Tori's POV

I was peacefully dozing on the couch in front of the tv, trying not to think over the weird week I was having, the pale, gothic girl who was the cause of my weird week or the kiss we'd shared earlier at school- which had stuck itself in a continuous loop in my head for me to see whenever I closed my eyes- when I was rudely awoken by the sound of the doorbell ringing. I grunted, pushing myself off the cushions and slumped over to the door, really not in the mood to see anyone, especially not the squealing little red head who tackled me in a hug as soon as I'd opened the door to her.

"Hi Tori!" She giggled as I prised her off me.

"Hey Cat." I said, watching as the smaller girl jumped into the seat I'd previously occupied, beaming a bright smile from ear to ear, positively bouncing up and down with excitement about something or other. I stood up behind to her, one hand on my hip, the other resting against the back of the couch. "How come you're here? Aren't you meant to be practicing you scene with Eli?"

"Oh." She paused in her fidgeting, her eyebrows creased. "Oh yeah! I forgot!" She fell back against the cushions, laughing at her mistake and I shook my head, but couldn't help the smile that twitched onto my lips as I sat down beside her; the girl was just a contagious ball of happiness.

"So, how come you're here?" I repeated. It's not that I didn't want to see her; I just hadn't expected her to arrive. Although, my friends did have a habit of inviting themselves over whenever they felt like it.

Cat began bouncing again and she bit the side of her cheek in what looked like an attempt to stop herself from blurting out the reason she was at my house. My eyebrows were raised even higher as I watched, it looked like she was unable to contain herself and the words came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them.

"Do you like kissing Jade?"

I choked. "W-What!"

"Do you like kissing Jade?" Cat repeated, grinning. It looked like she already knew the answer to her question,

"I, uh-" I gulped. I was still having trouble admitting it to myself, but saying out loud to Cat… "It's my character."

"That's what Jade said!" The little red head giggled again.

"Well, yeah, that's because- wait! You asked Jade if she likes kissing me!" I stammered, staring wide-eyed at the girl next to me who nodded gleefully, the Cheshire cat grin back in place. "Well, what did she say!"

"I told you, she said it was just your characters."

I blinked. "Oh, yeah…"

We sat in silence for a few moments, me staring absently at the tv screen, not really paying attention to the show that was playing, while Cat sat beside me, once again jigging up and down in place, quietly laughing to herself. She looked like she was about to explode.

"You do!" Cat burst out suddenly in a sing song voice, making me jump a little.

I rolled my eyes, just managing to suppress a groan at her words as I sank back into the chair, throwing my arms over my stomach. Cat was giggling again, and she fell back as well to rest her head on my shoulder.

"Look, Cat." I sighed, knowing I couldn't lie to the girl. "You can't tell Jade, or anyone, okay?"

She nodded against me, but I could say no more. Admitting out loud that I may actually like kissing Jade was totally different to admitting it in my head. For a start, in my head, no one else could hear it, no one else could know and it was safe there, it could be tucked to one side and forgotten about, if I tried hard enough. But aloud, it was out in the open for anyone to find out, including Jade herself, and I didn't want that, at all. Cat looked up at me expectantly and I huffed, pursing my lips in defiance, but the smaller girls beaming grin only got bigger, if it were possible.

"Tooooriiiiiii" She sang, prodding my side with her index finger, making me flinch away from her, an involuntary, automatic reaction; she'd found a tickle spot without even trying, but I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of laughing at the touch.

"Okay! Okay!" I called in defeat when she wouldn't stop with the prodding. "Alright, fine." I glanced around the room quickly to check for anyone else who may suddenly appear, my eyes lingering for a second on the patio doors to make sure Robbie or Sinjin weren't hiding behind the plants again; those two were creepy. Cat leaned in closed as I dropped my voice to a whisper, the words rushing out of my mouth just to get them over with. "Okay, so I may like kissing Jade, but it doesn't mean anything, it's just the play and nothing more."

Cat blinked a little as she deciphered what I'd said and I swallowed, already regretting saying anything, even before the red head smirked up at me again.

"So you do like kissing Jade!" She teased in a loud squeal. I flapped my arms and made a 'shh-ing' sound, causing Cat to throw a hand over her mouth. "Sorry."

"It's okay." I ran a hand through my hair. "But, yeah. I do. Sorta. I don't know." I sighed yet again.

Cat wore a look that was somewhere between confusion and the usual face she pulled while she was thinking. I watched her closely, wondering what was going on in her mind, half expecting her to come out with a comment about poodles, or rainbows, or something else completely unrelated to the previous topic. Actually, I would have welcomed any strange comment the girl would make, but, instead, she gasped loudly, clapping her hands together in delight.

"I know!" She yelped, her eyes bright with excitement. "Why don't we test it!"

"Test what?" My brows knitted together in bewilderment.

"This!" Without warning, Cat grabbed my chin and pressed her lips to mine, catching me entirely of guard.

