Title: Who Knew
Chapter Eight: Just A Kiss
Summary: When Tori Vega stopped talking to her long time best friend Jade West she never expected the heart break she felt, and now that she's found her again she wont let her go.
Rated: T for now, but possibly M later on. I'm not sure.
Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious, unfortunately.
"Vega." Somebody was shaking my shoulders, hands roughly gripping my shoulders and clawing them in an attempt to wake me it worked but I wasn't moving, "Vega, don't make me slap you."
"What do you want Jade?" I groaned, curling up tighter to get away from her. She pulled me back toward her, "What?" I dragged my eyelids open; she was hovering above me, her hair around us like a curtain.
"Your phone keeps going off every five minutes, I swear if you don't pull it out of your bra and answer it I will fucking strangle you." She hissed and then flopped back down next to me. I rolled back onto my side just as my phone started going off again, "Vega!"
"If it's bothering you so much you get it. I'm comfortable." I mumbled, not expecting her to roll over on top of me, stick her hand down my top and pulled the phone from my bra, I got a glimpse of 'two am' on my phone and Jade hit accept.
"Why are you calling at two in the morning?" Jade hissed, "Excuse me?" she pulled the phone away from her ear, looked at the screen, and then pressed it back to her ear, "I'm her girlfriend, so if you'd kindly fuck off I'd greatly appreciate it."
She hit end on the phone and tossed it across the room, then she dropped back down, her arm dropped over my side and quickly fell back to sleep. Now I was wide awake, she was completely pressed against me, her chest brushing against my back every time she inhaled, her breath skittering across my neck as she exhaled.
Normally it was an odd feeling for me, but for some reason knowing it was Jade it just made me hyper aware of everything Jade was doing, and she was asleep. Her arm moved forward, coming to rest across my crossed arms and pull me closer to her, her legs twisted through mine and her head moved to rest on mine, her breath gone from the back of my neck.
A short while after that I finally managed to fall back to sleep, waking up at five when Jade's head clunked into mine, my eyelids snapped open and met hers. We were lying close together, my arms were around her back and hers went around my waist.
"We should probably get up." Jade muttered, "You've got a long day of practice ahead of you after school. Can I borrow some clothes?"
"Sure, are you going to shower?" Jade nodded, and I rolled out of my bed, "Me first. Go ahead and dig through my stuff." I hopped across the floor and into the bathroom. Trina was already gone for the morning. She was never home in the morning for her actual birthday, and she wouldn't come back home until around six.
I closed and locked the door, turning on the shower to let it warm up while I stripped, brushed out my hair, and washed my face. Then I hopped into the shower, speedily shampooed, conditioned and washed my body, tossing a towel around my body once I got out.
Jade was waiting and went straight into the bathroom as soon as I opened the door; she jarred my shoulder as she walked past nearly knocking me down. With a sigh I walked back into my room where I toweled my body off, pulled on some under clothes and browsed through my closet, settling on a pair of jeans and a dark purple shirt for the day while I toweled my hair
The shower was still running when I stepped out of the closet and sat down at my desk to do my makeup. It was strange, having Jade so casually dropped back into my life. Nothing seemed different, but everything was.
We weren't friends; I knew that and she made it painfully clear every time one of us got to close to the other. But yet she so carelessly walked into my house, crawled into my bed, answered my phone and had no shock or repulsion to waking up wrapped in my arms.
Jade's voice pulled my mind to the present, "Vega, you don't happen to have an extra tooth brush?" I could see her in the mirror, standing in my doorway in a towel with her dripping wet hair clinging to her shoulders. The makeup she'd slept in was gone and her eyes looked as if she'd been crying. Strange.
"Left drawer closest to the sink." I replied, pausing in the act of putting on my eyeliner. She walked back out of the room without another word. I finished my eyeliner and swept some purple shadow onto the lids.
Once I was done I went back to my closet and found a pair of heeled black boots to stuff my feet in. As I was stepping out of my bedroom Jade was pulling open the bathroom door. I walked into the bathroom as she went into my room, trading places without even brushing arms.
I brushed my still damp hair; finger twisted it into curls and bushed my teeth. Jade and I both stepped into the hallway at the same time, "ready?" she asked, I nodded and then we went down the stairs, our foot steps matched in rhythm.
My dad was returning to the house as we got to the door, "hey sweetheart, have a good day at school." He gave me a half hug, kissed the top of m head and copied the action with Jade, "Nice to see you again, Jade." and then disappeared in the direction of my parents bedroom.
