A/N: Up-ing the rating for language, it may be up-ed again in later chapters, I haven't figured out fully where this one's going yet.

Enjoy!

Jade's POV

Chapter 5

Why was I stuck with the most annoying, frustrating, annoying, pain in the neck, annoying girl in the class to do this stupid stage kiss with? I'd spent forever working on that damn idea for this stupid thing and now she has to go and ruin it by being all scared! I almost threw Vega into my car just to get her to stop dragging her feet nervously as we left her house, seriously, anyone would think I'd just kidnapped her and was about to kill her! Which maybe wasn't such a bad idea right now, but I'd rather not get chucked into juvy because of Tori Vega. I jumped into the drivers' seat as she fumbled around with her seatbelt and I could see the look of fear in her eyes, which I laugh at.

"What!" She jumped, seatbelt flying out of her hands.

"Nothin'" I smirked just to irritate her.

"If you're going to be like this then-" Vega grabbed the door handle, about to climb out of the car and run back to her house, presumably for what she thought was safety away from me. I should've let her go, but, against my better judgement, I lay a hand genially on her other arm, stopping her from leaving.

"Tori, look." I said softly. Honestly, and I'd never admit it to anyone, a part of me felt a bit sorry for the girl if she was getting all worked up over something like this. It was a very small, very hidden, part, but it was there all the same, tugging on my heart strings and telling me to be nice to the younger Vega, just this once.

"Look." I repeated. She appeared to be frozen; her eyes watched my hand warily. "I don't like this as much as you, damn, I probably hate it more! But it's got to be done, so we might as well do it, okay?"

She nodded, retracting her hand from the door as I do the same from her arm, then turned back to the steering wheel, wrapping my fingers a little tighter than usual around the leather.

"Besides, I'm not having my grades ruined possibly leading to my career in pieces, all because of you." I added, looking back to smirk at her again.

She rolled her eyes, but nodded all the same. I slammed my foot a little harder than necessary on the gas pedal as I pull my concentration to the road, but I couldn't help but glance every so often at Vega as she sat in the passenger seat looking awkward and out of place, her fingers either fiddling with each other or picking at the material of the insanely tight skinny jeans she was wearing.

"Jade? The road." Tori's voice suddenly broke my thoughts and I whip my attention back to what's in front of me. Damn, was I just staring at Vega's legs? And did she just catch me staring? I gripped the wheel even tighter, annoyed at myself for being distracted by Vega's legs, of all the things I could've been distracted by. I thanked God, or whoever, for the make up I had applied to my face earlier as it hid the blush I could feel trying to glow on my cheeks. Jade West never blushed, not in front of people, especially not in front of Tori Vega. It was a stupid, giggly girly thing to do, something I'd associate with the Latina next to me rather than myself. Damn! She was so… annoying!

We made it to my house in record time, granted I was going quite a bit over the speed limit to get the awkward, silent car journey over with. Vega stumbled out of my car as I jam my keys in the front door and throw myself into the place I had to call home. No one else was in, thankfully, and I watch Vega glance around apprehensively as she walks in as if she was waiting from some masked murderer to jump out at her.

"All right, you can admire the place later." I said

I took the girls wrist again and yanked her to my bedroom. I would've been quite happy to stay in the front room, and, by the look on her face, Tori would've been too, but my parents were bound to be back at any time and I didn't want them interrupting my work. I never told them what I was doing with school, not that my father was bothered, mother feigned an interest at times, but over all, they didn't care. As for my sister, well, she was too busy being the perfect little princess child to care what her older sibling was doing with her life, unless it made her look better.

"Here." I let go of Tori's wrist and all but throw her into the room, causing her to trip over her own feet and collapsed onto my floor. I rolled my eyes and fought the urge to laugh in her face, only allowing a small smile to break across my mouth as she pushed herself to her feet, rubbing her backside and mumbling an "Ow."

"Awww, poor Vega." I chuckled sarcastically, patting her head mockingly as I passed to sit on my bed.

"Can we just get on with this?" She whined, finding my desk chair and sitting gingerly in it.

"Whatever." I sighed, chucking the notebook at her. "From the top?"

Xxx

It was getting dark. Vega and I had been working on our small play intently for who knows how long now and so far we'd written up and acted out pretty much every little thing, besides the most significant part: the kiss. We'd rehearsed the whole play through once, and as soon as we got to the all important piece, Vega chickened out on me again. She'd performed her part without fail, looking at me as if she was trying to prove to me that she was at least half the perfect, flawless actor everyone else thought she was. I had to admit, not out loud, that she wasn't too bad. I had seen her act before and, for someone who was thrown into the deep end before she'd really begun to swim, she'd done a good job with her parts. However, she spluttered hastily through her lines leading up to the kiss and as soon as I'd said my part and stepped forward to take her hands, Tori took a step back.

"Maybe… maybe we could just do that bit when we perform the play in class" She suggested.

"Are you kidding me!" I spat back, a little too frustrated by how the girl was reacting. It's not like I wanted to kiss her, did I? No. No, of course not. She was just being a wuss. "You'd probably throw up all over me and die of nerves on stage!"

I threw my hands up in the air and kicked at my floor to relieve a little of the anger building inside of me. I ran a hand through my hair then walked over to where our ideas notebook lay on top of my bed, scribbles, crossing outs and reworked lines littering the crisp white pages, but still an almost complete script sat before me. Tori tentatively walked up behind me, standing on her tip toes to peek over my shoulder as I picked it up, resisting the urge to swat her over the head with the spiral bound pages just to knock some sense into her, and to see how much it would hurt.

