Cat sipped at her Mango smoothie tentatively; it had ice in it, and she was afraid of getting brain freeze. It soothed her cheek though, which was still throbbing dully.

Jade was sitting opposite, her smoothie bright red with cherries and in a tall, skinny glass. Cat unconsciously watched the goth's lips as she sipped at it, feeling a familiar fluttering across her stomach.

She was happy with herself for finally telling Jade who she was- even if she was dreading her mom finding out- but she hadn't told her everything. Cat had never thought she'd get this far, sitting at the smoothie bar chatting idly about her secret history of girl crushes with Jade, and so not thinking she would ever be out to the goth, she hadn't even began to think about telling Jade her feelings concerning her.

She sighed. And there's the fact that Jade's so far out of my league I'd have to charter a jet just to have a glimpse at it.

"You alright?"

Cat looked up to Jade's eyes almost guiltily. "Yeah, sorry- I was just thinking about something."

"Was it about earlier?"

"No." Cat answered truthfully. "I was just thinking about how strange it was not to have to pretend to harp on about some guy I can only just remember the name of for once." It wasn't a total lie.

Jade's face softened. "I wish you'd have told me earlier. I would never have said anything to your mom, we never exactly got along."

Cat smiled weakly. "I know, it was just… hard."

Jade smiled. She understood.

"By the way…" Cat looked down at her smoothie. "Can we, um… go pick some concealer or something up on the way back to yours?"

Jade's eyebrows quirked. "You know, you really don't need make up like that, Cat."

Cat was momentarily distracted from the sad feeling at the bottom of her heart at the compliment. "Thanks," She said brightly. "But I meant for my cheek, and y'know… my side."

Jade sighed. She had a constant underlying feeling of car sickness every time she thought about the new truths behind Cat's home life. "Oh. Yeah, sorry- I forgot for a moment. Sure, we can go get some. Not sure how well concealer is going to work on the bruise on your side, mind you."

Cat shrugged. "I'm just paranoid someone will see, I guess. I don't want to have that conversation with anyone other than you, yet."

Jade twirled her skinny black straw around her smoothie slowly, trying to gauge if she should really ask Cat the question that had just slunk into the back of her mind. She went for it.

"Cat… Has she done this before?" Jade met the redhead's eyes for a second as she finished her question. She was keeping her voice down despite the fact that they were both sitting alone on a balcony away from the main bustle of the smoothie bar downstairs.

Cat shifted in her seat and considered lying. She couldn't do it.

"Yeah…" She answered, not elaborating. "She never used to!" She added quickly when she saw Jade's anger flicker behind her green eyes. "When her and dad were together she was really nice…" She tried to justify. Here eyes went dark as her story caught up with her. "But one day after dad moved away, she got really mad at Frankie for something- I think he spilled his juice- and he was having a no-talk day and so he didn't apologise and she threw a plate at his head… But I caught it. It broke and cut my hand- I don't even know how I caught it, we were sitting at the table and it was just a reflex. Ever since then, she acts like Frankie doesn't exist until she's angry, and I get the blame for everything…"

The way Jade was staring at her made her nervous.

"I- I didn't mean to say all that." She said apologetically, looking like a small, frightened child, wringing her hands.

"No." Jade said eventually. She sounded like she was throwing a lot of water over an internal inferno, and Cat got the impression it was for her benefit. She could almost picture the steam. "It's okay, I'm glad you told me. Who the hell throws a plate at their autistic kid?!" She burst out suddenly. Cat flinched. She supposed that was the hissing that came with the fire-dowsing.

"Sorry." Jade apologised, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, I'm just… really pissed."

"At me?" Cat's eyes were like saucers.

Jade didn't catch what she said at first, so quietly did her friend ask it, and it took a moment for her to process. "What- no. No! Kitty, of course not at you. At her." Cat looked relieved.

"Look, we can talk more about your mom over the weekend, let's try and avoid talking about any more maniacs for today. We said positive rest of day, after all."

Cat nodded. With each small detail she told Jade, she could feel a little bit more weight lifting from her tiny shoulders.

