Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers. I hope everyone has enjoyed it and staying safe. Mine's been alright except for the inexplicit pain I've been experiencing since yesterday afternoon, but I'm better now. Change in plans though, I split this intended chapter, so there is one more after this besides and epilogue. I hope to have this story completed by Sunday.

Martial Arts Student: According to you, his upbringing is 'crap', but for him that's a fundamental truth based on his religious upbringing and it is not a particularly unreasonable one because at the time this story takes place and right now, UCLA does not allow co-ed rooms unless the couple is married.

Freddie would disagree with you that his anger is petty when seeing once again his trust has been violated by people he began to trust after the disaster of his friendships of the last five years ending, especially over the fact that he was nearly raped.

YouCan'tControlMe: The shoe finally dropped, but we'll see how things play out for our couple. I doubt Jade will sit on the sidelines of anything, especially since she did have a role to play in this. There is no friendship without risk. Trina for the most part never portrayed in a positive light, but I think she does care about her sister. Tori would duet with Jade because she stubbornly cares about her and perhaps Jade cares about her in return. Also, saw your 7 Prompt challenge. I didn't have time to participate.

Challenge King: Thank you. Freddie's upset with what happened because he's still coming off what happened with Carly and Sam just after the end of the series. I wouldn't count those kids out.

darck ben: Thank you. It does, doesn't it? Even for good reason.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Freddie may not have been totally wrong if he had whooped Ryder, but guy probably was embarrassed enough with what Tori did to him back at HA.

I can't take credit for using Taylor Swift as a verb as I did see a Big Time Rush episode that used the term 'Shifted' in that context, though they used it unfairly against the Lucy character.

It's not just all the things that Freddie found out about him at once that hurt him, it was the deep sense of betrayal as he was finally starting to trust again after what happened with his friendships with Carly and Sam. It cut deep to him.

Trina does have a right to worry, but in what way does she really know Freddie? In universe and this story, they really have very little interaction since the party at Kenan's and his reputation is only through the webseries.

Twilight Warrior 627: What makes this so emotional heart wrenching is that none of them are villains. It's not Nora or Neval or Ryder or Steven messing with them, but characters we root for and support making decisions that potentially hurt one another. Friends hurting you can be more painful than your enemies.

Rating: T

Chapter 17

Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
11811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Monday, October 8, 2012

Trina let out a heavy sigh as she approached her sister's apartment, glad to be back to her temporary home. She wasn't particularly tired or frustrated with spending the afternoon with Cat, but she needed to get back to figure out if she was going to take another day or try to find a late afternoon or early evening flight back to New York.

The older Vega sister hadn't known what to expect when Cat wanted to introduce her roommate, but was mildly surprised at finding out it was Sam. It was awkward, but not unpleasant reunion as the pair had been civil the times they had met. She could only guess what Sam thought about her, but leaned towards the idea the blonde probably held a similar view to her as Jade. The blonde reminded her a great deal of Jade with her general abrasiveness towards other people, but far less mature like she was still stuck in early high school and a slacker to the extreme. She didn't know how the girl from Seattle and HA's former Alpha Female got along since they had to reconnect through Cat, but she guessed it was one of two ways: they were instantly best buddies straight out of some bad and lazy writing or they were at each other's throats. How little did she know at the moment that it was something in between that could tip over to them going at each other's throats at a moment's notice with Jade's protectiveness of Cat.

After meeting up again with Freddie and Sam, she wondered what their relationship was like since they had a very public relationship—and very public breakup with her announcing to the world that she broke his fragile little heat and pretty heartless about it. She wondered in whose eyes that made her look good when there wasn't any evidence that Freddie was a bad boyfriend to her. That would make most guys pretty upset over being racked over the coals; however, unexpected reunions could rekindle past feelings. She was hoping against such a thing as that could be an unneeded distraction and possible competition for her sister for Freddie's attention and affection. She made a mental note to subtly ask Freddie about his current relationship with Sam and boy she would be a surprise if she got such an answer.

