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Jade huffed and heavily plopped herself onto the cafeteria seat. She was the first to arrive, so she’d let herself be as irritable as she wanted to be. Not that she would've hidden it if her friends were here, but it’s easier to do with less sympathetic eyes.
It had almost been a week since her and Vega’s fight. A week with Vega doing her best to ignore anything Jade.
It had been like any another Saturday, and the gang had decided to go to Nozu to eat and hangout. They’d found a booth to fit all six of them and had started looking through the menu.
As everyone ordered whatever piqued their interest and waited for their food, a girl seemingly their age had come to the table and started flirting with Vega and then had asked for her number. Vega had flirted back, took the girl's Pearphone and put in her phone number.
From the moment the girl approached their table to the moment Vega gave her number, Jade was getting angrier and angrier. Her blood was boiling and this overwhelming need to stab their girl with her scissors was slowly winning by the second. She knew of course that she couldn’t go after the girl for no reason, so instead she started a fight with Vega.
She’d started by using that southern belle accent she reserves especially for Vega, which she’d ignored. Wanting to get a rise out of Vega, Jade then began with insults, which Vega ignored less and less.
It turned into a full shouting match, ending with Vega telling Jade to never talk to her again. Jade, then, of course scoffed and said she’d do so happily, but after Tori stormed off, she hadn’t heard from her since.
Jade had been racked with guilt and anger since then. Guilty, that she’d started that stupid fight. And, angry, that Vega actually held up to her words. They’d always fought and “made-up”, so why was this so different?
Being so lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed the rest of the gang filing into the cafeteria and taking a seat by the table.
“Hey, Jade!” Cat squealed.
“Hmm? Oh. Hey, Cat.” I murmured.
“Are you and Tori still not talking?” She wondered.
“I’m talking fine, she’s the one being irrational and ignoring me! I didn’t even say anything worse than I usually say!” I argued.
“Jade, you told her you hated her and wouldn’t mind if she ended up in a ditch.” Beck intercepted blankly.
Taking a sharp intake of breath, I looked down a bit ashamedly. Truthfully, I’d been so irked by the display of affection from Vega and that dumb redhead, I’d sort-of blacked out on what I said. Sighing, I just begin my silent fuming again, not bothering to continue the conversation.
Everyone, except Vega, who avoided me like the plague, was sat down at the table indulged in their separate conversations. Her lack of presence was making me feel shittier and shittier.
Standing up briskly, I bruise my thigh on the table's edge. Muttering a quick curse beneath my breath, I move swiftly towards the building, ignoring my friends. I had to talk to Tori, or else I’d end up stabbing someone with my scissors.
Entering the Hollywood Arts building, I look around the empty halls for any sign of Tori. She wasn’t at her locker, so I checked the girl's bathroom. When she wasn’t there, I checked the janitor’s closet. Seeing it was also empty, I check the Blackbox Theater in a last-ditch effort.
As I quietly open the door, the first thing I’m hit with is the sound of soft sobs. That immediately makes my stomach plummet. Guilt rising like bile up my throat. I slowly and gently enter the theater. As my eyes scan the seats, they land on silky brown hair, the body it belongs to shuddering with almost gentle sobs.
“Vega?” I whisper, afraid of startling her, afraid that those tears were even hers. Hoping against hope that I’d just happened on some struggling freshmen. To no avail, as those brown locks whip around and cascade around their owner's face, Tori’s tear-stricken face is highlighted by the soft light of the theater.
“Jade?” She asks in an oh-so-small voice. Then quickly, her face hardens into anger, and she stands up quickly. “What? You, come here to beat me down more? Saturday, wasn’t enough for you? Just leave me alone, Jade. I made it very clear I don’t wanna talk to you.” Her voice, which had started full of fury, had slowly dwindled down to one of surrender.
“I’m sorry.” I blurt out, so very quietly. “I’m sorry, I’m always such a bitch to you, I’m sorry I always pick on you, I’m sorry that I’m so horrible to you. I’m— I’m sorry, Tori.” I profess, even louder now, getting closer to her with each word.
As we stand now face to face, I can see her face even better. While, those tears break my heart, she still looks as beautiful as ever. Raising my hand, she flinches a bit, breaking my heart further, but not stopping me from raising it higher. My palm meets her face, fingers gently wiping hot, wet tears away. The skin underneath incredibly soft.
She leans slightly into my palm, before catching herself and wrenching her whole body away from me. That angry look returning to her face, if not angrier.
“You— you can’t just say such awful things and expect one apology to fix it. I didn’t even do anything that day, Jade,” tears again making their way down her face, voice slightly quivering, “You just started saying that stuff out of nowhere. I just don’t get why you hate me so much?” She asks, that last part being whispered.
“I don’t hate you, Ve— Tori! I never hated you, it’s just my sick, twisted mind not getting why you’re so kind to me! Please, Vega! Please!” I’m begging now, pleading for her to believe that I never and would never hate her.
“You said it yourself, Jade! You said you hate me, that you wouldn’t care if I ended up in a ditch!” She's screaming now, tears falling down faster and faster.
“I was jealous, okay!” I confessed. “I was jealous. Jealous with the way you looked at, talked to, and touched that dumb girl—“
“Cindy.” She interrupts.
I glare at her, not caring about that girl's name.
“That dumb girl from Saturday. I wanted you to look at me like that, talk to me like that, touch me like that.” My eyes were now shining with my own tears, but I refused to let them fall. I didn’t deserve to cry, I wasn’t the one who was hurt. “Seeing you give her your number, that smile after she left? It just made me so angry—“
“That what? That I was happy?” She interrupts again.
And again I glare at her. “No, it made me angry that it wasn’t me who put that smile there. That I didn’t have enough courage to ask you out like that girl did. It made me feel like I was about to lose you.” I professed.
“Jade… you could’ve just told me. Do you know how long I’ve liked you? Loved you even? Seeing you with Beck before used to kill me! But, seeing you happy was enough for me.”
“I know, I’m sorry I’m so self—“ cutting myself off, I realized what she’d said. “You love me?”
“Since the moment I saw you, Jade.” She says with a wistful smile.
“I— I don’t know… I don’t know what to say.” I mutter, then it hits me, I do know what to say. “Actually, yes I do, I love you too, Tori Vega! I love you to the point it hurts! I love you to where I wouldn’t mind sitting with you and watching cheesy rom-coms. I love you, that every time I see you I just wanna kiss you until I can’t breathe! And, I know, I know that all of this doesn’t make up for the horrible stuff I said, but if you’ll have me, if you’ll let me, I’ll show you every day how much I truly love you!” I ramble.
“Jade, can you kiss me, now?” She says with a goofy smile stretching all along her face.
And I oblige, taking her still tear-stained face into my hands, wiping the wet trails. I, then, look at those soft lips, licking my own, and flutter my eyes closed. Bringing her closer and closer until are lips are a breath away. I’m not sure who surged forward first, or if both of us did, but if those lips looked soft, then oh boy, they felt like heaven on earth.