"Alright." I sighed, twirling the blue biro around my fingers. "We'll go through this one more time before I take you home, okay?" Tori nodded and I point my pen towards the end of the page, indicating one of her characters lines. "We'll start from here, because I think it's the part that needs the most work."

"Okay." Vega said, carefully taking the notebook from my hands and reading through her parts again. "Right, got it. Ready?"

"As I'll ever be." I replied, taking a couple of deep breaths before slipping expertly into character.

"You don't even like me!" Tori cried, the way she said it almost believable. And I suppose it was, in a way, if this was a conversation between me and her, not our characters.

"That's not true." I croaked back. My character was meant to be on the verge of tears for this scene, but it was too early into the rehearsal to be putting that much effort in right now. "You know that's not true! I do like you! I always have!"

"Then why do you act like you hate me around everyone else?" Tori's character, Mary, hollered, pointing an accusing finger at my chest. "Why do you push me around and treat me like dirt, then come crying to me when something goes wrong?"

She was doing a good job this time, I was impressed. I looked up at the Latina with sad eyes. "Mary, I-"

"No, Hannah. I can't do this anymore. I'm sick of being your dirty little secret. If you want to be friends, then prove it!"

That was the first time all night that Vega had managed to say the line without messing it up somehow. There was determination etched all over her face, although she was clearly still apprehensive about what was to come, this time I thought we might actually get somewhere with this.

"I'm sorry, Mary. I truly am." My character whispered as I took a small step forward. Tori stood her ground this time. "It's not that I don't want to be friends with you. I just- I want more than that."

I shortened the distance between us, surprised as Vega let me take both her hands in my own rather than turning and fleeing like before. I heard her gulp and watched her eyes flick nervously back and forth between my own as I tugged her slowly closer, not letting the chance to finally get this over with slip by.

And then, within the space of a heartbeat, my lips were pressed to hers. I could feel and taste her lip gloss (cherry) as my lips moved against her stunned mouth until, gradually, Vega responded, making my heart leapt into my throat and all my senses catch fire. There was something, like a spark that had just been ignited, welling up inside of me, causing me to pull the younger Vega closer, pressing my mouth harder to her soft lips and for a moment I was lost, for a moment all I wanted was this. Then there was the sound of a door slamming somewhere in the house and both me and Vega jumped apart as if electrocuted.

We looked at each other, both stunned by what had just happened. I touched a finger to my mouth, lips still tingling from Vegas kiss; I should be disgusted really, but that's not how I felt, my heart, that was beating at a million miles an hour, threatening to jump out of my chest, was now aching for something more. Undeniably, part of my liked Vega, but there was nothing more than a reluctant acquaintanceship I built up with the girl because she had nothing better to do that hang around with my friends… right? I shook my head, not wanting to think too much into whatever the hell that was, and turned my attention back to the source of my discomfort to find her wearing an expression akin to terror.

"Jeez, Vega, it was only a stage kiss." I gulped, unsure if I was trying to convince her, myself or both. "Don't look so frightened."

She flashed me a rabbit-caught-in-the-headlights look before turning on her heel and gathering up her purple hoodie, the only thing I'd allowed her to pick up before dragging her from her house.

"It's getting late." She said in a small voice, looking anywhere but at me. "I should probably be heading back.

"Right." I agreed, slightly thrown by the edge to her voice. I couldn't quite tell what it was, but there was something there, almost like hurt. I scooped up my jacket and took the car keys from my pocket, spinning the ring around my finger. "Want me to take you?"

"Uh." She checked her phone, but even I knew her drama queen of a sister wouldn't want to come out at this time to pick her up. "Sure." She said reluctantly.

I nodded and motioned her to follow me through the house. Whoever had slammed the door that short time ago had vanished, leaving me free to barge out of the front door and take the long, silent, even-more-awkward-than-before trip back to the Vega's house.

Xxx

Hours later, I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling as I tried and failed to sleep. The kiss, it was still playing on my mind, refusing to leave. I thought back to it, how Tori's mouth responded perfectly to mine, how her lips were so soft, so much softer than Beck's, how it almost felt… good to be kissing her. No, that wasn't right. There was no way I liked kissing Tori Vega, it was just a caught in the moment thing, we were both highly emotionally charged because of what our characters were feeling. But there was something else there…

I screwed my eyes shut, but all I could picture was her. Tori Vega, with her infectious smile, perfect cheekbones, beautiful brown eyes, full, shiny lips that begged to be kissed again- I snapped my eyes open; I did not just think that. Beck. He's who I should be thinking about. My boyfriend, Beck. I loved him and hated Tori, that was right. Well, maybe hate was a strong word, I greatly disliked her. Right? Did I even dislike her anymore?

"Fuck!" I muttered, punching my pillow in frustration. I didn't want to think about how I felt about Tori Vega. Not that I really knew how I felt about her in the first place. I'd always put up this front that showed that I hated her and everything thing about her, but I knew it wasn't true hatred, and I'm pretty sure the others had figured out just as much, but this? This was ridiculous! I pulled the punched pillow from under my head and placed it over my face, muffling the aggravated scream I let loose. It was just a stage kiss. I repeated to myself in my head. Just a stage kiss.