Trina knocked on the door and called out, "Tori, it's me."

Her response was silence for several seconds that sent a worry of concern through her. She knocked again, thinking that either Tori or Freddie hadn't heard her. She frowned at briefly picturing the pair in one of their rooms in the throes of passion. As much as she wouldn't complain about imagining Freddie in such a manner with her after seeing him work up a nice sweat in their game session yesterday, she had no interest in imagining her little sister in such a state.

She shook her head to try to prevent such an image from forming in her head and was hoping that wasn't the case as she looked on curiously at the door. She had noticed Tori's car was in the parking lot downstairs after the taxi had dropped her off, so she had to be home, unless she went out again. She pulled out her phone and dialed Tori's number. The phone rang several times until she heard a strain voice answered, "What?"

"Tori?"

"Yeah?"

"It's Trina. I'm outside. Could you open the door?"

The phone call ended and Trina pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the phone. She knotted her brow, thoroughly confused about what was going on with her sister.

The door finally opened and she was shocked by Tori's appearance when the door opened enough to reveal her younger sister. The younger brunette was dressed lazily to lounge around the apartment which wasn't anything to really remark about, but what disturbed her was the rest of her. Tori's eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles under them. Her nose was red and looked sore.

Trina gently took Tori by her upper arms and led her back inside, letting go of her sister for only a moment to close the door behind her.

"What happened?"

Tori sniffled and kept her glance towards the kitchen floor to her right. "Freddie left."

"Freddie left?"

"Yeah, he grabbed some of his stuff and left," she mumbled while wiping under her nose with the back of her hand.

Trina's jaw slightly dropped then quickly uttered, "Why?"

Tori let out a soft huff of breath, clearly disgusted with herself, "It's a long story…"

The older Vega knotted her brow and inquired, "There's a story?"

"Yeah, he found out some things that I had been keeping from him… and lying to him about it."

Trina squinted, mildly shocked that her sister would lie to Freddie or lie to anyone at all being so… goody-goody. "What were you lying to him about?"

Tori clenched her eyes shut and shook her head, the thoughts and feelings she had been battling over the last several hours brought on a new wave of pain.

Trina led her gently by the arm to the couch and eased her to sit down. "Start from the beginning and tell me what's going on."

The younger sister looked up, seeing Trina's concerned expression through eyes that began to water again. She swallowed and in a soft voice, began to answer, "At the end of the first week here, we went to a welcoming party held by graduates of Hollywood Arts for this year's graduates. Do you remember Lindsey, your 'friend'?"

"Yeah?" Trina answered, not sure where the conversation was turning.

"Well, she's the one that invited me and Freddie… she made it a point that he could come with me. We went together with Jade—Beck had a last minute re-audition—and we were having a great time seeing everyone again, but sometime halfway through the party, Lindsey drugged Freddie's drink and Jade and I found her and Freddie in one of the frat house bedroom. Freddie was passed out on a bed and she was opening his jeans… I grabbed her before she could do anything to him—nearly ripped some of her hair out of her scalp. Jade and I carried him back to the car and we came back here. When he woke up the next morning, I told him… I told him that we had switched drinks and he accepted it."

Tori cracked a regretful smile. "It was grateful that it was him and he was so worried that something could have happened to me. He thought Ryder could have done it and wanted to go after him…"

Trina looked dumbfounded from what her former 'friend' had nearly pulled and her sister simply making up a story to cover for her. She took a few seconds, but she found her voice and asked, "Why? Why did she try to do that? Why didn't you tell him the truth?"

The younger sister glanced to the floor and muttered, "I don't know why she tried that. I didn't want him to think bad about me for taking him someplace where he was nearly… he was nearly raped. I didn't want him to think maybe I set him up… I didn't want to lose his trust."

The older sister responded incredulously, "So you lied to him to make sure he would keep trusting you?"

Tori looked up and quickly tried to defend herself, "Okay, it wasn't the brightest of ideas with Jade—"

Trina held up a hand and interrupted, "How is Jade involved with this?"