It took a second for my stunned brain to kick back into action and I managed to shove her away from me, subconsciously shuffling away a little. "CAT!"

"What?" She shrugged nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened.

"You- I mean- You can't just do that!" I spluttered.

"But, it was the test" She said innocently, her bottom lip thrust out in a pout. "I tested Robbie before too, when he liked Trina, but that didn't go so well."

"Test!"

"Yeah!" Cat bounded in her seat again; it always threw me off whenever she'd change her mood so suddenly like that. "See! You didn't want to kiss me!"

"Yeah." I said slowly, wiping my mouth to get rid of the taste of Cat's strawberry lip gloss. "You did just suddenly attack me!"

"But, you do want to kiss Jade!" She continued as if I hadn't said anything.

"Can we not talk about it?" I whined. "Can't we just put a movie on or something?"

Cat happily agreed, getting up from the couch to choose a movie from the stack of DVDs that were piled up beside my tv and I breathed out a sigh of relief. If Cat was going to remain at my house for the rest of the evening, and it didn't seem like she was going anytime soon, then at least I could distract her with fun films rather than have her question me about things I really didn't want to answer. But what she had said lingered in my mind; she was right, warning or not, I didn't want to kiss Cat. I didn't feel the same butterflies I'd felt when it was Jades lips upon mine, or her hand on my waist. I hadn't missed that gesture earlier, no matter how brief the contact was. No, it wasn't the same; even Cat could see that and I really hoped she was the only one.

Xxx

Friday, the day of our performance, crawled up far too fast for my liking. Jade and I had managed a couple more practice runs, changing and adapting our script until we felt it was good enough. I'd made excuses each time to avoid the kiss, from faking a coughing fit to 'accidentally' dropping my heavy prop book on Jade's foot- thank God she wears those boots, otherwise I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be breathing right now, and Jade didn't seem to mind that we didn't practice it. We'd even sorted out all of our little costume pieces, but now the big day had arrived, I felt so very unprepared.

We sat in class, me in my usual seat at the front, Jade as far back as she could get, watching as the other acts performed their scenes- cringing along with everyone else at Robbie and Sinjin's- waiting anxiously for our turn. Andre had managed to find someone at Hollywood Arts willing to help him out with his piece, and, considering the two of them had about half the time as the rest of us to work on their project, they'd done a really good job. The class applauded him and Jessica as they left the stage, Sikowitz nodding his approval at Andre as he passed by before the crazy teacher leapt onto the stage with his clipboard in hand.

"Thank you Andre and-" he paused, his face scrunched up as he tried to remember the girls name. "Uh, and you… for that wonderful performance." Jessica smiled and excused herself to go back to the class she was missing. Sikowitz looked down at his clipboard, his small grin faltering a bit at the next two names on the list. "So, our next performers will be: Tori and Jade!"

I gulped , glancing at Jade as she strolled to the stage confidently, dressed up in the few accessories she'd deemed worthy to wear, and that she 'didn't want to run through a shredder', so she said. I, on the other hand, stumbled unsurely out of my chair, adjusting the high pigtails I'd been tying up during class and scooping up my book before heading to the front. It was only when Jade had groaned loudly and stomped away for a second did I remember I was supposed to bring a chair with me too, but, honestly, the large book was enough to carry by itself. She slammed the plastic seat next to me, which I quickly sat down in, shoving my glasses onto my face in the process, and then we took our position on opposite sides of the stage. I saw Jade take a deep breath before I disappeared behind my book, awaiting our scene to start.

"Mary?" Jade's voice was small and quiet, a little higher in pitch to her usual voice with a slight accent. "Mary? We need to talk."

I continued to pretend to study the book, my character was supposed to ignore hers at first.

"Mary, please!" She sounded desperate now and a couple of soft footsteps told me Jade was making her way towards me; I sneaked a peek up through my eyelashes to confirm this.

"You can't just ignore me. Please?" She was stood right in front of me and if this were actually Jade, she would have ripped the book right out of my hands and tossed it across the room. But this was 'Hannah', and it still amazed me that Jade had picked a character for herself that was completely different to her own personality.

"I can try." I said, my voice also a little higher, but a little bitter too.

"Don't! Please?" She placed a hand on my book and my eyes shoot up to meet hers, a scowl to rival the one she usually wore on my face, which I had to fight to keep in place when I noticed the look she was giving me: sad, sincere, very believable. "I'm sorry."

"No, you're not." 'Mary' spat, pulling the book from Hannah's grasp. "If you were sorry, then you wouldn't do all the stuff you do to me."

"You know I don't mean it!" She cried.

"Then why do you do it!" I sprang up from my seat and threw the book to the ground, careful to avoid hitting Jades feet this time. She flinched at the action. "You pushed me in the swimming pool today, fully clothed! And you still expect me to be your friend!"

"I- I- that wasn't my idea!" She stammered. "It was everyone else! They made me do it!"

"That's not the point!" I said in an exasperated tone, throwing my arms in the air for emphasis. "We've been friends for years and yet you pick them over me! You do everything they say! You bully people just to be popular, it's stupid!"

