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Tori steps out of the limousine and the paparazzi swoop in like vultures around a piece of carrion. She’s still not used to it, even after two platinum albums and a Grammy nomination. The idea that Tori Vega is the name of someone to be admired, to be envious of, gives her a sensation not unlike the lightheaded loopiness of laughing gas, and she finds herself thinking of the day she got her wisdom teeth removed as she ascends the wide, low steps of the event venue.
“Tori! Tori!” shouts the nearest vulture, shoving against the sea of others like him to hold a petite camcorder uncomfortably close to her face. “Is it true you’re expecting?”
She laughs and flashes her patented pearly white smile for the camera. “Nope. Not for a long time.”
She’s not sure why she answers, maybe because his tiny camera makes her pity him just a little, but she realizes after speaking that it had been a mistake. The throng of paparazzi only becomes emboldened by her reply, all pushing against each other and the fence specifically there to keep them away. Her pair of bodyguards form a wall of flesh behind her as stragglers from the crowd attempt to walk up to her with their cameras and microphones, and she hears them say gruff words to one particularly spirited individual with a PearPhone in his hand. She hurries her way up the rest of the stairs, breathing a sigh of relief when she’s safely in the building.
Her eyes are taken by the opulent chandelier hanging low above the foyer. The entire room is the pinnacle of what Tori would call fanciness- the color scheme is black and white, the carpet is intricately patterned, the ceiling is almost entirely skylight, and lit wrought iron lanterns line the walls alongside mounted baskets of flowers she can’t even identify. She wonders briefly who is footing the bill for everything. Then, another famous guest is entering behind Tori and she is forced to explore further; she wanders through a propped-open set of double doors into the next room to find a banquet hall with an impossibly large table full of food that makes her mouth water.
Tori, however, is looking for someone much more important than the admittedly amazing-looking food. She breezes through the banquet hall and into the next room, scanning the small crowd talking quietly in a corner. She recognizes one of the people in the group from sophomore year Biology, but resists the urge to speak to her. She’s on a mission, and she continues through the next open door of the expansive venue.
She finds herself in yet another room with white walls rimmed with black when she runs into André. Literally. The plate of food in his hands smears across the front of his deep purple suit on its way to the floor, and clatters impossibly loudly as it hits the floor.
The startled look on his face falls away, replaced by a smile. “Tori!”
“Oh my God, I am so sorry, André,” Tori says as she squats to pick up his plate, utensils, and as much food as she can.
“Tori, Tori, it’s okay. You don’t have to do that,” he replies, squatting down beside her. He takes the plate full of ruined food from her, stands, and extends a hand. She takes it, and he helps her to her feet before getting the attention of someone in a white shirt and black pants Tori assumes is some kind of waiter.
With the plate of food taken away and another employee of the venue coming to clean up the spill, Tori finds herself at a loss for words. “So… make any good records lately?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Grammy nominee,” he says, punctuating his words with a light poke to Tori’s midsection. “I’m so proud of you, Tori. Everyone at Hollywood Arts knew you were destined for greatness.”
Tori’s face pinkens slightly. “Stop,” she says, drawing out the word playfully. “What about you, on your third platinum album in a row, now? I’ve only gotten two!”
André laughs, and as he does, Tori takes a moment to appreciate how different he looks. His face is leaner, with a noticeably sharper jawline than he’d had in high school, and thick facial hair frames it well on the lower half. His growing goatee, however, is distinctly missing any upper lip hair thicker than peach fuzz.
“It’ll come for you,” he says, reaching out to take one of Tori’s hands and squeezing it lightly. “I know it will. After all, Firestarter was a whole bop, start to finish!”
Then it’s Tori’s turn to laugh. “You think so? The reviews are pretty mixed.”
“Everybody’s a critic in the music industry. You can’t let it get to you.”
Tori thinks, however briefly, that she absolutely can and probably will, but doesn’t voice it. “I know, I know.” She pauses to survey the room once more, finding it absent of the one person she’s looking for. “Have you seen anyone else yet? Of our friends, I mean.”
“Nope, you’re the first. Why, looking for Jade?”
Tori’s breath leaves her all at once, leaving her mouth to open and close like a fish. “How-”
André doubles over slightly, overtaken by laughter. “I know you way too well for secrets, Tori. And you’ve been looking around the room the entire time we’ve been talking. So, what’s the plan?”
“Plan? There is no plan. The plan was to come here and find her!”
“Are you sure she’s even coming? I didn’t think a school reunion would be her style.”
“Nope! I have no idea.” Tori throws her hands up, then covers her face with them. “Ahhh, I’m so hopeless...”
André gently grabs Tori’s hands and removes them from her face. “You’re not hopeless. You’re Tori Vega, nationwide pop superstar.”
“And she’s Jade West, a worldwide acting sensation! Did you know her last movie got translated into Lithuanian? How popular does a movie have to be to get translated into Lithuanian?”
“Okay, first of all, you just offended a nation. Second of all, you seem to be forgetting that you’re famous too. Famous people love dating other famous people! You just gotta make sure she’s coming, first off, and then talk to her. Nothing scary.”
“Talking to Jade is scary!”
André gives Tori one of his trademark looks. “You guys dated for a year, if you’re still genuinely scared to talk to her we have a bigger problem.”
Tori sighs. “I’m not scared scared, just… nervous.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because I’m going to pour my heart out to her! And she could just walk away, leave me hanging, and break it right then and there. Or worse, she could make a whole scene in front of all our friends for my even daring to talk to her. That’s terrifying!”
“Jade would never do that, though.”
“Wouldn’t she? Back at Hollywood Arts she-”
“Tori, you’re going to have to accept that all that was years ago.” André pauses until Tori meets his eyes. “A decade, as of today. Jade isn’t the same teenage girl you knew; she’s a full-grown woman who’s matured a lot since you guys last saw each other. And that’s a good thing! It means she’s mellowed out, and isn’t going to go all past-Jade-crazy on you. The worst thing that could happen is getting politely turned down.”
Tori narrows her eyes, full of skepticism. “Jade? Polite?”
“Okay, maybe it won’t be polite. But worst case, she says no, you get up, dust yourself off, and you go out there and find love with someone else. You can finally move on!”
I don’t want to move on… Tori thinks petulantly. “I guess,” she says despite herself.
As if on cue from the heavens, Tori suddenly hears the sound of paparazzi outside, coincidentally shouting the name of the very woman on her mind. She turns to André, whose face has gone slack. She grabs his arm tighter than she probably should.
“André. She’s here.” Her voice is stricken with more fear than she’d intended.