"Since I was nearly freaking out about what I would tell him and he would think of me, Jade suggested I tell him mostly the truth, but not all of it involving Lindsey."

"You actually listened to Jade?"

"Yeah…"

Trina sighed loudly with a roll of her eyes then stated with an exuberated voice, "Why? Why can't you get it through your head that you aren't friends? However much you wish it, you can't make her be your friend. She's always going to be a jealous gank about your talent and worrying about losing Beck to you. She probably told you to do that just to screw up your relationship with him."

The younger brunette frowned, thinking on her sister's words. Jade had done a number of schemes to mess with her from the beginning of their 'friendship' by pretending to be hurt in a stage fighting class to trying to sabotage the 'Prome' to pretending to be her for the BrainSqueezer's game show to recall just a few incidences between them. She shook her head and brushed it aside, "Whatever Jade's motivations were, I'm the one that made the decision to lie to him and figuring out how to fix things with him. I'll worry about Jade later."

Trina glanced away and took a deep breath, mildly disgusted that Tori would just readily blow off Jade questionable motives and trying to figure out how to help her sister. "Okay, do you have any idea where he went?"

Tori sniffled again and looked at her lap. "No. He just grabbed enough for the night and said he'd be back later for his stuff."

"Have you called him?"

The younger sister glanced up and muttered with a strained voice, "No. What's the point? He wouldn't answer me."

"Give me his number. I'll call him. He won't recognize my number."

Tori slightly frowned and reluctantly got up from the couch and lazily made her way to her bedroom.

Trina briefly wondered if her sister would actually return or just crawl back into bed. Fortunately, her younger sister returned only a few moments later holding her blue pear shaped phone. Tori handed her phone with Freddie's number displayed to the older Vega and she pulled out her own phone and quickly dialed the number. She patiently waited for the other end to pick up, briefly wondering he would pick up at all as she was one of those that simply didn't answer numbers she didn't recognize.

She was pleasantly surprised when the other end of the phone picked up and she immediately began, "Hey Freddie. I'm at your place and—"

The other end of the phone disconnected and Trina blinked. She pulled the phone from her ear and looked at the phone screen to confirm that the phone call had ended. Trina's jaw dropped and looked to Tori. "He hung up on me!"

Tori snorted out with an aching pain in her chest, "See, I told you he didn't want to talk."

Trina frowned and felt a surge of fiery determination. Any plans to head back to New York was out the window as her parents may have been broken and there was nothing she could do about it, but she would be damned if she couldn't save her sister's relationship with Freddie.

Comparative Literature Class
UCLA Humanities Building
Los Angeles, CA
Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Jade and Beck entered class together as usual with the nearly black haired teenager holding a cup of Jet Brew coffee. They headed for their claimed desks from the beginning of the quarter, but they didn't see Tori or Freddie sitting in their usual places. However, that didn't necessarily mean anything other than they beat her to class especially since only a handful of students had arrived to class so far, but the couple's joint interest was raised when they spotted Freddie sitting in a different seat at the far row away from the rest of the group's usual gathering spot.

The couple glanced to one another to shared their mutual curiosity then started on their way to Freddie who was comfortably seated with his laptop open ready to take notes. They stopped to the sitting teenager's left and Beck raised a corner of his mouth and raised an eyebrow while curiously questioning, "What are you sitting over here for?"

Freddie barely passed a glance to the couple and slowly answered, trying to keep his anger in check at seeing them, especially Jade, "I wanted another seat away from Tori and Jade."

Jade's brow lifted while Beck's expression turned from one of curiosity to confusion. She questioned in mild disbelief than demanding, "Why?"

The long haired actor slowly questioned, "And where's Tori?"

Freddie sequentially answered their questions in a curt tone, "I don't want to be around you, I don't know where Tori is and I don't care."

Beck's brow immediately knotted. "What?"

Jade narrowed her blue eye gaze and asked, "What do you mean you don't know? You don't care? What did I do to you?"

