They might as well have not gone to school today. No one knew what to say, how to act, how to function normally. Tori was going to be okay, but that's about the only information they had received since 6 AM. In Holly's words, "she is incredibly lucky to even be alive."
A text came and the end of the school day from Tori's mom to the friend group: She's ready for visitors. Come by after school today
They all have had Mrs. Vega's phone number in case of an emergency for a long time, but it was never really necessary to reach her. This certainly wasn't the first interaction Jade wanted with her crush's mom over the phone.
Andre knew he was speeding, but it would be worth it to get a ticket if it meant getting to his best friend quicker. Cat and Robbie were also in the car, but none of them had spoken more than ten words the entire ride. The redhead cried quietly in the back seat, thinking about how horribly she handles death and how horrified she is of it. Luckily, this was just a close call and not another battle she'd have to fight. Robbie held the weeping girl in the backseat, murmuring reassuring words and staring out the window.
Beck and Jade rode separately, upon her request. Jade was familiar with feeling numb, but never as intensely as this. She imagined herself genuinely reacting to this situation; screaming, crying, holding Tori and never letting go, and she couldn't let anyone see that reaction. All she could do was the opposite, and maybe she could get through the rest of the week without falling off the deep end.
She wondered the dreaded thought, Was this somewhat intentional? Tori would never... I guess I don't know for sure. Jade shook her head, refocusing on the traffic light they were stopped at.
"You okay?" Beck asked. Jade didn't tense up this time, the way she usually does.
"No."
His hand hovered over her knee, a motion she caught out of the corner of her eye. He placed it back on the wheel, reminding himself that there are new boundaries set now. "She's gonna be okay."
"Do you realize how traumatic this is?"
"I know, I know…" he trailed off, silencing himself to allow for Jade to sit with her emotions without protest.
"I feel like it's my fault."
He scowled as he glanced at her. "How could this be your fault?"
"She was upset, um-" Jade paused, cringing at what she was about to say. The light turned green. "She saw you kiss me."
"Okay, why would that upset her?"
Jade's lips pressed together before she was aware of the sensation, biting down on her bottom lip to ease her anxiety. "Maybe she has a secret."
Beck scoffed. "Nah, you're reading way too far into things. There's nothing between us."
The dark haired girl laughed, too. "Maybe I am. I don't know, she blew me off last night. She could hardly look at me."
"Well, you're competing for the same role of one of your last plays as Hollywood Arts students. Of course she's going to be out of sorts with you."
Jade's eyes watered upon seeing the sign for the hospital out her window. "Yeah."
Beck led Jade inside with a hand on her back. Normally, she would have yelled at him for touching her, but she didn't mind being grounded. Hospitals had never bothered Jade, but something told her that might change after today. The bright lights didn't help her already burning eyes.
"Hi, Holly Vega invited us to see our friend, Tori," Beck explained to the man at the desk, who politely led the two down the proper hallway. The others hadn't arrived yet; Beck had lost Andre behind him on the road but Jade insisted that they go in immediately. She was sure she could throw up with ease; she took a mental note of how to get back to the bathroom they had passed on their way to the room. The nurse greeted Holly first and confirmed that she knew who we were. Jade watched as Tori's mom wrapped her arms around Beck tight first. He hugged her back sincerely, before she let him go and repeated the same embrace with Jade. She hugged the exact same way Tori does, soft and warm at first, and a brief but strong squeeze before letting go.
"Uh, I don't know how to do this. I didn't, um…" she broke into tears, pressing her face into her hand and looking away. Beck rested his hand on her shoulder to calm her.
"Where's Mr.?"
"He's talking with the doctor in another room, out of the way so all of you kids can have some time with her."
Jade realized she had never interacted with Mrs. Vega all that much, a huge wave of guilt washing over her for being so indifferent to her in the past. She knew how much Tori loved her mom and how supportive she was.
"I don't know how to tell you two, that Tori… well… she won't-"
"Mom?" A weak voice sounded from inside the room. Jade normally would have pushed right through Holly to get inside, but instead stared worriedly at her and couldn't move. She couldn't bring herself to tell them what was going on.
Mrs. Vega glanced back and forth between Beck and Jade and took a deep breath. "I think you'll quickly understand once you go say hi," she prompted softly.