“Yeah, I hear that. That just means this is your chance!” André says, and when she doesn’t respond, he grabs both her hands. “Tori, listen to me. You’ve got this. When you and Jade were together, we all saw a side of her none of us thought she even had. While Beck just made her angrier and meaner, you brought out nice Jade. And even if it’s been a long time, she’s never gone back to mean Jade in all the time since Hollywood Arts. You changed her for good, Tori. There’s no way she doesn’t still care about you, at least enough for a conversation.”
While Tori will definitely tell André later all about how much what he’d just said meant to her, in the moment, she can do nothing but break out of André’s grasp to turn and stare through the door she’d entered at the far-away face of Jade West. She's just stepped in the door, and like Tori had, is staring up at the chandelier in the foyer. She's still too far for Tori to make out any specifics, neither about her appearance nor her outfit, but the fact it's her still makes an anxious thrill jolt through her stomach.
André pulls on her arm, drawing her away from the door. “Tori. Did you hear anything I just said?”
“Yes, and I appreciate it more than you could know, but… Not only is it Jade, who’s always been cooler than me, she's an Academy Award winner now! Oh, and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award winner, whatever that is. If that doesn’t make her out of my league, I don’t know what does. If she told me to get lost it would be totally warranted.”
André chuckles lightly. “Cooler than you? I always thought you were pretty cool, and now you’ve got millions of fans who agree. If she tells you to get lost, she doesn’t know what she’s missing.” He looks over his shoulder for a moment before gesturing over it. “Let’s go see if we can find anyone else we know. You just need to chill out, relax a little, and think over what you’re gonna say. You can find Jade once you’re ready.”
Tori lets out a defeated breath. “You’re right. After all, the food did look great…”
André smiles, a twinkle in his eyes. “Mine was, before I was wearing it.”
As Tori starts trudging toward the banquet hall, still scanning groups for Jade, she winces. “Sorry again."
Tori is starting to get worried. 20 minutes earlier, she’d broken away from André, Beck, and the rest of the group to find Jade, and so far, she’s had no luck. She’s checked the banquet hall, the room with all the tables to sit and eat at, the ballroom with the soft music playing and all the happy, dancing couples that only make Tori obsess further over what she’s going to say to Jade. The event venue is truly cavernous, though, with seemingly countless rooms; Tori discovers one she hadn’t seen before in which a now-bearded Sinjin is DJing and oddly enough, people are loving it. She steps backwards to remove herself from the room, and sighs, beginning to wander aimlessly.
What if she already left? she thinks, feeling even more hopeless than before. I probably spent too long getting reassurance from the boys and missed my only chance to… Her thought trails off as her ears pick up the nearby sound of someone jumping into a pool, followed by riotous whoops and hollers. There’s a pool here?
Dating Jade, she had learned quickly that swimming was one of her favorite activities. A few months in, she’d confided in her that she was drawn to it due to the respite from summer heat, her memories of days at the pool from her childhood, and her secret love for swimwear fashion. ("Girls who wear tiny little bikinis just don't get it," she'd used to say.) Tori thinks as she hears another sloshing noise that the year they’d spent together probably involved more trips to the pool than Tori had taken in the entire rest of her life.
She suddenly finds herself walking into the nearest room with purpose, tilting her head this way and that to try and pick up any more splashing noises to follow to the source. Much to her delight, a loud chanting of the word “jump” rings through the room from a propped open glass door to Tori’s left, and she speedwalks through it without a second thought.
The enclosed patio is just as lavish as the interior of the building, and for a moment, Tori is drawn in by the ornate wrought-iron tables with checkered umbrellas lining the stonework tiles surrounding the crystal-blue pool. It’s positively full of people, whether splashing one another, swimming in the few open areas of the water, or standing by the sides on their phones. She carefully examines the crowd in the pool, zeroing in on face after face that doesn’t belong to Jade. When her hunt finds the pool missing the object of her affections, she huffs and starts scanning the people around the pool, head turning left and right.
Abruptly, though, the quiet classical music that had been playing is replaced by a very familiar guitar riff that has Tori stopping clean in her tracks. She recognizes it immediately as “Just The Girl” by the Click Five, because just about ten years ago, she was introduced to it by Beck. He’d just found out about her burgeoning crush on Jade, and had sent it to her as a sort of olive branch to show he didn’t mind her pursuing it. You have my blessing, don’t worry, he’d texted alongside a link to a lyric video on SplashFace. You’re going to want this, though.
Jade had caught her listening to it once, and much to Tori’s surprise, was actually flattered by it. It had become Tori and Jade’s song, together, for the rest of their relationship. Tori found herself shooting years into the past listening to each line of vocals, memory after memory surfacing.
/She’s cold and she’s cruel, but she knows what she’s doing/
She recalls how nervous she’d been when their relationship first started, how worried she was that Jade would be just as cold and cruel as she had been with Beck. Jade, however, had proven her wrong on one of their first dates.
Jade pulled out her chair for her, surprising Tori. She smiled awkwardly as she sat down; no one had ever done that for her before. Once she was comfortable in the chair, Jade gave it a few strong pushes to tuck Tori’s legs under the table, and seated herself across from her.
“What can I start you ladies off with to drink?” the waiter asked, pulling out a tiny notepad from his apron.
“Uh, water, please,” said Tori, scratching her arm. She wondered briefly if she was appropriately dressed for the restaurant as she stared at the low-necked black dress Jade was squeezed into; she was wearing a typical outfit consisting of jeans and a striped long-sleeved top beneath a vest and felt terribly inadequate in comparison.
“Coffee, black. Thank you,” Jade said, tone lighter and more polite than Tori ever expected from her.
Once the waiter disappeared to get their drinks, Jade’s piercing blue-green eyes were on Tori’s. “So, unblock my number yet?”
Tori’s mouth fell open slightly. “Uh…”
Jade raised a finely-manicured hand. “Sorry. That was a bad way to start off. I’m… kind of bad at smalltalk sometimes.”
Tori was already surprised to hear such an admission from Jade. Her niggling anxieties calmed, if only somewhat, and suddenly feeling brave, she said, “Well then, let’s not do smalltalk. Let’s talk about something real.”
Jade leaned in over the table a bit. “Like what? Politics? The housing market? Thoughts on the death penalty?”
“Um, I was thinking more along the lines of favorite things, but… Against the death penalty, for the record.”
Jade chuckled, and Tori was quickly distracted by its musicality. “Well, guess this is the start of our first fight.”
Tori’s eyes widened once she processed what she’d said. “You support it? Why?”