The former Seattleite passed another lazy glanced up and directed it to Jade. "I moved out. I just have to grab the rest of my stuff and contact Student Housing to see if they found me something permanent."

"Why? Why are you rushing when they haven't found you a room?"

He turned his gaze to the pale skin teenager, his eyes cold, and answered, "Because I didn't want to room with a girl that would lie straight to my face and keep secrets that directly affect me because she doesn't agree with my opinion. I've had enough girls in my life to casually toss aside my opinions."

A sinking feeling began in the pit of Jade's stomach as she realized what he must have found out, but she decided to play dumb for a bit in case she was mistaken, "What did she lie about?"

Freddie shifted to his right and smiled, but there was no friendliness to it, just a self-confident smirk showing he knew the truth. "Oh, you know, the party? About how you found me? How it wasn't Tori's drink that was drugged, but mine on account of Lindsey?"

Jade took a deep breath and stood up straighter. 'Jamn it,' she thought. Tori would ring the life out of Lindsey for telling Freddie what really happened, but that was the least of her concerns now that he had found out the truth.

Beck stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced away and finding a particularly spot on the ceiling interesting.

Freddie pursed his lips, seeing that Beck knew the truth. He didn't need another Gibby in his life that would stab him in the back at a moment's notice, so he was going to have to discard him along with Jade. He really hadn't given it much thought about how he would have continued to interact with Beck with him being Jade's boyfriend, but that was a moot point now. "I don't want to deal with her or you. I've had enough girls in my life messing with me and pretending to be my friend."

The future musical sensation didn't bother to deny her role and retorted, "Freddie, we weren't messing with you. Tori was just… was just trying to protect you and I gave her the idea on how to do it."

Freddie didn't have a chance to form any kind of response as Trina walked into the class and made a b-line straight for Freddie's desk, ignoring Jade and Beck. She stood in front of desk and grabbed the edges of it on either side and stared at the former Seattleite. She huffed out, "Do you have any idea what you are putting Tori through right now?"

Freddie stared at her in return, the cold detached mask he put up displaying more of the chill in his heart from feeling betrayed. "Like I told Jade: I don't care."

Trina's nostrils flared and figuratively bit his head off, "You don't care?"

"No I don't. I'm tired of caring about people who will just betray me and violate my trust. She didn't care about my feelings. She lied to me about the party then kept secret that Student Housing was contacting her. I'm just washing my hands of her before she can hurt me again."

He glanced to Beck and remarked, "You should watch Jade; she might stab you in the back. She sure did it to me… I take that back, that's on me for trying to think there was more than just some quick pro quo about me telling her about Sam and her helping me find a car. I misjudged on who I could count on."

Jade threw figurative daggers at him that would have frightened most guys including Beck, but Freddie didn't flinch. Outwardly she may have been defiant, but his words cut into her about how he couldn't count on anyone, something that she had struggled with for years to emotionally accept and morn over.

Trina defended her sister, "Tori did that to protect you. She didn't want you to think less of her by taking you to the party with what happened."

"How? How was not knowing 'protecting me'? How could I…" He paused when he saw that the other students in the room were focusing all their attention to them. He didn't like being a spectacle and he wasn't going to help Trina make him further into one.

He lowered his voice to continue hoping only them in the immediate area would, "How could I do that when I didn't know there was a danger from her? I was on the lookout for Ryder to make sure he wouldn't try something again with her, not keeping an eye out for myself when someone really wanted to do that to me."

Jade answered in surprising ferocity, "Because Tori was going to keep Lindsey away from you. She was going to make sure Lindsey wouldn't get another chance at you."

Freddie thought that such an action where Tori would be able to be around him every moment of everyday he was outside of the apartment was pretty infeasible, but was it any different than what he had planned for Ryder? The question gave him pause and one which Trina took advantage and interrupted his further train of thought by asking, "Are you this upset at Lindsey?"

"I can multitask in my feelings of anger."

"But you're taking them out on Tori? What are you doing against Lindsey?"

