A/N: Thank you for one hundred follows on this story! Honestly, when I first uploaded, I didn't expect any rates or reviews, whatsoever. I wouldn't be writing without anyone to write for, so, thank you. Don't forget to let me know what you think. This chapter is kind of longer, as the last few were on the shorter side. Enjoy. :-)
"Jade..." Tori groaned, glancing out the window stained with assorted 'monuments' from the elongated journey for the umpteenth time at the clear afternoon skyline. The overbearing heat of the sunlight burned on Tori's bare arms, regardless of being slumped in Jade's air conditioned car. She clutched her Pear Phone tightly in her grasp, finally deciding that the crack in the back of her cell phone had to have not been from dropping it in the toilet those FEW times, but, actually from when Jade had tossed it into the cement garbage can residing in the Asphalt Cafe a few weeks prior to their excursion. They were fighting over a banana...or-was that the time before? Who even knows anymore, Tori thought. "How many more times do we have to listen to this Joan Jenson CD? Why can't we listen to Katy Perry or something? Lady Gaga? Britney Spears?" Tori whined, bobbing her head back against the cushioned seat to rest her aching neck. Although not much physical exertion was being attained, Tori was aching all over.
Jade furrowed her thickly drawn eyebrows, giving Tori an ice-infused glare. The silver jewel of her eyebrow piercing strangely twinkled under the afternoon sun-glow, capturing Jade's pale features. "Her name is Joan Jett, Vega. And I will not be listening to Katy Perry anytime soon in this car." she corrected, drumming her ring-covered fingers against the steering wheel as she drove.
Tori widened her chocolate brown eyes, then grinned. "Oh, sorry I got my extensive Joan Jett trivial skill wrong." she snided, knowing that would hit home with Jade. Whether it instigated a negative or positive argument, she really did not care. She just knew she was bored and would rather argue than sit duly, staring into the void of Jade's glove compartment.
Jade tightly pursed her nude-glossed lips, tilted her head, then turned the knob to lower the volume of Cherry Bomb. Jade smirked-not to be pleasant, but to indicate her annoyance with the girl. "Hi there, boys!" Jade exclaimed, cheekily. "My name's Tori Vega, and I just do love listenin' to some good ol' Katy Perry while driving through the country!" Jade imitated in her best Southern-belle voice.
Tori whipped her neck to her left, examining Jade with a heavy eye. "I...don't...talk like that!" she defended, trying her hardest to sound serious but was unable to keep a straight face, and ended up laughing, leading Jade alongside her to giggle slightly, as well. God, she's so hot. Tori thought to herself, watching as Jade's features were etched out under the brightest angles of the sun. She couldn't wait any longer to get to their hotel room and snuggle up with her in bed. Even if Jade was being a little...prissy...today, she knew she would just melt in her arms.
"Whatever," Jade responded swiftly, looking out onto the long road before them. The girls were nearing their desired destination as the time on Jade's car radio struck twelve o'clock in the afternoon precisely. They had been driving for a few hours, only stopping for quick bathroom breaks along the way. Both girls were growing hungry again, yet they agreed to eat lunch when they arrived in San Francisco.
"Are we almost there or what?" Tori murmured, breaking her train of thought, and checking the time on her cell phone to see not even a single minute had passed since she watched the clock on Jade's car radio change from 11:59 to 12:00.
Jade huffed, growing tired of Tori's persistence of exiting the car, and looked to the impatient brunette. "I don't know, Tori, why don't you check the directions on your phone since I'm the one who's driving!" she hissed, making her best impression of sounding right. It seemed to work, as it silenced Tori.
Tori curled her upper lip silently, then unlocked her cell phone to open up the Pear Phone Maps application. She scrolled through a few pages, taking her time to acquire an accurate location and information. "According to this, we are exactly..." Tori's voice trailed off as she tapped the pads of her thumbs against the glass screen of the pear-shaped device. "Well, we turned back there, and we've been driving here for a bit, and-"
"Just read the freaking number!" Jade exclaimed, turning the knob down on the radio playing quietly, all the way down. Tori felt as if the entire car shook with the depths of her roar.
She blinked. "Eighty-seven." she, annoyed, confirmed, looking to the ground in a quick motion.
"Oh, my God. How hard was that?" Jade jeered.
Tori rolled her eyes, fixating her vision on the road ahead. "Yeah, whatever."
Jade bit her lower lip, thinking deeply for a moment. Her brain lit up with a spark, as if she found the perfect way to occupy Tori. "If you're so bored, Vega, why don't you do something fun?" Jade asked, smiling deviously.
