She doesn't hang out with just anyone, so naturally, it's an unwritten rule. You don't just blow off Jade West. Not if you want to live to see tomorrow. Cat/Jade friendship. Oneshot.

Best Friend

For what felt like the fiftieth time that day, Jade nervously checked the black studded watch winded around her left wrist again. 5:47. Cat was supposed to have met her here seventeen minutes ago. Where the chizz was that girl?

The dark-haired girl's thoughts were interrupted by a voice. "Are you in line?"

Her eyes snapped up from her watch into those of a short girl with dark green eyes and a tacky, chopped-looking hair cut.

"No, I'm just standing here to look pretty," she snapped sarcastically in response. "What do you think?"

Anyone that knew Jade was well aware of her low tolerance for stupid questions, especially when she was already peeved about something else. She didn't need to be bothered with any other problems, especially ones that included stupidity. She scoffed with disgust. Ugh. How she hated idiots.

"Well I'm sor-ry, I wasn't sure," the girl snapped back in response, looking anything but sorry. "My bad."

Anyone that knew Jade also would have known better than to answer her back with an equally if not more venomous tone. Lucky for her, Jade was much too irritated already with another certain someone to have much room left to care about ripping the head off of this chick. Besides, she wasn't even sure if she really was in line or not anyways. She and Cat had agreed to meet by the big blue trash can, which Jade had passed by ten minutes ago. So, with nothing more than an eye roll at the girl with the tacky hair cut, Jade moved aside to let her pass, officially deeming herself as not in line.

She argued with herself for a minute before backing her steps back down to the blue trash can where her companion was still not standing, pleasing those whom she was letting cut in front of her along the way. On the one hand she wanted to keep moving forward in the huge line, but she decided against it, in case she'd of gotten to the very front before Cat arrived, thus leaving her inside the concert venue completely alone waiting for Cat to be admitted entrance.

Once back at the trash can, she pulled out her cell phone and attempted to call her friend for the sixth time in the last ten minutes. She was not surprised but definitely even more irritated when Cat's perky voicemail greeted her rather than Cat herself. The last five times Jade called she had hung up once the voicemail picked up, but this time, she decided to leave a message.

"Hi! It's me, Cat!" Jade rolled her eyes as "Cat" giggled to herself in the pre-recorded message. "Well, you probably already knew that considering you're calling me in the first place. If you didn't know that well then you probably have the wrong number! But anyways sorry I didn't answer your call. But please don't be mad at me! Just leave a message and I'll call you back! Promise!"

Jade sighed, knowing that the droning voice message had still not come to an end. She should know. She had been there when Cat recorded it a few months back when she had first gotten her PearPhone.

"… Is that it? Is it off? No I don't think it's off! Jade how do I turn it off?.."

She then heard her own voice yelling in the background. "Just press OK genius!"

"Oh! Found it!"

Beeeeeeeeeeeeep.

"Where the heck are you? I've been waiting for over twenty minutes! If you're not here within another five you better at least call me back in two!" Jade paused for a moment, the thought suddenly crossing her mind that maybe Cat had forgotten the spot they'd agreed to meet up at. She wouldn't put it past her for a second. "Remember; blue trash can!", she paused again, "and you really need to change that stupid voice mail!"

She hung up with a huff, crossing her arms angrily over her chest. She waited a few more minutes, watching people move up the rapidly multiplying line, before checking her watch again. 5:59 and still no call or sign of Cat. It was Friday and it was supposed to be the first night of the girl's weekend together. Beck was out of town for the weekend with his parents in San Diego and Jade had needed someone to drag along with her to her the concert she'd been looking forward to for a month; Public Insanity, it was her favorite rock band. Yes, she sang a lot of pop songs but that was because she was better at it; her voice was more pop and Broadway than rock-n-roll. But that didn't mean she didn't enjoy listening to it.

