Postgrad Partners

The Night to Remember

The night before the showcase saw Tori at the peak of pre-performance jitters. As soon as she and Jade returned home from the theater, she kept her mouth shut and drank warm lemon water exclusively. While her vocal cords may have been relaxed, her mind was anything except that.

Jade offered to help ease her mind with a quick game or a movie, but Tori was already in her room for an early sleep. Realizing her girlfriend probably needed some space, Jade plopped down on one of the lounge chairs and pulled up her mom's number on her phone. After tapping on the contact name, she held the phone up to her face as the video call connected.

"Jade?" Nora's voice faintly came out from the phone's speaker; her image was of decent quality, but cut off by the phone's pear-shaped screen. "Hey, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, I can hear you," Jade nodded, but kept rotating her phone to see the picture better, "But your video quality is really bad. You sure you and Tara got the internet set up alright there?"

"Yes, we did," Nora sighed, taking a seat and placing her phone on the desk, still facing her. "The block is still a cellular dead zone, but wired connections and Wi-Fi work perfectly, so the showcase can be livestreamed, too."

"Huh..." Jade sat back in her chair, retracting her arm as it was getting sore from holding her phone up. "Well, as long as it works. I just wish my old-ass phone didn't cut off your picture so badly."

"First, language in front of your mother. And second, maybe you can afford a new phone if this showcase goes well...but then again, you said you were going to use your payment to cover rent, so..."

Jade groaned, tempted to cut off the call right there, but decided against it, "I get it. I'll make do. Anyway, I'm almost starting to wonder if the showcase will go well. Tori's in her room with the jitters."

"That's to be expected," Nora frowned, "After all, she's pretty much leading the show all by herself. Just make sure she doesn't stress out too much. Mason's put a lot of money into the theater just for this."

"No pressure, right?" Jade rolled her eyes, "I'll check up on her. Tell Short Stack...Tara...to take it easy, too, okay?"

"I will. Good night, Jade. I love you."

"...Love you, too, Mom," Jade smiled sincerely into the camera before turning off her phone and making for Tori's bedroom.

The bedroom's lights were still on as Tori was found sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her head in her hands; a clear sign that everything was not awesome. Without a word, Jade sat down next to her and laid a hand on her leg. The small, but sincere gesture was enough for Tori to look up at her and flash a brief smile.

"Babe," Jade subtly closed the gap between them and wrapped her arm around Tori's waist, "You've got to treat yourself better than this. You know this isn't the first show you've performed in; not by a long shot..."

"Well, it's the first one where I'm completely solo," Tori groaned, prying Jade's hand off of her, "Not just opening, not just another act in the line, it's literally me, myself, and I!"

"Oh, completely solo, you say?" Jade scoffed, "In that case, I'd better tell Short Stack and the band they don't have to come anymore. Maybe you'll pull off the 'one-woman-show' thing better than your sister did..." She took out her phone and pretended to make a call when Tori blindly reached out to grab it. Jade extended her arm away from her, resisting the urge to laugh when Tori started to flail her over-stretched arm and fell over on top of her girlfriend.

Tori pinned Jade's wrists over her head, glancing at her surprised face for a moment before quickly reaching for the red pear-shaped phone in her hand. Before she could take it, Jade opened her hand and let the phone drop onto the rug under the bed.