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Jade West and Tori Vega were simply a match to a flame. Tori came around and Jade was fired up from the very essence of her.
There was always a pull between them.
Though it wasn’t kind or sweet at first, the need for attention from the other was always there. The need for the approval Tori sought, and the comfort Jade wanted.
It was, of course, only a matter of time before their need for the other’s attention simply just became a need for the other.
Tantalizing touches and glances. Excuses to be alone. Words spoken lowly between them that left the group of friends they spent time with scratching their heads in wonder.
It’s only natural that the next step for them was making out drunk at Beck’s end of the year party their junior year.
And at the next party after that.
And the next.
And the next.
And eventually Tori stopped Jade as she was leaning in. A hand on the wrist, the way their hands always seemed to end up. Tori told Jade that enough was enough. That if Jade wasn’t going to be honest with Tori about why she kept getting her alone that Tori wasn’t going to allow herself to be alone with Jade anymore.
(It was becoming unhealthy for her. She felt as if she had wrapped herself up in a fantasy world where Jade had grown genuinely interested in her.)
So, it wasn’t easy. But Jade West dragged herself to the Vega house five days after that interaction.
”We’re going on a date.”
And that’s all it took. That started it all. And if it was anybody else asking Tori out like that, she would be upset. But it was Jade. And Jade never asked for things. Jade took. That’s why Tori liked her oh so much.
Of course, just because they were now Jade&Tori didn’t mean they stopped being Jade and Tori.
Fights happened often. Of course they did. Tori didn’t expect anything different when she dove head first into being with Jade West.
But now, instead of fights never being resolved and just fading over time, they were solved with a simple kiss. And everything was good, everything was really good.
Not much changed in the group dynamic at all. Maybe the fact that Jade was just that much nicer. (Not that she’d ever admit it.) Or the fact that Tori was just that much meaner. (It was good for her, really. She let people walk over her too often.)
But everybody carried on as was. If you looked close enough you might be able to see where Beck and Tori started to drift. But neither of them seemed to concern anybody else with it so there was no issue.
It took all of six months before the L-word was dropped. Jade was scared to admit she felt it and Tori was afraid she might’ve been the only one who did. They don’t say it often. They don’t like to. They know in their hearts they love each other, why remind each other verbally?
And senior year went on. Time ticked by. Jade and Tori stayed together.
Then freshmen year of college. And still, Jade and Tori stayed together. It was easy to do so after all. With Tori’s record deal relocating her in New York right near Jade’s film school she was attending. It only made sense for them to move in together.
Sophomore year of college: Still together. Same apartment. Same deal.
Junior year of college the fights started getting worse. Getting longer. Love became a weapon in these arguments.
”You never listen to me, Jade! You’re so deep in your head enraged by jealousy.”
”I act this way because I love you!”
”You… You can’t keep saying that whenever you want me to stop being mad at you. It doesn’t even feel true anymore, Jade.”
”So, what? You don’t love me too? You cant even say it?”
Jade knew it was over the second Tori didn’t even bother to yell at her. She had pushed it too far this time, and Tori had enough of it. She was tired.
So Jade was left with her hands shaking in the doorway to their shared apartment, begging for a lull in Tori’s anger that would allow her the opportunity she needs to sprint downstairs to her car.
She couldn’t even hear what Tori was saying. Not that she wasn’t trying to listen, because she would if she could. But the ringing in her ears was so apparent, so deafening.
It doesn’t even matter what Tori was saying in that moment. It doesn’t matter in the slightest. Because it was over. It was always going to be over eventually. They knew it.
They knew it their senior year when they got together. They knew it when it took three months after they realized it to say they loved each other. They knew it the whole time.
Because sure, Jade and Tori are but a match to a flame.
But you never light a candle and just expect it to never go out.