"So, you believe me now, don't you?"
Jade slowly sits down on the edge of her bed, watching Tori who's standing in front of her with crossed arms and raised eyebrows. "Yeah," she drags the word out and takes a deep breath, "But I still think something is seriously wrong with me for being able to communicate with you."
Tori's melodic laugh fills her ears and she can't help but smile slightly. "Of course." Tori walks over and takes a seat beside Jade, tilting her head and smiling at her. "That story you told my mom about how we met… it sounded really convincing."
Jade waves her hand dismissively. "Please. I'm an actress. That was simple Improv."
Another soft laugh leaves Tori's lips. They're silent for a moment before Jade speaks up. "Well, you're going to learn that soon enough."
"Learn what?" Tori asks confusedly, her brows furrowed as she watches Jade lay down on her back.
"Improv. Being such a dashing actress like me." She raises her eyebrows at the brunette before adding with a smirk, "But of course you'll never be as good as I am."
Tori smiles but doesn't respond. Instead she looks down at her lap, her fingers starting to fiddle with each other, a sign Jade figured out, that Tori's nervous. "What? What's up with you?" Jade sits up with a frown, carefully flicking her eyes over Tori's face.
"Jade," she sighs, "I don't even know if I'm ever going to wake up again."
"Yeah, you will!" Jade's voice is laced with fierce determination and Tori snaps her eyes up in surprise. She watches as the pale girl blinks, obviously as surprised as Tori. "I mean… since when are you so negative? We'll get you back into your body."
But Tori stays quiet, the only slight response Jade gets a small sad smile before the brunette moves her head downwards again. "Tori, just-"
"Are you afraid of dying?"
Tori fully turns towards her now, her eyes narrowed in curiosity and lips slightly parted. The question catches Jade off guard and it takes a moment before she's ready to answer. "I don't… know. I mean… I guess a little bit. Why are you asking me that? You're not gonna die, Tori."
"You don't know that," Tori quietly mumbles and looks down at her hands, "Or maybe I'll never wake up again. What then? I'm... I'm just really scared."
They both are quiet for a moment. Yeah sure, the possibility is there. It could happen that she won't wake up but Jade really doesn't want to think about that. They still could do so much, even though Jade doesn't have any clue what to do. Her mouth lets out a small sigh and she slowly inches closer to Tori, suddenly wishing she could touch her. "Don't be scared. You're gonna be alright."
Tori looks up, turns towards Jade and shakes her head. "Jade-"
"You're not alone," Jade's eyes steadily look into Tori's in an attempt to make clear to the brunette that she's being completely honest, "I promise you… that I won't leave you alone." Tori looks taken aback and Jade blinks, slightly confused by her sudden… niceness. "I actually… really mean that. I don't know why but I do."
Tori smiles, nodding her head. "Thank you." Her eyes move back down to look at her hands, her mouth taking in a shaky breath. "You don't even know how much that means to me."
"Believe me," she mumbles absentmindedly, "I actually do."
The room falls into a comfortable silence, only broken by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Jade sighs, rolls her eyes and gets up from the bed. She pauses at the door however and turns back around, her eyes meeting Tori's. "I really think your friends are idiots for giving up on you."
The smile that breaks out on Tori's face affects Jade more than she wants to admit and she can't stop the corners of her lips to lift up in a small smile of her own. It's a weird thing, the way Tori keeps affecting her, Jade thinks as she slowly walks down the stairs, the doorbell chiming again. They know each other for not even a week now but to Jade it feels like they know each other for far longer than that. The weird tingly sensation that aroused in her stomach back in the elevator when their eyes met so briefly and the way her heart stutters when Tori just as much as smiles at her… she wouldn't go as far to say that she had feelings for the brunette because, well, that would just be the most ridiculous thing… right? Maybe on some level, she has a little crush. Jade can't deny that Tori is, in fact, very pretty and she really isn't opposed to having girl crushes. They don't mean anything. It's just a crush, everybody has them. She rolls her eyes at herself and takes a deep breath, wiping all thoughts about crushes and Tori from her brain for the moment and swinging the door open to reveal Andre.
"Heeeey… Andre," she warily greets him, tightly gripping the door in her hand, "What are you doing here?" The boy doesn't say anything and pushes past Jade without another word. Turning around, Jade looks at him confusedly. With his lips pursed, his brows drawn together and eyes lacking the usual happy sparkle, Andre looks nothing like Jade's best friend. "What's wrong?"
His eyebrows raise, his finger pointed at his own chest. "With me?" Jade nods slowly and quietly closes the door behind her. "I think I should rather ask you that question, Jade."
His voice is quiet and his expression noticeably softens, which only adds to Jade's confusion. What was he talking about? He steps closer to her, his eyes searching hers. Jade crosses her arms over her chest, Andre's gaze slightly starting to make her uncomfortable. "Everything is alright with me. I'm not the one acting all weird."
The laugh that escapes Andre's mouth surprises her. "You aren't? Jade, why are you lying to me?"
"Wh- I'm not lying to you!"
"I know something's up with you, girl!" He shakes his head but Jade's eyes are fixed on Tori who hesitantly comes down the stairs, her fingers fiddling again as she takes in the scene in front of her. "I'm your friend, you can trust me. You always talk to me when you have a problem."
Jade licks her lips and turns her attention from Tori back to Andre. Her shoulders lift in a shrug. "Yeah. But I don't have a problem."