“Obviously not in every case, but I think there are certain crimes despicable enough to warrant death as a punishment. Like if you touch a kid, I’ll do it myself.” Jade said, mimicking the motion of swinging a bat.
Talking about murdering pedophiles over dinner… Tori mused internally, a little taken aback. Maybe she is as cruel as people say.
“I… suppose that’s fair,” was the only thing she could think to say.
Jade looked at the table. “Sorry. Again. We should talk about something else.”
Tori was thoroughly awed then; two apologies from Jade in five minutes? The closest she’d ever gotten from her before was an admission of guilt about getting makeup on the pillow her grandmother had made.
“It’s okay. I’m… pretty bad at this too.”
Jade glanced back up at Tori and smiled her soft smile that Tori had never seen her direct at anyone other than Beck, and that was on incredibly rare occasions. “I was going to save this for a little later, but since I already messed things up… Here.” Jade was suddenly extending her hands across the table with a small black box in her palms.
Tori took it, and slowly opened the hinge to see two small pieces of thick, colored paper with words printed on them, both of which were folded about as small as the paper would allow. She couldn’t tell what they were, so she grabbed one and unfolded it once, then twice, then thrice, and continued until she lost count of the number of folds and the paper was fully open. Her building anticipation became shock, and her heart jumped into her throat as she finally could read the words; in her hand was a near-front-row Katy Perry concert ticket.
“Jade. You did not.” She looked up from the ticket to see a brilliant, open-mouthed smile like she’d never seen on Jade’s face at any other instance than when she was being horrifically mean to someone.
“Yet I did,” she said simply, grin not wavering.
“How did you know I-”
“You think I never noticed the Katy Perry sticker in your locker, Vega? I pay attention. And if you hadn’t noticed, there are two in there, if you maybe wanted to take your generous new girlfriend with you…”
The shit-eating satisfaction written across Jade’s face was like a drug to Tori; she wanted nothing more than to see it again and again and again. As she hugged the tickets to her chest gleefully, she raptly hoped that the new, knowing, thoughtful side of Jade never disappeared.
/She pushed me in the pool at our last school reunion/
Tori thinks that one ironic, considering she’s at a school reunion that happens to have a pool. Jade so totally would…
/She laughs at my dreams but I dream about her laughter/
Tori recalls how Jade had originally regarded the idea of her ever becoming a famous singer as asinine, and how she’d made sure to make that belief known to Tori. Next, though, she’s remembering the night of the Cow Wow when Jade had taken it back.
“Here’s to, all the bad first dates,” she sang, lifting her head and her microphone skyward. When she brought her gaze back down to the crowd, her eyes landed on Jade, who was standing and clapping to the beat.
A smile was plastered to her face as she took a breath and sang, “Here’s to, every single heartbreak. Here’s to, raining on your own parade.”
Jade put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, loud enough to pierce the din of the loud music and excited crowd. Butterflies swooped through Tori’s stomach, and she faltered slightly as she continued, “Here’s to, showing up anyway. Here’s to us, here’s to us! Here’s to, here’s to the Mondays…”
Once the last line was finished, the crowd erupted into applause, cheers, and whistles, but Tori only had ears for the high pitch of the whistle she knew was coming from Jade. She put down the microphone and leaned in to give André a hug that lasted about half as long as her usual post-song hugs, before breaking away to rush down the stairs to the Asphalt Cafe’s ground level, where Jade was somehow already leaning against a support beam waiting for her.
“Hey, there, future popstar,” she said, a lopsided grin adorning her face.
Tori’s chest fluttered with something warm. “Hey, yourself, whistler.”
Jade came closer and deposited her hands on Tori’s waist, tilting her head and giving her an odd look. “You know, I want to apologize.”
Tori’s brows furrowed, wondering what Jade could have possibly done. “For what?”
“For giving you such a hard time about wanting to be a singer when you first came to Hollywood Arts. You’ve always had so much talent, I just… used to not want to admit it.”
Tori sombered hearing Jade be honest about her feelings. It still surprised her, even though Jade had been acting more open the entire time they’d been dating. Then, she surprised herself by saying, “Why not?”
Jade looked away from Tori’s eyes. “I felt threatened by you at first. Not just because you rubbed on Beck, but because before you I’d known I was the best singer in the school. After, well… I wasn’t so sure anymore, and that scared me. But it wasn’t right, how I treated you in the beginning. Lying about the stage fight, all the insults… No one deserves to have their dreams stomped on like that by anyone. And since I’ve never done it before, I apologize. For everything. I should have never-”
Tori cut Jade off by surging forward and capturing her lips with her own, gentle but passionate, and Jade was quickly reaching for Tori’s head, carding her fingers through her hair and softly scratching her scalp in a way that made Tori moan into Jade’s mouth. Jade broke the kiss at that, face only centimeters from Tori’s.
“Oh?” Jade commented, grinning. “That’s new.”
Tori tried to ignore how hot her face was. “Shut up,”
Jade leaned back a bit, face taking on a vulnerable, almost fearful expression she’d never seen on her. “So, do you accept my apology?”
Tori reached out to intertwine her fingers with Jade’s. “Yes. In case you hadn’t noticed, I never really held any of that against you.”
Jade smiled in a way Tori could only describe as lovestruck. “You’re too good for this world, Tori Vega.”
/Strange as it seems, she’s the one I’m after/
That line makes Tori think about the evening of her and Jade’s Sikowitz-mandated “date,” and how she’d gone home that night full of confusing feelings. She’d lain in her bed with the lights off, staring at the glow stars that had been on the ceiling since she was a child, and contemplated her sexuality for the first time.
Tori gazed at one star in particular that was bigger than most others on the ceiling. She kept her gaze on it until she started to feel cross eyed, so she closed her eyes. Just go to sleep, she begged herself, tossing so she was on her side and pulling her covers over her fully-clothed self. She stayed there, unmoving, for an indeterminate amount of time that seemed to stretch on and on until she sighed and sat up in bed.
She grabbed her phone from her nightstand and punched in her passcode with more force than necessary before opening Zaplook and typing in “how to know if you’re gay.” She tapped on the first link, which took her to a site that hosted for-fun quizzes. The particular quiz the link led her to had the same title as what she’d typed in, and she hit the button to begin before fully reading its description.
The first question asked if she ever fantasized about the same sex while masturbating, and she instantly wrinkled her nose up. Not the best way to start this… she thought, but still answered “no” because she hadn’t. She moved on to the second question, which asked how she felt when she saw LGBT people in public. She chose the option that said “excited” because she really did; her parents had raised her to accept everyone regardless of things like sexuality, and she really did get an odd sort of thrill when she saw openly gay couples. She’d told herself previously it was simply because she was happy LA was liberal enough for LGBT people to feel safe being themselves there, but as she answered, she realized she usually felt that thrill when seeing lesbian couples specifically.
