A/N: Things are beginning to wind up for My Victorious Summer while this story has a handful of chapters to go, I believe. Meanwhile, I am brewing a future story (from a reader's suggestion) PLUS a possible collab with another writer! I'm not me unless I have multiple things in various stages of production LOL
Stay tuned for updates on any of these projects down the line...
Tori and Jade were walking hand-in-hand along the boardwalk in Atlantic City. The hotel/casinos were lit up with dazzling lights as the dark beach was complimented by the full moon.
"This is beautiful!" the Latina exclaimed. "We've got the best of both worlds. A little bit of Vegas here and a little bit of the seaside there."
"Never missed a summer," Jade sighed. "Always made a point to get down here at least once or twice."
The happy couple went over to a vendor and bought some funnel cake. The baked good covered in sugar was enormous, perfect size to share.
"So, this is basically a giant French fry tangled into a tumbleweed?" Tori observed.
Jade nodded.
"You know, we should come back for the Fourth of July. The fireworks display they have on the beach is awesome. Although, you should bring a jacket. The shore gets mighty chilly after the sun goes down."
Tori wrapped her muscular arms around Jade as she kept the paper plate steady.
"I'll be sure to get an extra big blanket...for me.''
"It's not for both of us?" Jade asked as they found a green metal bench and set their warm treat down.
"Warming you up is my job," she smiled with a kiss.
"Jade?"
The pair looked over and saw a rather thin-looking girl close to their age.
"Can I help you?" asked Tori rather defensively.
"Jade, is that you?" the mystery girl asked.
The pale girl studied the facial structure of the stranger and synapses fired off in her memory banks.
"Gia?"
Tori's eyes darkened.
"Gia, huh?"
Jade instinctively gazed back at her lover and placed a hand on her arm to calm her nerves. Tori's breathing got under control and the vein in her face receded. It was remarkable how easily she could disarm her intimidating girlfriend.
"Babe, I'll handle this."
"I'll be here," Tori sighed, squeezing her hand. She then looked at the other girl. "Don't try anything or else my fist will get acquainted with your face."
Gia had clear fear in her eyes and nodded contritely.
"What is this about?" Jade asked, arms folded. "What do you want?"
"How...um...how have you been?"
Jade looked back and smiled at her girlfriend.
"Finally living my best life, no thanks to you."
The former classmate bit her lip.
"I deserved that..."
"You deserved a lot more than that!"
She had only stepped forward but that was enough to make Gia flinch.
"You're right!" she blurted out. "You girlfriend is very pretty...and scary. I have one...or, I used to."
Jade raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Come again?"
"I'm bi," Gia sighed. "Yeah, me."
The brunette shrugged.
"Sorry, I left my pride flag at home."
She stepped even closer.
"No, seriously. Do really expect me to be happy for you or something?"
Tears came out of Gia's eyes.
"No...um...I mean...no," she sighed. "I just wanted to tell you...I get it now."
"Get what?"
Gia rubbed her palms.
"I came out to my parents, and it was a disaster. They kicked me out. And I'm basically homeless if it weren't for friends letting me crash on their couch. The friends that still talk to me at least."
Jade shook her head.
"Some don't even get that. Even at your lowest, you still managed to luck out. Does any of this have a point?"
"Because I was on my parents' plan, I basically had no phone for a while. When I got one of those prepaid ones, I had thought about calling you to apologize for the damage I caused you."
Gia grumbled.
"But I always chickened out! I never stopped thinking about the friendship we lost."
"You mean the friendship you pissed on!" Jade corrected.
"I know," she said shakily. "And I am so sorry."
Jade let that hang for a minute, resting her hands on the back of her head with long drawn-out breaths.
"You said your peace, so let me say mine."
The production manager held her stomach, sick to the sight of seeing this girl who was once her best friend. Had she remained loyal to her, who knows what might have been? Perhaps in another life, they would have ended up together once Gia was awakened to her own bisexuality. But that reality never came to be. This was the timeline where Gia betrayed Jade's trust and made her an open target for slurs and violence.
