The glass clinks down to the floor, shattering into pieces and making the water it contained splash all over the floor. In an attempt to keep her shoes from getting wet, Cat quickly pulls her feet back.

"God dammit!"

Lifting her eyes from the mess on the floor, Cat looks at an almost furious Jade. A scowl adorns her pale face as she angrily looks down at the wet floor and Cat wouldn't even be too surprised if steam would come out of her nose and ears at any second. "Don't worry. It was only a glass," she tries with a small voice but immediately shrinks away when Jade's angry gaze snaps to her.

She really doesn't like it when Jade is like this and she hates it even more if she doesn't even know what had caused Jade's anger in the first place. Ever since Cat got here merely an hour ago, Jade had done nothing but snap at her even though Cat really doesn't know what she could have done wrong. "Yeah, it's only a glass," Jade growls bitterly, turning to look straight ahead as Cat proceeds to carefully pick up the shards, "Just like I only have feelings. Feel free to stomp on them, that's what they're there for!"

Cat's eyebrows crease in confusion and her eyes peer up at her best friend. "Oh, I didn't know that glass meant so much to you."

Her childlike voice lacks any joking undertone and sounds so serious that Jade almost wants to let out a laugh. But instead, she just turns to glare at Cat. "Just forget it," she murmurs lowly.

Cat lets out a sigh and gets up from the floor. The shards she picked up are neatly placed on the table next to Jade's bed and the water on the floor is poorly wiped up with tissues out of Cat's bag. "Why are you so cranky today?" The question sounds loudly in Jade's ear after a silence passed but the pale girl keeps her gaze fixed on the wall, completely ignoring the fact that Cat just asked her a question. "If I did something wrong," the redhead continues, almost causing Jade to groan in annoyance, "you can tell me. I mean… I don't really think I did something wrong but sometimes when my brother does something he isn't supposed to do, he doesn't think it's wrong. So maybe I did something but don't really-"

"Would you just shut up?"

Jade isn't yelling but her low voice and hard glare – still directed to the wall – is enough to make Cat stop talking. "I'm sorry," Cat whispers and looks at her lap, her fingers beginning to pick at the edge of her skirt.

Glancing over at her best friend and seeing her with hunched down shoulders makes Jade immediately regret treating her the way she does. Cat isn't her problem, Tori is. But Tori isn't here, she doesn't care that she could have died, so Cat became the target of Jade's anger, without having a clue. "You didn't do anything wrong," Jade quietly murmurs and turns to fully look at Cat. She waits until the redhead looks up at her before she continues. "It's just not a good day today."

Cat's eyebrows furrow and her lips twitch as she contemplates if it would be okay for her to say something or if Jade would immediately get mad again. Deciding to take the risk, Cat asks "Why isn't it a good day?"

Jade sighs. Tori isn't a ghost or… whatever she was in the first place anymore so Jade could openly tell Cat about her. But Cat is Cat, and Jade never spoke to her about anything serious. That's what Andre was there for. "I'm just… in pain." Jade watches as understanding dawns upon Cat as she takes in Jade's words.

"Well… maybe you should ask for some pain killers," Cat advises with great worry detectable in her voice, frowning when Jade shakes her head and tells her that it isn't that serious. "But I don't want you to fall back into a coma, Jade."

Jade looks at her weirdly and then lets out a chuckle. "That won't happen. I'm fine, believe me." She pauses for a moment before adding "But maybe you should go home now. I'm sure I just need a little rest."

Cat slowly nods and gets to her feet. Her bag is tightly clutched between her fingers as she just stands at Jade's bedside for a moment, letting worried eyes roam all over Jade's face and body. "But… if you feel worse then… call the doctor. See," her pointer finger points to the little red button just over Jade's head, "you just have to push that button and-"

"I know that, Cat. Don't worry, I'm not going to die."

The worry Cat was showing for her is almost ridiculous but at the same time heartwarming to Jade. She watches Cat cringe at the word 'die' before she lets out a deep sigh. "Okay. But if you need company you can call me, alright?"

"Alright."

