17. Back Around.
Addition is commutative. Four plus three is the same as three plus four. Same goes to multiplication. Sometimes words can be like that, too — two birds in the bush are worth one in the hand; people who throw stones shouldn't live in glass houses, et cetera. Jade decided to spend Wednesday evening living out the motto if you can't join 'em, beat 'em, and she had a pile of Skittles in front of her to prove it. With a satisfied smirk, Jade put down her straight flush and raked in another pile of candy currency while Beck bemoaned his full house, Robbie his four of a kind. She popped an orange-flavored candy into her mouth as she looked around the table and saw everyone was broke.
"Well, I guess that's the end of that," Andre commented, looking amazed at the rainbow in front of Jade.
"You guys suck," Jade remarked while she ate a green Skittle. "Like, that wasn't even hard."
"Well sorry," Tori rolled her eyes. "None of us realized this had turned into Rain Man."
"Excuse you, this was Casino Royale," Jade declared smugly, dropping a purple candy into Cat's outstretched hand. "And I am James Bond."
"Well James Bond, and others, would you like something to eat? We've got cake, obviously, and I think we have some lemonade," Tori stood from the table as Andre gathered up the cards. She opened the fridge. "Yep, we do have lemonade."
"Is it pink?" Beck asked apprehensively.
"Yeah," Tori took the carton out of the refrigerator to show him. "Want some?"
"I am not drinking lemonade that is any color but yellow."
"Why?" Robbie asked, accepting a drink from Tori.
"Because how is it pink? Pink lemons don't exist."
"It's flavored with raspberries or strawberries," Jade said like it was obvious. "It's sweeter."
"Really?" Beck's eyes widened.
"Yeah. And pink lemons do exist. It's probably just cheaper to use sugar and food dye."
"No chiz," Andre said in awe, as Tori continued serving the gang. She'd assured Jade that her drink was 'shaken, not stirred.' "Well, you learn something new everyday."
"Would you like some pink lemonade now that you know what makes it pink?" Tori asked Beck with a giggle, holding out a glass.
"I would," Beck received the drink with a nod of thanks and a grin.
"Wait a second…." Cat seemed to be thinking. "If pink lemonade is made with strawberries, then it's basically the same thing as strawberry lemonade, and Beck and Jade are both here, so that means—"
"Cat, if you finish that sentence I'm going to lose it," Jade warned. Cat didn't seem to hear.
"But—"
"No!"
"Str—"
"No!"
"—Straw-Beck-y Lemon-Jade!"
Jade grabbed the deck of cards Andre was fiddling with and started flicking them rapid-fire at the offending redhead. When all fifty two (plus two jokers) had flown, Cat was hiding behind a pillow on the couch.
"What just happened?" Beck asked, his pink lemonade untouched. "What did Cat say?"
"Straw-Beck-y Lemon-Jade!" A small, muffled voice cried from under the pillow.
"What does that mean?"
"Didn't you see that thing Cat posted on the Slap?" Robbie asked. "She turned us all into fruits, and you were a strawberry and Jade was a lemon. It's actually funny, because Jade is so bitter."
"Okay, and…?"
"And she captioned your guys's fruit faces by saying she hoped you would get back together and be strawberry lemonade," Andre finished.
"That's what you're freaking out about?" Beck asked Jade, caught between disbelief and laughter.
"Yes. It is. I told her I didn't want to hear about it anymore. Don't judge me."
"I'm not judging you."
"Yes, you are! You're being judgmental!"
"Why are you being defensive?"
"I have every right to be defensive!"
"No you don't!"
"Yes I do!"
"Oh my God," Beck rolled his eyes.
"You're the one who's always—"
Robbie spilled his pink lemonade. The thin liquid seeped across the table.
"Whoops," he grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
"It's okay," Beck assured him. He ran a hand through his hair. "I… I think I'm gonna head out."
"Don't expect anyone to follow you," Jade muttered into her cup as Beck put on his jacket. He stopped to glare at her.
"Really? Really?"
Jade ate a red candy, her eyes daring him to pick a fight.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow," he finally sighed. He almost slammed the door on his way out.
"Apparently we're heading out too, since he was our ride…." Andre hurried to the door with his jacket half on, Robbie on his heels. The house was quiet as the girls listened to the car driving away.
"I guess I was wrong. Someone did follow him," Jade ran her finger around the rim of her cup of lemonade.
"I'm so sorry, Jade," Tori said quietly, sitting next to her.
"For what?" Jade asked dryly. "You actually didn't do anything, for once."
"Exactly! I should have done something that day. I should have stopped you from walking out that door, or I should've made him go after you or something."
"You know, not everything's about you," Jade's finger was still circling the glass and she was watching it intently.
"I know that, but—"
"I don't think you do," Jade looked up. "Though, honestly, how could you? You've never lived in a world that wasn't Tori Vega Central. You can't possibly imagine that something happening near you doesn't involve you."
"But it—"
"But it didn't. Yes, maybe you were some sort of catalyst that brought our inevitable break-up that much closer, but it was just that. Inevitable. If I wasn't such a…such a jealous gank, maybe we would've lasted a little longer. But not much longer. Beck was right — we fucked ourselves up. You didn't have much to do with it."