Tori squinted, then raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? And what would that be?" she inquired.
Jade's devilish smirk did not leave her face, as she pulled the car into the passing lane. "Let's mess with Beck's little head."
Tori could not help but feel confusion. The usual, when it came to Jade's ploys. Whether they are destructive, or not, Tori was always left hanging one way or another. She fingered the fabric of her shirt, then spoke up. "What do you mean 'mess with Beck's head'?"
Jade moved her tongue to her left cheek, pushing it against the wall of her mouth. "Let's send him a picture of us kissing." Jade insisted, speeding the car ahead of one cruising the road slowly before hers.
Tori's heart skipped a beat. "Oh..." she groaned. "Come on, Jade. Beck's little boy head can't handle that twisted mind game right now. Especially after his failed date with the North Ridge girls on Friday. Give his manly-ego a rest for now."
"What, are you scared or something, Vega? He was my ex. I should be the one who's scared." Jade ridiculed.
Tori ran her tongue over her teeth, unable to formulate an intelligent answer to Jade's accusation. "I don't know, Jade..." she said, weary with hesitation.
"You're afraid." Jade spat out. "You're afraid of Beck knowing you like me." she needled, tucking a loose violet-coloured curl behind her ear saturated in shimmering black jewellery.
"I am not!" Tori defended. For some reason, she felt as if she was in this exact position before with Jade. Many times before.
"You're gonna have to tell...those people...we're together eventually. Why not start with the weakest link?" Jade countered, shuttering at the mention of the others.
"Those people are our friends!" Tori exclaimed, shaking her head. "Why can't we just wait until school on Monday? Tell them at the Asphalt Cafe at lunch? Or at Nozu that night? Something normal and fun to lighten the mood of how...weird...this may be to them."
Jade exhaled sharply out of her nostrils. "Beck is my ex-boyfriend, I barely tolerate Andre, don't even ask me about Robbie, and Cat is basically a pet. That's it." she clarified. Tori had heard it many times before, but a chance for Jade to express her annoyance for everyone and everything always just brightened Jade's mood.
"Okay, maybe not to you, but they're still my friends! I'd rather tell them when we're both ready." Tori appealed.
Jade pressed down on the 'eject' button of the CD player on her car radio, pulling the CD out, placing it in the cup holder momentarily. "Alright, maybe you're not afraid of Beck finding out," Jade began, clearing her throat. "Maybe you're just afraid to take a picture of us kissing. Afraid your parents will see?" Jade continued, putting emphasis into messing with Tori's head. Anything to make the car ride more enjoyable, she thought. She ruthlessly continued to jab at Tori until she was willing to give in.
"Oh, my God, I am not!" Tori defended, once again.
"So send Beck a picture of us kissing!" Jade retorted.
"No!" Tori yelled.
"Well, why not?!" Jade rebutted.
Tori buried her face in her hands, running her fingers through her hair. "This is ridiculous!" she chuckled, hysterically. "Why are you being like this?!"
"Hi, Tori. I'm Jade. Nice to meet you." Jade responded, sarcastically. "Why do you think I'm being like this?"
"Because you're Jade. You're psychotic. You're mentally unstable." Tori replied, watching as Jade dropped her jaw in response to Tori's speech. "I still don't know how I fell for you." she added.
"Am not." Jade said.
"Are too." Tori argued.
"Am not." Jade repeated.
"Are too!" Tori repeated, louder.
"Am not!" Jade repeated, louder than Tori's. This repetitive pattern continued for a few seconds, faster each time.
"Are too!" Jade counter-stated.
"Are no-" Tori said, then caught herself. "Darn it!" she yelped.
"Okay, it's confirmed. I'm not psychotic. Now take a picture of us kissing and send it to Beck." Jade repeated, quickly.
"No!" Tori affirmed, once again.
"Fine." Jade responded, all at once. Tori inhaled a breath of tension-filled air, glancing out the window. She checked the time on her phone once again, seeing ten minutes had passed since she last checked.
"Then just take a picture of us. Kissing. For our own pleasure." Jade challenged, once more.
Tori shut her eyes, then balled her hand up into a fist. She knew Jade was never going to give up. "Okay," she said, giving in calmly. "You know what? Fine. Fine. FINE. Pull over. I'll take the stupid picture of us kissing. But, I'm not sending it to Beck."
"Perfect." Jade affirmed, already pulling the car onto the side of the road. She put her heavy boot on the break, pulling the gear into 'park', turning to Tori, readying herself for the photo.
