Title: Who Knew
Chapter Ten: Pizza and Pina Coladas.
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.
"Seriously Cat?" Jade practically growled, "the dress has to be pink. We can go shopping for your personal outfits another time."
Cat ignored the hostile tone Jade's voice had and spun around in the green dress, it did look nice on her, but Jade was right, "We can shop for a dress for you another time, for now we need to find a dress for you to wear to the party."
"Fine." Cat fake sighed, a glimmer of joy shinning in those brown eyes, and shuffled back into the dressing room. Ever since that night at Beck's Cat has been more up front with her non-Cat attitude. It was a weird change to me, hearing Cat's bubbly voice replaced with a serious calm voice.
Jade was looking back at her phone while her foot was tapping beside our bags. We'd already finished our shopping; now we're just waiting for Cat to get her own dress. I switched the legs I had crossed and drummed my fingers on my knee.
A few minutes later Cat emerged redressed, the green gown draped over her arm. "I'll be back." She skipped away and left Jade and I alone. I leaned back against the couch with a soft sigh, my eyes falling closed as I listened to Jade's nails tapping on her screen.
And I must've snoozed off or spaced out because the next thing I knew Cat was pulling my arm and dragging me out of the store. Jade was following behind us with the bags in her hand, her eyes still glue to her phone, her thumb running over her keys at a rapid pace.
We walked out to her car, Jade dumped the bags in the trunk and got in the drivers seat beside me. Cat was in the backseat with her face also glued in her phone. Jade dumped her phone in the cup holder between us, put her seat belt on and started the car.
She hit play on her pearpod and the music filled the otherwise comfortable silence between the three of us. It really shocked me how comfortable the silence was between us. Jade had found out about Beck and Cat's plan and completely blown up at Cat.
But now Cat was happily chatting with Jade from the backseat and dragging me into a conversation about the Diddly Bops Jade was trying to work her way out of. I turned it out, humming and nodding at the appropriate moments until I threw myself out of the car at Andre's house.
The three of us made it up to the door relatively quickly, Andre opened the door and ushered us into the living room. We had a short list of the songs we were going to sing, after calling our boss.
Jade would be singing Someday my Prince Will Come, I'm Wishing, and Whistle While You Work. Cat would be singing Part of Your World, Kiss the Girl and Under the Sea with Robbie. Beck would be singing One Jump and A Whole New World with me. And all of us would take requests afterwards. We practiced everyday until Friday night. We all agreed to take separate cars and meet there so we could flee as fast as possible.
I was just fixing my top Saturday when my phone started ringing, I picked it up and turned on the speaker phone when I answered it, "what?"
"Well aren't you cheery today." Jade's sarcastically sweet voice filled my room, my heart skipped a beat and my steps faltered, "I need a ride, my car broke down. Can you come pick me up?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in 10 minutes." I replied without hesitation, silently smacking myself in the head. You're not helping yourself out by giving her a ride Tori. She grunted and hung up, allowing me to fling my phone across the room and curse at myself as I slipped on the pale blue slippers I'd gotten to go with my outfit.
With a backwards glance at the mirror to check that my wig was in place I sped out the door, mom waved goodbye quickly as I yanked the door closed behind me and crawled into the driver's seat. I fixed the seat, checked my mirrors and slid on my seat belt, locking the door as an after thought.
I didn't bother with the radio after I started the car; instead I put it in reverse, backed out of the driveway and drove toward Jade's house. Once I'm outside her house I text her to let her know I was here.
She was out the door in a matter of seconds and all I could do was stare. Her hair was black. Dark, onyx black. Short, stopping by her chin in perfect curls. Her eyes were lined with black that matched and covered in purple blue and yellow shadow. The dress she found was really just a blue corset with red strings and a flowing yellow skirt, but it looked amazing on her.
"Lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin white as snow." I whispered to myself a small smile pulling on my lips as I watched her rush toward the car, eyes cast down, black curls bobbing on her shoulders, obviously a wig, but a damn good wig at that.
