BANG, BANG, BANG!
"What the hell is that noise?" Jade yelled from under her pillows.
BANG, BANG, BANG!
"Are you kidding me?" Jade roughly pulls off her blankets and throws her pillows on the floor as she pushes off her bed and goes to her phone. She turns it on and grunts loudly when she sees the time, "It's 6 in the fucking morning!"
She makes her way out of her room and down the stairs grumbling to herself about how rude and inconsiderate people are. How dare they wake her from her precious sleep and then bang on her door like they're trying to escape zombies.
She glares at the door from down the hallway and the entire way until she's in front of it and then she yanks it open and yells, "WHAT!"
Tori stumbles back from the force of Jade's voice and weakly smiles at her when she sees that Jade is actually really mad. "J-Jade, hi."
"Are you kidding me, Vega? It's 6 in the morning, what the hell do you want?" Jade takes a deep breath to calm down but it doesn't really work so she closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose.
"I, uh – Good morning?" Tori scratches the back of her head and looks down, trying her best to avoid Jade's angry glare. She scuffs her shoe on the step in front of her and her hands fidget while she waits for a retort from Jade but when she gets nothing, she looks up and sees that she's not there and the door is left wide open.
She carefully steps inside the house and softly closes the door behind her. Her mouth falls open when she takes in everything around her. The walls are a soft grey color and there are famous paintings hanging on the walls between beautifully styled frames and a giant mirror. She walks further in the house and she finds herself in a big room – a den with a fireplace – and she sees Jade sitting in a comfortable looking chair. Her eyes are closed and her chest is rising and falling slowly, steadily and there's a small smile on her face. She's not sure if she should wake her because of what she just witnessed so instead she sits on the chair across from Jade and closes her eyes.
BANG!
Tori shoots up from the chair with her eyes wide open and her hand clutching at her shirt. She looks around her with a frown and her heart beating fast because she doesn't remember where she's at.
"Hello?" She slowly walks to where a noise is coming from and she instantly calms down when she sees Jade going through some drawers, obviously looking for something.
"Jade?" Jade stops what she's doing and turns around to face Tori, a small smirk forms when she notices how tousled Tori's hair looks.
"You're awake." Jade states as she turns back to the drawers and continues searching for whatever it is she's looking for.
"Yeah, what are you looking for?" Tori walks up next to Jade and looks down into the drawers she's searching in.
Jade ignores her and closes the drawers, she walks across the room and searches through the cabinets pushing around the boxes of cereal and other boxed foods. She's not even sure what she's looking for – she's really just pretending to look for something so she doesn't have to talk to Tori – but she leaves the room when she feels Tori walk up behind her.
"Jade, are you just going to ignore me?" She heads into another room and Tori reluctantly follows her, not sure if she should stay or just go to school.
Jade's in a study now, most likely her father's, and she's sitting at his desk, playing – she's fidgeting – with a pen. She can feel Tori's on her and it's making her heart pound and her stomach flip-flop. The air in the room is extremely tense that it's difficult for her to breathe. She hates feeling like this, so helpless and anxious, that it's making her feel insane.
Tori sighs and looks up at Jade, she smiles a sad, small smile at how nervous Jade looks and she shakes her head to rid the thoughts of how she just wants to go up to her and hug her. She looks at the clock on the wall and notices that they have 10 minutes until class starts and that they were obviously going to be late. She checks her phone when it vibrates and laughs at how many text messages she has from Andre, Cat, and Beck. She puts her phone away without checking them because she already knows what they all say.
She decides the leave but before she does, she clears her throat and smiles at Jade. "Well, I'm going to go now. School awaits," she laughs softly to ease the tension but it just makes it more awkward. "Ok, well, I guess I'll see you... later?" She didn't mean for it to come out as a question but it does and she hates how it makes her sound hopeful.
Jade nods and holds her breath until she hears the front door close loudly behind Tori. She groans loudly and drops her head on the desk and grunts as pain shoots through her. She wanted to talk to Tori, she wanted to figure everything out because she can't handle how crazy these feelings are making her, but mostly, she just wanted to kiss Tori. She wanted to feel those warm wet lips on her own again and the feel of Tori against her. But she didn't trust herself, she didn't trust her voice or her heart or even her mind.