Nobody spoke for a few moments.
"Jadey?" Cat walked over with tears in her eyes. "Can I give you a hug?"
"Sure," Jade sighed, letting the redhead wrap her arms around her. Cat pulled away after a prolonged moment.
"Thank you. Do you want to eat some ice cream?" she asked. Jade shook her head.
"I'm gonna go home."
"You sure?" Tori asked softly. "You're welcome to stay over."
Jade shook her head and stood from the table.
"What about your Skittles?" Cat asked, staring, wonderstruck, at the rainbow candies.
"You eat 'em, Cat. I don't want any more."
"Oh. Okay."
Jade drove herself home in silence without even realizing that the clock was turning to eight. She sat in the dark for a few moments after shutting off her car in the driveway. She felt done. She was done with dealing with all of the tired problems that had troubled her for years. Part of her yearned for a change — a clean slate, as Alyssa put it — but another part of her was gripping to the old ways. No matter what happened next, Jade knew she'd have to brace herself for a fight. The thought made her want to wrap herself in blankets and hide away. But she couldn't, so she trudged up the path and through the unlocked front door. She never had dinner, but she couldn't bring herself to eat anything — she wasn't hungry anyway.
As Richard gave her the compulsory speech about coming home past curfew ("You need my permission to stay out late, and you need to learn to respect that!") she simply stood, her fists in her pockets. When her father demanded her car keys, Jade tossed them on the floor at his feet and dragged herself up the stairs to shut herself in her bedroom. Her mouth still tasted like Skittles and too-sweet lemonade as she leafed through the boarding school brochures on her dresser. Five racially-ambiguous students smiled up at her in lab coats and goggles from one school. A girl laughed with her equally modestly-dressed friends from another. Jade didn't even open the pamphlet for the military school — she wasn't exactly a smiley sort of person, but that was too much scowling even for her. She shut off her light and lay in the darkness, wishing, for the first time in her life, that someone would tell her what to do.
"Jade!" Tori greeted excitedly. She and Cat ran up as Jade stepped out of her car on Thursday morning.
"What?" Jade asked, unimpressed. She sipped her coffee.
"I had the best idea!"
"Yeah? Enlighten me." Jade kept walking toward her locker. Thankfully she'd arrived somewhat early and managed to park relatively close to the school. Jade heaved the door open, letting Tori catch it as she scurried to keep up.
"Your stars!" Cat said once the three of them had entered the building, as if that explained everything.
"What?"
"You know, the stars you had in the box in your room."
"The jewelry?" Jade said finally, translating from Cat-ese. Cat and Tori nodded vigorously.
"You could sell some of it!" Tori exclaimed. She lowered her voice. "You know, to pay for school."
Jade chuckled darkly.
"For once, Vega, you're only one step behind me instead of the usual three."
"Oh," Tori fiddled with the clasp of her 'monster purse.' "You'd already thought of that?"
"Yep. On, like, Monday."
"Well, do you think it'll help?"
"I think it'd make a dent," Jade admitted. "But it's not enough — it can't be more than a couple thousand dollars."
"What won't be more than a couple thousand dollars?" Andre asked, butting into the conversation and setting Jade's eyes rolling.
"Are you talking about the new PearBook?" Robbie joined in.
"No, we're talking about—"
"About the price I'm putting on your head," Jade interrupted Tori.
"Who's getting a price on their head?" Beck had joined the group now crowded near Jade's locker.
"Me, apparently," Robbie answered, looking worried. He brightened up though, "But apparently I'm worth a couple thousand dollars!"
"Jade was kidding," Tori assured Beck. "We were talking about—"
"We actually were talking about the PearBook," Jade lied smoothly, drinking more of her coffee.
"Oh, then you heard that it has a slightly better—"
Jade took the opportunity to slip away unnoticed as Robbie started his obligatory babbling about the latest electronics. At least, she thought she was unnoticed, but a familiar beat of footsteps followed her past the vending machine.
"What were you really talking about?" Beck asked as he fell into step with her.
"A hit man."
"I'm being serious."
"Me too. I can't tell you who the target is though, that would ruin everything."
"Come on, you were obviously talking about something important, otherwise you wouldn't've covered it up."
"Assassination is nothing to be joked about."
"And yet here we are."
"I thought I asked you to leave me alone."
"You said I should leave you alone if I wanted you to forget about me."
"Exactly. So leave."
"Well, maybe I don't want—"
"I don't care what you want," Jade snapped, whipping around to face him. "I want to be left alone, and it's really the least you could do."
"What's the most I could do?" Beck looked sincere, and it made her even more angry.
"Build a time machine, and go back to the day you asked me out and tell me that the bad feeling I had about you was right." Jade used her forearm to shove him out of her way and continued away, tossing her half-full coffee into the trash.
Don't want to think about it
Don't want to talk about it
I'm just so sick about it.
Thank you for the reviews for last chapter! This one was long, so I'll leave my author's note at that.