Hey guys! I'm so glad so many of you already like the story! I'll try to update quicker!
This is, as I've said, my take on "playdate", so my scene will not be verbatim. But I think you'll all enjoy it a lot more. ;)
I stand outside the restaurant, taking a deep breath. Of all the things to do on a Friday night, I'm here with Vega and Sikowitz. This is obviously not my idea of a fun time. Not to say I'd have much else to do, but even sitting at home alone would be more riveting than this.
I walk inside and see Vega already at the sushi bar, zoning into the cup of water in front of her, lost in thought. I come up onto her right side and drop my bag hard onto the seat, breaking her from her trance. I plop next to her, giving her a smug look.
"No need to wish any further. I am here." I say to a less than amused Vega.
"Great...just great..." she responds, looking back into her cup of water.
"Hey, this should be a treat for you. You actually have plans for the night." She rolls her eyes at my statement and sighs heavily.
"I'd rather be doing a million other things than be sitting here with someone who despises me." She says, turning away from me.
"Yeah, same here." I respond, annoyed with the entire situation.
"Hey, I'm not the one that despises you. You-"
Before she can finish her sentence, Sikowitz appears on the other side of her, making us both jump.
"Hello ladies! Glad to see you both made it!"
"Yeah, that makes one of us..." I say, but Sikowtiz ignores me completely.
"So what are we doing here?" Vega asks.
"The two of you need to learn to like each other, otherwise this play will be a complete disaster. Both of your chemistry on stage is phenomenal. But together...you're...well, it's just plain awful."
"Wow...thanks for the...encouraging words" Vega says, with disdain in her voice.
"My pleasure! So that is why the two of you are going to spend tonight here together. You're going to date."
"What?" I shout, standing up and pounding my fists on the table. "I didn't agree to that at all!"
"Yeah, neither did I!"
"Well too bad! If you both want to stay in this play and want to pass my class, you will stay here until the restaurant closes at midnight"
"Midnight? You mean I'm stuck here all night with Vega?"
"I'm not too thrilled about it either, Jade. But I certainly don't want to fail this class, or lose my part in the play."
I groan and sit back down, nodding my head in agreement. I figure I'll play along until he leaves, and then I'll leave as well. He'll have no idea.
"Good! Then it's settled. I'll see you both on Monday." Sikowitz turns to leave, but stops and turns back towards us.
"Oh, and lastly, Sinjin is here. He's going to make sure the two of you don't try to sneak out early. Ta-Ta!"
Well, there goes my one and only plan. I slam my fists onto the counter, making Vega jump and glare at me.
"Look, let's just get this over with, okay?" she says, making me feel kind of bad for whatever reason. Me not liking her is fun, but her not liking me...well...I don't like it and I don't know why.
"Whatever." I respond, trying not to seem hurt.
We sit in silence, only speaking to order our food. I use my knife to cut up napkins while she plays on her phone. After a while, I run out of napkins and grow incredibly bored. I look at my phone and see it's only 8:00pm; I'm stuck here for another four hours. What the hell am I supposed to do? This shit is ridiculous; I bet it's not even legal.
I look over at Vega, and though it goes against everything in my nature, I try to converse with her.
"So...what...uh...what are you up to over there?"
She looks at me, shocked that I'm speaking to her and that it wasn't something rude or insulting.
"Well...I'm playing a game. It's kind of like scrabble. Do you want to play? I can do a two player version."
"Uh...sure I guess."
We begin to play, and while I assumed I'd destroy her, she is kicking my ass so hard that I'm actually embarrassed.
"Damn, Vega. I didn't take you as a wordsmith."
"I'm not. You see, you go for the biggest words you can, which is good and everything, but I try a different approach. It's not about the word, it's where you play the word. For example, I'm about to play the world "Belt". It's not very long, but the B is worth 5 points and it's landing on a triple letter space. Also, my word ends on the "T", which is on a double word space. This makes my word 41 points. And it also makes me so ahead of you that you'll probably never catch up."
She gives me an evil smirk, and I almost blush because of it. The idea of blushing because of Vega makes me sick, and I work to hide my emotions. Instead, I try to find words to beat her with, occasionally giving her a devious grin when I play really high point words. But by the end, there was no chance in me ever winning. I caught up well, but she still beat me by 21 points. I hate losing immensely, especially to someone like Vega, but I force myself not to throw her phone on the ground and smash it to pieces.
