Disclaimer: The show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Cards on the table

Chapter 1 – All-In

Tori's POV

All day I've been nervous about it. As the hours and minutes ticked by, bringing me closer and closer to the time I planned to do what I hope won't be a complete disaster.

Just what is this potential disaster I'm speedily rushing towards, you ask. That's simple. At the end of classes today, I'm going ask Jade out on a date.

She broke up with Beck a few months ago. I'm not sure exactly why, as neither of them would really say. The most I got, was Beck telling me that it just didn't work out. I've liked her for a long time. She's super pretty, she's exciting, intelligent and she is her own person. Of course, we all know she's mean, opinionated, morbid, obsessive, bossy and a bunch of other things, but no one's perfect. I just can't help but think she's worth it, call me crazy. If she says no, well then at least I tried.

Up to a few months ago, I had accepted the fact that I didn't stand a chance. I was a semi-friend or frenemy, what ever you'd like to call it and that was that.

A while before Beck and Jade broke up, I was at a party with Cat and we were both a bit drunk. I'm not even sure how we got on the subject, but we were talking about people at school we liked. During the conversation, I admitted to Cat that not only I liked women but Jade in particular.

The liking woman part, didn't seem to surprise Cat a bit, but when I said I had a big crush on Jade, she smiled and started to say something, then promptly passed out. Robbie, who hadn't been drinking, drove her home right afterward. When I saw Cat later on the next day, I asked her what she was about to say.

She said she couldn't remember the conversation as she was too drunk.

That got me thinking. Was Cat going to tell me that Jade like me as well? Did Cat honestly forget the conversation or was she just saying that. She was really drunk and it's possible that was true, but I wouldn't know for sure. I saw no point in pressing Cat on it further. Nor did I mention my crush Jade to anyone else.

But I kept wondering, did Jade secretly like me back. As I dwelt on that over the next few weeks, I kept thinking about that play date we had. A couple of times that night, I thought I felt something more, but I dismissed it afterwards.

A few weeks later, Beck and Jade broke up unexpectedly. Part of me was happy that Jade was single, but she also looked very unhappy, which I hated to see. She of course kept it to herself. At that time, even thinking about asking her out seemed not only disrespectful to Beck, but also insensitive to Jade. I decided to wait and just be a friend. So, I told her if she needed anything, to just call me. She told me to fuck off.

Gradually things returned to normal. There was a still a bit of tension between Beck and Jade, but that seemed pretty normal. I felt that enough time had elapsed since the break up for me to try to ask her out. But I still wasn't totally convinced that Jade even remotely liked me. I needed something else to go on.

About a week ago, just as lunch was ending, Cat got up and as she did, lost her footing. She quickly grabbed onto Jade to steady herself.

"Don't touch me!" was Jade's instant reply.

A thought struck me. While I've heard Jade say it to just about everyone who has touched her, I suddenly realized that she never said that to me. Not the time when I felt her forehead to see if she sweated or not or even that time I jumped on Jade's back when we partied with the people from Icarly. Jade hates being touched by everyone, except for me it seems. Could that mean she likes me?

The next day I decided to test my little theory. After first hour, I walked up to her at her locker and tapped her on the shoulder.

She quickly turned and glared at me, but didn't say a word. I then asked a question about an assignment for our music theory class. She answered it, shut her locker and walked off.

I touched her and she didn't seem to mind or at least she didn't instantly tell me to keep my hands to myself. I think she really does like me and doing a bang-up job of pretending she doesn't. I decided then I had to at least try, to ask her out. I thought about it for a few days. Should I just try and spend more time with her as a friend and see what happens? After a couple of days, I decided against that. I suspect that would take far too long and I think the friendship route is the wrong one anyway. There's an old 70's song by the singer named Lobo, called "Don't expect me to be your friend." that came to mind. One of the lyrics went

"I love you too much to ever start liking you"

It's actually a song about a man whose girlfriend has broken up with him and he has no desire to be friends with her. But that particular lyric stuck in my mind in relation to my situation.

I decided that my best bet, was simply to put my cards on the table, tell her I like her, ask her out and hope she doesn't laugh in my face or worse. Either way, it would be over quickly.

Besides the question of whether or not she likes me, I can't help but wonder if she's a closet romantic. I think or at least hope she is. I'll bet she'd love both giving and receiving roses.

Today is the day, a Friday in April. I've given some thought as to how exactly I would do this and came up with an idea. I needed to show that I was serious about it, in addition to asking her. I spent a couple of days prepping and I got a little lucky in that respect. Finally, today is the day. Of course, I'm really nervous. Constantly watching the clock hasn't helped either.

The last bell of the day rang, which means it was go time. I rushed to my locker, put my books away, grabbed my purse and moved to a spot just out side the main door that let out to the parking lot. I had initially thought of grabbing her and pulling her into the broom closet, but I decided against that.

First, I didn't want her to feel trapped and second, doing it outside, will allow for a much easier escape, if the situation deems it, than doing it in a broom closet ever would. One must think tactically of course.