She closed the quiz, suddenly afraid of the answer it might have given her. She opened up The Slap and tapped on her list of friends; the only one with an indicator that they were online was Robbie. He certainly wasn’t the first on her list of people to confide in or ask for help from, but she was desperate enough in that moment she found herself tapping the video call button before she could do anything else.
It rang about nine times before the screen came to life with Robbie’s head and shoulders, clad in button-up flannel pajamas. Confusion was clearly written in his expression.
“Tori? Are you there? I can’t see you.”
“Oh, my bad,” she said, scrambling to turn on her bedside lamp. The amber light illuminated the room and her face for Robbie to see.
“There you are!” Robbie said, smiling. “Anyway, what’s up? You never call this late.”
“Well, uh, I have a bit of a problem, and I needed to talk to someone about it.”
“Go for it. I’m your guy when it comes to talking!”
“Okay, but first, you have to promise me what I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this conversation. I mean it, you can’t tell anyone, not even Cat. Actually, especially not Cat.”
Robbie’s smile fell away, leaving a puzzled concern on his face. “Okay, I promise. What is it?”
“Okay, so you know how Sikowitz had that box with papers in it in class the other day?”
“Yeah, you and Jade picked the leads in his play, right?”
“Yeah, and because we’ve been doing terrible in rehearsals he made me and Jade go on a weird “date” thing at Nozu for like five hours to get better at playing husband and wife.”
“Ooh,” Robbie said, wincing. “Did Jade do something?”
Tori looked away from the phone. “Kinda, not really. There was this awkward moment where we were trying to say nice things about each other and she called me pretty. And she got weirdly bothered when I didn’t say she was pretty too.”
“Well, that sounds like Jade. What else happened?”
“Nothing bad, we just… had dinner, talked a little, sang karaoke together to get these two weird guys that were hitting on us to leave us alone. But the weird thing is, I had a good time. Like, a really good time.”
“Even though the weird guys were there?”
“They left after we sang “Take a Hint” by that one Meghan lady. It was after that I actually started to really enjoy Jade’s company.”
“Uh, don’t take this the wrong way but, why?”
Tori felt her face heat up and bit her tongue trying to will it away. “I don’t know! She stopped being so mean after they left, like she kinda respects me in her own weird way now. For instance, she made me pay for the food but then after the guys left insisted on buying me dessert.”
“What did she get you?”
Tori sighed; of course that’s what Robbie had to ask. “Something called banana sushi. It was just slices of a banana that had been dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed pistachios.”
“Sounds yummy!” he said with a smile, before the expression was replaced by more confusion. “Pardon me for being so frank, but all that sounds like the opposite of a problem. So you had a nice night with Jade. What’s so bad about that?”
“What’s so bad about that is that I think I kinda like her now.” Tori stopped, quickly considering if she should really tell the full truth, but decided she needed it off her chest. “Like… like like her.”
Robbie’s eyes widened about as wide as they possibly could. “Really?” The look on his face was positively lecherous, and it made Tori regret calling him out of all her friends. I should have just texted André…
“Don’t be weird, Robbie, this is serious! I can’t like Jade! She’s been my weird rival since I got to Hollywood Arts and now that we’re finally sort of becoming friends I’m just going to make things all weird with this stupid crush and she’s going to hate me again.”
“How do you know she wouldn’t be okay with you liking her? I mean, she’s not with Beck anymore, and she does collect scissors …”
“Robbie! I’m hanging up on you.”
“No, don't go! Listen, hiding a crush isn’t as hard as you think. I’ve had a crush on Cat forever and she still doesn’t know. I know Jade and Cat are very different, but they both have a tendency to get caught up in their own things to the point they don’t notice stuff around them. You just have to try and act natural until you can figure out if you really like her or if it's just infatuation.”
Tori took a moment to digest Robbie’s words before she finally said, “Are you sure Cat doesn’t just know and not care?”
“Okay, now I’m hanging up on you.” Robbie’s hand entered the frame as he reached for the end call button on his screen.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, that was mean. Maybe Jade’s rubbing off on me. Thank you, Robbie. I’ll try my best to keep it under wraps. I should probably let you go to bed, though.”
“I’d like to see Jade rub off on you…” came Robbie’s voice in Rex’s exaggerated accent.
“Okay! Goodbye!”
/Cause she’s bittersweet, she knocks me off of my feet/
Tori smiled wide; that line has always been her favorite. Bittersweet seems to her the perfect word to describe Jade. Even though she had always been far sweeter than bitter with Tori, she’d never lost her sharp edge. Her pondering leads her to a memory of the Fourth of July after she and Jade had gotten together; they’d attended a gathering thrown by Jade’s father with all his work colleagues and it had been the first time he had seen the two of them together as a couple. Things had started off normally, but ended in a very bittersweet way.
Tori followed Jade down the paved path through the clean-cut grass of the park. It was a wide tract of land between a narrow road and a sandy beach, with many palm trees to create shade and curbs that looked like they’d just been poured. The two of them passed a shiny metal water fountain beside an iron bench, and Tori’s attention strayed for a moment. When she turned her gaze back toward Jade, she caught sight of a large group scattered between two public charcoal grills and did a double take. There were at least 40 people, nearly all middle-aged men in button downs and slacks with their teenage children except for Jade’s younger brother Jackson who was sitting on the grass rolling around a toy car by his father’s feet.
“You didn’t tell me there'd be this many people,” Tori said, feeling childish. Being around a bunch of unfamiliar older men didn’t exactly sound like her idea of fun, but she tried to remain optimistic. There was plenty of food grilling away, after all, and it was filling the air with a delightful smell.
“I didn’t know. My dad never tells me anything.”
Tori frowned. Jade seemed on edge; she wondered if it was because of the crowd’s size or the fact it was made up of her father’s friends. She walked faster to catch up to Jade and grab one of her hands.
“Hey,” she said, voice light and placating, “it’s going to be fine. We’re going to have some free food, make nice with your dad, and then we can leave to take a walk on the beach. Sound good?”
Jade stopped and turned to Tori, looking down at their intertwined hands for a moment. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Her voice was still tense with some emotion Tori couldn’t place, though.
Tori decided not to pester her about what was wrong, especially when they were so close to the group where her father was standing at a hissing grill and speaking to a group of colleagues. She just fell back into line behind Jade, still holding fast to her hand. Jade led them straight to her dad and brother, where the latter looked up and waved.
