Try

Summary: Jade West's heart was broken, and after all the work she'd put into fixing it she'd like nothing more than to never give anyone a chance to break it again. Tori Vega was looking to start over in a new town, to have a chance at a new life, and she'd like nothing more than to have Jade in it, but sometimes life doesn't make sense, and sometimes you just have to let it play out as it wishes.

Rating: M.

Warnings: Life happens and its not pretty, so prepare.

Extra warning, vaguely graphic (movie) murder scene mentioned, so be forewarned when they get to the movie to skip over if you're squeamish.

Chapter Two- Horror Movies And Hot Chocolate

"Andre, what the fuck do you want?" I growled, resting my full weight against the door, nearly falling on my face when it started to swing shut after I rested all my weight against it, "its like seven in the damn morning and I got home at like four." I had to squint at him to avoid the rising sun burning into my ill prepared corneas.

"What were you doing getting home at four?" he asked, barging in past me, knocking into my shoulder and causing me to take a few steps backwards, nearly losing my balance and falling to the floor. Scowling I spun on my heel to follow his path, pushing the door shut halfheartedly, knowing the heavy oak door would slam shut with very little effort on my part. Andre walked off toward my kitchen, like he always did. Straight to my food. I heard the door slam just as I stepped down the hall leading to the kitchen.

"I work at a bar that closes at 3 am, its not a crime to take an hour to get home." I scowled, stomping after him. Sure enough I found him buried in my fridge when I stepped into the room. Sighing I slipped onto one of the counter stools, crossed my arms and rested my chin on them, watching him with halfhearted interest.

"Really? Cause I heard you were busy making a date with a pretty brunette barista." he turned around to waggle his eyebrows suggestively at me with an over done wink before returning to his raid. Sometimes I wondered why I was friends with such an energetic person, because Andre was constantly go go go, he was never tired. Like ever.

"Also, not a crime." I replied, shifting to lay my head down, yawning impulsively, "what should be a crime is you being here at seven am, without coffee, to make yourself my eggs in my kitchen, without coffee." I complained, he used to bring me coffee before he came and raided my fridge. Today his hands were only full of my food.

"Well get over it." Andre deadpanned, too many years spent being my friend had clearly affected his people skills, he'd now adopted the Jade West's Guide To Having No Friends people skills. I yawned again, letting my eyelids close as I listened to him cooking, "but please explain to me how you got a date."

"I'm hot." I answered, "and my car is a babe magnet, and no, you still can't borrow her." I could practically feel the scowl on his face which made me smile as I started to drift back into dreamland.

"You know, it's not right." Andre started, "you living in this big 'ol house with piles of food that you never cook, let alone eat, and those poor people they're probably just cleaning up after themselves the only room you go in is your study and nobody is allowed in there. It's like they're maintaining a freaking museum instead of someones home."

"I've told you a million times Andre, if you're going to keep bitching just fucking move in here." I stifled a yawn again, "you already live here anyways. You can turn one of the rooms into a studio and you wont have to spend what little money you get on that shitty ass apartment." he always complained that his entire apartment was smaller than my closet-which was not true by any means, but when compared to this house it was.

"It wouldn't be so shitty if my landlord checked in." Andre shot back.

"Not my job. I own the place, by default, I don't run it." I cracked open my eyes and lifted my head, resting my cheek on my hand and my elbow on the counter to prop it up like it the dead weight it was, "feel free to take it up with Helen."

"No way, that lady scares me more than you do." he punctuated his fear by waving the spatula around, flinging bits of egg everywhere.

"God, Ellen would have a full time job just following you around picking up your messes." I complained, scowling at the offending egg chunk that had landed in front of me, not bothering to move to clean it up. The paper towels were just out of arms reach and I was ready for bed. My sweater did little to mimic feeling of my sheets wrapped snugly around my body. Just like they were before Andre rudely knocked, "and another thing, you have a god damn key, use it from now on."