"You're dad must've been really tired. I don't think he's ever hugged me, let alone kissed my head." She laughed lightly slightly nervous but a little, dare I say it, happy. I watched the way her eyes lit up as we walked out the door, but once the coffee shop was in view the light mood between us vanished and 'School-Jade' was back.
I let out a long sigh, running inside to get our coffee before Jade drove us the rest of the way to school, trashy rap music filling the silence between us so we wouldn't dare sing along to the music together. We went our separate ways once we reached the school, she went to Beck's truck and I went to find Andre inside.
Andre was sitting below his locker next to Beck's with Cat and Robbie, who unfortunately had Rex propped up on the wall beside Cat, "Hey Tor!" Cat called cheerfully. I nodded in acknowledgement and dropped down next to Andre on the ground.
"Jade suggested you guys come over and watch me run through the dance a few times, in case you see something she missed. I personally think she wants to see how long it takes my legs to stop working." I grumbled, Andre laughed softly and Cat giggled into her hand, but Robbie stared at me with a dumb look on his face.
"What dance?" Rex asked, I narrowed my eyes at the puppet.
"The dance she's doing with the song Andre helped her write for Trina, and no you're not invited." Jade intoned from behind him as she stepped up to our small group with Beck, who had his arm casually slung over her shoulder, her arms were in front of her where both of her hands grasped her coffee.
Now that she was standing in front of her I examined what she took from me. A short black skirt I had shoved in the back of my closet that fell just barely below her fingertips, some ripped up leggings that she must've already had 'cause I knew they weren't mine, and a long sleeved dark purple almost black shirt.
"Am I invited?" Beck asked, looking down at his girlfriend a crooked grin on his face. She narrowed her eyes up at him, "I never get to see any of your chorography." He complained, a teasing tone to his voice.
"You're invited Beck." I told him before Jade could protest, "I need all the opinions I can get."
"So…"
"No, Rex, you're still not invited." I snapped, he demanded that Robbie get him away from us, so the boy awkwardly got to his feet and scrambled away. I leaned against my locker heavily and let out a long sigh. I really needed to stop sighing so much.
About ten minutes later the bell rang and we all dispersed to our separate classes. By the time Sikowitz's class rolled around I was dead on my feet and Sikowitz was absent today, so we had the principal watching over us.
I took this as an opportunity to curl up in my chair and fall asleep. The bell woke me up an hour later and I nearly fell out of the chair, much to everyone's amusement, before I trudged out the door behind everyone else, but instead of going to the grub truck, I went to our habitual table and fell back asleep.
Sadly about five minutes later someone bumped my hip and shoved a burrito in front of me with a coffee. I ate quickly and then chugged the coffee gratefully, turning to Jade with a thankful smile.
"So you think you'll be able to keep yourself awake through Trina's performance." Andre asked me.
"With about six more coffees." I half-joked, "I'll be fine. I'll catch up on my sleep this weekend."
Of course, later that afternoon I wasn't so sure I'd still be fine. I was completely exhausted from the dance and Jade waking me up for an hour at two this morning. But I went upstairs, showered and changed into my outfit anyways, coming downstairs and doing a dry run one more time before Trina got home.
"I'll stick around to record this." Jade told me before turning to her boyfriend, "Beck you going to stay?"
"Yeah, I'm going to go get some coffee for us though. Andre, you wanna come with me?" he nods and the pair leave Jade and I alone in my house once again. I hear cars roll up outside, but I know none of Trina's friends will shuffle in until later, they'll stay outside. Not really sure why, but that's what always happens.
"I've got to go fix my makeup." I muttered, heading for the stairs with my feet dragging behind me, "you can stay down here or come up with me, I don't care." I told her and then climbed slowly step by step. Jade trudges behind me silently.
I brush on the makeup quickly wipe of the smudges, fix the rest and then slump down on my bed, staring up at the starry ceiling above me. Jade was sitting at the end of my bed, picking her nails absently.
And then I heard the familiar rumble of Beck's car pulling up, the doors slamming and Andre called up the stairs that Trina was home. When we got downstairs her friends had walked in, and I disappeared half up the stairs out of her sight.
I heard her come in with my parents, talking all surprised. She didn't say anything about Jade, Beck or Andre, so either she hadn't noticed or she didn't care. I knew someone pushed her into a chair and the music started.
