Like Cats and Dogs

by disnickyX

Tori and Jade don't get along. They're always fighting, even over the smallest of things. But then Tori's ex shows up at Hollywood Arts; and he's dating a girl named Melissa there. Tori tells him that she's dating someone new too. He invites her on a double date and now she's got a problem. She needs a date. Rating may change if I can get the courage to write one of those scenes

26. The Belly Button Thing: Chapter 26

Author's note: Sorry I'm late! I'm running on super CP time right now. Lol. Story of my life, really.

I'm not super thrilled with how this turned out. Mostly because I've read it so many times while editing that I lost my excitement for most of the scenes. Lol.

Anyway, as a heads up, there will be 31 chapters and an epilogue total. Basically, 6 more chapters to go.

{~~~~JADE~~~~}

Thank God, it's finally Friday! I think to myself as I hurry to my locker.

I mean, I'm not overly excited about riding in a cupcake for hours at a time; but Vega will be in the cupcake with me. Along with the brats, Beck, Redhead, Cat, Robbie, André and Sikowitz, but that's a small price to pay. This will be the longest we've spent time together in a while. I'm really looking forward to it.

I rummage through my bag to put my stuff up when my hand brushes a small box. And it reminds me…

It's almost Vega's birthday. Just nine days from today I'll be giving her the gifts I brought. Ninety-nine of them, I'm sure she'll love. But the last one, the one hundredth one...I don't know. Maybe it's a bad idea. I mean, I thought it was an excellent idea when I bought it, but now…

God, there's such a good chance she'll hate it.

Discreetly, I pull the box out really quick, pop it open, and stare. It's such a loaded gift. I mean, it's just a ring. But it's more than obvious that it's not just a ring. There's a good chance that'll freak my girlfriend out. Or, it may let her realize just how serious I am about her.

I shrug a little. If she freaks out when she sees it, maybe I can tell her it's just a promise ring.

Like she'll believe that!

Shut up, Tori. I sigh.

She's probably right though. There's no way I'll be able to fool Vega into thinking it's merely a promise ring; which is probably why I haven't wrapped it up like her other gifts. I just carry it around with me; mostly because I like to look at it while I think. I'm still debating on whether or not I should give it to her at all, to be honest.

"Jade!"

Fuck, that's Vega's voice!

"What!" I yell back. Not at her of course. I just….well, she startled the fuck out of me!

As inconspicuously as I can., I try to hide her gift in my locker without her seeing it. And quickly too. I don't know how close she's gotten since I first heard her.

"I uh…" she starts; but then leaves me hanging.

I hate it when she does that.

"Spit it out." I tell her, somewhat relieved that I've successfully hidden the gift behind some books.

"I'm sorry." She says.

I frown. She's sorry? For what?

I take a deep breath before turning around to face her. Somehow, I know my mood is about to be darkened.

"What do you need, Vega?" I ask, quickly masking my sudden nervousness. I just have a feeling she wants to take this whole "break" to another level. Again. Maybe she's changed her mind about wanting to be friends at all. Maybe she-

"Nothing...um, never mind." She interrupts my musings.

I can feel my eye twitch a little.

"I hate it when you do that." I tell her.

She's paying me absolutely no mind as she checks her phone. God, that's irritating.

I snap my fingers in her face to get her attention.

"What?" she starts.

"What did you want?" I ask again.

She shakes her head at me. "Nothing, I'll see you tonight." Then she has the nerve to try to walk away.

I don't think so.

I step right in front of her, blocking her. "I hate it when you do that." I repeat. Major emphasis on the word hate. "What did you want?"

"Oh." She pauses. "Uh, I was just wondering if you could do me a favor. But I can do it."

A favor? At those words, the amount of relief I feel is infinite. She wouldn't be asking for a favor if she was trying to worsen our break. At least, I don't think she would.

I notice she's trying to step around me; and again, I step in front of her. "What favor?" I ask. I really don't care what it is. I'm willing to do it because I've suddenly found myself in an awesome mood.

"Nothing." She shrugs. "I'm sorry I bothered you."

I see she's trying to get around me once more without telling me what I want to know, and I swear if she takes another step….

"Ask me." I demand.

Vega sighs before saying, "Do you think you can…Can you bring Riley to my rehearsals? I was gonna ask Derek…."

Once I hear the initial request, I tune out the rest of her rambling; opting to stare at her lips. She's wearing a pinkish colored gloss, so it's obviously not coffee flavored, but I'm betting she'll still taste really good.

After a few moments of fantasizing about tasting my girlfriend's lips, I realize she's not talking anymore; just looking down at her feet nervously.

What did she want again…Oh, right. For me to pick up Riley and bring her here.

No problem.

"Beg me." I dare her.

She bites her lip, thinking about it for a second; but then she looks up me, eyes pleading, and she does it. She begs me to pick up Riley.

Dammit. I've misjudged this moment. I was only messing with her, but it doesn't seem she's noticed.

"Okay," I agree.

She blinks at me. Like she's confused and then she starts fidgeting. Not wringing her hands, and not doing the wazz-dance. Just, a different kind of fidget all together.

It's a little alarming.

"Are you okay, ba"- no I can't call her baby. "Vega." I correct myself automatically.

She doesn't answer me. She looks so sad. What the hell is going on in that head of hers?

"Vega?" I try again.

She nods her head.

I take a step closer, knowing I'm not supposed to touch her, but also knowing that she needs me. Or at least a hug, or something.

She runs away. Literally runs away before I can give her anything.

I sigh deeply and head for the twins' school.

{~~~O~~~}

When I pull up, Amber smiles before getting in immediately. Riley glares and looks elsewhere.

"Get in, Riley." I tell her.

She looks at me, probably wondering how she's gonna tell me she's going to Vega's without using words. You know, since she's still giving me the silent treatment and all.

"Vega wants me to drop you off at the school." I offer up instead of making this difficult. "She has rehearsals."

Riley looks a little relieved, but then her eyes narrow and she glares at me…like I would try to trick her.

Actually, you would-

Shut up, Tori.

"And I'm not calling her to prove it." I tell Riley. "Keaton will kill her if her phone rings during rehearsals. You're just gonna have to believe me."

Riley crosses her arms over her chest.

A car honks behind me, adding to my frustration.

Ugh!

"Just get in the car, you little brat! If we pass by Hollywood Arts, I'll let you out and you can walk to Vega's." I say.

Jade…

Yeah, Tori; I know it's too fucking soon to be making jokes like that.

Riley rolls her eyes, but she gets in the car; so that's a bonus, I guess.

It only takes a few minutes to get to back to school. And at the sight of the building, Riley sighs with so much relief it's ridiculous.

I roll my eyes and get out of the car, grabbing up Amber's hand as soon as she's within reaching distance. It's this really weird habit I've picked up since Riley's been away. I guess I just feel so bad that Amber's always staying with me instead of going off to Vega's that I accommodate by showing her extra affection, or something.

Thing is, Riley's never seen me do it. Until now, that is. She glares at Amber, then at me. The tips of Amber's ears start to go red, but she doesn't pull away from me.

As we pass by my locker, I remember that I left Vega's ring in there. I lean down and whisper in Amber's ear; "Booger, remind me to get something out of my locker on our way back, okay."

"Okay, Jade." Amber agrees; face scrunched up like she's committing it to memory right this second.

So adorable.

I glance up and realize The Black Box Theatre is right up ahead. I point at it and say, "That's the door, right there, Riley." I don't get a chance to tell the little brat to be gentle when she opens its so that she doesn't disturb everyone's rehearsal. She just takes off pushes the doors open forcefully. I jog a little, towing Amber alongside me to catch up. And I swear, I swear, Keaton's gonna end up in my trunk; because the first thing I see when I enter the room is him grabbing a hold of my girlfriend's left arm. It's the one with the bruise on it; and I just wanna kill him so, so, fucking bad.

Of course, Vega doesn't complain. She just snatches away from him and heads toward us.

Guts. She has lots of them because no one ever walks away from Keaton. The man's a legend for a reason.

I put a smile on my face as Vega greets the girls, all the while me and Tori have a huge internal argument over how to deal with Keaton.

I wanna kill him; or at least slash his tires.

She thinks I shouldn't retaliate at all.

Honestly, it's like she doesn't even know me.

But that argument gets put on hold when Vega thanks me for bringing the monkeys.

"It's no problem, Vega." I answer automatically.

Then I blink a bit. I honestly don't know when she put Thing Two on her hip. And Thing One is… not here…I search for her briefly and spot her up front.

"Can…Is Amber coming tonight?" Vega asks.

I could be an ass and tease her, but she looks so anxious and hopeful. I can't do it to her. I give her a playful, "I guess I could leave her home with Derek, but that would just be cruel. The kid is seriously excited about riding in a stupid cupcake." And let that be that.

She grins at me, and before I know it, her lips are on mine. It's over all too quickly.

"I'm sorry, Jade. I don't know why I keep doing that." She whines.

"It's fine." I try my best not to make a big deal out of it because of course I want it to keep happening.

"It's not fine." She shakes her head. "I asked for a real break and I keep messing it up."

I shrug. "I don't mind. I miss your kisses." I tease gently, still trying my best not to make a big deal out of it. Even though it really is a big deal to me.

"Jade..." She whines some more and for some odd, but not really odd, reason my mind goes straight to the gutter. Like, I could imagine her saying my name, just like that, as I hit a good spot inside of her while she's under me, or on top of me. It doesn't really matter.

Whoa Jade. I blink a little. Now is not the time to think about that. "I can't wait 'til I can kiss you again, baby." I admit. I don't mean to say it out loud, though. It just…slips.

And then she's biting her lip. Does she have to do that? I watch her do that until I can't take it anymore. I just need to grab Thing Two and go.

"You should get back to your rehearsals." I tell her while reaching for Amber.

She hesitates; I'd like to think it's because she wants to spend more time with me, but I don't have much time to think about it before my sister is placed in my arms.

"Tell Vega bye, Booger," I tell Amber.

Vega says something to her in Spanish. I'm pretty sure she asked for a kiss because well, Amber gives her a kiss before she says something back to Vega.

I have no idea what it was, but I imagine it was sickeningly sweet because Vega makes this face, like she's oh so in love, and there are tears in her eyes.

"Vega? Are you okay?"

She sniffs and wipes her face quickly. "I'm fine, Mami."

I grin. I can't help it. It's been so long since she's called me Mami.

I don't even get jealous when she kisses Amber again before heading back for the stage.

Okay, just a little jealous because I want kisses too; but I'm pretty sure she'll accidently kiss me again soon.

"Come on, Booger. Let's go home." I sigh.

Amber leans into me and gives a little sigh of her own. I know it's because she wants to stay with Vega.

So, let her stay.

I ignore Tori. Plus, Amber's gonna see Vega tonight, on the cupcake.

"Jade, you have to get something out of your locker." Amber announces just as we pass by a cluster of 'em.

I smile.

"I knew I could count on you," I praise her before heading for my locker.

She grins, her ears going bright red.

Too cute.

I shift her onto my other hip so I can put my combination in, then I pull out the box. Amber looks at it curiously and I'm so prepared for the "What's that?"

She doesn't say anything.

She kinda reminds me of Vega.

"You can't tell anyone." I tell her. "It's a secret between me and you, okay?"

"Okay, Jade." Amber nods, overly excited about having a secret.

I open the box and show her the ring.

"It's pretty." She says.

That's it. Because she doesn't understand what a big deal it is. "Remember, you can't tell anyone, not even Joy. And especially not Vega."

"Okay, Jade."

"It's for Vega and I want it to be a surprise."

Amber nods her head. "Okay, Jade."

"But even after her birthday, don't say anything because I'm not even sure I'm gonna give it to her."

Amber frowns. Understandably. Why buy someone a birthday gift if you're not gonna give it to them?

"Promise?" I hold my pinky up.

Amber wraps hers around mine, and it's so fucking tiny. And adorable. Jeez, what the fuck has gotten into me? I must've called the kid adorable like five times within the last ten minutes! I need to look this shit up. My hormones are all wonky.

I hurry to the car and put Amber down by the passenger side so she can get in.

As soon as I go around to my side I get a text that says:

Derek: My mom is here.

Shit. I am not in the mood to deal with Irene.

I guess I can feed Thing Two while I wait for her to leave my house. "Hey, Booger." I call while sliding into the driver's seat. "You wanna go to Wacko Taco?"

That little girl's eyes light up immediately and she squeals in delight.

So fucking cute.

Ugh. Not again.

"Alright. Wacko Taco it is." I grumble. "You got your seatbelt on?"

"Yep." She practically sings.

Too adora- Nope. No. Not again. I shake my head and put the radio on her favorite pop station. The girl can't sing to save her life, but she loves to try.

I sing along with her, which makes her even happier.

I'm not gonna admit to the huge grin on my face though.

Our throats are rightfully parched by the time we get to Wacko Taco and I pull into the lot instead of doing the drive through. Who knows how long Irene is gonna be out my house.

Amber grabs up my hand as soon as she's out of the car. I give hers a little squeeze and try to ignore the fact that she's gushing happy faces up at me.

Then her hold on my hand tightens; but not in a lovey dovey way. Like she's scared.

What the hell? I look up at where she's looking. There's a girl rushing toward us.

I think I recognize her. I'm not sure.

"You know her?" I ask my sister.

