Tori opens up, Jade does too. TW's for cutting and attempted suicide.

I also apologize in advance for making Beck a huge asshole in this story... if you've read my other Jori fic "Dance The Night Away." You'd know I'd prefer to write him as a nicer guy.

If you havent read DTNA, its on Wattpad, AO3 and my other fanfiction account all under the username "IGotTooManyOTP."

AO3 and Wattpad both have its companion series of One-Shots.

I hated Monday's. Maybe I should've just stayed home, but I'm thankful I got to see Jade today, even though it was for only a few minute while she spoke to my father.

I didn't really hear much of what they were saying, so when he filled me in on the car ride home about how he'd invited Jade and her brother to dinner tonight, my stomach clenched with nerves.

"You said you liked Jade's little brother," dad said when he saw a look cross my face.

"I do, it's just… are you sure you're okay with both of them coming for dinner?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Her brother is autistic. He's a very good kid, but I don't want you to be taken aback when you see him."

"Does he have any dietary restrictions?"

"Not that I'm aware of, he ate salad when jade and I were studying, and Dino nuggets with mash potato and gravy… he pretended it was a volcano, and the gravy was wiping out all the dinosaurs."

I smiled fondly at the memory and looked out the window as the houses blurred when we passed them.

"Is that all?"

"Hash browns. He loves hash browns and tater-tots."

"So, anything potato?"

I shrugged, looking up at our house as he pulled into the driveway.

"I can message Jade and ask?"

"Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea, maybe make sure she doesn't have allergies also."

Nodding, I made my way upstairs to my room and sat on my bed. I felt so exhausted, I just wanted to sleep.

Maybe an hour wouldn't hurt. It was only ten thirty.

I set my alarm for lunchtime, laid back on my bed and closed my eyes, resting my hand on my stomach, holding my phone there so I could feel and hear it when my alarm would go off.

I was there again, the sound of thunder and the flashes of lightning reminded me of it.

I could feel that this was a dream, but no amount of struggling could free me of the chair I'd been tied to.

Their laughter caught my attention, the way their eyes roamed over me.

I swallowed hard and opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out.

Both of them had already had their way with me. I could still feel the cable ties cutting into my ankles and wrists as I struggled to get free.

A hand on my shoulder jolted me awake, a light layer of sweat drenching my body.

"Jade?" I blinked a few times, my room coming into view around me as I started up into her eyes.

"Yeah, Vega, it's me. Your dad sent me up here to wake you, he seems a little annoyed, something about messaging me and food?"

I looked around the bed for my phone and found it tucked against my side, the alarm still on the screen but no sound or vibrations coming from the device.

I'd slept till four in the afternoon.

"Shit," I huffed and ran a hand through my hair. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I brought food for Riley anyway. Just in case. Why don't you change and come down to see him? He got excited when I said we were coming to visit you."

Nodding, I pushed myself up off my bed, my whole body felt numb, all I really wanted to do was go back to bed, but I knew if I did that, I would sleep till the morning.

"Are you okay?" Jade asked, making me turn and look at her, her hand on the door.

"Yeah, bad dreams."

I grabbed a one-piece swimsuit, loose shorts and a shirt, pushing my bathroom door closed behind me so I could change without her seeing.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I'm okay. Thank you."

She knows what I'm going through, I don't know why I just don't talk to her. But I'm afraid that if I bring down that wall and cave in, I could bring down the barricade that's stopping my feelings for her escaping also.

I pulled the shirt on over my swimsuit and shorts and tied my hair back into a loose bun before pulling the door open again, almost running into her as she stepped away quickly.

"I'm here, Tori. You don't have to go through this alone."

"I'm okay," I said, nodding as if to reassure myself more than her. "I'm okay." It was more of a whisper that time.

She just nodded and we made our way downstairs, my mask slipping on as I saw Riley playing with his RC Car on the living room floor.

"Hey, Riley."

That got his attention. He dropped the controller quickly, running over to hug me, his arms wrapping around my waist tightly.

I hesitantly slipped my arms around him, smiling as I stroked his hair slowly before he pulled away.

He waved his fingers quickly, making me smile and laugh, stroking my hands and curling my fingers.

"You sign?" Jade asked, gaining my attention.

"Yeah, I'm learning slowly. It's hard to get it, but he corrects me."

Riley tapped my hand, making me turn back to him.

"Yeah, we can swim now," I said, pushing the back door open and following him outside, Jade trailing behind us.

