Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or Big Time Rush. They belong to Dan Schneider and Scott Fellows respectively.
Author's Note: A long time coming, but here it is. I've been so busy with writing chapter 12 for You're the Reason, that I forgot about this. I've literally written three different versions of chapter 12 and I still don't like any of them. It'll be a while before I get that posted, but here's something to make up for that. I know that the story has been going by pretty slow, but once they start school I promise things will begin to pick up. I have amazing things planned for this story. I also want to say I appreciate all the reviews on both stories along with the follows and favorites. It makes me love writing so much more. Leave a comment, I love knowing what you guys like and what you would like to see. It makes it more fun. Enjoy!
The next morning, Jade wakes up as early as possible to avoid Kendall and go to her mother's house. She uses the half an hour drive to think about what happened the previous night to prepare herself for any questions that Kendall might, and will, have for her later.
She arrives at her mom's house and makes her way inside. "Mother," she yells. "I'm here!"
"Be right there." Ms. West responds.
Jade makes her way to the living room and takes a seat on the couch while she waits for her mother to appear.
"Jade," her mom says. "What brings you here?"
"Am I not wanted here?"
"Of course you are, you just called me so late last night to tell me you were coming over, I figured something was wrong." Ms. West says as she takes a seat next to Jade.
"Everything's great."
"Jade, be honest."
"I cried in front of my roommate who I've only known for three days."
Her mom chuckles a bit. "Is that bad?"
"I'm supposed to be able to hold my ground, not cry my eyes out in his shirt."
"Everyone cries, Jade. It's really not that bad."
"I can't have him thinking I'm weak."
"You crying makes you weak?"
Jade sighs. "Mother, you don't understand."
"What were you crying about in the first place?"
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Of course not. Let's go eat some breakfast and you can tell me some more about this roommate."
"Okay," Jade responds and follows her mom into the kitchen.
Kendall sits up in his bed and stretches. He glances down for a second to notice he's still wearing his mascara-stained shirt from the previous night; having went straight to bed after a writing session, he never got around to changing it.
He takes a quick shower and gets ready for the day before making his way across the hall to Jade's room. He knocks softly and waits for her to open the door, when she doesn't, he knocks a little harder before opening the door a little.
"Jade?" he calls out as he looks around. "Are you in here?" he doesn't see her and sighs. Of course she would leave before Kendall could bring up what happened the night before.
Sighing once again, he goes into the kitchen to make something for breakfast before he has to get to work. Once he has eaten breakfast, he goes to his room to grab his keys and then doubles back to grab his phone and makes his way out the door.
He spends the entire drive thinking about Jade's behavior the previous night. For a minute, he thinks what he said to her in the store was a little too harsh until he remembers the way her face fell apart after reading a text message from someone. In a way, it makes him kind of mad that someone made Jade so upset she cried for nearly an hour. Sure, they've only known each other for a few days, but he doesn't like to see other people sad.
He pulls into the parking lot and walks inside to see Camille getting things ready for the day.
"Hey," he greets.
"Hey."
"You're here early this morning."
"Well, Jennifer quit so I came in to get things set up since she won't be doing that."
"Why did she quit?"
"She said working here was starting to ruin her reputation." she tells him and rolls her eyes.
Kendall groans. "Just wonderful."
"We need to hire someone else."
"I told Jade that she could work here, I'll tell her a spot is open."
"Good. Speaking of crazy girls, have you talked to Jo?"
"Jo's not crazy and I talked to her last night."
"How are things in New York going?"
"Great, she told me she's coming to visit and should be arriving tomorrow. I guess she thought last minute would be the best time to tell me."
"What about Jade?
Kendall raises an eyebrow. "What about her?"
"Are you forgetting that Jo will freak out when you tell her that you're living with some girl that she doesn't know?"
"No. I actually think that once she gets to meet Jade, there won't be anything to be jealous about."
Camille chuckles. "Are you implying that Jade's ugly?"
"No! I don't think Jade's ugly, I was talking about her personality."
"Which is ugly."
"She has a soft side." Kendall says softly.
"How do you know?"
"Just trust me, I do."
"Whatever, I just think you should stay at your mom's until Jo leaves."
"I would, but I don't want to."
"You do realize that while you're working, she'll be left at the apartment all alone with Jade?"
Kendall thinks about it. "Yeah, that might not be good. I guess Jo could hang around here until I get off work."
"But then she's taking up an empty table."
Kendall sighs. "Camille, work with with me here!"
"I'm just trying to help. You're not actually thinking things through, Kendall."
"I'll just let Jo stay at the apartment. You saw how Jade was when she met you, with any luck, she'll be the same way with Jo."
"Hopefully. Let's just focus on getting everything ready before we open up."
"Okay."
Jade, much to her surprise, actually enjoys the time that she's spending at her mother's. They talk about various things while they eat breakfast and when they finish, she begins to ask about Kendall.
