Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.
Unfairly Judged
Chapter 29 – Back to Reality
Tori's POV
All the way home from the cabin, I thought about all the things that had happened since Jade had initially asked me out. Me not believing Jade, Trina interfering, Jade's mother and a few others. All of them had threatened to derail us for good. It all boils down to mistrust, anger, fear and ignorance. When I came up to hear Jade's side of the story, I was both apprehensive and skeptical, who wouldn't be. But Jade was sincere and once I understood her relationship with her mother, a lot of her behavior made sense.
But we talked it out and reconnected. We both want the same thing; a long-term relationship and things are so much better. I would have to be a complete fool however, to think that we won't face any future challenges. If something does arise, Jade and I, need to be open and talk to each other. All in all, I feel both happy and hopeful.
Upon arriving home, I found my parents, watching TV in the living room. Closing the door behind me, I dropped by bags and noticed their inquisitive gaze.
"Tori?" Quired my father. "How did it go?"
"Fine, no, actually very good. Jade and I talked a great deal. We learned a lot about each other and a closer as a result."
My mother smiled in response. "I'm glad Tori, we were hoping Jade was being sincere, but you can't blame us for our skepticism. You did give Jade that message from your father?"
I nodded. "The very first thing I did." I then picked up my bags again. "I'm tired from my drive and I have to work tonight at 7:00 PM, I'm going to lie down for an hour or two."
As soon as I turned around and began to head up the stairs, Trina emerged at the top of the stairs. She stopped as a snarl like frown quickly appeared on her face.
"Trina, you look as if my coming back from the cabin wasn't something you wanted to see." I let my voice get a bit harsh at this point. "Hoping Jade killed me, so you could say you were right!"
"You're the one that will end up with a broken heart, not me! You're just too stupid to see it."
Before things could go any further, my father quickly barked. "Tori, Trina, stop that, right now!
He then addressed the both of us, trying his best to look both firm and compassionate. "Trina, you don't like Jade. That's obvious and I can't say your suspicions are not totally without merit. However, Tori and Jade do appear to be working things out, in a serious manner. So let her work things out, on her own. Tori, Trina is honestly looking out for you and is trying to be a big sister. Granted she's not handled things all that well. But, cut her some slack. So, if you two can at least try to get along and understand each other, we'd appreciate it."
It was the way my father said the word "appreciate", with this rather intense cop look in his eyes that told me, that we'd better get along or else. "Yes, dad." Said just a second after Trina said the same thing.
With that out of the way, I continued my way up the stairs, ignoring the rather disappointed expression on my sisters face, as I passed her.
As soon as I got up in my room, I quickly unpacked. Once that was done, I changed into some shorts and t-shirt. I set an alarm and crawled into bed. With all that had happened in the last few days, I must have been more tired than I thought as I promptly fell asleep.
I woke a couple of hours later, showered, got dressed ate and headed off to work. The company was catering two different events tonight, one a wedding and the other a corporate affair. I'm not sure which I'll be assigned to. Personally, I prefer the corporate affair. Weddings can be fun, but a little too fun, especially when people really start to drink. Corporate affairs, for the most part, are boring and uneventful. I'll take boring over drunk wedding guests grabbing my ass all night. Corporate types do that as well, but they tend to be just a bit better behaved, especially when their bosses are around.
I was almost to work when my phone rang. Just seeing her name on the caller id made my heart buzz.
"HI Jade."
Jade spoke, but it was in a rather annoyed growl. "You didn't let me know you arrived safely at home."
"Oh….Um…" I stammered in embarrassment. "I didn't think of it."
"Oh, so I'm supposed to sit up here and worry that your car isn't in ditch somewhere. Do you like me worrying and being nervous?"
I'm sure she's just razzing me, but part of me isn't so sure. "I'm not in a ditch, I'm going to work. I don't want to make you worry." Ignoring my worries, I couldn't resist razzing her back. "Actually, I'm more of a drive off a cliff person."
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY VEGA!" Snapped Jade, whom I could tell is letting a great deal of worry into her voice.
Suddenly feeling really horrible for not taking Jade seriously, found myself stunned into silence. A full 4 or 5 seconds must have passed.
"I'm Sorr….."
"NO." Jade said with a sigh cutting me off. "No. I'm sorry. A lot happened this weekend. We bonded and things are looking up. I was feeling emotional, especially after you left and my emotions ran amuck." Jade's voice then turned just a bit snide. "Yes Vega. I missed you and got really worried for your safety. Happy Now?"
I couldn't help but giggle. "Yes."
"Well, I'm glad that's settled." Jade remarked, her voice returning to normal. "What did you tell your parents?"
