It was Saturday and I'd gotten out of bed surprisingly early for me, ready for the day ahead. Yesterday, before I left the Vega house, I'd promised to meet up with Tori over the weekend to hang around, watch a movie and junk, and just kind of get used to the idea that I didn't have to hide behind a mask of hating her anymore. I'd managed to make it though the day so far without my reflex kicking in once, which I consider an achievement when she dragged me off into some beauty store and managed to spray perfume in my eye. Tori had apologised profusely, saying over and over that it was an accident, and yeah, I was annoyed, but I knew she didn't mean it and I somehow managed to keep my anger at bay and accept her apology, which she seemed very grateful about.
Honestly, I was having a really good time. For once I just forgot about the world and focused on having a good time with my girlfriend. It was still so weird to even think that Tori was my girlfriend and I couldn't help my smile every time I did think it. She was turning me into a cheesy ball of cliché, but it felt good.
Now, we sat in the movie theatre and I was trying to remember exactly why I'd let Tori pick what we were going to watch for this day out, as I was now stuck watching some sapping, lovey-dovey romantic tragedy thing while my girlfriend sat beside me, sniffling. Okay, so maybe I found it extremely cute when she sniffled, but no one will ever know that, besides, couldn't she sniffle over something that was half decent instead of this pile of garbage? The only good part was that the woman was slowly dying, so maybe I'd get a good death scene out of this. Not a 'slaughtered by a psycho' or 'run over by a herd of elephants' interesting death scene, but someone was going to die either way.
"Jade?"
I look to my left where Tori's timid voice issued from and smiled down at my girlfriend. "Yeah?"
"You hate this, don't you?" She gestured to the screen where the dying woman was now sat around a table gossiping with some other brainless bimbos.
"I've seen worse." I said with a shrug. "But I've definitely seen better."
This earned a shushing from another audience member just behind us, who I casually flipped off, happy to hear Tori giggle at my actions, but still slap my lightly on the arm, telling me to behave. If it were anyone else at any other time, I'm pretty sure I would rip their arm off for even attempting to tell me off, jokingly or otherwise, but there was something about Tori that made me let it slide and laugh right along with her. Hell, I wouldn't be sat here watching this damn stupid movie if it wasn't for her. I don't know how it happened, but Jade West was going soft and, well, I actually kinda liked it.
For the rest of the movie, to relieve my boredom, I'd mutter stupid comments under my breath about everything that was going on. At first, it was because I was sick of watching this woman blubber about her life ending, but with every comment I made, I could hear Tori laugh softly beside me and soon enough I was whispering stuff in her ear just to hear her giggle. Of course, Mr Shushy Pants wasn't pleased with this particular display and kept making his shushing sounds every time I opened my mouth, which was actually more annoying than the comments I was making in the first place.
To see if I could piss him off any further, during a particularly bad scene, where dying woman was trying to eat some guys' face in some attempt at kissing him; I grabbed Tori by the chin and pressed my lips firmly to hers in an imitation of what was happening on screen. However, in only a few short seconds, I'd totally forgotten about the movie and ending up full on making out with my girlfriend in the middle of the cinema, which I received absolutely no protest to, at least, not from Tori. Shushy Pants, on the other hand, made a strangled noise of disgust, got up and moved a few rows back, away from us. Victory!
"You're cruel." Tori stated as we walked out of the cinema together. Okay, maybe I did laugh and say Finally! a little too loudly when that woman eventually kicked the bucket, but, hey, I was just glad it was over.
"You're just now figuring that out?" I grinned.
Suddenly, Tori darted behind my back and crouched down, trying to hide. Bewildered, I tried to look over my shoulder to figure out what on earth she was doing, but when that failed, I chose to look around the lobby to work out why the hell she was hiding.
"What's gotten into you!"
"It's the manager." Tori whispered, shuffling around so she couldn't be seen. "I may be banned from this place."
I let out a shout of laughter. "Banned! What were you doing to get banned from a movie theatre, Vega!"
"Shush!" Tori said frantically. "It's not just me, it's Robbie, Andre and Cat too. Last time we were here, Rex started a popcorn war and Cat took it a little too far. I don't think I'm supposed to be here right now."