"There's nothing to really say about him." Jade tells her.
"Of course there is. Tell me what you know about him."
Jade groans. "He's eighteen, his birthday is in November, he has a little sister, he wo-"
"What's her name?"
"Mother, that's not important."
Her mom shrugs. "Maybe not to you, but I want to know."
Jade rolls her eyes. "Her name's Katie."
"Okay, you can continue."
"He works at that café downtown called Café LA, he has a girlfriend that lives in New York, apparently he has a thing for organics," she says with an eyeroll. "He plays the guitar and writes songs and that's basically all I know."
"He sounds interesting."
"To you. To me he's just annoying."
"You don't mean that. Now, what's his girlfriend's name and why does she live in New York?"
"Jo and she lives there because that's where she goes to school."
Ms. West sighs. "That's a let down."
"What is?"
"He has a girlfriend."
Jade makes a face. "Mother, I know he's of legal age, but I don't think it'd be okay for you to date him."
"I wasn't saying it was a let down for me, I was saying it was one for you."
"Me?"
"Yeah, now you can't date him."
Jade scoffs. "I wouldn't want to date him even if he was single."
"Why not? You haven't had a boyfriend since-"
"Do not bring that up."
"I was just saying. He sounds nice enough."
"Too bad. He has a girlfriend and I don't like him."
"If you don't like him, why did you pick him as your roommate?"
"I mean I don't have a crush on him."
"That could change, Jade." she smiles. "You can wake up one morning and be head over heels in love with him."
"Doubt it." she replies. "I'm leaving."
Ms. West sighs. "Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you."
"Bye!" Jade yells as she walks out the kitchen.
The rest of the day goes by slow for the both of them. Kendall goes through another hectic work day and Jade spends most of her day lounging around the apartment.
It's almost five o'clock when Kendall gets back and when he walks through the door, he's met with Jade in a bikini top, shorts, a towel, and her phone in hand.
"Where are you going?"
"Pool." she replies and walks past him.
"Jade, wait!" he yells after her. "I need to talk to you."
Jade stops and turns around. "Blondie, I do not want-"
"It's not about last night." he says hurriedly.
"Oh. What is it then?"
"A spot was made available at work and I wanted to know if you would like it; you said you'd think about it, but I wanted to know before we put up a sign."
Jade shrugs. "Sure, I guess."
"Cool, you can start Monday."
Jade nods and begins to walk back towards the direction of the elevators. Kendall sighs and walks back into the apartment and flops down on the couch. He lies there for a few minutes before he realizes that he didn't tell Jade about Jo coming to visit. He makes his way out the door, to the elevators, and down to the pool.
Walking out, Jade is the only one out there at the moment. She has her back against the side of the pool, her arms stretched out to the sides, a content smile playing on her lips. Kendall walks over to where she is and crouches down.
"Jade."
Jade gasps as she turns around. "You scared the shit out of me!"
"Sorry, it wasn't intentional."
She rolls her eyes. "What do you want? I'm trying to relax."
"I forgot to mention that Jo's coming to visit."
"And why am I supposed to care?"
"Because she's going to be staying here."
Jade lets out a brief, dry chuckle. "No, she's not."
"Why not?"
"Because I told you to keep your drama away from me."
"There'll be no drama. I can assure you that."
"Why can't you stay at your mom's until she leaves?"
Kendall rolls his eyes at Jade repeating what Camille said earlier. "Because I don't want to. This is my place now, too. I was nice enough to ask you, so you should at least be nice enough to agree."
"News flash, Knight, I'm not that nice."
"I realize that." Kendall replies standing up. "You can have the place to yourself for the weekend, I'll be at my mom's." he says hotly, turning around and walking away.
Jade groans and goes back to the position she was in before Kendall came out. She continues to just sit there until she starts to feel her skin become wrinkly. She quickly dries herself off and walks back up to the apartment. Kendall's sitting on the couch watching TV when she walks back in and doesn't look in her direction. Jade simply shrugs and goes to take a shower to get the chlorine smell off of her.
Walking back into her room after her shower, she changes clothes and then goes into the kitchen to grab something to eat. Kendall walks in not a minute later and stands at the door watching her.
"What?" she asks.
"I thought about it."
"Thought about what?"
"Jo's staying here."
Jade rolls her eyes and slams the refrigerator door. "No, she's not."
"Yeah, she is. I live here, too. You can't tell me I can't invite certain people over. I notified you, hell, I even gave you a job. I was nice enough to do that and no matter what you say, she's staying here."
"You're really pushing my buttons. Three days here and you're already so damn annoying."
"What are you gonna do, Jade? Kick me out? If you're gonna do that, maybe I should just move out. I could always find another place and another roommate." Kendall tells her. Truthfully, he doesn't want to move out. He's just doing whatever he can to get through to Jade and make her see his side of things.