A small smile lights up Cat's face as she waves goodbye and walks out of the door, leaving Jade alone with her mind completely filled with Tori.

x.X.x

"I can't believe you didn't tell her I woke up!"

David's eyebrows shoot up when he hears the loud tone of his youngest daughter's voice coupled with an angry glare in his direction. Tori is standing in front of him with her arms crossed and eyebrows drawn down in an angry frown and suddenly, David feels like he is the child in the family. "Tori," he begins carefully, "She just disappeared from one moment to the next and-"

"That's because she was in an accident," Tori almost shouts, exasperated, and throws her arms up. "She would have come back! There is now way that she would have just let you guys turn off the life support."

"Honey, I-"

He suddenly stops speaking, his eyebrows creasing as he lets Tori's words replay in his head. "Wait a second. How do you even know that Jade was in an accident?"

Crap. "Um… well, because…" Trina asked her the same question a couple of times but when she saw how upset Tori was, she let it go. Her dad's curious eyes watch her every move but Tori knows this isn't the time to panic or get nervous. Jade. Right now is all about Jade. She sighs aggravated and shakes her head. "I just do. And it doesn't even matter now, dad." Tori makes a short pause, trying to calm herself down a little. "What matters is that I need to see her."

"Oh no, Tori. You can't do that. You have to stay here."

"Are you kidding me? Why?"

"This is therapy. There's a reason why you have a room here, you know. It's for your own good, so that your leg will recover."

Her dad's reasoning doesn't impress her but Tori knows that arguing with him wouldn't bring her any closer to Jade. If anything, David Vega is the most stubborn man she knows if he wants something and right in this moment, he wants his daughter to fully recover again. With a sigh, Tori plops down on her bed. "Fine. But I really need to know how she is. Can you please make sure she's okay?"

David smiles and crouches down in front of Tori, his hand squeezing her knee. "Of course, sweetheart."

x.X.x

"My mom and I… we weren't really close. And it wasn't her fault, it was mine." Jade swallows and looks down at her hands. "She was a great mom. But it took a while until I realized it." With furrowed eyebrows, she shakes her head. "She was never like my father. When I wanted to go to Hollywood Arts, she supported me, defended me in front of my father. They always fought so much. Mostly about me." Her eyes lift to look at Tori, one corner of her mouth pulled up in a sad smile. "I asked her if I could get a tattoo. She said 'no', of course. I mean, it's understandable, right? She's my mother and I was fourteen, why on earth would she allow me to get a tattoo?"

She laughs, a bitter sound that really shouldn't surprise Tori, but it does and the brunette bites her lip when she sees Jade's eyes getting slightly moist. It hurts her, talking about her mom, thinking about her; it caused her pain and as Jade would say: really not the good kind. Tori considers telling her to stop because she really doesn't want her to see her so upset, so different from what Tori has come to know. But Jade continues before Tori can say anything. "I was so mad at her. I couldn't understand why she said no. Or… I did but I just didn't want to listen to her. So I went out and got my tattoo, plus my two piercings. I knew she was going to get mad and I didn't even want to think about how furious my dad would be. But stupid me didn't care. She just wanted to prove that she could make her own decisions."

It's sad really, how much you learn to appreciate someone when they're dead, Jade thinks as she lets out another laugh and shakes her head. "When I came home though… My dad wasn't there. Which actually was kinda surprising because he didn't use to work as much as he does nowadays. But anyways, my mom was in the living room, bustling around, packing things into a box." Jade's eyes travel around the room as if she see the scene unfold in front of her and in a way, she does. She sees her mom hastily packing a vase into the box, a pale hand lifting to push black hair out of her face.

"Why was she packing?" Tori asks after a while of silence. Snapping out of her memory, Jade flicks her eyes over to the brunette.

"My parents were… they talked about getting a divorce for so long. I don't really know why they put it off for so long, they couldn't stand each other anymore." Jade shakes her head and averts her gaze, eyebrows creasing. Again there's silence when Jade seems to space out again.

"She left you and your dad?"

