Title: Who Knew
Chapter Eleven: Pizza with Cat
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.
A/N: Pardon my sudden Disney spam in all of these, but I really like the idea I have and I pray it works out the way I want it too! Enjoy the chapter.
After a cat scan and a few more tests plus a big white bandage on my head they tell me I'm free to go home. My mom and dad are waiting for me in the waiting room, as well as a cop. Jade is nowhere in sight which makes me frown and disappointment wells in my chest.
"Your friend told me what you said happened, but I'm going to need you to tell me, again." The officer said with a nervous look at my father, like he doesn't want to bother him or me, but he has to.
"I was leaving my friend, Jade's, house and I stopped at a red light. The walking guy was still on the cross walk thing so I checked my phone 'cause it's a long light. I texted my mom back, and then put my phone in the cup holder and waited for the light to change. I wait for a minute before I start to go, and I'm nearly on the other side when I see the lights.
The car was coming fast and I wanted to speed up, but they'd already hit me. I hit the break as fast as I could, but the roads were wet and the car spun until it stopped and I just got out of the car as quick as I could. I guess Jade heard the crash when she was checking her garage door and she came running to check on me. I called an ambulance just before she got to where I was."
"Did you go check on the other driver?" he asks.
"No…I could hardly get out of my car, let alone walk to the other car. I was terrified." I told him honestly, "that's all that happened, can I go home now? I've got a long night ahead of me."
"Yes, that's all. I'll contact you later. Get better, kid." I nodded, my dad put his arm around my shoulder, and then we walked out to our car. It was about 4 am now, and I wasn't allowed to sleep until Monday night, because I had to stay up at least 24 hours, and then I had to go to school Monday.
When I crawled into the backseat I was shocked to find Jade curled up asleep back there, but her eyes popped open as soon as my door closed, "Tori!" she squeaked in a very un-new-Jade like manner, but a very my-old-best-friend manner, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me tight. I chuckled and wrapped my arm around her back, the disappointment fading from my chest replaced with happiness.
We stayed like this for five minutes, and I realized that my parents hadn't gotten into the car yet. We must've realized this around the same time because she pulled away and buckled in, turning her face forward.
Tori, knock this crap off. You're letting yourself need her again. Stop. My brain snaps, I look over at Jade, she's talking to my mom about something. She laughs and it sounds like soft music, it filters through my ears and I can't help but smile.
She turns to look at me; smiles back, her eyes shine with joy and a little bit of nervousness. My heart seems to be slowly gluing itself back together, like Jade is handing me small fragments and a bit of glue every time she smiles and I realize I do need her.
I reach across the backseat, smiling and talking with my dad about this woman he pulled over today, and I lace my fingers through Jade's and squeeze her hand. She gives my hand a nervous squeeze back and flashes me a brief smile.
I won't give up on her; I won't give up on us, because as pathetic as it sounds I need her. She doesn't just have the other half of my heart. She is the other half. And I need that half desperately.
When we reach the house I drop her hand and slip out of my car, Jade slides out of the other side and walks with me up to the front door, "We're going to go to bed, come get us if you can't get her to wake up or something's wrong, okay Jade?" my dad demands, Jade nods and waves goodnight to them, waiting by the stairs while I hug my parents and brush kisses across their cheeks before I join her at the staircase, watching them leave into their room before I take Jade's hand in mine again and we walk up the steps into my room.
She grabs my laptop the second we walk in while I grab a pair of shorts to wear. The sweat pants had gotten dirty while I sat on the curb waiting for the ambulance. I pulled off the sweatpants right in my room, not even hesitating and pulled on the shorts before crawling into my bed next to Jade.
Her attention is focused on the computer, she's clicking away and frowning and cursing under her breath. I'm too distracted to see what she's looking at, because I'm look at her. Her mouth is drawn into a straight flat line, her eyes narrowed into green slits at the screen.
She looks dangerous, scary, and breathtaking.
A smile lights up her face, triumphant and proud, sound leaks out of my speaks the Fox opening theme to movies, my eyes reach the screen and I'm sucked into the Simpson's Movie.
I slouch down on my bed to focus on the screen, Jade shuffles around on my bed and then she puts her arm around me and I lean against her while we watch the dumb, hilarious movie.
We finished the movie over an hour ago and now we're just sitting on my bed, staring up at my ceiling watching the lights glimmer over the stars that are swaying on the ceiling thanks to my fan.
