TV Shows » Victorious » Lovesong
Author: skysgoneout
Rated: T - English - Romance/General - Reviews: 3 - Published: 02-01-21 - Updated: 02-01-21
id:13808599
It was a sunny day in Hollywood, California. Several clouds made their slow way across the sky above Hollywood Arts, barely enough to block the sunlight for more than a second as one passed by. A group of friends sat at a blue table outdoors by the school, laughing raucously as one of the girls, Cat, asked the group about a dirty joke she heard in class that she didn't get. She hated not getting things. Robbie, under the guise of his puppet Rex, turned the joke around on Cat, to the disgust of everyone. Beck decided to take one for the team and began to explain the joke as his best friend stomped over to the table. The black clad punk had a particular look in her eye seemingly only Andre could recognize as nerves.
"What's up Jade?" he asked, eying the way she was fidgeting with her bracelet.
"I need to talk to Andre for a moment, alone." she forced out sternly, putting extra emphasis on the "alone."
"Sure girl, what's going on?" Andre said casually, after Jade led him away from the seating area of the Asphalt Cafe. She looked around, checking for anyone close enough to hear her.
"I need you to teach me guitar." Jade said, the same look from earlier in her eyes as she stared into Andre's eyes intensely. Andre was looking down at the ground, nodding his head as he listened, a grin emerging as he looked back up.
"You, the famously independent Jade West, want help from me?" He chuckled, holding his hands in front of him.
"If you tell anyone, you'll wake up in a trash can!" Jade hissed.
"Damn okay! Meet me in the music room after school." Andre said easily, knowing Jade's threat was empty. The pair made their way back over to their friends, avoiding any and all questions related to why the two had walked off.
Later that day, Jade walked into the music room to see that Andre had already set up with 2 chairs, a music stand with a chord sheet, and 2 acoustic guitars.
"I wanted to learn electric." Jade grumbled awkwardly as she sat down next to the musician.
"Well there's only one of those here right now, and I think it's better to get your bearings with this before you try an electric." Andre reasoned. Jade nodded, turning her attention to the chord sheet after making sure her guitar was in tune. She knew how to do that at least, having seen her friend Dana do it many times when they were at band practice.
After Andre had shown Jade several open chords and a major and minor scale, he sent her on her way with a link to a site with basic guitar exercises and chords. Jade awkwardly thanked him, not used to asking for or receiving help.
The next day, Jade was about to walk to her next lesson when she bumped into Tori in the hallway.
"Oh sorry!" Tori said quickly,avoiding eye contact with the girl.
"Dammit Vega! Watch where you're going!" Jade yelled abruptly, face turning red as she pushed past her frenemy and into the music room. Tori knew she was hiding something, but chose to move on as she was already in a hurry to get to Trina before she drove off without Tori.
The next day at lunch, Jade stormed her way over to the group's regular lunch table, the green streaks in her dark hair glistening in the sunlight, and slapped a piece of paper down on the table. Everyone quickly looked to the center of the table where she put the paper, stopping their conversation about Cat's new costuming project.
"Well hello to you too!" Beck smiled sarcastically at his friend. He was only met with a glare as the rest of the group took turns analyzing the paper. It was a flier for a show by a band called "The Final Girls".
"My band's playing a show next Friday and I want you all to come." Jade stated through gritted teeth, looking each person at the table in the face.
"You're in a band?" Tori asked, her big brown eyes coming up to meet Jade's intense blue ones. Jade always surprised Tori.
"Yeah. We're awesome. Are you coming or not?" the punk shot back bluntly, snapping Tori back out of her head.
"Uh- yeah sure!" Tori agreed, mentally checking her calendar for anything she had to do that day.
"Good!" Jade said happy with Vega's response, walking over to get lunch from the grub truck.
"Did she sound… happy to you?" Andre asked, confused at the girl's change in attitude.
"Yeah, she almost sounded like Cat." Beck said, looking over his shoulder at her.
"Maybe a hotter version of her! Heh!" Rex laughed, Robbie immediately blushing as he realized what his puppet said.