"No," Jade laughs, "She would have never left me alone with dad. I… walked in, asked her what's going on. My heart nearly stopped as her eyes looked up at me and only then did I realize how scared I really was of her finding out about what I did… But she didn't notice. I guess she was just… too upset to really…" Jade trails off, closes her eyes for a second and shakes her head. "'Sweetie, your dad and I are getting a divorce' she said. It didn't surprise me that much. Like I said, they were talking about it for a while. I asked her why she was packing and she told me that she would move out and I could decide for myself if I wanted to go with her or stay with dad. Of course I wanted to go with her but then… then she started to go into this rant about moving away, to San Francisco or to New York and I just…"

"Simply put, we started fighting about that. I didn't want to move away. I was just accepted into Hollywood Arts, how could she think that I was willing to move to another city? I was starting to yell at her and somewhere in the middle of our fight… she finally really looked at me and… saw my piercings."

Tori swallows and shifts closer to Jade. "She got mad, didn't she?"

"Oh yeah. Everything got so heated and… I ran up the stairs…" Jade's voice cracks dangerously and tears trickle out of her eyes. A sob fights its way through her throat but Jade closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before she continues. "She followed me and yelled that we weren't done and just as I got upstairs and wanted to go to my room, she grabbed my arm and tried to keep me in place. I tried to… I… I tried to pull my arm away and… I pushed her. She let go of me but… she lost her balance and… fell."

Tori can't stop the gasp from coming out of her mouth but Jade doesn't even seem to notice. She looks straight ahead and keeps talking. "She just fell down the stairs and… laid there at the bottom. I was so… I called out but she didn't react so I ran down but…"

"She was dead," Tori whispers, releasing a gush of air when Jade nods.

"Her neck was broken." Again, she releases that bitter sound that Tori really can't stand. "You would think falling down the stairs… it's not that bad. The worst that can happen is you break a bone or two. You don't expect to never breathe again."

"God, I'm so sorry, Jade." Now more than ever Tori wishes that she could touch Jade, take her into her arms and just… comfort her.

"You don't need to be sorry." Jade wipes her tears with the back of her hands and turns towards Tori with her face morphed in a frown. "It's not your fault. It's mine."

"No! Don't think that." Even though she can't really do anything, Tori shifts closer to the pale girl and tries to catch her eyes. "It was an accident."

"It was," Jade agrees and nods, "But that accident wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for me."

Tori's heart constricts. She could understand why Jade was blaming herself, but that doesn't mean that she agrees with her. "Accidents happen, Jade," Tori says softly and watches Jade look down to her lap, "It's not your fault. Your mom would say the same thing, I'm sure of it."

Another lone tear slowly trickles down her cheek. Jade nibbles at her lip before releasing a shaky breath. "I hate to feel so guilty all the time."

"I know."

"I miss her."

"But you don't have to," Tori smiles when Jade finally looks up at her, "She's always there. She's your mom, she wouldn't just leave you alone. And don't tell me you don't believe in stuff like that because, please… why am I here?"

And really, Jade thinks as a small smile appears on her face, maybe Tori's right.

She told her everything. She trusted her enough to talk about her mother.

And Jade hates herself for it.

Why didn't she just ignore Tori like she planned to? Because of her stupid brown eyes, that's why. How manipulative Tori was. How naïve Jade was. If she could, Jade would take her scissors and-

A knock disturbs her revenge fantasies and with an eye roll she shakes her head at whoever is standing on the other side of the door.

"No!"

Much to Jade's annoyance, the door opens anyways and in steps no one other than Trina Vega. "Well, aren't you a charming one," the brunette sarcastically says with a sour smile and closes the door behind her.

Jade's eyebrows crease as she watches the older Vega sister plop down on the chair next to her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Seeing how you are," she simply answers with a fake smile which quickly drops when she sees Jade's narrowed eyes. Trina sighs and rolls her eyes. "Tori wanted to see how you are but since she can't really come here to see for herself, I took matters into my own hands."

Trina's words were like a slap to the face to Jade. Tori wanted to see her? "Tori? That's… what?"

"Yeah, my dad actually wanted to come and see you but I told him that I wanted to go because… you know," Trina's eyes give her a slight once over before they settle back on her face, "I want to know what's the deal with you and Tori."

