Shocked, the phone had been lost from her firm grip. Clattering against the hardwood floor as Tori's delayed reaction made itself heard. "W-what?"
She couldn't believe what her agent had told her. There was no way Jade was in a mental institution. Much less refusing to do anything but stare mindlessly at a random television show. Correction, stare mindlessly at the Latina's own musical performances.
How could she even be sure it was true? What if the nurse who called her agent was just delusional herself? Why was Jade in there to begin with? And if she skipped town why did she end up in an institution here in LA? So many questions rushed through Tori's head, making it impossible for her to pull herself together.
Before she could forget Tori grabbed the pen off of her bedside table and wrote "Kedren Mental Hospital" down on her arm. She had to see Jade again. Then she could find out why she was in there, and if she could help.
She had to tell somebody, but she couldn't tell the group. Her first instinct was to go to Andre, but he wouldn't be able to hide something like that from the rest of their friends. Trina would just laugh at the idea of her in a mental hospital, and Robbie would all but insist that Jade really belonged in there.
Tori had to tell Cat, she used to be Jade's best friend after all. Besides, she was the only one Tori was sure she could convince to keep the secret. Grabbing her phone off of the bed where she had thrown it after the conversation with her agent, she began searching for Cat's phone number.
After dialling she waited for Cat to pick up on the first ring like always, this time it took a little longer though. On the third ring cat finally picked up. "Hi Tori!" She exclaimed at a rather loud volume.
"Uh, hey Cat. What's up?"
"Oh... Robbie and I, uh, just woke up?" Cat sounded rather unsure.
Tori choosing not to acknowledge it, as Cat often got confused by simple things. "Do you want to go out for some breakfast with me? We can go to your favourite restaurant, what's it called again? Toast?"
"Sure thing Tori! I'll see you there in twenty minutes?" Before letting Tori answer Cat ended the conversation with a sudden "Bye!"
She sighed, sometimes Cat was such a handful. She'd been hoping for more than 20 minutes to get ready and drive to Toast, but the redhead didn't leave her much option. However inconvenient as it was, Tori would have to make do.
By the time she arrived at Toast, Cat was already sitting at a table outside. As always the redhead was beaming with a smile, but this time it looked off. Like something else was going on in her head. Tori was sure that she was just trying to make excuses for herself not to tell Cat.
Sitting down, she noticed a bruise on Cat's shoulder. "Hey Cat! What's that from?" Tori asked, gesturing to the purple mark on her shoulder.
For a split second the redhead's eyes flickered to an emotion of pure fear as she stuttered, "I- I uh, my... Brother? He grabbed onto my shoulder last night and shook me... Yeah. That's it." Her breath hitched.
Noticing the change in Cat's emotion she inquired further. "Your brother is staying with you and Robbie? I thought last week you said he was in a special hospital in San Diego."
"Oh, yeah! Did I say brother? I don't think I did, I'm pretty sure I said a, uhm, bear did it?" Cat struggled to think of something that could do that to her.
Something was up with her. "Cat, a bear grabbed your shoulder and shook you? Inside your home in suburban Los Angeles?" All Tori wanted was Cat to tell her where the bruise came from, was that so hard?
"Ahahaha! Ahaha! Tori you're so funny!" Cat quickly covered up with her fairly loud laughter.
Shrugging it off Tori got to the point, "Look, I need to tell you something really important, and you can't tell anybody." After a moment the redhead just nodded, so she continued. "It's about Jade.."
Cat gasped, "Really? What about her? Do you know where she is now? Did she talk to you?" Her head filling with so many questions about her former best friend.
"I- I got a call from my agent about her. Well, about a nurse who called him concerning Jade."
Her eyes went wide at the word 'nurse'. "Is she alright? Is she hurt? Why a nurse?"
Tori lowered her head, slightly shaking it. "No, she's not hurt, but I don't think Jade's okay. She's been institutionalized at Kedren Mental Hospital. My agent couldn't tell me why, I mean it's a confidentiality thing." She decided it was best to leave out the fact all Jade did was watch her sing on television.
Tori tried lifting her head to look into Cat's eyes, but she couldn't. Cat looked so... Hurt. Eventually the redhead spoke up. "So, can we see her?"
"I think it's best if I see her alone first, I'm going to visit this afternoon." Tori felt bad for not letting her tag along.
As much as it pained her to think about it, Tori was probably right. After all, they didn't call her about Jade, they called Tori. "Alright.." The information finally hit her right in the heart. It killed her inside, and the emotion hit her right where it hurt the most. She perked up for Tori though, Cat knew she must be feeling just as much pain. "Can we get breakfast now?" She said in her typical childlike voice.
Tori's eyes finally looked up to meet Cat's. "Yeah, let's."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
The only problem Jade had with being confined to this place was the food. She was never sure what she was eating. Friday nights were pizza nights but Jade didn't want to interact with the other patients. She didn't even want to acknowledge them.
As far as she was concerned, the only things that existed in her world were the television, the bland hospital food, her meds, the flat uncomfortable bed she slept on, and Tori Vega. Not that she's seen her recently though. The other things in her world were a constant. She woke up every morning to her uncomfortable bed, her meds, the television and the gross hospital food.
