Disclaimer: The Show Victorious, it's characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

You promised me forever.

Chapter 5 – Playing with fire.

Tori's POV

It was about 11:13 when I finally heard Jade stirring in the loft above me. Since I had gotten back from breakfast I just took the time to study. I was working on my music theory homework

I continued to lie on the couch as a series of grunts came from my slowly waking girlfriend.

"Vega?" I heard her say. I was on the couch directly beneath the loft so she couldn't see me.

I was tempted to not answer her but I relented.

"Yeah." I said with little emotion.

She didn't say anything else and simply climbed down the ladder.

"How come you didn't stay in bed with me? I like it when you sleep in with me." Jade said running her hand through her hair in a quasi-seductive way.

I was torn. I know that I should have called and the very least told Jade where I was going. I knew she wouldn't like me going to a party without her or one of my other friends. I also stormed out and overacted so I was at least partially out of line.

That is why I didn't protest my grounding. But the more I thought about it the more bitter I became. I thought back to the times where Jade would chase off people who dared to talk to me. Pretty Girls especially. When she used to do it to Beck I found it funny. After a while of it being done to me it became less funny, a lot less funny.

"I got hungry." I said not letting any emotion creep into my voice.

Jade's eyes narrowed and scrutinized me. "Did you go jogging?"

"No. I just went and had breakfast with Cat." This time though I didn't want to, some of the resentment managed to creep into my voice. I tried to cover it up by turning my attention to the music theory book in my lap.

"You're upset aren't you?" Jade said in a tone of voice which sounded like she was disappointed.

I leaned back, put my hands together behind my head and looked at her with scorn. "What difference does it make? I've been a good little girl this morning."

To a point I find Jade's possessiveness and Jealousy both endearing and flattering but this morning it just bugged me. I was too tired last night to fight about it, but now I felt like standing up to her.

Surprisingly she just turned around and wordlessly walked into the bathroom and closed to door.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Jade so while she was doing whatever in the bathroom I just returned my attention to my book.

I heard the toilet flush after a minute followed by a irritated looking Jade emerging from the bathroom.

"Do you want out?" She said crossing her arms.

I broke into an imitation of the southern accent she mocks me with. It was a totally unnecessary attempt to annoy her further. "You mean the warden will let little ole me out into the bright sunshine."

I then switched back to my normal voice. "Did I ask to get out?" Following that I returned my attention to my book.

It's me sticking my nose back into my book that would bug Jade the most. Above all else, she hates being ignored. Unless she wants specifically to be ignored. In this case I knew she didn't. I know I could have avoided it, been more graceful more diplomatic but I simply chose not to. Some part of me wanted to provoke a fight. Perhaps it was my more passionate Latin side of me. Over the years I've seen some of my father's family fight and argue with each other. Don't get me wrong, they love each other and are very close but when they fight, they fight.

"Don't look away from me." Snapped Jade. I knew she would say that.

I slowly brought my eyes from the page up to her face which slowly seemed to be turning red.

"Yes." I said in a slow and very nonchalant tone of voice with a hint of a smile. Now I was mocking her emotional state by doing that. The thing about Jade is being her girlfriend for more than a year I knew exactly which buttons to push.

Jade was out of line last night and I was too, but this morning I was being the bad guy and I knew it. Some part of me just needed to do it. Maybe I just wanted to prove to her that I'm not all miss sally sweet peaches. Maybe some neglected part of my ego wanted to be inflated at the expense of Jade.

Mostly I wanted to settle this thing, I just chose a really shitty way of doing it.

It think it was my hint of a smile with more than a dash of cruelty behind it, that finally set her off.

"My god Vega" She suddenly bellowed as her face slowly turned that lovely shade of purplish red when she got really angry. "What in the fuck to do you want?"

There is an old and very wise saying. "Be careful what you wish for, because you may just get it."

I had wanted to provoke Jade and I succeeded. I had little idea what I was going to say or do next. Probably would have been a good idea if I had thought this out a bit better.

Totally succumbing to the dark side of the force, I simply stood up and got in her face and yelled back.

"I want you to treat me like a fucking person."

"You don't like the way I fucking treat you?" Jade said her words coated in venom.

"Only when you act like a totally possessive twit." I shouted back.

The tone of Jade's voice switched from anger to extreme sarcasm. "Well Excuse me for trying to care about you little miss perfect. Go ahead do what ever the fuck you want. Sleep with those cheap sorority girls then."