I slid of the stool feeling like my body was made of jelly and grabbed a paper towel, wiping of the counter before walking out, tossing the paper towel into a trash can on my trip up the stair case and down the hall to my bedroom. I shuffled from the door to my blanket covered bed and collapsed face first against it, slowly inching up every few seconds and curling up around the twisted mess that my comforter became until it was wrapped tightly around it, my face buried in my pillow, and I tried to fall back asleep.

Unfortunately, as Andre tended to make me do, I couldn't help but think about those stupid apartments. When my parents died I was left with everything they owned and left young and stupid, and I certainly couldn't be trusted to run anything-I was 16 and my parents were supposed to live forever and get old and terrible and I was supposed to cart them off to some fucking retirement home where people were paid to change their diapers. Instead they died and I was left alone.

So I turned a lot of things over to people who already ran them, meaning that the apartments had been turned over to Helen, who was basically running them anyways, with my mom over seeing everything. But I only checked in every so often. From the way Andre was complaining I thought maybe I should pay a visit, keep track of all of the things my parents worked their asses off for so I didn't have to work my ass off ever if I didn't want to.

But instead of getting up to face the world I curled up tighter and strained to keep my eyes shut tightly, no light slipping beyond the thin skin while I tried to berate myself to sleep. It didn't work though and soon a gnawing guilt was taking over, and the pit in my stomach was so annoying I couldn't ignoring it. Mentally cursing Andre in every language I knew and with everything I could think of I rolled out of bed and put on my big girl pants, which was really a gray pin stripe suit with a white blouse underneath the jacket. I even pulled my hair back into a tight ponytail, making me look more like a business woman and less like the lost little teenager I really still was, even though I was twenty three.

Sighing I went downstairs, grabbing a set of car keys from the hallway without really looking and walking automatically toward the kitchen where Andre was no doubt still eating his eggs. Sure enough he was at my dining room table, scribbling in his song book while forking eggs quickly into his mouth, "I'll be back in a few hours." I called, walking past him. Then I stopped short, took a few steps back and snatched his fork, stabbing a chunk of egg and forking it into my mouth before dropping the fork back into his hand and heading into the garage. I hit the unlock button on the keys, cause frankly they all looked the same, and the lights to the Cruze flashed. Heaving a sigh I walked over, got in and started the car, cranking the heat up to full blast while I fished around for my phone in my back pocket.

I texted Helen that I'd be over to look over the books in an hour, because I frequently went around doing spot checks. If there was anything I inherited from my father it was my distrust of humans. Especially with my money, and more importantly with theirs. This time I at least gave her fair warning, and I knew she'd give Sikowitz and Max a heads up, whether or not I went there wasn't a sure thing, but at the very least they'd both be freaking out for a few hours, which would please me to no end. But first I rolled up outside of the coffee shop, parallel parked with a minor amount of bitching, and walked inside.

Tori was behind the counter, and there were five people in line before me. With a smile I tried to fight I stepped into the line and waited silently to reach the counter. When I made it to the register she was getting the last order put together. I leaned my hip against the counter, crossing my ankles and checked some of my emails that I'd been neglecting, mostly my nagging publisher-or at least the woman who wanted the first rights to my first book. She was so fucking obnoxious sometimes. I deleted two of the emails and replied to the second managing to bite my tongue. Or whatever the text version of that is.

"Good morning, ma'am, what can I get-oh Jade!" her voice got a little higher pitched and I couldn't help but smile, as I turned to face her, "hey Jade, what can I get you?"

"A black coffee to go, two sugars and one of those glazed doughnuts, please." I smiled, unable to fight it anymore. Her smile stretched wider and my stomach started buzzing with butterflies, I'd never felt so nervous in my life.