With one calming breath I took the first step and started my performance. Trina looked gleeful and happy the whole time, and up until I finished I thought I'd gotten her a great birthday present, and then she asked, "So where's my present?" and anger built inside me and burst out.
That started a fight and landed Andre and my parents outside because Jade and Beck had retreated to my room to upload the video to theSlap. I assumed. After a screaming match I slammed the flash drive with the song into her chest and stormed upstairs, barely refraining from slapping her, or worse, punching her. Rage bubbled inside of me as I stormed up the stairs.
"Fuck her; she's such a snotty little bitch!" I screamed, ripping off my shoes and throwing them across the room. Beck gasped in shock while Jade just leaned back in my chair with a smirk on her face, "That was a great song! And any other person would have been pleased with it, if not ecstatic! What the hell did I need to do to get her a good birthday present? Sell my kidney and buy her the damn moon?"
"Tori come on…that song was good." Beck tried to assure me in his usual calm manner, but my anger wasn't going to be quelled that easily, I felt like it was just exploding like a volcano and was still oozing like magma.
"Vega, you're going to break something." Jade said in a playfully sarcastic tone. I turned my glare on her and threw my other shoe right past her head. She hardly even flinched, knowing, or maybe trusting, that I wouldn't actually hit her. When the shoe smashed into a ceramic shoe Trina had gotten me for my last birthday the anger seemed to drain out of me and I dropped down on my bed with my face buried in my hands.
"Alright, I can see you're going to cry, and I'm not dealing with that." I heard a noise that sounded like Jade standing up and someone's boots shuffled across the carpet, "come on babe."
"Jade, can't you see she's upset?" Beck said, I heard Jade hiss with an intake of breath and when I pulled my face away from my hands she was narrowing her eyes at Beck who was glaring right back.
"I'm fine. I just need some sleep, and can one of you ask my mom to keep Trina away from me." I flopped onto my back and pulled my legs up on my bed, closing my eyes. I hardly heard the door click before I was out like a burnt out bulb.
I slept until 3pm on Saturday, when my body finally registered I had to pee, really bad. I stumbled out of bed and across the hall into the bathroom; once I took care of my bladder I stumbled back into my bedroom and landed in front of my laptop, scrolling through the comments on my video.
Everyone but Trina seemed to love my performance. Anger coursed through my veins again and I slammed the top of my laptop closed and changed out of my dress and into a pair of sweat pants and a white t-shirt before crawling back into my bed, and passing out once more.
Later that week Trina sold the damn song, pretended it was her singing, then had me singing and then Beyonce wanted it, it was a mess and frustrated me to no end. I ignored Trina for the next week and stayed locked in my room whenever I was at home with her.
It was a Tuesday two weeks after the Trina fiasco when I walked into school and unwittingly right into the path of a Jade and Beck fight. I was just minding my own damn business, steering clear of the fighting pair when they pounced and pulled me into their fight like a helpless gazelle.
"Hey! Tori come here!" Beck called, I inwardly groaned but shuffled over to them, "If you were my girlfriend..." he started to ask before Jade cut him off.
"Ugh! Great way to start the question." She yelled sarcastically.
Beck shook his head and ignored her little interruption, calming asking me his question, "Would you be all freaked out that I'm just friends with Alyssa Vaughn?"
"Who cares what she thinks?" Jade continued to rage on. I sighed, ignoring the soft pang in my chest. Jade had been moody ever since she saw the picture the paparazzi snapped of Beck and Alyssa Vaughn leaving their yoga class. He told me she even threw a rock at him. I didn't want to get in the middle of this, but I was already here.
"Honestly, I wouldn't love it." I told him, and that was true. I'd be pissed if I was dating someone and they were just friends with a celebrity that hot. Whether or not I believed they would cheat, I wouldn't trust the person they were 'just friends' with.
Jade suddenly walked to my side, wrapping her arm around my shoulder and grabbing the arm next to her with her hand, "I care what she thinks." She said unaware that her touching me was sending shockwaves through my body and making me highly uncomfortable.
She let me go quickly and I started to step away, "How can you say that? You don't eve-."
I cut Beck off, stepping away from the pair, "You know, I really don't want to be in the middle of this." I spun and started walking away, but Jade grabbed me and hauled me back over, protesting that I had to stay and help her.
"You don't think a girlfriend should be able to trust her boyfriend?" Beck asked.
"No, I do." I started to say.
"Get out of here Tori." Jade snapped.