Riley turned to face me, curling his fingers slowly so I could read what he was saying.

"Float?" I asked.

"Pool toys," Jade said, making me nod.

"Yeah, I have pool toys." I made my way through the pool gate and held it open for them before going down to the small shed at the end of the yard and opening it up.

"I can teach you if you want, more sign language."

I smiled at her, stepping aside to Riley could take his pick of the toys. "I'd like that, thank you."

It was after dinner that Riley started to wind down and wear out, so Jade handed him the iPad from her bag, telling him to go play on the couch.

We both did the dishes as my parents went upstairs, telling us they had an early day tomorrow, Trina has retired to her room as soon as the food was finished so she didn't get stuck with the cleaning.

By the time the last of the dishes were packed away, Riley was yawning loudly and his head dropping to the side as he watched a movie on his iPad.

"I should get him home, will you be at school tomorrow?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding slowly. "I'll be there. Thanks for bringing my homework."

"Good luck with it, Cat was saying how much there was that we missed today," she said, packing Riley's toy car up and making sure she had everything else packed away before she walked her bag out to the car.

She came back in and Riley had crashed, his iPad slipped onto the couch cushion beside him, his head hanging at an awkward angle.

Jade looked very annoyed by the fact that he'd fallen asleep.

"You can't carry him, can you?"

"Haven't been able to in about a year," she said, crossing her arms in thought.

I smiled, holding back a laugh before sliding one arm under Riley's legs, the other behind his neck and even managed to slip his iPad between our bodies so it wasn't forgotten.

"Lead the way," I whispered and carried him out to her car, Jade rushed forward and opened his door so I could put him straight in and strap him down.

"Thanks," she said softly as she eased the door closed. "Do you want me to come with you so I can get him inside?"

"And how would you get back?"

"I can walk, Jade. I'm not an invalid." The note to my tone made us both freeze before I hung my head in shame. "Sorry, I'm just tired."

"Why don't you stay over? I'll drive you to school tomorrow? You've stayed at my place before," she offered.

"Uh, I'll run it by my parents. Can you wait five minutes?"

"Yeah, go on. If they say yes, don't forget all your homework."

I groaned, "Sir, yes sir." I mock saluted her, which only made her smirk, causing my stomach to flip wildly. What I would do for the ability to kiss that smirk off her lips.

I made my way inside and up the stairs, I took a shakey breath before gathering up my items needed for tomorrow and my phones charger.

I looked around my room as I switched the light off and grabbed a change of clothes, stuffing them into my bag.

I'd already had a shower after our swim, and changed into my pajamas then so I could just crawl into bed when the time came.

So, I pulled on my ugg boots, grabbed my socks, and converse to wear tomorrow, before sending my dad a text to let him know I was staying at Jade's for the night and headed back downstairs.

Jade was leaning on the hood of her car on the phone as I closed the front door and locked it behind me, she was quick to end the call and stand as I slipped my bag off my shoulder.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Ready." I nodded and got into the back seat, buckling myself in.

Jade had carried all the bags in, while I carried Riley in. It somehow felt very domestic.

When I laid him in his bed, he rolled over to face the other side of the room and I pulled the sheet up over him.

I quietly made my way back downstairs, Jade was coming from the kitchen with two large glasses in her hand, whipped cream floating on top of them. "Milkshakes."

"Thanks," I said, smiling softly as she held one out for me to take.

"Do you want to get some homework done?" She asked, heading down the small set of stairs to her room with me following a few steps behind.

"I suppose I have to, it needs to get done sooner or later," I said and she only laughed softly.

"Yeah, that's true."

We sat side by side on her bed, our laptops on our laps, milkshakes on the bedside tables and our homework between us.

Well, the classes we had together was between us, along the other side of me, barely balancing on the edge of the bed, was my homework in the one class I didn't have with Jade. Maths. She was in a higher class in maths.

Halfway through my work, Skype began ringing on my laptop, making me jump and glance at jade, who had one earphone in bobbing her head to her blasting music.

It was a group chat with the rest of our friends.

I tapped her hand and pointed to my screen. "Why aren't they calling you?"

Jade just shrugged and I answered the call.

"Hey," I said when it connected properly.

"Sup, Tor?" Andre grinned.

"Everyone called-"

"Are you at Jade's?" Beck asked, frowning a little, leaning closer to his screen as if he were looking at the room.

"Yeah, we're doing homework together," I said, and looked over at Jade again.