Jade's feet felt heavy as she slowly entered the room behind Beck. Her heart broke at the sight of Tori's condition, but he couldn't help but to cry as her friend offered a small smile to them both. Her hair was tangled, something Jade never failed to find adorable in every rare instance that the brunette's hair wasn't perfectly curled. Her hair seemed to still have some blood stained in it on one side of her face, where a cut started on her forehead and continued behind her left ear. She had a cast around her left forearm as well, but other than that there were no other noticeable signs of injury.
"Hi Tori," Beck whispered before sitting down in a chair next to her bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Hi, my head hurts but I'm okay… Sorry, um-"
Jade laughed with relief after hearing her friend's voice after what seemed like years without. "She's still apologizing for everything," she looked to Beck who shared the laugh with her.
"Tori, these are two of your friends, Beck and Jade."
Jade felt her heart erupting in her chest as she took several moments to process the enormous realization caused by Holly's introduction of her and Beck. She doesn't remember us. She doesn't remember what we talked about. She doesn't remember telling me she likes girls.
The brunette wasn't the only one in the room who looked as if she was about to cry. "Wow. That's so nice of you to come here so quickly. Um, do either of you know Trina?"
"Oh, yeah. We know Trina," Beck replied softly, also deflated from the reality that diminished every flicker of hope he had somehow mustered up since the text from Andre this morning.
Tori laughed shakily though it seemed to hurt her. She paused to take a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sure you have a lot of opinions about her."
Brown eyes shifted their focus from the boy with the long hair to the especially dark and gloomy girl sitting next to him. Tori was told a few things about each of her friends, but she knew that her parent's opinions of her friends wouldn't match how she saw them before. Her mom had described Jade as a "bit of a grouch, but great sense of humour." Her dad felt incredibly negatively about Jade, specifically about how she dressed and treated Tori several times throughout school. Tori knew that her dad was often over protective, though, and had absolutely no reason to judge someone she no longer knew for what they might have done before today.
"Jade, if my dad says anything mean to you, I'm sorry."
Holly laughed loudly, sounding as if she has needed a real laugh for a long time after this nightmare. "He could say something mean about all of your friends, Tori. Not just her."
Tori watched as Beck scowled and turned his head toward Mrs. Vega. "What doesn't he like about me?"
"Your hair," she whispered while scrunching her face. Jade chuckled under her breath and crossed her legs.
"Tori, I don't want you to apologize for anything. Um…" she stopped to look at Beck, who was surprised in Jade's apparent calm nature. Inside, she was feeling about every other emotion in existence besides calm. Holding eye contact with Tori was chilling when Jade realized those infamous lingering glances no longer meant what they might have meant before.
"I'm sure that a lot is going to come up. You know, memories, filling in the gaps of um… what you might not remember…" Shit. Don't cry now. "But regardless of anything you might learn about me and my past, I'm going to be such a good friend to you. I promise."
Jade wasn't quite sure how she managed to force all of that out with the minimal amount of time she had to process the fact that the girl she had fallen for no longer remembered her. Tori smiled her same, warm smile that Jade remembered. Like she still saw the whole world in Jade.
"Thank you… I'm sorry that I don't remember-"
"Nope. We're here for you. Whatever you need or are curious about, whatever you need help with, we are here for you. We always have been," Beck said firmly with a small smile.
"We're going to get through this together, I promise," Jade's voice was smooth, collected.
Tori began crying, overwhelmed by all of the unconditional love and support presented to her since the moment she woke up. Jade fought the urge to leap out of her seat and hold her.
Beck and Jade almost seemed familiar to her; like people she had seen in a dream years ago. A significant event that she knew happened somewhere in her mind, but if you hadn't told her that these two were her friends, she would have likely never thought anything of them. Beck gave a nice first impression, a calming nature about him and a smile that made Tori feel welcome. Jade looked a little rough on the outside, but clearly she has a huge soft side to her and that's all Tori needs to know in order to be comfortable with connecting with her again.
Jade had an unlimited amount of questions she wanted to ask Tori, but figured it shouldn't be something that she asks Tori. Most of this was going to have to be prompted when Tori herself was comfortable sharing. Nothing was the same, everything needed to be rewritten. Jade was going to make everything right again. Well, not again. Right like it should have been before. She was determined to give Tori what she deserves and not be a coward anymore. There's no time for that, time is fragile.
