I groan as my pounding head wakes me from my sleep.
I want to close my eyes and will myself back to sleep but before I can I hear the alarm on my phone go off.
Ugh, this is why I hate going out on Sundays, instead of being curled up in bed all day trying not to die I have to go to school and be surrounded by morons who will no doubt make this headache even worse.
I look over at Dina, who somehow managed to ignore the blaring alarm and continue to sleep. I wasn't drunk enough to forget what happened, but I'm still overcome with flash backs of last night.
What started out as talking in the club turned into kissing, which led to touching and ultimately me giving my keys to Back and threating him with my scissors to keep it safe before getting in an uber with Dina.
Dina's the only person I've kept around this long, partly because she's good in bed, but also because she's not too terrible. I know that if I was the type of person who could have normal feelings and a normal relationship, it would be with Dina; and I know that she secretly hopes one day that will happen.
I sigh before slowly moving Dina's body off mine, I grab what I can find of my clothes that were left around the apartment last night. I check my phone and see I have enough time to get home and change before school.
I grab a bottle of water and some aspirin and leave it next to Dina's bed before calling an uber and heading home.
I get home and take a much-needed shower before changing into some leggings and an oversized t-shirt reserved for hangover days.
Beck texts me and tells me he's on his way so I grab my toast out of the toaster and head outside.
"Out." I say simply after Beck pulls into the drive way
"You know you trusted me enough to keep it all night, I think you can trust me enough to get us to school without crashing." Beck says smirking.
I simply stare at him until he starts to look uncomfortable and slides over to the passenger seat.
"That's what I thought" I mumble under my breath before getting in.
"So how was your night" Beck asks before taking a long sip of Gatorade, no doubt as hungover as I am,
"Same as usual, got drunk and fucked Dina." I say grabbing his Gatorade and taking a sip myself.
"What about you?" I ask absentmindedly
"Same as usual, got drunk and fucked a girl whose name I can't remember." Beck says smirking at me
I roll my eyes and laugh as we pull into the parking lot.
"How's Robbie?" I ask bringing myself back to reality
"He's doing alright I guess, Ron really fucked him up. But my dad said he'll handle dealing with the whole situation and work to get Robbie back into Hollywood arts." Beck said still looking worried.
"Your dad is a lawyer Beck, one of the best ones in the city, he'll make sure nothing bad happens to Robbie again." I say sounding confident enough to relax Beck.
"Yeah, you're probably right, I still worry though." Beck says.
I nod before grabbing my backpack and heading towards my class.
"Cat is still out of town with her brother for god knows what reason, so not only will I be hungover but I will be forced to deal with these people alone." I groan before stopping in front of my class.
"Hey at least you got Ms. Vega to keep you company." Beck smirks before checking his watch.
"Shit I gotta go if I'm tardy one more time I have to write a five-page essay on the importance of being punctual." Beck says before sprinting off in the opposite direction.
I laugh before walking onto the classroom as the bell rings.
I take my seat and pull out my phone waiting for Tori to come in.
Instead I'm pulled from my phone by the sound of some chipper woman I vaguely recognize as our health teacher. If you looked up cat lady in the dictionary, her picture would pop up.
"Hello! I'm Mrs. Vazquez, Ms. Vega is out sick today so I'm going to be your substitute teacher for the day!" She practically squeals out.
"Now can someone tell me where you guys left off on Friday?" She asks
I zone out for the rest of the class, why isn't Tori here, and why didn't she let me know?
I mean she doesn't have to report to me where she's gonna be, but were friends, and friends tell you when they aren't gonna be at school.
I hope she's okay I think, I count down the minutes until class is over, after what feels like an eternity the bell finally rings and I pull out my phone to text Tori as I walk to my second class of the day.
Thanks for leaving us with the cat lady, only thing I learned today is if I never settle down there's twenty cats ready to accept me as one of their own.
I put my phone away and try and pay attention to the class, but all I notice is the lack of a notification from my phone.
After second period ends I pull my phone out again, and just like I thought no new message from Tori.
I type out a quick text before third period starts.
Couldn't handle being around me anymore and needed a day off?
I joke before losing myself in my play writing class.
Lunch finally arrives and I practically throw my plate onto the table.
"Woah what did those nachos ever do to you?" Beck asks while grabbing a chip and popping it into his mouth.
"I think Tori is ignoring me or something." I huff out before checking my phone for the third time in five minutes.