"I'd love to!" and once more I went to walk away from this fight. Beck called for me to stay and I froze. I couldn't just walk away, and he knew that. Asshole. I walked back beside Jade as she finally opened her mouth.
"You know what?" She snapped, Beck raised an eyebrow, "we're, done." She growled.
"Jade!" I said at the same time Beck asked, "so you're breaking up with me?"
"Yeah." She nodded and started to watch away. I tried to ignoring the hope filled bubble blooming in my chest, my heart hammering against it just because Jade was now single. But Beck looked kind of upset.
"You're being ridiculous!" Beck called after her, Jade spun around.
"What'd you care? I'm not your girlfriend!" and then she was gone from our sight. I sighed, turning to look at Beck who was still semi-angry; he turned to me and shook his head sadly.
"I'm sorry Beck…" I whispered.
"I need someone to talk to, can you come to my place after school, please?" he asked, I sucked in a breath. I didn't want to get in the middle of this, but I sort of already was. I gave him a stiff nod, "thanks, Tori." He gave me a half hug and kissed the top of my head before walking to his class.
"Well that was strange." I muttered to nobody in particular as I walked off to my first period. The teacher couldn't hold my attention. My mind wandered off, why would Beck want to talk to me? Wasn't Andre his best friend? Cat?
I mean the pair of them were all whisper-y and let Jade snuggle with Tori instead of waking her up-y. Was something going on with the two of them? Maybe there was, I mean who else is okay with their girl friend snuggling with someone else? Had Cat told Beck about those pictures?
Now I was really worried, and all I could think about was Beck wondering if Jade was cheating on him with me. The thought plagued my mind all day and by the time lunch rolled around I just wanted to avoid him, so when I saw Jade scaring underclassmen away I towed Andre to her table and plopped myself down.
Jade glared at me, but I ignored her, opting for eating my lunch as fast as possible to go hide in the library and think this over. Sadly my sister ruined my plan, just as I was going to escape she came rushing to our table and my bad mood that seemed ever present when she was around crashed down on me.
"Where is Robbie? I'm going to kill him!" she screamed, Jade said something to her along the lines of go screw yourself and I just slammed my head down on the table. Andre asked if I was okay and Jade told me I was going to crack my skull open if I did it again, which she encouraged.
By the end of school I nearly forgot Beck asked me to come over, in fact I made it all the way home before I remembered. As I was stepping in the door, my phone rang. A text message from Beck asking where I was.
I texted back that I had to come check on my sick mom before I came over. My mom wasn't sick, just had the day off. I asked to borrow her car, hopped in and drove myself over to Beck's place.
There was an RV sitting in the driveway, but I nearly by passed until a bright red head popped out the door, "in here Tor!" Cat called. Oh god, Cat was here too? What was going on?
With a suppressed groan I forced myself out of the car and walked up to the door of the RV that Cat left hanging open. I stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind me. Cat was sitting on a couch and Beck was stretched out on his bed, the pair was watching All That.
"Hey Tori!" Beck called, sitting up and patting a space on his bed, "Thanks for stopping by."
"You're awfully, cheerful for someone that just got dumped." I observed, sitting down awkwardly beside him, "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Jade." Beck replied instantly, "ever since you came to Hollywood Arts, Jade's been depressed unhappy, and all of our time together was her complaining about you. I was sick of it. The Alyssa Vaughn thing was staged; they were Cat's messages. I needed her to break up with me so she could have a chance to make herself happy, cause she sure as hell wasn't happy with me as her cover boyfriend."
Cover boyfriend? My eyebrows drew together in confusion, "Her what?" she'd told me that nobody knew, but Beck was her cover. Her damn cover, and she lied to me. All the lingering guilt I'd felt after those times she'd kissed me.
"Cover, you're shocked?" Beck almost laughed.
"Not shocked, just pissed because she lied to me." I told him. I laid back on his bed, "so complaining about me, huh?"
"Yep, to everyone, and I love Jade and all but she's getting on my nerves with it too." Cat voiced, my head snapped toward hers. She sounded different; the bubbling happy voice she always talked in was gone, replaced with a calmer, slightly more adult sounding Cat.
"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" I asked, "I mean, she kind of seems like she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you." Beck and Cat said in unison, "she just doesn't know what to do about her feelings." Cat concluded, "She told Beck that she spent the night when you first showed up talking to herself in an absent stupor."
"It was pretty strange. But I've noticed she's gone to you a lot, she willingly spent the night at your place the other night, crawled into bed with you that night when Cat and I were over. Cat said Jade told her to sleep in the pullout. And Jade has a pull out in her room too, did you use it?"