Cat was different, she was all about pop. She lived and breathed it. Rock had never been a favorite of hers, but nevertheless, she'd agreed to go to the concert with Jade. Mostly because Jade had threatened to tell Cat's parents about the pet turtle she secretly kept living in a small tank under her bathroom sink if she didn't come, but still, Cat promised she'd come, and yet she was nowhere in sight. Not only that, but the two girls never really hung out much anymore just the two of them, and this had been their chance. Jade was always with Beck and Cat was always busy… well, being Cat, which meant filming her "random thoughts" videos for her page on TheSlap or doing whatever else it is Cat's do. Cat had even been the one to eventually point out that she and Jade didn't hang out as much as they used to, and Jade, not one to ever want to ditch her boyfriend, had graciously decided that this would be the perfect weekend to spend with Cat since he was out of town anyways and she didn't like going to concerts alone.

"We never hang out anymore," Jade mock-muttered to herself in a whiny voice, recalling the conversation with Cat. "And look who's the one not here!" she exclaimed out loud, ignoring the "WTF" glances that were thrown her way from random people.

By 6:34, it was safe to say that Jade was downright pissed. She didn't like being stood up; granted, she never really even had the chance to be stood up before, since the only person she really spent any of her free time with was Beck, and they were always together. This was the first time anything like this had ever happened to her, and she hated it. Jade didn't hang out with just anyone, so naturally, it was an unwritten rule. You don't just blow off Jade West. Not if you want to live to see tomorrow. And she was about ready to make sure that Cat Valentine was not about to live to see tomorrow.

She'd lost count somewhere around ten minutes ago of the number of times she'd tried to call the airheaded little red head. But she'd left three messages and was already sick of that stupid voice mail. So, holding up her red PearPhone again, she dialed a different, familiar number.

"Hey babe," her boyfriend's voice greeted her. The two had already been texting so she knew that he was still in his RV attached to his dad's truck on their way to visit relatives in San Diego. "Cat still not there yet?"

"No she's not," Jade answered hastily. "And I'm getting really wazzed, and I really have to take a wazz!"

"When was the last time you tried calling her?"

"I don't know like five minutes ago. But I've seriously been standing here alone for over an hour! I'm probably known already as the loner girl who likes to hang by trash cans! People keep looking at me weird! I've already had to yell at a ton of people to stop staring."

"Just take another ten or so minutes, keep calling her, and if she doesn't answer, call me back."

"Whatever. Just say you love me."

"What's the magic word?"

Jade rolled her eyes. She'd called Beck for one reason and one reason only, and that was to calm her down, and the only way that was going to happen was if he obeyed her every command without question or resistance. "Beck," she warned.

"I love you," Beck gave in. She smiled slightly to herself before saying she'd call him in a few and hanging up. She waited a few more minutes before trying Cat again to no avail.

"Butternut!" she muttered to herself in exasperation. Another ten minutes later she tried again, and again five minutes after that. Literally on the verge of chucking her phone against a nearby tree, she rang Beck again after another two failed attempts at contacting her.

She didn't even wait for him to say hello.

"It's 7:15 and NOTHING! What am I supposed to do?" she let out her exclamation into the phone.

"Alright I think you should just go on and at least wait for her inside, you must be tired of standing in the same ol' spot," Beck guessed correctly. Jade bit her lip and looked around, the line had pretty much cleared up a while ago. She'd probably been standing out here almost completely alone for at least fifteen or so minutes now. All of the concert goers were inside, which meant that even if Cat showed up last minute they would get really crappy spots- probably way in the back. She knew that anyone would have either given up on their "friend" and gone inside alone by now or would have ditched the venue completely and gone home. But she'd been standing in the same spot for almost two hours watching hundreds of people saunter on in and had not yet made a move herself.

She started to respond to Beck but was interrupted when two men dressed in security uniforms approached her.

"Miss, are you going to be attending the concert?" one of them asked her.

"Can't you see I'm on the phone?"

Leave it to Jade to be the one to snap at a security guard.

"Look we're just here to tell you that they're about to close the doors, any last minute concert-goers need to get inside within the next five minutes," the second man told her, squinting his eyes at her but keeping a calm composure. But not Jade; she'd about had it.