Jade noticed almost immediately that it was the first time Cat hadn't defended her mom against her insults.

The redhead finished her smoothie at the same time as Jade and in an effort to cheer Cat up, the goth suggested looking in the pet shop on the way to buy make-up. She perked up immediately.

"C'mon, let's go, before they close up."

Cat walked along the side walk with Jade and talked about the various new productions the school was starting up, and whether there was any they were considering getting involved with. Cat hadn't really seen anything that had grabbed her interest, but Jade was thinking of auditioning for a part in Little Shop Of Horrors.

"I don't know, I'll have to see the script first." She concluded after a couple of minutes debating.

Cat agreed and then Jade let her disappear into a shop to buy the make-up she needed while she waited outside.

She tried not to think about all the things Cat had told her over the course of the day. It kept creeping back, though, the idea of Cat and her brother always walking on eggshells around their volatile, capriciously aggressive mother. She didn't know what to do about it, or even if there was anything she could do about it. She sighed. She supposed it would hinge on whether or not Cat was willing to say anything. Would her and her brother be taken into care if she did? She knew Cat's dad lived out of state. Maybe they would have to go and live with him. Cat seemed to like her dad but it broke Jade's heart to think about her moving so far away where she wouldn't be able to see her. She wouldn't even be in school. She felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes and knew she was letting it all get to her. There was no guarantee that Cat would go anywhere.

"Hey, I'm back."

Jade jumped a little and blinked a few times. "Oh, hey kitty, sorry I was miles away."

"That's okay- are you crying?" Cat looked concerned.

"No." Jade lied.

"Okay." Jade knew Cat didn't buy it but she was grateful she didn't press the matter any further.

They walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the pet shop. A bell rang over the door when they opened it and Cat was already 100 times happier now she was surrounded by the smell of hay and bird seed. The man that worked there was setting a thermometer on the side of a fish tank and nodded to them as they came in.

Cat read the names of every rabbit, budgie and fish as she slowly walked past them all, and Jade suggested names that would be better, eventually renaming all the fish in one tank after characters from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Cat came to the reptiles as the fish section ended and pressed her hand against the glass of one of the vivariums. "I always wanted a bearded dragon." She said absentmindedly. "They remind me of Frankie, the way the sit and watch everything."

Jade looked at the different coloured bearded dragons, and decided she was right. There was something about them that reminded her of Frankie, too.

"I used to have one." Jade said, surprised at the realisation she'd never told Cat that.

Cat looked at her with equal surprise. "Really? I never knew that."

"Yeah she was called Wednesday, after Wednesday Addams. She was my moms originally, mom and dad had her before I was born. She passed away when she was 10 and I was seven- a whole year before I ever knew you. We still have the tank in the attic, I think."

Cat looked fascinated. "Was she easy to keep?"

Jade nodded. "Yeah, just feed them right, keep their tanks properly lit and warmed up to the right temperatures and you're good to go. If you handle them from a young age they get tame as a lump of dough, Wednesday was. I think they're a laid back species on the whole, though."

Cat was still watching them intently. "Mom wont let us have pets, she says they're dirty. I don't think they're dirty. She doesn't like lizards, either."

"You'll have one one day." Jade assured.

Cat smiled. "I hope so."

Cat suddenly looked up. "Jade I have no clothes for the weekend."

Jade cursed inwardly. She hadn't thought of that.

"Can we go to mine quickly on the way to yours?"

Jade opened her mouth to inform her friend that if she saw the redhead's mother she'd kill her, but reading her mind, Cat cut her off. "Mom wont be there. She's away on business for the weekend, I promise. Frankie'll be home, though."

Jade thought about it. "Alright okay, but only if you're sure only Frankie will be home."

Cat nodded. "I'm sure."

With some effort, Jade crow-bared Cat away from the bearded dragons and walked her back to the car. The drive to Cat's was almost tense and when they got there, Jade let out an audible sigh of relief as Cat pointed out the empty drive way.

