Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Start from scratch
Chapter 2 – Trying to settle in.
I'm so glad everyone is liking the story so far. I hope to make it a real good one.
No one's pov.
For a moment when she awoke to the sound of someone flushing the toilet, Jade thought she was home. It filled her with a sudden sense of dread that caused her to shoot off the couch.
Only then did she realize it was 6:02 am and the sound was Tori in the bathroom.
Realizing she was safe, Jade sat on the couch and ran her hand through her hair.
"Now what?" muttered the Goth.
Jade decided to take refuge in sleep, as she didn't gave to get up for another hour. Waking to her alarm an hour later she could hear faint music coming from the kitchen.
Walking over she poked her head in the small kitchen to see Tori eating cereal at a tiny two person table next to the window. She was dressed in nice clothes and listening to the weather report, while looking out the window.
"I left a key for you. It's on the coffee table." Tori said in that same distant and rather cold voice from the previous night.
Jade still had little idea what to say or even think. "Thanks."
"Next to it, you'll find an stamped, envelope with my address on it. When you go back, please mail it back to me."
Jade wanted to respond and in the old day's would have responded with something rather snarky about Tori being convinced she'd go back.
Instead the Goth nodded. "Thanks. You're done in the bathroom?"
"Yes. Do you need any toiletries?"
"No, I grabbed what I needed before I left…home…"
Jade paused for a moment and during that time Tori just went back to eating her cereal as if she wasn't even there. The whole thing felt horribly awkward.
"So..uh…what do you do? I thought you were going to school."
Turning her head, Jade could see that Tori looked slightly annoyed by the question. "I dropped out. I work in the mail room of a bank during the day and have a part time job on weekends. "
Again Tori went back to eating as if Jade wasn't even there.
"I do have a job, I can pay you the 150 dollars a month, even a bit more if needed. I work at St. Mark's hospital, in housekeeping. Not quite full time. I'm looking for something different. I've had some auditions in the year and a half since...him and I moved to New York City, but nothing's panned out." Jade then tried to inject a bit of humor. "Nothing but a nonspeaking role in a cat food commercial and I hate cats."
Tori's entire face briefly hardened, but otherwise she said nothing.
Feeling it was getting more awkward by the moment, Jade shuffled her feet. "I'll get in the shower now."
"You do that." Tori said dismissively.
Jade quickly grabbed what she needed and headed into the bathroom. By the time she exited about 40 minutes later, she found Tori was gone. She did note the smell of coffee.
Walking in the kitchen she could see a pot of coffee was warming on the coffee maker, with a mug and a note next to it.
Please turn off coffeemaker before you leave. If you're just going to go right back to him, don't bother to take the key at all.
Jade found herself slightly dismayed by this version of Tori; dark and cynical. She also knew that she was partially to blame.
Jade quickly poured herself some coffee and sat down. Besides Tori a hundred other things swirled through Jades head. First she had to make a suitable excuse to her coworkers to explain the black eye. She had done it before, so she was confident she would come up with something.
Of all the things that she was thinking of, Beck was probably the biggest and the one that caused the most anxiety and fear.
She was scared, for a number of reasons. The most obvious fear was that he'd find her, drag her back home and go to work on her.
But beyond that there was a bigger and even more intense fear.
Jade drained her cup and expressed her thoughts out loud. "He'll turn on the charm, give me that look, buy me something, tell me he's really sorry and how much he misses me and I'll just go right with him."
Jade then looked to the empty chair across the table where Tori had sat earlier.
"Tori, he will turn on the charm, he'll expect me to come back and part of me will want to. I hate that part of me. You expect me to as well. "
There was no one in the chair of course, but Jade knew full well what Tori's response would be.
"You're going to Jade, just like all the other times."
Jade poured herself yet another cup and made herself some toast. Once her breakfast was ready she sat down and continued her imaginary conversation.
"You were the only one that noticed what was going on. You tried to help me. Urged me to dump him. But you gave up. Gave up and left."
Beck again clouded her mind and Jade decided to check the last voice mail. Walking into the living room and picking up her phone, she could see, there were several along with a bunch of texts.
The last one was left about a half an hour ago and Jade found herself unable to resist playing it. Almost immediately she could hear he had sobered up and now his voice was full of worry and concern.
"Babe. Please call me, I'm worried sick. Please I love you. Talk to me please….please."
