Heartstrings | Jade x Tori

Chapter 3: Family

Author notes: Little warning for this chapter, when it switches to Jade's PoV there are some scenes with abusive parents, but nothing too bad.

Tori's PoV

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And like that, everybody was gone. They all left once Trina had come home and implied pretty heavily that she wanted them to leave. I honestly felt angry, I mean, she literally bailed on me, then made all my friends leave once I actually found something to do. Literally who does that other than her? I doubt even Jade would do that. But seriously, Jade was acting so weird today. Nobody mentioned the argument we had earlier, not even once. And she was being weirdly nice. And trying to convince me to go to Andre's party. Maybe Cat was right about something being up with her lately, I mean, something was suspicious about it all. She wasn't overly nice or anything, but she wasn't rude, and she was being weirdly quiet compared to her usual, petty self. And when I'd looked over at her after I'd noticed she was silent about the party, I couldn't even help but see some type of upset look spread across her face. It was honestly confusing. I seriously didn't even know why I was so worried about her, anyway. It's not like she ever payed any mind to my emotions in this way... I was a little freaked out by it, and found myself zoned out again, lying alone on the couch. 

I could faintly hear Trina singing upstairs as I snapped myself out of thought. I sighed heavily, forcing myself to get up, ready to take myself to my room to get ready to chill out before bed. I brushed my hair out of my face, and picked up my phone, which I'd dropped on the floor at some point when I was alone on the couch. 

New message : Cat

Damn, I must've missed a text.

Cat: Did Jade seem off 2 u as well? D:

Tori: Yeah,, she was like. weirdly nice?

Cat: I knowww. Its so odd? Shes been meaner than usual lately, now shes being nice?

Tori: I'm sure she'll b ok. Don't stress urself out worrying about her pls.

Cat: ugh. its just hard. I care about her

Tori: I know u do, but shes tough. Im sure she can handle whatevers going on. I gtg okay?

Cat: I guess ur right, but im still gonna keep an eye out in case. Ttyl.

Tori: Alright Cat. I know ur worried and honestly I am too, but we cant worry too much. we have school tomorrow. We just have to trust Jade to handle it on her own okay? I'll see u tomorrow.

God. I could tell that Cat was seriously worried about Jade. I'd never fully got much detail from her about Jade's family, or exactly why it would be so bad if her and Beck were to break up again, but to be honest, the mystery of it was starting to worry me too. As much as me and Jade clashed, I'd hate to see something bad happen to her. I took a deep breath, and began making my way upstairs.

As I reached the top of the stairs, I was met with the interesting view of my older sister strutting up and down our hallway, trying on all sorts of weird clothes, and I'm like 80% sure she found some of them in Mom's closet. She didn't notice me standing there at first, as loud pop music was blasting from the speaker in her room. After a few more struts, she noticed me, and quickly turned off the music.

"Ugh, Tori! What is it?" She questioned, seeming bummed out that I'd interrupted her. I shot her a questioning look, to which she ignored, clearly not caring about the embarrassment she'd feel if anybody else saw this.

"Trina. You ditched on me again, and now you're gonna be mean too? And you made my friends leave!" I quickly called out, reaching the end of my patience for her tonight. I folded my arms over my chest, and stood up straight. I noticed her face shift from annoyed to guilty pretty much immediately.