"Look bucko, I have been standing right here in this very spot for almost two freaking hours! My so-called "friend" has stood me up and no one in their right mind that has a sense of living would ever dare stand me up! And right now I'm trying to talk to my boyfriend to try and figure out what the chizz I should do here before I rip someone's arm off, so I'd appreciate it if the two of you would one; SHUT UP, and two; BACK OFF before things start to get ugly!"

Beck started to say something to her on his end of the line after hearing her explosion towards whomever she was yelling at, but she barely had time to think about his words before the two security guards exchanged glances before one of them regarded her once again in an annoyingly calm yet cold tone.

"I'm afraid you're gonna have to come with us, miss."

That night, Jade lay awake in her bed, fuming. After the incident with the security guards earlier, they'd escorted her to a room inside the concert hall. She'd had to beg them to let her call her parents to avoid any legal trouble, as apparently they wanted to report her to the cops for "threatening authority" or something stupid like that. Now Jade was certainly a stubborn one but not stubborn enough to continue talking back to the guys and land herself in even more trouble. She'd pretty much had to kiss-ass and apologize a thousand times for her "little outburst" and call her parents to come bail her out, two things that Jade never did; suck up to anyone or go to mommy and daddy for help. But at that point she was just tired; she wanted to get home and forget about the entire afternoon. She decided she'd rip Cat's face off tomorrow.

But laying in bed, she found she was unable to sleep. It was 9:30 PM. She'd gotten home at around 8 something and had spoken to Beck on the phone for an hour or so before deciding she just wanted to sleep even though any time before 12 was a bit early for her to do so. She still hadn't heard anything from Cat.

Several minutes of tossing and turning passed by with Jade's irritability flying off the wall. She couldn't stop thinking about Cat, and how angry she was with her. She also was unable to shake the feeling that something bad may have happened to her. It was certainly a possibility, right? Because it just didn't make sense… Cat wouldn't be the type to blow people off, especially not Jade, she had to of known she'd never hear the end of it if it ever happened. Kind of like the time Jade made her profile picture on TheSlap a picture of the "black eye" Tori had given her just to make her feel bad. Jade enjoyed guilt-tripping people. Especially when they deserved it. And if Cat hadn't been in any danger all evening, than she sure as hell deserved it.

But all that went back to was the spooky thought that maybe Cat was in trouble after all. Although Jade would never in a million years admit it to anyone, she would of rather Cat ditch her than be in any serious danger, as angry as she knew she'd be if that really was the case. And for the next twenty minutes she couldn't get either possibility off her mind for more than five seconds at a time.

Finally, Jade shot up in bed with a loud groan. Sleep was beyond her now. Yes, she was tired as hell but too much was on her mind. Her brain just refused to let her sleep and all it did was add to her crappy mood. She wanted to just put the issue off at least until morning but clearly her mind was not about to have that. So giving in, she slung her legs over the side of her bed and stomped over to her closet to dress herself in jeans and a black hoodie, muttering angrily to herself the whole time. When she was fully changed out of her pajamas (NOT "Pj's". She hated that word), she grabbed her car keys and quietly slipped out her bedroom window to avoid getting caught sneaking out by her parents.

You better hope your arm's already broken Cat so that way I won't have to do it myself, Jade thought bitterly to herself as she revved up the engine.

Jade couldn't speed her way over to Cat's house fast enough. When she got there, she parked her car next to the curb and stormed up the front steps. She didn't care that it was ten PM. All she cared about was the fact that "sweet little" Cat had not been where she was supposed to and had left Jade standing alone outside a concert venue for two hours- a concert that Jade had been really excited for and didn't even get to watch as she was whisked away by security guards, a concert that Cat had said she would be at, and Jade needed to get to the bottom of it now.

No lights in the house were shining through any windows as far as Jade could see, so she contemplated whether she should knock or just walk in in case her parents or brother were snoozing.

Oh, to hell with it, Jade thought before finally deciding to just knock. She waited a minute and when there was no answer (much as expected), she tried the door bell.