Jade's fingers are laced through mine and our hands are laying between us, her thumb is rubbing circles on the back of my hand and she's humming softly to herself, she stops abruptly though. I hear her head turn and turn mine to face her.
She's watching me with a knowing look on her face, she rolls on her right arm, her left hand reaching toward me, she brushes my hair back away from my face, and her eyes look spaced out.
She runs her fingers along the edges of the bandage, a guilty look haunting her eyes, like it was her fault I'd been hurt. She lets out a long sigh, her breath fans across my face, "lets play a board game." She says, I nod slowly as she rolls away from me, releasing my hand.
Maybe we'll never be together, but maybe we can be friends. Just maybe.
Two hours later I'm curled up around my pillow while Jade laughs at my misery. She's got my computer propped up on her lap while a movie is playing across it. I've had cramps for an hour and a half and the pain is getting to me, my head is even starting to ache again.
Jade, being the lovely person she is, started laughing the moment the pain hit me. Telling me to suck it up and be a man. I had glared at her angrily on the verge of tears, simply because now I was a hormonal mess and she was being a bitch. I'd whacked her arm hard and then she'd told me to go curl in a ball on my bed and she'd find us a movie. It was nearly dawn now; we stay in my bed and watch movies until Monday.
Jade leaves around 5 Monday morning, when she goes home to get dressed. We part with smiles and a quick hug, promising to meet at the staircase with everyone else. Promising to try a friendship. The haunted look has vanished from her eyes; I'd never noticed it before today, until it wasn't there. Now I just couldn't be happier.
I grin and hop along to get dressed. I pull on a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, my black converse and a purple shirt. I let my hair go loose and natural and keep my makeup to a minimum because I still have a cut on my head, but the bandage gave me a headache so I don't want it on anymore.
My dad drives me to school, I get there fifteen minutes earlier then usual, and skip inside over to my locker to find my books for first period. Andre and Beck have already shown up, they flash me smiles and ask how I'm doing. I smile back and reply fantastic, telling them about the past two days.
"I'm glad you're both happy Tori." Beck tells me honestly, smiling a smile that truly reaches his eyes. Andre agrees, giving me a clap on the shoulder. I chuckle and we walk to the staircase to sit down. Cat shows up next, bouncing over to us, running headlong at me once she spots me.
Her arms go around my neck in a crushing hug as she looks me over, eyes shinning sadly when she spots the cut on my head. She kisses two of her fingers and presses them to my head before sitting down in front of Beck, next to me. Andre is behind me, beside Beck, and I've got Andre's laptop out so I can hear his new song.
We're listening to it for a third time, I'm assuring Andre that it's a good song, but he just won't listen to me. Beck assures him and he still won't listen, and Cat tries too, but he's just being too stupid.
I glance up when a door slams open by the asphalt café, Jade storms in, heading straight for her locker, her jaw set in anger, "Hey Jade." I call softly, her green eyes shift to me, pain and anger burning in their green depths and my stomach tangles in knots.
No.
"Fuck off, Vega." She hisses loud enough for the whole hallway to hear, slamming her locker closed to gain everyone else's attention before storming off. Everyone falls silent instantly, all eyes on me. Cat squeaks, her eyes widen in shock and she looks at me nervously. And then she tosses her arms around me again, hugging me. I lean against her, my eyes still staring where Jade had been.
"What the hell happened?" Beck is the first to break the silence and tears burst from my eyes and I burry my face in Cat's shoulder as the eyes turn away from me and a silent murmur starts through the school until the sound of peoples other conversation hits my ears. Why did that hurt so much?
"We'll see you guys in Sikowitz's class." I hear Cat say. She pulls the laptop from my lap, hands it to Andre and pulls me to my feet. I keep my head down, my hair falling like a curtain around my face.
I'm not aware where Cat is taking me until we're both sitting on the floor in the janitors closet. She pulls me into a hug and I cry against her shoulder until no more tears will come.
Three words undo all of the hope that Jade put into me in the past two days. I pull away from Cat and run my hand across my face, leaning against the wall. Cat watches me nervously, probably wondering how long it will be until I break.
"What did I do?" I whisper.
"Nothing. You didn't do a single thing wrong." Cat assures me in a confident, clear voice, "Jade let you in too far and she can't handle it. It's not you, its her." She reaches out and gives my hand a soft squeeze. I burst into tears again for another ten minutes.
When I stop again I chuckle nervously, looking up at Cat, "You know, I wouldn't be crying this much if it wasn't that time of the month." She laughs softly, giving me a tiny smile, "Thank you Cat, I mean it. You're a good friend."