"No." I whispered. I laid at the foot of Beck's bed for about twenty minutes listening to the TV, they were on Pitbulls and Parolees now, and talking about some dog named Roxy, but my mind was still whirling with thoughts of Jade, "I'm going to strangle her." I decided.
When I pushed myself into a sitting position I found Beck and Cat were playing a find the difference game and I flipped onto my stomach as the three of us played for the next few hours.
Occasionally Cat or Beck would say some offhand comment about Jade, wondering where she was or what she was doing, but I had a feeling I knew. She would be mad at herself for dumping her cover and formulating a plan to get back with Beck or find a new one.
But one last question plagued my mind, why did she dump him? Why did she fight with him.
"Did someone else know about the texting? Was she fighting with you to keep up the appearance for someone?"
"I'm the one that told her about the messages Beck was getting." Cat supplied, I sighed with a short nod and rolled off of Beck's bed, "where you going Tori?"
"I need to go for a drive, clear my mind. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school." I picked up my bag, slid it onto my shoulder and started walking out the door. I paused on the last step and peeked my head back in, "thank you guys, for giving me the chance."
"Sure thing." Beck flashed me a smile while Cat was grinning like the Cheshire cat. It occurred to me then that the Cat at school that everyone knew may not be an act, but it was not all there was to the girl that was Cat Valentine.
I pushed the door shut behind me and sprinted to my car, slipping in and buckling as fast as I could. I started the car, slipped a CD into the player and backed out of the driveway. I drove until the CD ran out and flipped the stereo back on.
Sober by Pink was playing; I spun the volume up and pressed down harder on the gas pedal. I wasn't driving with a particular place in mind, just speeding around with the top down my hair blowing everywhere as songs blasted.
My mind was half on the road half on the thoughts bumping around inside. Most of them were about Jade and I was trying to shove them away when I'm a Bitch came on the radio after the Pink song ended. That was a song Jade and I used to sing all the time, and it coming on the radio had to be sign.
Suddenly I was driving on autopilot, and before the song ended I was in Jade's driveway, sprinting up to the front door. I knocked twice and her dad opened the door, "Is Jade here?" I asked hopefully.
"Not that I know of, you can go check her room." He stepped back and let me in; I bolted past him, up the stairs, down the hall and down the new set of stairs. Jade was not in here, so I dejectedly went back up the steps, slowly walked down the hallway and down the main staircase.
"If you find her, give me a call." He rattled off his number and I saved it in my phone, promising to call him, before I walked back down to my car. I ran through places she could be in my mind, but found no real ideas, so I just backed out and started to drive home.
When I pulled into my spot in the driveway I almost missed the white truck parked down by my mailbox. A hard look told me Jade was not inside the truck, so I jumped out, ran to the door and stepped inside.
The living room was empty, which meant there was one place Jade could be. I took the steps two at a time and slammed into my room. Jade was lying in my bed, makeup smudged from crying streaking down her face, but she was asleep.
I let out a relived sigh and quickly called her father to let him know where she was before I shut my bedroom and silently pulled off my boots, setting them by the door with my bag.
My eyes on Jade the whole time, I stripped the jeans I was wearing off, switching them for a pair of pajama's and my shirt for a clean tank top before I walked over to my bed, set my phone on the nightstand and crawled in next to Jade.
She shifted slightly when I lay down a smile pulling onto her lips, but didn't wake up. I moved closer to her, wrapping my arms around her until she was pressed against me. She shifted again, closer to me, tucking her head under my chin. I kissed the soft brown hair on her head and closed my eyes.
It was then that I heard the radio on the other side of my bed playing one song that seemed uncannily perfect, I softly sang along, "lying here with you so close to me, It's hard to fight these feelings when it feels so hard to breathe, caught up in this moment, caught up in your smile."
"I've never opened up to anyone, so hard to hold back when I'm holding you in my arms, we don't need to rush this, let's just take it slow." I continued, one hand reaching up to brush the hair away from her face. I pressed a kiss to her forehead and then closed my eyes, letting the soft music lull me to sleep.
The next chapter will take awhile, I already wrote it, but I don't like how it turned out. I don't think it took on the emotion I wanted to. It read like words slapped on a page. I hope you liked the chapter though. Also, the Jade POV is written and I might post it in a stand alone story apart from this, because I wrote it when I writers block. Thanks for reading!