She leaves her dad's study and heads back to her room to go back to sleep, she can't handle school or Tori's hopeful eyes watching her all day.
"Hey Tori, where were you all morning? I sent you like 5 texts." Andre is next to her at her locker and she laughs nervously.
"I, uh, I just got caught up with some stuff at home, sorry." She smiles and points her toward the door, "Lunch?"
They walk outside, grab their lunch and head to their usual lunch table where Cat and Robbie were already seated.
"Heeeeyyy Toriiiii!" Cat greets her when she takes a seat next to her.
"Hey Cat."
"Where were you this morning? We all sent you, like, hundreds of texts!"
Tori laughs at Cat's eccentric ways and takes drink of her water before she replies, "I was busy at ho-"
"Hey, where's Jade?" Cat interrupts.
Tori tenses and then coughs when she sees that everybody is staring at her, expectantly. "I- I don't know. I- uhm, I saw her- I mean, I... don't know." She ducks her head to hide her blushing face.
Cat smirks at Andre and he smirks back at her and they laugh when they notice Robbie's confused expression. Andre shrugs his shoulders at Robbie's "what's-going-on" look and clears his throat, getting Tori's attention.
"That's weird. Beck said that Jade hates being home alone, especially during the day."
"Oh," was all Tori could say and Andre and Cat smirk at her.
"What's going on?" Robbie asks after a few minutes of silence. Everybody looks at him like he's grown a second head and he just gets more confused. If he couldn't figure it out himself then he doesn't deserve to know.
"Okay..." He drawls out when no one answers him.
"I need to go to the bathroom, excuse me." Tori says as she gets up and waves to her friends.
She enters the bathroom and pulls out her phone to send a text to Jade but she hesitates.
"I should send her a text to see if she's alright... right?" She asks herself aloud.
"No, no. She probably wouldn't even answer."
"But I really want to talk to her." She's pacing back and forth across the bathroom as she has this external battle.
"But she doesn't want to talk to me or she would have already."
"But she looked really nervous when I was at her house this morning."
"She would have kicked me out if she didn't want me there, right?
"Right! She probably did want to talk but probably didn't know how to."
"I should have just came out with it. I should have just asked her what she felt."
"I totally should have!"
She freezes in her spot when she hears the sink down from her turn on. She slowly turns her head and blushes furiously when she sees Cat washing her hands and smirking.
"Hey... Cat." Tori pretends to wash her hands to distract herself and she's praying that Cat did not just hear her outward thinking.
"Hey Tori, were you practicing a script or something?" She can practically hear the smirk in her voice.
"Uh, you heard that? ...Like, all of that?" God, she's really hoping and praying that she didn't.
"I heard enough." Cat is standing next to her now and she places a hand on her shoulder, giving a light squeeze.
"Don't worry, Tori. She might hate me for saying this or I don't know, maybe she'll thank me, but she likes you too." Tori's eyes widen at Cat's confession and her whole body tingles, "She's just afraid."
Tori gulps loudly and her eyes shoot across the room, she's relieved that Jade feels the same but now she feels even more anxious. "Afraid? A- afraid of what?"
"Her feelings... and maybe, you." Cat wraps an arm around her waist and rests her head against Tori's shoulder. Tori relaxes into Cat's hold and sighs.
"Of me? Why me?" Tori wraps her arm across Cat's shoulders and rests her head against Cat's.
"I really don't know. Maybe because she's 'hated' you since the beginning and she's realizing that all that 'hate' was just her in denial and projecting that." Cat put air-quotes around the word hate and she shrugged as if what just came out of her mouth was nonsense.
"That... actually makes sense." Tori turns into Cat and hugs her tightly. She pulls back until she can see Cat and smiles sadly, "What do I do, Cat?"
Cat moves her hands to Tori's shoulders and rubs up and down, "Talk to her."
"I tried! Twice actually!" Tori groans. "I don't know how to, though. I just get really scared and nervous when I'm around her."
"Aww! That's so cute, Tori!" She brings Tori into another hug and softly laughs, "Don't worry, though. She'll come around, just give her some time."
"I guess you're right. Thanks Cat." She hugs Cat tighter and kisses the top of her head. "I think we missed our class."