Thirty seconds later, the beyond irritated girl barged in with an eye roll, slightly relieved to find that the door wasn't locked. But not thankful. Jade was never thankful about anything. She had no reason to be.

She quickly made her way through the living room and up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. It had been a while since she'd been at Cat's house since they hadn't hung out in a while except for at school.

Finally making it to Cat's room, Jade threw the door open and flipped on the light switch in one swift movement. The door hit the wall with a loud bang!

Jade's eyes about bulged out of their sockets at the sight in front of her. Teeth clenched, she glared hard at the two figures sprawled out on the Cat's carpeted floor.

Tori shot up from her position on the ground as a shocked reaction to the door being slammed against the wall. Cat remained curled up in place on the ground in a true "Cat"-like fashion, sleeping soundly, completely unfazed by the noise. Tori appeared to have been doing the same thing but the sudden noise caused by Jade had startled and awoken her.

"Vega?" Jade was seething. Cat had blown her off, for Tori Vega? Of course! Just another reason to dislike Tori, whenever something went wrong, Tori usually had something to do with it. Like when she had scheduled that stupid school Prom on the same night of Jade's play. Or when Robbie had started that stupid "Robarazzi" thing at school, filming all of the students embarrassing moments and posting them online because Tori herself told him to make his blog about the students. OR there was also the time when-

"Jade?" Tori blinked a few times in confusion, trying to adjust her eyes to the light. Jade's hand remained frozen on the light switch, but she said nothing, all she could do was glare back and forth between the girl that had long ago become her "frenemy" and the girl that had apparently ditched her for said frenemy, who remained sound asleep on the floor with a thick pad of paper that looked like some kind of script laying next to her. She noticed that there was one on the ground next to Tori too.

"Cat wake up," Tori leaned over and shook her friend by the shoulder. "We fell asleep!"

"Huh? What time is it?" The small red head sat up, rubbing her eyes. How she'd managed to sleep through the loud door banging was beyond Jade and Tori even. Cat blinked at Tori first, and then finally noticed Jade standing frozen in the doorway.

"Oh! Hey Jade!" Cat exclaimed, momentarily forgetting her confusion and flashing the girl a pleasantly surprised to see her, but slightly tired smile, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Jade looked very displeased. Or maybe Cat just figured that just was her natural face- she almost always looked mad, after all.

"Yeah," Jade finally spoke again, crossing her arms angrily, turning her glare completely away from Tori and completely on Cat. And to think that she'd been worried about this girl for even one second. While she herself was losing sleep at the very slight thought of Cat possibly being hurt, here she'd been for who knows how long, curled up on her very own bedroom floor, sound asleep like a little kitten with Vega less than five feet away. "Hey, Cat," she spat venomously.

Cat's eyebrows furrowed, noticing something in Jade's tone towards her that didn't seem right at all. That was the tone of voice Jade talked to Tori and pretty much anyone else besides her and Beck in. Cat looked up at her with worried eyes. "Is something wrong? Are you mad at me?"

Again, Jade went mute, speaking only with her eyes, which were narrowed and cold. Cat could only stare back at her, pure worry and fright written all over her innocent little face. Tori was eventually the one to break the tense silence.

"Cat, didn't you have a concert to go to with Jade earlier?"

Realization struck the normally bubbly girl at once. Her face fell into a solemn and sorrowful look as it dawned on her, a wave of guilt striking her hard.

"Oh no," no one was sure whether she was speaking to herself, to Tori, or to Jade. "oh no oh no," she kept repeating. She looked back up at Jade, rising to her feet. "Jade…"

"Just forget it," Jade snapped, whirling around and storming back out of the room. Cat quickly scurried after her without a second's worth of a glance back at Tori who remained awkwardly frozen on the floor.

"Jade!" Cat followed her down the stairs. The other girl ignored her, swiftly making her way to the front door to let herself out. "Jade don't go! I'm sorry! I-I don't even remember falling asleep! Tori and I were rehearsing our lines for the next school play, she was suppose to leave at 5, and then I was gonna come meet you, I swear!"