Jade’s father noticed the motion and turned around towards the two of them. “Jade, so you did decide to attend.” His eyes traveled conspicuously downward to where Tori and Jade’s hands were connected and one of his dark eyebrows quirked upward, though he didn’t add anything.
“You know I wouldn’t miss one of your functions for the world ,” Jade said, sarcasm dripping from her words.
“Right. Why don’t you take your brother to the picnic tables while I finish cooking?” he replied, voice as flat and detached as any other time Tori had heard him speak.
To her surprise, Jade readily squatted down next to Jackson and tapped his shoulder to get his attention away from his car. “Dad wants us over there. The food is almost ready.”
“Yay!” Jackson cheered, throwing his hands up above his head. “Carry me?”
Jade scoffed. “You’re getting too big for this, Jacks,” she said, but picked him up all the same, bracing him on her chest and shoulder. Tori kept in tow as Jade strode to the collection of wooden tables and stopped beside one with a package of solo cups and paper plates. She hoisted Jackson off her shoulder and deposited him gently onto the bench seat, where he immediately started rolling his car again.
“So,” Tori began, eager to fill the silence, “do you know any of your dad’s friends?”
“No. He doesn’t introduce me to them because he’s embarrassed of me.”
Tori huffed out a light, awkward chuckle. “I’m sure that’s not true.”
Jade just gave her a look before turning away to stare at the sunlight glinting off the surf on the beach. Tori sighed, glancing over at Mr. West. His eyebrows were pulled down over a fearsome-looking visage as he flipped burgers with an unnecessary amount of force. Maybe it is… Tori thought sadly, wishing Jade had a father like hers that cared only about her wellbeing. She turned her attention to Jackson, looking for an escape from her mind’s somber musings.
“So, Jackson, how are you today?” she said, bending down with her hands on her thighs.
“Good,” he said simply without looking up from his toy. “My daddy got me a new car.”
“I see that. It looks like an SUV. Do you know what that stands for?”
Jackson shook his head.
“It means sports utility vehicle, since it’s got a lot of extra room for carrying stuff like sports equipment.”
“I like sports,” said Jackson matter-of-factly. “My daddy watches hockey a lot. I like how they fight over the little ball.”
Tori laughed, ruffling Jackson’s hair. “That’s called a puck. It’s not really a ball because it’s flat and slides around instead of rolling.”
Jackson nodded sagely, still playing. Jade then turned abruptly as if burned, so Tori did too, following her line of sight to see Mr. West positively stalking toward them with a tray of burgers and bratwursts. He approached and placed the tray on the picnic table before looking pointedly at Jade.
“Can I speak with you, Jade? Privately.” He said, sounding as if he was speaking through gritted teeth.
“Anything for you, Pops.”
Jade followed her father to the edge of the park, about 30 feet away, where the two of them stopped in the first few feet of sand on the beach. Tori watched as Jade’s father began saying something, clearly not pleased from the scowl on his face. She could just make out Jade furrowing her brows as she began talking, gesturing with her hands in the way she tended to when she was upset.
Then, mid-speech, Mr. West turned and pointed directly at Tori, vitriol painted across his features. Her stomach dropped, anxiety beginning to pool in her gut. Jade was then yelling back at her father, who shouted in response loud enough for Tori to just be able to hear.
“-in front of everyone I know! It’s an embarrassment! That might fly at your little liberal high school, but not here!”
Tori couldn’t make out Jade’s reply, but right after, she began striding back over with her dad in tow.
“You can’t walk away from this one, Jade!” he was saying as they neared the picnic table.
“Can’t I?” She grabbed Tori’s hand roughly and kept walking with purpose, causing Tori to stumble slightly.
“Jade, where are we going?”
“Just come on, Vega.” Jade snapped, leading Tori to a pond near the grills with a few mallard ducks in the water and stopping right at the edge. Her father too stopped a few feet away, tight posture giving away his emotions.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get away from her,” he demanded.
“No. Like it or not, Tori is my girlfriend, and I love her.” Tori’s heart started moving a mile a minute in her chest; Jade had never said those words before. She turned to her girlfriend with something soft and warm fluttering through her ribcage.
“You do?” she whispered, scarcely believing she was really awake and experiencing what she was experiencing.
Jade’s angry expression morphed into one of fondness and, Tori realized, love. “Of course. I thought you knew already.”
The touching moment at hand was cut short by Mr. West grabbing the wrist of Jade’s free hand and tugging. “Let go of her hand, Jade. Now.”
Party guests were beginning to accumulate around the scene, glancing at each other and chattering hushedly amongst themselves. Jade turned to her father with a defiant look that slowly became an impish smirk, and wrenched her hand away from his grasp.
“No. You don’t control my life, or who I date.” She then turned to the nearest group of confused partygoers and began to yell, “Hey everyone! My dad thinks having a bisexual daughter is an embarassment. What’s really embarrassing, though, is the fact he thinks you all give a damn who his kid loves. So, Dad, you want to see something actually embarrassing? Watch this!”
With that, Jade tightened her grip on Tori’s hand and let herself fall backwards toward the pond’s surface. Panic surged through Tori in the milliseconds she had to react, and she let out a frenzied cry of Jade’s name before the two of them crashed into the water. From underneath, Tori could see nothing but the murky green-brown of the unclean pond water, and she frantically broke her hand from Jade’s to swim back to the surface. When she reached the air, she was coughing out a mouthful of water she hadn’t realized she’d swallowed in her shock.
Jade surfaced a few seconds later, dark hair plastered to the sides of her face. She turned to Tori with a wild grin before starting to swim freestyle in a circle around the edge of the pond.
“Come on in, Dad,” she shouted over the sound over her loud splashes, “the water’s great!”
“T-this is, n-not great!” Tori retorted, shivering and wondering how the water was so cold despite the shining sun.
The gathered crowd was full of wide eyes, moving lips, and pointing fingers. Jade’s father stood on the bank of the pond with balled-up fists, bouncing between glaring daggers at Jade and looking around at his gossiping guests.
“Jade Elizabeth West, I am going to count to ten-”
“Ooh, I’m so scared,” said Jade, who stopped her fast-paced swimming to sidle up next to Tori. She leaned towards her ear to quietly say, “Sorry for not warning you. I had to make a statement.”
“Don’t you think you could have made a statement in another way?” Tori hissed back.
“Maybe, but that wouldn’t have been as fun.” Jade swam closer until her chest was touching Tori’s before adding in a sultry voice, “I’ll make it up to you when we get home. My dad’s going to be here until sundown.”
