Cat drove up to Tori's house 6:30 AM the next morning, punching the horn twice and leaning back into the seat, closing her eyes and humming a melody to herself. A minute later, she heard the door open and as she looked to her right she saw Tori sit down in the passenger side. She stopped her humming and gave Tori a smile.
"Good morning." Cat happily said. Tori smiled back, a gesture that made Cat even happier.
"Good morning, Cat." Tori said as she put her bag on the backseat. "Thanks again for driving me home yesterday and picking me up now. God knows if I would have made it home in the shape I was in."
"No need to thank me. What else are friends for?" Cat said as she turned the ignition and started the car.
"Can we take the longer way? It's still early." Tori said.
"Sure." Cat only responded, her eyes focused on the road.
"Cat, look, I know you've noticed that a lot of things are wrong with me at the moment. And I can imagine that you want to know what it is, right?" Tori asked, looking at her hands rather than at Cat.
"Tori, I won't force you to tell me anything you don't want to tell me. I know you have issues at home and I know that you are under a lot of stress lately. If you want to talk about it or if there is anything else you didn't tell me, I'll always be there and listen when you are ready." Cat said, looking at Tori for a short moment before returning her gaze back to the road.
"I want to tell you." Tori said.
"Then I'm listening." Cat said.
"My parents split up." Tori said.
"I'm so sorry. What happened?" Cat asked slowing down and parking the car in an empty space at a gas station.
"Why are you parking the car?" Tori asked as Cat turned the engine off and lowered the back of her seat a big before she turned her body to lean on her side.
"Because this is more important than the period and I want to give you my full attention." Cat said. "I'm listening." Cat said, looking straight at Tori.
Tori let out a sigh before she lowered her seat too and now was almost lying down in her car, looking at the top.
"My mom was cheating on my dad. They had been arguing for a while about a lot of things, mostly him working as long as he did and not satisfying her anymore. He blamed her for wanting a house and a car for everyone and also having to feed and put clothes on two teenagers, and even having to save more money for colleges. But she didn't seem to care about any of his reasons. She started seeing one of his colleagues. They met at a party he held a year ago. I don't know when they exactly started their affair, and I don't even want to know how often it happened in our house." Tori explained, letting her tears freely flow again. She turned quickly to see that Cat was still listening, surprising her a little bit considering Cat's short attention span.
"My dad found them two weeks ago, add a day or two. His partner immediately left while he was yelling at her. I had just come home from school and gotten into my room to change when I heard them scream. Dad had come home early that day to surprise her. He had even gotten them reservations at her favorite place and brought some flowers. I walked out of my room and downstairs I found him yelling and cursing while she just grabbed a few things from the garage and put them into one of her bags. She didn't look at him, she didn't respond in any way. And then I saw her walk towards the door. I yelled after her, but she only glanced at me for a moment before turning her head around and leaving without saying a single word. Gary and she went to Chicago and now they are living together. She just left us; dad, Trina and me. She left her own family as if we never meant anything to her. And why? Because getting fucked by someone was more important to her. That selfish cunt!" Tori yelled the last part out before losing herself. She covered her face with her hand, not able to stay calm anymore.
Cat leaned forward that moment and wrapped her arms around the crying Tori, leaning her head on Tori's and gently rubbing Tori's arm.
"It will be okay, Tori. You don't need someone like that in your life." Cat said.
"She is my mother, Cat." Tori said through her sobs. "She is supposed to be there for Trina and me. To be there for dad. She threw away twenty years of marriage because of sex. She threw her kids away because she couldn't control herself. How can she be so selfish?"
"I don't know, Tori. I don't know…" Cat said. She put her hand on the back of Tori's head, hoping to calm her down in any way.
Again, no vision appeared at the contact. Instead, Tori felt the same thing she felt the day before. Her sobs went silent and her tears dried a few moments later. Her anger and sadness were replaced with serenity and peace. She slowly moved away from Cat, but not so much that Cat would remove her hand from the back of her head.
That moment, Tori needed the calmness and the serenity. She didn't want it to end. She didn't want to cry again. She didn't want anger and sadness to overtake her again. She only wanted for this feeling to last as long as possible. But she didn't know why she had no visions with Cat. She knew that her ability wasn't gone. She still could feel the emotions and they would overtake her, but the fact that with Cat it was completely different than with anyone else before, where she felt guilt, sadness, anger and emptiness, was very welcome.
"There is something else, Cat. And I don't know how to say this or explain or anything." Tori said, relaxing in Cat's embrace.
"Just tell me what it is." Cat said.
"In the last three, four days, I've been experiencing strange things. I've… god, how can I expect you to believe me?" Tori said, interrupting her thought. She realized the ridiculousness of the situation when she tried to sort them into words. She had no way to prove to Cat that what she wanted to say was the truth. She didn't know anything completely about anyone, and if she did, she doubted that Cat knew any of the secrets herself. She can't even use any of Cat's memories as an example because she is not seeing any. Right now, it seemed like a bad idea to tell her.
"Look, whatever it is, just tell me." Cat said, tightening her grip around Tori a little bit to let her know that she meant it.
"I've… been having visions whenever someone touches me or I touch them." Tori said, waiting for a response from Cat.