Andre, Cat, and Robbie appeared at the door, greeting Holly and stepping in quietly. Cat shrieked, and though Jade wasn't watching the bubbly redhead, she was pretty sure it was a positive squeak.
"Tori! I'm so sorry you're- oh my God-"
"I'm okay, it's okay. Don't be upset."
Jade's stomach turned. How can she still be this comforting and selfless to her friends when she's the one whose life just got ruined?
"Tori! Hey beautiful," Andre smiled, suddenly choking up and holding back tears himself. Jade and Beck offered their seats to trade spots with Cat and Andre.
"Wow, I'm so glad you're okay," Robbie spoke in a hushed tone after sighing.
"Did you guys get caught up in traffic somewhere?" Beck asked.
Andre sighed, throwing his hands in the air. "I got pulled over."
"Yikes, did they ticket you?" Jade asked while studying Tori's confused face.
"Nah, I told him why I was speeding. He knew exactly who I was talking about too, which was kind of weird. But at least I don't have a ticket."
"Well, I'm glad you all made it here in one piece." Holly had walked to the other side of Tori's bed to sit close and rest her hand on Tori's bare wrist. "This is Cat, Andre, and Robbie," she pointed to each friend respectively.
Cat's eyes widened. "Why are you doing that?"
Andre and Robbie picked up the hint quickly after exchanging looks with Beck and Jade, only to feel their souls sinking in their bodies.
"Oh, honey. Tori has lost a few years of her memory from the accident. So she doesn't remember any of Hollywood Arts, or anyone from it…"
"What? Why?" Cat's voice broke as she tried to hold back tears. Jade was over in a split second with her hand on Cat's shoulder for comfort.
"Well, sometimes when you get in an accident, you hit your head and have a bit of amnesia-"
"We'll explain more later, Cat," Jade interrupted while holding eye contact with Mrs. Vega. She offered the younger girl an appreciative smile as a thank you for steering the direction another way.
"It's not fair," she finally cried. Tori watched the way Jade comforted her, how undeniably hurt she was by the crying girl and how torn she was. Jade softly brushed over long locks of beautifully curled hair, making Tori smile.
"I'm sorry, Cat."
"No, Tori. Don't apologize, that's silly," Cat finally managed between cries. She calmed herself rather quickly, knowing it wouldn't be easy for Tori to see someone she doesn't even know so upset.
Tori scowled for a moment, remembering something her mom has told her about a friend. "One of you has a puppet?" She glanced at Beck first, already forgetting which name belonged to which boy, who put his hands up and shook his head.
"This is definitely not a good time and place for you to uh, meet Rex. He's at home," Robbie replied simply. "He can be, well-"
"Downright obnoxious and rude," Jade finished his sentence for him, the first clear indication of the bit of edge Jade had to her. Tori appreciated it and laughed softly at Jade's words.
Jade felt a warmth growing in her chest. Well that's different, she would never laugh at that before.
"Well, isn't it just you saying everything for him? You know, because he's your puppet?"
A tension arose in the silent room as several concerned glances were exchanged. "We'll get into that another day," Andre finally concluded.
Tori scowled, a bit concerned with how dramatically the tone shifted, but shrugged and pushed herself up to sit up taller in her bed. "I can't believe you're all my friends from Hollywood Arts… it's so weird to me."
"Well, do you know the whole story of how you got in?"
"No, that was actually something my mom wanted to wait to talk about-"
"Trina won't be here for another hour or so, her flight from New York had a delay of course," Holly explained. "We figured she might want to be here to talk about that part."
"Of course," Robbie replied with a smile. "So, how can we help?"
A rather vague and question to be asked in a situation like this, but Jade didn't argue it like she normally might have, as she also wanted to be of use to help Tori get through this.
"We could all go around and tell our favorite memory involving Tori from Hollywood Arts," Cat suggested.
"Oh boy," Tori laughed. "This should be interesting."
"Honey, are you comfortable with that? Or do you need some time, I'm sure this is all overwhelming-"
"No mom, it's okay. I'm excited, this will be fun," Tori assured. Her mother noticed that her energy and mood had reached a peak since waking several hours ago.
"Alright, one story from everyone, and then Tori should probably rest."
"I'll go first, but oh my God there are too many!" Cat began giggling for an uncomfortable amount of time, never beginning a story. Andre gently reminded her to share something, and Jade watched how Tori reacted patiently with her, not a single negative expression in all that time.