An electric thrill ran from Tori’s gut to her groin, leading a mischievous thought of her own out of hiding. “You know what would really embarrass your dad?”
Jade shook her head, eyes twinkling.
“If we made out, right here.” Even Tori didn’t know how she’d mustered up the bravery to suggest such a thing.
Jade smiled wide and wrapped her arms around Tori’s waist. “Tori Vega, am I rubbing off on you?”
Remembering Robbie’s quip from all those months ago, Tori said, “No, but you will be later.”
“Scandalous, Tori, truly scandalous…” Jade leaned in and Tori met her halfway, pressing her lips hard against Jade’s. Tori’s hands moved seemingly of their own accord, grabbing the back of Jade’s sodden head and drawing her even closer. The world around them seemed to fade away in that moment; there was nothing in Tori’s mind but Jade, and she couldn’t have cared less that she was soaked to the skin in dirty water or that countless people were watching the two of them nearly swallow one another. As Jade deepened the kiss with her tongue, Tori’s thoughts became a repetitive cacophony, echoing one run-on sentence: I love you, I love you, I love you.
/And I can’t help myself, I don’t want anyone else/
That one brings Tori back to a day before she and Jade had gotten together, when Robbie was the only one of her friend group who knew the truth about her crush. André had caught her between classes to do something that had veritably forced the truth from her.
Tori breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang and took the metal bucket off her head. She hated Sikowitz’ bucket acting exercises; she could never hear the other person well enough for the scene to go smoothly. She collected her bag from the chair she’d been sitting in and slipped into the hall, heading for her locker.
When she got there, André was already leaning up against it. “Hey, Tor,” he greeted, expression sunny.
“Hey, André,” she replied, brows furrowing. “How’d you get here so fast, weren’t you just in Sikowitz’ class too?”
“Yeah, I was, but I have my ways.”
“Are your ways called sprinting down the halls?” she said, smirking at her own lame joke.
“Maybe. Listen, I’m here because I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a little while now.” He looked away from her face as he spoke, and it made Tori tilt her head. André usually was the best out of her friends at maintaining eye contact during conversations, so alarm bells were already going off in her mind.
“Uh, yeah, shoot. What’s up?”
André ran a hand over his dreads nervously. “Well, uh, we’ve been friends for a long time now, right? And you know I always have your best interests at heart…”
Tori was thoroughly weirded out. “Yeah…?”
“I just think it would be a real shame if you went to this week’s Friday Night Concert on your own,” he said, reaching into one of his front pockets and withdrawing two passes for the event.
“Oh, André! You’re so sweet, I’d love to go with you,” Tori said, extending a hand for a ticket.
“Ah ah, there’s a catch, though,” said André, smiling as he pulled his hand back so Tori couldn’t take one. “You have to be my date.”
Tori blinked rapidly, too shocked for words. She opened her mouth but nothing came out, her mind spinning trying to come up with an excuse that didn’t include Jade. “I-”
André’s smile became a look of crestfallen concern. “Oh, uh, I’m sorry. I just thought- It was a stupid idea.”
“No, André, it wasn’t stupid,” Tori managed to say. “If it were a few months ago I would have said yes. I just… have plans to take someone else to the concert.” Tori squinted her eyes shut as soon as the lie left her mouth; there was no way André wouldn’t inquire further.
“That’s okay, really, Tori. There was no pressure,” said André, smiling though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Who’s the lucky guy?”
Tori froze like a deer in high beams, once again caught with her mouth open. Her mother’s words rang in her ears, telling her honesty was the best policy, and she decided her phantom mom was right. “Well… would you believe me if I said it was a lucky girl?”
André’s eyes widened. “Oh, chiz. I had no idea you-”
“It’s okay, I didn’t either until recently. It was a surprise for me too.”
“Well, you know I’d support you no matter what,” André said, giving Tori a comforting pat on the shoulder. “You have my blessing, whoever it is.”
Just then, as if all the evil forces of the universe united at once, Jade happened to stroll by the two of them, boots clacking on the tile floor. Tori couldn’t stop herself from looking, admiring the lines of her exposed neck and the many rings adorning her fingers until she was past them and no longer in her line of sight.
André looked over at Jade who was opening her locker, then back to Tori, looking as if everything was coming together in his mind. “No…”
“André!” Tori hissed, hitting him gently in the arm. “You said whoever it was!”
“Yeah, but,” he leaned in and lowered his voice so no one around could hear, “Jade? The girl who’s constantly being a gank to you?”
Tori huffed. “I thought you of all people would understand! She may be a gank but she has a soft side to her.”
“Well, I ain’t seen it recently. She’s been in extra mean mode since she broke up with Beck.” He paused before adding, “But if there’s anyone who can tame that meanness, it’s you.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, you’re the only person I know who just lets Jade’s chiz roll off your back. You may get mad at her, everyone does, but you don’t let it get to you. Don’t tell Beck I said this, but he was never gonna be the guy for her because she knows exactly how to push his buttons. If she can’t push your buttons, she’s got no power over you, and you might actually have a shot at domesticating the beast.”
Tori surreptitiously shot a glance over her shoulder to see Jade staring down at her phone, looking like a Renaissance painting that would be revered for its natural depiction of beauty. To Tori, at least.
She turned back to André with a small smile. “Maybe a shot is all I need.”
/She’s a mystery, she’s too much for me, but I keep coming back for more/
She’s a mystery alright, Tori thinks, smiling to herself as she reflexively scans the people nearest the sound system. Jade has to be the one who played this... The word mystery reminds her of the day she’d taken Jade saltwater fishing at El Matador beach as a compromise between her desire, going to the beach, and her own desire, freshwater fishing like her dad had always done with her.
“Are we almost there yet?” Jade griped for the third time since they’d been walking the beach.
Tori rolled her eyes since she was in front and Jade couldn’t see. “Almost. Be patient.”
“What’s so special about this spot anyway?”
“Nothing, really,” Tori said, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “It’s just that my dad would always bring me to this particular place when I was a kid.”
To Tori’s surprise, Jade replied with a soft voice, “What did you like about it?”
“The rocks on the beach, mostly. The one the beach is named after looks like a giant bull charging at the waves. Well, it does if you squint. I’ve never actually tried fishing here since my dad taught me how to fish on rivers. The fish are usually smaller there so they’re easier to catch.”
Jade hummed out an appraising noise. “That sounds cool. The rock part, not the fish part.”
Tori just laughed. “I think fish are fun! Maybe I’m just biased.”
“You are,” Jade retorted. “I’m a land creature, what do I want with taking ocean life from its home?”