"See, I told you she wouldn't be here." Cat said, sounding like she was a little relieved herself despite her conviction.

"Should Frankie be home alone all weekend?" Jade asked as they crunched up the gravel drive way.

"Yeah, he's fine, he can make food and he text's me if there's anything he needs. I'm only ten minutes down the road at your place, anyway."

They found Cat's brother sitting on the stairs colouring a design from a book.

"Hi Frankie." Jade smiled.

Frankie was huge, not fat by any means, but built like an ox, just over six and a half feet tall with great paws of hands that Jade was sure could bend metal if they tried. Frankie never would though; he was very quiet, rarely spoke, placid natured and gentle in everything he did. His skin was the same tan as Cat's but his hair was a sandy blonde. His eyes were very similar to Cat's, too, the same dark smooth brown. All his features were soft and childlike. He wasn't keen on being touched, and to date the only person who was allowed to at all was Cat. He was clever though; very clever- he was very aware and always observing from a quiet corner. Sometimes he would speak, usually only when totally un-prompted, and always quietly and politely. Cat had once told Jade that he struggled greatly to express himself properly, and had to think very hard to craft the words together before he spoke, and got upset when you tried to pressure him. Cat rarely needed to speak to him though, she seemed to know what he was thinking without even trying. Jade always thought it was rather like the weird thing some identical things had going on, when they finish each others sentences and the likes.

Frankie looked up from his colouring and blinked a couple of times in acknowledgement before returning to the intricate zen designs. The colouring never went a millimetre over the lines.

Cat smiled and led Jade quickly to her bedroom to gather up some clothes.

"Does he like colouring?" Jade asked, not having seen him doing it before.

"Yeah, I got him a few books for his birthday, they're adult ones, with all these impossibly detailed pictures to colour. It helps him to think when he's stressed out. They're really good- he finishes them all perfectly. He likes them because they're geometric, so they're predictable, y'know. He likes routine and pattern."

As Cat said it, she noticed there were quite a few pinned to the cork-board that had all Cat's photographs on it by her desk and put up on the back of her door. "He gives them all to me when he's done." Cat explained, seeing Jade looking.

"That's sweet." Jade liked Frankie. "Do you think he's stressed out now?"

Cat looked uneasy. "I think he saw mom earlier. You know, with the candle stick. He doesn't like it, he hates confrontation and shouting."

Jade was still looking at all the perfectly completed colouring pages. "Oh." She said sadly. She hadn't thought about Frankie's whereabouts in all this.

"He stresses out a lot worse when I'm involved like that, that's why I try so hard to keep her happy, really. It's not fair on him if me and mom are fighting all the time."

Jade sighed. Cat's heart was way out of proportion with her tiny body. She loved her brother a lot.

"You know when I was born, he used to sit with me for hours at a time and refuse to let any one take me. He was only three. Everyone couldn't get over it because up 'til that point he'd never touched another human voluntarily and no one thought he ever would. Used to sing to me, too. There's hundreds of recordings of him singing various things he'd heard on the radio, mom and dad used to try and record it every time he did it because in three years, they'd never heard his voice before, it was the first time he spoke. They used to play it back to themselves, totally fascinated to hear what their son sounded like for the first time. They used to cry 'cause it made them so happy." Cat smiled to herself. "It's funny, he would always stop as soon as he worked out he was being recorded. Dad used to say he reckoned that's were I got my singing voice from, 'cause Frankie sang to me like, from birth." She sighed. "A lot's changed."

Jade smiled sympathetically. "At least he's got you."

Cat smiled back as she finished putting clothes into an overnight bag. "Yeah, I guess. I'm just gonna tell him where I'm going."

Cat crossed the hall with Jade in tow and knocked on Frankie's door.

Jade frowned. "How do you know he's in there, he was on the stairs a minute ago."

Cat just smiled. "Trust me, I know."

Before Jade could answer, Frankie opened his door. His eyebrows were raised a bit and his eyes were wider than usual. He looked like he was listening to someone shout instructions to him from a distance.

"Frankie, I'm going to Jade's for the weekend. I think it'll be good if I stay there a few days."