"Okay, well a while ago, we sang a really fun song at this place called Karaoke Dokie for our friends!"
"Karaoke Dokie?" Tori echoed. Her familiar and adorable scowl made Jade smirk. "Like a karaoke place?"
"Yeah! All of us go there all of the time. They have food, and really cool people sing and perform, and one time you destroyed these girls in a singing competition."
Tori's face slowly fell as she was clouded by her own thoughts. "That's… crazy I-I mean, I'd never do anything like that, before…"
"This school has really changed you, Tori. That's only the beginning."
"Tori, one time you donated blood to me right before you had to perform in a play at school. You uh… didn't do very well. They kept dropping and losing your blood at the hospital, so they took way too much out of you. You could hardly function by the time you had to go on stage…"
Jade felt overwhelming guilt as Robbie shared his story, some nasty and selfish time she thought might not cause too much harm to Tori, but in hindsight was actually dreadful to look back on. Especially after this.
"...You had such strong determination to go through with your commitment, even after being so selfless in order to help me."
It was hardly a second before Andre began his story. "One time, we wrote a song for your sister-"
"You're the Reason?" All of the friends flinched at Tori's remembrance of the song, hopeful eyes gazing up to her. Tori's mom squeezed her hand as she got emotional. Her parents had recorded Tori's performance in the living room that night, and her dad showed her a few hours ago.
"Um, I watched a video earlier. The song just sounded so familiar, almost like I had known it before-"
"Well you did. That song was yours and it was amazing. Anyway, some mix ups happened, we kind of ended up losing the song to some producers who worked with Beyoncé, and she was interested in it but he had already bought the song off of Trina-"
"What?! My-sorry, our song that I sang first in the world interested Beyoncé?!"
"Yeah. Never heard anything about it again."
Jade's heart began racing again once Tori locked eyes with her. I can't believe I'm a stranger to her.
"You're incredible."
Beck's eyes shifted toward his ex girlfriend, who was leaning forward in her chair and studying her friend. No one else in the room had ever heard Jade say something this nice to Tori. Andre smirked as Jade continued.
"One time, we were on a- uh, well, 'date' at this restaurant-"
"A date?" Tori blushed while tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
Jade blushed even harder. "We were supposed to play husband and wife in a play. Our teacher made us go on a pretend date because, well… sometimes we would argue-"
"Jade was so mean to you," Andre smiled while telling this to Tori, and winked at Jade once meeting her eyes again.
Tori laughed, "Maybe I deserved it."
"No, no, believe me you really didn't. But um, anyway," she paused to find the right words to tell the story. Beck was astonished at Jade's behavior toward the girl she had spent the last two years torturing. She was simply focusing on not vomiting everywhere, and thinking about this day made that incredibly difficult.
"These two guys were all over us, and we had quite the way of telling them to fuck off-"
"Jade," Beck interjected, eyeing Mrs. Vega across the room.
"It's okay. I would have told them to fuck off myself if I were there," Holly replied, causing everyone to burst out laughing. Tori looked back to Jade with such interest in her eyes, and the dark haired girl felt incredibly lucky in a way, to fall in love with Tori all over again.
"We sang this song that completely told them off, it was badass. We completely burned the house down," Jade shifted gears quickly after finishing her story, turning back to Tori's mom while folding her arms. "Are you sure this isn't, you know, too much for us all to be here at the same time?"
Holly began to speak for Tori, "No, um-"
"I wanted to meet you all, I asked if you could come here. You're all people I had texted recently, I saw in my phone. God, you think this is overwhelming? Think of all of the old texts I have to read to try and catch up with you all, with myself-"
"Don't push yourself, Tori. Baby steps, that's all you gotta do."
Jade was weighing the likeliness of her running to the bathroom as soon as she exited the room as her stomach churned again. You fucking idiot. You fucking coward, absolute moron. She's going to hate you after she reads your texts.
"Tori, you standing up to Sikowitz on one of your first days at Hollywood Arts is a memory of you I'll never forget," Beck began, the others agreeing with laughter. "You roasted that man like a marshmallow."
"Burned to a crisp!" Andre added.
The brunette scowled yet again. "Siko-what?"
"Sikowitz! He's our acting teacher," Cat explained while twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
"God, did I get in trouble?"