Tori took her eyes off the bull-shaped rock they were finally approaching to screw her head around and give Jade a look. “Oh, so now you’re the advocate for nature? And you love the beach, the fish are just part of it! Fishing for them you get to see how beautiful all the different species are, and you return them right after most of the time.”
“You’re really trying to sell me on this activity and we haven’t even started yet,” Jade said, tone teasing.
“Oh, shut up,” Tori said without any animosity behind it. She was certain Jade was wearing a smile behind her from the victory of getting her to say it. They walked in silence for the rest of the way until they were just meters from the giant rock formation. Tori threw her arms out beside her to emphasize its majesty. “Ta-da!”
Jade held a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun as she craned her neck to look up at the totality of the rock. “This is the bull rock?”
“Yeah! Don’t you see it?” said Tori, who frowned at the skeptical look in Jade’s eyes.
“Not really. It just looks like a big lump.”
Tori stepped over to Jade and pulled on her shoulders from behind until she took a few steps backward. “Look,” she said, extending an arm around her to point, “the front part is like its horns, there’s its head, and then its back legs…”
“Ohhhh,” said Jade, who turned toward Tori with a smile on her made-up black lips. “I get it. That’s awesome. I see why baby Tori liked it here.”
Vindicated to see Jade happy, Tori clapped whilst bouncing. “I’m so glad! Hand me the rods and we can set up on the other side.”
Jade did as instructed and gave Tori the two spinning combos she’d made Jade carry. One was 6 feet long and pink, belonging to Tori, while the other was 7 feet with a real wood handle, belonging to her dad who’d graciously allowed her to borrow it for the trip. Tori hurried around to the right side of the bull rock and set her pink rod down in the sand. She pulled out about a foot and a half of line on her dad’s fishing pole so the tied-on jig lure dangled just low enough, and when Jade was standing beside her, she held out the rod.
“See now, you’ll want to hold the rod like this, with two of your fingers on each side of the reel,” she said, demonstrating the proper grip. “And you’re right handed so you’ll cast the line with that hand and reel with your left.”
“Yeah, yeah, anything else I need to know?” Jade replied, taking the rod from her hands. Tori couldn’t deny she was a bit hurt by Jade’s dismissal after she’d just seemed enthusiastic but tried to ignore it.
“Okay, this is a spinning reel so to cast you’ll have to open the bail, that little metal bar there around the spool. Then, you put your index finger on the line and-”
Tori was cut off by Jade opening the reel’s bail, placing her finger down, and casting the lure nearly flawlessly into the water. She blinked, mouth open, for a long moment.
“-and you do that. How did you-”
Jade shrugged in a way Tori found rather dramatic. “I’m a fast learner. What’s next?”
“For the most part you just wait for a bite. You’ll know there’s a fish when you feel a consistent pressure on the line. A rock or something would just snag the line a little, so it feels different. If you want you can move the lure back and forth so it looks like the worm is alive.”
Jade moved the rod left and right, drawing the jig back and forth in the water. “How long do you wait before you know there just aren’t any fish?”
“Well, in the ocean there’s usually always fish, unlike some creeks, but my dad said the rule of thumb was 20 minutes with no bite means you’re in the wrong location.”
Jade looked at Tori with a peculiar look in her eyes. “You know, Tori, I never would have pegged you for a fishing girl.”
“No?” Tori said, amused. “Why not?”
“You usually just act like a girly girl.”
Tori gasped, putting a hand on her chest in offense. “I am not a girly girl!”
“You like to sing and dance and hate sports. Case closed,” Jade said, sounding very sure of herself.
“What? Beck and André sing and dance too! That doesn’t make them-”
Tori was interrupted by the line on Jade’s rod suddenly getting pulled out into the water. Jade met Tori’s eyes with hers impossibly wide.
“That’s a fish! You have to set the hook now, just take the rod and-”
Cut off for the umpteenth time, Jade set the hook without help like an experienced angler by pulling the tip of the rod hard toward the sky. Once the fish stopped pulling out line, she began to reel furiously, pausing when the fish fought back, until it was out of the water, dangling on the end of her line. She wet her hands in the surf before turning towards Tori with a shit-eating grin and a pink and orange mottled fish in her hands.
“Okay, that was super impressive, but what’s going on? How did you know exactly what to do, and how to cast?” Tori said, confusion screwing her face up.
Jade sighed. “Okay, you got me. This isn’t my first time fishing.”
“What? Why didn’t you just tell me that?”
“The only other times I went were with Beck, and he hated it,” Jade said, looking down at her feet. “It was something his dad forced him to do for father-son bonding even though it wasn’t his thing, so every time I went with he was quiet and angry and miserable. You, though…” Her eyes met Tori’s gaze once again. “You seemed so excited about it all. I didn’t want to take away your enthusiasm by telling you I already knew everything about it from my last relationship.”
“Jade,” Tori replied softly, “you should have just said something. I wouldn’t have been upset, or jealous. Beck is my friend, it doesn’t matter that he dated you last or that he fished with you first.”
Jade’s solemn expression fell away, replaced by a lopsided smile. “I wouldn’t have gotten to see that look on your face if I had told the truth, though.”
Tori tilted her head. “What look?”
“You know, that totally flabbergasted look you get when something unexpected happens. It’s really cute.”
Tori’s face flushed. “I’ll take your word for it.” Eager to change the subject, she motioned down at the small, vibrantly colored fish in Jade’s hands. “I think that’s a Canary Rockfish. It’s too small to be a Yelloweye.”
“There’s nothing sexier than a woman that can identify a fish,” Jade joked in a quite-accurate Southern accent.
“Actually there is, and it’s a woman that knows how to cast a rod. You caught me so off-guard when you just did it like a pro,” said Tori, with Jade already forgiven for her untruth. She just couldn’t stay mad at her.
It was then Jade’s turn to become pink in the face. “I watched a lot of videos to prepare for Beck’s fishing trips.”
Tori picked up her rod, pulling out the line to a good length. “Well, all that preparation is about to pay off because it’s time for a good old fashioned fish-off!”
Jade laughed. “I think we have to do something with this guy first,” she said, wiggling the Rockfish in her hands.
Tori set her pole back down and slipped her backpack full of supplies off her shoulder to rummage around for her needle nose pliers. She withdrew them once she found them and reached for the fish, using the pliers to finesse the hook on the lure from the soft flesh of the fish’s mouth. Jade squatted down in the surf and held the fish under the water for a moment before pushing him forward and sending him back into the sea.
“I wonder if Canary Rockfish tastes good… I could have just let go of a great meal.”