"I'm not taking anything out on Tori. I'm doing the same thing I am to Lindsey: staying away from her. I can't do anything about her because no one will take seriously a girl trying to rape a guy and she could just say I'm the one that tried to drug her drink—something she threatened to do to me if I try to report her—and get me kicked out of school and arrested. I'll be guilty until proven innocent and that may not even happen."

Beck sharply whistled, gaining further attention for the others in the class trying to eavesdrop on the conversation. Jade's jaw slightly dropped at hearing the audacity that Lindsey would threaten such a thing. She thought if Tori heard about that, they would find pieces of the blonde scattered all over campus. Trina's outrage paused with equal shock at the position Freddie found himself.

Freddie shook his head in disgust and finished, "Oh just go away and leave me alone. I have class in just a few minutes."

Trina glared at him with a look that indicated she was ready to slap the mess out of him.

Freddie met her glare with a stern look of his own and calmly stated, "Trina, if you put your hands on me, I will defend myself and you being a woman will not make any difference with me."

Whether Trina was going to hit him or not was interrupted when Miss Queen stepped into the room and headed for her podium at the front of the class.

The rest of the class began to settle and turn their attention away from the confrontation.

Beck quietly pointed out, "Trina, you better go. This isn't high school; if you interrupt her class and you could be dragged out in handcuffs by campus police."

The older Vega sister threw an angry gaze at her onetime crush for just pointing out the truth. She took a calming breath then looked back to Freddie and hissed, "We're not done with this."

Freddie returned with a detached expression and answered, "I don't have anything else to say to you or Tori."

Trina sighed loudly and started her way out the door as Cat walked inside. The redhead furled her brow at seeing then looked to find the others. Her confusion deepened at seeing Jade and Beck standing around Freddie sitting away from their group. She hastily started towards them, but the couple turned away from Freddie's desk and met her nearly halfway towards walking to their desks.

Cat began, "What's going on—"

Jade was quick to cut her off however while walking past her to grab a seat, "We'll tell you later."

The redhead's put on a poutful expression then followed the couple to their seats.

The striking professor immediately noticed the change in seats for Freddie and the absence of Tori. A hint of a smirk appeared on her face and mentally filed the bit of information away then began her lecture as if she noticed nothing, "Good morning class…"

If Doctor Queen thought she would get to take advantage of the situation, she was sadly mistaken as Freddie grabbed his things and headed out the door as fast as he could manage.

Jade, Beck and Cat got up from their seats to stand together to head out to follow him with various reactions. The long haired hopeful actor pointed out the obvious while they followed Freddie a few paces behind him, "We need to see how Tori's doing."

Cat hesitantly pointed out, "But we have class in a few minutes."

Jade looked to her companions and stated, "Go to class and I'll meet you back at Tori's after it."

The cute redhead knotted her eyebrow and softly questioned, "You're going to blow off class? Why?"

"I'm going to follow Freddie and see where he's staying. You can take notes for me."

The former high school heartthrob softly countered, "It's a discussion class Jade."

"Fine then, hold me up catching up with him and helping Tori," she sharply retorted while keeping her eyes on Freddie getting further away from them.

Beck softly bit his tongue, reluctant agreeing with her, "Fine, we'll come up with some excuse why you missed class."

Jade refrained from commenting on his change of tune when her goal was helping Tori and plastered a triumphed smile to hide her annoyance. She picked up her pace and nearly jogged as she tried to catch up to Freddie's nearly out of sight form.

Cat pulled out her phone and stated typing away with her thumbs.

Beck slightly squinted. "What are you doing?"

"I'm texting Trina and telling her what's going on. She needs to know what Jade's doing."

He nodded with a tight smile, seeing the redhead's point-of-view before the pair headed off to their next class.

Freddie Benson's Hotel Room
Extended Stay America
6531 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Freddie unlocked the door to his hotel room and pushed open the door to step inside. He pulled the key out of the lock then quickly closed and locked the door behind him so he could head for the couch.