"Right." she tapped a few buttons, "six ten." I dug out my wallet while she made my coffee and grabbed my doughnut. I fished out a ten and shoved my wallet back into my pocket. I watched her work, noticing the shininess of her ponytail as it swung behind her head like a pendulum. It reflected the light, the shinier parts seeming almost blonde. It looked really soft and part of me wanted to run my fingers through it. I bet it would be like silk, just running between my fingers while my li-I shook my head, I shouldn't be thinking like that, "here's your coffee, Jade." I took the cup and the bag with my doughnut that she had set down, passing her the ten.

"Keep the change." I managed to say without sounding like some dazed and confused idiot. Tori smiled at me, an almost shy smile where she bit her lip and her eyes flickered to the floor briefly before back to my eyes and her cheeks turned pink. Good lord why didn't I notice how cute she was before? I mean last night she had to have looked...at least nice? But I couldn't recall the vivid details, just her nervousness about the drink and the smile when I said I'd give her a ride and the way she marveled at the car, but nothing else.

"Jade?" I froze in my tracks outside, "you never said what time we should meet or where."

"I'll pick you up at your place around six? Most of the movies start around six thirty or so." I shifted from one foot to the other nervously, "If that's okay?" my voice squeaked slightly when I rushed to finish the sentence.

"Yeah, I can't wait." she grinned. I grinned back, my heart racing, and quickly made my way out, trying really hard not to spill my coffee or trip over myself somehow. I was relieved when I made it into my car and set the coffee in the cup holder. I sat in the drivers seat and inhaled the doughnut sipped some of the coffee and then finally pulled out of the space and headed toward the apartment complex.

When I arrived Helen made a huge fuss about getting me this and showing me that, "Helen, back off." I snapped, waving her away as I walked into my moms office, which was surprisingly messy for an office I never used. I glanced at Helen who winced, "I just-."

"Don't just, ever again." I snapped, she scurried off to do whatever while I sat down in my moms chair, glancing over at the picture turned face down on the desk. Anger boiling in the pit of my stomach I turned it up right and met with my smiling mom and dad holding little one year old me in their arms at some beach in black and white. I stared at it for a few minutes before I turned to the paperwork on the desk and shifted through it, looking at expense reports, complaints filed, new tenants and everyone's track record with payments.

I got through half of the papers before my eyes started to cross and I decided to wander upstairs and poke through the vacant apartments and Andre's, since I had a key. Everything was in order that I saw, so I sadly walked back downstairs to my moms office and sunk into the chair again. She always made it look so damn easy, effortless, dealing the complaints and the budget and the people. I just couldn't do it, not even once a month, let alone every freaking day of the week. Bar tending I could do, hell I could work at a damn McDonald's and survive, but this was always just so much pressure, I always felt like the building was sitting on my fucking shoulders.

I piled it all up and put a few rubber bands around it, found one of my moms old brief cases and shoved all the papers into it and picked it up, making a mental note to change the lock on the door as I left, pointedly staring at Helen as I jangled my keys, "Until next time, Helen!" I called from the door, stepping back out into the freezing cold afternoon. It perked me up at least, and by the time I got to my house the papers were long forgotten in my passenger seat as I walked inside. Crossing through the kitchen I found the dishes done and drying, Andre's shoes by my stairs and I could hear noise coming from my living room.

"He would be playing call of duty." I grumbled, stopping short and opting to go up to my room and change out of this awful suit, I stopped halfway up the stairs and yanked off my heels before continuing down the hall toward my bedroom, tossing the shoes aside followed by the suit jacket, the button up shirt and my pants, all landing in a pile next to my closet which I kicked out of the way to get to my dresser where I grabbed a pair of shorts and a baggy shirt to head downstairs and find out why Andre turned my room into game central.

"Are you fucking kidding me." I complained, looking around at the completely trashed living room-one which was pristine from the five days my staff was here, "you are seriously so disgusting. What are you doing in here?" I glanced at the screen, recognizing Call Of Duty, and the laptop in front of him opened to some chat with a bunch of his friends.

"Hey Jade, I think I might just take you up on that offer, this place is so nice. No annoying neighbors screaming or babies crying or Helen-Jesus no Helen! Aww damn it!" he cursed as his screen told him he was dead, "where've you been all day?"

