I don't own the lyrics or anything other than the detours. Lyrics are in bold italics, and texts are just italics.
Jade throws away her coffee, checking the time. She needs dinner. She grumbles before glancing around one last time and going to leave.
That's when she spots her.
Pretty enough, she has deep reddish-brown hair framing her face like a silky tapestry. Her skin is a soft tan-not quite olive, not quite Caucasian-and there's a stack of notebooks next to her. In her hands is a book that Jade's never found before, but every few minutes the mystery woman looks up from it and writes something down in one of her notebooks.
Jade hears a soft tune float from the girl's lips and she can't help but stare as they form the words perfectly, creating small ribbons of music that spew out into the quiet.
Finally, finally, her eyes flick up, and they're a light aqua. She holds Jade's gaze for a few moments before closing her book and tucking the notebooks under one arm.
Jade finds her feet disobeying her head and they gravitate towards the woman, who smirks very slowly.
"I'm Jade."
"I'm Tara."
Jade smiles and so does Tara.
"What is all this?" Jade asks, slightly breathless. She blushes and wipes her hands on her jeans.
Get it together, West.
"Um, I'm doing a collage for my creative writing project…I open random books to random pages and find an interesting sentence and jam them all together to make a poem."
"That's actually genius."
Tara grins and Jade nods at the clock.
"Well, I better go…" they say at the exact same time, and both blush.
Jade smiles slightly.
"Would you want to maybe go to dinner?" Jade asks, a smile still playing an entrancing tune across her lips.
"When?"
"Well I don't know about you, but now would work."
/
"What the hell were you thinking?!" Paul paces around the room, and Jade pouts.
"You could have just fucked everything up even worse! God! JADE, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!"
Jade pouts some more.
"FIRST you tell the LOVE OF YOUR LIFE she is pristine and make it to sound like she WANTED to be RAPED. THEN you go on a date with a RANDOM WOMAN you find at The Library LITERALLY FIVE MINUTES after YOU MEET her! Could you FUCK THIS UP any worse?!"
Jade pouts more.
Paul's expression softens at her wounded look. "Look, I know how much she means to you. But don't give up yet. Please, don't give up on her."
Jade cracks a smile. "That sounded irrevocably cheesy."
Paul rolls his eyes. "I'm serious though. It's not too late."
It's Jade's turn to roll her eyes.
"So how should I fix this?"
"Apologize, dumbass. Tell her you didn't know what you were saying and didn't think before you thought. Tell her you'll do better. Tell her that you'll try to process thoughts before they escape your face hole."
Jade's phone rings.
"It's Tara."
Paul growls.
"Hi, Tara!"
There's a silence.
"Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot…"
Another silence.
"Okay, cool. See you Tuesday. Bye."
She waits in silence.
"YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT!"
Jade rolls her eyes again. "Yes I did, father."
There's a silence. Jade shifts uncomfortably and bites her lip.
"Your ringtone is Tik Tok?" Paul laughs.
Jade grins. "Yup. Problem?"
Paul goes back to glaring, snapping back to his previous demeanor in an instant. "YOU HAVE RUINED EVERYTHING."
"Wow, you're going to be an excellent actor."
"EVERYTHING GODDAMMIT."
Jade examines her nails. "I have to finish my screenplay."
"AND MAKE UP WITH TORI!"
Jade gives him a false smile and turns on her computer, trying to block the images of Lila comforting Tori out of her mind.
"Just answer me this," Paul states. Jade doesn't turn around. "Are you really happy right now?"
/
That night, Jade calls Bee.
"Hello?"
"Hi, we met at The Library today…you heard me sing?"
"Oh, it's you!"
Jade blinks. "Yeah, it's me. Listen…I really screwed up."
"With what, honey?"
"You know that girl…the one I told you about?"
"The one you sang about?"
"Yeah…her. I re-met her a few days ago…we went to high school together and didn't know the other was here. Well…I was hoping to finally date her, because in high school I was such a bitch that no one actually liked me except my beard. And then I found out she has a girlfriend, and a kid, and I really screwed up."
"Well, how exactly did you screw up?"
The woman's voice is calming, and Jade knows she made the right decision in calling her. Nonetheless, she still crunches her eyes shut and sighs.
"I made it sound like she wanted to have the kid…like it was her fault a guy raped her. She won't talk to me and I feel awful…and my roommate won't talk to me either because I met another girl and we went out together and everything's just a mess."
"Well," the woman pauses, "Do you think you could apologize?"
"Maybe."
"I think you should try. See if she's texted you at all."
Jade nods softly.
"Thanks Bee."
"Anytime, Jade."
The phone clicks off and Jade scrolls through her messages quickly.
Tori Vega: 1
Jade's breath catches and she opens the message.
"I'm apologizing but I'm sure as hell not sorry. That was WAY too far Jade. Even YOU should know that."
Jade stares at the message.
Even YOU should know that.
She swallows the lump in her throat and returns the message quickly.
"Why are you apologizing to me? I'm the one who was a complete and utter bitch to you."
She holds her breath and sends it before turning back to the script.
She smiles as the characters become putty in her hands and she finishes the scene with a flourish. She hits a few buttons, dragging up the song she's been working on.
Your eyes (eyes)
Make me, Make me
Want
To
Cry
Cause baby
You are my (make me)
Supergirl (make me)
…and that's all she has so far.
Jade smirks at it and closes her laptop just as her phone blares Tik Tok out its crappy speakers.
"Tori?"
"Jade…"
There's a muffled sound that Jade can't quite make out, but it sounded like someone was blowing their nose and coughing at the same time.
"Are you sick?" Jade furrows her eyebrows, sitting up straight and grabbing at her keys.
"N-no…it's…it's Lila…she is such a bitch, Jade."
"I'm on my way."