"Good game! You learned pretty quickly!" she says, reaching her hand out to me. I'm confused by this gesture, and just stare blankly at her.
"What...what do you want?"
"A hand shake? For a good game? Haven't you ever played a sport or anything?"
"No. I hate the sun. And outside. And people. Did you play sports?"
"Of course! I played tennis for four years and soccer for six."
"Wow...didn't take you as the sporty type."
"Well, I focus on music more now. But I still love it and honestly, I miss it a lot."
It hits me that Vega and I are actually conversing, and we're not ready to kill each other. Unfortunately, my communication skills are lacking, and I have no idea how to keep the conversation going. I suddenly grow nervous, and I'm not sure why. I try to think of anything to say, but for some reason, I completely draw a blank. Why? Why am I feeling this way?
"Are you okay, Jade? You look sick all of a sudden."
"Oh...I'm fine. I just...um...you know..."
And of course I say nothing of substance. Not only have I temporarily lost my tough exterior and my speaking abilities, but I've apparently lost my mind as well. As I search for any word at all in my head, the waiter comes over and sets our sushi down in front of me. I wished it would distract Vega, but she's still looking at me, awaiting an answer.
"No...I'm not sure I know. But hey, can I ask you a question?"
Thank God.
"Sure." I say.
"Why do you hate me? I mean, you know I don't want Beck and never did. So why are you still so mean to me?"
"I'm mean to everyone, Vega. Are you completely blind or just dumb?"
"You see? It's things like that. You're not nearly as mean to anyone else like you are to me. I can't say anything around you without you responding with such hostility."
"That's not true. I didn't say anything mean during our game, or when you were talking about sports."
She looks at me for a moment, puzzled by what I just said.
"Well, what made that so different?"
"I don't know. It was...interesting. It wasn't what I expected and it wasn't boring."
"I'm not boring, Jade."
"Well, your interests usually bore me. I mean, I hate pop music, I hate bright colors, I hate perky people...you should know all of this by now."
"So you essentially hate all of me?"
"No, Vega. You're not listening. You assume so much so easily. Stop jumping to conclusions."
"Stop making me jump to them and just tell me if you hate me or not."
I sigh loudly and roll my eyes.
"I don't hate you, Vega. We're just very different."
"Different isn't always bad."
"Why are you even asking all of this? Why do you care so much?"
"Because I want to be your friend, Jade. That's all I've ever tried to do."
"But why? You say I'm so mean to you...why would you ever want to be friends with someone like that?"
"I have my reasons."
"Come on, Vega. I've told you a lot of shit. Now you tell me."
She looks down at the counter, almost lost in thought. Suddenly, she looks back up at me, and has that vicious grin across her face yet again.
"Okay. I'll tell you why I want to be your friend...IF you can say something nice about me."
"No. I'm not playing this stupid game."
"Awww, is big bad Jade too afraid to be nice to lil ol' Tori?"
"Fuck no. I just don't have anything nice to say."
"Really, Jade? You can't think of one nice thing to say to me?"
I look at her, and all I can see is hurt in her eyes. I hate this. I hate that I suddenly feel bad about her sadness. I hate it so much. I mean, don't get me wrong, I never really wanted to hurt Vega, I just like messing with her. But now things are confusing and I am so over this guilt.
"I guess...you're not the worst singer I've ever heard..."
She gives me a dull look and I start to chuckle.
"What? Not good enough for ya?" I ask, still laughing at her reaction.
"That wasn't even a real attempt. Try again." she says, almost pleading at this point. I think for a moment, uncomfortable with the thoughts I'm having. I hate to admit it, but I can think of a few things I like about her, and that is already too many. Still, I make it seem like I'm struggling to think of something. I can't let me guard down.
"I guess from certain angles...some people might say... you're pretty." I can't believe I said that. Why? Why did I say that? What the hell am I thinking? I looked over at her, and surprisingly, she was smiling at me. She was silent, though, which made me nervous.
"You could say I'm pretty..." I say, just trying to break the silence and give the conversation a more Jade-Esq feel. I don't want her thinking I'm getting soft; I want her to know I'm still the same tough and conceited Jade, even if that's not completely true.
"You are pretty." she says to me. Suddenly, my heart starts beating really fast. I feel like I can't breathe and I cannot think of anything to say or do.