"At the apartments. Your place is completely disgusting, its a wonder the apartment doesn't have fucking roaches the way your place looks." I nudged his sweatshirt out of my way with my toe, scowling at everything littering the floor.

"Well some of us don't have a full cleaning staff." Andre countered.

"You said yourself, they barely have anything to clean-and you are not leaving this for Ellen to clean up, you little shit." he rolled his eyes and moved over so I could sit on the couch beside him, he tossed his controller into my lap and leaned forward to put a new disk in my Xbox, picking up another remote, "Resident Evil?" I asked hopefully, a grin stretching across my face when the name appeared on the screen.

Andre sank back against the couch next to me, setting the popcorn between us as the game started. Two bags of popcorn later my fingers were killing me and the boss had killed us again, with an aggravated sigh I cast the remote aside, glanced at the time, four thirty, and stood up, stretching my arms up above my head until my spine popped, "I'm gonna go shower. Clean up a bit, please." I said, stepping over the pile of crap at the foot of the couch and walking out, skipping up the stairs two at a time.

I showered as quickly as possible, scrubbing my scalp with my nails so I was sure all of the built up grossness was washed away, slicked in some conditioner and stared at my body washes while I waited for the conditioner to soak in. There were a lot of options-I ordered from Bath and Body in bulk when there were sales or free shipping so that I didn't have to drive an hour to get something that didn't come from the local grocery store-which again, I avoided.

After staring between all of the smells-all of the fall ones so tempting, but I settled on my usual, one that smelled like warmed apples and cinnamon. Once I was clean and my hair was rinsed and I happily stepped out wrapped in a towel and crossed into my bathroom, unwrapping the towel and drying my dripping hair, listening to Andre rush into the bathroom, slamming the door loudly behind him. Chuckling I tossed the towel over the back of my hair and stood in front of my closet, looking at the dull array from gray to dark black from one side to the other.

"What the fuck do you even wear on a date?" I complained, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at the lack of variety hanging in my closet.

"Well if you were that I'm sure you'll get a second." Andre commented, I rolled my eyes over toward the door where he was lingering, "just being honest Jade."

"More like being creepy, buster." I said, pointing an accusatory finger at him before I grabbed a pair of underwear and a bra from my dresser, putting them on and staring at the closet, "I mean seriously, what was I thinking? I don't know how to act on a date-it was a damn miracle Beck put up with me so long-."

"Now stop that, Jade." he interrupted, "you deserve someone who loves you, not someone who just puts up with you. Beck was an idiot, you're a great girl, and he's missing out not you." I bit down on my tongue, trying to suppress the tears building in the back of my eyes, rolling my eyes and blinking and trying not to think about him, "now since its cold as shit outside lets find you some clothes to wear."

Half an hour later I was finally happy with my outfit, a dark green cotton cap-sleeve dress with a pair of black tights and my leather jacket. I shoved my feet into a pair of black ankle boots and went into the bathroom where I touched up my hair-which I'd gone to do when I got frustrated trying to find something to wear-because I swear everything was just not enough, she was too pretty and I just wanted to impress her, as pathetic as it was. But now my hair was done, and a few minutes with my mascara and eyeliner and I was ready to go- after checking four times that I had my wallet and phone I finally went downstairs, grabbed my leather jacket, the keys for my Cruze, and headed out for the garage, "I'll see you later Andre-finish cleaning up the living room!"

"Okay mom!" Andre yelled after me. I had a feeling he wouldn't actually clean it, but it made me feel better to at least feel like I've tried. I shrugged on my jacket before slipping behind the wheel, pushing the button to open the garage door and then turned the key. The car hummed to life, so quiet I could hardly hear it, and the heat instantly filled the car. Happy in my little warm bubble I backed out of the garage, stopping to wait for the large door to close before I pulled away in the direction of the apartment complex.