"I don't understand why we couldn't have done this later." Tori grumbled, pulling out her Pear Phone before them.
"Just snap the pic, Vega." Jade retaliated, fluffing her curls out. She flattened out the dark fabric around her torso, and adjusted the choker hugging her neck.
Tori gulped, then leaned into Jade's lips, pulling up the camera application on her cell phone. The kiss felt warm, yet vast. She quickly caught an image of the girls' lips compressed against the opposite's. If anyone were to see the image, it was extremely intelligible that it was more than just 'friendly'. Tori pulled the photo back up for her and Jade to view, and Jade nodded her head in affirmation.
"That's hot. And I'm not even repulsed by how bad you make the picture look." Jade teased, flinching when she knew Tori was going to playfully hit her.
Tori did hit her in response on the fore of her arm, this time, not as playful as the last. "Yeah, just drive the car." Tori ordered, looking at the ordeal of other images from their road trip so far.
Jade shrugged, starting the ignition of the vehicle back up. She pulled the car back into the flow of traffic down the tar of the road.
"Maybe I should post a few pictures from our trip so far on The Slap. I think that would be fun." Tori suggested, keeping a steady eye on the images she photographed so far. She swiped past a picture of Jade holding up a middle finger to the camera whilst driving through the heavy rain the prior day, an actual flattering image of Jade eating her breakfast that morning, and a few other assortments of images of her and Jade that Tori thought were cute.
"Oh, yeah, and let me just pour this hot coffee in my eyes while you're at it." Jade mentioned, sharply.
Tori furrowed her eyebrows, incapable of comprehending Jade's logic. "So, you'll force me to post a picture of us kissing, but not any of these fun, cutesy pictures we took so far?" Tori asked, dismayed at Jade's peculiarity.
"That's about right," Jade countered. "Unless you want me to vomit all over this car."
Tori rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm just posting a few." she announced.
"Good for you, want a trophy while you're at it?" Jade jeered.
Tori paused, looking to Jade. "Just drive." she grumbled, cattily.
Tori was half-way complete with uploading the three of six images she wanted to share on The Slap, when Jade suddenly slammed her boot down on the breaks of the car. Tori and Jade's bodies flung up against the cushioning of their car seats, generating the reaction of Tori's phone to slip out from her hand and land face down onto the floor.
"What was that?!" Tori yelped, holding a hand over her racing heart. She blew a chunk of hair out of her eye.
"A stupid squirrel ran in front of the car." Jade replied, sighing shakily.
"So you nearly killed us to save a dumb squirrel?" Tori questioned, her voice shaking.
"Why make animals suffer when I already make humans suffer? I just don't see a point?" Jade asked, rhetorically. She smirked, raising an eyebrow, watching as the black squirrel galloped along the tar of the road to the opposite side, climbing up a tree. "You wouldn't have died." Jade insisted, giving Tori her best smile.
"Just drive." Tori repeated, for the third time. Jade shrugged, stepping on the gas once again. Tori wiped a growing colony of noticeable perspiration formulating on the peak of her forehead before she bent over to pick up her Pear Phone from the floor of the car. She stretched her arm out, feeling the rubber of the weather-proof mat on her finger tips, pulling her phone up from the ground. Tori licked her lips, trying to remember what she was doing before Jade's squirrel dilemma occurred. She unlocked her Pear Phone, once again, and noticed The Slap was opened to her feed, rather than the photo sharing function. That's weird, Tori thought. I could have sworn, before my phone flew out of my hand, I was about to share a picture of Jade and I at the diner last night... Still confused, she swiped to a screen indicating how many posts she has made over the few years she'd been signed up on The Slap, when she saw the picture of her and Jade kissing under "Recent Shares" uploaded seconds prior. Recently shared. To the entirety of Hollywood Arts, and the rest of the world. On her public social media profile.
"Oh, my God!" Tori screamed, dropping her phone in her lap.
"Scream again, Vega, and you're walking the rest of the way to San Francisco!" Jade hissed.
"Jade, this isn't funny! I actually just did something awful!" Tori yelled, once again.
Jade threw her head back, placing an annoyed hand on her forehead. "Now what did you screw up?! God, it never ends with you!"
"I accidentally freaking posted the picture on The Slap of us! My finger must have slipped or something when you slammed on the breaks and I must have accidentally selected the wrong picture when it dropped out of my hand!" Tori exclaimed, unable to think straight.
"Of us kissing?" Jade asked, a little calmer than before.
"No, Jade, of us playing a leisurely game of golf. Of course the one of us kissing!" Tori yelled in response.