Amber nods. "She's my friend from school."

"Kayla!" A woman screams as she follows behind the kid. "Kayla, you get your ass back here!"

I swear that name sounds familiar, but I just can't place it.

Anyway, Kayla ignores the woman; just keeps coming until she's standing right in front of Amber. Like, Riley's not even this good at ignoring people.

"Hey, Amber." The kid grins.

Amber gives a small wave, but stares warily at the woman steadily coming our way.

I don't blame her. It seriously looks like the woman is about to jank this kid up right here in the parking lot; so I intercept.

"Hey, I'm Jade," I tell the woman. As I'm contemplating whether or not I should stick my hand out, the woman answers that question for me.

"And what the fuck does that mean to me?" She snaps irritably.

I inhale sharply, fighting for control, and patience, and wisdom, and tact, and restraint-

Okay, we get it.

Fine.

"Kayla's in my sister's class." I breathe out evenly. "Can she eat with her friend? I'll drop her home after."

I have no idea why I've offered to babysit the brat. None.

The woman glares at me for a few minutes before scoffing out a quick, "You're paying for her meal." Then she leaves. Leaves! What kind of a mother leaves their kid with a complete stranger?

"I need your address!" I yell after the woman.

"The little shit knows how to get home!" She doesn't even turn around.

Damn. I don't even really like brats too much and I wanna fuck this bitch up.

Eventually, I notice people are staring, so I usher the kids inside of the building and we get in line.

It's not a very long line. We wait for maybe two minutes before it's our turn to order.

I glance down at the brat I some-fucking-how got myself stuck with. "What do you want to eat, kid?"

She doesn't even hesitate. "I want a shepherd's pie taco, and a pepperoni pizza taco, and a large drink, and a cinnamon bun taco for desert."

This little gank….

I shift my attention onto my sister. "What do you want, Booger?"

"Three spaghetti tacos." She answers.

I smirk. She is not gonna eat all that. I order myself two spaghetti tacos because I'm most definitely gonna have to eat Amber's third one.

We get our food and sit down. Derek sends me a text letting me know Irene's still there; which pisses me off and makes me groan out loud.

"What's the matter, Jade?" Amber asks.

I shake my head. "Nothing, Booger. Eat your food."

"Booger?!" Kayla laughs. "That's so gross. Why do you let her call you that?" She elbows Amber's ribcage. "If she was my sister, I'd put boogers in her food every time she called me that."

I roll my eyes. "Just eat your fucking food, kid."

Kayla takes a big bite of her cinnamon bun taco, chews it up, and spits it out on her plate.

Amber sees the absolute murder in my eyes and drops a napkin on top of the regurgitated food. Then she offers me a little smile. A "please don't fly off the handle" smile.

And I was gonna heed her pleading, until the little shit grabs up one of Ambers tacos and bites into it.

"It's okay, Jade!" Amber nearly screams. She's practically sitting in the little shit's lap to guard her from me. And that's when I realize I've gotten up, I'm leaning over the table, and I don't even know what I was about to do, but Amber stopped me. "I'm full." My sister says, still sitting on Kayla's lap, blocking her…protecting her.

I tilt my head a little. Why is she protecting her like that? She doesn't even try to help Riley when she's about to get it from me.

And then it hits me.

She likes her. My sister likes the little shit.

Ugh! You've got to be fucking kidding me. She's got such bad taste in girls.

I sit down in my seat and pinch the bridge of my nose. I'm so sure a nose bleed is coming.

Amber slowly gets off of Kayla's lap once she realizes I'm not gonna do anything to her little girlfriend.

Fuck, this is so fucked up. Why can't she continue having a crush on Vega!?

Like you'd share.

Fuck off, Tori!

"Fuck." I mumble. I do not have the emotional capabilities necessary to deal with this shit. "Are you two ready to go?"

"No." The little shit answers before taking another huge bite of Amber's taco.

My eye twitches. Amber hovers like she's about to jump in front of the little shit again.

I exhale through my nose, and pull out my phone before I start texting Joy:

Me: Your daughter has a crush on a psycho.

Mama Bear: send me a pic.

Is she serious? Hell no.

Mama Bear: please.

Me: Fine.

"Amber and…you." I say. Both girls look at me. "Smile so I can get a picture.

The little shit opens her mouth, probably about to spit out her food on the table again, but Amber quickly covers her mouth.

"Smile, please." My sister says.

I roll my eyes, expecting the food to land in Amber's hand, but the little shit swallows the food and smiles at me. No, not at me, but in my direction so I can take a picture. Amber leans in, wrapping an arm around the little shit's shoulder and the smile she gives makes me jealous. I'm too stunned to even deny it. I'm so used to Amber smiling at me like I'm her whole world, and now she's smiling this bright for this little shit?

"What the fuck is taking so long?" The little shit asks without losing her smile.

I glower at her, but snap the picture.

Then the little shit puts bunny ears behind Amber's head. Like, when the fuck do they realize that shit is lame as fuck.

I snap another picture.

Amber looks up at the bunny fingers and the little shit laughs, smiling at my baby sister like – ugh, I'm gonna be sick.

I snap one more picture.

And it's enough. No more.

"Okay, you two," I practically snap. "Time to go."

They're still smiling and giggling with each other.

I pretend it doesn't irk me as I send the pictures to Joy.

Naturally, she replies immediately with a dozen awws, how cutes, and how preciouses. Plus emojis. Then she asks me if Melissa ate.

I roll my eyes again. She asks me that every morning. I have no idea why I should care. The girl's depressed. Depressed people don't have appetites. She'll get over it soon enough.

"Kid, where do you live?" I ask once we make it to the car.

The little shit gives me directions to her house. She doesn't live far, she could probably walk to school from her house…If you could call the property a house. It's run down, and old, and in need of so much work. It honestly looks like one huge death trap.

"Bye, Kayla." Amber says, cutting into my thoughts.

Kayla doesn't answer back. I want to drive off as soon as she gets out of my car, but Tori wants me to stay and make sure she actually makes it inside; which I would do, but instead of going to the front door like a normal person, the little shit goes around to the side of the house and crawls under the fence.

Amber doesn't say anything about it.

I check the time and text Derek real quick, telling him to kick his mother out of the house. It's nearly 6. We have to be back at Hollywood Arts at 7:30, but first we need to change and stuff.

He doesn't respond; so, I assume Irene's being her agitating self and he can't get to me.

So, what to do with my free time? I think on it before asking Amber if she wants to go to the park.

Amber nods excitedly.

Just adorable.

Ugh!

I take her to the closest park to the house. That way, when Irene's ass finally leaves, we'll be able to make a quick change into our costumes and head back to Hollywood Arts.

Once we get there, I head straight for the swings. Amber follows me and she's about to sit on the swing next to me, but I pat my lap instead.

There's a little hesitation, but it doesn't last nearly as long as it used to. She stands in front of me, not sure which way to face before I turn her so that she's facing me, grab her up by the pits, and situate her on my thighs. One hand goes to the swing's chain, the other I wrap around her tiny little butt so she doesn't fall

Then I kick off gently, super aware that we just ate and I don't want to be nauseous.

Automatically my mind goes to the food we ate, and naturally to the company we had. Kayla. As much as I'm irritated with my sister's taste in girls, I'm even more concerned by her denial of liking girls. I've heard Riley tease her about being gay a few times, and Amber always denied it. Quite vehemently, if I do say so myself. And I don't understand it. I mean, yeah, Bill and Irene wouldn't approve, but Joy's over supportive, and I'm sure there are at least two kids in her class that have same-sex parents; plus I have a girlfriend. So why is she denying the fact that she likes girls?

I really wanna know. Like, it's really bugging me.

I clear my throat. Thinking it's best to sort of ease my way into this, I simply say, "Amber, I have a girlfriend."

"I know." She frowns up at me.

"So, you know it's okay to like girls even if you are a girl, right?" I prod.

She nods her head. "Yes, Jade. I know."

"So…" I pause here for a second before just going for it. "Why do you say you don't like girls if you do?"

Her whole face turns red and she buries her face in my chest.

I totally don't know where to go from here, so I let her do what she's doing; my hand absently coming up to rub her back.

Another absent thing I do is think about Vega. Not surprising really, but more and more I've been fantasizing about our future. Will we go to the same college? Will we really name our firstborn after Josie? And then the kid; Josephina or Joseph. What would she or he look like? What would he or she act like? Will it be an easy kid like Amber, or a pain like Riley? And why does the thought of having a kid like Riley not totally piss me off?

Vega would be a really good mom. I know it; and I'll try my best, but will mostly fuck up all the time, but the kid'll still love me. I'm sure of it. Everybody loves me.

I jump a little as my phone dings, letting me know I have a new message.

It's from Derek. Irene finally left, and shit! Is that the time? Fuck!

I quickly get up but I don't wake Amber up. She still does that thing where she screams if she sees me when she wakes up. It used to be funny to me. Then it used to irritate me. Now…I don't know. I just don't like the way it makes me feel.

Carefully, I put her in the backseat and buckle her in before heading home. I send Derek a quick message, telling him to meet me out front and get Amber out of the car.

If he's wondering why I won't get her out of the car myself, he doesn't ask. Just says okay.

Which I appreciate.

I have time to take a five-minute shower and then I'm getting dressed in my onesie. One quick glance to the mirror turns into a bit of a stare because damn I look good.

"Jade!" Derek calls from downstairs. "Let's go!"

I scowl, but he's right. We are in a hurry.

I rush out to his car. He's already got Amber in the back, dressed, and there are bags all over the seat beside her.

"What's all that?" I ask as I buckle in.

"Snacks and stuff." He answers as he pulls off. "There's some candy, some sandwiches, and some cupcakes."

"Aw, thanks Joy." I mock.

"Fuck off." He mutters, but he's sorta smiling. I think he enjoys the teasing, like we're really family and all that chiz.

We don't say much more to each other on the way. I've turned on the radio to keep Amber happy. She sings. My uncle sings. And I pretend not to be amused by the horridness of it.

Once we turn in to the parking lot, I do a quick scan. Everyone's there…except Sikowitz. Damn, I'm later than André.

Damn Irene.

Derek and Thing Two get out first; and out of the corner of my eye, I notice Riley's running up to the car. I avert my eyes and get out of the car; I don't even give her a passing glance. What's the use? She'll only ignore me anyway, so I opt to watch Amber for a bit. She runs straight up to my girlfriend and I have to turn away. Partly because I wish I could hug and kiss on my girlfriend like that, but mostly because I'm turned on and I feel weird about it. I mean, Vega's in a onesie and she's wearing pigtails. They're fucking adorable. And I think it makes me part pedophile or something.

"We thought you were a serial killer."

I jump a little.

Beck.

He scared the shit outta me.

"Don't creep up behind me, dude!" I snap

"Sorry," he smirks; obviously not sorry at all. "We didn't recognize the car. Thought you were a serial killer at first."

Since I know he's fishing, I choose to be vague. "I didn't want to leave my car here overnight, so I got a ride."

Beck nods his head. "Me too."

He looks at me expectantly, like he's expecting me to ask him…oh. He is expecting me to ask him who dropped him off.

I don't.

I pull one of Vega's moves and check my phone.

"Alyssa dropped me off." He supplies.

Instinctively, I look up; frowning as I search for that gank. I can't stand her. All she wants is to get in my girlfriend's pants, and she's so annoyingly obvious about it.

Beck tries to hide a smile from me.

I see it and roll my eyes.

Amber bounces up. "You need help getting the stuff, Jade?"

Riley makes her way up to me too. She doesn't ask if I need any help, just squeezes past me and grabs a bag.

Once Riley gets out of the way, I bend over and grab a bag for Amber to carry and send her on her way. Then I take a quick peek through the last one. It's full of sandwiches, chips, and Hershey kisses. Like the ones on my ass.

I smirk. I should've gotten to know my uncle a long time ago. I've missed out on quite a bit, seems like.

"So, do you have any plans next Sunday?" Beck asks. I seriously had no idea the dude was still standing next to me.

"Next Sunday is Vega's birthday." I answer without even really thinking about it.

"I thought you guys were on a break."

"We are." I say before heading for Vega and Derek. I don't want to talk about my girlfriend with him.

Derek's leaning in, whispering in Vega's ear. Color me suspicious.

I narrow my eyes at them. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing, just catching up with your girlfriend." Derek smiles. "When are you gonna bring her by again?" Then he turns to Beck, and his eyes widen as if he's been startled. "Oh, how rude of me, I'm Derek. You are...?" He asks as he holds out his hand to shake.

"Beck." Beck says as he offers his hand to Derek.

"Unique name, I've never heard it before. Are you from around here?"

God he's a horrible actor. He knows damn well Beck's my ex. What the hell is he up to? "Shouldn't you be leaving now, Uncle Derek?" I ask through clenched teeth.

"Uncle?" Beck frowns, "You have an uncle?"

"Apparently." I snap back.

"Amber, Riley, give Uncle Derek a hug. We gotta start getting settled in the cupcake." Vega says. The twins jump to do her bidding immediately and I try not to let it bother me.

"Wait, where's the teacher?" Derek suddenly grabs a hold of Vega's arm. To my relief it's the right arm. The one without the bruise. "I'm not letting any of my nieces out of my sight until the teacher comes." He says while putting me and Vega in a headlock and kissing the tops of our heads.

