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8:13 pm

"Have you ever been in love?"

The words slipped out of Jade's mouth before she even fully thought through what she was saying. It was not visible on her face, but secretly she was kicking herself. She wanted the girl in front of her to open up, but she was scared. If Tori started talking, then maybe Jade would have to answer her. Her curiosity was glad that she had said it, but she was smart enough to realise that maybe the decision would come back to bite her in the ass. The truth was, that was really wanted to know what had made this girl the way she was. She wanted to know more about Tori because despite herself, maybe Jade was beginning to care for her.

For a moment, Tori did not move. She did not move for just about long enough for Jade to begin to hope that Tori had not heard her. After all, Jade had spoken quietly, her voice somewhere between a stage whisper, and the voice you used at two o'clock in the morning when if you woke up your parents, you were going to be grounded until you found your first grey hair.

And then she turned to face Jade, and nodded slightly, looking as miserable as Jade was currently beginning to feel about this situation. Her words came out quieter than Jade's had been. "I don't really know, but I think so."

Jade nodded along with her, a smile appearing on her face. "I know the feeling. It feels like love, doesn't it? It feels like love when it's happening. You get those little butterflies when it starts. Your stomach jumps when you hear their name, and it goes nuts when you hear them say yours." Her mind was suddenly full off memories. She could see the first time she met Beck, their first date, the first time she told him she loved him. Jade's voice trailed off into the distance as more recent memories began to surface. The way that Tori and her had kissed. The way Tori was looking at her this very moment.

Tori grinned along with Jade, continuing the discussion. "And every time they look at you, you feel excited. You can never believe that they could possibly like you, and when they do, you jump around in joy. A smile is plastered to your face for days. And then there are those private moments before anybody knows. There's the pure adrenalin when you think you might get caught. The adrenalin when you think you hear footsteps but you don't really care because your lips are locked and everything feels right with the world. And there's nothing else in your mind other than her eyes, her lips, her smile."

There was a pregnant pause. Jade's happiness evaporated in half a minute as her brain began to fully process what exactly Tori had said. And once she had fully processed it, she was angry.

"You little bitch."

"… I'm confused, why am I a bitch?" Tori responded, an adorably puzzled look on her face that Jade just wanted to slap right off her face. She looked like a puppy dog that had just pissed all over the carpet and then looked up at you, wondering why you were getting cross all of a sudden. And Jade hated dogs.

Jade's voice shot up an octave, putting a voice on. She could see Tori cringe in response. "I was expecting something a little more… masculine. But I have to say, you're not far off the masculine mark. But I guess that's what they say about dykes, isn't it, Tori?" Tori winced as she heard Jade speaking, obviously recognising her own words from the very first time that they had met. If they had stung when Tori had said them to Jade, they stung a million times worse now that Jade was parroting them back to Tori. But Jade wasn't done. In that moment, she really wanted Vega to feel pain.

"Because it's so horrible to not be one hundred percent straight. Even if I've been dating a guy for the last three years, I'm still a second class citizen because I can admire a girl's hair, eyes, and for heaven's sake, I can look at her tits in a way that I thought you couldn't. But no. Apparently you understand the moments when all you can think about 'her eyes, her lips, her smile'. You make me sick, you know that? One of those people who just cannot stand themselves and decides that they need to take it all out on anybody remotely like them. I can just see how panicked you must have been when I showed up for our 'date'. Like there was some innate quality in you that I must have magically picked up on." Jade's voice was slightly losing the sharp edge to it, but only just.

"I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you. You were trying to pretend for all these years that you were straight as a ruler. You were never allowed to look at a girl for longer than you should have, never allowed to let your gaze wander or admire a pretty girl. I bet you know exactly what it feels like to sneak around. What, were you scared that your parents would find out? That they would kick you out of the house? Or did you think that there was something wrong with you? That there was some horrible disease affecting you?"

Tori suddenly broke into her rant, her voice softer than Jade's, and full of desperation rather than venom. "Jade, I'm not gay. I'm not. I promise you that. It was just her. It was just that one girl. She walked into school one day all bright with energy, a gorgeous smile and an infectious personality. Before her I was very mainstream. I was a good little girl with a crush on the high school quarterback that everybody else was in love with, but the moment Ava walked in everything changed."

Jade smirked a little as she heard Tori talk, remembering the first time she cared about someone like that. She could see that it was the truth though. The look in Tori's big brown eyes was nostalgic, clearly able to see this Ava in her mind.

"She was quite open about it. She would make little jokes all the time. I tried to ignore it. It was just joking. People would flirt with the same gender all the time. It was just little jokes. But it meant that we were getting close. You didn't do that with people that you weren't close with. But then one day, she kissed me, and suddenly I was sneaking around with her, kissing her when nobody was looking. But then they outed her. Somebody looked in through the window of a room, and saw her, making out with a brunette whose face nobody saw. She got virtually chased out of school. And then I moved on. I never crushed on another girl again. Ava was a one off, a freak accident. I may have loved a girl, but Jade, I'm not gay."