"No, quite the opposite actually. You were defending your acting choices, which was exactly what he wanted you to do. He kind of played a mind game, it's what he does to every new student at Hollywood Arts. It's kind of a long story…" he trailed off. Tori couldn't bring herself to imagine a scenario in which she would genuinely disrespect a teacher in front of an entire class.
"Well, as long as it was what he was looking for-"
"He deserved it, sweetie," Holly comforted her while rubbing her arm gently.
Tori was undoubtedly devastated, yet somehow ecstatic to rediscover herself. She had spent her young lifetime in constant self-doubt, but now she has a close knit group of great friends who clearly see a lot in her and know exactly what she is capable of. Maybe she wouldn't doubt her abilities this time, and the more she found these little artifacts of her time at Hollywood Arts, the more proof she'd have that she is capable of doing incredible things.
"Well, we should probably get going so you can take some time to absorb… all of that," Beck said while glancing to Jade while she gazed at the floor stone cold.
"We love you so much, Tori," Cat said sweetly, her bright eyes sparkling as she smiled at the brunette.
Tori laughed, her breath faltering while holding back a cry. "I'm so lucky, I just want to hug you all."
"We'll squeeze ya another day when you're feeling better, promise," Andre beamed at her. He let his hand rest on top of Tori's gently, before sharing a smile with her and choking up while walking away from the bed. Beck wrapped his arm around Andre, while Cat and Robbie began slowly moving out of the room. Jade couldn't move as she tried to come up with a million justifications to her mean texts to Tori over the years. She figured it would probably make it worse to make a huge deal about it to her, and she couldn't control whatever the new version of 'Jade' would be in Tori's head. At least not based on old texts.
Finally, the blue eyed girl stood up, but made her way to Tori's side rather than the door. She took her friend's hand with both of her own, feeling the warmth melt into her hands as a tear finally fell from her eye. "You're incredible. I meant it."
Holly watched as Jade looked down at her hands holding Tori's, noticing the way she seemed to crumble before saying goodbye. Within a few moments, Jade left the room and was silent down the hallway.
"You said she's the mean one?" Tori asked, motioning her hand toward the door.
Holly's eyebrows raised as she shook her head slightly, as to clear her mind from confusion. "Um, yeah. Maybe her true colors are shining through."
Tori blinked. "Meaning, the 'mean' Jade wasn't her true personality?"
"Maybe not," she replied, sitting on the edge of Tori's bed. "Now, I know you really wanted to meet them, but there's no pressure to be friends with them again. I'm not discouraging you from befriending them again. I have become fond of them, but you don't need to try to pick up every piece from before-"
"No, I do. I mean, I know I don't need to, but I don't know. Clearly they've been by my side through school, and clearly they want to keep doing that. I don't want to just leave them because I don't remember."
"And that's fair. But this is about you , so if for some reason you find yourself not connecting with them, I'm sure they would understand."
It's senior year, what else am I going to do? "Okay, mom."
Mrs. Vega took a deep sigh, leaning down to hug her daughter. Tori took a nap until Trina arrived, who appeared in the doorway and immediately burst into tears. David had met her in the lobby and showed her the way upstairs. Trina had already spent quite some time talking to Tori over the phone today, but finally being there in person was incredibly relieving. The younger sister had never remembered a time where Trina had been especially emotional, at least not on anyone else's behalf.
"You couldn't have made it a whole week through senior year, huh?" Trina laughed between cries, wiping the tears off her face.
"Apparently not," Tori groaned. "I can't believe you're going to college for pre-law now!"
"Ugh, why does everyone ask me that, like it's so unbelievable?"
Tori and Holly's eyes widened. The brunette stammered before responding, "Uh, well it's just really awesome!"
"Thanks, I love New York. Ugh why are we talking about me-"
"Usually we never stop," David murmured before Trina gave him a glare. He had been quiet all day, and could hardly bear to look at Tori after being one of the responders to her accident. He saw his unconscious daughter upon arriving at the scene, sprawled on the asphalt like roadkill and blood across her face and neck. At least he was able to say he had never been so happy to send a drunk driver to jail.
"I don't know what the best thing is to do to help right now, but whatever you need, I will always be here for you," her sister assured while turning back to Tori.