She yanked open the door a slid in, she narrowed her eyes at me which made me realize I was staring. I cleared my throat and backed out of her driveway. The house the party was at was only a block and a half away from her house, but I didn't blame her for not wanting to walk there.
I checked my wig in the rearview mirror; it was big, long, and poofy and looked nearly identical to Jasmine's hair, thanks to Cat's amazing talents with hair and makeup. I was wearing a mini blue top with lace that covered my flat stomach and a pair of light blue pants that hung away from my legs.
The party wasn't starting for another hour, but most of us weren't planning on showing up fully dressed, like Cat who wouldn't be able to wear her dress in her mom's small car, so she would be getting ready at the house.
Andre was staying with his grandmother, and she would probably freak out if he left the house in his little outfit, and Beck just flat out refused to wear his in public, same with Robbie. He claimed it was because he didn't want to loose what was left of the little self esteem he had.
Obviously Jade and I were the only ones, apart from Cat, confident enough to make fools out of ourselves. As we got out of the car I could feel neighbor's eyes on us, but I didn't care. I had pulled in behind Andre's car, he was behind Beck who had brought Robbie, and of course Cat was brought by her mother.
The birthday girls name was Lara, and her mothers name was Alyssa. Alyssa was pretty similar to Jade's step mother look wise, but she had a much better personality. She greeted us with a warm smile and showed us into the room we were using as a dressing room, one of the at least 20 that had to be in this house.
Inside my friends were in various states of changing. Cat was in a pair of pink shorts and a pink tank top, sitting in front of a vanity while she did her makeup. Beck was wearing the flowing white pants that looked like they could be from either Aladdin outfit and was helping Robbie straighten his hair. Robbie was in a simple pair of black pants and a pirate shirt.
Andre was adjusting his green shirt and watching Cat getting ready, because the girl was creating quite a scene about her hair being messed up. She rushed over to Beck and Robbie, snatched the flat iron from them and fixed her hair in a matter of seconds.
Jade and I sat on the opposite side of the room, watching the chaos the others were going through. 30 minutes later Cat was in her pink dress with the fluffy arms, her hair done perfectly and a huge grin on her face. 10 minutes after that, Andre was done 15 minutes after he finished, Beck and Robbie were ready.
We had about five minutes to prepare to sing and then shuffle outside to prepare. The birthday girls friends were all outside already, and the birthday girl herself walked out moments after us, wearing a Cinderella dress. She squealed with delight when she saw us and we started singing Happy Birthday.
After we finished Jade started in on Someday My Prince Will Come, Cat followed her, Andre followed Cat, Beck and I followed Andre and then Cat and Robbie sang a song. Once we were done with what we practiced we started taking requests.
"Sing Ever, Ever, After!" the birthday girl called out, "Snow White and Jasmine!" I glanced at Jade who shrugged and we quickly argued about who would sing what before we stepped on stage.
I started "Storybook endings, fairy tales coming true. Deep down inside we want to believe they still do. In our secretest heart."
Jade followed, "it's our favorite part of the story, let's just admit we all want to make it too.."
We sung together, "Ever, ever after, If we just don't get it our own way. Ever, ever after. It may only be a wish away."
I turned and pointedly stared at Jade, "Start a new fashion, wear your heart on your sleeve. Sometimes you reach what's real just by making believe. Unafraid, unashamed, there is joy to be claimed in this world. You even might wind up being glad to be you." Her eyebrows rose slightly but she ignored me.
Together we sang, "Ever, ever after, though the world will tell you it's not smart. Ever, ever after, the world can be yours if you let your heart, believe in ever after." Jade looked away from me.
"No wonder your heart feels it's flying, your head feels its spinning, each happy ending's a brand new beginning. Let yourself be enchanted, you just might break through." Jade sang out, her voice shaking a bit. I seemed to be the only one that noticed.