I laughed even harder. "That's it! Come on, Vega, that's nothing! He's probably forgotten all about it by now!"
To prove my point, I grabbed Tori's hand and marched her straight past the manager, who didn't even bat an eyelid as we went by. Tori had mumbled a protest and struggled a little bit at first, but when she realised he wasn't going to have security jump her, she let out a sigh of relief. Once away from him, I turned to her, eyebrows raised, arms crossed and smirking.
"I may still be banned from this place!" I repeated in my Tori mocking voice.
"Shut up." She grumbled, shoving me in the shoulder. "And I don't talk like that!"
This only made my smirk grow. "Come on. Let's go grab some coffee so I can get the vile aftertaste of the movie out of my mouth."
Tori mumbled something about it not being that bad, but I'd stopped listening. We were stood just a little away from the doors of the cinema and I watched as Beck and some blonde walked out, the girl clutching onto his arm and giggling away while he leaned in close to her, whispering something in her ear. They turned in the opposite direction and walked away, not before Beck looked up, his laughing smile turning to more of a gloating smirk when he caught my eye. I didn't know how to feel. It was a shock to see him so unexpectedly, especially with some random girl practically drooling all over him. I wondered if she was part of his fan club that he suddenly decided to date, but just the other day he said he loved me still… how did he get over that so fast? This is all too weird.
My mind was in overdrive. I barely felt the tugging on my sleeve to get my attention.
"WHAT!" I yelled, spinning around so I was face to face with Tori, who was now wide eyed with surprise, and possibly fear, at my outburst.
"Y-you spaced out suddenly." She stuttered, a hint of hurt in her voice. "I just wanted to check if you were okay."
Shit. "Yeah, uh, sorry." I muttered. "It was just, uh-"
"Beck." Tori finished for me in an unrecognisable tone. So she'd seen him too.
"Yeah." I sighed, not sure what else to say, what else to feel, but before I could say any more, Tori's hand, still holding the sleeve of my jacket, gave another tug, pulling me so we walked side by side down the street in search of the coffee shop we'd passed on the way here. It was a little place, tucked away on a street corner and when I spotted it earlier, I almost slammed on the brakes. I don't know what it was, but I was instantly drawn to the place in a single glance.
Tori was completely silent next to me and I instantly knew something was off. We'd been having so much fun all day, laughing and joking, but as soon as Beck made an appearance, the mood went, just like that.
"What's wrong?" I asked, stopping in my tracks in the middle of the sidewalk.
It took Tori a few moments to realise I wasn't moving and she walked back to me with her hands shoved deep into her pockets, shrugging. "What?"
"Don't play dumb, Vega. What's wrong? The second you mentioned Beck, you went all, I dunno… cold."
She shrugged again.
"Tori." I sighed, exasperated.
"Fine!" Tori huffed. She started to walk off again and I had to hurry to keep up with her. "You went all weird when you saw Beck, like you were jealous or something. I dunno, it was just-"
"Tori." I repeated, cutting her off by grabbing hold of her arm and stopping her again. I couldn't believe it! Was Tori Vega jealous? Did she think I still had feelings for Beck? "It's not anything like that, okay!"
"Oh, isn't it?" Tori said, trying to wriggle free of my grasp, but I held her in place.
"No! It's not!" I hissed. "If I still loved Beck like that, do you really think I'd be here with you right now?"
Tori must have taken that completely the wrong way as she managed to break free from my clutch and stormed off. Way to put your foot in it, Jade.
I'm pretty sure our personalities got switch around some how, because it would usually be me doing the 'storming off out of jealousy' thing while Vega did the running after. Instead, I was now chasing the half-Latina down the street, growling as I caught her arm once again and roughly pulled her around to face me. She glared at me, a slight pout on her lips. Dammit! She looked so adorable when she was sulking like that, pretty much all of my anger drained away. Instead of yelling, as planned, I tugged her forward and placed a quick kiss to her forehead. God, I had gone soft.
"I didn't mean it like that, Tori" I murmured against her before pulling away so I could look into her eyes. This being nice to Tori thing was getting easier, thankfully. "It's just… I'm not… good with all these feelings. I'm so used to having Beck hanging around me, even after we split up, that it was odd seeing him with someone else. I promise you, it's not like that. We're over. Done. Kaput. I don't want him back. So there's no reason for you to be mad at me."