They stared at each other and Jade got the prickling feeling she usually got when they communicated without talking. She could almost see it, travelling between their eyes as Cat told him silently everything she couldn't say out loud. Was she apologising? Perhaps, but either way Jade sensed the mutual understanding.

"I'd like to borrow your Macbook, please." He said suddenly, quietly.

Cat faltered for a moment. Frankie had his own macbook and he always used his own things- if he didn't have something, he'd buy it before he'd borrow it. "Alright." She said, eventually, not being able to see anything wrong with it either way. "I'll go get it for you."

Without another word, Frankie turned back to sit cross-legged on his navy blue bed amongst all the posters about the elements and the solar system.

Cat disappeared back into her room for a moment and then re-appeared with her mac. She put it on the end of his bed, so that the corner aligned directly with the corner of the bed and had equal distance from the width and length of the bed and the width and length of the laptop. He'd only correct it himself if she put it unevenly.

"Okay, I'll see you after school on Monday at about five to four in the afternoon." Cat had to be precise- Jade had seen Frankie freak out when he didn't know the exact schedule everyone was on.

"Text me if you need anything." Cat said kindly.

With that, they left the house with Cat's stash of clothes and got back into the car.

The redhead was noticeably happier all the way to Jade's house. When they got home, she disappeared up the stairs to get the traditional Pepsi out of the mini fridge and take a quick shower in Jade's bathroom.

Jade sat on the sofa opposite her mom and considered telling her everything whilst she had the chance. Her mom didn't look up from her work for a moment, but sensing eyes on her, clicked her pen closed and looked up to Jade expectantly.

After a moment Jade spoke. "Mom, do we still have Wednesday's tank upstairs?"

Her mom nodded. "In the attic, yes. Why, thinking of getting another one? I don't mind."

How on earth the most open minded woman in the world had managed to marry the stroppy, petulant, walking tantrum of a husband that was Jade's father, Jade would never understand.

"I might get one for Cat, but don't tell her. Could it live here if I did?"

Jade's mom stared at her for a moment, and Jade knew she could feel something was happening with Cat. She'd had the same look when Cat had turned up after the party. Jade's mom was a perceptive woman, Jade was usually unsuccessful in trying to hide things from her.

"Of course." She said simply. "Everything alright?"

Busted. Jade thought. Her mom definitely knew that something was wrong. "Yes." Jade confirmed.

Her mother held her gaze for a little longer before smiling a little. "Okay." She said, letting the matter drop. Underneath, Jade knew that really meant 'I know damned fine you're lying to me but I assume you'll tell me in your own time and can deal with it until then.'

At least someone's mom was sane, Jade thought as she climbed the stairs after Cat. She could hear the shower going and sat down on the edge of her bed to check her phone as she waited for Cat to come out.

Andre had text to say they were all hoping Cat was okay, and Tori had text to say that she'd got Cat's math teacher to excuse her from the homework. That would definitely cheer Cat up.

Jade picked up the remote to her TV that was mounted to the wall at the end of her bed and turned on her Playstation. She cycled through the options until she found Netflix and loaded it up so Cat could choose something to watch, shifting over to her side of the bed next to the wall. A couple of minutes later, Cat appeared wrapped in a fluffy black towel, her hair wet and starting already to spring into its natural curls.

"Sorry, I forgot a towel. I got a new one out of the cupboard."

"That's alright. Uh, I'll turn around." Jade lay with her back to Cat as the redhead got dressed into her pyjamas, which really consisted of a white tank top and her underwear.

Once she was dressed, she folded up the towel and carried it back to the bathroom to stow it away.

"Alright, I'm good." She announced as she came back, jumping onto Jade's bed and looking at the TV screen hopefully. "Can I still choose what to watch?"

Jade chuckled and handed her the PS4 controller. "Go for it."

