/TORI/
"I should have gone with her. I should have taken her hand and refused to let go." My feet pace up and down the length of Sikowitz's classroom. "You should have seen how her father looked at me. He was furious." I wrap my arms around my chest, crushing them against my body to try and hold myself together. Whether it was to comfort myself or hold back the crippling guilt, I wasn't sure.
Probably both.
"I'm fairly certain that the whole school heard how angry Jade's dad was." Sikowitz sips from his coconut, chasing the straw around with his tongue. "But give it time and he'll come around."
"Yeah, he was probably shocked with the news of you two dating and didn't know how to handle the situation." Andre tries to offer helpfully from the side, but I can only grimace.
I didn't know how to handle it either. Within a matter of a few minutes, the world had been turned upside down and shaken. Everything Jade and I were, what we stood for and our love, was pulled into question and stomped on with expensive Italian shoes. I should be with her right now, I should have clung to her and stood my ground, but it had all happened so fast. I barely had enough time to try and argue before she was being pulled out of my grip. My Jade whisked away so her father could start refueling her with poisonous thoughts about me.
"You don't have to worry. Jade just texted me." Beck scrolls through the message. I practically jump on him.
"What did she say? Is she okay?"
"She said she's fine but she won't be at school for a few days. She's come down with some sort of virus."
I didn't believe that for a second.
"See? Now you can stop your worrying. Everything's chill." I can sense Andre's rubbing my back but I can't feel it. I can't feel anything but worry.
The whole message sounded off. I take Beck's phone and read the words over and over. Each letter had it's place, almost a cold and calculating rhythm to it. It might seem crazy, obsessive even, but the twist in my gut was practically screaming that it wasn't her. She didn't send this text voluntarily.
I'm fine. I've come down with a virus. I'll be back at school in a few days.
"You see, I've always viewed you and Jade like a coconut. Nothing to do with the shape, of course but because of the way you both combine. The milk of the coconut is the strong body and the shell is - where'd she go?" Sikowitz blinks and looks around just in time to see the door close.
I pull out my phone and dial for a taxi. I couldn't trust anyone to drive me. Not Trina, not Beck, not even Andre. Because I knew they wouldn't take me over there. They'd brush it off and tell me to relax, that I was overreacting and immediately turn the car around. But I knew there was something wonky going on.
"Brentwood Avenue." I rush out to the taxi driver before I had even pulled the car door closed. He nods and we slip out of the Hollywood Arts parking lot. My fingers fumble for my phone and I send a a text to Jade. Not like she would respond, or could respond. She -or whoever had her phone, had read my last twelve messages but hadn't answered.
We turn into her neighborhood and I start recognizing familiar buildings; the small candy shop where we'd shared a toffee apple and it had made my teeth glue together, much to Jade's amusement, the park where we had swung for hours back and forth, not even saying anything but just enjoying each others company.
None of these memories were making me feel any better.
The yellow cab makes another turn, lurching to the side just as my heart did the same.
There was a moving truck in her driveway.
I fist out a wad of bills and shove them into the driver's palm, not even bothering to count them. My fingers slip around the car handle and then my feet hit the gravel driveway, crunching in a panic towards the front door.
"Thanks." Jade signs her name on the bottom of a clipboard, her head suddenly jerking up when she hears my footsteps. Our eyes meet and she backs away, spitting up gravel underneath her boots as she runs back inside the house.
"Jade! Jade, wait!" I rush after her, seeing her retreat downstairs to her den. I don't even acknowledge that the West house was almost empty, the ornaments and possessions placed away in cardboard boxes. But I'm sure if I did, I'd be sick. I jam my foot in the door just as she's about to slam it shut, my hand reaching through the gap so she couldn't close it on me.
"Go away, Tori! I don't want to see you!" She snarls behind the door, an edge of desperation to her voice.
"Yes you do!" I push forward and overpower her, quickly shutting the door and using my body to block us in. "What's going on, Jade? Why haven't you been answering my text messages? Why didn't you come back to school? Why is there a moving truck outside your house?"
Her blue eyes harden. "I said get the fuck away from me. I'm not interested anymore."
If I had been anyone else, I would have almost believed her.
"Jade... you're shutting me out again. You can talk to me, you can tell me what's really going on-"
"There's nothing going on, you idiot!" She spits at me angrily. "I haven't been answering you because it's over, okay? It was fun while it lasted or whatever, but nothing serious was actually going to happen." Her glare pins me in place. "Did you think we were going to run off into the sunset together? Did you honestly think we stood a chance? Get over it, Vega. Shit happens."