I try to turn away, but Hannah took a step forward and placed her hand on my arm, which Mary quickly shook off; I could feel the Goosebumps erupt on my skin from her touch. I looked up to see a small amount of tears welling up in her eyes, as her character was supposed to be on the verge of crying by this point, Jade saying it was because she was a stupid teenage girl who couldn't handle her emotions.

"Mary, please, we're best friends-"

"You don't even like me!" I yelled. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple of students in the front row flinch and felt slightly proud that I had caused that kind of reaction.

"That's not true!" Hannah croaked back, a tear rolling down her cheek. Jade was a brilliant actress, I couldn't deny that. "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? Why do you push me around and treat me like dirt, then come crying to me when something goes wrong?"

"Please." Hannah said softly, taking a step closer and I only just remembered to take a step back; as much as I was lost in the performance and my character, my mind kept slipping back to being me, forcefully reminding me that I had to kiss the tattooed girl, in front of a class full of people, in just a matter of moments. I took a deep breath in through my nose but it did nothing to stop the storm of butterflies that had taken residence in the pit of my stomach from attacking my insides. "Mary, I-"

"No, Hannah! I can't do this anymore! I'm sick of being your dirty little secret. If you really want to be friends, then prove it." My voice broke slightly as I spoke, my character also meant to be close to tears now. Jade had taken yet another small step forward and I stood my ground, my breath hitched in my throat, knowing exactly what was coming, making me wish the time limit on our scenes had been longer.

"It's not that I don't want to be your friend." Hannah said quietly, looking me in the eye as she spoke. My stomach flip flopped with anticipation. This is it. "It's- I just… I love you, Mary."

Jade moved slowly forward, taking my hands in her own like we'd practiced so many times before and it took all I had not to break character and make a run for it out of the classroom. Come on, Tori, it's just a stage kiss. I chanted in my head, you've done this before.

It seemed to take forever for Jade to fully close the distance between us, but when our lips made contact, everything else was driven from my mind; the stage, the characters, the class. It was just me and Jade stood here, hand in hand, slowly kissing, our lips hardly moving as they tentatively brushed over each other, butterflies bursting inside of me and I was completely lost in the moment until a coughing noise was made and the sound of awkward clapping reached our ears, pulling me back to reality and quickly away from Jade, who almost jumped away from me like I had shocked her. The class were looking up at us on the stage, unsurely applauding our performance which I knew, just by the look on their faces, had lasted a lot longer than it should have, or, more like, the kiss at the end had lasted a lot longer than it should have. I turned to Jade, who was staring at me with a totally blank expression, although her eyes conveyed something else, but before I had a chance to figure out what it was, Jade had turned on her heel and stormed straight out of the door without a word. I, however, was rooted to the spot, my heart pounding in my chest , a mixture of panic and dread consumed me as I tried to process what had just happened, only broken out of my transfix by a male voice.

"Jade?" Beck was half way out of his seat, a look of confusion etched on his face, ready to chase after his girlfriend, if only Sikowitz, who was sat next to him, hadn't placed a hand on his shoulder to stop the boy from leaving.

"Beck, stay." He said in the same manner you would to the cute family dog. "You're up next, so I need you in my class rather than running after your girlfriend."

"But-"

"Ah, no buts!" The acting teacher jumped up from his seat, clapping his hands together happily as he turned to face me. "That was a, uh, very good performance, Tori, very good. Now, if you would be so kind as to go and fetch your acting partner from wherever she has run off too…"

"I-wha?" I spluttered as Sikowitz ran up behind me, shoving me in the direction of the door. I glanced around the class to see each member staring up at me, picking out my friends who all seemed to be reacting the most to this: Beck, Andre and Robbie looking utterly perplexed, Trina had her mouth hanging open in shock and Cat, tucked away at the back of the class, caught my eye and flashed me a huge, knowing smirk. "But, can't Beck-"

"I already said no!" Sikowitz cried, throwing open the door and pushing me out. "Now, go! Find Jade and bring her back here!"

With that the door was slammed in my face before I could say another word. I sighed; this left me with two options, either I sprint all the way back home, not coming back, so I could forget about today and didn't have to face what had just happened. Or I could go and confront my fear, the girl who had been the focus of all of my thoughts for this past week and the one who had ran away from me just moments ago. As tempting as the first option sounded, the only result I'd get from it would be a detention for skipping class and, unfortunately, I knew exactly where the object of the second option would be hiding. So it was there I headed uneasily, each step closer causing the tornado in my stomach to churn, making me feel sick with apprehension. I didn't know what to expect from Jade, her expression before she left was difficult to read, but whatever it was, surely it couldn't be good.

A/N: I hope everyone still reading this is liking it so far. Sorry for the waits, I always struggle a little when I'm writing.
Thank you so much for all the feedback, alerts and favourites. If you have anything else to say on the story, don't hesitate to hit the review button =)