Hearing Dani's scream as I tear her off of the bed by her hair fills me with a level of elation; this girl has been fucking with my head all evening and now I'd caught her with her body pressed against Tori's. I barely register Tori's wails in the background and I slam my fist into Dani's jaw, her fingers are clawing in to my skin as she tries to free herself from my grasp, she lunges sideways avoiding another blow and causing me to lose my footing. We land in a bundle on the floor. I react quickly and have her pinned down within seconds.
"Get off of me you crazy bitch!" she screams and I slap her in response.
"Jade! Please stop this!" Tori begs.
Simultaneously I hear an ear piercing scream from the doorway; I guess we woke Cat up. Looking up as Cats scared face and Tori's which is drenched in tears I pause and sensing this Dani pushes me off and manages to get out of my reach.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Dani screams sounding short of breath, looking up at her a smirk crosses my face as I notice the damage I have inflicted, her lip is bust. "And what do you mean your girlfriend? What the fuck is going on here?" I flinch slightly realising that I have just outed myself.
"What does 'girlfriend' usually mean?" I retort sarcasm oozing in my voice.
"What happened?" Cat stammers in a voice which suggests that she is close to tears.
"I kept telling you to stop. Why would you do that Jade? Look at her lip! She's going to need stitches for Christ's sake!" Tori says through the tears which are already rushing down her face.
"I-I – She- you know why Tori, she has been all over you all day. I didn't get a response from you and I had texted you three times, I came to check if everything was alright. Then I saw her; saw both of you pressed against each other. I just lost it" I trail off.
"I still don't understand what the fuck is going on here, but can someone take me to a freekin hospital already?" Dani spits out; there is a ridiculous amount of blood pouring down her chin leaking from both her nose and lip.
"I don't understand either" Cat says "but I'll ring Andre and see if he can take us there, he lives the closest and none of us have cars here."
The room falls silent as we wait for Andre; no one seems to know quite what to say. Having calmed down now a slight wave of guilt has fallen over me; not for hitting Dani, but for ignoring Tori's cries for me to stop; and for scaring Cat.
Just less than ten minutes after Cat hung up on him; Andre arrives looking confused until he sees Dani, then a surge of concern fills his face. He begins to ask what had happened before cutting himself off and telling us all to get in the car. Cat and Tori pile in either side of Dani leaving me to take the front seat next to Andre. The hospital is a twenty minute drive away and the car remains silent for that duration.
Upon arriving at the hospital I begin to panic, Dani could make things very difficult for me if she wanted to. Cat and Andre steer her towards the check-in desk and I move to follow; but Tori grabs my hand and pulls me towards the toilets instead. Standing in front of the mirror a wave of shock hits me. There are deep scratch marks in my cheeks and on my chest from where Dani had tried to fight back. Looking down at my hand I realise that it is coated in blood; Dani's blood. Tori emerges from a cubical with a handful of tissue, wets it under the sink and proceeds to clean my cuts. Once I look presentable again Tori leads me to the waiting room where we join Cat and Andre, Dani has been taken in for stitches. An awkward silence overcomes us all until Andre breaks it.
"Does anyone want to tell me what the hell happened tonight?" he exclaims in frustration.
"I don't really get it either, I just woke up to hear you all screaming." Cat adds.
"Jade, we have to tell them now" Tori says to me gently. And I nod knowing that she's right.
"Me and Tori are together." I state flatly "and Dani spent the whole evening flirting with her. I walked in and saw them hugging, mistook it for something else and flipped out."
"Oh god our plan really backfired" Andre groans into his hands.
"Plan?" Cat and I enquire at the same time, but using distinctly different tones; hers confusion mine annoyance.
"Dani was trying to help me." Tori states.
"We thought if you saw someone else flirting with Tori you would admit your feelings for her and put her out of her misery." Andre adds. "We didn't realise you were already together though."
"What?" I ask confused now. "This was all just some trick to try and get me and Tori together?" annoyance floods through me, how dare they interfere?
"Yes Jade, my friends didn't know what was going on with me for the first time in my life. They were concerned about me and tried to help me." Tori states sounding frustrated now.
"I wasn't ready to tell you guys but I didn't really have much of a choice in the end did I. And I'm still not ready for Beck to know; so I would really appreciate it if you could keep your mouths shut." I retort making my own frustration known. Cat and Andre agree knowing that it isn't their place to tell people about mine and Tori's relationship.
"Fantastic" Tori mutters under her breath. Then adds in a more audible tone "But even if you still refuse to tell him about us, you need to talk to him! When I spoke to him the other day he seemed completely broken. He thinks he has lost you as a friend too now Jade. He was firing questions at me left, right and centre, so I told him I thought you were seeing someone, and he wants to talk to you about that. We have both been a bit to consumed with each other recently, we need to make time for our friends too."
Silence falls over our group as we wait for Dani to re-emerge, I know that I need to apologise and I suck at apologies. Cat and Andre seem to still be trying to process everything that they have just heard, and the fact that they have just learned that their best friend have been lying to them.
Fifteen minutes of silence pass before Dani appears in front of us, she still looks slightly battered but after having been stitched and cleaned up there is a clear improvement. We all stand up and head for the car, it's now 3:42AM and we are all shattered. She stops me on the way out and motions for the others to continue.
"I should have dropped you in at the deep end when they asked what had happened; but I didn't." She states looking down at me. "I know you don't like me, and right now I don't like you much, but if you make Tori happy I'll overlook all of this. Just don't break her heart ok?"
I look up at her and seeing the damage I have inflicted on her I feel ashamed. "I'm sorry" I stutter "You didn't deserve that."
She nods in response before adding "You'd better apologise to Tori too." I nod in response to her statement knowing all too well that I really am going to have to make this up to Tori. "I hope you realise how amazing she really is Jade"
"I do" I whisper in response.
We share a smile and leave the hospital trailing after the others. Tonight was eventful to say the least.