"Yeah, I guess we did." They pull apart and walk out of the bathroom. Before they head in opposite directions, Cat grabs a hold of Tori's hand and stops her.
"Are you going to see her after school?"
Tori thinks about it for a minute then nods her head, "Yeah, I think so. Hopefully I'll be able to talk this time."
Cat smiles at her and tilts her head, "You can do it. Good luck."
She walks away leaving Tori standing there in her own thoughts and she's brought back to reality when the school bell rings.
RING, RING, RING!
Jade drags her eyes away from the ceiling she's been staring at for the past half hour and looks at her phone. She can't exactly who's calling and she doesn't really care.
RING, RING, RING!
She slowly reaches out for her phone and picks it up, her heart smiling but her mouth scowling. She hits the answer button and brings the phone up to her ear but she doesn't say anything.
"Hello? ...Jade?" The sound of Tori's face flows through her phone and brings noise into Jade's otherwise completely silent room. Jade exhales softly, hoping Tori heard so she knows that she's there.
"Jade, I heard you breathe. Are you going to say anything?"
She thinks about it for a minute. Should she talk? Does she even want to talk? She does but she doesn't trust herself, her voice. She's afraid it'll betray her by showing how scared she is and how much she likes Tori and wants to talk to her.
"Just talk, Vega." She decides on that and only that. She figures that once she hears Tori's side, she'll then know what to say.
"Uhm, ok... Jade, I guess I just want to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shown up to your house this morning uninvited." Tori goes quiet but then she laughs awkwardly, "And I'm sorry for waking you up. I should have known better."
Jade wants to laugh at how awkward Tori is but she suppresses it and coughs instead. The line is quiet again and it's making her heart beat fast and she wonders if Tori is feeling the same way. She's about to say something but Tori beats her to it.
"Jade. I, uhm, I reall-"
"Come over."
"Wait, what?"
Jade dropped her phone, her whole body tensed after she said that. Why did she say that? She wasn't even thinking, it just came out. She can hear Tori calling out her name and she quickly picks up her phone before the little confidence she has left vanishes.
"You heard me, Vega. I'll be here, come when you can." And with that, she ends the call and falls backwards onto her bed.
"Shit, I should have told her a time." Jade mumbles out into her room.
The day had gone by extremely slowly and all she did was walk around her house, lie in bed, and go on the internet but everything she did was also occupied with thoughts of Tori. Thoughts of Tori's stupid smile, stupid soft hair, stupid shining brown eyes, stupid laugh and voice that consumes her, just her stupid everything. No matter what she did, she just couldn't get rid of her – not like she wanted to anyway but she won't admit to that.
Jade gets up and walks to her bathroom to freshen up a bit and she groans when she sees that she's slightly smiling. She brushes her hair out and brushes her teeth and heads downstairs. She heads to the living area, plops down on the couch, and idly watches whatever is on TV.
A couple hours later the doorbell rings and her heart stops. She takes a few deep breaths as she heads to the front door, to meet Tori. Her hand is on the doorbell and her hand is slightly shaking and before she can talk herself out of it, she opens the door.
Tori is standing with her hands behind her back and her head slightly downcast but she looks up at Jade through her lashes and shyly smiles.
"Hi."
"Hi." Jade barely whispers. She clears her throat and steps to the side, "Uh, come in."
Tori walks passed her, her hand grazing against Jade's and the small contact sends a heated shock through the both of them. They both shiver and laugh awkwardly.
This is going to be a long night.
A/N: I've never been good at commitment, hahaha.
Sorry it took me so long! I mean, Thanksgiving came and gone, I've been in a depressed funk but I pushed that aside, and excuses... lol.
I think there might be a few chapters left after this, I'm really trying to end this but I'm so slow at progression! RIGHT?
I'm just going to write one-shots from now on, haha! I can't really deal with writing multi-chapter fics.
ANYWAY! Review? Tell me to throw this story away, tell me if you liked it or not, tell me to stop reading other fics and finish this one. :-)
Thanks! OH AND I KNOW I'M LATE BUT HOW ABOUT THAT NEW VICTORIOUS? A CHRISTMAS TORI! TALK ABOUT SOME GOOD JORI. ;-)