Chapter 2: Making Progress

Tori approached their lunch table on the Asphalt Café. The whole gang was there: Cat, Jade, Beck, Andre, Robbie, and Rex. And a new person. The new girl. Who Cat had invited to eat with them. And the girl who made Tori and Jade kiss. Tori wrinkled her nose at the girl and sat down across from her, next to Andre.

"Hi, Felicity," Tori said, trying to be her friendly self. "How are you liking Hollywood Arts?"

"It's nice," the girl said. "Y'all are friendlier than I expected."

"Did you just say 'y'all'?" Jade looked at the new girl with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, you got a problem with it?" Felicity met Jade's glare and glared back. Hmmm, a girl who could hold her own against Jade West? Tori like.

Jade opened her mouth for a snappy retort, but Beck nudged her. She glanced at him and didn't say anything. Even though they weren't together anymore, he could still keep her anger under control.

"Felicity, that was a great scene idea you had," Beck said. "It's almost like you knew that Tori and Jade are enemies."

Felicity looked from Jade to Tori. "I'm good at reading people."

Good at reading people? What did she mean by that? Before Tori got the chance to question her, though, someone else spoke.

"I love reading!" Cat said with a big smile on her face. "My favorite books are the ones with pictures in them! And cats. I love cats."

"Should I worry about her?" Felicity asked.

"We all worry about her," Beck said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cat asked, her voice high-pitched. She screamed before running away from the table.

Her friends watched her leave, and it didn't seem like any of them were going to go after her. Felicity's eyes had widened, but when she noticed that no one else was too worried, she figured that the girl would be alright.

"About the scene today," Felicity said, "you two must be really good actors. I find it hard to believe that you two hate each other."

Andre laughed. "Yeah, Jade, maybe you like Tori more than you think."

Jade turned an expressionless face to Andre. "Oh, yes, Andre, Tori is my one true love." Jade spoke in her mocking impression of Tori's voice. "I love her almost as much as I love the color yellow."

Tori remained silent. She didn't have it in her to be sarcastic about this like Jade could. She had felt something during their kiss, and it freaked her out to no end. What if…what if she did—No, Tori couldn't think like that. The kiss meant nothing. It was only acting, plain and simple.

"Jade once bit someone's arm for wearing a yellow T-shirt," Beck was explaining to Felicity.

She nodded. "Okay, so my daddy was right. Theater people are weird."

"Hey, hey now," Andre said. He stopped to think for a while. "Well, that's kind of true. And now you're one of us."

"Felicity, I could show you around L. A. tomorrow if you want," Tori offered. "We could go to the mall afterward." She was suspicious of the girl and thought that getting to know her would ease her misgivings about her. She would go shopping with her and find out endless things about her. Shopping is the way to a girl's secrets.

"Sure." Felicity smiled at Tori.

"Wait," Jade said, scowling. "I thought you were helping Trina rehearse." And hanging out with me, the unspoken half of her sentence.

Tori had forgotten about her lie to Jade this morning. She blinked rapidly. "Um, yeah, well, Trina will be fine without me. We'd end up arguing anyway."

Jade's eyes narrowed; she didn't buy that for a minute. "Well, I'm coming, too."

Why? Why would you do that to me? Tori wondered. Why does she even want to hang out with me after our kiss? Doesn't she feel awkward? Or does she just see the kiss as part of an act, the way that I should? Tori put on a fake smile. "Of course you can come. The more the merrier."

Tori, Jade, Felicity, and Cat walked into Tori's house in the midst of an argument. Trina was sitting on the couch clipping her toenails. She sighed at the arguing girls, mad that they were interrupting her personal time.

"I can't believe you did that!" Tori was yelling at Jade. "What is your problem?"

"My problem?!" Jade screamed. "He was following me and looking at me funny."

"Because he thought you were shoplifting, and you probably were," Tori said. "And he had a lazy eye, so of course he looked at you funny."

Jade was glaring at Tori, and her nostrils were flaring.

"Can you two shut up?!" Trina screamed. "I'm trying to clip my toenails."

"Gross. Go do that in your room," Tori said.

"I don't want to." She put down the fingernail clippers. "What happened at the mall? You guys are back too soon."

"Jade got us kicked out for shoplifting," Felicity said.

"I did not. They didn't have any proof."

"Because you didn't let them search you. You just walked out."

"I didn't want strangers touching me."

"You should be used to it, you criminal," Tori said.

Jade screamed and was about to tackle Tori, but Cat grabbed her.

"You're scaring me," she said.

The angry girl took a deep breath. She knew that she was going overboard, but she couldn't help it. Tori brought out the worst in her.

"Trina, can you take me and Felicity home?" Cat asked the older girl.

"Why me? How did you get here in the first place?"

"Jade drove us and almost got in a wreck," Felicity said. "Three times!"

Trina sighed. "Oh, alright. But one of you is going to have to finish cutting my toenails for me."

Felicity made a face at that. Trina got up and snatched her keys off the coffee table. Then, she, Cat, and Felicity walked out of the house, leaving Tori and Jade alone. The two girls remained quiet for a moment, their anger wearing off.

"Did you steal anything?" Tori asked.

"Why don't you search me and find out," Jade said with her eyebrows raised suggestively.

Tori nodded, and the pale skinned girl lifted her arms. Tori approached the other girl and pressed her hands to the girl's side, feeling for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. Her hands moved down, exploring the girl's waist. Something was tucked into her pants. She lifted one side of her shirt and removed the black-handled scissors that were there. Tori waved them in front of Jade's face.

