When Trina and I were younger (before her revelation that she was perfect and needed to become famous in order to be happy) we used to sneak into our neighbors' backyard all the time. They had kids back then, but by the time Trina and I were in middle school they had moved out. The parents were rarely, if ever, at home – more often than not they were vacationing in some exotic patch of islands I've never heard of, or taking another road trip in their RV. Anyway, it's almost spring break, and every year they leave early to catch a cruise. For Trina and I, this was prime time to lift the loose boards holding up their high fence and duck into their yard. For Jade and I, it's too perfect to pass up.

I pull her through my front yard, whispering her to duck past my kitchen window. I dodge through a few bushes, narrowly avoiding some thorns as we make our way to my neighbors' fence. It's tall – they liked their privacy – but the boards are faulty, and the bottom three in the farthest corner had long since been unscrewed by Trina and I from our adventures as kids. I smile, giving Jade's hand a squeeze as I bend to my knees, pulling the boards away. I have to crawl to get through, but as I emerge on the other side I see that the house is delightfully dark, and down a slight slope of hill is their inground pool.

I turn, poking my head out of the hole. It's dark, but I can see the outline of Jade's white t-shirt. I smile, motioning her inside. "C'mon, West." I stick my tongue out as I crawl back into my neighbors' yard, walking carefully to the pool. I hear her shift inside behind me, taking the opportunity to give her a bit of a show; I bend over probably a little too dramatically than is necessary as I grab the plastic cover and start peeling it off the surface of the water, humming innocently as I do so.

"Who would have thought Tori Vega was a criminal?"

I shoot her a glance over my shoulder, pleased to see that one hand is on her hip and her eyes are on my ... assets. I grin, pushing the cover away. The pool isn't very big, but it's pretty deep in one end. I make my way over the porch where the lights are, hitting the bottom one to illuminate the pool in a bright, greenish light. "A little B&E doesn't make me a criminal."

"What does it make you, then?"

"Risky." I move over to the side of the pool, peering down. The water is calm and flat and quiet. The city is too bright for us to see any stars, but I tilt my head up and look anyway. I can feel her eyes on me and I conveniently forget how to breathe, and then she's taking off her shoes and I'm following suit. We strip in silence, down to our underwear and bras. Mine are pink, hers are blue. I'm looking at her and she's looking at me and there's nothing really all that awkward about it; we've already seen all of each other. I've seen her naked, she's pretty much touched me everywhere, but even though we know each others bodies so well, I'm still in awe by the lines and curves that make up Jade. I tear off my shirt and step out of my pants and study the way her hips meet her sides and her sides meet her breasts and her breasts meet her shoulders and her neck and her lips. I swallow hard, taking slow steps toward the ladder on one end of the pool. Jade watches me and I wonder what she sees, if she's even half as amazed by me as I am by her.

I wonder if she thinks the same thing about herself. I wonder if she even understands the magnitude of the effect she has on me.

I lower slowly into the pool, one ladder step at a time. I hiss slightly as the cool water crawls up my leg and she chuckles, perching on the edge of the pool and dunking her legs up to her knees. Making a face at her, I drop the rest of the way into the pool, the water only reaching barely above my waist at this depth.

"All right, your turn."

Jade eyes me slowly before pulling her legs from the water. I pout, about to make a comment as she stands. "This is how real women get into a pool." She smiles at me, taking a step back before she launches forward, cannonballing into the water.

I squeal as she lands, the water splashing loudly and soaking me in a sudden cold spray. Flinging my hair from my eyes, I watch as she whips out of the water, damp hair swinging out from behind her as she takes a deep breath. She blinks at me, makeup running down the sides of her cheeks and even then, even like this, she's so startlingly gorgeous I can hardly stand it.

"You little -" I dive toward her, my hands grabbing her shoulders and pushing her under the water. She manages a short laugh before the water closes above us and then it's just bubbles and her warm skin flexing beneath me. Her hands snake around my waist, fingers digging into my sides. I kick toward the surface, breaking into a fit of giggles the instant air swirls into my lungs. "Jade, s-stop!" I can hear her laughing and the sound is so ... God, it's almost holy the way it rings out of her, and then my back is against the end of the pool and my eyes are still full of water but I can make her out, the foggy edges of her face struggling to come into focus and then her wet lips are on mine.