Tori looked down at Jade, an involuntary grin finding its way onto her face. “You’re something else, Jade.”
“In a good way?” With Jade's gorgeous blue-green eyes staring up at her, as teasing as ever, Tori couldn’t stop herself from crouching down to her level and leaning in for a long, slow kiss.
When they finally parted, Jade was winded. “In the best way.”
/She’s just the girl I’m lookin’ for, just the girl I’m lookin’ for/
A wave of determination rushes over Tori as the chorus repeats that line. Jade is the girl she’s looking for, and she knows in that moment she won’t let anything stop her from finding her and telling her about all the pent-up feelings she still has for her, for better or for worse.
Then, the very voice of the girl she’s looking for breathes in her ear, “Who are you staring at, Tori Vega?”
Tori screams, and whirls around to see Jade in the flesh, looking even more gorgeous than she remembered her. Even the paparazzi pictures on the internet Tori had managed to find don’t do her justice; in person she is flawless, eyeliner sharply winged, hair perfectly permed without a single flyaway hair, dress ornate and lined with feathers, form-fitting in such a way Tori just knows it’s bespoke. Her mouth, in that same-old Tori Vega way, opens and closes like a Canary Rockfish out of water.
“Cat got your tongue?” Jade asks, and her voice rings sultrily in Tori’s ears. “Surely you have something to say to me after all these years?”
I still love you, Tori’s mind screams, but she bites her tongue to keep it from spilling. “I- I’ve missed you.”
Jade grins and Tori’s heart seems to stop in her chest; there are new lines that crease her face that weren’t there when Tori last saw her, but her smile is no less brilliant, and holds no less power over her.
“I’ve missed you too. I hear you’re having some resounding successes, though. Platinum albums and whatnot. I read an article recently that said you just bought a mansion in Malibu?”
Tori’s ribcage positively buzzes with nervous energy. “You’ve been reading articles about me?”
Jade nods languidly. “You were a big part of my life, Tori, and not just for that year. You’re somebody one doesn’t forget easily.”
“You think so? My last album was “trite and forgettable” according to Trident.com.”
Jade chuckles in that musical way that makes Tori’s knees want to give out. “I bought it, so it must be better than that. I’m Jade West, and I don’t buy bad records.”
Excitement fills Tori at the idea that Jade has been following her career in the same way she’s been following hers, and she swallows thickly before saying, “Is that right? The queen has spoken.” She grabs the edges of her dress and curtsies as if honoring royalty, and Jade beams.
“The queen? I could get used to that. You always did make a good peon.”
Tori’s mouth falls into an O shape and she gasps in offense. “Good to know you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Oh, I’ve changed, but the core is the same. Au naturel. ” Jade’s use of French makes Tori shiver, and then her face burns because Jade smiles at it, looking all too pleased with herself.
“Anyway, what about you?” Tori blurts, trying to breeze past her total obviousness. “I heard about all your awards and accolades, and you’ve gotten them for good reason, Sunday Morning Murders was a masterpiece. But like… how’s life? What have you been up to outside of Hollywood?”
“Good old Hollywood doesn’t leave room for much else, so I’ve been taking some time off from acting. Trying to figure out what I really want from life instead of just living in the moment, you know?” Jade meets Tori’s eyes pointedly, and then Tori swears she glances down at her lips.
“What did you figure out?” Tori says, voice nearly a whisper.
“That I’m really good at yoga,” Jade says, smirking as if she knows exactly the power she’s wielding over Tori at that moment. Tori realizes with a start she probably does, and curses herself for not being able to hide her emotions. Then, Jade adds, “And, that my life has been missing something. Something important.”
“What’s that?” She can scarcely breathe.
“Well, I’ve spent the last ten years focusing on my career, always my career, working on perfecting my craft and being the best actress I can be. Whenever I reached a goal, instead of letting myself be happy about it and stay still for a moment, I moved the goalposts to something higher and harder to reach,” says Jade, eyes half-lidded and introspective. “And my career is doing great because of it, Sunday Morning Murders won me all those awards and even more fame, but I also learned that fame is lonely. I have so much right now, the finest clothes, all designer, a house bigger than my dad’s, an expensive car, assistants willing to listen to my every beck and call. And yet I’m nowhere near as happy as I was in high school.” Jade’s voice is somber and soft, and as she finishes speaking, she reaches out and takes Tori’s hand in hers. Tori thinks her heart may beat out of her chest and flop about the ground independently with how fast it begins to race.
“I feel the same way,” Tori confesses, stepping into Jade’s personal space. “I love singing, and I have what I always dreamed of having, but none of it matters. Not without you. I never stopped loving you, and I can’t go any longer without you knowing.”
Jade comes even closer, eying Tori like she wants to either hug her tight or devour her then and there. Instead, she leans forward until her lips brush the shell of Tori’s ear to say, “That’s touching. But there’s a prophecy we have to fulfill first.”
Tori’s brows pinch together. “Prophecy?”
Then, Jade is walking toward the pool pulling Tori behind her, and Tori realizes. She struggles in Jade’s grasp, but it’s too late, and before she has a chance to wiggle her wrist from Jade’s hand she’s being shoved in the side by the other one and falling forward toward the pool. She impacts the water with a giant splash, and in a moment all she can see is bright blue. She pushes off the bottom of the pool to resurface quickly, breathing heavily once she returns to the air. The guests around the pool are all looking, some gathering around the edge of the pool concernedly, but she can’t keep the smile off her face. She blinks up at Jade with wet lashes for a moment before she notices her crouching in preparation for a forward spring.
“No!” Tori yells but Jade has already jumped and she hits the water like a rock, sending out a rippling wave that knocks Tori backwards and underwater again. She fights her way through the rough current and stands again to see Jade, soaking wet but smiling like the cat that got the canary. The crowd outside begins to buzz, full of murmured words and prying eyes all too interested in the lives of the two celebrities in the pool fully clothed.
“Tori?” Jade says, swimming closer.
“Jade?” Tori replies, feeling a million things at once, but most of all like she’s young again, full and completely revitalized.
“I never stopped loving you either.”
It’s Tori’s turn to swim closer then. “Does this mean-”
“Yes. I want it all, everything. I never should have broken up with you, we could have grown our careers together all these years. But this isn’t the time for regrets, it’s time for moving forward. Forgive me; be my girlfriend again, and make me the happiest person on the planet.”
Tears find their way into Tori’s eyes. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Their lips finally meet, and it is the sweetest kiss they’ve ever shared. From that moment on, there is no more Tori Vega or Jade West, there is only Tori Vega and Jade West, happily together once again.