"No...no, Jade. I don't believe you. This isn't you! It's him!"
"You have 5 seconds to get the hell out of my way."
I move away from the door and step straight into her, my lips crushing against her angry snarl. She groans and tangles a hand in my hair, threading my brown locks through her fingers, tugging them hard, almost painfully, but I don't ease up.
Her hands shove me back. "No! We're not doing this anymore!"
"This isn't you! It's not you!" I grab her more forcefully by the hips and her nails sink into my skin.
"Don't you get it, Vega? We can't do this. I won't do this!" Her eyes flash and I feel her lips mashed against mine again, our bodies twisting so they hit the bed.
"I hate you! I fucking hate you!" Tears have started rolling down Jade's cheeks, my hands moving to wrap around her wrists. "Don't you see I'm trying to protect you? Why can't you leave it alone!?" She flips us over, my knee grinding between her legs to hold her down.
"You are my protection, Jade! I love you, I fucking love you! So shut up because this isn't you!"
"I am not gonna be the one to take the selfish route!" She keeps thrashing, nails raking down my back as they claw at my shirt fabric. I yank it off and immediately go back to kissing her.
"I want you to be selfish, Jade! You have me, you have this!"
I grab her hand to put it over my heart but she yanks it away.
"You mean nothing to me! You have always meant nothing to me!" My own tears blur my vision at Jade's words. "You mean so little to me that I'm willing to give up everything so you can have what you want!" She crashes her lips back to mine, the salt of our tears mingling together between kisses "I'm moving away and there's nothing you can do or say to fucking stop me! It's done!
"I love you! I love you so much that it physically hurts, Jade! Isn't that enough? Doesn't that mean anything to you anymore?"
"It means the world to me but you don't get it! My father threatened to black ball you across Hollywood!"
I draw back, scowling down at her. "So you're going to just let him win!?"
"It's not as simple as that and you know it!" She growls and I can see her blue eyes battling the waves. Torn between hatred and exhaustion. "This will end you!"
"No! Me not having you, that's what's going to end me!" I push her chin up to devour those lips, her teeth sinking in and almost breaking skin. "I never pegged Jade West for a coward!"
"Fuck you! You're a manipulative bitch, Tori Vega!" Her eyes brim with tears and I wrap my arms around her to hug her close, my own tear stains leaving marks on the pillow. I keep squeezing her with desperation and her body finally surrenders underneath me, collapsing with a sob.
"I love you so much. I love you- I love you. I'm sorry, Tori. I'm so sorry-"
"Shh...it's okay. It's okay, Jade." I choke out through my tears.
Our arms keep clinging to one another, holding on like we would forget the way we felt together if we let go for a second. I knew that if her father had barged in right now, I wouldn't let go. I'd refuse to be separated from Jade. I had my arms wrapped around her because she was mine and mine alone.
We don't know what else to say so we just kiss, letting the silence do all the talking for us.
"Y-you're coming back to me..." I eventually break the quiet, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "You are coming back to me."
She doesn't hesitate. "I can't."
"I don't care if I never get a record deal. I don't care if I'm the most hated female in Hollywood-"
"Tori...stop. I know you care." She strokes my cheek. "You've always been a terrible liar."
"I'll work at children's parties or rundown motels..."
I feel her stiffen underneath me. "I won't let you."
"You can't stop me."
I watch her open and close her mouth, my eyes locked down on hers as if challenging her to say something. She couldn't stop me. I had found my girl, my happiness and all the reasons in the world to keep going. I wasn't about to give that up without a fight. I wasn't about to give that up at all. Jade can sense my stubbornness, my resilience and sighs.
"Stay with me tonight?"
"As if I'd ever leave." She balls herself up against my chest, burrowing her head into me.
"No more words. I'm done with words. Let's just lay here." I don't say anything but she can feel me nod, her fingers entwining with mine.
We lay there for what feels like hours, staying perfectly still like we had for our first kiss, when we had been so afraid to move because we thought it would ruin the moment. There was so much to say, but at the same time, nothing at all. I'm content with the silence. As long as Jade was curled up beside me. I knew we didn't know what to do but we don't let ourselves think on it right now, happy to simply enjoy and savor this small slice of peace - of private intimacy, in each other's arms.
If I had known what was going to happen the following morning, I would have stayed awake all night.
A/N: This was an absolutely heart wrenching scene to write, watching Jade turn on Tori and act as if she hated her. Now they can only hold one another until the morning... but what Jade's about to do is going to shatter Tori into pieces. R&R! One last chapter before the finale!