The room was a pretty nice room (which he had a weird feeling that he had been here before) for the price with a reasonable size living room with a table for a dining room, an adequate kitchen and separate bedroom and bathroom. Best of all, he could afford it until Student Housing found him a room… which they hadn't gotten started yet since he hadn't contacted them. He had been too busy getting a room for last night and preparing for classes.

Freddie flopped down on the couch in the living room area of the hotel room after dropping his bag next to the end of it, wanting to relax after what was a surprisingly draining day. However, he didn't have any time to relax as a persistent knocking started on his door. He sighed and dropped his head back on the top of the couch's backrest. He flung himself forward to stand up then started for the door. He didn't bother looking through the peephole as he opened the door. He saw Jade on the other side of the threshold. She stepped past him before he could utter a word. He turned and snapped in frustration while she turned to face him, "Get out."

"No, not until we talk."

He pointed out to the open door and shouted, "No, get out. I don't have to talk to you."

"What? You're going to physically throw me out?"

Freddie took a step to her and sharply retorted with a cold look in his eyes, "I have had enough of lying, mean and backstabbing girls in my life, so yeah, I will physically throw you out if I have to."

Jade nervously swallowed and her muscles tensed up. Few people had ever been genuinely angry at her and even fewer had the nerve to voice their discontent with her and she was the one that usually intimidated people, but the look displayed by what seemed to be always friendly eyes sent a chill through her. She gathered her nerve and softly uttered, "You wouldn't put your hands on me."

"Are you so sure about that?"

She took a gamble with what she had learned about him over the last several weeks and answered with a slightly cracked voice, "Yes I am. As long as I don't try to hit you first, you're not going lay a hand on me. You won't be violent towards me."

Freddie held his glare, apparently hoping that he could intimidate her into leaving, however, as nervous as he could tell she felt, she was standing her ground. After several seconds, he growled in frustration and turned away. "I can always call the management have them call the police and you can dragged away in handcuffs if you don't want to leave."

He walked around her and began to walk to the provided phone sitting on the end table to the couch and picked up the receiver.

She held out a hand and called out, "Wait, just hear me out."

The brown eye teenager looked away from the receiver and guardedly looked to the nearly black haired singer. He slowly and surprisingly replied in a patient tone, "One good reason. Just give me one good reason I should give you the chance."

Jade paused at the ultimatum and thought why she had knocked on the door and entered in the first place instead of just letting everyone else know where Freddie was staying. She really didn't owe Tori anything… that was a knee-jerk response after years of rivalry… Perhaps she did owe it to Tori after all these years and that it was her idea that got the lighter brunette into this situation. Perhaps she owed it to herself in not losing a potential friend as he had been nice and accepting of her while not be nauseating about it and pushing back against her at times instead of just rolling over like everyone else.

The blue hair extension wearing teenager took a deep breath then calmly answered, "Because you're a good person and I'm asking you to give me a chance to explain what and why we did what we did."

Freddie shook his head and defiantly answered, "No, you are not going to use that against me. I don't have to listen to some bullchizz explanation either by guilt tripping me or forcing me through violence. I don't want to deal with you or deal with her—who you're obviously over here about."

He turned his attention back to the phone and began dialing the number to the front desk.

In a surprisingly near panic, she shouted, "I'm sorry."

He stopped after tapping the third button on the phone. He slowly turned his head and looked over his shoulder, clenching his jaw tightly and studied the lovely young woman. The one thing that neither Carly nor Sam had ever done was to actually apologize to him—a real, heartfelt apology. If he ever voiced his anger or disagreement, they would either give some lame explanation or justification or blow off his concerns entirely as when he found out Sam sabotaged his chance to go to his summer technology camp. Carly's words of 'Who cares?' still haunted him, especially in the dead of night.

Jade may have been an actress and a fairly good one by Freddie's understanding, but the look in her eyes caused him to seriously consider that she was being truthful. "I'm sorry you feel that way. That wasn't our intention—especially Tori's. She didn't want you to remember your first experience going out with her to be a bad one. Heck, you might have thought she was setting you up for it to happen."