I frown a bit at Vega. I had no idea that they had that kind of…. relationship. Is she not weirded out because she knows he's gay? Has she always known? I mean, there's no way in hell I'm more oblivious than Vega.

None.

"Let go!" I snap, suddenly agitated. I grab Derek's arm and throw it off of me while simultaneously spotting Sikowitz. Perfect timing. "He's right over there." I point, thinking that will be the end of that.

It's not.

"That's your teacher?" Derek squeaks.

I roll my eyes. What's the problem? Well, I mean, I know Sikowitz is Sikowitz; and Joy's side of the family is extremely overprotective and shit, but he's just one teacher verses 2 guys, a Robbie, and four teenage girls. I think we can take him.

"Calm down, Joy." I roll my eyes at him.

"I resent that." He glares back at me, not willing to calm down in the least.

It irks me.

"You're strangling my girlfriend." I mutter before pulling his arm off of Vega's neck.

"All right! Everyone in the cupcake!" Sikowitz shouts.

Derek steps right in front of him, hand outstretched "Hello, I'm Jade's uncle."

It's an actual fight not to smile.

"That's wonderful. Absolutely splendid!" Sikowitz sings, throwing his hands up in the air as he does so. Then he tucks a fist underneath his chin and narrows his eyes. "But why are you here?"

Oh my god! I can just see how confused Derek is and it amuses me to no end.

"Come on Sikowitz, don't be so…you…." Vega groans.

"Psycho?" Derek glares at me. "Your teacher's name is psycho?!"

"It's Sikowitz." I roll my eyes. "Siko-witz. Not psycho."

"Does your mom know?" He panics. It's like he didn't even hear me. "Where's the female chaperone? There's a female chaperone coming too, right?"

Okay, that's enough! I grab his arm tightly and pull him off to the side. "Why are you being so fucking difficult!" I hiss.

"Don't you take that tone with me, young lady!" He hisses back.

"Oh?"

"Oh my god," he freaks some more. "Our first "young lady argument!" And it's taking place in front of a gigantic cupcake. This setting is so wrong!"

"Dude!" I snap. "Are you serious right now?"

"Do I look like I'm joking." He fires back. "I, a rational responsible man, am expected to send children off to a parade, inside of a giant fucking cupcake, with a hobo-looking teacher, whose name is psycho. Tell me how this is even my life right now! I can not believe my sister has allowed thi-"

"Uh, Mr. West." Derek is cut off; and I roll my eyes at the sound of Beck's voice. Can't he see we're fucking busy? "We have to get into the cupcake now, sir."

My uncle glares at him, and I just realize he called him a West. How insulting.

Derek turns back to me. "You're not going. None of you." He hisses.

Seriously? "Why are you being such a drama queen about this! It's not a big deal."

"Can you think about this from my point of view, at least!" He growls. "I'm here to watch over you three until your mother comes back. I have to present three living children to my sister when she comes home. She will kill me; literally kill me if anything happens to you!" He pauses there, thinking over his words. "Er…all three of you." He tries to backtrack. Then he sighs. "Fuck it. You already know you're her favorite right. I didn't, like, tell you anything you didn't know…right?"

I'm 95% sure he's just joking.

"Right?" he insists, more like pleads.

Okay, I'm maybe 90% sure he's just joking.

"Fine!" I snap. It's good to be so loved but it's so fucking suffocating at times. "I will call every hour on the top of the hour! Now can I go?"

It takes Derek forever to relent. Like, FOREVER.

"Fine." He rushes, probably to keep himself from changing his own mind. "Fine! Go!" Then he grabs me up into a hug. It's not so bad. But it's still a little much.

As soon as he releases me, he heads straight for Vega and gives her the same treatment. Seriously, when the fuck did they get on those terms?

"You call me at the bottom of every hour!" He demands of her. "That way I get a call every thirty minutes."

Yeah, it's way too much. Especially as I have no intentions on calling him at all. I just said whatever I felt would get him off my back the fastest. And before you even start, Tori, I'm not being a gank. It's for his own good. It's his first babysitting gig. He's nervous. It'll get easier to let go the more practice he gets; but that doesn't mean I'm gonna suffer through it with him. I'm sure he'll be-

"You think I'll be able to sleep?" Derek suddenly screeches.

He's yelling at Vega.

What the fuck…

Okay. Time to go.

Now.

"Vega, let's go!" I nearly snatch Vega away from my uncle, but I realize at the last second I was reaching for her left arm. The one with the bruise on it. I drop my hand and start walking towards the cupcake. I would tell Derek bye, but I feel he'll make a big deal and we really don't have the time. It's nearly eight pm.

"I didn't know you had an uncle." Beck startles the shit out of me. Again. I nearly tell him it's none of his business what I got, but then Vega starts telling him all of my business. All of it. How many uncles I got. How many I don't have on Grayson's side, how I don't even see Ellen as family….

Seriously?

"Would you not tell everyone my business?" I roll my eyes while opening the door for the both of them.

Vega goes in first. Beck hesitates, probably wanting to ask me why Vega knows my family business and he doesn't, but I'm not in the mood. "We're already getting a late start. You should start driving." I dismiss him while simultaneously looking for Vega. It doesn't take long to find her and once my eyes lock on hers, I wonder briefly if she'll have a problem with me sitting next to her.

She smiles at me; all the invitation I need, before she pats the spot next to Amber.

I full out grin before walking over to her. I pretty much feel like pushing Amber out of the way so I can sit next to Vega; but I know Tori will have a fit, so I pull the little booger into my lap instead. Vega immediately starts tickling and kissing on her.

I feel sadness and joy simultaneously. I wish I was getting kisses like Amber, but I also love watching the way Vega loves the kid.

Out of nowhere, Vega starts singing:

The wheels on the cupcake spin around,

Spin around,

Spin around...

What the fuck?

It's to keep the little ones preoccupied.

Fine.

I start singing too. It's totally worth it when Vega gasps and smiles at me in utter confusion.

I shrug. "What? Tori was nagging me to sing along."

She grins at me, and again I'm amazed by how accepting she is of me.

"You should listen to her more often." She smirks at me.

And god, you have no idea just how bad I want to lean over and kiss her, but I can't. Not on break.

Ugh! This is so irritating. And hard. So very, very hard.

"Tori, I'm hungry."

I blink at the sound of Thing One's voice. I know it's her because Amber just ate and she doesn't sound as attitude-y as her sister.

Vega gets up and wipes the dust - there's no dust - off her butt. Naturally I can't really see much because of the unflattering jammies, but I stare anyway.

"Lissa, where are the PB and J sandwiches you made?" Vega asks.

Before Redhead can answer, Riley spits out a very harsh, "I don't want peanut butter and Jelly."

I frown. What the hell is her problem? That kid loves PB and J.

"You love peanut butter and jelly." Vega echoes my thoughts.

"I don't want peanut butter and jelly." The brat snaps again. "Just sit back down!"

"Hey!" I intercede before Tori can tell me to not kill the little pre-turd. "Cool it!"

Riley doesn't answer me; just glares at Vega.

I frown. Did they have some kind of fight? Usually, I'm all for that; but right now I don't want anyone giving Vega a hard time, not even the brats. She needs love, so I offer her Thing Two to hold. She smiles at me before sitting back down next to me.

"Come here, Mamita." She says, and my sister crawls over into Vega's lap. Immediately Vega cuddles Amber like a stuffed bear and kisses the top of her head.

I dig around in my bag and grab a bag of chips and a sandwich before handing it to Vega. Thing One is still giving me the silent treatment, I doubt she'll take anything from me.

I busy myself by looking in my bag again before spotting the bag of Hershey kisses. I grin and open the bag up before grabbing one and presenting it to my girlfriend.

"Vega," I call. She turns around and spots the candy immediately, and she literally just stares. I bet she's thinking about my ass.

"Do you want a kiss, Vega?" I tease.

"Jade…" She whines.

I smirk at her. "It's just candy, ba-" No, not baby. "Vega." I correct immediately.

She doesn't answer.

"So, do you want one of my kisses, or not?" I prompt.

"Yes." She croaks.

I smile even wider.

"Take it." I challenge. Because if there was ever a time for one of Vega's accidental kisses, it's now.

It doesn't happen.

Vega puts all of her energy into opening the piece of candy. And she struggles. I bite back my laughter. It feels good to know that I'm affecting her so much.

Once she finally gets the candy into her mouth, I lean in and whisper, "Is it good?"

"Jade!" she chokes.

"The candy, Vega." I snigger. "What are you thinking about in that dirty little mind of yours?"

Instead of denying she has a dirty mind, she snaps at me saying, "Isn't it time for you to call your uncle?"

Before I can answer, my phone rings. Like magic. No, not like magic. Like it's 8:02 and I'm two minutes late calling my super freaked out uncle.

I take a deep breath and answer.

Here goes….

"What?" I snap.

"What the hell, Jade! How could you miss the very first check-in!?"

"I was going to call." I lie.

"It doesn't matter! We had an agreement-"

"It just turned eight o'clock!" I cut in.

"No! It turned 8 o'clock three minutes ago! That's 180 seconds. Do you know what can happen in 180 seconds?!"

Oh. My. God.

"You're worse than Mom!" I yell at him, because I swear I didn't think it was even possible to be more of a worry wart than her.

As we're arguing, Tori start chiming in; and now is really not the best time. Like, I get it. He's worried; and our ….relationship is somewhat new. But still. He's suffocating me!

I hang up on him. Immediately, Tori harps on me about that too. And I know there are better ways of dealing with people than yelling and hanging up on them while they're talking to me, but I just can't deal right now.

Of course, it'd be easier to deal if you just grew up and did responsible things-

"Not now, Tori." I mumble as I massage my temples. I barely register that I've said it aloud until I feel Vega's hand on my shoulder.

I take a deep breath before placing my hand on top of her wrist. This is some serious torture. It really is. And it's super pathetic that I have no choice but to take this; that this is our intimacy.

All too soon, she pulls away.

"Fuck," I whimper. I really fucking hate this!

I inhale deeply, keeping my eyes closed and force myself to think positively, about when me and Vega are off break. I'll be able to touch her whenever I want then. Kiss her too. God, I miss kissing her. We'd be that couple that lasts forever. I know it. The wedding will be a wedding, but Vega will probably cry because it's so beautiful and chiz. We'll have two kids; maybe three. Vega will argue with me all the time because she doesn't agree with my parenting; but it'll work for us. And we'll be grandparents….

I daydream about our future until I actually fall asleep.

It's not the first time.

{~~~O~~~}

I'm snatched from my peaceful slumber because I feel like I'm about to start sweating; and that, I just don't do. My eyes snap open and I shift in my seat, preparing to grab the first thing available to fan myself with when I hear Vega say, "You kissed her a week ago."

Wait. What?

Immediately, my eyes find Vega and she's talking to Beck. I feel my heart sink. I hope what I think is happening is not actually fucking happening.

"What's going on?" I interrupt the two of them.

Beck turns to me, and looks me straight in the eyes. "I was apologizing for our kiss." He declares.

Boldly.

I see red.

I lunge at him and try to strangle the life out of him. How dare he! How fucking dare he! Vega's already fucked up. She didn't fucking need to know about that. She already thinks I want to date him, that I don't really love her…

Vaguely, I'm aware of people yelling my name, and trying to separate us, but I've got a good hold on his scrawny little neck and I'm not letting go. I swear, I will never forgive him if Vega never ends break and I don't get my wedding, or my little Josephina, or my little Joseph, or my fucking grandkids…

"Jade! Get off."

The request is coming from everywhere, from several different voices, but I ignore all of them.

I swear, I will totally get off of Beck on my own… once the bitch is dead.

Suddenly my arms are pinned to the side, I'm being bear-hugged from behind, and lifted right off of the ground.

"Calm down, Jade."

It's André.

I squirm some more, but it's no use. I can't break his hold.

I go still; seething silently while looking around for Vega. I gotta explain what happened.

I don't see her.

"Where's Vega?" I pant.

"She went to go find the teacher." Amber pipes up. At least, I'm assuming it was Amber. Riley's still giving me the silent treat-

And then I realize just what was said. Vega went outside.

I squirm, trying to break free of André's hold, so I can go after my girlfriend. But he doesn't let me go.

"Why don't you go out there and get her, man." André says to Beck.

That is such a bad idea. Who knows what he'll say to her this time!

"In this neighborhood?" Beck objects. "There were gunshots like ten minutes ago."

"Dude!" André snaps.

"Gunshots?" Riley, or Amber, squeaks. "But…but Tori said they were fireworks."

I can literally feel the blood drain from my face, and out of nowhere there's this…ringing…in my ear, and I can't seem to fucking breathe properly.

There were gunshots earlier? And Vega still went out there? by herself? without telling anyone?

"I'll go get her." André offers. He sets me down gently but continues to hold me. No, it's me holding on to him because my legs feel like jelly and I'm not too sure they will support me.

Then the door is being opened. By Vega.

I rush at her and pull her in by the front of her onesie.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!" I scream.

"I"- She tries to speak, but I cut her off.

"You can't go out there, in this kind of neighborhood looking like fucking jailbait!" I shake her a little bit, so fucking pissed.

"I"-

"Anything could've happened to you!"