Tori bit her lip, exhaling softly though her nose before practically jumping at me, wrapped her arms around me in a hug. I stumbled, still not used to her sudden bursts of affection like this, but I hugged her back all the same, pleased she had gotten over the irrational jealously.
"I'm sorry." She said, stepping away from me now. "I over reacted. I guess, I just thought… you and Beck were together for so long… I wouldn't blame you-"
I pressed a finger over her lips, instantly stopping her rambling. "I don't feel that way for him anymore, Tori. I really don't. Don't worry."
She grinned, nodding. "Shall we go get that coffee, then?"
"Definitely" I grinned, shoving Beck to the back of my mind and setting back off towards the coffee shop.
Xxx
Saturday flew by too fast for my liking. We found the little coffee shop and ended up hanging out there for a good hour, talking, laughing, and drinking their cheap coffee which was surprisingly good. I marked it down as a place I'd have to visit again, with and without Tori by my side, but mostly the former.
Sunday, so far, sucked. My stepmoms parents decided to come for a visit from Wisconsin, as they do every year or something, and for some unknown reason they wanted me around while they were there. Like my step mother, I never got on well with them, all they cared about was money and reputation, getting a good job and being snobs, basically. I had to play nice in front of them whenever they visited, which usually went down well, me being an actress and all, so I usually just pretended it was an assignment for class just so I could make it through the long, boring hours.
This Sunday, however, I was really in no mood for them. As pathetic as this sounds, I just wanted to go see Tori. I think it's the new relationship thing, where you want to spend all your time with each other, so not being able to see her and having to spend time with people I hate put me in a foul mood.
So, I decided to mess with them. I put on a very over the top nice act, reminiscent of the sweet farm girl character I was forced to play during the sleepover at Sikowitz's house. This utterly bewildered everyone in the room, especially when I offered to make them all drinks and came back without poison in their cups. But, soon enough, my father got fed up of this act and pulled me to one side telling me I to 'stop being so childish' and I 'better drop it or else'. I smiled and said "Sure!" before spending the rest of the time as a dramatised version of how everyone saw me: loud, rude, angry, mean, I even ended up dumping lemonade on my sisters head at one point. 'Accidentally', of course, but hilarious.
Dad pretty much threw me out after that. He stuffed a few bills in my hand and told me to go enjoy the day somewhere else instead of humiliating him in front of the in-laws, who, may I add, aren't that much older than him anyway. I despised that.
However, my plan to get away had worked, and I made it to the Vega house just a few minutes later, feeling pretty proud of myself. As per usual, their door wasn't locked, so I walked right on in to find Tori and Trina stood in the kitchen, apparently in the middle of an argument. Tori had her back to me and Trina wasn't paying any attention, so I sat soundlessly down on the couch in front of the tv to watch them.
"If you knew that it was my cupcake, Trina, then why did you eat it?" Tori yelled in her sisters' face. Really? That's what they were arguing about?
"I was hungry!" Trina whined in return. Well, no duh.
"Then why eat my cupcake? There's plenty of other food in the house!"
"Because it looked so yummy! And I've already eaten mine so…" Trina trailed off when she finally noticed me sat on their couch, feet up on the table and a smirk on my face. Her mouth hung open a little in surprise, so I gave her a little wave of greeting to hopefully stop her staring.
Tori, confused by her sisters' sudden lack of talking, which is very rare when it came to Trina, whirled around on the spot to see what had stopped her and now looked equally as shocked to find me in their house.
"Can I get a cupcake?" I asked in my southern accent, complete with batting my eyelids and pouting.
"I don't talk like that!" Tori huffed, her automatic response to anything I said with that accent, and broke out of her trance to stomp her foot on the ground. She's too easy to wind up. "Beside, you couldn't have a cupcake if you really wanted one, seeing as Trina ate the last one!"
"It didn't have your name on it!" Trina protested, stomping her foot just like her sister.
"It didn't have your name on it either!"