"What did you do to make her ignore you?" Beck asks curiously.
"Why do you think I did anything?" I yell unsuccessfully trying to control my frustration.
"Well usually when someone ignores a person, it's because they did something to piss them off. So, what did you do to piss her off?" Beck asks before stealing even more of my chips.
I try to think back, I saw Tori yesterday before Ron and before the club, she seemed fine. We had a good talk and I felt like she was finally getting comfortable with really being friends. So, what the hell did I do between now and then to piss her off?
I sigh and slam my head down on the table.
"Why should I even care if she's ignoring me? I piss off girls all the time and I never care when they ignore me" I say looking up to Beck.
"Well for starters, you can't win the bet if she won't even talk to you. And don't forget the conversation we had at the concert, if you really want any chance of being with her you gotta open up and be a normal human being who acknowledges her feeling for once."
I roll my eyes and am about to cut him off before he gives me his 'shut up I'm not done' look and continues.
"You care about me and Cat, if we ignored you, you would be pissed but you wouldn't just cut us off. Ms. Vega might be just a bet, but you have to treat her like you treat us and not how you treat all the other girls you sleep with dude." Beck says before finally giving up and grabbing the rest of my nachos for himself.
I know he's right, but I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. Instead I pull out my phone and Text Tori before getting up and heading to my locker before the next class starts.
Everything alright?
It's the end of the day and I still haven't gotten a reply from Tori, not even a fuck you leave me alone. I'm really starting to worry about her so I collect Beck from his locker and head to his house to drop him off.
"I'm gonna drive by Tori's place and see if she's there, she still hasn't texted me back and I don't think I did anything to piss her off enough to ignore me all day." I say with worry evident in my voice.
"I'm sure she's fine Jade, hell last night was ladies' night at half the bars in the city; maybe she's just got a really bad hangover and is sleeping it off." Beck says trying to calm me down.
"Tori barely drinks, and when she does she definitely doesn't get shit faced enough to have to miss an entire day of school." I say gripping the steering wheel tighter.
"Alright if you're really worried about her then I think you should go check on her, just be careful Jade, I know it's a big city but don't let anyone see you two together. Even though nothing has happened yet it'll still look suspicious." Beck says sounded concerned.
I nod as I pull into his drive way.
"I'll text you after and let you know how things go." I say to him before he smiles and gets out.
I wait for Beck to get inside before I pull out of the drive way and head towards Tori's.
About half way there I decide to text her and let her know I'm coming. I was hoping this way if she was ignoring me she would at least tell me not to come and I could know that she is okay; but still silence.
After what feel like an eternity I pull into Tori's drive way, remembering Becks advice I look around to make sure I don't see anyone we would know before I get out of the car and head towards the front door.
Knock knock knock
My heart jumped up into my throat and I could feel my palms getting sweaty, which never happens because I'm Jade West and I don't sweat.
I don't even know why I'm so nervous I haven't done anything wrong.
After a minute of silence, I get impatient and knock again.
Knock knock knock
"Tori it's me, I know you're in there your car is in the drive way, open up!" I practically yell before pounding on the door again.
Finally, I hear footsteps coming from inside of the house, and suddenly the door swings open to reveal a very pale looking Tori.
"Shit Tori are you alright, what happened?" I ask as I push her back into the house and onto the couch.
"Jade what are you doing here?" Tori asks wiping the look of shock off her face.
"You didn't come to school today and I've been texting you but you didn't reply so I got worried." I say as I feel her face trying to tell if she has a fever or not.
Tori looks like she's about to start crying and gets up to move back to where I can only assume her bedroom is.
I follow her quietly, back to what is in fact her bedroom. I can't even be excited about the fact that I'm standing in Tori's bedroom, all I can think about is figuring out what's going on.
"Tori what's going on? Why weren't you at school today and why do you seem so upset?" I ask trying to keep the worry out of my voice.
"You shouldn't be here Jade." Is all Tori says before laying down on her bed and turning her back towards me.
Seriously? I've been worrying about this girl all damn day and finally when I see her that's all she has to say to me? Nope, I'm not accepting that.
I kick off my shoes, walk around the bed so that I'm facing Tori and climb into bed with her.
Now I am definitely worried about Tori, but I also can't ignore the fact that I'm laying in bed with her, and it causes my heartbeat to pick back up.
"Jade what the hell are you doing?" Tori almost yells out.
