2. Leave This Star-Crossed World Behind.

Tori's accent request basically turned into another episode of "The Funny Nugget Show" that night, complete with pink and blue pajamas and false mustaches. Jade found herself continually rolling her eyes off camera as she watched the giggling ensue. At three thirty in the morning Tori and Cat finally passed out in their respective sleeping bags and Jade sighed with relief on Cat's bed (the redhead had whined until Jade had stationed herself back upstairs). She set her laptop charging on Cat's desk and pulled the pink blankets up to her chest, dozing off and trying not to think of the conversation in the kitchen hours earlier. Strawberry lemonade was suddenly not such a sweet taste.

Next morning, Tori was already sitting up, thumbs tapping at her PearPhone rapidly, when Jade's eyes fluttered open.

"'Morning," Tori whispered.

"Hi," Jade nodded, rubbing her face.

"How'd you sleep?"

"As well as I can in this god-awful room."

"Listen," Tori began after a moment of silence. "I'm sorry about, you know…last night. I shouldn't've pried, and I shouldn't've forced you to talk about it."

"It doesn't really matter anymore," Jade shrugged.

"It does matter," Tori insisted. "You're both heartbroken."

"Are we?" Jade asked pointedly, stony-faced. Then she sighed. "I'm getting coffee."

Jade hauled herself out of bed and was out of the room and down the stairs before Tori could make another comment. But Tori, as intrepid as ever (maybe stupidly so), followed close behind after shoving her furry mukluks on her feet. Jade was measuring grounds for the coffee maker when Tori got to the kitchen.

"He does miss you, you know."

"Yeah, well, he'll get over that when I start school again." She started the machine on the Valentines' counter.

"No, he won't. He's been missing you since you left my house that night."

Jade smirked, shaking her head and splitting an English muffin.

"Really! He realized his mistake the second he made it."

"Oh yeah? Then why isn't he telling me this?"

Tori didn't say anything.

"Yeah, you really don't want to have this conversation with me before I've had coffee. Or after. Didn't you just apologize to me for trying to talk about this?"

"But Jade," Tori protested. "We're friends, and—"

"You keep using that word," Jade interrupted in a Spanish accent. "I do not think it means what you think it means."

Tori blinked as Jade sipped her coffee greedily, then apparently decided to take Jade's advice and end the topic altogether as Jade's breakfast popped out of the toaster. Jade sighed, spreading jam with a butter knife, knowing her ex-boyfriend would have at least pretended to sword fight with her.

"How do you think they make English muffins splittable?" Tori asked.

Most of Saturday was spent like the evening before, with Cat and Tori giggling over a laptop while Jade tried to ignore them. But of course the giggling was doubled by the giggling of the onscreen Cat and Tori and the real life Cat and Tori as they edited the footage from last night. The more the giggling multiplied, the more Jade's patience divided, until there really wasn't enough to go around. Tori headed home an hour earlier than planned. Cat didn't seem to mind. She kept the Slap video repeating on her own laptop, giving a high-pitched laugh at the same spots every time until Jade abruptly slammed the clamshell down, narrowly missing Cat's fingers.

"Owwie!" Cat protested, offended. "Well, almost owwie."

"For the love of God," Jade began.

"Yes?"

"Stop."

"Kay kay!"

There was a comfortable quiet for a few minutes until Cat's phone made a noise that could only be described as sparkly, indicating a text message.

"Ooh, Jadey, do you wanna go get dinner at Karaoke Dokie with the gang? OMG that's so funny it's like we're a gang! Like the Scooby Gang!"

"There's only five members in the Scooby Gang."

"Okay. Do you wanna go to Karaoke Dokie?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pwetty pwease?"

"Absolutely not."

"But I already told Tori you'd drive us."

"Fine," Jade agreed with a frustrated groan. "I'll drop you guys off at Karaoke Dokie."

"Aren't you going to come?"

"Didn't I already say 'no?'"

"I don't remember."

"No."

"So you'll come?"

"No. But I want to get something out of my house, so I'll drop you off on my way there."

"Ohhh, kay kay." Cat relayed all of this to Tori with a series of ticking noises from her PearPhone. Two hours of giggly video-watching later (Jade put earphones in) Cat dragged Jade off of her comfortable spot on the couch and up to the bedroom to dress. "I think I wanna wear something sparkly."

"Shocker," Jade remarked, relaxing on Cat's bed.

"Aren't you getting dressed?"

"I am dressed. See how not naked I am? That means I'm dressed."

Cat giggled, blushing. Jade rolled her eyes. For the sake of doing something for the several hours it would take for Cat to be ready, Jade changed her clothes and put on makeup, and replaced her earphones. This went mostly unnoticed by Cat, so she talked. And talked. And talked — about her outfit, about sandwiches, about "this one time my brother," about strawberry lemonade, about Robbie, about Robbie's hair, about her own hair, about red velvet cupcakes. It was probably for the best that Jade didn't really hear a word she said. Eventually, though, Cat did her customary twirl in front of the mirror, signaling that she was finished putting herself together for the evening. Jade gave her a thumbs-up and slung her monkey fur purse on her shoulder, swinging her key ring around her index finger.

"Ready?" Jade asked.

"Yep!"

"In record time, too."

"Oh, yay!" Cat bounced down the stairs after Jade and into the passenger seat of the car. Jade put her hand over the stereo controls instinctively to prevent the redhead from choosing the music. Cat just shrugged and swayed to the radio station of Jade's choosing.

Tori trotted out to the car and returned Cat's excited wave when Jade pulled up and honked the horn.

"Hi!" Cat greeted cheerfully. Tori smiled, her earrings shimmering like disco lights in the setting sun and making Jade's mood worse.

"You're early," Tori remarked as she seated herself in the back.

"Well, Cat got dressed in record time," Jade said with a smirk as she pulled onto the road. "Also, neither of you can drive, so you'll get there whenever I decide to drop you there, no complaints."

"Oh, you're not coming?"

"No, Jadey said she isn't and the Scooby Gang only has five people. Actually, four and a dog!" Cat giggled.

"Oh," Tori said, clearly only pretending to understand.

The drive to Karaoke Dokie wasn't long, but it felt like hours for Jade, who was suddenly teleported back into Giggle Land.

"Alright, you're here, get out, get yourselves a ride home," was Jade's goodbye to Princess Giggles and Lady Sparkles when she pulled into the parking lot of the underage club.

"Bye Jadey!"

"Thanks for the ride!"

Jade watched them meet up with Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby (though really, could Cat count as Velma?) outside the club, imagining their conversations from the car.

Hey, is that Jade?

Yep, she gave us a ride.

Is she coming in with us?

No.

Oh, thank God! What a bitch. I can't believe she's not in jail.

Somehow Jade still managed to get out of the parking lot without doing anything that could possibly lead to restitution payments. She cranked up the volume to drown out any other conversations in her head. (And that was the turning point. Oh, what a lonely night!)

"Shut up!" Jade yelled at the song on her stereo. But it was one of those inanimate things that couldn't be scared into submission.

And you know I'm fine,

But I hear those voices at night.

Sometimes, they justify my claim.

Back again. Just in case any of you people didn't understand, Jade quoted the Princess Bride to Tori. You owe it to yourself to watch that movie (and read the book). Thanks so much for the reviews of the first chapter! I'm really happy with where this story is going, and there's going to be plenty of Bade, so don't worry your little hearts. Any questions you have I'll be happy to answer! Thanks.