It feels so natural I'm not even surprised by the sudden turn of events; actually, it's quite welcome, because now I have an excuse to run my hands up her slick torso and circle them tightly around her neck. I can feel her smiling behind our lips and I'm smiling too, too overjoyed to not. Her hands guide my hips toward hers and my fingers are winding their way into the wet strands of her hair. I pull back to breathe, meeting her eyes, noting the smile on her lips with a growing pound of my heart.

"Jade?"

She smirks at me, her forehead touching mine. A finger traces its way up my spine and I gasp before suddenly dunking out of her grasp.

"Race!" I kick off the edge of the pool and dive toward the other end. I hear her laugh behind me, trying to keep up. I swim beneath her, kicking toward the deep end of the pool. I hold myself at the bottom, blinking up at her through the green light. I watch her legs meet the other end and then she hovers there, her torso twisting as she searches for me. Bubbles trickle past my lips as I kick off, swimming toward surface. My fingers trail up her legs as my head breaks through, smiling up at her before squirting a bit of water into her face. "Beat you."

Jade smiles, wiping the water out of her eyes, black smearing along her fingers. It seems to add to her allure rather than taking away from it, her hands searching through the water until they find my wrists. She pulls me back toward the other side until our feet meet the floor of the pool.

"You break the law and you cheat at races. You're worse than I thought. I think you're a bad influence on me."

I roll my eyes at her, letting her push me into a corner of the pool. My arms drape around her shoulders and I meet her eyes again, smudged and wet with her makeup and all I can say is "Shut it, West," and I kiss her. I kiss her and she kisses me and her hands are on my hips, guiding them to hers. The water is warm and she's warm and the goosebumps rising on my arms and neck aren't from the slightly chilly air above the surface - it's from this electricity that's sparking along my spine, shocking me. She's just ... she lights me on fire, she burns me, and my heart is drumming hard and I wonder if hers is, too.

Her lips leave mine and press to my cheek, sliding up to my ear. I cling to her shoulders, finding my knees to be less than reliable at this point as her fingers tease the elastic of my panties beneath the water. A sharp bite to my ear shakes a gasp out of me, my head falling back. A groan I hadn't intended to make trembles from my throat as her hand disappears into my panties and she wastes no time, doesn't have the patience to tease me which I'm actually very happy for. Her fingers brush between my lips and stroke my clitoris, sending a series of loud moans coming out of me. "J, Jade-" My words break off into a near scream as a finger pushes its way inside of me, my body arching off the edge of the pool and pressing into hers. I can feel her smiling against my cheek, her lips shifting down to pluck at the skin over my neck. I gasp, the finger moving in and out at an unforgiving pace and I'm trying to say something, anything coherent, but she's not listening, just chuckling against my pounding pulse. It builds so fast I can't see for several moments, and she's whispering in my ear to come and I do - I just let it all go, my muscles clenching hard as I ride out the orgasm and sink my nails into the flesh of her shoulders. It's so fast, so hot that I would probably drown if Jade didn't keep a firm hold on me.

Her hand disappears, repositioning on my hip. "Tori?"

My legs are trembling. I swallow, turning my lips to find her ear. "Yeah?"

"Race."

Her legs suddenly brace on either side of me and then she kicks off, soaring toward the other end of the pool. I dunk slightly, clutching the edges of the pool at my side and glaring out at her. I take a deep breath before attempting to follow. "You are such a - such a -"

Jade smirks, hovering in the middle of the deep end. "What's that, Tori? What am I?"

"You're a -!"

She plunges downward then. I laugh - I'm actually having fun. With Jade West. Jade West knows how to have fun. I kick my legs and dive down after her, blinking through the chlorine. Her arms are above her head, keeping her from floating up and I swim toward her, hands finding her cheeks. She's blurry but I can see that she's smiling, her arms around my torso. We spin toward the surface and something about this moment is just so ... real. She kisses me under the water and I've never felt so alive before, have never felt so here. Our heads crack the surface but her lips haven't left mine, and we're bobbing in the deep end, her legs kicking next to mine, and I wonder if our hearts are speaking to each other because it feels like a lot is being said without words.

I pull away first, the water at my chin. "Brat. That's what you are."

Jade smiles, reaching up to tap her finger against my nose. "You know you love me."

I start to laugh, leaning forward to kiss her again until I notice that she's suddenly frozen, her face going blank. Her hands tighten on my waist and then she's pushing me away. I flail my arms, keeping myself up. "Jade?" But she's not listening, not even looking at me as she tears for the side of the pool, yanking herself over the ledge. I panic, kicking hard toward her. "Jade, what's wrong?"

