letting other people see her cry.

Tori sighed. "I don't know if I'm being an idiot, like opening-the-spooky-door-in-a-horror-film level stupid—"

"That wouldn't be new for you," Jade observed.

"—but I felt like I needed to talk to you before making any judgments about… y'know."

The Sarah situation. No way am I talking to Tori about that. "No, I don't know. What are you talking about?" Jade asked, feigning ignorance to make Tori feel more uncomfortable, and hopefully dissuade her from actually probing.

"Come on, Jade. You know. What Trina said about you preventing Sarah Gersthon from getting any spots in the plays."

There's the name again. Just as painful every single time it's said out loud…

"No," Jade said, with her head still buried in her arms.

"No, you didn't know that's what we were talking about, or no, that didn't happen?"

"No, I'm not telling you about it. Go away."

"So it did happen?"

Jade finally raised her head and made eye contact. "You know what Tori? Just this morning I had thought that maybe, just maybe, you were different, and that you didn't judge me the way everyone else does. That maybe you saw me somehow. But clearly I was wrong. You're just as bad as the others, choosing rumors over what you've seen with your own eyes. So cheers. Enjoy your half baked suspicion, because you clearly already have all the information you need to make your decision about me."

With that, Jade scooped up her book bag and walked away. It wasn't until she was far away from the school that she realized she had messed up in two major regards: she had used Tori's first name, and, more importantly, she had revealed way too much about herself. Jade scolded herself, desperately hoping Tori hadn't noted much of what she had said.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Until next week!