Jade didn't stop. She reached the door and twisted it open, letting herself outside into the cool night air, but Cat slipped out the door right after her.

"Jade! Please!" she felt her eyes fill with tears, she couldn't stand the thought of upsetting anybody and making them mad at her, especially Jade.

Hearing the other girl's voice break, Jade froze in her footsteps. She'd never heard or seen Cat cry. Not once. She was much too happy for that. She sighed and stood frozen in place for a moment, hearing the girl sniffling behind her. Finally, she turned back to face her slowly.

"I really didn't mean to fall asleep!" Cat quickly sputtered out. All Jade could do was stare at her. She looked so small and vulnerable and truly sad all of a sudden, and Jade suddenly realized, she hated seeing her like that. She was way too used to bubbly airheaded Cat, and as much as she acted like she annoyed the crap out of her, she would never admit to liking her a lot more than upset Cat.

But she didn't even have a clue of what to say.

Luckily for her she didn't have to, because Cat had much more words left on her plate.

"Please don't be mad at me. I'll find a way to make it up to you, I promise. I know how much you were looking forward to that concert and me going with you…"

Jade shrugged. "It's whatever."

But it wasn't whatever. Cat was right. The concert was all Jade had been talking about for the last month. And clearly Jade was angry about it. There was no way she was going to let it slide. Cat really had no idea what had happened. One minute she and Tori had been rehearsing after school and the next they were dozing off and had apparently been asleep for several long hours. Sure, Cat wasn't anywhere near excited for the concert as Jade, but she had been excited to finally get to at least spend some time with her. She'd even been talking to Tori about it throughout the afternoon. In fact, the reason she'd had Tori come over right after school was because she wanted to have the rest of the weekend to spend with Jade. With Beck gone and all, she finally had the opportunity. But she had blown it.

Tori appeared by Cat's side a few seconds later, as she and Jade stood staring at each other with Cat trying to blink away tears and Jade with her hands planted firmly on her hips.

"Jade, Cat really didn't mean to skip out on you. She kept talking about going to the concert with you all afternoon. Really," Tori told the girl she knew didn't like her very much in true sincerity. Jade's eyes flickered across Tori's face for a brief second but she had no comment for her.

Cat looked over to Tori with a thankful look, placing a hand on her shoulder as if to say "thanks for trying."

"It's getting late, I should probably go…" The brunette said, glancing back and forth quickly between the fighting friends. They looked at her silently, and she offered a small quick smile before making her way down the rest of the driveway and over to her car parked on the other side of the street, clearly wanting to get the heck out of there. Jade must have not been paying much attention when she drove up or she would've seen car. Tori was usually one to want to help in any bad situation but she knew that this was something between Jade and Cat and it wasn't her place so say anything more.

The two girls looked down at the ground after Tori's retreat… and to their sides… up at the night sky… pretty much at anything and everything but each other. They'd never really gotten in a fight before or one of them been angry at the other. Sure, Cat knew she annoyed Jade sometimes but that was all. Jade tolerated it. She didn't insult Cat every chance she got like she did everyone else except for Beck. But this right now was a whole new feeling of awkward for the both of them.

Finally, after what seemed like years of what felt like a never ending silence, Cat spoke up again.

"I would never intentionally blow you off," she stated quietly.

"You wouldn't?" Jade raised a jeweled eyebrow carefully.

Well you'd certainly better hope not, Cat.

"Of course not!" Cat shook her red head quickly, looking almost offended that Jade might ever think that. "You're my best friend."

Again, Jade was speechless, something that never happened to her and there was few things she hated more. And she hated a lot of things. She stood frozen again in shock, taken aback at Cat's words. Not many people could do that to her- completely leave her at a loss for words, and with so very few words of their own even. And as hard and fast as she tried to regain composure, she found it was nearly impossible.

"Best friend?"

Without any type of confirmation to what she had just said, Cat looked at her, her eyes wide and face suddenly drenched with the fear that she'd said something wrong. She wished she could take back saying anything.