I know what's wrong, but I don't want to think it. I don't want to know it's true. She's throwing her shirt over her head, the fabric soaking wet and sticking to her skin. I clamber out of the pool, grabbing her elbow. She rips it so hard and fast out of my grip it's like I burned her and then she's struggling with her pants, grunting as the denim sticks to her legs.

"Jade. What the fuck." I grab her elbow again and refuse to let go, forcing her to spin and face me. Her eyes, black ringed and tinged with pink glare hard at me, a million unspoken accusations in her eyes.

"I love Beck, God damnit." She pulls away from me again and pulls her hair from the collar of her shirt. "I love Beck."

I stare blankly at her as she yanks her jeans up to her hips. "Who are you trying to convince here?"

"Shut up, Tori. This isn't - we're not - fuck." She grunts, turning toward the slope that leads up to the fence. I move in front of her, shoving her backward.

"No. You're not running away again. You're going to talk to me like I'm a person, Jade. We're not just fuck buddies anymore, okay?"

"No!" Jade shakes her head, her hands scrambling to get into her pockets. She pulls out her phone, blinking at the illuminated screen. "No, Tori, I have a boyfriend. I've had a boyfriend for two years and he loves me and I love him and you're not going to ruin that."

"Me? I'm not going to ruin it? Jade -" I take her shoulders firmly and wait for her to meet my eyes. "You came to me. You kept coming to me. I didn't start this. You did. And I'm not going to let it end with you trying to convince yourself you still love Beck."

She rips her eyes from mine and doesn't say anything, her chest heaving. I stare at her, my heart pounding, my legs trembling, standing there soaking wet in my bra and underwear trying to coax a girl into not leaving me. I don't want her to run away again, I don't to keep pretending that what's going on between us is just predator versus prey. I'm more to her now and she's much more to me. I've seen the Jade she wants to be, the one that picks me up and takes me to an expensive restaurant, the one that holds my hand and compliments me and kisses me in my neighbors' pool and tells me that she isn't an ice sculpture.

"I'm afraid." It's all she says, her eyes tilted above me. I place my hands gently on her cheeks and bring her face back down until they meet mine and I come forward, my body meeting hers with a flicker of warmth.

"Of what?"

I never thought Jade was capable of emotion up until recently, and even now I can't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that she looks like she's about to cry. She blinks hard, turning her face to mumble against the palm of my hand.

"You."

"Jade ..." I don't know what to say - how could she possibly be afraid of me? Wouldn't it be the other way around? I shake my head and pull her forward, my lips pressing against hers. She's tense for only a moment and then she's kissing me back, her hands in my lower back and I don't care about Beck, I don't care about two years with her boyfriend, I don't care about anything except the fact that Jade West is kissing me and I know the fight's not over, but she's finally giving me a chance to help her.

I pull back and whisper for her to wait just a minute as I slip away to my clothes, pulling the garments over my damp body. Taking her hand, we duck out of my neighbors' yard and into the side door of my house. It's dark and quiet and I realize that it's nearly eleven at night. I know Trina's not awake because she says that nine hours a night will make her more beautiful, apparently, and I don't hear anything from the hall off of the kitchen where my parents sleep. We tiptoe up the stairs anyway and I lock ourselves into my room, turning to watch as Jade sets on the edge of my bed. I tear my shirt off again, and then my bra - I don't even care anymore. She's seen all of me, anyway. She follows suit, and soon we're naked in my room and we're putting on pajamas from my drawer.

We don't speak again until we're under the covers in my bed and this is the first time we've been in my room fully clothed with her not on top of me. My arm is draped over her stomach, her lips on my forehead, and I breathe against her collarbone.

"I'm not going to make you do anything," I tell her, feeling her chest rise and fall slowly beneath me. "But, just so it's clear, I want you to be happy, with whoever you choose."

She doesn't say anything. She knows where I stand without me having to tell her; I want her. I want all of her.

I close my eyes and listen to her heart in my ear.

I know that, in the morning, things will change. Once more the rules are going to shift and I don't know what I'm going to do then but Jade's kissing my forehead and wrapping her arms around me and, for right now, that's enough.

A/N: You know what you should do? Review. Because, if you guys didn't know, reviews give me life. I'm a strange kind of creature that creates fanfiction and feeds off of criticism and such.

Also, happy birthday. It's not my birthday, but it's somebodies, and if it's yours, great! Imagine that I made all of this JUST for you. If it's not your birthday, you should leave a review, because that's a gift for me. It's my unbirthday. I celebrate it.