He quietly pointed out, "You and Tori lied to me."

"She was trying to protect you."

The former Seattleite felt a surge of anger and shouted, "She was trying to protect herself! She admitted it to me."

The first thought crossing Jade's mind was sarcastically, 'Way to go Tori'.

He looked past Jade to see the door was still open and someone passing by, looking into the room. He walked past her to close the door, seeing that she wasn't immediately going to leave and didn't want others to but into his business. He closed the door after the person walked by then looked towards Jade.

The dark haired actress continued, "And what's wrong with that? She cares about you—chizz, she even likes you—and she was afraid you wouldn't trust her if you knew the truth. That she took you to a party that you were nearly… well, you know… and I'm the one that came up with the excuse to tell you. She couldn't handle the risk of you getting upset at her. If you want to blame someone, blame me, not her."

If she wasn't so caught up in the moment, Jade would have appreciated the humor in the situation of her throwing herself on the sword for Tori's sake, but then again, she had done it when she turned down her chance to perform in front of around two hundred million people.

"I do blame you and that's why I don't want to deal with you either. It may have been your idea, but she agreed to it. The idea being yours doesn't absolve her of any responsibility. Why did you even suggest it in the first place?"

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and retorted, "It was the best choice at the time. She was panicking that you would think the worst of her, but she couldn't bear to tell you the truth, so she accepted my half truth to tell you."

Freddie thought on it for a moment then countered, not ready to accept her stated motivation, "Or it was you janking me over… or maybe her too. Maybe you didn't get over your petty jealousy? Maybe you just wanted to screw her over one more time and I was some collateral damage?"

The pale nearly black haired girl squinted, confused by the turn of the conversation.

"You just weren't content in keeping Beck and about to be signed with Mister Quincy, you had to make sure you janked over Tori just one more time for old time sakes by trying to sabotage our friendship? You wouldn't be the first to sabotage one of my relationships."

She gave him a dark glare, a look which would have caused many guys to flee or wet themselves.

"If you hit me, I will hit you back," he stated in a cold tone. "I'm no one's punching bag anymore."

Jade countered with a hushed tone, "Tori is not Carly and I'm not Sam."

"After what just happened with the lie and secret, I don't want to bother taking the chance that I'm just going to go through the same mess I did with Carly and Sam with either of you."

She shook her head and looked away in frustration. He could be just as stubborn as Tori she thought along with them deserving one another… and a little impressed that he was so willing to stand up to her. She spat out, her irritation clearly getting to her, "What do you want? You want an apology? I already apologized and if you gave Tori the chance, I know she'd apologized for betraying your trust."

"I want what most people want: I want friends that give a damn about me. I want friends that I can count on as much as they can count on me and that includes telling me the truth when it directly affects me, but I can never find them."

Jade glanced down towards her feet and muttered, "I know what that's like."

Freddie rolled his eyes and muttered in disgust, "Oh save it. You have a boyfriend and a whole group of friends still here and you have Tori despite whatever grief you might give her, so don't give me that load of chizz."

"It's not chizz! The only reason why I'm with Beck right now is because Tori turned him down and the others could care less for me than Trina!"

She took a sharp intake of breath, realizing that she had finally voice what she hadn't wanted to admit to herself. She looked away, not wanting to see whatever expression was playing on the teenager from Seattle's face.

The lovely musician's confession certainly struck an unexpected nerve with the former tech-producer in cutting through his shield of anger. The stern shield to protect him emotionally lowered for a moment to sympathetically ask, "So you're second choice?"

The dark haired musician kept her gaze looking away from him while she timidly admitted, "I try not to think of it that way."

"But it's the truth isn't it?"

He barely heard her whisper, "Maybe… probably."

"If you really feel that way then why do you settle for a guy that's just settling for you because he can't have Tori and care about her to come over here and plead her case? That certainly doesn't go along with your routine of trying to make Tori miserable. Heck, Ryder said you even put Tori in casts to make her miss a role."