I drove slow, something rare for me, I wasn't quite ready for this date. I almost didn't want to call it that, but I'm pretty sure that's what it was. My fingers were trembling and wasps were bouncing around in my stomach, and god I was so fucking nervous it wasn't even funny. It's not like I hadn't gone out with people when I was in New York, and I'd gone on plenty of dates with Beck, so what was it about this girl I'd had only a handful of interactions with that I felt like I'd never been out with anyone in my life?

I stopped about a block away from the apartment complex and just sat outside some store with my head resting on the steering wheel until I wasn't shaking and then I pulled back onto the road and pulled up outside the complex. I'd never asked Tori which apartment was hers, something that had just occurred to me seconds before, but she was just poking her head out around the corner when I pulled up. She met my gaze and a small smile graced her lips before she rushed over to the car, hugging her arms around her body, tugging at her long sleeves to pull them down over hands. I hit the unlock button just as she grabbed the handle and slipped inside, rubbing her hands rapidly up and down her jeans trying to warm her hands. I turned the heat up a notch, "so I never asked what you wanted to see."

"Uh-honestly I don't even know what movies are out." she laughed nervously, "I didn't even know there was a movie theater."

"There isn't one, we have a drive in and I think they're playing some old movie tonight, and there's a theater about ten minutes away." I grabbed my phone and pulled up the picture of the movie ads for the weekend, "uh they're playing Catching Fire tonight. And here's the list for the theater. I imagine it'd be pretty damn cold to go sit at the drive in, but that's up to you." I passed her my phone and pulled away from the complex, happy that the theater and drive in were both in the same direction.

"The Scissoring Two is playing at the theater?" she gasped in an excited tone, I almost slammed on the breaks, "can we go see that or are scary movies not your thing?"

"Oh we can totally go see that." I grinned, "I love the Scissoring." Tori grinned too, locking my phone and setting it down in her lap, glancing out the window as everything rushed by the car, just taking in everything. I left the radio off, for the first time in awhile not feeling weird about the silence and the only thing on my mind was how excited I was to see this movie, and the fact that she was so excited to see it, too.

I found a parking spot close to the doors, limiting the time out in the cold to the five minutes in line where we were both shifting from foot to foot and rubbing our arms to keep warm like the rest of the movie goers, and when we stepped up to the window she didn't stop me from paying for both of the tickets and the popcorn, but she insisted on buying the soda, and once we had everything we headed into the theater.

I followed behind her with the popcorn as she found seats literally exactly in the middle and then sat down next to her, by some miracle not dumping the popcorn on myself when the seat didn't want to go down when I hooked my foot on it. Laughing Tori took the bags so I could sit back up from my slumped position, and oddly her laughter just made me smile instead of feeling incredibly embarrassed like I would with Beck. Andre's words about him earlier rang through my head. He was missing out not me.

We chatted through the credits about the first movie, comparing our favorite parts-she thought the first kill was the best, but personally I loved the last, and we both agreed that the funniest death was the second girl who was killed while sleeping with the killers ex, the way the blood spurted from her throat and all over his face while he was climaxing was the best thing ever, nothing else compared. Hopes high for the sequel we silenced as soon as the lights dimmed.

The movie was good, I even jumped once, my hands gripping the arm rests and Tori jumped too, her hand gripping mine as she groped for the arm rest at the same time, and she took a few minutes to let go, even though I wouldn't have minded if she stayed like that the entire time, but when she pulled her hand away to get more popcorn I moved mine to pick up my drink and took a sip from it, my eyes glued to the screen. The theater emptied out quickly as soon as the credits rolled, and I couldn't help but laugh at them, they'd all miss the real ending. I was happy when Tori didn't even move to get up, watching the credits roll by while eating the last of her popcorn.

And as I knew it would the screen faded back to color and the killer was shown clawing her way out of her grave once more, and then flashes to the survivors house where she's watching TV, and behind her you can see the killer outside, and then the screen cut to black and the lights came on, "I can't wait for the next one to come out." I declared in an embarrassingly giddy tone.