I sat on the steps both watching for Jade amongst the departing students and trying to quiet the butterflies that are currently holding a rave in my stomach. I also quickly checked my make up and put on a tiny bit of perfume.

I didn't have time to dwell on it, as a few moments later she came out the door, bag in hand. Before I called out to her, I looked at her expression to try and gage her mood. It was her typical Jade like frown.

"Jade!" I called out, my voice cracking ever so slightly.

She paused, looked at me and for an instant my heart jumped or was that the opening stages of a heart attack brought on by sheer nervousness. Not sure at this point.

"What do you want Vega?" she said in slightly annoyed tone of voice, as she took several steps towards me.

Well here goes nothing.

"Could I talk to you for a moment?" I said, as I got up and stood off to the side of the steps, where we'd have a bit of privacy.

She quickly rolled her eyes and walked over. I don't think I've ever been more nervous about anything in my life. But I had to at least try.

"Ok Vega. And you're bothering me, why?"

I took a deep breath and began my speech.

"I've been wanting to ask you something and I wasn't sure how to do it. So, I decided to simply put my cards on the table and ask. I like you Jade, a lot and I think you like me too. I would like to know if you'd like to go on a date with me tomorrow night. They're showing the 1944 movie Laura at the Olympic Theatre tomorrow night at 8. I thought we'd have dinner and see the movie. It's a great old movie. I hear it's really good."

I paused for a moment, to see her reaction. For a moment I could see a great deal of surprise, but quickly her expression changed to a rather neutral one.

"A date?" She said in an oddly, subdued tone of voice.

"Yes a date. A real date date.. I'm gay, if you haven't guessed it by now."

I then pulled out a large legal sized envelope from my bag and handed it to her. "Here, to show you that I'm 100% serous and this is not some attempt to get back at you for the multitude of things you've done to me, here's a gift. A piece offering, what ever you'd like to call it."

Jade somewhat mechanically opened the envelope and pulled out a large photograph. As she looked it over, her eyes briefly registered surprise again.

"This is a lobby card from the scissoring!"

If you're wondering, a lobby card is a photo from a movie that theatres would put in the lobby to advertise a movie. It had the name of the movie on it and showed a picture of the scene from the movie. There almost always was a series of them, that were displayed in theatre lobbies. Though they don't to that much anymore.

She took a 2nd look at the lobby card, which showed a rather tense scene from the Scissoring, then back at me. "They only made like 20 sets of these, they're very hard to come by. I don't even have one myself."

"It's yours Jade. I hope you enjoy it."

"And this is supposed to….." She said, with a small amount of suspicion in her voice creeping in.

I quickly cut her off. "It's just a gift, to show that I'm serious about asking you on a date. You can keep that, no matter what you say. If you say no, then just think of it as a gift of friendship, nothing more. No obligations, no strings attached. You keep it. Besides, I have no use for it and the shop I found it at, has a no return policy. In fact, you can say fuck off Vega, walk away and it's still yours. I'm only sorry it was just one photo and not the complete set. That's all they had."

At this point I had started to ramble a bit, so I took a deep breath and composed myself. "But I hope you don't tell me to fuck off. But would you like to go on a real date, with me tomorrow? I like you and I hope you like me back." That last bit was really corny but it sort of just spilled out.

There was a moment of silence where Jade started to examine the photo again.

Turning to look at me, she once again showed that rather neutral expression. Only this time she said nothing.

Several more seconds passed and I quickly began to feel I'd made a horrible mistake. She just kept looking at me with that same expression and the silence, quickly began to feel very oppressive.

After a few more seconds, what was left of my courage and hope vanished. I lowered my head slightly and sighed.

"Look. Um…. I think I misjudged the situation. I'm sorry for bothering you and putting you on the spot. Keep the picture. It's yours."

I turned to walk away in defeat, but stopped when I heard Jade begin to say something in a low and rather subdued voice she used earlier.

"Six O'clock."

I quickly did a double take.

"What? Six?"

"The answer is yes. You can pick me up at 6 o'clock. Please don't be late. And if you could find a restaurant with at least one vegetarian option, I'd greatly appreciate that. Thank you."

She'd said yes. How cow! I was so stunned that she said yes, that I barely noticed her walking away, lobby card in hand. Before I knew it, she was in her car and I was watching her drive away.

She didn't scream, yell or threaten violence. She said yes, though in a rather subdued fashion, but she said yes.

I'm going on date with Jade! I thought as I sat down again to try and process what had just happened. I put my cards on the table and it worked out.

No matter how I slice it, I'm going on a date with Jade.

I had this idea, where I took the concept for Unfairly judged and went in the totally opposite direction. But mostly it was about what went through Tori's mind up to asking Jade out and how the actual act of asking her out went. I wanted something a bit on the realistic side. How it would play out. I had originally meant this to be a one shot. But it could go longer, depending on the reaction.

Lyric from the Lobo song "Don't expect me to be your friend" Used without permission.