"I"-

"Shut up!" I scream. I don't care what she has to say. There's no excuse. I grab her right arm, the one without the bruise on it, and drag her over to the center of the cupcake. "You sit right there and don't fucking move!" I yell.

I have no doubt she'll do it. I've scared her, and I don't care. She scared me. She keeps scaring me.

I stomp my way out of the cupcake and slam the door behind me. Immediately, I start to feel a bit light headed. It could be because of the adrenaline rush, or maybe I'm coming down from one, or maybe it's the sudden change in atmosphere. It's much cooler, and much more….open out here then it is inside of the cupcake.

I also feel restless, like I need to do something with my hands and feet, like I need to go somewhere, but walking off is not a good idea. Not in this neighborhood. And I'm so pissed because I need to think, but I can't because I'm so agitated and anxious. I mean, my girlfriend literally doesn't value her life and I don't know what I'll do if she ever…if something ever….

I take a deep breath. I can't even complete the thought. I can't even imagine it.

I take another deep breath before exhaling slowly, willing the anger to go away so I can think rationally; think about what I'm going to do. I mean, I know what I have to do; but I'm hoping I can think of something else. Another alternative.

I can't.

I think for maybe ten minutes straight, but I only come up with one solution. Vega needs help. Professional help. I sigh and pull my phone out of my pocket, scrolling through the names until I get to the Ps. I hesitate for a few more seconds before I call him.

Papa Vega answers on the third ring.

"What's up, Jay?" he sounds cool and calm, but tense at the same time.

"Vega needs help." I blurt.

"What's going on?" It's his "police" tone; the same one he used when I had to tell him about the girl in Amber's….shit! That's who that kid was! Kayla, she's the kid that was…that had the perverted brother.

Fuck. How did I not remember that?

"Jay?" Papa Vega cuts into my thoughts. He no longer sounds like an officer. He's a dad now. "What's wrong with Tori?"

Right. I just left him hanging.

"Um…not like physical help." I try to explain. "She needs to talk to someone…..um, professionally."

"Jade?" He sounds so confused. Not that I blame him. I'm probably not making a any sense.

I sigh, deciding to just go for it.

"She hurts herself. She's reckless, throwing herself in dangerous situations because she doesn't care if she gets hurt. You should see her arm." I choke, thinking of all the bad outcomes tonight could've produced. I have to take a deep breath before continuing. "It's my fault." I confess miserably. "I hurt her. I called her a…I hurt her and now she keeps…." I don't know how else to explain it, or what else I should say. So, I just say, "I'm sorry, Mr. Vega."

There's a long pause as he processes my words before, "Where are you guys?"

I check my phone real quick before answering. "On the corner of spates and 83rd."

"I'll be there shortly."

I exhale slowly before hanging up. I'm not ready to get inside the stuffy cupcake, so I sit out here until he comes.

I stand up when I see him. He rolls up in his squad car, decked out in his uniform. Was he already out on patrol, or something?

He doesn't say anything to me, just pats my shoulder as he walks by; and I don't know, I feel this immense relief. I expected nothing less than for the man to shoot me for hurting his daughter.

As soon as Papa Vega gets to the cupcake, the door is opened from the inside. Vega barely has time to poke her head out before her father is yanking her out by her arm and yelling at her in Spanish.

I wince. He snatched her out of the cupcake by her left arm.

He pulls her sleeve up and sees the bruise; his face goes purple. I can't understand a word he's saying but he looks absolutely livid.

Then Vega laughs in the middle of his rant and I know, I know, the man is gonna snap. She's not taking him seriously at all. Still, I gasp in surprise when he grips her arm and smacks her butt, hard, before shoving her into the back of his squad car.

My heart sinks into the very bottom of my kneecaps.

She is never gonna forgive me for this. Never. He just humiliated her; just yelled and didn't give her a chance to explain…

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

I bite my lip. It's true. I do the same thing to her.

Unsurprisingly, I'm no longer in the mood to go to the parade. So, I call my uncle. I'm not at all surprised that he answers on the first ring.

"Jade?" he starts.

"Hey, Uncle Derek." I sigh.

"Hey, Niece Jade." He sighs back. I can't tell if he's mocking me or if that was a real sigh.

I don't really care either.

"Can you pick us up."

"Are you-"

"Please, don't freak out, okay." I plead. "Can you just please come get us?"

"Okay. Tell me where you are."

"On the corner of spates and…." I check my phone again. "83rd." I finish.

"You're where!?" He freaks.

"Uncle Derek…."

"Right. I know. Don't freak out." But even as he's getting ready, I can hear him mumbling, "that neighborhood…..my nieces…in a cupcake….candy jammies…..should've packed her some pepper spray. No, a taser…. "

I smile to myself. This time I don't hang up on him. I stay on the phone until I see his car pull up in front of me.

My phone's nearly dead.

"Hey." He walks up to me. I know he wants to tell me he told me so. But he doesn't say anything.

I don't know what comes over me, but I wrap my arms around him and hug him. I know he's gonna hug me back with no questions asked. He's a lot like Joy.

God, I miss that woman.

"Don't cry, Jade." He pats my head.

"I'm not crying." I sniff.

Shit. I am crying.

Ugh, why!

{~~~O~~~}

The ride home is the longest thirty minutes of my life. If Riley was mad at me before, she absolutely wants to murder me now for snitching on Vega. She doesn't exactly know it for a fact. All she knows is that she heard Papa Vega screaming at Vega and that he took her away after I stepped outside for a long time. The kid's got pretty reasonable deductive reasoning skills; I'll give her that.

As soon as we reach the house, my phone starts ringing. I go through about three different emotions at the sound of it. It could be Vega, telling me she wants nothing to do with me ever again, or it could be Joy, asking me how I'm doing, for which I have a million contradicting answers to.

When I check the name on my screen, I groan. It's not Joy or Vega.

It's Ellen.

Before I can send her to voicemail, my phone dies.

See? Even God doesn't want me to talk to that bitch.

I notice Derek's frowning at my phone, probably thinking I ignored Joy's call. And usually, I don't like telling people my business, but I kinda wanna see what he might have to say about the woman who gave birth to me.

"It was Ellen." I admit.

He frowns. "DeGeneres?"

"Fuck off." Smirk.

"Language, Niece Jade!" he gasps dramatically.

I snort in amusement.

"I should've let you be my uncle a long time ago." I admit before I can stop myself. It sounds a lot…sadder than I intended it to.

He pats my knee. "It does no good to dwell on the past. It wastes future happy moments."

"Did that come out of a fortune cookie?" I groan.

"No. I'm just a wise man."

"Whatever." I roll my eyes.

He chuckles.

We make it to the house without incident; and once we're all out of the car, I reach for Amber out of habit, but Riley snatches her away from me and marches her to the front door.

I inhale and exhale.

Okay, that was….not cool. I settle for "not cool" because I refuse to acknowledge how it really felt.

It was-

Fuck off, Tori.

I let us in the house and stomp up to my room.

First thing I do is go through my bag and pull out the ring. I messed up. I mean, Vega really does need the help, but still….I ratted her out to her father, then he came charging in and…

I sigh deeply and fiddle with the ring. I'll probably have to wait months to give it to her now. Maybe years.

God, please don't let it be years.

Maybe I can talk to her. Explain.

I check my phone; it's nearly eleven. She's probably asleep now, but I feel like I need to see her now. Like, it can't wait. Like, the sooner I apologize and explain, the less time she'll have to stew over how janked up it was for me to tattle on her.

Decision made, I head downstairs. I'm nearly out the door when I hear, "And where do you think you're going, young lady?"

I groan silently before turning around to face my uncle.

"I've actually never wanted to say that." He confesses with a small frown. No, it's more of an accusing frown, like he's blaming me for the words that came out of his mouth.

I roll my eyes.

"I'm going to Vega's" I answer. He's such a drama queen. It's better to just be straight with him.

His eyebrows shoot up to the middle of his forehead. "At this time?"

"I need to apologize."

"And it can't wait 'til the morning?"

"Mom would let me go." I defend myself.

"Oh?" he quirks an eyebrow at me. "Prove it."

I frown.

"Call her."

I check my phone. "It's midnight in Denver."

"Yeah, it is."

"I'm not interrupting her sleep." I scowl at him. "She's there for work."

"See?" he smiles back triumphantly. "Looks like that conversation can wait."

Oh?

"Fine." I say before scrolling through my phone. I'm about to press Mama Bear when Derek snatches my phone out of my hands.

"Do not call your mother this late. She has work tomorrow!" He hisses at me.

Seriously?

"You're un-freaking-believable; you know that?" I shout.

I clap my hands over my mouth. Did I really just say…No. I'm too young to turn into my mom!

Derek cracks up. I so want to punch him, but he gives me my phone back and tells me to call him at the top and bottom of every hour until I get home. No exceptions.

"Fine." I agree.

He ruffles my hair.

I growl.

"I always wanted to do that." He smirks before heading towards the guest room.

I swear the man has a death wish.

But his impending demise can wait.

I get into my car and speed my way over to Vega's. I'm actually really surprised I didn't get stopped by the police. What doesn't surprise me is the fact that once I get there, I suddenly lose my impulsive sense of urgency to see Vega. I just sit in my car, not knowing what my next move should be. I mean, obviously the first step is to get out of the car, but what after? Knock on the front door? Throw rocks at Vega's window? It's late, everyone's probably asleep. Plus, Vega's probably grounded and can't have visitors anyway. So, what am I doing here?

I check my phone real quick, noting that it's 11:30. With a roll of my eyes I call Derek.

He answers on the second ring.

"Niece Jade?"

"Bottom of the hour, Uncle Derek."

"Good jo-"

"Don't spoil it.' I interrupt.

He chuckles before reminding me to call him at twelve.

I agree and hang up.

It only makes sense to go home now, but I don't. I dig in my bag and pull the ring out. It's not long before I'm daydreaming about our future. It's the third time today, I think.

I just…I really want it. Her. The wedding, the kids, the grandkids... Everything. Because I love her. And since she doesn't believe me, I have to make her believe me. This ring can do that. Even if she freaks out at first.

I go back and forth on my thoughts about the ring until it's time to check in with Derek again.

I'm grateful he doesn't ask any questions about how my apology is going. It seems he's only concerned with whether or not I'm alive.

As I hang up, I see Vega's front door open.

Shit, it's probably Papa Vega, wondering what the hell I'm doing parked alongside their front sidewalk. But it's not him. It's Vega.

Shit. That's probably worse.

No. Not worse. I want to talk to Vega. It's why I came. This is good.

So, why the hell do I feel so nervous?

And for no reason apparently, because Vega doesn't seem to see me. She just gets in her car and drives off.

Where the hell is she going at this time of night?

I follow behind her without a second thought.

We end up at the Gorilla Club.

I take a deep breath, trying my best to get my feelings in check. There are so many. Anger, hurt, irritation, sadness, hurt….

She promised she wouldn't come here anymore. She pinky promised. She traded it for a blind promise on my end. One where she has to agree to a promise of my choosing, no matter what it is, without even knowing what it is first.

I get out of my car and follow behind her. The bouncers hold me up for a little bit and I lose sight of her for a second, but when I get inside I find her right away. She's just standing there, in the middle of the building. Watching.

It's my intention to snatch her up; just grab her by her right arm and march her out of here, screaming and yelling obscenities the whole time; but then I remember that's what her father did, it's what I keep doing, and it's not…it's not right.

Abruptly, Vega turns around and I freeze. For absolutely no reason because she doesn't see me. Again. In fact, she doesn't seem to see anyone because she doesn't even walk with her head up. She walks right by me, not even a whole foot away,

I follow her out. Relief pouring over me in unmeasurable amounts. She didn't break her promise. Maybe she was tempted, but she didn't go through with it.

By the time we get back to Vega's, it's nearly time to call my uncle again. I watch Vega until she's inside before heading home.

{~~~O~~~}

I wake up with the most brilliant idea I've ever come up with.

I'm gonna use that blind pinky promise Vega owes me to get her to agree to wear the ring.

That is a TERRIBLE idea.

It is. But it's the most brilliant terrible idea. I just gotta work out the kinks.

I'm so excited about it that I don't even really realize it's early, on a Saturday, and I'm awake. I feel like nothing can bring me down.

Until Derek knocks on my door and tells me his dad is in the hospital because he had a heart attack. I seriously couldn't care less, but Riley and Amber don't want to go with him to visit, and he's assumed I don't want to go as well and therefore has asked me to watch the brats while he's visiting the old fart.

"Get Redhead to watch them." I snap, joyous mood gone.

"The Redhead isn't here."

What? I check my phone. It's barely eight o'clock. Where the hell could she be?

The parade, dum-dum.

"Fine." I relent.

I regret it for the rest of the day. Thing One is still giving me the silent treatment, and she's roped her sister into avoiding me as well.

It's annoying.

Lonely.

Shut up, Tori.

{~~~O~~~}

The next day is no better.

It started off okay. Derek woke me up with a firm knock on my door. I was grumpy about it, of course, but then he held up a gift bag and I was suddenly okay with being conscious.

I mean, who doesn't like presents? Especially presents that happen to be pepper spray and a stun gun.

Of course, the presents came with the "responsibilities talk." You know, the "it's your job to read up on the laws because you can't exactly carry the weapon everywhere, and you have to be responsible to keep it out of your hands hands, blah, blah, blah…" talk.