"Oi!" I yelled, trying not to laugh at their stupidity. I got up from my seat and walked over to the two sisters. "As much as I'd love to see you two battle to the death over a cupcake, I feel I should stop you both before I get blamed for any bloodshed that may happen."
"Oh, so this has nothing to do with you wanting to protect me from the mean girl who stole my dessert?" Tori asked with a grin as she wandered over to stand in behind of me, hiding from her sister.
I shrugged, smirking. "I dunno, I'm with Trina on this one. She was hungry, wanted the cupcake and ate it. It didn't have you name on it so- OW!"
Tori whacked me on the shoulder, not hard at all, but I wanted to make her feel bad for hitting me. She was trying to scowl and be annoyed at me for siding with Trina, but I could easily tell she wasn't, so I rubbed at the spot she thumped, pouting.
"Well, that was just plain mean!" I said in my southern bell accent again.
"I. Don't. Talk. Like. That!" Tori said, striking me playfully on the arm with every word.
"Alright, alright, easy Vega." I said, catching her wrists in my hands so she could do no more damage. "Lets say, I run to the store and pick up a whole bunch of cupcakes, treats and stuff with the 20 bucks my dad gave me to leave the house, and by the time I get back, there's a good movie in the dvd player ready for us to watch, yeah?"
Tori's fake scowl instantly changed to a toothy grin.
"Uh, what about me?" Trina asked, as if the world revolved around her. I fished about in my pocket and pulled out one of the $5 bills my dad gave me, stuffing it in her hand before patting her mockingly on the cheek.
"Go treat yourself, darling, I heard they're giving away free makeovers at the mall." They weren't, as far as I know, but if it got her out of the house-
"They are!"
Bingo! Trina had raced out of the house and was gone in about 5 seconds flat. Tori and I stared after her for another 5 seconds before we both burst out laughing. The Vega sisters sure were entertaining.
"Okay, okay." I said, being the first to calm down. I turned to Tori, my smirk still in place. "So, that movie?"
"Those cupcakes?" She said, raising an eyebrow.
I shook my head. "Fine. I'll be about in 10 minutes." I strolled across the room while Tori walked over to the tv, looking though the Vega's pile of dvds. "And you better pick a good movie, or I'm making you watch another one of your dad's horror flicks!"
Tori cringed. "Yeah, yeah. Just go and get the food, will ya!"
As I stepped out of the front door, I heard Tori call after me and, seconds later, she appeared by my side. "Wait, Jade! Buy me some liquorice?"
"Liquorice?"
"And I'll give you a kiss!" She grinned, putting on a really bad accent, an obvious attempt to imitate me imitating her. Tori stood up on her tip toes to peck me on the cheek before skipping back into the house. I rolled my eyes, remembering the time I said that to mock her and couldn't help but smile to myself.
Xxx
I came back to the Vega place not long later, a bag full of various sweets in hand. I let myself in, of course, and began to walk over to the kitchen to dump all of my stuff, only to freeze mid-step, staring at the couch where Tori sat, but she wasn't alone.
"Yay! Cupcakes!" Cat giggled, jumping up from her seat to grab the bag from my hands and rummage through it. I raised my eyebrows at her then turned to Tori, hands on my hips.
"I couldn't stop her." Tori said, biting her lip. "Sorry."
"Whatever." I shrugged,a little annoyed as I walking around the couch to sit beside Tori, slinging an arm around her shoulder, which she snuggled into, her fingers linking with mine. Don't get me wrong, I love Cat, she's like a little sister to me, but sometimes she could get right on my nerves. Like now, just turning up out of the blue and ruining my plans to spend time with Tori. Just Tori. There would be no getting rid of her now, especially not with cupcakes involved.
"So, what are we watching?" I asked.
"The Lion King!" Cat bounced back to her seat, chewing on her cake and giggling as she looked over at us. "Aw! You two look so cute together!"
I pulled a face and, out of the corner of my eye, saw Tori give me a cheesy grin, poking me in the cheek. "Jade's cute!" She laughed in a sing song voice.
"I don't do cute." I groaned.
"Yeah, you do! Cat thinks so and I think so, so you do!"
Oh, God. Was my whole night going to be like this?
"Can we just watch the movie and stop discussing how 'cute' I am?" I asked, air quoting the word cute.
