Note: It's been a while. I know, my apologies.
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Now, time for some friend interaction. (;
Enjoy!
The two women had been sitting around the television in the living room for nearly three hours on cool Sunday afternoon decorating masks for the upcoming event. For a Sunday the two women had surprisingly woken up early enough to have a nice breakfast and catch up with each other. They'd spent their first half of the morning talking and laughing like old times. They'd both been so busy with school and work it almost seemed like they were trying to avoid each other in the process. After breakfast the brunette reminded her red headed best friend about the project she was supposed to help her with. Finally agreeing after throwing a wining fit Cat and Tori found themselves comfortably painting the masks with a casual conversation.
"Okay, so spill," Cat sighed dipping the paint brush into the cup of water. She set down the fresh mask and turned to look at her best friend with a wide grin.
Tori raised a brow in question. "Spill what? The water?"
"You've had that huge and surprisingly scary smile all day. So what's up?" Cat pointed out. She crossed her arms and eyed her friend suspiciously. "If I didn't know better I'd say you got…"
Nearly knocking over the cup of water beside her, Tori struggled to keep the water from spilling over the fresh painted masks and smudging the one in her hand.
"Cat! Don't you dare finish that statement!" Tori warned raising the paintbrush in her hand.
The red head rolled her eyes in amusement. "I was just going to say that you probably got a boyfriend." She wiggled her brows grinning.
Tori couldn't help but blush at the accusation. She shook her head and dipped the brush back into the water. "Right," she rolled her eyes. "How can I possibly have a boyfriend, Cat? I barely have time for a social life," she defended.
Cat fell back laughing at that. "Tori, you have more of a social life than you know it. You're always out running, and God knows how many people you come into contact in doing so. You work like crazy at a station with people always marching in with hundreds of complains and problems. And not to mention that oh so appealing little organization group you're working with on the ball. You've bound to have met someone in between all that time, Victoria." She pointed at the brunette with a determined finger. "Come on, what's got you smiling like that? I haven't seen you smile like that since you claimed to be in love with Jamie Graham in high school. He was good looking, I give you that," Cat winked. "If it's not a boyfriend then maybe it's a girlfriend," she smirked.
Tori rolled her eyes and leaned back against one of the couches behind her. "Cat, get off my case. I'm just in a good mood today."
"I will find out if you're hiding a boyfriend or girlfriend missy, believe me." Cat warned quirking her brows.
Tori chuckled, "I don't doubt you, but since there is nothing to find out it'll just be your loss of time, Cat. Now let's get back to the masks please. I really need to have these all done today." Tori eyed the boxes of masks that stacked beside the coffee table. In the back of her mind the memory of the prior event with a certain raven haired woman lingered in her thoughts creating a small smile across her lips as she went back to working on the project at hand.
Lunch time rolled around before the two women even knew it. Cat left the room to order a couple of pizzas while Tori lingered behind arranging the mask in order of colors that were dry and ready to be designed on. She orderly lined up the masks and let out a satisfied sigh. She was halfway done. The first coat needed before being able to add the over coat of designs.
"When is the dance? Seems like you've been arranging it forever," Cat asked walking back into the room. They'd been working on the masks most of the day and had finally coating all the masks.
Tori laughed. "It's in a couple of weeks, Cat. It should be fun," she answered with a genuine smile. "The weekend following Turkey day," she added standing up and stretching her sore legs. Sitting in one position for so long made her legs feel stiff. They took a break from the project and relaxed as they waited for their pizza.
Cat tilted her head to the side examining the brunette. She still remembered the night she'd arrived to find her best friend in a frozen haze. When she met the brown eyes she'd been taken by surprise to find she'd been crying. Since that event Tori had grown distant. Cat understood they had school and work, but all the extra work with projects she had added to her schedule really concerned the red head. She'd been so excessively busy Cat had wondered what could have caused Tori to have such a big shift in her priorities.