A loud sigh gets past Andre's lips and his eyes close for a brief moment. Jade appreciates that he's always so concerned about her, that he always wants her to feel good. But that's just the last thing she needs right now, with Tori in her life, needing her help. "You've been acting so weird the last couple of days. I mean… you've distanced yourself from us for the most part, we all caught you talking to yourself several times," he raises his eyebrows, Jade turns her head away, "I just don't understand. I'm worried about you."
"Andre," Jade starts and turns back to face him, "there's nothing for you to be worried about. I'm fine. And please, just because I didn't hang around you guys so much the last few days means something is wrong with me?" She chuckles, shaking her head. "You know I sometimes need my space. I was always like that. That's not a reason to freak out like you are right now."
"Jade, is it because..." He hesitates, biting his lip and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Y'know...?"
Jade's eyes narrow at him curiously. "What?"
"Well, next month is… the anniversary of-"
When she realizes what Andre is about to say her eyes widen and quickly move to a curiously looking Tori before settling back on Andre. "Shhhh!"
Andre breaks off, furrowing his eyebrows at Jade's reaction. "Jade, it's nothing to be-"
"Shut up now, okay? It's not about that!"
"But I could understand if-"
"Andre!" Her sudden change in demeanor takes him off guard and he quickly snaps his mouth shut. "I'm fine, I told you. Just trust me. If something would be wrong you'd be the first person I'd go to, alright?"
She takes in the slow nod from the boy, sighing when the worried look in his eyes still doesn't vanish. "Did you… want something else? Or did you just want to check up on me?"
"Just checking up on you."
Jade nods, arms still crossed and lips forming a thin line. "Okay. Well. You did. I'm okay, so…"
"Yeah, I'll just go now." He bites his lip and steps past Jade but stops and turns around again when he feels Jade's hand on his arm. She smiles at him, one of her real smiles, which not many people get the chance to see. "But thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you, Harris."
Finally a smile lights up Andre's face. "No problem. But if something's up with you… if you need to talk about anything then… you know where to find me."
"I do. See you tomorrow."
He smiles and nods at her one last time before disappearing out of the door. "What was that about?"
Tori's voice fills her ears and she closes her eyes before reopening them and turning around to look at the brunette. "Nothing, really. He's just worried because he saw me talking to myself." Jade smirks and saunters over to Tori. Her head tilts when the girl stays quiet, her lip captured between her teeth and her fingers still fiddling.
"I'm sorry that I'm getting between you and your friends," she says eventually, her voice quiet and her eyes guilty. Jade's smirk falls and she sighs, her hand lifting to run through her hair. "You don't get between me and my friends. Andre's just in the overprotective best friend mode."
Tori smiles. "I thought Cat is your best friend."
"She is." Jade walks back up to her room, Tori closely following her. "But Cat is… you know… she's Cat. She's really sweet and chiz but you can't really talk to her about serious things." She walks into her room, holding the door open until Tori stepped inside before pushing it shut. "And she can be pretty annoying. Andre on the other hand is always so calm and… quiet and I really like that about him."
"I see," Tori mumbles after a while and takes a seat next to Jade who snatched her computer from the bed and is now typing something. "What are you doing?"
"I found a website when I was looking for that Marcus guy… wait a moment…" She narrows her eyes at the computer screen before she clicks on a link.
"Magnus," Tori mentions absentmindedly as she scans over the page Jade just opened.
"Huh?"
"That guy's name was Magnus."
Jade smiles slightly and turns to look at Tori. "Oh. Right."
Tori's eyebrows scrunch up. "Everythingunderthemoon... What kind of site is that?"
Jade turns her attention back to the screen and starts clicking through the various links. "I don't really know. I just read ghosts and spirits and thought it might help us. Won't hurt to try it out." Jade's eyebrow raises. "Spells…" Clicking on the link, a page with various spells pops up. A smirk forms on her lips. "Oooh, look at that: Spell to Rid Oneself of a Bothersome Spirit. What do you think about that? Should I try it out?"
"Ha ha. Very funny." Tori releases a loud sigh, her shoulders sagging. "Jade, I don't think stuff like that will help very much. I mean, do you seriously believe in that stuff? Spells? Really?"
"Well, I didn't believe in a ghost who walks around and tries to get back into her body which lies in a coma up until recently, so," Jade shrugs, scrolling down the page, "might as well give it a try."
"B-but not the 'Get rid of ghosts' spell, right? I-I mean…"
Jade smirks at Tori's obvious worry, the girl's stuttering highly amusing her. "Oh, well… I don't know. Maybe I'll try it." Tori's eyes widen, her face taking on an absolutely horrified expression and it amuses Jade to no end that Tori really believes her that she can't help but laugh out loud.
"Jade!" Tori scolds, lifting her hand and swinging to hit the other girl's arm, only to swoosh right through it. This only fueled Jade's laughter, causing Tori to pout and a blush to stain her cheeks. "That's not funny," she mumbles but soon joins in, the sound of Jade's laugh being so addicting. "You really are so horrible."
After taking a deep breath to calm herself and wiping at her teary eyes, Jade chuckles and winks at Tori. "Oh, you didn't even see me at my best yet."
A/N: FlorMorada: Firstly: You're so sweet! Thank you very much! And yeah, I already know what's happening. I already have a lot written for it and the ending is already planned out in my head. But there still are some gaps that I fill in as I go along, so... mostly planned out but also a little bit of 'just writing with the flow'.