Cat chose Ratatouille. Jade had only seen it once, she remembered it was about a rat who had really a really good sense of taste and smell and after getting separated from his family, who disapproved of him for refusing to eat garbage, went to work in a big restaurant in Paris by controlling one of the cooks by pulling his hair under his chef hat. The moral in the film was 'anyone can cook', but Jade guessed it was supposed to teach kids not to judge by appearance.

The film started and Cat rested her head on Jade's shoulder. She was happy here.

Jade looked down at the redhead, staring intently at the screen as Remy the rat smashed through a window holding a cookbook to the sounds of a screaming old lady with a shotgun.

The images reflected in Cat's dark eyes and Jade watched her for a little while, stuck somewhere between deep thought and not thinking at all.

Cat really was beautiful, Jade had meant what she had said about the redhead not needing make-up earlier. Feeling eyes on her, Cat glanced up at Jade questioningly.

Jade hugged her warmly and resumed watching the film. It wasn't that bad as Cat-films went.

"I love how Remy's dad accepts him in the end and supports him to do all the stuff he wants." Cat said wistfully, towards the end of the film.

Jade found herself looking at the smaller girls face again. Cat didn't look away from the screen as she said it. She had almost sounded sad though.

Jade wished she could make everything with Cat's mom better. When Cat felt the eyes on her the second time, she looked up for a little longer.

"Are you okay?"

Jade's lips quirked at their corners. "Yeah." She assured quietly.

If it had been a novel, Jade thought, the next few moments would have been written something like 'it all happened so fast' or 'I never saw it coming.' In actual fact though, it happened very slowly, and Jade saw it coming a mile away. Cat- or maybe it was her, she wasn't sure, it could have been both of them- leaned in slowly and pressed her lips against Jade's softly. Jade couldn't make her mind work to process what was going on in the first few seconds, and by the time it had, Cat had pulled away looking positively terrified.

"Oh my god, Jade, I'm so sorry!" She gushed.

Jade stared at her for a second before her brain kicked back in, and she caught Cat by the chin gently, pulling her back and kissing her again a little harder. Jade wasn't sure what she was doing or why, and she could feel the surprise radiating from Cat. It felt right though, and Jade had memories of New Year's Eve running through her mind by the time she pulled away.

Cat was so adorably dazed that Jade had to suppress a smile.

"I'm not sure where that came from, but i'm not feeling the regret." Jade said slowly, after a couple of seconds had passed.

Cat opened her mouth to say something, but looked a little lost. "I… I wanted to do that since I was twelve." She blurted, finally.

It was Jade's turn to be surprised as Cat clamped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide.

"Really?" Jade watched Cat closely.

Cat peeked up at her guiltily.

Jade smiled in the hopes of making her feel better. "Hey, it's okay, I don't mind. I just… Didn't realise you had a five year long crush."

"You don't mind?" Cat looked tentative.

Jade pulled her back into a hug. "No." She said simply. So much had happened in one day now, she wasn't sure she could handle any more.

Cat relaxed against her. "Oh. I thought you'd kill me."

Jade rolled her eyes playfully. "Yeah, because I'm usually SO harsh on you."

Cat smiled and closed her eyes. She felt like so much had been lifted from her shoulders she was physically lighter.

Jade's mom broke the comfortable quiet with a call for dinner and after Cat put some loose pyjama bottoms on, the two girls made their way downstairs, Cat taking her Pepsi can with her.

"Sorry I got into my pyjamas before dinner," Cat apologised to Jade's mom, "I didn't think when I got out of the shower."

Jade's mum looked at her as if that were a strange thing to apologise for. "That's fine, god knows Jade normally does."

Jade grinned. "Damned right I do."

Jade's mom had made Two large pizzas from scratch, one with olives and peppers, the other with ham and pineapple, and they all ate around the marble topped island in the kitchen perched on black bar stools. They talked about school and the different classes and how they were going. Jade's mom thought Jade's drawing of her Math teacher being eaten by a shark was quite amusing when Jade fished it out of her bag, and Cat laughed so much she nearly fell off her stool.

Jade was secretly noticing how suddenly Cat's mood seemed to have bounced back up to how she was used to it; happy and light.

She made it her mission then and there to keep it that way.