But then I went down to eat breakfast. The twins were already there, eating cereal; but as soon as Thing One saw me, she dropped her spoon into her bowl, got up, and stomped her way to the stairs. And I was expecting that, really, but then she screamed, "Amber!" and Thing Two jumped up from the table before following her sister. She didn't even spare me a glance.

It stung. I'll admit it.

I had to get outta there; so, I told Derek I was going out.

He told me to call him at the top of every hour.

I rolled my eyes.

Now, I'm driving around aimlessly. Sort of. I was going to go to Vega's house, but I've ended up at the hospital. Where Bill is.

I have no fucking idea why I'm here, but I go up to the service desk and ask the woman there for his room.

"Only family." She says without looking at me. Not even once.

"He's my mom's dad." I explain. I can see her trying to figure the relation out quickly. "Your grandfather."

I don't dignify that with an answer. "His room?" I ask instead.

She doesn't ask for ID or anything, just tells me he's in room 312.

I find the room easily. But I hesitate to go inside; because I still don't understand why I'm here. I don't want to see him, or talk to him. And I'm sure he doesn't want to see me either. Plus, Irene. The second she sees me, she'll probably blame me for the man's condition and there will be a confrontation.

Is that what I want? Why I'm here? Because I want to fight?

Possibly.

That's messed up, Jade.

I ignore Tori and step inside the room.

Irene's not here. And Bill isn't awake. He's got a breathing tube shoved down his throat and he's hooked up to a few machines. I kinda don't recognize him. He's all frail looking. Small. It seems he has a lot more grey hairs than I remember as well.

I walk over to him. He still doesn't open his eyes.

That's fine.

"I don't feel sorry for you; not one bit." I tell him. "That's not why I'm here." I huff as I fold my arms over my chest.

"I still hate you. You're still an old piece of wazzshit and I don't even know why I'm here. I just had to get out of the house because the brats are infuriating and your son is a suffocating drama queen." I pause here, almost as if I expect an answer. But I get nothing. Just hospital sounds.

They irk me.

"He's gay by the way." I continue, knowing just how homophobic the old goat is and reveling in the act of depriving him of his denial. "Like, he's really gay. He likes to get butt-fucked, or maybe he's a butt-fucker. I don't know-"

Suddenly Bill begins to choke. I think. It's hard to tell with the tube down his throat. But he is seizing up and some of the machines he's hooked to start to go haywire. He's probably having another heart attack, or something.

Instead of just watching him croak, I run out into the hallway and yell, "Hey! He's fucking dying and shit!"

Like magic, nurses pop out of nowhere and start rushing into the room.

"Miss?" One of them places a gentle hand on my arm. "You'll have to leave the room."

I snatch away from her. "I'm not done talking to him."

"Not now, miss. Maybe later." she says while directing me towards the door, like I don't know where it is.

I sit out in the hall, waiting for Bill to get better. I call Derek twice at the top of the hour. Then finally I'm told Bill can have visitors again.

I sigh and go inside. No more talks of buttfucking, I guess. The man's heart can't handle it.

I pull a chair over to the side of his bed and sit. Then I stare at him for a good thirty seconds while I sort out my feelings.

I don't figure them out at all. They're still a jumbled mess, but the constant noise of the machines starts to irritate me, so I speak over the sounds. "I just want to tell you that I don't care if you die," is the first thing I say. "That's not why I went to go get help. But since you haven't kicked the bucket, you can finish letting me talk since I came all this way to see you. Not that I did it on purpose. I was on my way to visit my girlfriend, but I lost my nerve, I guess."

I still don't understand how I ended up here, so I just keep talking so I don't have to think about it.

"I'm sure you don't care about me, or my lesbian problems, and I swear to god if you have another heart attack at the mention of gay activities I will leave your ass in here to croak, Bill. You seriously need to get over that shit."

He doesn't verbally agree to keep his heart from malfunctioning because he's still unconscious, but he doesn't start dying either.

I take it as a sign to continue.

"The least you can do is listen to me, for once." I spit at him. "I'm sure it'll be torture for you, and I'll admit the thought sends me to such a happy place; but you owe me for treating me like crap most of my life!" I yell, abruptly getting up out of my seat and towering over him.

Of course, he doesn't respond. The man's fucking unconscious.

I sit back down and cross my arms over my chest.

"You didn't have to love me, you know." I huff, leveling my voice considerably. "I didn't need you to get me presents, or give me piggy back rides, or take me out for ice cream; and maybe I deserved to get hit sometimes, but would it have killed you to smile at me occasionally?"

I hate how soft and vulnerable my voice has gotten, so I just stop talking.

Bill's probably glad. He's never really liked the sound of my voice; which is fine. I don't exactly like anything about him either.

It's a bit awkward just sitting here and doing nothing, so I go through my back and pull out Vega's ring. I try to imagine her having a positive reaction to it. I try to imagine slipping it onto her finger and her smiling the whole time.

Absentmindedly, I slide the ring onto my finger; just casually trying it on. It looks good.

It'll look better on Vega.

I glance up at Bill.

He's still the same. "I bet you're wondering where your real grandchildren are." I ask.

No answer.

"They're at home. They're still mad at you, but don't feel bad. They, well, Riley's mad at me too. Amber's not, but she's following her sister's lead; so they've both been avoiding me. But I wish Amber…." I pause there for a beat before confessing. "I worry about that kid, you know? She's sweet and all, but I just wish she had the guts to do what she wants.

"I also wish she chose a better girlfriend." I mumble before realizing I just outed my sister.

Crap.

"Amber's gay by the way." I shrug. Since the damage is done. Then I narrow my eyes at him. "Feel free to have a heart attack right now if you're gonna give her a hard time about it."

His condition remains the same.

"I'm serious, Bill. You can seriously just die if Amber's gayness is gonna affect the way you treat her."

"Jade?" I jump at the sound of my mother's voice behind me.

Why do people think it's okay to just sneak up on people like that?! I swivel around in my seat and glare at her.

"What are you doing here, sweetheart?" she frowns at me.

"Telling your dad how much I hate him." I respond before realization hits me. My mom's here!

I jump up out of my chair and hug the shit out of her. "You're supposed to come back on Tuesday." I sniff.

She doesn't hug me back. "Uh, Jade, baby?"

I stiffen a little and pull away from her.

She's still frowning at me. What's wrong? What did I do?

"What's that on your finger?" she asks while pointing to my left hand.

Oh. I forgot to take Vega's ring off after trying it on.

"A ring." I answer without missing a beat. I'm a little surprised that she noticed so soon.

On second thought; maybe I'm not surprised. Joy notices everything.

"I can see that it's a ring; but is there something you'd like to tell me?" She's still frowning at me, clearly not pleased with the way I've answered her question without actually answering her question.

"Not at the moment." I shrug.

She places her hands on her hips. "Is there something you'd like to tell me at another moment then?"

I think about it for a bit before deciding on, "No."

"Jade, that's an engagement ring on your wedding finger." She blurts.

"Why yes. Yes it is." I confirm.

"Why do you have an engagement ring on your finger?" I can tell she's two short stops from a full wazzout, but it's just so fun getting her there.

I shrug my shoulders. "Why not?"

She pinches the bridge of her nose. I'm expecting her to hit me with an "You're un-freaking-believable" any second now.

She doesn't. She takes a deep breath, walks up to me, kisses my forehead, and then moves away to stand closer to her dad.

That's right. Now is not really the time for my usual Jade-ness. Her dad just had a heart attack.

"Mom," I call.

"Yes?" she answers without looking at me, she just stares down at her father. She looks…conflicted; maybe even lost.

Yeah. Now is definitely not the time to give her a hard time.

"I bought the ring." I confess. "I want to ask Vega."

She frowns deeply. "Ask Tori what, Jade?"

"You know..." I trail off; narrowing my eyes at her. I mean, what else could I possibly want to ask my girlfriend that has to do with an engagement ring?

She blinks at me; not even pretending to not know. "You guys are still on a break."

"So?" I scowl, crossing my arms over my chest.

Defensive mode.

"You know what?" She mutters, as she puts her hands up in mock surrender. "Forget I asked."

"She'll say yes!" I snap.

"I'm sure she will." She answers, shaking her head in disbelief.

I feel the need to say it again. Louder if need be to convince her that Vega really will say yes; but before any sound can come out of my mouth I realize Joy wasn't being sarcastic just now. Not at all. She does believe Vega will say yes but...to just give in like that. She's my mom. Shouldn't she be giving me some kind of a talk? I'm not expecting a "congratulations," or an "I'm happy for you two;" but shouldn't I at least get a speech about how me and Vega are too young, and how we have our whole lives ahead of us, and blah dee blah blah?

"Mom?" I reach out and tug on her sleeve a little to get her attention because she's back to staring down at her dad.

She looks over at me.

"Why aren't you giving me the speech." I ask her.

"What speech?"

"You know. The, "we're too young and shit speech.""

"Because I know, that you already know, that you're too fucking young and shit." she answers back in the most elegant way a person can while using words like shit and fuck.

"It's just an engage-...er, a promise. We won't be getting married until later." I offer.

"That's nice, baby." She sighs.

"Why do I feel like you're only humoring me?" I frown.

"I have no idea; but you are indeed humoring me." she says before going back to the staring at her dad thing.

I scowl at her. I know me and Vega getting engaged while on a break sounds ridiculous to her; but I really think this'll make my girlfriend see that I'm serious about her. Then she can end this stupid break.

"Jade." Joy holds her hand out to me and I freeze.

She wants me to give her the ring.

"Come here, baby." She commands softly.

Oh. She doesn't want the ring. She wants me.

I step up to her and as soon as I'm within reaching distance, she pulls me to her, hugging me close. I wrap my arms around her and kiss her cheek.

"I missed you." I mumble. "Uncle Derek's a drama queen."

She laughs; and midway through it her voice cracks, and suddenly she's not laughing anymore.

She's crying. I hug her tighter; trying to stay strong for her as she sags all of her body weight against me.

"It's gonna be okay, Mom." I say firmly; with conviction because I know she needs it. "Bill's gonna be fine."

I can feel her trying to pull away from me; trying to be strong because she's the adult and I'm the kid.

I hold her even tighter. I don't want her to feel like she can't, or shouldn't, be weak in front of me. I want to be for her there way she's always been there for me.

But it is awkward. Mostly because I don't know what to do next. Should I keep doing this; let her cry until her voice is gone? Is that what she needs? Or should I try to lighten the mood; make her laugh.

What would I want if I was in her shoes?

I know the answer immediately. If it was Joy in that hospital bed, I'd probably just want to cry my eyes out; and then hear a joke later to ease the awkwardness. So that's what I do. I wait for Joy's crying to turn into sniffles and then I say, "Uncle Derek told me your secret."

"What secret?" she sniffs.

"That I'm your favorite." I sing.

"He has a big mouth." She mumbles before sitting down in the chair next to her father's bed. The one I was sitting in before.

I would say I'm 90% percent sure she was joking….but she didn't exactly sound like she's joking.

"I'm your favorite?" I ask. Just to be sure.

"What?" she blinks up at me. Then her eyes widen, probably because she realized she kinda confirmed it. Or at least that she didn't deny it. "I…it's not….I didn't mean…You're just…Oh, I'm gonna kill him! Why'd he even tell you that?"

"I'm your favorite?" I ask again; mostly out of shock and confusion. Especially because she still hasn't denied it. "Moms aren't supposed to have favorites."

She groans and rubs at her forehead. "I don't have favorites, Jade but you're my…Um…." She shakes her head. "I don't know how to explain."

I take a step towards her.

"Try. Please?"

"Okay. Um…." She pauses there to think a bit before continuing. "Remember how I said I never wanted kids?"

I nod my head.

"My mom kept telling me I'd change my mind once I met a guy and settled down." Joy rolls her eyes. I roll mine with her. Anything Irene says is eyeroll-worthy. "She was dead set on having maternal grandchildren and I just wasn't interested. I didn't need kids. I had nieces and nephews, a bunch of them. Cute ones, sassy ones, shy ones…None of them made me want to be a mother.

"And then I met you."

"And I made you want kids of your own?" I smile. Because who doesn't like hearing they're personality, as a child, was top-notch.

"No." Joy shakes her head. "I just wanted you. I would've been satisfied with just you."

"What?" I blink.

"The twins were an accident." She shrugs. "Don't get me wrong, I love them with all my heart. I loved them before they were even born because they were mine. So it wasn't gonna matter how they turned out; but with you, I just...really loved you, so I made you mine. And once I got pregnant, I figured it wouldn't be too bad having kids if they turned out anything like you." She holds her hand out, reaching for me, and I put my hand in hers. She gives it a little squeeze. "I got really lucky because they both remind me of you so much, in different ways, of course." She smiles.

I sniff. Just now noticing there are tears in my eyes.

Ugh. When did I become such an emotional mess?!

Quickly I wipe at my eyes.

"So, you're saying it's my fault the brats exist." I joke to lighten the mood.

Joy laughs. "Is there any other stupid thing my brother said while watching you guys." She teases me back.

I shrug. "Not really. But he got me a taser gun."

Joy groans deeply before pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm gonna kill that man."

{~~~O~~~}

Ugh. Monday. School. Three very good reasons to stay in bed. But I know it's not an option when I get a knock on my door at too early o'clock in the morning. It can only be Joy, telling me to get up.