Ignoring the last part of Trina's sentence, Jade sits up, wincing a little. "So, why can't Tori come? What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing. She's just in the rehabilitation center and dad didn't want her to leave before she recovered. But she was worried about you because you were in an accident, which, she knew for whatever reason."

Jade's anger abruptly vanishes as if it was never there in the first place, a smile creeping to her face. "Tori wanted to see me. She was worried about me?" She asks Trina for a confirmation, the smile getting bigger.

Trina's eyes narrow. "Yeah. Does that surprise you?" Jade's smile falters a little when a feeling of guilt washes over her. "I mean," Trina continues and leans back in her chair. She swings her left leg over her right one and crosses her arms. "She talks about you like you're some kind of goddess and yet you only met each other one time." She uncrosses her arms and legs, leaning forward and scrutinizing Jade with narrowed eyes. "What is there between you and Tori?"

"What do you think there is?" Jade shoots back confidently, holding Trina's gaze.

Trina doesn't miss a beat. "I think you've met more than once. In fact, I think there's more than just friendship between you two. Which," Trina's eyes open wide as she leans back and holds her hands up, "is totally cool with me, by the way. I mean, I'm not into girls but if Tori is, then good for her."

"Well," Jade starts with a nod, "then I don't think we will have a problem with each other, will we?"

Trina stares at her for a moment, her suspicion still obvious, but then she nods and a small smirk tugs at her lips. "We won't."

x.X.x

2 weeks later.

With a sigh, Jade trudges after Beck and adjusts the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"Jade, are you sure you don't want me to carry your bag? It looks heavy."

Jade turns to look at her best friend walking beside her, her concerned brown eyes fixed on Jade's bag. "Cat?" She slowly calls out, shooting her a tight smile when the redhead looks up. "I'm totally fine again. You can stop babying me."

"Okay. But if you need me to-"

"Stop talking before I cut your tongue out."

Cat gasps, her eyebrows drawing down. "That's so mean!"

Jade rolls her eyes, her ears faintly taking in Beck's deep chuckle. She reaches out and takes her laptop out of Cat's hand and smiles at her in what she hoped was a friendly manner. "Don't worry. Go to your class now. I still have Beck to be my pack mule."

"Kay kay," Cat happily chirps and shoots her two friends a bright smile before taking off down the hallway. Jade sighs and watches her go with a shake of her head. "She's just trying to help." Beck's voice sounds in her ear and Jade turns around to look into the smiling face of her ex-boyfriend and friend.

"I know that."

"Then be a little nicer to her." He narrows his eyes and smiles, lifting his hand and forming a little gap between his forefinger and thumb. "Just a tiny, little bit."

"I am being nice to her," Jade defends herself and creases her eyebrows.

Beck sighs, pries the laptop out of Jade's fingers and clamps it under his arm, throwing his other arm over Jade's shoulders as they slowly begin to walk towards their math class. "You've been a little grumpy lately. Grumpier than usual." He smiles and squeezes Jade's shoulders when he sees her roll her eyes. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine."

She has to admit, maybe she was in a bad mood more often lately and even though she really doesn't want to admit it, she knows it's because she misses Tori. The Vega's had visited Jade in the hospital a few times, Holly and David apologizing that they didn't tell her sooner about Tori's recovery. They gave her Tori's phone number and they called each other almost every day. But talking to Tori just isn't enough for Jade. She wants to see her, without having to hide the fact that she actually can see her and strangely enough, she really wants that hug. But who knows how long Tori still has to stay in that stupid center.

After many frustrating equations and her grumbling stomach driving her insane, Jade's mood only worsened. Jade walks out of her class, not waiting for Beck. Releasing a deep breath, Jade makes her way to her locker to put her books away before she'd go to the Asphalt Café to meet up with the others.

A tap on her shoulder pulls her out of her thoughts and she's getting ready to yell at Cat – because really, who else would know to bother her in just the wrong time? – but when she turns around, her breath hitches and her lips part. "Tori?"

A bright smile lights up the brunette's face and Jade really can't stop her lips from forming one of her one. "Hey. Mind showing me around?"