"What do you mean?" Cat asked in a confused voice. Tori let out a sigh, not knowing if she could explain it to her.
"I found it out on Monday when one spaced out again and walked into one of the guys from school. When he offered his hand to help me up, everything went bright in front of my eyes and I saw something that must be a memory. He was sitting in a plane looking back down at the city he left. Since then, every time someone got into physical contact with me, I've seen something, our history teacher, Mandy from my history class, Andre, Beck, Robbie… Jade was the worst. I didn't see a single vision but multiple at the same time. It's why I blacked out for a moment yesterday."
"What type of visions? I don't understand that." Cat said.
"I see the person and the people responsible for that emotion the person has. I saw our history teacher talk to his banker about his loan and how the rates have to be raised. I saw how Mandy caught her boyfriend cheating on her. Everything around them is in a white fog and the people who just pass by are faceless and don't say anything. I guess it's because they are not important to the memory and the emotion within it. The visions are mostly short, a few moments, but they seem to last longer the longer the contact lasts. Also, I've started feeling the emotion behind the vision. Anger, sadness, guilt, betrayal, loneliness, emptiness. All those things I feel for a few moments and then they vanish as if they never were there in the first place." Tori explained.
Cat was silent for a few minutes, taking in all the information she had just gotten while Tori, despite believing that she would feel nervous once she told Cat, didn't feel nervous at all. Her calmness seemed unshakable at the moment.
"I understand." Cat said.
"I know you don't believe me. It's crazy, I know… but I'm telling the truth." Tori said, waiting for Cat to let go of her and drive them to school before never speaking to her again. To her surprise, Cat didn't let go. Tori only felt Cat give her a quick kiss on the top of her head, like Trina and her mother used to do when she was younger.
"I believe you. Don't worry." Cat said in a calm voice.
"Y-you do?" Tori asked, not believing what she just had heard.
"Of course I do. You are Tori. You don't lie about stuff like this and you don't make up things to get attention. We've been best friends for years, Tori. I know that you wouldn't lie to me." Cat said. Relieved, Tori hugged Cat back.
"Thank you, thank you so much for believing me." Tori said, knowing that she would be in tears again if not for Cat.
"You have nothing to thank me for. Tell me, what do you see now?" Cat asked.
"Uhm, that's the deal. I don't see anything with you. There are no visions, nothing. I only feel calm and… peaceful." Tori explained.
"Hm… I guess I understand." Cat said.
"Understand what?" Tori asked.
"I guess the memories you see are the ones still affecting the people you see them from." Cat said. "Otherwise, you would either see a few ones with my brother or the time I saw you and Danny kiss." Cat said.
Tori stiffened up that moment. She remembered what she had done to Cat and how much it must have hurt her. Tori pulled back and out of the hug, knowing that she didn't deserve anything of what Cat was now doing for her.
"I'm sorry for that. I know how much that hurts, believe me. But seeing your friend do that to you… I'm so sorry Cat. I…" Tori began, feeling her sadness want to overtake her again. But before she could finish with any type of apology, she found herself again in Cat's arms, hearing a small giggle from the redhead.
"Why are you even mentioning this now? I forgave you a long time ago for that. Yes, it hurt that moment, but it isn't nearly as bad compared to other things that have happened to me." Cat said.
"But why can't I see it then?" Tori asked.
"Because those memories don't hurt me anymore. I've gotten over them. I've dealt with them and closed that chapter of my life. Thinking about them does nothing to me, Tori. I never let those things affect me. I have this one, short life and I have no intention in wasting any of the precious time I could be smiling and laughing with sadness or anger or anything. And I definitely don't have time to let something from the past haunt me for a long time. I don't want that and I won't allow it to happen." Cat finished.
Tori was left speechless that moment. She never thought about it that way. She also never expected such a philosophy to come from Cat, whom she, to her own shame, always saw as to naïve to be sad or angry. But now, things made sense. Her constant happiness, her ability to switch moods, not caring about telling things to others; she just didn't care and didn't want to care. She did what made her happy and wouldn't allow anything to change that. It is how she dealt with Jade's behavior for all these years. It's how she managed to forgive and forget all the wrongdoings that happened to her.
"So what I saw with our friends is still haunting them." Tori said, glad about understanding more about her ability while it also meant that her worst suspicion was true.
"I guess. I believe that what you gave is an incredible ability and gift." Cat said.
"To me, it feels like a curse." Tori responded.
"It's all a matter of perspective. A single touch and you know something about the person no one else possibly knows. I know you want to help our friends now because of that. Because something seems to be bothering them. And I think you should." Cat said.
"I should? I feel as if I'm finding things out that I shouldn't even know exist." Tori said.
"And still, you are the one person who can help them deal with those things and close that part of their life. If it's preventing them from being happy and if you felt how that makes them feel, why not? What else are friends there for than to help you and make you smile everyday?" Cat finished her thought.
"You are right. They do need someone to help them with that. And I will help them. But for now, thank you so much for listening to me. Thank you for believing me. And thank you for calming me down. I really needed this after everything." Tori said.
"Whenever you need anything, you can always let me know. I'm not hard to reach." Cat said.
"Thank you." Tori said as both pulled away and set their seats back up before Cat started the engine again and both girls finally drove towards school.