"She's let you in her room?" He asked again.

"Where else would we do homework?" I asked confused.

"In the kitchen like her and I do…"

He seemed angry.

"We didn't want to wake Riley," Jade said, pushing the edge of my laptop slightly so it faced her. "He not long went down."

"Right, Riley." Beck nodded slowly. "We always do homework there, even if Riley is asleep."

"No boys in the bedroom," Jade said.

"Yeah, even when no one else is home," Beck said, rolling his eyes.

"Uh, guys?" I asked, gaining everyone's attention. "Why was I called and not jade? Or Robbie…"

"We were just wondering why you weren't at school, or why I had to pick up yours and Jade's homework. Or what happened over the weekend," Cat babbled on, making me freeze slightly.

"What's it to you? She just needed a day off school, and I went out with Riley." Jade's tone made the room feel ten degrees cooler.

"Okay, but what happened on Friday?" Andre asked.

"Uh, I was kidnapped on my way home from Nozu," I said, twisting the hair tie that was on my wrist, flicking it a few times before scratching at the red line it left.

"What?" The other three asked at the same time, my laptop speakers crackling at the loudness of it.

"Hey, shut up, she'll talk when she wants to," Jade said, leaning closer to me, pressing a button on my keyboard that made the call disconnect.

She smelt heavenly.

I took a deep breath as she pulled away and sat up straight again, bringing my attention back to my wrist where I'd scratched a light layer of skin away.

I quickly dropped my hands apart, shutting my laptop with a sigh.

"You okay?" She asked, making me nod and reach for my almost finished drink as a distraction.

"Show me your wrist, please," she said, her soft spoken words made me look at her and hesitantly hold my hand out, wrist facing upwards as I finished my drink with my other hand.

"Is this the first time you've hurt yourself?" She asked.

I swallowed, my voice catching painfully in my throat.

"In general or since it happened?" I asked quietly.

"You choose," she said, giving me an option to fess up or lie. My heart hurts so bad right now, will it ever stop?

I shook my head.

"Have you taken care of them?"

I looked up at her with tears in my eyes.

"Cleaned them, kept them clean?"

I nodded.

"Will you show me?"

Sniffling as tears threatened to fall, I sat my laptop between us and pushed the hem of my sleep shorts up, showing her the angry lines all over my thigh, some old, scarred, fading, but others, bright red, scabbing, bubbled and dried blood.

"Is that all?" She asked.

Shaking my head, I felt like my throat was on fire.

"Can I see?"

I shifted on the bed a little and lifted my sleep shirt up, there were old scars all down my ribs, some reaching from my back to my front.

"Razor blades? Knives? Scissors?"

I nodded. "Blades," I whispered.

Jade nodded, reaching into the draw on her bedside table, pulling out wipes.

She rubbed her forearm with it, scrubbing off makeup to show me old scars, one running from her wrist to the crook of her elbow.

"This one," she pointed to the long one as she spoke. "I did that not long after you came to Hollywood Arts. It's not because of you, so please don't think that… I just remember it was around then that I did it."

"What triggered you?" I asked, my voice cracking as I carefully took her hand, running my fingers lightly along her raised scars along her wrist.

"I saw my rapist," she said softly.

"He's still free?" I asked, looking at her with wide eyes.

She only nodded and as if my body had a mind of its own- which it did -I gripped her wrist a tiny bit tighter so she couldn't pull away and pressed the lightest kiss possible against her wrist.

"I won't anymore if you come to me when you're needing help to fight your inner demons," she said softly, making me look up at her, her eyes connecting with mine as I slowly let her wrist go.

Her hand slipped into mine, twining our fingers together, and I wasn't sure if that was me or her that did it, but I nodded.

"I'll come to you," I said, my voice firm, promising. "I promise."

"Good," she smiled, squeezing my hand gently before letting go. "Please don't hurt yourself again."

"I won't," I said softly.

God, I missed the feeling of her hand in mine already. It felt like it belonged there.

"Why was Beck so mad?" I asked suddenly.

"He's never been down here," she gestured to her room.

"Why?"

"You're the only person I've ever had in here, apart from Riley and my mother, Cat's been in here a few times.. Even Rose doesn't come down here. I look after my own things. I clean, I wash my things… she's really only here to make sure Riley is okay and to look after him when my mothers out of town."

I nodded, looking at my wrist, twisting the tie around it slowly, mostly in thought.

"Do you want me to not be in here?"

"You're fine, now let's finish our homework."