I sang a little louder to cover her still shaking voice, "To ever, ever after, forever could even start today. Ever, ever after, maybe it's just one wish away, you're ever, ever after, I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss. Oh, for ever, ever after." I let out a long breath after we finished and hopped off the make shift stage, making a beeline for Andre.
There were more requests, and lots more songs, my feet were killing me and so was my throat. By the end of the day I was dead on my feet and as I threw myself in the car I just wanted to crawl into my bed, and a thunderstorm had made its way in about twenty minutes, causing my hasty retreat. I hardly noticed Jade followed me.
"You can stay at my place until the rain clears, Vega. Since it's closer." Jade offered, "and crawl into the back seat, I'll drive." Without arguing I crawled into the back seat and let Jade drive back to her house. Thunder rumbled through the air, my body shook violently, my eyes were squeezed shut, rain poured down on the window, tears rolled out of my eyes.
Jade pulled into her garage and shut the car off, barely turning to look at me as she got out of the car. I stumbled out, wiping my face before following her inside and taking the keys she tossed my way. My hands were shaking and my legs barely helped me stay up right, but at least I'd stopped crying. I hated how childish storms made me.
Nobody was at her house when we walked in; it was eerily silent except for the rain outside and the thunder rumbling every few minutes shaking the windows. I quickly sped after Jade and down the stairs into her room where the storm was no longer able to reach my ears.
"Here put these on." Jade tosses a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt at me. I catch the pants and drop the shirt. She points toward the bathroom, telling me that is where I should change. I pick up the shirt and rush into the bathroom.
In Jade's mirror I can see the bit of rain that managed to hit me had smeared my eye makeup and I had horrifying black streaks running down my face. I turned on her water and splashed it on my face, rubbing until it was clean. I pulled the wig and cap off of my head too, tossing them down on the counter with a distasteful look. That thing was heavy and itchy.
Then I changed into the sweat pants and tugged on the thick shirt Jade had handed me. Her scent, a mix of amber and French Vanilla, made my head spin. I pulled the shirt up and inhaled deeply.
Oh god, if there wasn't a damn thunderstorm out there I'd be going home. I sighed, just act normal Tori. I tell myself a few times before I finally pull the door open and step into Jade's room.
She's sitting at her desk, the small mirror in front of her while she unpins her hair. I sink down into the chair next to her bed, spinning it to face her. As she undoes the pins and removes the wig along with her bald cap her long brown locks tumble down her back, sleek, straight and shinning. Her hair frames her face, now free of makeup, she looks stunning.
I force myself to look over at something else, and they land on the creepy shelves on her wall. My eyes snap back to Jade's face, "you look nice with black hair." I tell her, my voice barely a whisper.
"Thanks. You look pretty damn bad with it." She tells me, pointedly staring at my hair. I hadn't taken my hair down from where it was pinned up to put the wig on. Slowly I reached up and unpinned my hair; layer after layer tumbled down my back until I was done.
Jade watched me the whole time, a weird look in her eyes that I didn't like. We couldn't get into this now. I couldn't just run out of her house this time. I had to drive my car home, and I can't drive in the rain.
"So you want to play a video game or something?" I asked nervously, clearing my throat and looking away from Jade. I see her nod slowly out of the corner of my eye, "I'll find one while you change…" I offer, staring pointedly at the wall.
"There over with the DVDs." She tells me before heading into her closet. I walk over to the book case and browse through her games until I find a Resident Evil game. I walk over and put it into her Wii and then I grabbed two remotes and plopped back down into that chair.
After the game was set and ready to go Jade finally emerged in a pair of purple sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt. She sat down on her bed, snatched a remote away and picked her character. I picked the other one and the game began.
I'd like to say I kicked her ass, but I can't. She beat me hands down, or heads off, with 10 headshots to my 9 and 46 enemies killed to my meager 20, in just the first round. My game improved a little but she still kept beating me.