"Vega, what do you think that being gay actually means? It's just another defining word, putting you into a box. I'm not gay, I'm not straight, I don't care about that. But the truth of this matter is that you are a hypocrite. You really think you're not gay because you've tried your best to conceal your urges since them. You think that suddenly you're straight because you've gotten over this girl. You think you're straight, do you Vega? Then prove it."

8:20 pm

Jade lips were on top of Tori's before she had even fully processed what happened. That seemed to be happening to Tori and Jade a lot recently. But the difference was that, this time, Tori was trying desperately to prevent herself from reacting. Before, the shock of it had done that for her. This time, as weird as it was, it was almost like Tori had been expecting it. Preventing any reaction from taking place was difficult. Jade was passionate, controlling the kiss, her hands in Tori's hair. Tori didn't know how to react, or what to do. She had not had a kiss like this since Ava was kissing her. They were alike in so many ways, Ava and Jade. They didn't look much alike. Ava was skinny as a stick, and light haired, nothing compared to Jade's curves and the combination of her dark hair on her skin. But Jade looked almost like Snow White, a twisted version of the Disney princess, and Ava had been like that too. She constantly broke expectations, smiling and flirting and pushing things too far.

Tori suddenly sprang into action, shoving Jade off. She shoved her lightly first, then harsher, and then so hard that Jade ended up on the floor. Then Tori stood looking down on her, venom making its way into her own voice as the anger boiled up. "How dare you, Jade? So I have a problem. So maybe I've looked at you in ways that I shouldn't. So maybe I've began to care for you. So what? Can you not see that I'm not ready for this yet? Have you never understood the concept of listening to the way somebody else feels? So what if gay is just a word? It doesn't describe me." Tori's voice began to trail off a little, but she forced herself to keep it going strong. She had to get these words out, and it was only as she said them that she began to realise that everything she was saying was true.

"I just need some time to work out what word describes me. And what I don't need, are you putting your lips on mine anytime you think that it's going to help you get your own way. I don't need you kissing me in an effort to manipulate me. I have enough swirling around in my head." Angry tears were beginning to fall down Tori's face, ruining her make-up even further than it had been in the first place. Her voice trailed off completely down, leaving a tangible silence alone in the air.

But then Tori extended out a hand. She could see Jade staring at it for just a moment to long, and she could only dream out what was swirling around in Jade's mind, but eventually the dark haired young girl looked up at the hand in front of her, and grasped it firstly with her own, pulling herself back up onto her feet. Tori drew her mouth near to Jade's ear and whispered quietly.

"Why I am feeling this Jade? Explain it all away, make it all better. You always have a solution to everything, always a quick word to say, so why can't you fix me now? I'm not supposed to be feeling this... not for you." Tori laughed to herself, almost hysterically. "The worst part is, I don't even know what I'm feeling." She looked at Jade, her eyes piercing. "All I know is that I enjoyed kissing you."

"Oh, I definitely have an answer. You're feeling this, Tori, because it's right, and because it's real. You're feeling this because there's no reason why you shouldn't. I don't need to fix you. This is a simple attraction Tori, between two people, coupled with the feeling of caring about somebody that isn't yourself. Don't tell me you've never felt it before. It's not love, not yet." Jade spoke carefully, trying not to offend the girl, but Tori nodded. "But it's not unnatural, it's not disgusting. It is a beautiful thing. And maybe you're also feeling this because you've been through a bad break-up, or been looking for somebody for a while, I don't know, because honestly, I don't know every single detail of your life. But what I do know is that right now, there's nothing I want to do more than kiss you. But I'm not going to, even if you want to, because I guess, if you're not ready, no amount of me forcing you to kiss me is going to make you ready. I wasn't like you. I've never been like you. I can't understand why you're so scared, but you obviously are. So I'm just going to leave it." With those words, Jade began to turn around. She began to head away from Tori, and Tori could feel her insides becoming more and more twisted with every single step Jade took away from her. She walked fast, going quickly from so close that Tori could have reached out and stopped her walking away by merely grasping her hand to meters away, so far that Tori would have to run to catch up with her.

And so Tori ran. She ran after the girl who she had just told to leave her alone. The girl who had completely occupied her life for the last day and a half. She turned her around, and kissed her, firmly on the lips. It was a different kind of kiss from when Jade began it. It was softer, sweeter, more innocent. As Tori kissed Jade, it wasn't about a power struggle. It was Tori replaying Jade's words over and over in her own mind. You're feeling this, Tori, because it's right, and because it's real. It was a short kiss, and neither of them made an effort to make it last longer. It just felt right at the length that it was.

"Look, I like you. You can see that. I'm just… I'm not ready. And I need to go just a little bit of time without any of this. But I can't run away from my problems. So… call me, okay? We can go out properly some time. And maybe have a proper relationship." Tori began to turn away from Jade now, walking away in the opposite direction, when she heard the other voice call something.

"After all you've got my number."

CHECK OUT MY A/N AT THE TOP.

So... this is pretty much it, to be honest. I don't think it's getting another update. And actually, I don't think this is a bad ending. So please DON'T PUT THIS ON ALERT. Oh, and please don't favourite without reviewing.

But that's not to say you shouldn't review. I'd love it if you did. Pwetty Please.

IAmImperfect. - Wait, Shit - TrickersImp