"I know." She teases, still smiling, "I hate seeing you cry Tori, and you don't deserve it. She's just being a bitch, so why don't you give her a taste of her own medicine? She doesn't want you close, so act like you don't want her close."
"I can do that…" I whisper softly, "just not, not right now. I can't just…move onto someone. I'd feel like an asshole."
"I understand, Tori. But for now, you've got me. I'll try to help you stay together and get better, okay?" she asks, smiling sweetly, a sincere tone to her voice. I can't help but smile back, "we can hang out after school and stuff, and do homework."
"What about your Beck time?" I tease, her cheeks turn rosy pink and she looks away, I snicker.
"He can wait…" she murmurs softly, and I burst into uncontrollable laughter at how shy she's suddenly gotten. She fakes offence and pouts. I take deep breaths to try and calm myself down, my arms clutching my stomach.
We stand up, she gives me one last hug, and we go our separate ways. I'm yelled at for being tardy and assigned detention. I take it without a word and drop into my chair in the back of the room, pulling my phone out to ask Cat if she got a detention too. She says yes and guilt eats away at my stomach. Poor Cat.
I'm sorry. I text back. She tells me not to worry about it, and to put my phone away before I get another detention. I smile and tuck my phone into my pocket again. I slump down in my desk, my feet propping up on the basket under the desk in front of me.
I tap my pencil absently, watching the clock hands tick by. When the bell rang I pretty much flung myself out of my desk and ran out the door to my next class, vocal training. Our teacher wasn't there five minutes into class, and now all of us were going crazy doing whatever we wanted.
I was sitting near the back with Robbie, who was holding an eerily silent Rex, and singing softly so that just he and I could hear me. A few people around us might have heard bits of the words I was saying to myself, but who knows.
After the bell rang Robbie and I walked together to class, he sat on one side of the room, I sat on the other. Throughout the whole class he kept shooting me these nervous glances. I felt like he, too, was checking to make sure I wouldn't break.
Someone must've told him what happened, because he didn't ask questions, just simply told me 'I'm sorry'. I ignored him, laughed it off, biting my cheek hard to keep from crying or something else stupid.
Now, though, he was getting on my nerves. When he looked at me again my mouth pulled into a scowl and I narrowed my eyes at him. He looked startled. I'd pulled off what I was trying to, Jade's evil look. I knew it well. And apparently I was good at replicating it.
Sikowitz's class came too soon, dread slammed into my chest as I forced my feet to move forward. I opened the door to the class and felt like everyone was staring at me. Because they were.
I crossed the room and sat down next to Cat; she reached over and hugged me briefly, "feeling okay? I was wondering if you wanted to go get pizza after school?" she asked, eyes flickered away from me, it was nearly a relief.
"I'm okay. It's not like someone died or something." I laughed, "I really would love it if people could quit staring at me." Eyes disappeared all together and conversations, that had probably ended when I walked in, started up again.
"So, pizza? Beck and Andre are busy and I don't want to invite Robbie since Rex will be with him…" she shuddered, her eyes falling to her feet before pulling back up to my face, "How about it?"
"Sure thing. I'll be going home with Trina tonight, but I'll get a ride over to the pizza place from my dad." She grins and then launches into a story about her brother. I listen as closely as I can. Apparently her brother had gone out to the movies and come back home with a raccoon last night.
The class room door opened again and everyone fell silent, much like they had when I walked in. I didn't bother turning around, I already knew it was Jade. I stayed facing forward, my legs crossed one over the other.
She must've glared them all to look away from her, because the eyes were back on me. Where is Sikowitz? He must've heard my thought, he slammed the door open and tossed his bag away from him, "we're doing a play!" he announced, "It is mandatory to be in, you will have no choice. You will audition and be assigned a role by me."
"What play?" Cat asked happily, twirling her hair around her finger and giggling joyfully, her Cat-act turned on full blast.
"Good question, Cat, I will pull a name from this hat and they will choose whatever movie they want to make into a twisted version of the play. For instance, in Cinderella maybe she'll be a zombie, or perhaps Cinderella will turn into Cinderedward. The person whose name I pull will help with that, and that will be there grade on the play." I rolled my eyes at his antics. Of course he would go do something crazy like that, "so the name is…" he pulls the name out, reads it and frowns, "Cat Valentine."
The class fearfully watches Cat, who is chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully, "Beauty and the Beast!" she giggles happily. There is a single, group groan at Cat's choice and I try to keep myself from groaning along with them.