"Cat," Jade said, almost eagerly, almost as if she just wanted to hear her say it again. "I'm your best friend?"

What about Tori? Or Robbie? Well, Jade guessed Robbie didn't count since he was a guy. Well hardly. But still. Jade had never had a best friend, no one had ever considered her that before. Not once. She felt a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips at the thought of being someone's best friend, and suddenly all she wanted to do was give the girl in front of her a gigantic hug; but Jade didn't hug, that was sooo not like her. So she stood still, forcing herself not to smile and making sure to instead keep a flat emotionless look upon her face. She could only hope the tone of her voice wasn't giving away her true feelings.

"Well… I mean… yeah," Cat swallowed. "Unless you don't want to be then it's fine! Just don't hurt me!"

At that, Jade had to smirk. True, she didn't like seeing Cat upset but who was to say she didn't enjoy a little bit the fact that she was undoubtedly a little bit afraid of her?

Another silence fell over the friends after that, except this time, they didn't try to avoid one another's glances. Cat still looked shaken up a bit, as if afraid of what might happen next, while Jade tried to sort out her own thoughts in her head, but they still stood looking directly at one another.

When you have a best friend, you're suppose to let your guard down with them right? Be yourself and all that crap? Actually… laugh, and smile? And be happy, right?

The kind of stuff Jade only did around Beck?

But that was before she had a best friend. She'd honestly had thought that ever since Tori came to Hollywood Arts she was Cat's best friend, and although Jade would never admit it to anyone, barely even herself, maybe that had been a part of the reason why Tori had never been her favorite person. But the shorter girl had just claimed her to be her best friend. Not Tori or anyone else and no one had told her to do so. Jade liked the thought of having a best friend, the idea intrigued her, and she couldn't help but feel happy that it was Cat and no one else.

"I'm staying the night," Jade announced to Cat, allowing herself to wear a tiny smile. Relief seemed to wash over Cat's face, as she realized she hadn't said anything wrong after all. She started to talk but Jade wasn't finished.

"And," Jade said, taking a couple steps closer to her. "We're going to make popcorn and watch movies and whatever else we can think of."

Staying up all night just talking, laughing, eating popcorn, and watching movies with Jade sounded like an awesome plan to Cat. She hadn't had a girl's night with anyone in a while. But still, she couldn't help but wonder why the sudden change of moods in her.

"Why?" she asked, as the things she'd just suggested were very un Jade-like things to do. Her idea of fun typically had something to do with cutting random things up with a big pair of scissors. Not sitting around watching girly chick flicks.

"Because," Jade's shrugged, trying to come off as casual. "You're my best friend. And that's what best friends do."

Cat grinned, throwing her arms around the other girl in a tight embrace, even though she knew fully well she didn't do hugs. Cat actually almost pulled back instantly, in fear of ruining her new best friendship already. But she relaxed when she felt Jade's arms circle around her as well.

"Jade?" Cat asked, not breaking their hug.

"What?" Jade held on as well. Cat smiled to herself.

"Thanks for not being mad at me anymore."

"I would say 'you're welcome' but I'm Jade, sooo…"

Cat pulled back from her friend with a giggle. Her answer was self explanatory.

"Come on," Cat said, dragging her back inside. "Let's go get that popcorn started."

Jade smiled. "Sure thing, best friend."

A/N: Personally, I liked this one. This is my first attempt at writing anything Victorious related or anything other than High School Musical for that matter. (Yes, I used to have a weak obsession for HSM xD) and I wasn't sure how it would turn out but I'm pretty satisfied with how it did, even if it was a bit cheesy (: but lemme know if you disagree. Love it? Hate it? Please just review, it would mean a lot, especially since I'm new to this category !

PS. I thought it would be fun to include little things that are real in the show but not many authors seem to use. Like how when they're mad they use phrases like "wazzed off" instead of "pissed", or the words "chizz" and "butternut!" xD or how Cat actually does film her random thoughts for TheSlap dot com :p Unless other authors do include them and I just haven't read enough. *shrug* Oh and last thing: CADE FTW! :D