I get out of bed and snatch my door open.

It's not Joy.

It's Amber.

I frown down at her because she's just standing there looking super constipated, or something.

"What?" I don't mean to snap, but she's kinda freaking me out. The way she's just standing there, arms behind her back all suspicious like, and staring at me with that...look.

She takes a deep breath. Exhales. Loses her nerve and then take another deep breath.

I'm tempted to tell her to just spit it out already, but Tori advises me that I don't want to scare her. And I don't argue.

Finally, she speaks. "Can you help me with my hair?" she asks softly. She holds her hand out at eye level, palm up, revealing the thing she was hiding behind her back.

A dark blue extension.

I gasp. Literally gasp. Neither she, nor her sister, have worn extensions in their hair like me since Vega put me on break.

I take the synthetic hair from her, and try to ignore the fact that my hand is trembling a little.

Amber could've gone to her mother for help. Actually, she could've done it herself. It's not hard to clip a piece of hair onto your own hair. But she came to me instead. Because she wants to make sure I see it; she wants me to know she looks up to me again; and that she's not waiting on Riley to show me. She's doing this by herself.

"There." I croak once I'm all done.

She pats her hair a little nervously. Maybe because she knows Riley's probably gonna give her the silent treatment for this. "Do I look okay?" she asks.

"You look beautiful, Booger." I nearly whisper. "And brave."

Her cheeks go bright red, and she looks as if she doesn't know what else to do but run away. Which I fully expect her to. Instead, she hugs me around my middle.

"I love you, Jade" she says. Then she runs away.

And yes, I was gonna tell her that I love her too before she ran off.

You can still tell her.

I know, Tori. Jeez.

I get ready for school quickly and head downstairs. Both of my sisters are at the table eating breakfast. Well, Amber's eating, careful not to look anywhere other than her plate; and Riley's staring at Amber's hair, a deep scowl on her face. I already know the little gremlin is gonna put the kid through hell over this.

And then there's Joy. She's just standing there, staring at Amber with a hand over her heart and unshed tears in her eyes.

I shake my head. She's such a drama queen; just like her brother.

"I'm out." I tell my family, making Joy jump. She was too busy enjoying Amber's stroke of independence to hear me walk up beside her.

But she recovers quickly. Before I know it, she's got me in a tight hug and has delivered two kisses to my face.

"Have a good day at school." She sniffs.

"Mom..." I whine.

Joy gives me one more kiss before letting me go.

I walk straight up to my sisters. Amber hands me a pop tart and I swear, there's probably no other kid I'll ever love the way I love this one.

"Bye, Booger," I kiss her forehead. "I love you too." I whisper.

Of course, she blushes super bright. Which is too a-fucking-dorable.

I smile, kissing her again. This time on her cheek.

I don't even attempt to give Riley the same treatment. She'd probably bite me or something. Literally.

I wait until I'm halfway out the door before saying, "Bye Riley." That way I don't have to hear her not answer me back.

{~~~O~~~}

God, I wish it was Friday already. The week has been passing by so slowly, especially because it's so freaking uneventful. Riley still avoids me. Anthony pairs me and André up to write a song due next Wednesday. Vega avoids all of us, not just me.

I think it's safe to say she's more embarrassed than mad. And I try to give her the space she wants. Maybe it'll help, I'm not sure. Maybe I can talk it over with Bill if he's still unconscious. He's a real good listener when he's unconscious.

I pull up to the twins' school because it's Thursday; my, well, me and Vega's day to pick them up seeings how Amber is still here without Riley. It annoys me; if only because of the sadness on my sister's face when I pull up. I know she wants to go to Vega's house as well.

Then again, that's an easy fix. I just gotta tell her I'm okay with her going to Vega's house. That I'll be fine alone, but I can't get me lips to form the words.

"Hey booger." I greet her once she gets inside the car.

She smiles at me. "Hi Jade."

I've seen bigger smiles than that, and I don't know, I want to make her happy, so I try to think of something we can do. Something she'll like. Last time we went to Wacko Taco and-

I groan internally. The girlfriend. The girlfriend puts a huge smile on thing Two's face. If I want to make Amber happy, I should invite her girlfriend over.

But I don't wanna.

Jade.

Fine.

"Wanna invite Kayla over?" I blurt out before I can change my mind.

The kid lights up.

Gross.

"Okay, call her." I say.

Amber frowns at me. "She doesn't have a phone; but she's at home 'cause she didn't come to school today." She ends with a hopeful lilt.

I really don't want to make an empty trip, but it's not like the little twerp lives far.

It's not even a full three-minute ride. And as soon as I park, Amber lays a hand on my forearm. "I'll get her." She volunteers before hopping out of my car.

Whatever.

I watch her practically skip up to the door, I watch her raise her hand to knock, and then I watch her freeze up.

I know immediately that something is wrong.

I rush out of the car and head for the door. I can hear the mother screaming at the top of her lunges. I'm sure she's yelling at the kid because she calls her a little shit about 4 times.

"Go sit in the car, Booger." I tell Amber.

She takes my hand instead.

I bang on the door.

"Clean that shit up, now!" I hear before the woman snatches the door open.

"What?" she snaps at me.

I force back the urge to punch her in the gut.

"My sister is having a slumber party and wanted your daughter to come." I say.

She glances down at Amber.

Amber hides behind me, still gripping my hand.

"She's sick." The woman snarls. "She just threw up all over the floor. She's not going anywhere until she cleans it up."

Amber comes from behind me and faces the woman. "I'll help." she says softly.

No the fuck she won't.

I grab Amber up and put her on my hip before pushing past the woman and walking into her house.

The smell is horrible. It's not just vomit. It's other gross smells, spoiled food, dirty laundry, probably mildew…but the smell is much better than the appearance. The house is just…disgusting.

I search quickly, eyes scanning the front room until I catch sight of Kayla. She's off in a corner, on her hands and knees, towels in her hand, and a semi-full trash bag beside her.

"Hey. Kid." I say. She looks up at me, and dear god, the kid looks like she's absolutely about to pass the fuck out. "Get up."

She does as I say without hesitation.

"I said, the little shit isn't going anywhere until she cleans that shit up." Her mom growls at me.

"I fucking heard you," I snap at her. "Kayla, go wait for me by the car. I'll clean that up."

Once the mother hears that, she walks off.

Bitch.

Amber just stares at me, probably shocked as hell.

I'm shocked too.

As soon as the kid walks by me, I set Amber down.

"Go to the car with your friend and stay by the car, got it?"

"Okay, Jade." She says before grabbing Kayla's hand and leading her outside.

"Here's a bucket of hot water. And some spray stuff." The woman appears out of nowhere with cleaning supplies.

I swear, I'm gonna abort this bitch and orphan little Kayla.

I mutter obscenities the whole time I clean. It's the most disgusting 15 minutes of my life. And irritating. The woman watches me from the kitchen the whole time.

Once I'm done, I walk up to her, bucket in hand, and pour its contents down the sink. Then I slam the bucket onto the cluttered counter and face the woman. "You can pick the kid up from school on Monday." I tell her.

"Excuse me." She says, eyes widening in anger and disbelief.

"Monday." I repeat. "You can have Kayla back on Monday. She'll be at my house through the weekend." I clarify.

"You don't have authority to pick her up from school tomorrow." She throws at me.

It's true. I don't. I guess the kid's not going to school tomorrow. Which means neither am I.

Oh, Joy's gonna absolutely love that.

"Monday." I say for the last time before walking out.

"You're doing me a favor, girl." The woman shouts after me.

I slam her door shut behind me and hurry to my car before letting the girls in. Then I make sure both of them are buckled in before driving off.

I spend the whole ride trying to think of ways to convince my mother to let me stay home from school so I can babysit a sick brat.

I come up with nothing; other than the truth. Which will have to be enough.

As soon as I pull up to the house, I spot Irene and Bill's car. With Irene still in the driver's seat. She must've just got here.

"Crap." I mutter.

Amber frowns a little and looks up to see what I'm crapping about. Once she sees it, she has a mini freak out and sinks into her seat.

Seriously, this has gone on forever. I honestly expected the twins to forgive their grandparents by now. Especially Irene as she didn't actually hit me.

I sigh and get out of my car before walking over to Irene's.

I'm not surprised Amber doesn't move a muscle.

Irene gets out of her car quickly as I approach it. "Hello, Jade." she smiles. God, it looks like it's really hurting her to do that. Smile at me.

"What do you want, Irene?" I ask, already knowing what she wants.

"My husband is still in the hospital, I thought the girls would like to come see them. He's been asking for them. And you." She adds on the last part reluctantly.

I ignore the fact that she said it altogether.

"My girlfriend has the brats. It's her day."

"Her day?" Irene frowns.

I roll my eyes. "She gets them every Thursday."

"Every Thursday?" she asks incredulously.

She doesn't believe me. I roll my eyes. "If you can get Riley to agree to come, then Amber will." I tell her while I call Vega up and put her on speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hey, put Riley on. Her grandmother wants to speak to her." I say, though I would very much like to freak out about the fact that I just called Vega and she didn't sound mad, or sad, or anything. She sounded normal.

"Riley. Your grandmother wants to speak to you." We both hear Vega say.

"No. I don't wanna talk to her. Hang up." Riley says. We can hear her clear as day.

Irene takes my phone from me. "Riley, sweetheart, Grandpa's still in the hospital."

We hear Vega tell Riley what Irene just said. There's a short pause before we hear Riley say, "Is he dying?"

"No, honey." Irene croons. "Of course not-"

"Hang up." Riley says. Then the line goes dead. I'm sure it was Riley's doing, not Vega's.

Irene looks absolutely crushed.

I try not to feel bad for her.

She swallows deeply, then puts on a fake smile for me before handing me back my phone. "You paid a visit to my husband," she says to me. "So, you're not as upset as you let on."

…as I let on?

"Maybe you can talk to the twins." She suggests, firmly.

I really can't stand this bitch; but I relent with a simple, "Fine." because I need her to get the hell out of here. I've got two little girls in my car with the windows up in California heat.

Joy's gonna kill me.

"Alright," Irene swallows again before getting back into her car. "Have that talk with them soon." She says before driving off.

Seriously. Would it kill the bitch to say please?

As soon as she's out of sight, I go back to my car and let the girls out. The sick one is sweating buckets and I'm sure she's about to blow chunks any second now.

I rush them to the front door and let them in.

The kid doesn't make it. She up-chucks all over the floor.

Redhead comes out of no-fucking-where and starts gagging. I think she's one of those people who chucks when other people chuck.

"I'm gonna go." She announces, "I'll come back when the sick one leaves," she says before running upstairs, most likely to pack.

"She's staying 'til Monday." I holler after her.

Redhead waves absentmindedly at me.

"Booger, take your friend upstairs and put her in the bathroom while I clean this up." I sigh.

"Okay, Jade." She agrees before leading Kayla up the stairs.

For the second time in under an hour I find myself cleaning up vomit.

Joy comes home during the last of it.

"Who's sick? Melissa?" she asks.

"No," I grunt "Amber's girlfriend."

"Kayla?" She frowns.

"Mhmm. She's upstairs in the bathroom." Joy starts to walk away.

"Um, Mom." I call her back.

"Yeah?"

"I can't go to school tomorrow."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, the kid's staying until Monday and I can't pick her up from school because I'm not on the list, so we're gonna hang out here. Then I can drop her Monday and her mom can pick her up from school." I ramble excessively. Nervously.

It's a first for me. And I can tell Joy's about to ask me what's going on, but then Amber comes running down the stairs.

"Mommy!" she wails as soon as she sets eyes on her mother. "She's bleeding!"

Without hesitation, both me and Joy are rushing up the stairs. Joy gets there first and as soon as I walk in, I walk right back out.

The kid's not dying. She's just gotten her lady time.

I frown. Isn't she like 8, or something?

"Okay, sweetheart, don't be scared." I can hear Joy say through the door.

"I'm not scared." Kayla bites back. "I know what it is."

"You do?" I can just imagine Joy's frowning, and I briefly wonder why the hell I'm eavesdropping when I hear the kid say, "Hudson told me to tell him when I start bleeding 'cause he'll have to wear condoms because it means I can have babies now."

I swear to god, I'm literally gonna kill that motherfucker one day.

{~~~O~~~}

By Saturday afternoon, I'm ready for Kayla to go home. The kid plus Riley is an absolute nightmare. I seriously don't know what Amber sees in her.

And yeah, I know her home situation is shitty, but as far as I can tell, the mother does a whole lotta yelling and no actual hitting. I checked for bruises, inconspicuously. Plus, her brother's in jail. So, she's relatively safe from harm.

Most harm anyway.

And then there's the fact that she's still sick; still vomiting and everything. And I have to clean it up every time because she's my guest. Well, she's kinda Amber's guest, but there's no way I'm making my sister clean up up-chuck.

I'm in the middle of cleaning Kayla's lunch chuck when my phone rings.

It's Josie.

Nine times out of ten, she just wants me to watch my godson; but I really can't right now. Joy took Riley to the park, so it's just me watching Amber and Kayla. There's no way I can deal with baby poop and vomit right now.

I ignore her call and finish my task.

Twenty minutes later, there's a knock on my front door. A banging really.