Eventually we stopped playing, both of us hungry, and we wandered upstairs. I suppose at some point it had stopped raining, the sun was shinning dimly now as it sunk below the horizon.
"You want pizza? I want pizza." Jade decided, walking over to her house phone. Without waiting for my answer she called to order a large pepperoni pizza and a two leader of soda.
While we waited for the pizza Jade showed me around her large home. The rooms in her house were either empty or guest rooms except for her father's room, her brothers, hers, the living room and the large recording studio.
But she did have one really amazing room, there was another staircase down by her room that led up to the attic, which Jade had cleaned up and rebuilt into a meditation room. It was high up and looked out over her neighborhood, clear across town.
"I feel at peace up here." She tells me in a whisper, her eyes staring out the window with a faraway look in them, a small smile is planted on her face. She turns to look at me out of the corner of her eye and the smile fades away, "I think the pizza guy should be here soon."
We leave the attic in a rush, I nearly trip and fall on my way down the steps, but I manage to keep up with her with all of the twists and turns. When we reach the main staircase the door bell rings, "Told you." She whispered with a grin that looked way to forced and then she hopped down the stairs to pull open the door.
She snatches the pizza box and the soda, shoves a small tip into his hand and slams the door shut. "Come on, Vega." She says before sauntering into the kitchen, her hips swaying. I wonder if she knows how attractive she is.
"Stop thinking like that Tori." I tell myself, shaking my head as I walk down the stairs. Jade is sitting on top of her kitchen counter, her bare feet propped up on the stool, a slice of pizza in her hand and she's taking a chug out of the soda bottle.
I hop up onto the counter next to her, placing my feet on the cushion on the stool in front of me. I grab a slice of pizza and take a bite, my eyes finding the TV hanging across from us is on TeenNick.
We eat and watch reruns of Zoey 101. "Pass me the soda." I demand, snatching the bottle from her hand when she picks it up. I take two long gulps and set it on the counter between us and take another bite out of my pizza.
After Zoey 101 was done Jade changed the channel in time to catch the beginning of Wanted. After awhile we were done with our pizza, but still watching Wanted, now we've pulled the booth chairs from the table they never use under the TV out into the middle of the kitchen so we could lay on them and watch the movie without missing anything, since Jade's TV downstairs is only good for movies from her DVD player and her video games.
"I think that'd be just about the coolest thing ever." Jade says randomly when she's watching Wesley curve a bullet.
"Curving a bullet?" I ask.
"No, getting to shoot at a hot chick." Jade snaps back sarcastically with a roll of her eyes and a smile on her face. I roll my eyes, too, and smack her shoulder. She raises an eyebrow at me in a 'really' look and I nod with a grin. She smacks my shoulder back and gives me a rough shove so I tumble off the couch. I'm glad there's a commercial break, because I haven't seen this movie before, and now I was busy pulling Jade down with me.
I grab Jade's arm and give it a none too gentle yank, pulling down onto the ground, where she ends up falling on top of me. "Ow!" she complains when I hear her knee slam into the ground whilst her elbow digs into my ribcage, she jumps up quickly, rolling the leg of her sweatpants up past her knee to examine the damage.
Its red really red and the hit sounded painful, "I'll get you ice." I whisper, scrambling to my feet and running to her freezer to grab a bag of peas. I sit beside her on the booth again, pick her knee up and gently place the ice on her knee. She hisses in pain, "I'm sorry Jade." I murmur. She shrugs and her attention turns back to the TV, so does mine, but my hands are still on her leg, one on the ice the other down by her ankle.
After the movie Jade and I push the booths back to where they belong and we head back down to her room, so I can get my bag and leave. It's nearly one am and I'm really tired so I'd decided to go home.
Jade was already crawling into her bed while I picked up my bag. I wanted terribly to stay, but I knew I needed to go home. I walked downstairs and got into my car, opened the garage door and backed my car out. Then I walked into her garage again, hit the door button and bolted out the garage door, jumping so I didn't trip the sensor and have it go back up.