"So, you admit you're cute?"
"Vega." I growled in a warning tone.
She instantly dropped the subject and pressed play on the dvd remote. I couldn't complain about the movie choice, really. The Lion King was a guilty pleasure of mine, Scar being one of my all time favourite villains. I grew up on the movie and practically knew it by heart, so it didn't surprise me when I caught myself miming along to every word and every song.
Whenever the Hyena's or Scar would come on screen, Cat would squeal and hide behind the pillow she was holding. When Mufasa died, she actually burst into tears as Vega sniffled beside me once again, but I forgave her this time, at least this was a good film with a sad death.
Somehow, before the movie had finished playing, Cat fell asleep in her chair, the pillow still cuddled close to her body and an almost purr like noise issuing from her slightly open mouth whenever she breathed out.
Tori smiled over at the sleeping red head. "You know, I love Cat, but she can be-"
"Odd." I finished for her, earning a nod. "Yeah, but we still love her for it."
Another nod. Tori nuzzled up closer to me, her head resting on my shoulder, buried in the crook of my neck. She was super affectionate, I knew that just by seeing her with Ryder and that Steven guy, hell, she was even all touchy feely with our group of friends, maybe not as much as Cat, but the girl just loved that type of attention. It's not like I hated it, I just wasn't used to it. I'd never snuggle up to Beck like this, but to have someone do it to me, it was kinda nice.
"Jade?" Tori murmured, the fingers of her hand resting by her head were picking idly at the collar of my shirt.
"Tori?" I replied, shifting to look at her better.
"Are we, you know-" She hesitated. "Are we still going to tell everyone about us at school tomorrow?"
I'd forgotten all about that. No matter what I said before, I wasn't sure if I was ready to tell everyone about me and Vega. I'm used to people gossiping about me behind my back, about how I'm the big, bad, scary witch of Hollywood Arts, about how I probably ate little children for breakfast- yeah, some idiot's really said that- and other general, untrue crap that the morons at my school come up with. Tori hadn't been subjected to that kind of thing just yet, any gossip I heard about her was all good, but coming out and saying you're dating the girl that the whole school knows you're supposed to hate… I didn't have a clue what everyone's reaction would be.
"Jade?" Tori asked again when I didn't respond. She pulled away from me and sat up straight. "I'm sorry. If you're not ready for that yet then-"
"It's not that." I cut in. "I- I just don't know how everyone will react. Some of the kids at Hollywood Arts can be pretty vicious, so, if they find out the juicy gossip that you and I are dating, they'll find some way of using it against us."
"I'm pretty used to that." Tori said. "I seem to remember someone looking up my medical records to sabotage me for getting the lead role in a play."
Ah, she had me there. I'd been a gank to her before all of this started to happen, so I guess she was used to some of the worst Hollywood Arts had to offer. "Alright. But, I dunno. I still think we should talk to Andre and Robbie about it first before anyone else finds out. And Beck-"
I stopped. I hadn't forgotten seeing him at the theatre with that blonde chick. What was the idiot doing? Was she some sort of rebound? I may not love him like that anymore, but I still cared for the guy, we were together for two years after all, there are still feelings there.
"And Beck needs to understand this isn't about him." I finished.
"So, we'll talk to them tomorrow?" Tori looked hopeful, I couldn't let her down.
"We'll talk to them tomorrow."
I lent down to press a quick kiss to her lips, ignoring the sudden nervous butterflies in my stomach. Contrary to popular belief, I do care what people think of me. I don't care about the stupid rumours like I sleep in a coffin, or have severed heads for candle holders; in fact, I like to encourage those stupid rumours just to see what people would do. This, on the other hand, was a whole different kettle of fish. So far we'd been greeted with a lot of support for our relationship, with my ex-boyfriend as the downside, but I guess that was understandable. Would it be so easy for a bunch of egotistical, fame hungry school kids to accept us?
A/N: I struggled so bad with this chapter it feels like I rambled on about nothing =P
Once again, thank you everyone for the reviews and what not xD Much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!
P.S: The Lion King is my favourite film of all time, I just had to make a reference. Especially after Liz's tweet about watching it in 3D and her love for Scar ;)