"You shut up!" Robbie sputtered as Cat looked on, offended.
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Cat shouted, appalled at the puppet's rudeness. An argument burst out as Tori continued to stare at Jade. She wondered how long she'd been in a band, or what role she played. Tori guessed she would find out next Friday. For the rest of the time until the show, everyone was smart enough to know not to question Jade too much about the show or the band.
On the day of the show, Jade was more short tempered than ever. Someone bumped into her at lunch and she dumped yogurt on their head. The group stared at her and Jade in turn glared at all the others.
"What are you looking at?" she shouted at Beck, stomping away.
"I'm on it." Beck resigned, following after her. Tori was worried however; Jade seemed scared to her. Jade was almost never scared but the past week something was seriously bugging her.
"Wait up!" Tori yelled to Beck, jogging after him.
"You wanna take a shot?" Beck said as he led them to one of Jade's normal hideouts, the janitors closet.
"I mean… no but I guess yeah." Tori stuttered, shifting her weight as she eyes the door Jade stood behind. She gingerly twisted the door knob and stepped in to see her friend pacing and hugging herself.
"What do you want Vega?" Jade jabbed immediately.
"You've seemed really tense this week! I-I was worried about you…" Tori said, looking like a dog with her tail between her legs. Jade's eyes softened for a moment and she shifted her body language before quickly hardening herself again. Her steely gaze pierced right through her brunette friend.
"I'm fine." Jade stated bluntly, avoiding eye contact, wanting to end the conversation as soon as possible.
"You're obviously not." Tori muttered softly, looking at the punk.
"I said don't worry about it!" Jade grumbled, shoving Tori out the door. She made sure it wasn't hard enough to hurt but was hard enough to make her point.
"Okay…" Tori mumbled to a slammed door.
"Yep. Seems about right." Beck sighed, looking from the closed door to Tori. "You alright?" he asked the shuttering girl.
"I guess… I just wish she would let me in." Tori said, hugging herself.
"Hey I know, I've been there." Beck empathized, reaching out and putting a hand on Tori's shoulder.
For the rest of the day, Jade avoided Tori, storming her way from one class to the next, and making her way to her car as quickly as possible so she didn't have to talk to any of her friends.
Later, the friends gathered at the venue for the Final Girls show, buying tickets at the door and making their way up to a spot near the stage, only about 3 or 4 people back from being pressed against the stage.
Tori left for the bathroom after 20 minutes of waiting for the band to take the stage. After seeing the state of the bathroom, Tori hesitated but used it anyway after remembering The Gorilla Club's bathroom. She tried to make her way back up to the area with her friends, but stopped as soon as she heard cheering and saw the band come on.
Jade looked incredible, her black and green hair flowing down her shoulders. She had a dark red lipstick on with black eyeshadow covering most of her eye sockets. Tori's gaze traveled down to see she was wearing a The Birthday Massacre t-shirt under a leather motorcycle jacket, ripped black skinny jeans, and Doc Martens. Tori almost forgot to breathe at this sight. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Jade take up a position at the front behind the microphone.
"How are you all doing tonight?" Jade screamed at the crowd, the crowd instantly responding with their own cheers. "Are you ready to get your heads blown up?" the singer questioned the audience again, to even louder cheers. Tori joined in this time. "WE'RE THE FINAL GIRLS, LET'S GO!" Jade shouted once more before the band began to blast their way through the set for almost 35 minutes. The band even managed to squeeze in a cover of The Cure's "Lovesong". Tori almost swore Jade was making eye contact with her as she sang the chorus.
"however far away, i will always love you.
however long I stay, I will always love you.
Whatever words I say, I will always love you.
I will always love you."
Her stage presence was amazing, jumping, screaming, strutting, as she led the band through their performance. Jade seemed to get more nervous as the set went on however. It's not like she was getting scared or anything, but something about her mannerisms tipped Tori off.
"Maybe it was just her being out of breath from performing?" she thought, unknowingly. The girl didn't have much time to think however, as soon Jade was speaking.