Then I get into my car, restart it, pull out of her driveway and head home. At a red light I check my phone, that hasn't been checked since I left this morning to get Jade, and see I have a missed call from my mom and a text that says 'where are you?'.
I glance at the cross indicator. It still shows the person walking. I quickly reply that I was at Jade's and my phone was charging and that I'm on my way home before I toss the phone into the cup holder and turn back to the light.
It's red, but the counter for the cross walk is on 9. I wait slowly, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, the light turns green, I wait a minute and then I go. And then I see the lights, the car coming straight at the passenger's side of my car.
I'm not even a block from Jade's house, the car hits the back of my trunk and my car spins on the wet asphalt, my foot jerks away from the gas, my knee slamming into the wheel and causing the car to spin more and I try to find the break as the car spins faster until there's a loud crunch, glass shatters around me, my head smacks the steering wheel hard enough to make my vision spotted.
My car is stopped, my head is throbbing and my heart is in my throat. I undo my seat belt with shaking hands, shut off my car, somehow, and grab my phone, shoving the door open and tumbling out onto the ground, crawling to the curb. My hand shakes as I dial 9-1-1.
I explain what happened, give them my location and sit next to my car on the curb. I'm shaking like crazy, half aware that something hot is rolling down my temple. The car that hit me is stopped in the intersection. I can see the driver watching me, horrified. I'd bet all of my babysitting money that my face doesn't look any better.
"Tori!" someone is screaming, I turn my head and Jade is running down the sidewalk toward me in nothing more then her tank top and a pair of shorts. She is next to me in a blink, kneeling down and holding my face in her hands, her eyes roving over my face.
"You called me Tori…" I whisper, I realize I must sound completely loony. Jade's mouth tips up into a strange smirk, because it's half a smirk and half a sad smile, "do I look that bad?" Jade shakes her head no, brushing my hair back from my temple, tucking it behind my ear.
"I heard the accident, I swear I thought something blew up, I went to check on my garage door. Did you call an ambulance? What happened?" she demands in one breath. I tell her what happened and then tell her I called an ambulance, she looks relived, "I'm going to go see if there okay, you stay awake, sing a song so I can hear you and know you're alright."
"Okay…" I whisper, "I was tired of my lady, we'd been together too long. Like a worn-out recording of a favorite song. So while she lay there sleepin', I read the paper in bed. And in the personal columns there was this letter I read."
Jade smirked at me before standing up and slowly making her way to the other car,
I keep singing, watching her stalk over to the car like a mother bear about to kill the thing that hurt her cubs, "'If you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain, If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain, If you like making love at midnight in the dunes on the cape, Then I'm the love that you've looked for write to me and escape'." She says something to the driver, and then looks at me, back to the driver. She's angry, and she stomps back over to me, nostrils flaring, hands in fists at her sides.
"I can hear the sirens." I blurt when she's stopped in front of me, she nods, sitting beside me and picking up my hand in hers. Her hand is soft, warm. She's watching me closely, her lips parted, "Am I going to be okay? My head hurts." I mumble.
"You'll be fine." Jade says, "I promise." She reaches up with her other hand and pushes my hair back away from my face again. When I see her hand the snow white skin is painted with my blood, I blink; blue and red flashes surround me. Chaos ensues.
Jade never lets go of my hand, she tells them what I told her because I'm so confused I don't think I can talk straight anymore. I recall hearing the words drunk and unhurt. She must've been talking about the other driver. And then I was put in the ambulance, Jade was still with me, holding my hand while the ambulance took off for the hospital.
"Don't you die on me, Vega." Jade laughs dryly once we're at the hospital, she's told she's got to wait somewhere else for me while they check me out. She leans over and kisses me softly, it makes my heart soar and my vision blur, "or I'll kill you." She whispers the threat in my ear, but she sounds near tears.
"I wont." I tell her, my eyelids fluttering between open and closed as I'm whisked away from her.