"Those are my scissors, you moron," Jade said. "Don't you recognize them from the last time you patted me down?"

Tori took a good look at the scissors and said, "Oh yeah."

She laid the scissors down on the coffee table and continued to search Jade's person. Squatting, she patted down Jade's black jean leg. When she was patting down Jade's right leg, she discovered something in her sock. She rolled up her pant leg and pulled out a laser pointer that still had a price tag attached to it. Tori stood up and showed it to Jade.

"So what?" Jade shrugged. "It's just a stupid laser pointer. Nothing to make a big fuss about."

"Jade, stealing is wrong," Tori said. "If you wanted this so badly, you could have bought it. It's only a dollar."

"But it's so worth the adrenaline rush." She smiled at the good girl.

Tori frowned. She couldn't tell if Jade was being serious or not; she probably was. Today had been a total waste of time. The only thing she had found out about Felicity was that her favorite color was purple. She and Cat had a long discussion about their favorite colors. At least it was nice that the girl tolerated Cat and didn't say anything to hurt the sensitive girl's feelings. Maybe Felicity was a good person, albeit a sarcastic and tough one. And, to top it all off, Tori and Jade spent most of the day arguing with each other. Tori couldn't believe that she ever thought she might have feelings for Jade. How impossible that would be.

"I'm sorry," Jade said, causing Tori to tilt her head in confusion, "that you are too much of a goody two shoes to steal some cheap little trinket."

"Uh! You're…you're…" Tori sputtered. She couldn't think of any adjectives to fit the girl.

"Evil? Pretty? Demonic?" Jade offered some suggestions.

"Yes! Wait, did you say pretty?" She looked at her in disbelief.

Jade nodded. "I am pretty."

She's insane, Tori thought. Why would she bring up her looks? She really shouldn't have brought up her looks because Tori started to look at their day together in a whole new light. The arguing with Jade, Jade smiling when she managed to upset Tori, Jade's breathy laugh, the few moments when they actually agreed with one another and stopped arguing to just talk to each other like two normal friends. Tori had enjoyed all of it. It had been exhilarating, an adrenaline rush in its own way. When Jade had laughed, her boobs jiggled, making it hard for Tori not to stare. Remembering that, Tori's eyes traveled to her cleavage, her pale breasts stretching the fabric of her tight shirt.

The boobs moved closer to Tori, so close that she could look directly down at them. "My eyes are up here," the owner of the boobs said. Jade's cold hand grabbed Tori's chin and lifted it. Tori's brown eyes met Jade's green ones. The pale girl was smiling; Tori gulped.

"My boobs are nice, aren't they?" she stated.

"Um, I wasn't looking—"

"Shut it, Vega. Tell me why you've been checking me out all day. And don't lie."

Tell the truth? Tell the truth?! How could she possibly tell her the truth? What would she say? Jade, for some reason, I'm attracted to you even though I had never had feelings for any other girl before, and if I were to go gay for a girl, I would've never thought that it would be someone like you? She couldn't say that! It would ruin her already screwed up friendship with the Gothic-like girl. But what else could she do?

"Ever since we kissed," Tori started, "I can't stop thinking about you. I think I might have feelings for you."

Jade's face remained emotionless. It seemed like hours before the girl finally spoke.

"I'm a good kisser."

"What?! That's all you have to say?! Don't you have feelings for me? I can't be alone in this. That kiss had to mean something to you, too." Worry wrinkles were in Tori's forehead, and her eyes filled with tears.

Jade was still as stoic as ever. "Nope. I'm just a damn good actress."

Tori squeezed her eyes shut to prevent her tears from falling. No, she has to be lying. Lying is another thing that Jade's good at. But how to prove it? The idea popped into Tori's head, and she smiled.

Opening her eyes, she nodded. "Yes, you are a good actress, Jade, but you aren't that good."

Before she could disagree with her, Tori put her hands on the other girl's cheeks and kissed her. Jade didn't react to the half Latina's gentle kisses, so Tori kissed her harder, forcing her tongue into her mouth. The Goth's mouth opened wider in shock. Instead of pushing the girl away from her, though, Jade pulled Tori closer to her body, her hands on her hips. Jade's tongue touched Tori's, and their kiss deepened. Tori smiled.

Eventually, the two ended up on the couch, Jade straddling a prostate Tori. Tori's hands were inside Jade's shirt, finally able to fondle the girl's ample breasts, while Jade nibbled on her ear, moaning softly. Just as Tori was thinking of ripping the shirt off of Jade's body, she heard a click. Someone had put their key into the door and was about to open it. Jade had heard it, too, and she flew off of Tori.

The door opened, and Trina entered the room to find the two girls sitting far apart on the couch with disheveled hair and clothing. But, Trina being Trina, she didn't pay much attention to them. She just started talking about herself.

"I'm never letting that Felicity girl cut my toenails ever again," she said. "She almost cut off my pinky toe. See, look at it. It's bleeding." Trina lifted her foot, putting it in Tori's face.

Tori looked at her sister's foot and patted it. "Yeah, you poor thing."

Trina continued talking about herself, but Tori's mind was on other things. Like the girl who she just spent twenty minutes making out with sneaking around Trina and going through the front door. Jade looked back at Tori and smiled shyly. Tori smiled back.