"Thanks, Trina. I'm just worried they won't let me back in at Hollywood Arts…"
"Oh, please. You exude talent constantly, this will be a big story for them! How high school senior Tori Vega goes through a traumatic event and still is an incredible performer. I'm not quite sure how classes will work, you know, what you have to relearn which is like, everything but-"
"Don't worry, honey. I'm not going to let them push you out of that school, and I really don't think any of them would want to do that to you, either. A lot will have to be discussed, though, a lot," David spoke sternly, forcing himself to look at Tori.
"Do you think they'll make me repeat the last few years?"
Holly chimed in while glancing at David. "No, maybe a few classes though somehow. I'm sure they'll make a specific plan for you and give you all the resources you need. And your friends will help you, too."
"Oh, Trina I wanted to ask you. Which of my friends do you like best?"
"Beck," she answered immediately with a sober face.
Tori rolled her eyes, anticipating a certain answer. "And why's that?"
"He's hot."
"Trina," David sighed and rubbed his forehead, unsure of how to even scold her with how exhausted he was.
Holly cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "Andre has always seemed to be your closest friend. He's always supported you, since the day you sang in Trina's place and you were asked to be in Hollywood Arts in the first place."
Trina sighed dramatically, knowing that her mom had asked her ahead of time to tell the story. Mostly, Holly wanted Trina to acknowledge her sister's talent without making it about herself somehow, for once. The older sister surprisingly had already accomplished that.
"I had an allergic reaction for this really important performance. I drank this stuff that was supposed to make me sing better, but my entire face swelled up, and they needed someone to fill the place to keep things running smoothly. Andre had been at our house for practice before that day, he played piano for the song I was singing for the performance. He knew you had memorized the song just from hearing the rehearsals, so you did it for me. Everyone was blown away, even me. I had never seen you shine like that."
Will I ever experience anything authentically again? All these stories after being awake again for only a few hours caused this question to burn in Tori's mind over and over again. Sure, she had a lot of memories to re learn and experience, tons of relationships to learn about and process, but all of her achievements up to this point were hardly imaginable. Were they even achievements if she doesn't remember? Sure, she was going to have an incredible support system of people who would help her through this in every way possible, but if Tori couldn't experience these emotions in real time rather than looking back on years she doesn't remember, will they even end up meaning anything to her at all?
"God, I hate this."
Holly scowled, wondering the source of Tori's newfound negative energy. "What's wrong?"
"I can think of a few things," Tori laughed, holding back tears again. "You now what I remember clearly? Running. It's all I want to do right now."
The mom and sister were silent, glancing back and forth between each other and Tori. "You'll be home in a few days, but you need at least two weeks of rest with minimum physical activity and stimulation-"
" What?"
"I'm sorry, but that's what we need you to do. You're going to go through a lot, and we need to make sure you're ready to go back to normal and everything is going okay."
Trina wished she could stay home to show that she actually can be selfless. She wished she had unlearned her selfish behavior sooner, rather than when her sister nearly almost died. With Tori's memory putting her back in Freshman year, Trina couldn't bare the thought of Tori being alone in the house, how much mom and dad's job schedules would have to change to stay home with her, how pained the distant family will be moving forward. It's just not fair.
"I'm so stupid-"
"Tori, we can't talk about the situation like that. We don't see you as stupid, it's not your fault someone hit you-"
"Well yeah but if I had just listened to you and put on-"
"We cannot be hung up on that, and we won't. None of us are mad at you, and we can't look at that anymore. We're looking at you, and making sure you're okay. You have a beautiful life ahead of you and we love you so much," David had stood up and rested his hand on Tori's shoulder by the time he was done speaking. She looked up at him with watery eyes, incredibly thankful that he was at the scene of the accident.
"I love you guys, too. So much."
Friday, April 17th 4:56 PM
Good luck tonight.
awww! thanks Jade :)
Don't push it.
i'll blow a kiss to you from the stage ?
Gross, I'll choke on it.
me, Cat, and Andre are gonna go to Nozu after, do you want to come?
I think I'll pass, but thanks
ughh you never want to hang out with us
Why would I? I'm not your friend
you literally just texted me on your own time to wish me luck?
I thought you might need it.
ouch. I know you're just being mean because you like me ?
Keep telling yourself that, Vega
Jade had been scrolling through her phone for almost an hour reading all of these messages. They never texted much, but usually at least one small conversation per day. How the fuck would anyone explain this one? She's going to think I'm such a bitch. Well, I am.
Tuesday, April 14th 10:22 AM
I need to borrow your homework for history.
and you need to pay attention in class ?