"You know how much it took out of me to tell you I was a lesbian? How much I hoped that you would stay my friend?" Jade bellowed with conviction. "And what did you do? You outed me to the entire school! You made my life hell! Because of you I couldn't trust people for a very long time! And what? Now that you went through the same ordeal, you expect me to empathize with you. Welcome you with open arms and say: Hey, I understand. Let's have some milk and cookies and talk about it?! How deluded are you that you even thought that was going to happen?!
All throughout Jade's rant, Gia stayed quiet, never having experienced being yelled at by Jade before and even though she didn't like it, she had no reason to complain because deep down she knew she deserved it and even though she tried to apologize a few times, Jade told her to "SHUT UP!"
"You destroyed my self-esteem and life that day at high school and I'll be damned if I'm going to give you the chance to do that again, Gia." Jade hissed "So, let me return the favor and give you this warning... Stay the fuck away from me! I don't care what problems you have; I don't care what you went through, and I certainly don't accept your half ass apology!"
And with that Jade walked away with Tori not far, leaving a crying Gia behind.
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Jade sat up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily.
"Babe?"
Tori rolled over and held her lover.
"What's the matter? A bad dream?"
The pale girl swallowed and laid back down, resting her head on Tori's chest.
"Yeah...pretty bad."
The Latina kissed her head lovingly.
"Just relax and try to go back to sleep."
Those first moments out of a realistic dream haunt you before sleep even returns. Everything played out as fresh as the first time. Some minor dreams would be quickly forgotten but Jade had the sneaking suspicion that this one would stick with her.
What would she do if she had the chance to see Gia again and give her a piece of her mind? Or would she just sick Tori on her?
Jade closed her eyes, the theatre of her mind playing the greatest hits from the dream before sleep finally took her.
Tori woke up later that morning and was mildly alarmed to the absence of Jade.
"Babe?"
She sat up, still in just her sweat shorts and matching bra. The Latina wandered down the corridor to Jade's living room where she was curled up on the couch with her phone. Jade was clearly crying.
"Oh, hey..." she uttered, her face wet.
Tori rushed over and sat beside her.
"Jade, what's wrong? What happened?"
Her girlfriend collapsed into her arms and sobbed.
It took several minutes for her to calm down and explain why she was so upset.
"I...uh...couldn't stop thinking about my dream last night."
Tori looked at her concerned but not quite getting the reason behind her sadness.
(Oh, right! Dumbass, I never told her what the dream was.)
"I dreamed that we were in New Jersey, and I was showing you around."
Her girlfriend nodded for her to go on.
"And we encountered Gia."
"The same Gia from school?" she asked.
It might seem obvious, but she was in such a fragile state right now, Tori didn't want to assume anything.
"Anyway, she...tried to appeal to me, to apologize to me and I told her off. I had gotten everything I wanted off my chest."
Tori hugged her tightly.
"That must have felt cathartic."
Jade nodded.
"It did until I woke up. I don't know, I felt a heaviness in my heart, and I couldn't explain why."
She sighed.
"It couldn't be guilt, could it? I mean, nothing I told her was a lie. She did hurt me and I'm still feeling some of the effects of what happened to this day."
Tori gestured for Jade to get up for a second so she could lay sitting up on the couch, her legs extended fully. She silently invited Jade to sit in her lap so she could envelop her as she told her story.
"For my own curiosity, I looked her up on Facebook. She apparently hadn't updated it in months."
That wasn't so strange. Tori had a Facebook profile, but that mess had been festering for years. She had gotten it years ago when she heard a lot of girls like being able to say they were "in a relationship" but the other person needed a Facebook. The Latina hardly did anything with it. She was more of an Instagram woman. It was a boon when Katy O'Brian followed her.
"Then I got a text from my cousin, Juliet. She's about six years older than me. Babysat me a few times She was cool with me being a lesbian like my folks.
"I like her already," Tori smirked. "What did the text say?"
