Chapter Sixteen

The day she was jailed was the day I was released.

See, the clinic is real similar to a jail. You get your own room; your cell. You're led to the cafeteria at noon on the dot. That's where most of the riots happen. You put hundreds of nuts together in a big room, they'll fuck with each other, it's human nature.

You only can get out in three ways.

Good behavior. But they watch you, make sure you weren't acting. You're just on parole.

Found innocent in trial. I was found innocent recently. If you've been paying attention, I don't have to tell you how.

Bailed out. You can get anywhere with money, you know.

Or you can break out, but as I've established, that's more trouble than it's worth.

Jails are only there for the mental cases that have lived so fucked up for so long, they know how to seem normal. They can't get off on insanity because they aren't insane.

Or so it appears. And that's all that matters, now isn't it?

It doesn't matter how many voices you have in your head – if you can hide them, you're just as sane as everyone else.

But then you're living a lie. Some people can't handle that. I can.

I was expected to head right back to school the second I got home. My father wouldn't even look at me. But I wouldn't know, 'cause I wouldn't look at him. And when there's two sets of eyes completely avoiding each other, you find plenty to distract yourself with.

Of course I was expecting everyone to be thinking of me as a mental patient. Talking about me behind my back – hell, right in front of my face. No one would be expecting to be confronted about that, because, well, everyone's acting that way.

I like being unpredictable. I do things I shouldn't do, just to surprise people. I'm an entertainer. That's my future occupation.

So yeah, I did scream at a freshman for glancing at me and then whispering to her friend. I did rip Andre's keyboard off his locker and hold it up as if to hit her with it. I'm not gonna lie and say none of that happened.

I am gonna lie and say I didn't get butterflies in my stomach when Vega tore that from my hands and threw it on the ground, dragging me by the wrist into the janitors closet. I didn't.

Really.

"Jade..," she whispered harshly, trying to figure out what she was planning to say no doubt. "You can't just do things like that anymore! Some people aren't idiots, no matter how much you want them to be! They know! When you beat someone with a keyboard, that's grounds for throwing you in a mental institution! Do you want to go back?"

"No," I muttered. "But I don't like the way she was looking at me."

Vega sighed, rubbing her eyes. "It's not the same anymore. You can't just do these things without someone reading into them." She got a confused look on her face. "In fact, why hasn't anyone ever read into them before now?" She shook her head, going to walk by me.

I turned her, pushing her into the door gently with my hips. "You always look into the things I do," I whispered, studying her face. "Too much for your own good, really, Tori."

Her eyes almost closed and her mouth opened a bit, letting out a soft gasp when I got impossibly closer. "Can I kiss you?" I whispered gently. If anyone besides her saw me like this, they'd think I wasn't being myself.

That's because myself as anyone else knows it doesn't exist.

She tried to clear her throat. But it didn't work too well; her voice still came out husky as hell. "Of course."

I leaned in, our noses touching. It's all anticipation. In everything, really.

Then I tilted my chin forward, just barely touching her lips with mine.

And then the doorknob turned.

Tori yelped as it bumped her hip bone, jumping up.

Maybe anticipation isn't particularly great in this situation, actually, as that jump sent her knee into an area I'd rather not discuss, and I automatically let out a guttural moan that could surely be heard through the door.

She smirked at me quickly before getting off of the door, sending Cat Valentine tumbling inside.

We stared at her for awhile, not saying anything.

She smiled brightly. "Hi Jade! I was just looking for you everywhere, and I figure I'd try in here since you always seem to be in here instead of in class, and... what were you two doing?"

Tori and I looked at each other, panicked. "Nothing," we said simultaneously.

There was a long silence until Tori said, "Well... if you were looking for her, I guess I'll just get going now," and left.

A/N - Hey there!

This chapter was a bit lighter, what with the whole almost-making out theme of it.

I hope you enjoyed that. Oh, by the way, I had a dream that the radioactive grass in my backyard kept growing until it merged into trees. And then my backyard turned into a swamp somehow and I had magical powers so I could kinda fly over it but not really.

And then there was a caveman that talked like a college student out there who decided I was the devil and kept trying to kill me, and then I started puking my guts out for no reason and my mother disowned me.

Then I kept trying to show this girl shadow puppets in a treehouse in broad daylight.

So, yeah. That's what this chapter's about.