1. Split.

Jade licked the red from the blade and put the knife down, appreciating the taste against her tongue.

"How do they make English muffins splittable?" Cat asked as Jade replaced the lid on the strawberry-rhubarb jam.

"I dunno, Cat," Jade said relatively patiently, wiping the stickiness from her fingers and delving into her own breakfast. "But obviously it was a big contribution to American culture."

"OMG my brother's American!" Cat squealed. "So are my parents!"

"Yeah, so are you, Cat." Jade rolled her eyes, shoving the rest of her English muffin half in her mouth. "We both are. Everyone we know is."

"Not Festus."

"Nope."

"Not Beck."

"Nope. Poor him, he's fucking Canadian."

Cat gasped, covering her ears while Jade chuckled darkly.

Jade's first week as a so-called (or Catcalled) "honorary Valentine," didn't really justify her dread. In fact, much of it had been almost enjoyable. But that didn't do anything to purge Jade of her anxiety. Today was Friday, Jade's ninth night at Cat's and the last school day she'd be spending by herself. She was heading back to Hollywood Arts on the following Monday.

Mrs Valentine came in the kitchen, digging car keys out of her purse.

"Okay, Caterina it's time to go to school!"

"Yay!" Cat jumped up off her stool and grabbed her bag. "Bye Jadey! Have a good day!"

"You too, Cat."

Cat skipped off with her mother in tow. Jade breathed a sigh of relief in the silence as the Valentines' car pulled out of the driveway. Mr Valentine had taken Cat's brother to visit some relatives for the week, and Jade couldn't help but be grateful — she knew the sudden trip hadn't been a coincidence. She spent the day in solitude, finishing up a couple of assignments Cat had retrieved for her from school, completely scrapping two scenes in a script she started, and remembering the sight of her mother being led down a linoleum-tiled hall in handcuffs. She recalled pushing open the door to the police station women's room and weeping against the wall. She remembered a face in the bathroom mirror that was swollen and stained. She had scoured her face and applied new makeup until all traces of tears were hidden away. When she was contented enough with the state of her face she had left the police station and she hadn't seen her mother since.

That was last Wednesday. No part of Jade was ready to return to school just over a week after hearing Linda confess to attacking her ex-husband, but she figured that between the trial and these so-called "mental health days" she'd missed enough classes.

When Cat came home after school (and rehearsal for a play), Jade was in the room they'd been sharing, typing furiously on her laptop with her back on Cat's pink pillows. Her head snapped up when she heard twice as much giggling as there should have been coming up the stairs.

"Oh, hi Jade," Tori said awkwardly when she followed Cat into the bedroom.

"What the hell is she doing here, Cat?"

"It's sleepover night!" Cat exclaimed.

"Well, can you make her leave?"

"But… it's sleepover night…."

Jade tilted her head back with a frustrated groan.

"Please can she stay, Jadey?" Cat begged with a puppy pout.

"I-it's okay, Cat," Tori acquiesced, though she sounded disappointed. "We can have sleepover night another night."

"Good," Jade said sharply. Tori turned out the door slowly. When she realized Jade wasn't going to feel guilty and stop her, she turned back quickly.

"Oh God, please let me stay, Jade! Trina's on her period and her mood swings are terrifying and I think I'm actually more scared of her than I am of you right now," she blurted out.

"Ugh, whatever," Jade agreed grouchily, looking back to her writing. In all honesty, she sympathized with Tori's plight. Cat jumped around the room in excitement while Tori grinned and giggled (sickeningly).

"So Jade, you're coming back to school on Monday, right?" Tori asked, laying her purple sleeping bag out on the floor as Cat went to fetch her own pink one.

"Yep."

"That's great! It's been weird without you, we're all excited to have you back."

"I bet you are." The sarcasm was impossible to miss. Tori swallowed but didn't say anything further.

"My mom's ordering pizza!" Cat exclaimed suddenly when she bounced back through the door.

"Yay!" Tori said.

"'Kay," Jade said at the same time.

"Oooh, Tori, do you wanna make a video for the Slap?" Cat asked brightly when the pizza ordering was done. Tori nodded excitedly.

"Leave me out of it," Jade ordered before Cat could ask. Cat nodded with a pout while Tori pulled her PearBook out of its case.

"Heyyyy Slappers!" Tori greeted the viewers cheerfully. Jade snorted (No one calls them that) while Cat made her own salutations ("Hi it's me Cat!").

"We're here at Cat's house! Some pizza has just been ordered, and it's time to get this party started!"

"And Jade's here too but she said she didn't want to be in the video so I think maybe I wasn't supposed to say that."

Jade rolled her eyes.

"A-anyway," Tori judged Cat slightly with a sidelong glance. "It's sleepover night, so, Cat, whaddya wanna do?"

Cat thought very seriously for a moment, her face scrunching up. Then she brightened back up again suddenly.