"I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. You've all been great! I wanna thank my friends, Beck, Cat, Andre, and-" she paused for a moment, scanning for Tori, a new fear taking her. It left as soon as she saw Tori waving excitedly. "- and Tori." Jade said, avoiding eye contact.
"This will be our last song. I learned how to play guitar for it so… I hope you enjoy it." Jade said, uncharacteristically nervous. She shifted her weight, glancing around the room,then firmly to her feet. Her bandmate handed her his jaguar as the band all began to leave the stage, exchanging knowing glances. This finale was all Jade.
She turned down the gain several notches, leaving enough bite that she would be honest, but not too exposed. With a clearing of her throat and another second of glancing around the room, she strummed the first couple chords. He breath almost caught in her throat as she began to sing.
"I put up a wall of ice
To keep you out
You're acting nice
Until i shout
You get that glint in your eye
That makes me wanna kiss you
And i know when you leave baby
I'm really gonna miss you"
Jade started to gain confidence, keeping her eyes on Tori for a couple lines of the first verse as she gained a passionate resonance in the first chorus.
"It comes to a push and a shove
Because to me that sounds like love
I wanna get my hand around your neck
And hold you like i wanted to
But i can't do that to you
I can't hurt you like that
I need to fix myself
And maybe you help me out
All the times I watched you st-st-st-st-stutter
Your cheeks turning pink and your skin getting hotter
It was so hard for me not to mutter
Something about how i'm a lamb and you're my slaughter"
Through the morbid metaphors, Tori's face began to light up.
"It comes to a push and a shove
Because to me that sounds like love
I wanna get my hand around your neck
And hold you like i wanted to
But i can't do that to you
I can't hurt you like that
I need to fix myself
And maybe you help me out"
Jade referred her eyes to Tori momentarily before singing the bridge
"I never learned how to love right
But you make me wanna know
At night i want to hold you in my arms so tight
But i know that you'll just say no
It comes to a push and a shove
Because to me that sounds like love
I wanna get my hand around your neck
And hold you like i wanted to
But i can't do that to you
I can't hurt you like that
I need to fix myself
And maybe you help me out
I hate to say it but i need you to help me out
Help me melt this ice"
Jade finished her song, eyes glancing at the girl she loved, then becoming incredibly interested in her own shoes once again.
"Thank you." Jade said, voice near breaking as she left the stage. Tori was dumbstruck, staring at the place on the stage where the goth had been standing.
"Was that about me?" Tori thought, stunned.
"That was a really good job, the melody was incredible!" Andre grinned, proud of his friend's accomplishment. Now he knew why Jade wanted to learn guitar so bad.
Barely thinking, Tori rushed to the backstage, trying to find the singer. "Jade?" Tori shouted, and suddenly she saw Jade's eyes, wide, as she was sitting on a black leather couch chugging water.
"T-Tori? What the hell are you doing here?" Jade sputtered, placing down her water bottle.
"You were great!" Tori said, running over to hug her friend before she could even think to stop herself. Jade didn't return the hug, but made no motion to stop it either, she just looked up at the perky brunette.
Tori let go after a minute, her face red. She shifted her weight and looked away from Jade.
"Can I ask you something?" she questioned nervously.
"Shoot Vega." Jade said, attempting to keep her voice flat, trying to cover up whatever emotion she had just been feeling before.
"W- Was… Was that last song about me?" Tori finally spit out, shifting her weight side to side and looking anywhere in the room but at the singer sitting in front of her. Jade was looking up at Tori until she said "last song", when she immediately dipped her head and stared at the floor.
"Uh… yeah, it was." Jade said quickly, quietly enough Tori could barely hear her. "Don't make a thing out of it, it's nothi-" she was cut off as Tori cupped her face and kissed her. Jade didn't kiss back, too stunned to do anything.
"Holy hell Tori…" Jade whispered after her friend pulled away. "You like me or something?" she said, trying to keep her sarcastic attitude up, as shocked as she was.
"I guess you could say that. But, it's okay because I know you like me too." Tori grinned, blushing and staring at Jade.
"I do."