This isn't the first time I've felt like this. Come to think of it, every time I have felt like this has been because of her. And every single time I hate the feeling and do whatever I can to make it go away. But this time...I don't want it to. I mean, I do want it to stop, but for once, I kind of want to see what would happen if I didn't say something mean to ruin it.
I guess I want to know if I'm lonely or if I might actually...like...Tori Vega.
"And again, you look sick. Is being nice to me that hard for you?" she asks me. I break from my trance and look back at her again. Before I can speak, mine and Tori's phone's goes off on the counter. I pick it up and quickly read the text, as does she.
Cat: Jadey! Andre is having a party at his place while his grandma is out of town! Starts around 9! xoxo
"Did you get the same Cat text?" she asks. I nod and close my phone.
"Ugh, I wish we could go!" she says.
"Really? You go to parties?"
She looks away shyly, and her face becomes a little flushed.
"I mean, I've been to parties..."
"Have you ever drank at a party?"
"I've...taken sips..."
"Oh my God. Okay. We need to figure out how to get the hell out of here and get to that party."
"What? But...what if we get caught, Jade? We'll get in trouble!"
"Vega, listen. If we're going to be friends, we're going to need to do some friendly bonding. And what better way than to do something a little adventurous and, at the same expense, have an awesome night at Andre's?"
"You really want to be friends?"
"Did I stutter?" I raise an eyebrow, looking her dead in the eye.
"So, what is it, Vega? Down to do something a little less mundane?"
A smile creeps across her face.
"If you can be sure Sinjin won't rat us out, then okay. I'll do it."
"Oh, he won't be a problem...SINJIN!" I shout as loud as I possibly can, making Vega fall out of her seat. Without fail, Sinjin comes running over, tripping and falling over a chair and ending up flat on his face in front of me.
"Well hey there sunshine" I say to the obsessive loser on the ground.
"Hi Jade...did you...want something?"
"Yep. Want to be less of a disturbing nerd with no friends?"
"Only always!"
"Cool. Then I'll make a deal with you. Want to come to a really cool party with Vega and myself?"
"A party...? You mean with real people...and...girls?"
"Yep. Drinking, smoking, the works. Like the ones you see on TV and only dreamed of."
"Yes...yes...! I want to go!"
"Okay. I'll take you...but only if you tell Sikowitz we stayed here the whole night and got along swimmingly."
"I don't know..."
"Oh, well that's fine. I guess you're content with just dreaming about it for the rest of your life, then."
"NO!" He shouts, with his eyes almost popping out of his head.
"What? Have a sudden change of heart?"
"Yes...I mean...I'll do it."
I look over at Vega who is beaming, and grabbing her things to go. Sinjin runs to grab his stuff while I get my jacket on and text Cat that we're coming. I neglect to mention Sinjin; future Jade will deal with that.
"That was pretty awesome, Jade." Vega says.
"Yeah, I've got some skills" I reply smugly. I turn towards her, trying to act like my cool and collected self. But once I do, I realize how close we are standing to one another. My heart begins to pound and I'm speechless once again. Still, she doesn't seem to catch on as to why I'm feeling and acting like this. She smiles at me and grabs one of my hands.
"I'm really glad you're going to try to be my friend, Jade."
I look away from her eyes and down to the ground, my hand feeling like it's on fire from her touch.
"Yeah...whatever." I say, glancing up at her. She's still smiling, looking me in the eyes with such ease.
"I never told you why I want to be your friend even though you're mean to me." She says softly.
"Oh...well you don't have to." I mumble in response.
" No, a deal's a deal. It's because I think you're...well...I don't know the word. You're really talented in so many ways, and you're the most passionate person I know. I hate how mean you are, and how you do so many terrible things that are fueled by anger, but I can't help but really like how fun and crazy you can be sometimes. You're just unlike anyone I know, and I just...I think we could be good for each other...ya know, as friends. We both have qualities the other lacks. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's why."
She smiles at me and moves the hair in front of my face and brushes it behind my ear.
"And I meant it Jade. You are really pretty."She squeezes my hand, then lets it go and heads for the door behind Sinjin. It takes me a moment to start moving, and to start breathing again. I hate and love this feeling; I'm so perplexed. Still, she doesn't seem to realize how messed up I'm feeling, so this could work to my advantage. The problem though, is that I'm not sure what "this" is yet. But what I do know is that I have a party, alcohol, mixed up feelings an eager Tori Vega...
Tonight is bound to make whatever "this" is a little more interesting.