For a moment, I was tempted to joke about telling my parents we had fucked all weekend, but decided against it. "I said things went well and we talked a lot and got closer."
"Good. And what about…."
"Trina?"
"I was going to refer to her as something less pleasant, but yes."
"Tense, in fact we started to fight, but my parents told us to cut it out and try to understand each other." I couldn't help but let a bit of bitterness creep into my voice.
"Oh well." I could hear Jade moan.
Before I could say anything else, I noticed I had reached the brick building that served as the headquarters for the catering company.
"Jade, I'd love to keep talking but I'm at work now. Talk to you later."
"Ok. Take care Vega! Call me. Bye."
Once I got parked and inside, I checked in and got my assignment. It was the corporate affair, which in this case was a banquet for an association of real estate developers. I felt very fortunate.
No One's POV
It was Just after 1 am and Jade, who was still at the cabin, had fallen asleep watching some old black and white murder mystery. The ringing of the phone, startled the sleeping Goth who snapped up the phone and snarled, without bothering to look at the caller ID. "What in the fuck is wrong with you!"
"It's me Jade." Came the voice of a rather agitated sounding Tori.
Jade quickly, mentally gathered her wits and took a second to wake up. "Hey, uh. Sorry, I was asleep, what's wrong?"
Jade could practically hear Tori seething over the phone.
"Jade, Normally, these corporate events are boring and I don't mind working them at all, In fact I preferred it. But not tonight. It was just a banquet and party for a bunch of real estate developers. What a bunch of fucking creeps." Ranted Tori "I've seen drunken frat boys that were better behaved."
Even in her half awaken state, it was obvious to her that Tori was rather upset and needed to rant. "That bad huh?" Jade replied in a supportive tone of voice.
"Yeah. Open bar, they were really drunk. But that's not the worst of it. There was the one that kept telling me what a great view his beach house had, Hint, hint. He wasn't even smart enough to take off his wedding ring. There was another, creepy old dude, who kept telling me, I was a natural saleswoman and he wanted to meet with me over drinks to discuss a possible position."
Tori then let out a mocking laugh. "The only position he wanted me to be in was missionary."
"Shit. Was it like, all guys or something?"
"No, there were women there. Most of them looked at me like I was some kind of bug. I wasn't worthy of their time or attention. Some of them made your mother look downright friendly."
For the next 5 minutes, Jade just let Tori rant complain about how shitty a night it was. At least 5 different men hit on her and a couple others, grabbed her ass. She had a bad time and just needed to vent.
Finally, Tori had enough and calmed down. While hearing this, pissed off Jade to no end, she knew that now wasn't the time to get angry. It was time to be supportive.
"I'm sorry you had a bad night. I'm sure you did your best at being professional."
"It took all my acting skills to just hide the fact that I wanted to scream." Tori then sighed. "Thanks for listening. I just needed to vent. I didn't mean to wake you. Sorry."
"Not sure if you believe me, but all I want to do is give you a hug. Doesn't sound very Jade like, doesn't it?"
"No. But it does sound very girlfriend like." Said Tori in a soft tone that made Jade feel really good. "Thanks. I needed that."
"Welcome. Oh, one small thing Vega."
"What's that?"
"Next time you wake me up, don't call, just roll over and tap me on the shoulder. OK." Jade said, a smirk firmly fixed on her face.
For the first time all night, Tori smiled. "I just might. Good night, Jade."
"You going to be alright Tori?" Jade said with genuine concern in her voice.
"I will now. Bye."
"Night Vega!"
Tori was feeling 100 times better after her late-night talk with Jade. It was just nice to have some to talk to that really cared about you. She was scheduled to work the next three nights and now wasn't dreading it so much. She knew Jade was going to be up at the cabin for a few more days, but Jade texted regularly, to see how she was.
The first two nights of the three went normally. It was hard work, but no one hassled her. It was on the 3rd night and she was just getting set up for a wedding reception when her boss Mandy came up, behind her.
"Tori?"
"Hey Mandy, I have Hors D'oeuve's set up. I was about to start filling the water glasses. I should finish right before the guests arrive."
"Good. We have a new person tonight. I just hired her. If you could show her the ropes, that would be great."
"Sure, I know we needed the extra help."
"Yes we do. She said she's done this before, so that's good. Just show her our way of doing things."
"I almost forgot, she said she goes to school with you. You might know her." Mandy then moved her head slightly to look at something behind Tori. "Oh here she comes now. I have to check in with the cook, I'll be back."
Tori turned around and extended her hand to greet the new person working with her.
"Hi I'm To…."
Tori stopped in mid word, once she saw the smirk and very familiar, sparkling, blue-green eyes. Features she knew anywhere.
They were Jades.