"Well, delete it then!" Jade roared right back.
"Already six people liked it!" Tori continued, helplessly.
"Tori, if you don't pull up the photo and tell me who liked it or commented or WHATEVER now, I will LITERALLY make you walk the rest of the way." Jade threatened, frowning. This was no longer fun to her. Tori managed to make everything a hassle.
"Fine." Tori agreed, her voice shaky. Tori retraced her steps back to the photo, analysing the buzz it so far created. "Nine likes now," Tori said, gulping. "Liked by Sinjin Van Cleef, Andre Harris, Cat Valentine, Trina Vega, Tara Ganz, Hope Quincy, Rex Powers, Robbie Shapiro, and..." Tori's voice trailed off, before she continued to speak.
"And? And who? Do you have a problem with your brain?" Jade questioned. "Just say it!"
Tori swallowed hard before continuing. "And Beck Oliver."
The outer corners of Jade's pale lips turned upwards into a smirk at the mention of Beck's name, when she let out a deep chuckle. "Vega, sometimes I just can't believe how stupid you are. How do you completely counter-act yourself like that?"
Tori looked up at the roof of the car steadily, rolled down the window, picked up Jade's coffee, waved it in her face, then dropped it out of the moving car. "Haha, very funny, Jade! Bye, bye, coffee!"
"You did NOT just do that!" Jade shook her head, unsure of what to do with Tori's newly-found rebellion. "We are stopping at the nearest Jet Brew because I am not going to survive the rest of this car ride, especially with you, without coffee!" Jade screamed. She took one hand off of the steering wheel, and pulled on Tori's ear, reeling her close to her own head, keeping one eye on the road.
"No." Tori answered, firmly. Jade pursed her lips, then released her grip on Tori, letting her sit back up in her seat.
"Oh, Tori, innocent, prissy, little Tori. If I didn't want to make out with you so bad right now, you would literally be walking this highway to San Francisco." Jade grunted.
"Yeah, um, bigger problems right now!" Tori asserted, flattening down her hair, showing her the picture of the two of them locking lips on the social media platform a second time. "What am I supposed to do? You know that Beck saw the picture!"
"So, delete it. Say it was a joke or something! I don't know, do I look like people come to me for advice often?" Jade declared. She absored the information from a bright green sign indicating San Francisco was now seventy miles away. "I'm not letting your problems ruin my meeting with the cast of The Scissoring tonight."
Tori gasped, as she scrolled through her notifications. "Twenty people have now liked the picture! I can't just delete i-" Jade grasped the phone from Tori's sweaty palms, then deleted the image from her profile. She then whipped her phone into the rear seats of the car so Tori could not reach out for it and cause any more problems.
"It's deleted now." Jade announced, placing both hands back on the wheel.
"I can see that." Tori responded, crossing her arms.
Although Tori and Jade tried to sit in silence for a few moments, they were unsuccessful when Tori's phone chimed multiple times, indicating text messages were being delivered to Tori's phone. Jade slowly turned her head to face the Latina, then shot her an infamous ice-infused look, indicating her not to touch it. Tori did not pick up the clear signal Jade had produced, and unbuckled her seatbelt, diving into the backseat of the car, picking up her phone before Jade could stop her.
"Wow, you really want to walk to San Francisco tonight, don't you?!" Jade implored, watching Tori from the rear-view mirror.
"No, actually, I just wanted to tell you that not only Beck has flooded our group chat with confused text messages, but Cat, Robbie, and Andre, too." Tori announced, meeting Jade's light eyes in the mirror. Tori cleared her throat, preparing to read a few of the messages.
"'Hey, guys! What's up with that weird pic of you on The Slap? I thought you were sworn enemies, now you're kissing? My brother isn't even that weird and he snacks on my mom's houseplants!'" Tori read aloud, watching as Jade's pupils grew wider. "Sent by Cat. One minute ago."
"'Yeah, Little Red, I saw it, too. Who knew Tori was interested in girls? Jade, on the other hand...'ScissorLuv' as a video-chat username kind of gave that one away...'"Tori continued. "Sent by Andre. Fourty-five seconds ago."
"I'm. Going. To. Kill. Him." Jade muttered, feeling a slight headache forming within her right temple.
Tori scratched her eyebrow before she read the final, and most recent message. "'Are you guys dating or something?'" She finally read, locking her phone, and dropping it slightly in her lap. "Sent by Beck. Thirty seconds ago."
Neither girl said a word until Tori eventually spoke up. "So much for revealing us discretely."