"Ooh! Can we do one of your request thingies? Remember when we made you into a hamburger? That was so funny!"

Jade rolled her eyes, thinking that she'd like to request that Tori stab herself in the ear with a metal pike.

"Yeah! Let's see what we've got…." Tori started scrolling through the requests people had left on her profile. "Okie dokie…too expensive…too creepy…oh God, what?…no…no…no…ooh okay here's one."

Tori pointed to one particular request and Cat leaned forward to read it, subsequently breaking out into a fit of giggles. Tori stopped the video recording and giggled alongside her friend while Jade watched with distaste.

"Jade," Cat laughed. "Look at this request!"

Jade crawled to the end of the bed to the PearBook Cat was holding up. She snatched it out of the giggly girl's hands, and read the comment made by some freshman boy. Hey Tori, I think you're really pretty and also can you please do as many accents as you can while still having a normal conversation with someone?

"That's not even remotely funny," Jade said. It was actually one of the more sensible requests listed on the screen.

"Yes it is!" Cat gasped through her giggles.

"B-because," Tori was rolling on the floor, "Sikowitz was talking about accents a couple days ago and it was so funny!"

"Ah," Jade deadpanned. Then she sat back and continued typing on her laptop, then deleted what she had just written with gritted teeth.

"Okay okay okay," Tori wiped tears from her eyes, sitting up. "So do you wanna make a list of accents or just go for it?"

"Let's just make a list and go for it!" Cat declared as if she'd made a decision.

"Alright then." Tori was just about to restart the recording when the doorbell rang downstairs.

"Oh my God pizza!" Cat screamed, bolting out of the room. Tori moved to follow, then turned back.

"You coming, Jade?"

"No, I'm not hungry."

"Oh, okay," Tori went downstairs, leaving the bedroom door ajar.

Jade relocated herself to the living room couch while Cat and Tori were distracted with the pizza (and the pizza delivery boy). She heaved her laptop back onto her lap and stared at the blinking cursor on her word processor while giggles echoed from the kitchen. Eventually her hunger and lack of inspiration got the better of her and she trudged to the kitchen and grabbed a slice.

"What are you laughing about?" Jade asked crabbily, though part of her actually wanted to know.

"Oh it's nothing," Tori answered with a casual wave of her hand. "Just something that happened at Nozu the other night."

Jade waited expectantly.

"Y-you really had to be there…." Tori explained awkwardly.

"Jadey, why aren't you and Beck back together yet?" Cat asked suddenly.

"What? What the hell made you think of that?"

Cat innocently held up a carton of strawberry lemonade that she was pouring into two glasses.

"I don't see the connection," Tori admitted.

"Strawberry lemonade!" Cat explained as if it were obvious. "Straw-Beck-y Lemon-Jade!"

"That is so stupid, Cat," Jade commented, taking the glass that was meant for Tori.

"Still, though," Tori said, taking Cat's glass of the pink drink. "Why not? You guys are totally meant for each other."

"Yeah, you're soulmates!" Cat said, wondering where her strawberry lemonade (and Straw-Beck-y/Lemon-Jade) went.

"I don't believe in soulmates," Jade declared bluntly. Tori and Cat both looked at her with dropped jaws. "And Tori, if you compare Beck and me to Romeo and Juliet, I swear to God—"

"You're not like Romeo and Juliet at all," Cat said. "They didn't fight at all and also they both died. Oops! Spoiler alert."

"But really, why don't you get back together?" Tori asked while Cat giggled about ruining the ending of the play.

"You know what? Fine. I'll humor you," Jade slammed her empty glass back onto the kitchen island. "Let's say Beck and I got back together."

"Beck and you got back together?!" Cat shrieked.

"No, Cat. I'm saying if we did. If I went back to him and asked him to start dating again. Tell me what would happen."

"He would say yes—"

"And everything would be happy and rainbows! Yay!"

"No. It wouldn't. Let's say he did say yes. He would continue flirting with every girl with a pulse within a ten mile radius, then chew me out for getting jealous and defend every person and every thing that upsets me. And then we would be right back where we are now."

"No it would be rainbows," Cat insisted, while Tori looked a bit subdued.

"We weren't working," Jade declared. "And he isn't interested in trying again. That's been made very clear."

Tori pretended she didn't notice the pointed look from Jade, so, as Tori drank her strawberry lemonade and Cat obliviously swayed to a song in her head, there was silence.

That's it, it's split. It can't recover.

I'm back! Here's chapter 1 of "Picking at the Scab." I'm quite excited about this story, so I hope you guys enjoy it. I also have been creating playlists/soundtracks for both of my stories. My playlist for "Gut Feeling" is done, and I'll post it on 8tracks as soon as I've posted this! My 8tracks username is daffodilsinguns so check it out. If you have any questions about why I chose the songs I chose (I didn't put explanations with the playlist) feel free to PM me, and I might be able to explain them. Anyway, thank you so much for all of your support throughout my fanfiction career!