Tori was in great shape. All that running in the early mornings was truly paying up for the brunette, but it concerned the red head deeply. She knew Tori dealt with her problems differently. She repressed them and kept them to herself. At the rate the brunette was going, Cat was growing frightened by it. Whatever the problem at hand was had to be very serious. Usually Tori would deal with her problem on her own for a couple of days without a single word to the red head about it. Eventually she would share the issue with Cat and deal with it with her best friend helping her solve any unanswered questions to the situation.
This time around it was different, Cat could feel it. She wasn't going to break anytime soon. She was doing everything in her will to keep what was bothering to herself and by the looks of it, it was eating at her slowly, but surely. As Cat watched the brunette who was preoccupied reading notes related to an upcoming essay she had due soon, Cat couldn't help but feel sad. She was over joyed to see her best friend up and smiling for a change, but for the last two months she'd been nothing but busy and though the smile was genuine, there was still a hint of sadness behind it. She could see the early wakings for her jogs were forced sacrifices.
There were hints of dark bags beneath the auburn eyes that were analyzing each word on the page before them. She was tired. She was tired and Cat was frightened by it because all she did was sleep on her free time and it was scaring her. Her best friend was holding something back that was slowly eating at her and there was nothing she could do. Cat opened her mouth to question the brunette, but before she could speak a knock at the door caught her attention.
"Pizza's here!" Cat announced jumping off the couch. She let out a sigh in disappointment and walked to the door. She'd have to ask her in time. She didn't know how much more Tori could take at this rate, but she hoped with time Tori would open up and let her help.
Tori closed her notebook and set it back into her book bag. From the door she could make out two voices. Ready to see what was taking the red head so long Tori stopped in her tracks as the red head walked in with the blue eyed woman who held two large boxes of pizza. The pale woman gave her a smile setting the boxes on the coffee table.
"Hey Vega" Jade smiled. "Sorry the pizza took so long. The guy at the place wouldn't get off the phone," she apologized rolling her eyes and letting out an annoyed sigh.
Tori smiled at the woman's complaining. "Hey Jade," she greeted. She turned to look at the red head who gave her an innocent smile at the silent question as she settled beside her girlfriend on the couch. Tori sighed. Clearly Cat had been the one to invite Jade without a warning. Tori took a seat on the floor with her legs crossed and opened the box taking a slice of pizza. Silently she thanked the woman for bringing them food, she was starving.
Finishing up her third slice of pizza Tori looked up at the pale woman. "Thanks for the pizza," she said wiping her mouth with a napkin before looking over at the batch of masks.
Jade nodded and returned her attention to the red head that sat beside her opening a bag of M&M's and pouring them into a bowl. "Having fun there," she smirked at Cat with amusement. The red head loved sweets. Jade enjoyed the way she lit up before she took a bite of the sweet treats.
Cat giggled in response throwing a few candy pieces into her mouth. She gave the pale woman a smirk before leaning over to press her lips against hers.
As the kiss naturally ended Jade sat back not wanting to make the brunette in the room uncomfortable. The raven haired woman was taken by a mesmerizing surprise when blue eyes fell of the quiet brunette.
Cat resumed her place by the coffee table and began to eat some of the M&Ms with a giggle.
Jade's attention was entirely on the woman who had her brows drawn together in a concentrate state. Her tongue stuck out to the side in one of the most adorable ways Jade had ever encountered as she eyed the object in her hand. The mask Tori was holding was beautifully being painted with the most gentle of ways with light strokes of the paintbrush running over the handiwork of designs around the border. The tip of the brush left light trails of black paint behind creating a stunning design over the once dull mask. The color contrasted greatly against the dark green paint.
As Tori finished passing one last stroke on the far end on the mask blue eyes watched in curiosity as the brunette turned the mask over in her hand and wrote something on the inside of it. Once done she carefully set the mask facing up on a spread piece of newspaper along with the rest of the hand painted masks. Without a word she took another blank mascaraed mask and began the process again.