YOU need to watch your back!
i'm not going to get in trouble, he'll know if we cheated!
I'll change the answers, I'm not stupid.
oh come on, he'll still know. Would you like help with the homework?
I'd rather die than be tutored by you.
but we can have snacks and beverages? ﾟﾏﾽ ?
...If I wasn't failing I'd say no, but sure. What time?
you can drive me home from school and just stay over, works perfectly!
Absolutely not.
no ride = no help. vroom vroom!
I couldn't hate you any more.
see you at lunch!
Monday, April 13th 7:41 PM
effective.
Power لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ 冗
wtf was that?
I possessed your phone. Did it shut off and restart?
yes… HOW DID YOU DO THAT?
It's a secret ?
you're the worst, Jade
Your ? is next…
please seek help.
The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin in 30 seconds. Line up at the start. The running speed starts slowly, but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal. [beep] A single lap should be completed each time you hear this sound. [ding] Remember to run in a straight line, and run as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a lap before the sound, your test is over. The test will begin on the word start. On your mark, get ready, start.
are you high?
No… ?
hugs not drugs ✋
? Omg take a joke for once, would you?
you don't think I know why your brother and you have a movie marathon every winter break and you're like MIA for hours?
Yikes. You got me there. I'm not right now though, serious
okay, good. bc you didn't even invite me
No way. You have NOT.
I have a cool uncle, he hooks me up on our family "camping" trips over the summer.
I bet you're a one hit wonder type of gal.
maybe I am, maybe i'm not. but okay let's stop talking about it
I'm literally going to delete this entire conversation
I'm so paranoid my parents will find it somehow
Wtf, do they go through your phone?
lol no, but my dad's a cop, so you know. just extra paranoid about it
Don't tell me you think David's never smoked a doobie in his life ?
I mean, okay. PROBABLY but he's a COP NOW.
now leave me alone?
Thursday, April 9th 6:12 PM
are you sure you're okay with driving me to school tomorrow?
I offered. Why wouldn't I be?
well, you've never offered before and I'm just surprised
You're questioning it again.
honestly, I am. you say all the time that we're not friends, and now suddenly you show up out of nowhere and offer me a ride. like what gives?
Jade remembered this conversation as clear as day. She played it off like something really bad was going to happen to Tori, and although she did end up walking to school, Jade just wanted to test Tori's limits. She was genuinely surprised Tori had taken the offer in the first place, and rather than scolding Jade afterward, she just left the situation and never brought it up again. Jade was giving her every reason to yell at her, and she still didn't do it.
Well, I don't want Beck to drive you again.
fine. don't be weird or scary, PLEASE
I would never ;)
Thursday, April 9th 4:12 PM
Can I ask you something?
if this is about earlier, I don't really want to talk about it
Okay, no worries. Are you feeling better?
idk, i guess a little
Sorry if I have this wrong, but I've had panic attacks, too. I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't think I could relate and help, you know, if you ever need it.
Tori had run out of a class while watching a film. There weren't any content warnings, no violence, no typical theme that might trigger someone. Jade wasn't sure if it was something in the film that had put Tori off, or something in her mind causing her leg to shake uncontrollably, causing her to take little sips of water excessively and her hand through her hair several times before leaving the dark classroom. The teacher had gone out to talk to her, and by the time they were done class had already ended and school was dismissed for the day.
it's happened before. never that intensely, I thought I was going to puke honestly
That's normal. I'm sorry that happened. If it ever happens again, please reach out to me because I know it's tough. I can try to help walk you through it if you want
wow um, thanks that's insanely nice of you
I just know it hurts when some people downplay it. I know it's big and scary, and I won't take it lightly, you know, tell you to "chill out"
like how Beck always told you to "chill out?"
… Yeah
I'll never say that to you, I'm sorry
Don't worry about it. Now fuck off, stop making this too nice of a conversation
fuck you, too ❤️
Jade locked her phone to give her eyes a break and stared at the ceiling fan. It was 1 AM, her stomach was empty from vomiting, and she could hardly keep her eyes open at this point. She would pick up where she left off tomorrow with texts, but at the same time she hardly wanted to wake up at all in the morning.
She unlocked her phone once again, staring at the text she had sent minutes before Tori was struck by the moving vehicle:
Wednesday, September 9th 6:44 PM
I really need to talk to you.