"I DON'T WANT TO SLEEP WITH ANYONE BUT YOU. WHY DON'T YOU BELIEVE ME?" I shouted, as I realized where I was going with this. But my anger was now uncontrollable.

Jade's eyes opened wide and her mouth hung open at my uncharacteristic verbal assault.

"LOOK, I'M SORRY I DIDN'T CALL OR TEXT YOU LAST NIGHT AND I'M SORRY I OVER REACTED TO YOU'RE WANTING TO BE ALONE." I continued to shout.

I managed to bring my voice down a few notches before someone called in a noise complaint to Kevin the RA.

"It's more than just last night. I understand you're possessive and I understand you don't want to lose me. But here's the thing. You keep acting like you're going to lose me to the first single girl that walks by. To a point I don't mind it and like it a bit but sometimes you just get really carried away."

She looked for a moment like she was going to cry but otherwise remained silent as I kept talking.

"When you act like that it really hurts my feelings Jade. It makes me think you doubt my feelings for you, my love for you. There is no one on this earth that can take my heart from you. In order for this relationship to work you have to believe I love you."

I had been wondering who was going to burst into tears first but my question was soon answered as I felt a tear run down my cheek. I was angry, upset and hurt.

"Jade I'm your soul mate and when I think you don't believe that, it really hurts me." I said as I burst into tears.

Jade just stood there for a second looking rather stunned before she herself burst into tears.

"I'm sorry Tori" she Tearfully said pulling me into a hug.

Deep down that was what had been eating me and I think it had been for some time. Those occasional insane bouts of jealously Jade would show made me feel that she doubted the sincerity of my feelings for her. Until I actually said, it hadn't realized how much it actually hurt.

I just stood there with my face buried in her shoulder sobbing. But from the sound I could hear she was crying even louder than I was.

She pulled back a little and wiped my tears though hers still flowed down her face freely.

"I'm so sorry baby, it's just that I'm so afraid of losing you. " Said Jade as she pushed some of Tori's hair up behind her left ear.

"That's my point Jade. You can't. Come on sit with me." I said taking Jade's hand and leading her to the couch where we sat down.

I closed my eyes to calm down collect my thoughts. I had to stop being the bad guy and say what I really meant.

I opened my eyes to see Jade sitting next to me on the couch, still crying. I don't think she realized how much she had hurt me and now she knows is pretty busted up about it.

"Jade." I said calmly causing her to look me into the eye with hers. I loved her blue/green eyes, every time I looked into them I never want to look away.

"I'm so sorry I hurt you Tori, I hadn't realized I hurt you feelings. Please forgive me. It's that you're the most important person in the world to me. I'm just that way, I protect what I love."

I nodded and squeezed her hand to reassure her.

"I know you're like that and I like knowing you're protecting me, but sometimes I just feel like you don't believe I love you. My heart aches when you do that."

Jade just looked down in shame and whimpered "I'm sorry"

I put a finger under her chin and raised her head to she was looking at me.

"I love you Jade and I'm never going to stop loving you, that's all you need to know, that's all you ever need to know."

She nodded as the last of the tears fell down her face. "Thank you for not giving up on me. I love you Tori. I shouldn't have grounded you like that, it wasn't fair. I won't hold you to it anymore and I won't do it again."

I pulled her into a hug and squeezed her hard. I hated seeing her mad.

"I was kind of a bitch earlier, I'm sorry Jade." I said feeling guilty for being such a wench.

"No worries Vega, I think I kind of deserved it."

We just sat there for a few moments quietly until Jade broke the silence.

"How is Cat?"

"She's fine, though she had another quasi date with Robbie."

Jade interrupted me.

"She ran away again didn't she?"

I nodded.

"Poor Robbie, that idiot really needs to move on." Jade said in an uncharacteristic sympathetic tone of voice.

Jade brought us back to our original subject looking very remorseful. "I'm sorry again if I doubted your feelings. I can't promise to not be jealous at all but I will remember that I have nothing to worry about."

"Fair enough." I said giving her a kiss.

Jade smiled. "Come on, I believe last night you wanted something to do, how about after I get showered we go and hit the mall. We'll do that today"

I smiled back. "What a coincidence, I happen to need a shower too, I guess that means we'll be doing two things today."

Jade got off the couch, taking her shirt off as she walked towards the bathroom.

"I guess so."

The next chapter may skip ahead a little bit. They came out of this situation even stronger than they were before. I hoped you like this chapter.