I am absolutely terrible and owe you guys a massive apology. I basically had no inspiration for this story so I abandoned it. But I was reminded about it earlier by someone who favorited it. So I'm going to try to keep up with it this time! By the way it might help to re-read the last chapter. It's been a pretty long time.
The now-empty bathroom gave Tori a lot of freedom to think. It also gave her enough privacy to cry, which she did.
How did things get so messed up? Part of her wished she'd never seen Jade so vulnerable. If she hadn't hated Tori before, she certainly did now. And it wasn't like Tori could do anything to change that. There are some things she just couldn't unsee, couldn't ignore.
Breifly she wondered whether she should tell a teacher or something, but she owed it to Jade to try and resolve this as quietly as possible. Jade would kill her, anyway. While she kind of felt like she wanted to die at the moment, she didn't want it to be at the goth's hands.
Hell, she'd seen movies, read books, sat through speeches about this kind of stuff but she'd always thought of it as this distant thing, way removed from anything she or her friends would do. She couldn't get the image out of her head; couldn't erase the red streaks from her vision. Maybe (obviously) Jade wasn't as strong as Tori had always thought. It would have been silly to think her invincible, but this? It was too much.
It hurt.
Sighing, Tori picked herself up off the floor. She brushed the dirt off the back of her pants and looked at herself once more in the mirror. Her hands found the faucet and she splashed a bit of water on her face, wiping it off with a paper towel. It almost didn't look like she'd been crying anymore. Perhaps she'd just yawned.
With a few short strides she was in the hallway, where she bumped into Andre. He caught her arm and steadied her. "Hey, chica," he grinned. She managed to flash him a small smile in return. "Hey, Andre."
"Did you just come from the bathroom?" he asked, looking past her towards the girls' room. She nodded. "You washed your hands, right?"
"Andre!"
"Sorry, had to ask." Andre shifted his backpack to the other shoulder, shrugging. "My grandma freaks when I'm sick. She convinces herself I'm possessed."
Tori hadn't noticed Beck next to Andre, but he piped up then, "Dude, there's something wrong with your grandma." Tori agreed with a snicker. "She's so weird."
Andre raised an eyebrow. "You think I don't know that? I have to live with her. The woman's insane." Shaking his head, he continued down the hallway to his locker. Tori followed, but slowed to match Beck's pace a few feet behind Andre. She tried to figure out how she could approach the subject, or even if she should. Beck might know about Jade's... issues.
Before she could stop herself she tapped his shoulder. "Beck?" she asked timidly. He looked over at her and nodded. "Hey, Tor. What's up?"
Tori bit her lip, desperately trying to figure out a way to word the question without tipping him off to anything he might not know about. After a pause just long enough to make it awkward, she squeaked out, "Have you talked to Jade lately?"
Beck snorted. "I guess?" he said. "Why?"
"Oh, uh... I-I was just wondering," she laughed nervously. "No real reason." Beck regarded her carefully, trying to figure out if she was serious. "right," he said after a few seconds, not sounding very convinced. "Because you always ask about Jade. You guys are such great friends."
Tori feigned offense, scoffing. "Hey, I try to be her friend! It's not my fault she's always such a gank to me." Beck rolled his eyes and laughed, giving her a playful shove. "Why'd you wanna know if I talked to her?" he asked, adding when Tori started to speak, "The truth."
She hesitated. Beck was watching her patiently, eyebrows raised. She knew she wasn't a great liar. Or even a mediocre one, honestly. Maybe it would just be better to ask Beck straight up; maybe he even already knew about it. He and Jade broke up, but they still talked.
"Well... you know Jade pretty well, right?" Beck stared blankly. "Yeah, obviously you do. That wasn't, like, a serious question. Heh." Mentally cursing herself, she continued. Beck looked a bit amused at this point. "I just mean, you know her. So you would probably know, if, say, something was going on with her."
Beck straightened. "What do you mean?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. "Tori, is there something going on with Jade?"
Instantly Tori froze. This was a mistake. If he didn't know and Jade found out she was talking to Beck about it... Well, they wouldn't find her body for days.
"Tori?"