"Very well then, you write down the ideas you have for changing the play and share them with me tomorrow. Now we will discuss angry scenes. I will need Tori and Beck to come up here, let's go."
I toss my bag aside and walk up onto the stage with Beck; we both stare at Sikowitz, waiting for an explanation. He sits down in my seat and stares at us. I raise an eyebrow in his direction, "well…?"
"Scream at each other." He says simply.
"About what?"
"She stole your girlfriend." Sikowitz blurts randomly.
"Okay…" Beck turns to me, raising an eyebrow and then runs a hand over his face, "How could you?" his voice has an angry growl to it. I'm almost shocked, but I cover it up with anger.
"I love her." I reply, a growl in my voice too.
"She was my girlfriend!" he yells, "I thought you were my friend, how could you do this to me!"
"I'm sorry!" I yell back, "I'm sorry she picked me, but it's not my fault!"
And then I can't help it, I burst into laughter, and so does Beck, followed by the whole class minus Sikowitz and Jade. He asks us to take our seats so we do, but Sikowitz refuses to get up from my chair so once more I take a seat next to the blonde boy, because the only other choice is beside Jade.
We discuss why Beck and I started laughing; because we don't believe any of this could actually happen, or because we weren't taking the lesson seriously. I was betting it was because Beck and I both realized that it would never happen, because I mean, his girl friend was mine first.
Of their own accord my eyes find Jade. She's looking at her fingers, picking the polish off of her nails; her bottom lip is between her teeth. Her hair is falling in front of her face like a curtain; the only thing I can see is her mouth.
She's slumped over, leaning on her left, like her right side is sore. I do a quick scan of the rest of her. A pair of black jeans, her wallet with the chain hooked onto her front belt loops, the leather wallet tucked in her back. Her shirt is baggy with long sleeves and she had the same makeup on from last night.
I frown when she shifts to glare at me, she winces when she turns too far, but she seems to shove it away long enough to growl at me. I stare still, watching her closely. Something is wrong with her, it has to be. She was fine this morning.
"Quit staring, Vega." She snaps.
"Don't flatter yourself, West." I reply with sarcasm dripping off of my lips, "I was looking at the kid next to you." The kid in the row beside her sits up slightly and moves his chair out of Jade's swinging range as her nostrils flare in anger before she huffs and snaps her attention forward.
Well okay then, bitch.
At lunch I sit with Beck, Cat, Andre and Robbie. Cat and Beck are unusually open about their flirting now and normally when I'm in a bad mood I find couple-y couples disgusting but I just can't help but smile at them.
Of course Jade is glaring at them both from three tables away while she stabs viciously at her salad; I roll my eyes at her and turn to my own salad, inhaling it quickly because I'm so hungry.
"So Cat, what ideas do you have for Beauty and the Beast?"
"I can't tell you." She says with a secretive grin, her pink pen is flying across her paper but she's leaning over it so nobody can read it. I watch her suspiciously; this rubs me in a strange way.
The bell rings to go to our next class, I hastily finished my salad before sprinting to my class, flopping down into my desk and pulling out my homework. I don't pay attention to the lesson, my mind intent on getting through the day, the pizza parlor at home and getting home to listen to music and block out the world.
After school I crawled in Trina's car, rode home, crawled in my dad's car and met Cat at a pizza place 20 minutes from my school. She still had her notebook with her and was scribbling furiously in it where she sat in the back corner.
I walked straight over to her and slid into the booth beside her, "hey Cat." I greeted, she looked up and flashed me a smile. I smiled back and set my phone down on the table she closed her notebook and put it into her backpack.
"So, how are you feeling?" she sits up more, tucking her foot under herself, "I ordered a pepperoni pizza and mountain dew for you to drink. I got water."
"Thanks Cat. I'm feeling okay. I mean I'm a little angry and hurt still, but I know I didn't cause or deserve Jade's bitchy ass attitude so she'll just have to get over herself." A waitress zooms by and deposits our drinks at the table.
"Good for you." Cat grins at me.
"So, how are you and Beck?" her cheeks turn a pretty rosy color and she looks down at her fingers before mumbling a nearly silent 'good'. Then the pizza is dropped off and she hastily stuffs her face.
A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews I've gotten. I usually try to reply to them but I've been writing these chapters wickedly fast and not pausing to check my reviews until I'm on my phone going to bed or at school. I read each and everyone, thank you for the alerts and favorites as well. I really appreciate them and they make my day. I'm glad you guys like the story!