Jade just rolls her eyes again and walks past him. "Move out, then."
Kendall practically chokes on his spit. "Excuse me?"
"Move out. I can have Cat move in or even ask my mother for help, I don't want to, but if I absolutely have to, I will."
"I'm sorry, are you really telling me to move out because I want my girlfriend to stay here for one weekend?"
"Yep."
Kendall groans. "Why are you being so difficult. Reason with me."
"I've been doing that since you got here and I'm sick of reasoning with you!"
"She's staying!"
"Then you're leaving!"
"No, I'm not! I'm not leaving just because you don't want Jo here."
"I'm through with this. If she stays here, you're moving out." Jade tells him and walks back to her bedroom.
"Fuck!" Kendall yells before making his way to his own room, the door slamming behind him.
Three hours later and they're both still in their rooms, not talking to each other. Kendall considers going to go apologize for his behavior, but decides against it; he has nothing to truly be sorry for.
Another hour goes by and there's a knock on his door.
"What?" he mumbles.
Jade opens it and leans against the door frame. "Shouldn't you be packing?"
Kendall rolls his eyes. "Nope."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't think I should leave."
"You're right."
"What?" he asks, completely surprised by her response.
"She can stay, but if she says or does one thing to piss me off, she has to go."
Kendall smiles. "Deal. I can promise you that she won't."
"Whatever." she replies and starts to close the door.
"Wait!"
"What?"
"What made you change your mind?"
"I thought about it. You did give me a job and you are helping out with the rent, I guess I could do you a favor. It just means that you owe me." she fails to mention that after a two hour conversation with her mother, she was willing to do anything to get her to stop talking.
Kendall chuckles. "Okay, I owe you. Thanks."
"Whatever."
"Oh, and Jade?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry."
Jade shrugs. "It's fine," she pauses. "This time. Next time, however, you'll do what I say."
Kendall rolls his eyes but says, "Yes, ma'am."
"Good." Jade replies as she closes the door back.
"Whatever." Kendall says to himself with a smile after she leaves.
Kendall gets as much sleep as he can before he has to leave to pick Jo up from the airport at four in the morning. The drive there isn't that long and he spends his time weighing the pros and cons of Jo staying at the apartment. He figures since Jade doesn't like people it'll be fine. Plus, he went through so much shit to get Jade to agree, it would be crazy if he changed his mind.
He parks his car in the parking lot and walks towards the airport.
"Kendall!" he hears someone call. He turns to his right to see Jo running towards him, her suitcase dragging behind.
He smiles and picks her up. "Well, hello."
"Hi,"
"You could've waited inside, you know."
"I could've, but I was too eager to see you."
"Of course you were." he says and kisses her as he places her back on the ground.
"Can we go? I'm cold."
Kendall laughs. "Yeah, let's get going." he grabs her suitcase and leads her back to the car.
"Tell me about the apartment. You didn't say much about it on the phone last night." Jo says once they're settled in the car.
"It's nice, you'll like it."
"How are you going to manage the rent all by yourself?"
Kendall sighs. "I'm not."
"You're not what?"
"I'm not paying all the rent by myself."
"Is your mom helping you?"
"No," he responds as he pulls out the parking lot.
"Kendall, you're being vague."
"I have a roommate."
"Camille?"
Kendall knows Jo would be more comfortable if he said Camille was his roommate, but there's no point in lying since she's going to meet Jade herself. "No, her name's Jade."
"Oh,"
"Yeah."
"How do you know her?"
"I don't. She posted flyers looking for a roommate, I called her, we met up, and now she's my roommate."
"Is she nice?"
Kendall shrugs. "It's up for debate."
"What do you mean?"
"I think the level of Jade's niceness depends on how well she knows you and who you are in her life."
"Interesting." Jo says as the car falls quiet.
Ten minutes later they're pulling into the apartment parking lot and heading to the apartment. Kendall opens the door, trying to be as quiet as possible, and let's Jo walk in before walking in himself and closing the door.
"Nice place." Jo says whispers.
"Yeah. Come on, let's go to my room." Kendall whispers back.
He escorts Jo to his room and quietly closes the door behind them.
"Wow, you have this whole room to yourself? It's huge."
"Yeah. Both are like that."
"So you've been in her room?" Jo sighs as she sits on the edge of Kendall's bed.
"Briefly, yes. It's nothing to worry about."
"How do I know that, Kendall?"
"Trust me, when you meet Jade in the morning all your doubts will be gone."
"I hope your right."
"I am. Let's go to bed before I have to get up in a few hours."
Jo yawns. "Okay,"
Kendall turns the lamp off and pulls the sheets back. They climb under them and Kendall pulls Jo close to him.
"I love you." Jo whispers.
"Love you, too." he responds as sleep takes over.