"Just to call her right away," shrugged Jade. "She knew I was in California so she couldn't call me the minute she found out."
Tori held her closer.
"And you called her," she surmised.
Jade nodded.
"I found out what had happened to Gia," Jade's voice cracked. "She's dead."
The stuntwoman took a deep breath, processing the news. She had hard feelings toward the girl from Jade's past but her no longer being alive changed the temperature of the room.
"How did she find out?" Tori asked.
"Before I left home, Juliet was dating a cop who used to be a classmate of hers. Buddy...Brody...something like that. He was one of the ones who found her. After I stopped going to that school, I didn't keep up with Gia or what she did, naturally. I just didn't want to know. But Juliet told me that they found her face down in an alley."
Though angry at Gia's actions, Tori was nonetheless shocked.
"Do they know what happened?"
Jade let out a sigh.
"She was found, missing a shoe, no purse and the autopsy determined she died of a fentanyl overdose. Juliet, being from the same neighborhood, heard a couple of things over the years. It seems that Gia went to college nearby but dropped out before the first semester ended. She then worked a couple of jobs, the most recent one she was fired for stealing from the register. Juliet also heard that Gia had been doing some hard partying with some sketchy characters in some sketchy neighborhoods. That's all really Juliet knew. But her boyfriend said, the police think she was partying somewhere with some unscrupulous characters and when she overdosed, they ripped her off and dumped her in an alley so the cops wouldn't know what happened or who she was with."
There was a long moment of silence, which was broken by Tori.
"I'm not sure what to say. She burned you, but that's a pretty grim end."
"It gets worse," Jade sighed.
"How?"
"Coroner also revealed that death occurred three days prior. It was three days until they came across her. THREE DAYS!"
Jade sat up, away from Tori with exasperation.
"I was so angry, so hurt, I hated her so much! She was my best friend and she stabbed me in the back. But you know what? There was this tiny part of me, a tiny part, that still wished she would call or show up and apologize. That maybe we could get past this and be friends again."
And to find this all out in the wake of a dream where she saw an apologetic Gia made it hurt even worse. Jade started to ponder if that dream were really a dream. Was that Gia reaching out to her from beyond the grave and trying to make amends before moving on?
Jade then sighed again, "After all she did, I part of me still missed that friendship. Pathetic, huh."
Before Tori could answer, Jade got up and began to pace back and forth in a most agitated fashion.
"I don't know If I want to scream, cry, jump for joy, what. What am I supposed to feel?"
Tori got up and gently eased Jade back on to the couch.
"I can see this has upset you and you're very conflicted. It sounds like Gia went to college and while she liked the partying, she didn't like the studying and flunked out. Then she drifts from job to job, still partying and eventually falls in with a bad crowd, gets into drugs and who know what else and her luck simply ran out. Sound about, right?"
Jade nodded silently. Seeing that Jade was upset, Tori took her hand.
"OK, you're not pathetic for whishing she would try to make amends. From what you told me she was a good friend, and you had some good times. But while it ended badly, you still mourn that friendship. You may even morn, not what Gia became, but what she could have become. And since she came to an end in such a grim way, you know that you'll never be able to resolve this in any way shape or form."
"She was my best friend" Jade said a single tear ran down her face.
"What your feeling is natural. You're not pathetic. You're human, you have feelings, you have memories, you had hope that someday she would realize her mistake and seek forgiveness. You have anger and probably a hundred other things. It will take a while for you to sort it all out."
"She had this wild streak sometimes and on more than on occasion I was able to talk her out of doing something stupid. But I wasn't there." Jade said mournfully.
"Jade, she made her own choices. A bunch of bad ones apparently, but it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself. You can chalk this up to bad luck, karma, bad choices, but in the end, you still miss a person you once knew. She died emotionally when she burned you and physically a few days ago. But you are in mourning and will be for a while."
Tori waited for Jade to respond, but instead of saying anything she simply wrapped her arms around Tori and hugged as tight as she could.
A/N: Thanks to Invader Johnny and Quitting Time for their contributions to this chapter.