Even though she never woke up to Tori Vega, she certainly liked the idea of it. That didn't matter now though. She'd never see her again, she had to get that through her head. Besides, Jade needed to eat the food in front of her. It would be the first time she's eaten in at least 3 days. It's not like she was intentionally starving herself, just eating got hard when Jade lost touch with reality.
She did that pretty often too. It was just so easy to forget she existed when she could focus on Tori's angelic singing. Using that word seemed kind of weird for her to use, but there was none other to describe the way Tori sang.
Picking up the fork to eat what seemed to be mashed potatoes, Jade continued to get lost in her thoughts. She far from shovelled the food into her mouth. Every bite she took looked like it could barely feed a fly. Eating quickly would show signs of the fact she was really in there, and might cause somebody to talk to her. Jade didn't want that. She didn't ever want to talk to anybody in this damned place.
Why would she want to? After all, she knew she was crazy already, it didn't make sense to befriend more crazy people. What would that do for her? Besides make her crazier? She was born like that, and she didn't need anymore to add to her problems.
She wasn't hungry anymore, or maybe she was. It was really hard to tell what she felt when her thoughts took over. Oh god was it hard to do anything when her thoughts to took over. Her head felt like a battlefield. Every piece of her past felt like it was attacking her. Nothing could stop this, or ease the pain. Well, pain medication would, or even sleeping pills, but Jade couldn't get those.
Even though she was mentally attacking herself, she didn't show any distress. Instead she sat there and took it from herself. She deserved it, Jade knew she did. Every bit of pain she inflicted on herself she knew she deserved. This was what she got for being crazy. It was what kept her in her place.
Jade knew she belonged in here. She told herself every day. If she was out there in the world god knows what else she would do. She had somebody murder her own father! Not to mention she then murdered him. All because she wanted to return the pain she felt to her father.
She didn't regret it though. He deserved to die, much like she deserved to be in here. All he did was ignore her, if he wasn't terrorizing her for being crazy. He deserved everything he got, and Jade stood by that. He deserved to suffer. To suffer just like she was right now.
She couldn't take it anymore. This was too much. If she was going to pull herself apart she was going to do so in her own bed. Slowly she got up from her chair, with the tray in her hands. Jade walked down a series of almost blinding bright white hallways, staring at her shoes as they squeaked against the tile with each step.
Eventually she arrived at her empty room. She looked at the tray in her hands still. "Fuck, I forgot to leave it." She scolded herself mentally. Not caring about it at all she just dumped the tray on the floor. Eventually somebody would clean it up. That wasn't her problem. Her problem was all in her head.
As she got on the thin, made bed all she wanted to do was rip out her hair. She just couldn't will her body to do it though. All she wanted now was to feel the pain that she deserved. Jade glanced around the room for something to do the trick, but there was literally nothing that could possibly help her inflict pain on herself.
Which of course was smart, and obviously thought through by staff in case of moments like this. For god's sakes there wasn't even a digital clock in the room. Which made sense, because those have cables, and Jade clearly knew what she was capable of doing with cables.
Her internal mental break down stopped when she heard somebody talking as they approached closer to her door. Who could possibly be there? The staff rarely come around this end unless it's evening check up. And like she realized a second earlier, it was a woman talking, so there must be two people.
For a second Jade swore she heard a far too familiar voice. No, it wasn't possible, was it? She sat up quickly, staring at the wall to make it seem as if she was not all there. The footsteps were coming closer to her door. Eventually the shuffling of feet stopped right before her room. All she could hear were the muffled sounds of whispers.
She picked out a small fragment of the whispers. "I'll tell her you're here, but don't be surprised if she doesn't respond to you, she doesn't respond to anybody." It was clearly a nurse talking to somebody. She then heard a gasp following the statement.
Who could possibly be visiting her? Maybe it was another one of those therapists trying to talk to her again, but why would they act so surprised? Everybody knew Jade didn't talk. That's the whole reason therapists tried to get her to.
The scuffling of shoes continued into the room, Jade still staring at the wall when she heard a woman say "Jade hun, there's somebody here to see you!" Of course she made no reaction what so ever. "I'll leave you two be, to uh, chat.." The nurse quickly walked off.
That's when the biggest surprise Jade had experienced in the last 3 years happened. A beautiful young woman stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the wall. That's when the woman said "Hi Jade, remember me?" A big smile plastered on her face.
Jade knew now that she wasn't seeing things. Standing in front of her, was none other than Tori Vega.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I made this chapter a lot longer because the last two were so short due to my excitement to get this story out.
Another cliffhanger mwahahaha!
Don't murder me please!
So we've had quite a bit going on in this chapter.
What's up with Cat?
How's Tori taking all this?
What's Jade gonna do now?
When is the rest of the gang going to find out about Jade's predicament?
Just a friendly reminder that this story is going to get very sad, and possibly graphic, and at the very extreme it may even be slightly triggering once we get to the middle of the story, not that we're too too close to that.
I'll try to update again soon! I appreciate all the reviews and if you have questions or concerns please take them up with me! Bye guys! Love you! ~Maddie