Jade glanced down at the floor and for a moment, the words caught in her throat before she could muttered, "It wasn't my proudest moment. I goad her into something at a local 'club' and she got hurt."

"Wow… and you're shocked that you think you don't have any real friends. Trying to hurt them and sabotage their dreams really is a turn off in the friendship department. Are you sure you and Sam weren't separated at birth?"

Jade frowned and snorted out to dismiss his point, "Would she ever admit she was wrong?"

Freddie didn't hesitate to answer, "No."

She slightly tilted her head to the side and with a hint of smugness pointed out, "I guess that already makes us different right there."

Freddie thought about it for the moment before he hesitantly admitted, "I guess it does."

Jade took her opportunity to pry open his emotional shields and continued, "Tori is probably in tatters since she didn't show up for class today. Would your precious Carly react like that if you ever confronted her? Cut her off from your friendship?"

Freddie held a growl in check as if admitting such a thing pained him, "I seriously doubt it. She'd make some excuse about her behavior or try to sweep it under the rug."

"Tori's not excusing it, but she does have a jamn fine explanation for it: she didn't want to hurt you… she didn't want to be hurt in you thinking less of her. I doubt your girls in Seattle care about what you so much. Sam looks like she could care a flip about you while I haven't heard a positive word from Carly contacting you since she left Seattle. When we had lost you, we looked for you and when we found you, Tori nearly ripped Lindsey's hair out and I gave her a kick for good measure. What more do you want from someone to count on?"

"Being told the truth about it."

Jade nodded and licking her bottom lip. "Fair enough, but it wasn't out of malice for you."

Freddie took a deep breath, struggling to reconcile his initial assumption with the probability that Jade could be telling the truth. He wasn't ready to make a decision on that point yet, so he turned to the other reason for his anger. "Okay, say I accept that, that you and she were just trying to protect me. She turned around and betrayed my trust again."

Jade squinted and her lips slightly parted before asking, "What are you talking about?"

"Student Housing has repeated contacted her saying they have a room for her, but she's been ignoring them to stay."

"She doesn't want you to leave? What's so bad about that?"

"Because I have objections to rooming with her and she knew it from the beginning, so she kept secret them telling her a room was available."

Jade lifted a corner of her mouth then snorted out a laugh, "You don't like rooming with Tori?"

"It's not about whether or not I like rooming with her, but that she is female and I'm male. I can't do it for religious reasons. I don't care if everyone else finds them silly or outdated. It's what I was taught and that I agree with the teachings and if you want to mock me over those, I will have you thrown out right now."

She nodded as that was a line she wouldn't cross in mocking someone's faith.

Freddie wasn't finished, "She disregarded my feelings just like Carly and Sam would. I'm not interesting in starting that cycle over again where my thoughts and feelings are disregarded out of hand, I 'forgive' just to keep a worthless friendship going until she pulls it again."

"But that's not what she—we were trying to do, but the complete opposite… at least in regards to the party. About the roommate situation… I don't know why she would do that other than she really wants you to stay. That should actually mean something to you. That she cares about you so much and wants you around that she would keep that from you."

Freddie remained silent and put up his emotional shields filled with anger and outrage.

Jade looked at the anger shining from his eyes but also saw the hurt in them. He was lashing out because he was hurt, something she had experience and done many times before to people that didn't deserve it.

It was at that moment she realized she found an unexpected kindred spirit and empathized with him. However, she saw at the moment there wasn't anymore she could say to make a difference. She walked past him and headed for the door, but once she grabbed the door handle, she stopped. She looked over her left shoulder and made her final point, "She's not Carly and I'm not Sam… maybe you should think about that before you do something you'll regret. She's already dealing with her family shattering, should she have to go through losing you too at the same time?"

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly and stared at her retreating form then the door after it had closed, conflicting between his feelings of anger, betrayal and… wanting to accept Jade at her word about her actions and especially Tori's.

Author's Note: So the others know what happened and maybe the first steps to reconciliation has begun. We'll see what happens to everyone in the next chapter. Thank you for reading, OneHorseShay.