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“What was up with the hot cheese attack on Cat and her boyfriend?” Beck and Jade ask as soon as Tori climbs out of the tent, and she doesn’t know why they can’t just leave her alone.
“I don’t know. I mean, I’m so not the jealous type. I’ve never, ever done anything like that before, but seeing my ex-boyfriend making out with Cat, I guess I just lost it for a second, and the next thing I knew my hand was on the cheese valve.” Saying it out loud only makes her feel worse about what she did.
Beck grabs her hand, and Jade raises a brow at him, but he rolls his eyes. “Don’t start,” he says before pulling Tori to a chair. She reluctantly sits down, and Beck crosses his arms. “Tori, did you do it because you were jealous of Cat, or because you were jealous of Danny?”
Tori stares at the sausage on the stick in her hand and sighs. “Is it that obvious?”
“That’s the main reason I’ve been teasing you so much about it,” Jade responds, and Tori stares at her, confused. “Oh my god, Vega, you literally sang ‘Tell me that I take your breath away’ to her. Of course, it’s obvious.”
“But Cat’s—and Danny—What do I do?”
Beck shrugs. “You should probably go and apologize to them, and maybe talk to Cat.”
Tori sighs again and nods. “I should probably do that before Cat hates me forever.” She stands and walks toward the door, setting down the sausage on a stick in a chair. The hallways are quiet and empty, and the first person she comes across is Danny, who’s cleaning the cheese out of his ear. “Where’s Cat?”
He turns. “She’s still cleaning cheese out of her hair. Why’d you do it, Tori? Are you jealous? It doesn’t make sense for you to be jealous because you broke up with me. Or are you finally going to tell me why we broke up?”
Tori nods toward the steps and they sit. “Me being jealous would make zero sense, except that it’s not Cat I’m jealous of, Danny, it’s you.” He frowns. “I’m jealous of you because you get to be with her, and I want to be.” She sighs. “I broke up with you because I was figuring out that I didn’t like just you, but I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“But you did, Tori. When you told me you were breaking up with me and wouldn’t tell me why, I didn’t know if it was something I did or didn’t do. I would have understood this, you know.”
“I know, I should have known that you were cool like that.”
Danny’s quiet for a moment. “Look, if you like her, I don’t want to stand in the way. That wouldn’t sit right with me.” He kisses Tori’s cheek, and there’s a gasp behind Tori.
Cat looks like she’s about to cry before she runs away, and Tori’s stomach flops. “I’m going to go after her.”
Cat is nowhere to be found, and Tori can’t sleep that night. She calls Cat and leaves multiple voicemails. It’s only at school the next morning that she drags Cat to the janitor’s closet and corners her to tell her that nothing happened.
“I’m sorry, Cat. I’m really, really sorry.”
“You sprayed hot cheese on me and kissed my boyfriend. Why would you do that?”
“I didn’t kiss Danny. He was kissing my cheek after I told him…” Tori turns away from the redhead and closes her eyes. “The cheese incident wasn’t because of you, Cat, it was because of him. I was jealous of him.”
Cat shakes her head. “Why would you be jealous of him? Didn’t you date him?” She’s silent for a minute. “Wait, you—”
Tori smiles sadly, turning back to face Cat. “Yeah.”
“You could have just talked to me, Tori. You could have told me you liked me, instead of doing what you did.”
“I know, and you have every right to be furious with me. If I were you, I would just punch me in the face.”
She isn’t serious when she says it, but when Cat’s knuckles collide with her nose, there’s a crunch and a sticky wetness that she’s sure is blood leaking onto her fingers when she grabs her face. “Fuck, Cat, I didn’t mean you should actually do it!”
“I feel better though. Let’s go to the nurse.”