"Me too, we'll have to come see it together." she stood up, grabbing her cup and popcorn bag, crushing the empty container in her hand. I followed in suit, stepping out of the isle and waiting for her to get out before following her out toward the car, opening the passenger door for her and closing it behind her, rushing around the car to get out of the cold, starting the car and cranking up the heat immediately, "so ready for the best hot chocolate in town?"

"So ready." Tori replied eagerly. I watched as she tucked her hands under her thighs to warm them up faster. I twisted the heat up to the highest notch and backed out of the parking space, heading back toward town. Tori looked thoroughly confused as I parked outside of the coffee shop, "you know they're closed right?"

"Closed to the public, yes." I replied with a confident grin, slipping out of my seat and into the cold once more. She hesitated before following me out, standing next to me shifting anxiously from foot to foot while I tried to find the keys to the front door, making a triumphant sound as I located the key and pushed it into the lock, yanking the door open and motioning her in before me, following her inside.

"So you have keys?" she asked.

"I technically own the place, so yeah, I have keys." I set them down on the counter as I hopped over it, grabbing two glasses and starting the hot chocolate machine.

"I thought Christine was the owner?" Tori asked, pulling over a stool and sitting down to watch me.

"Operating manager, but no, I own this place. And most of the things in this town. Well my parents did-i thought Cat told you? Since you said I'd obviously know where the complex was." I rambled.

"I just assumed you did, ya know living here so long. But West Apartments, Jade West, kinda makes sense. I feel pretty dumb now." she buried her face in her hands.

"Don't worry about it." I laughed, "can't believe I just ruined the only person in town who didn't know I owned half of everything in it." the hot chocolate machine started boiling, spitting out the hot liquid into the cup I'd placed under it. I searched around for the marshmallows and whipped cream, setting them onto the counter while I switched out the full cup for an empty one, dropping marshmallows into the steaming cup and putting the tip of the whipped cream canister into it, pushing down and spinning the cup until the cream was perfectly on top. I turned and carefully passed Tori the cup before preparing my own.

When I turned around she was holding it between her hands and had a dollup of whipped cream on her nose, "you got something." I pointed at my own nose and she scrunched hers in response, which was really fucking adorable, before she wiped her nose off with a napkin and bit down on her lip trying, and failing, to fight a smile.

"So, you really own everything in town?" she asked, staring into the top of her cup.

"More like took over?" I ventured, "my family helped out when this town was struggling to float, put a lot of money into everything, eventually built some businesses, gave people work, and when they died everything went to me, but I was only 16 so I just kinda pushed all the business running stuff on the managers willing and my uncle helped everything get settled-and god this is depressing first date talk."

"Might as well get all the depressing stuff out in the beginning." Tori declared, "that's why I moved here, my parents passed away and my sister fled to another country, and my record label was pressuring me to finish my album and I was just done so I ran away." she spun the glass between her hands.

"I get that. I ran to New York right after they died, I couldn't handle the way everyone looked at me and then when Beck cheated on me I ran again. The quietness of this place, I just needed the noise. I suppose if I was living in New York I'd wanna go some place quiet." she gave me a small smile and I reached out and placed my hand over hers, rubbing my thumb across the back of her wrist.

"Man, way to jump right into the deep end on a first date." she laughed, pulling her hand back and swiping at the underside of her eyes, lifting the cup up and taking a slow sip. I did the same, hardly minding when the liquid scalded my tongue, and I really didn't mind the next hour of sipping coffee spent discussing our favorite horror movies and then regular movies, and by the time I was pulling into my garage I felt like I was walking on a cloud.

I hadn't felt that way since before my parents passed away and I was willing to do anything to keep it there. Just that one date and I knew things would be different with her in my life, and that things were changing. I just didn't know how much she'd change everything I'd ever known, but for that night I just went to bed, thinking about going down to the coffee shop to write all day again, and I dreamed of that smile, and nothing else really mattered.