I bet it's Josie with the kid. And as cute as the baby is, I'm gonna have to be firm and tell her I can't take little Victor Alexander right now.

I answer the door and see that I was half right. It's Josie, but no Alex.

"You didn't answer your phone." She says.

"I was cleaning PMS puke from a third grader."

"Your girlfriend had an accident." She continues, not even acknowledging what I said, and I find it odd until it registers to me what she just said. My girlfriend had an accident.

Right away I know it was an accident. Josie wouldn't have come all the way over here just to tell me about it if it wasn't. Now I just need to know what kind of an accident it was.

"W-what?" I stutter. I can't seem to get the rest of the question out.

"Fell from two stories." Josie continues.

I stop breathing. Not purposely. I just…can't.

"She's in casts. Should be going home in a few hours." Josie shrugs. "Just thought you'd want to know."

"Going home? She's okay?" I ask. More like plead, actually. I don't allow any hope through until Josie confirms that Vega is indeed okay enough to go home.

Then I let out a breath of relief. And then I inhale deeply and exhale again. I suddenly feel like I'm not getting enough air.

I close my eyes tightly and concentrate on breathing. Josie moves behind me and sits me down before pushing my head forward.

It appears the whole putting your head between your knees when you're panicky thing actually does work; because I feel better after a few minutes. Just in time for-

"Jade!" Amber screams.

I register the alarm in my sister's voice, but I can't seem to react to it. I just need a minute, you know?

"Jade!" Amber screams again.

Josie offers to go up and see what my sister wants, but I shake my head. I'll go.

As soon as I get to Amber's room, I see the problem. Kayla's crying as she kicks and punches at the wall repeatedly. Her face is red and puffy. There are scratches on her cheeks. Probably self-inflicted. She's just a mess.

I grab the kid before she can do any damage to the wall, or her fists.

She snatches away from me and screams. "I hate this! I hate this! I hate everything!"

Said every girl about her period ever.

"I don't want to have babies!" She continues. "I want…I want…I want…" She rubs her eyes with her knuckles, much like Victor does when he's sleepy.

"I want…" she tries again.

To be a baby, probably.

More than likely.

"Come're kid." I say before grabbing her up. She's heavier than the twins, but still pick-up-able. I fully expect her to start fighting me, but she doesn't. She holds on for dear life and she cries into my neck.

I catch sight of my sister in the doorway. She's wringing her fingers nervously, looking lost and misplaced. I know she wants to help. To do something.

"Booger, can you give Josie my car keys." I say. "I have some presents for Vega in my trunk. There's 100. No 99. I've got the last one." I start rambling again. "Make sure you count them to make sure they're all there. Can I count on you to do that? To make sure you give all ninety-nine to Josie?"

Amber nods her head vehemently before taking off.

Kayla continues to cry; just pouring her lungs and little heart out on my shoulder. I just rock her because I don't really know what to say. I'm not so good at this kind of stuff. Not like Joy.

"I hate him." Kayla whimpers pathetically. "I hate him. I wish he was dead."

Yeah. You and me both, kid.

{~~~O~~~}

I've finally gotten the courage to visit Vega. It's been nearly four days since I found out about her accident. She hasn't been in school and I meant to come over sooner, but I just couldn't. I just wasn't ready to see her. I was scared. She fell from two stories, and she's in casts, and I don't want to see her…hurt.

It's stupid. I know.

I take a deep breath before opening her front door. Just turn the knob and push the door open. Because it's habit. Because I've always just entered Vega's home without knocking. Because it's always unlocked.

At first I was okay with it. It meant I wouldn't have to wait in the hot ass sun for someone to come open the door for me. Then, it wasn't as okay because I started to realize that anyone could just walk into my girlfriend's house. Which was dangerous, and I mentioned it to Vega once. She didn't seem to take me seriously, and I didn't press because I didn't really take it too serious either. I mean, who else besides friends and family would walk into my girlfriend's house?

But now, I've got a look at my girlfriend. She's sitting there, watching TV. But when I come in, she gets up. Awkwardly because of her casted arms. I mean, she looks good. Really good. The casts are only on her arms. There're absolutely no bruises on her face. She can walk.

She's gonna be okay.

But she can't defend herself at all right now and my mood abruptly turns black.

"Why the fuck is this door unlocked?" I yell.

Vega blinks at me. Then she glares. "Why would you just walk inside of someone's house uninvited?" she retorts.

I march up to her as I continue with my yelling. "Because this somebody's door is always un-fucking-locked!" I stop when I'm standing right in front of her. My nose almost touching hers. She steps back, nearly losing her balance in the process. The damn casts making her a thousand times more of a klutz than usual.

"You can try not coming over here! Then you wouldn't have to worry about whether the door's unlocked!" She moves to cross her arms over her chest, but it's not possible. She nearly topples over to the side. Instinctively, I move to catch her, should she fall, but she twists away, avoiding my hands.

I inhale deeply. How have I worked myself up to such an irritated state? I did not come over here to yell at her. "You're my girlfriend." I push out, trying to take my tone down to a civil level. "I'm always worried about whether the door is unlocked."

"Oh, I'm your girlfriend, huh?" She sneers.

My eyes flash. And I'm about to just jank the girl up and demand she stop being so...so...fucking hot. Oh, I need help. This should not be a turn on; but it really, really is. The way she's glaring at me, the way her eyes are so intense, the Spanish she's just started screaming at me. Like, I don't know what the fuck she's saying, but damn.

And now is not the fucking time for that!

"You didn't seem to remember that when I was lying in a hospital bed after falling two stories!" Vega continues. And it takes me a moment to realize she's switched back to English.

"Vega"- I try, but she cuts me off.

"You could've at least come just to tell me how stupid it was to agree to be a stunt double on the whim!"

She paces back and forth, but there's something off about it. I think it's the extra bounce.

"Do you have to use the bathroom?" I cut in. I don't mean to be insensitive. I know she's upset about me not coming to see her when she was in the hospital. But the way she's bouncing as she paces, it's distracting.

"No." She answers. Too quick.

I raise my eyebrows at her, confused about why she would lie about something like that.

"Vega, you have to use the bathroom." I say, not ask. Why is she making this so difficult? I can wait right here while she….then I get a good look at her casts and realize her hands are wrapped up. Josie told me about that. About how she can't feed herself, or use her phone, or anything. It never occurred to me that she couldn't use the bathroom on her own; or shower on her own, or finger her belly- Wait. She can't finger her belly button! No wonder she's so cranky.

I take a closer look at her face, and yeah, there are some serious bags under her eyes.

My baby hasn't been getting any sleep.

"Come on, Vega." I say softly. "Let's get you to the bathroom."

"I'm fine." She snaps irritably. "Don't you have to go?"

"No."

"Oh, I thought you said something about"-

"I just got here. I didn't say anything about anything other than the door being unlocked." I interrupt.

"Really? So I've been talking to, no, yelling at myself then."

I roll my eyes at the way she's smartassing me, choosing to let that go so I can get my stubborn, cranky, sexy girlfriend to the bathroom.

"Come on, Vega. Let's go." I step up to her, reach for her.

"Do not touch me!" She takes several steps back.

I'm not going to lie. That hurt. Especially because I know she's not talking about the fact that I'm not supposed to touch her during her break. I know Vega doesn't really mind me touching her. She just wants to set boundaries so we can have space and stuff. But that just now? That don't touch me? She's…appalled by the thought of me touching her.

"How do you expect to use the bathroom without me touching you?" I ask carefully.

"Trina will be home soon. I'll just hold it until then."

I inhale sharply, trying my best not to show my wazzed offness; or hurt. "You're gonna wait for Trina, even though I'm right here?"

"Yes."

"And what if she doesn't come back here for another hour?" I try.

"I'll hold it," she claims.

I shake my head. "Don't be ridiculous, Vega." The girl can hardly hold her wazz for ten minutes. There's no way she'll make it an hour.

"It's ridiculous for me to not want you touching me?" She starts pacing again. I think it's more so to keep her bladder confused so she won't wazz her pants.

"Vega." I call, hoping my gentle tone is enough to catch her attention. And it is. She stops pacing and faces me. "I'm sorry I didn't come see you when you were in the hospital."

"Do you have a good reason?" There's a bite in her question; but there's also a pleading, like she wants me to have a good reason for why I didn't go and see her.

I don't. I have reasons. But they aren't good enough. I should've gone. Let her know I still love her. Even though she won't let me say it to her. I could've shown it.

"Trina will be home soon." Vega sighs her disappointment in me.

God this is making me feel like shit. I can barely face her. Maybe I should just go.

"If you want, I can just unbutton your pants for you. Then you can just sit on the toilet until Trina gets back, but at least you'll have gotten to wazz." I offer. I try to sound casual about it

"It's fine, Jade." She fixes her eyes just passed my shoulder. Apparently, she doesn't even want to look at me anymore. "I don't have to go that bad."

"Yes, you do."

"Trina will be home soon." She repeats, as she starts trying to usher me towards the front door.

I don't budge. I wonder if she realizes she can't actually open the door for me in order to kick me out.

Realizing that I won't move, she opts to physically push me with her bulky casts. I pivot a little to the left to avoid that. And true to Vega fashion, she trips. If I wasn't in my own little world, I would've noticed sooner and caught her; but I don't realize she's falling until she's halfway towards the ground.

"Vega!" I shout in alarm, quickly grabbing at her waist and pulling her into me. Not a good idea. Because I don't have the right footing and now I'm falling. I know Vega's gonna land on top of me, and I'm relieved because I know it means I'll cushion her fall; but at the same time, I know I'm gonna hurt myself. So I close my eye and brace myself for the pain.

I'm not disappointed.

My elbows get the most of it. And Oh my god does that shit hurt like a motherfucker. I clinch my teeth and reflexively tighten my hold on Vega while I ride out the intense wave of pain spreading from my elbows to my shoulders.

"Jade!" I ignore Vega. Not in the mood for the 'are you okays' to start. I can't answer yet or I'll probably cry. Vega squirms against me, violently. "Jade! I gotta go!"

My eyes snap open as I look down at my girlfriend. It's then that I've noticed with the way we've landed, she's not just on top of me. My knee is jammed into her bladder. I've made her wazz situation worse.

"Now! Right now! I can't hold it!" She freaks, still squirming. I let her go, and she attempts to get up, but it's a disaster.

Ignoring my pain, I quickly stand her up and she runs haphazardly up the stairs. I'm right behind her, trying to steady her wobbling so she, we, can get to the bathroom without falling again.

Thankfully the door's already opened, and I absently wonder if it was a conscious thing. If everyone's started leaving doors open so Vega won't have to struggle to get in.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" She chants as she does her pee pee dance; bringing me back to the now.

I rush in front of her, hesitating to touch her. I mean, the buttons and zipper are at the crotch of her pants. I'll basically be touching her duey and-

"HURRY!" Vega squeals.

Right. I reach for the front of her pants and just as I get her jeans unbuttoned, she wets her pants.

Fuck.

She starts crying. Like bawling.

"I told you to hurry up!" She yells. "I told you!"

Fuck.

"I'm sorry, baby." I grimace. "I'm sorry. It's my fault." I croon as I pull her jeans the rest of the way down. "Just hop in the shower."

"I can't take showers!" She screams at me.

"Bath!" I offer.

"I can't set the water!" More screaming. More crying. Ugh! Why am I fucking up so bad with this?

"I'll run you a bath." I rush to do just that. "You want bubbles?" I ask, and without waiting for an answer I pour some random soapy stuff into the water. I'm not even sure it's bubbles. In fact, it's not. It's shampoo.

Fuck.

"Get in." I tell Vega without looking at her. Because I can't seem to face her.

I hear her step into the tub.

Then she screams.

"Hot!"

Fuck.

I move to help her out of the tub, but she's already trying to scramble out on her own. And you can bet she fell. Right on her casts.

Fuck.

"Vega, I'm sorry!" I try to help her up, but she schooches away from me.

"Don't touch me!"

I turn away, busying myself with fixing the water just so I can compose myself. I have no right being on the verge of tears. I'm putting my girlfriend through hell. She deserves to scream and cry. But at the same time, I'm feeling so helpless. I just wish I could do something right. Anything.

I feel the water. "It's fine now," I tell Vega.

Instinctively, I know she's not gonna want help getting into the tub; nor is she gonna want me to watch her get into the tub. So, I scoop up her soiled bottoms and leave quickly.

I try not to think about just how gross it is that there's wazz on my fingers as I dump Vega's stuff into the washer. Then I sneak into Papa Vega's room and use his bathroom to wash my hands quickly,

Once I'm back, I see Vega sitting in the tub, casts hanging over the side of the tub so they don't get wet. And her shirt's still on.

Right. I have to do that for her because she can't do it herself. No wonder she's so cranky. No sleep is a good enough reason, but to be dependent on others to help her with absolutely everything has got to be the most trying experience in the world.

I kneel before her, ready to help my girlfriend with her shirt. This I can do right. "Lift up your arms." I tell her.

"No."

I frown. "I gotta take your shirt off."

"I didn't wazz on my shirt." She rolls her eyes at me.

Jade, don't snap back. Tori coaches me.

I take a deep breath. "I know you didn't wazz on your shirt, Vega; but since you're already in the tub, might as well take a full bath now."

"Josie's gonna do it later. You can go now."

Jade, don't snap back.

"Vega, you're not making any sense."