"Do you know how inappropriate this is?" Tori continues sounding like she's on the verge of a panic attack.
"Oh, shut up, I'm not crawling into bed to fuck you, I'm only in here with you because you won't talk to me! You didn't show up for school and then you ignored me all day, I worried about your ass all day and now you're going to tell me what's wrong and I'm not leaving until you do. And don't think about trying to walk away again cause I am not afraid to pin you to this bed." I say finally letting the frustration I've been feeling out.
Tori's eyes darken but before I can figure out why she has them closed and is covering her face with her hands.
"Hey, Tori come on, I'm trying to be here for you but you're making it extremely difficult. Why won't you just let me in?" I ask trying to calm her down.
Finally, Tori peeks her head out from behind her hands and sighs.
"It's embarrassing." She says sounding like a child telling an adult a secret.
"You know I'm not going to judge you." I say looking into her eyes and hoping she can tell that I mean it, I wouldn't judge Tori for anything she's done, God knows I have no right to.
She looks lost in thought and I'm about to tell her we don't have to talk about it when she finally starts to open up.
"I was out at a bar last night last night with a friend, and I saw….. a friend kissing someone else." Tori says trying to hide her face in the blankets.
"I don't understand why is that embarrassing? I see Beck kissing on girls all the time and all it does is make me roll my eyes or laugh." I say trying to understand what the big deal was of seeing a friend make out with someone.
Finally, it dawns on me.
"You like your friend." I say more are a statement than a question.
Tori just nods and I can see her eyes becoming wet again.
"Does he know you like him?" I ask trying to keep my composure.
Without saying anything, Tori shakes her head and wipes away a few of the tears that have fallen.
I sit there for a minute trying to process everything, I know it's dumb and crazy and really childish, but I kinda thought Tori liked me. I mean obviously not in the way I needed her to in order for me to win the bet, but still; I thought there was at least something there but what's really surprising is I feel like I've been punched in the stomach after finding out Tori likes someone who isn't me.
I push those feelings away and turn towards Tori, grabbing her face with my hands and gently wiping away the tears.
"After I saw it, I felt crushed, even though I know I have no right to feel that way. I got really drunk and Andre had to carry me home." Tori whispers.
"Is that why you weren't at school today, you were too hungover?" I ask trying to fully understand.
"That was part of it, I know if I really needed to go I could have. But I guess I just needed a day to watch sad movies and eat ice cream in my sweats." Tori says sounding a little better.
I nod, still trying to process everything.
"You know what I think?" I ask finally feeling confident enough to speak.
"What?" Tori asks so quietly that if we weren't laying in bed together I wouldn't have even heard it.
"You're friends an idiot." I say and she simply rolls her eyes and tries to turn her back again.
I put one hand on her hip to keep her from rolling and use the other one to keep her from moving her face away from mine.
"I'm serious Tori, you're amazing, definitely better than whoever he was kissing last night. If he can't see that he could have someone as amazing as you, then he doesn't deserve you. And you deserve someone better, you deserve someone who only sees you." I say almost losing myself in her eyes.
"It's not that simply Jade." Tori whispers.
"It is though Tori, I've told you before how amazing I think you are, and how you are the type of person I would want to be with. If I can see that, why can't he? What' so damn complicated that he can't see that he has the best girl in the world in front of him?" I ask, not realizing I had moved even closer to Tori.
I'm way closer than I should be, I know that. This is past student teacher relationship, this is downright inappropriate; and I'm waiting for Tori to point that out and move away from me, but she doesn't.
I could count the number of eyelashes she has right now if I wanted to, I'm so close I can hear her heart beating, or maybe that's mine, I can't tell right now.
"Jade" Tori whispers so quietly I'm not sure if she even said my name or if I imagined it, but I reply anyway.
"Yeah?" I whisper back just as quietly.
I can't tell if I am imagining it or not, but I swear Tori is staring at my lips.
My heart beat picks up again, which at this point I didn't even think was possible.
Finally, Tori looks up from my lips to my eyes and they look different than usual. Normally they're happy and carefree but now, she looks determined, like she's made her mind up about something I don't have the privilege of knowing.
Before I can ask her about it, Tori starts to lean in.
Without even realizing it I start to lean in too, I feel our noses brush against each other when I hear the front door slamming shut.
"I got you some Aspirin and Gatorade in case you don't have any, you better not be naked I'm coming back."
Shit.