A/N Ok so I am super sorry that this has literally taken me months to update but college decided to punch me in the throat and just royally screw with my life also my co-writer/best friend moved out of town so we have been having touch and go correspondence. To make up for it however, I am going to write a fantastic update below in which our story finally gets some love. The other note that I have for this chapter is that you will notice that it is entirely in my (Jade's/Christy's) writing style because as I mentioned before Jordyn (Zoey) has moved out of town and we haven't really been able to write together. Hope you enjoy, here goes.
TORI'S POV:
I was sitting in my "room" in the abandoned building remembering sitting on the roof with Jade and telling her the story of how my sister died. But I only remember it because she was sitting so close to me. The whole time I was talking, she never moved from my side. I remember her placing her hand on my knee, and God did that feel good. I don't know if it was because I had missed her so much or if I still wasn't sure that she was real after finding her again, but I almost broke down and kissed her right then and there. But I didn't, because even if on the miraculous odd chance that she felt the same way about me that I felt about her, we had just gone through the apocalypse, literally, and there were definitely some things that we needed to talk about before we jumped into a relationship like that. I know it sounds stupid to still worry about "relationship stuff" in the apocalypse but this isn't your average "relationship stuff", this is stuff like "are you still going to look at me the same way after seeing me kill things that were once human all day" and "can I count on you to have my back if I run out of ammo mid run and you have the only blade" stuff like that. I just hoped that I would be able to get her alone. That proved to be easier than I thought, because no sooner than I had decided I was going to talk to Jade about my feelings for her, she came around the corner apparently looking for me.
"Hey Tori, ummm, do you have a minute. I'd like to talk to you but I don't wanna bug you if umm, you know what never mind, I'll just forget about it." She turned to walk away and I caught her by the wrist. There was no way I was going to let an opportunity to talk to her alone slip me by.
"Hey, Jade. I'm free to talk, what is it you wanted to say?" She turned to look at me and she really looked like she was having an internal battle over whether to stay and talk to me or to run away and forget that I ever existed.
"Well, I just wanted to talk to you alone for a minute. I know it took a lot for you to share that story with me, especially considering the way I used to treat you. I just wanted to thank you for being so honest with me, I know how much Trina meant to you, even though we all sometimes wanted to smack her silly." She still looked like she wanted to say something, but it was clearly something huge because she looked like she was choking on the thought…whatever it was. I decided to give it a little shove and hope for the best.
"Is that all?" I hoped desperately that she would tell me whatever it was that was making her look so conflicted.
"Um…no, well I guess, um yeah I guess that's all." She slowly turned on her heels to leave. I wanted so badly to go after her, to stop her, to tell her how I felt. Anything to get her to stop walking away from me. No sooner than I had reached out to stop her, she turned around in the doorway and looked at me. She looked terrified, but she looked as though she had made up her mind about something. She looked me in the eye as if to say 'please let me get all this out as quickly as possible, lest I lose my nerve'. So I prepared myself to listen.
"Actually, that's not all. I had really hoped that I would get to talk to you about a lot of stuff before the world ended. I just never got the chance, and its not because I didn't want to talk to you its just that I was gonna wait till graduation and then sit down and have a long conversation about everything that I was feeling and see how you felt about everything. And I wanted to apologize for being such a bitch to you in high school, and I don't know if you still care about all the awful things that I did to you back then since its been like five years since we would've graduated, I mean hell most of us would already be out of college and living our lives by now, but I still care that I was a bitch to you in high school and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't accept my apology. And I know that I'm a little off topic, and that I'm starting to sound a little like Cat but in my head I am dancing around a dozen and a half ways to avoid telling you that I'm in love with you because I know that you'll freak out, and hate me and never talk to me again, and DAMNIT I just said I was in love with you didn't I?"
I had never heard Jade speak that fast before, it seemed almost as if she had gotten her entire inner monologue out in one breath. I actually stopped myself from telling her to slow down and take a breath more than once, but she seemed really determined and kinda scattered. It even took me a minute to realize that she had said she was in love with me. WAIT, I didn't imagine that, she actually said she was in love with me, she said it twice. Did that stop me from asking her? Hell no.
"You're in WHAT with me?!" She froze and all the color drained from her face when she realized that, yes she had said it out loud, and even worse that I had in fact heard her loud and clear.
"Well I might as well run with it now that its out there. Yes Tori, I'm in love with you, and I have been for a while now, but because of the way I treated you in high school and now with the world ending and all I never thought I'd see you again, and I never dreamed that I would get to tell you I loved you and now that I have I really don't know what to do with myself and I feel like I'm spilling my heart and soul to a wall with the way that you're staring at me so could you say something to me please?" I hadn't realized that I was staring, mouth agape, until she pointed it out to me.
I didn't know what to say to her, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I stood up from where I had been thinking for hours, and took three long strides across the room, stopping just in front of her. She looked like I was going to yell at her, tell her to leave, or hit her or something. Much to her surprise, I reached up and cupped the side of her face in my palm and softly pressed my lips to hers. Whenever she didn't react at first, I started to pull away, thinking that she had been kidding, that she was the same old Jade West, and that the whole loving her thing was just a colossal joke, but when I started to move away she just reached up and laced her fingers through my hair and placed her hand on the nape of my neck, effectively keeping me grounded.
"I think we have more to talk about than I originally thought." I giggled at Jade and pulled her back in, wanting more than anything to keep kissing her. I'm sure we'd talk about everything eventually.