"I don't care."

Jade...

"My God, shut the fuck up!"

Vega jumps, raising her head to look at me with wide eyes.

"Not you ba-Vega. Tori."

"What's telling you to do?" she asks. As if it's normal for people to randomly blurt obscenities at their conscience.

"Not get irritated with you." I answer.

Vega scrunches up her face, getting defensive. "Why are you irritated with me? I told you, you can go! You're the one who stayed!"

"I know, ba-Vega." I rush to comfort her. " I know. I just wanna help, but you know me. I can be a bit of a gank and Tori's just helping me be less of a gank. That's all."

"I still want you to go." She pouts.

"Why?"

"I don't want you to see me like this!"

"Like What?" I frown. "Naked? Cause I've already"-

"I'm disgusting!" She cuts me off with a dramatic wail.

"Vega"-

"I can't even wipe my face. I think there's dried snot on it."

Well, that is kinda gross.

"See? Just go."

I wipe her face gently. It's already raw from where she tried to do it with her casted arm.

"Vega, I'm not gonna leave. So, you might as well do as I say."

She closes her eyes at my touch, and I smile at her. Until... "How come you didn't come see me?"

She sounds so fucking sad.

When I don't answer, she continues to speak.

"My dad thinks that I want to... that I don't want to live. That I hurt myself on purpose. Is that why you didn't come? You didn't want to support me for purposely hurting myself? 'Cause it was an accident. I'm not...I don't want to die."

I pull her face into my chest, and I kiss her head a million times. "I know it was an accident, baby." I murmur.

She pulls away from me and looks me in the eyes. "You do?" she pleads.

Her face is gross. Just, everything's wet and none of it is water. Yet I've never wanted to kiss her lips as bad as I do now.

I nod my head. "I thought you were mad at me. That you didn't want to see me after I tattled on you to Papa Vega."

She frowns. "So why are you here now?"

"Because I'm selfish. I don't care if you want to see me or not. I want to see you. So will you please just lift up your arms so I can help you?"

She does it slowly, and I hurry up and take her shirt off before she can change her mind.

My eyes are automatically drawn to her chest. Not her boobs. Between them. There's a band aid there. One of the ones I gave her for her birthday.

"What happened there?" I point at it.

Vega shakes her head. "Nothing."

I reach for it the band aide slowly, giving her a chance to back away from me if she wants to.

She doesn't, so I peel it off gently.

I sigh once I see there's nothing there. No wound. Not even a scratch. Just dirty adhesive. I frown. How long has she had this band aid on in order for the adhesive to be so freakin' dirty?

I dip my fingers into the soapy water really quick before rubbing the adhesive off. And still, nothing. Not one scratch on my girlfriend's chest. So why have a band aid on if it's not needed.

I haven't removed my fingers yet and I become super aware of her heart rate. The way it's sped up. That's when it comes to me.

Her heart.

The band aid was over her heart. That's where her wound is. That's what needs to heal. There's a small part of me, a very small part of me that thinks it's a bit cheesy. But every other part of me knows it's anything but. This is my girlfriend crying out for help. And not just from anyone. From me. She wants me to fix her. To make her better.

"Vega." I breathe.

She sniffs. She won't look at me.

I grab her face in both hands.

"I'm right here."

I know I'm not supposed to, but I can't seem to stop myself. I lean in and place a gentle kiss on her lips. I fully expect her to freak out, or jerk away from me. If not that, at least press her lips together tightly and tense up.

As soon as my lips touch hers, she kisses me back.

"I love you." I whisper.

It just slips.

She tenses, pulling away from me and refusing to look me in the eyes once again.

"I think I'm all clean now." she changes the subject. Not so subtly telling me it's time for me to let her out of the tub even though she didn't technically take a bath.

I sigh. Hating that she always has such a negative reaction to me saying those three little words to her.

"Can you get my towel?" She asks politely.

Right. She can't do that for herself. I grab up her towel and wrap it around her.

I walk with her to her room and pick out the longest t-shirt I can find. More than likely it's her dad's, to be honest. I put it on her quickly.

"You're forgetting panties Jade." She yawns.

"You should take a nap," I suggest. "And maybe do without the underwear. The t-shirts long, and if you gotta wazz in the middle of the night, you won't need help."

She thinks it over for a few seconds before laying on her bed. I know she can't sleep without the belly rub, so I sit next to her, take a deep breath, and go for it.

The second I place my hand on her stomach, she stiffens. "What are you doing?"

"You're tired"-

"I know that!" she snaps back.

I inhale through my nose so that I can quickly calm myself down. I have to remember that she's really tired. Really tired people are cranky as fuck. I should know.

I look her right in the eyes, which is a mistake as she's glaring at me and she looks so fucking hot when she glares. I shift a little as I try to cover up my discomfort by speaking up. "I know you can't sleep unless you rub your belly, so I was just gonna do it for you." I manage to say calmly. I even shrug one shoulder so it seems like this is no big deal whatsoever.

She narrows her eyes at me. "Who told you?"

"Nobody told me." I scoff. "We've slept together a million times. You honestly think I've never seen you do it?"

"You never said anything."

"It's not that big of a deal." I shrug again. "At least you're not a thumb-sucker."

"Okay." She concedes hesitantly before laying down on her back.

"Okay." I say before kinda freezing. Like, I don't know what to do next.

"Lift my shirt up." She commands.

I inhale deeply. She's not wearing underwear. Oh, this is gonna be some kind of torture, isn't it?

But I do as she says, lifting her shirt up as casually as I can. I mean, seriously. Why am I even freaking out? I just saw her naked ten minutes ago.

Once her shirt is lifted, she puts her arms over her head. On some level, I realize this is to give me access to her belly without having the bulky casts in the way; but it's like she's surrendering her body to me and oh God...

Quickly, I snap out of it, ready to purge my mind of any unclean thoughts, and I start rubbing her belly button.

"No!" She screams.

I nearly fall out of the bed because of how far back I just jumped, which kinda pisses me off because I'm a very well coordinated individual.

"What?" I snap back.

"You can't just go for the belly button! You have to work your way there!" She explains vehemently, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"It's a belly rub!" I yell back at her. "There's no wrong way to do it!"

"Yes there is!" she hisses, her arms coming down to cover her stomach. "Just forget it. I'm fine."

"You're not fine. You haven't been sleeping."

"I have too slept!"

"Not a lot." I counter. "There are bags under your eyes and"-

"I'll get someone else to do it!" she cuts me off.

"Fine!" I snap. It's mostly reflex, because once I actually think about what the chiz she said, I start to feel, to state it bluntly, jealous. Who is she going to get to rub her belly button until she falls asleep? Who is she gonna let touch her that way? Josie? Redhead?

Uh un! No way! Over my dead freaking body!

I grab her arms.

"What are you doing!?" she shrieks.

"Moving your arms out of the way so I can put you to sleep."

"I said I'll get someone else to do it!"

"NO!" I yell.

She glares at me.

"I'm. Doing. It." I growl.

"You don't. Know. How." She growls back.

"And who knows how?" I counter, ignoring the fact that my underwear have gotten a little damp because of the growling.

"What does that matter?" she rolls her eyes at me.

"Who knows how, Vega?"

"It doesn't matter." She stubbornly insists.

I swear, she's the most annoying..."Just fucking teach me!" I yell.

"Get off of me!" she screams. It's then that I notice I am indeed on her. Straddling her hips as I pin her arms above her head. I try my hardest not to get wet…wetter, at the imagery and sensation.

I don't succeed. I can only hope that Vega can't feel it.

I take a deep breath and use my inside voice. "Vega, I'm sorry for yelling. I wanna help. I really do. Let me help."

She eyes me for a good while before conceding with a simple, "Okay.".

"Okay." I repeat.

She glares at me. "You can't rub me if you're sitting on it." she hisses.

Fuck.

Reluctantly I move off of her and sit next to her. "What do I do first?"

"You start on my tummy, above my button."

I place my hand on her stomach.

"Not your whole hand." she frowns. "three fingers."

I lift my hand up, my thumb and pinky losing contact with her skin.

"What next?"

"Not so hard, just the fingertips."

I lift up and does as she says.

"Like this?"

"Higher."

I do it, moving up just a few inches.

She shakes her head. "Higher."

I inhale. Higher is literally right under her breasts.

"You sure?"

She lets out a frustrated snort of sorts.

"Okay, okay."

I place my finger tips where she wants them. "What now?"

"Go down a straight line, but don't touch the button."

"Okay." I nod. Sounds easy enough.

I don't even move a full two inches before she stops me.

"Too fast!"

I slow down.

"No, you have to start over!"

My eye twitches a little. But I inhale, calming myself down before starting over. Then I slowly drag three fingertips down Vega's stomach. I swear if she tells me I'm going too slow...

Thankfully I make it to the button without incident. And stop right above it, remembering that she told me not to touch it.

"What next?"

"Go under the button and come right back up."

So I do that...and it's wrong.

"You're too close!" she complains.

I scowl. Any further away and I'd be right on top of the button; And I specifically remember her saying not to touch the button.

I edge up a mili-milimeter.

"No! Lower!"

Lower? Near her duey? I can definitely do that.

"Are you sure?"

She groans. "Jade! you're messing up the best and most important part!"

"Stop yelling at me!" I snap back.

"Go home!" she screeches while turning over onto her stomach.

Fuck.

I grab her waist and flip her back over because I know she won't turn over if I ask.

She's crying.

Fuck.

"I'm sorry Vega. I'm really sorry." I apologize sincerely, while wiping her face with my hands.

"Go home." she sniffs.

"No." I tell her, placing three fingers below her breast, lightly. I go down, slowly, but not to slow. Go around the button, and go down farther. I'll stop when she says so.

"There." she whispers. "Come back up."

I do as I'm told. And I do it wrong.

"The other way, Jade. You can't go back up the same way you came down."

I bite my tongue, literally, before starting over. I come back up on the right side of her belly.

"Do it again."

No please. No thank you. Just "do it again."

"Jade?"

"What?"

"A little further down than before. You have to go down and come back up; but each time, the line has to get shorter.

"Okay."

I do that. Until I'm essentially rubbing circles around the outside of her button.

"Okay, Jade. Go out. The other way. But don't make it like a line. Like a circle.

I move to do as she says, and of course it's wrong.

"Two fingers now." She corrects; but she doesn't make me start over.

"Okay, come back in." she says once the circle has gotten really big.

My arm is seriously starting to hurt. I grit my teeth, not willing to complain about it.

"Go back out again."

Seriously, my arm is gonna fall off any second now.

"M'kay, now you can touch the button. Go inside gently."

I creep my fingers toward her button.

"Gently," she murmurs. "One finger."

I retract the middle finger, using just my index as I slowly dip inside her button.

She whimpers. I can't tell if it's relief because I'm doing it right, or a complaint because I'm doing it wrong. I look up at her face. There's a small smile. And I know I'm doing it right.

"Start over." she murmurs sleepily

I scowl at her. "What did I do wrong this time?"

"Nothing Mami. It's just time to start over." she yawns. " Just do it over and over again until I fall asleep. 'kay?"

My arm can't handle that.

She turns over onto her side, awkwardly.

"Scooch up behind me, Josie." She murmurs sleepily.

Jealousy, white hot jealousy consumes me because of her slip up. Because she called me Josie. And I know, I know she and Josie aren't doing anything; but I'm reminded that she's more intimate with her.

"Jade?" Vega calls. There's a sort of whine to her voice. A pleading.

She needs me.

"I'm coming, baby." I whisper before laying down behind her. I press my face into her the back of her neck and dangle my arm over her waist. The relief in my aching arm is immediate. Three fingers gently trail down from under her breast, past her button and come back up the opposite way.

"Jade?"

"What?"

"This feels weird."

I scowl at her. If she's gonna compare me to fucking Josie-

"Take your clothes off."

….what? ….Did she just...no...she couldn't have...but I could've sworn she...or am I just hearing what I want to hear.

"Jade?" She whines. "Take your clothes off."

Okay, so I did hear what I thought I heard.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, baby." I tell her.

She turns her head, eyes finding mine. "Please. My brain's all wonky right now. And I'm so used to you sleeping naked and you smell the same, but you have clothes on and it feels really weird. I won't look, Mami. I promise."

How can I say no to that?

"Okay." I agree.

She smiles at me before promptly turning over to give me privacy.

Once I'm undressed, I lay down right behind her. She scoots back, pressing her ass into me and wiggling around until she's comfortable. And I'm suddenly reminded that she's not wearing any underwear.

Fuck, just fuck. She's really trying to kill me.

I bite my lip and try to think of things I hate. Not that it works. I'm still thoroughly turned on as I reach across her waist and start with her belly button again.

"Thank you." She whimpers.

I kiss the back of her neck gently. "Sleep tight, baby."

{~~~~O~~~~}

Author's Note: I know this was supposed to change to an M-rating, but the scene I wrote for it in 2016, no longer fits in. I'm sure you don't agree. I'm sure you believe I could've found some way to put in Jori smut if I really put my mind to it, but I couldn't. Sorry.

Don't be mad. Please.

Also, this story is now on Wattpad. Same username. I really like the site because we're allowed to comment as we read instead of trying to remember everything we just read and making a comment at the end. I always have just as much fun reading the comments left by other readers as I do reading the actual stories. It's like reading with other people!