His voice, hit Jade's heart like a ton of bricks and she found herself dialing his number. It was like she simply couldn't stop herself. It was only when she looked down at the key on the coffee table and the envelope next to it that she managed to force herself to stop.
It was the envelope that did it, the one that Tori put there; the one to send the key back when she went crawling back to him.
Jade dropped the phone, only one number away from calling Beck and screamed. Then she went into the bathroom to splash some water on her face. It was then she saw her black eye again.
That hardened her resolve to leave, but she still had this fear she would falter. She knew part of her wanted to falter. All she could do now is get dressed and go to work. If the shitty work of cleaning toilets and making beds had any benefit it was that it would help her keep her mind off Beck.
So Jade did just that. She put on her hospital uniform, grabbed the key, her Jacket and headed off to work. It was still cold as hell but not nearly as bad outside as the previous day. As she arrived she found herself both hoping and dreading the possibility of him showing up at work. That was unlikely, as he was currently in rehearsals for a Broadway play, he got a part in.
Jade at 9 am was busy at work scrubbing a toilet and forced Beck, Tori and everyone else out of her mind. She just focused on her nasty, dirty work.
At 4 o'clock Jade, worn out and tired finished work at the hospital. It was horribly cruddy job but nearly all her auditions had gone nowhere and a few manuscripts she had written, no one took interest in. Her only one success, was as she described to Tori, a non-speaking role in a cat food commercial.
On her way home, Jade realized about 2/3's of the way there she was heading to her and Beck's place.
"Shit!" She cursed loudly as she realized just what she was doing. So after back Tracking she got back to Tori's place about 5:30 and collapsed on the couch. Turning her phone back on she could see even more messages and texts. Again she found herself wanting to answer them. It was classic co-dependent behavior and Jade knew it.
About 20 minutes later Jade was still on the couch watching TV, when Tori came home. As the Latina entered the door, she paused, as her face registered surprise.
"You're still here?"
"Do you not want me here?" An exhausted Jade responded.
Tori took off her coat and walked into the kitchen. "If I didn't want you here, I would have never let you in here, in the first place. I simply assumed you would have crawled back to him by now."
Again Jade noted the voice, both dark and cynical. But beyond that, she sounded weary. Not in a physical sense, but in some other way.
Tori emerged from the kitchen, beer in hand, just as Jade's phone began to ring again. With a raised eyebrow, Tori picked it up off the table and looked at it.
"It's Beck."
Jade nodded. "I figured it would be."
Tori then tossed the phone to Jade. "Answer it, I know you want to."
Looking down at the phone, Jade realized Tori was right. She did want to answer the phone. Managing to resist the urge, she simply put it down.
Jade tried to look defiant. "I'm not."
Tori scoffed, bitterly. "You will eventually. Once, you were Jade the fierce, afraid of nothing. Now, you're just Jade the doormat."
Tori's bitter and cold persona continued to bother Jade in many ways. "Look Tori. I'm sorry…"
Tori quickly stopped her. "Don't bother."
Not wanting to be cut off, Jade stood up to face Tori. "I burned you. But why this whole I hate the world persona. It's not you."
This time Tori laughed, but in a dark sort of way. "You think what you see before you, is all your doing; don't flatter yourself."
"Than what happened?" Jade said, sounding exasperated.
Tori paused and for a moment closed her eyes. "Jade, this is my apartment; my name is on the lease, so I don't have to let you stay. Temperature is supposed to drop to -20 below tonight. I also don't have to answer your questions either. I'll start dinner in about 10 minutes, after I change. Just spaghetti, with salad."
It was obvious that Tori was in no mood to answer questions. "Do you want any help with dinner?"
For a moment, Jade felt as if, Tori's gaze seemed to burn right through her. "I don't want your help Jade. You don't even have the spine to help yourself. Just pay me the 150 a month, clean the kitchen once a week and leave me the fuck alone. Dinner will be ready in a about a half an hour."
Before Jade could answer, Tori went in her room and shut the door.
Jade was bewildered. What the hell happened to Tori and why was she now so utterly bitter?
"Yet, she helps me? Thought Jade, as she looked down to see that Beck was calling once again.
Jade had no answers nor had she any idea what to do. Answer the phone, crawl back to Beck and prove Tori right, or stay with the Ice queen.
Jade simply didn't know.