"We should go ice skating!" Cat announced tearing blue eyes away from the oblivious brunette and drawing them to herself.
"Ice skating?" Jade raised a brow in thought. "Tonight?"
Cat nodded vigorously. "Yeah why not?"
Tori didn't seem to take the offer into much consideration before declining it. "I can't go, Cat. I really need to finish these up."
"Aww come on, Tori! You're always cooped up in this place. Either you work or go to school but you never go out just to have fun anymore." She looked over at the various masks laying over the spread out newspapers. "The masks are still fresh with paint, by the time we return they'll be dried and we can finish them," Cat contemplated with a smile.
"Come on, Vega don't be such a fun sponge," Jade added with a smirk. "You two have been here all day. A little sunshine won't hurt."
Tori sighed in defeat and set the mask down. "Fine, I guess I could use some fresh air."
"Yay!" Cat giggled in excitement. "I can get my skates!"
Tori laughed standing up and stretching. "Just give me five minutes." They all agreed and went onto change into warmer attire. An hour later the three women found themselves in the central park's ice skating arena. To their luck the crowd was small.
Tori hadn't ice skated for almost two years. Watching as the red head easily stepped into the arena and took off she felt a nervous tingling in her stomach as she struggled to keep her balance. Growing frustrated with the heavy footwear Tori let out an annoyed sighed and turned for the exit. Caught by off guard, Tori collided head first against the person skating in her direction. She lost her balance and landed hard on top of the person. She groaned in pain pushing herself off the person below her an apology ready on the tip of her tongue.
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she met the stunning blue eyes. "I-I uh sorry," Tori furiously blushed when she realized her hands were around the pale woman's waist. Brown eyes fell upon the red lips with a smile as she leaned back for space. Tori suddenly felt a hunger grow deep inside her. She wanted to reach out and close the distance between them to press her own lips against the seemingly inviting lips and claim them as hers. Recognizing the sudden urge, she jumped back in panic falling once more on her butt and hissing in pain when the blade of the other woman's skate cut across her forearm. Managing to stand Tori helped Jade up in time as Cat joined their side.
"Are you guys okay?" Cat asked eyes switching back and forth at both women.
Tori nodded blushing. She hoped Cat hadn't seen the way she looked at Jade just moments before. The way she'd looked at her girlfriend. Feeling uneasy and unable to meet the blue eyes, Tori turned to face the red head. "I…uh have to get back to the apartment," she said all to quickly to understand.
"But Tori," Cat began. Noticing the red stain rising from the light blue sweater brown eyes widened. "You're arm," she said reaching to grab it but stopping mid-air when the brunette pulled it against her own chest.
"It's fine," Tori assured her ignoring the stinging sensation coming from her left arm. She pressed her right hand over it applying pressure on it to prevent the bleeding from continuing. She felt a surge of panic run through her as brown eyes met questionable blue. Her chest felt tight and the her lunges felt like they were suddenly lacking oxygen. "I-I have to go," she muttered.
Tori turned away and dismissed any calls from the two women. She managed to kick off her skates quickly once off the ice and changed into her boots. Before Cat or Jade could reach her Tori was up and running. She gave them no opportunity to catch up as she took off in full speed. She didn't understand what had just happened. She'd been trying to keep her balance one moment and the next she was on top of Jade suddenly wanting to kiss her. She shook her thoughts away and continued running. She wasn't sure where she was headed, but anywhere away from the azure eyes was great. Anywhere from the eyes that often looked at her with concern and something that almost appeared to be adoration was just perfect. She needed to breathe, she needed get away from the raven haired woman that often consumed her thoughts and haunted her dreams. She ignored any and all thoughts and ran and ran and ran.
Note: What did ya think? Seems like there's something bothering Tori.
Hope you enjoyed! (;
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