Rebound (jade x tori)

recovery

Jade's pov

 Aaaaaaaughhhggh. I feel sore all over. And the bed I'm in isn't mine. I know this because my bed is cold from the ice I have under the sheets, deliberately, and I sleep without a pillow, and there's also lights, yellow through my eyelids, and my room is in a basement without lights. A bunch of scenarios pour into my head. 

 I've been kidnapped, which is unfortunate since I don't think I'm in any fighting condition. I was in a coma and I'm waking up. I'm in someone's basement about to be tortured. I was run over by a car. I do remember riding in one, bright lights, just before I couldn't fight the pain any longer and I lost consciousness. I fell off a cliff. 

 That seems to be on the right track. I search my memory. I do remember standing on a very high place, behind a railing. A river, I think, because I remember the sound of fast rushing water-and then I piece the picture together, the jagged rocks as they jut out of the rapids of the river, and then me bracing my arms against the waist-high railing and flinging myself over.

 I remember landing hard on a very flat, wide rock, so my suicide didn't work, apparently. Well, I'm alive. At the very least that's that. I'm breathing and my brain does seem to be functioning, if a bit foggy. There's also a hand, holding mine close, and I remember what felt like the same hand earlier, however long ago, holding mine in a class full of chatter. 

 Tori. Tori's here. I'm okay. 

 I open my eyes, and the window, the yellow light, is slanting across the floor, dappled with shadows cast by infinite medical machines, and there are two doctors over there, watching the machines, messing with the screens and the buttons. I look down at my hand, the one holding Tori's, and follow it to her body. She's laying on a couch in the room, a blanket pulled over her. She's still asleep. 

 I try and use my arms to push myself up on my elbows. I'm in some kind of flimsy blue medical hospital button-up shirt and trousers, which I don't like to imagine how someone got on me. My hands are still bandaged, the area around my knuckles still tinted red from blood that didn't quite bleed through. In the process of sitting up, I accidentally shake Tori's hand enough that she wakes up. 

 Once her bleary chocolate eyes open and she sees me, she's instantly non-sleepy and smiling and yelling my name. She lays down in the bed next to me, hugging me before the doctors need to inspect me so she rolls off and onto her feet and sits in the chair again next to me. I can tell, I see it in her eyes, she's just happy to have me here with her. 

 She doesn't reach for my hand, which I'm glad for, because lately she has been pushing my boundaries of physical touch. I didn't like it much-I thought it was weakness, but as she'd already seen worse weaknesses, my tears and my pain and my blood, I thought I could let her touch me. I like it, it's soothing to me, but I didn't want to become a whole new soft person because I'm friends with her, so I'm glad.

Tori's POV

Jade asks, "wait, what day is it?" I, of course, answer her first. "Friday morning, it's around eight. They said you might be able to go back by lunchtime. We only lost you to a major concussion, if you drink enough and don't fight anyone, at least for three more days, you should be good." She gives me a look. "Lost me?" 

 I almost have tears in my eyes again talking about it. "Yeah, you... had a flat line. They did some CPR." She gives me a sympathetic look and puts her hand over mine. "I'm... I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't know that you wanted me here." I'm trying to keep the tears in. How could she think I didn't want her here? 

 I understood it, really. She had no one to live for anymore. No will left, so she figured she might as well kill herself. I don't know why, though, but after seeing this new side of her, the side that would save me, the side that cared, the side that showed feelings, I wanted to get her through this and make sure she'd be okay. I knew it would probably take a year or so, but I'd do it because of what she saved me from. 

 If Jay had done it, and he'd impregnated me, that would've caused so many problems. And it was at the cost of her problems, so I had to try my best to fix them all. "Tori, don't cry, I swear to god," she said, but she covered her own eyes with one bandaged hand. I managed to hold it in, and so did she, after a while. 

 "Can you watch her for about the next three days? Don't let her get hurt, whether it's fights, another attempted suicide, self harm, or anything else. Don't let her get too riled up, we'll give you a note to get out of P.E. for another week, drink lots of water for your head because believe me, the headaches will come, it's a side effect of blunt force trauma, and if you feel any more symptoms of a concussion drive back here for us to check on you." 

 "I'm gonna go grab some water, be right back, I promise," I said. I got up and went to do what I had said, also getting another cup of water for Jade. By the time I got back she was changed into her normal clothes, car keys in hand, and the doctors were handing her the bill and the thing for the P.E. teacher. 

 She turned to walk out the door, and I handed her the cup of water. I could see in her eyes, and in the way she kept swallowing as we walked in silence out down to my car. She was holding back tears. And so was I. It was so heartbreaking that she tried to suicide because she had no one who would miss her-but she didn't know I would. 

 We got into my car, and we had to pull over on the side of the road because I was crying, and so was she. And we didn't have to speak, because both of us knew why the other was crying. We just had to cry together, our heads against each other's. It occurred to me that she was the only one I cried in front of, the one I wasn't afraid to show vulnerability to because I knew she would protect it and keep it in her mind and not tell anybody. And I was the only one now who she cried in front of to, because we held each other, because this whole relationship had been turned around, and now it was like we shared this secret bond, these secrets that we held in our hearts. 

 By the time we stopped crying and got to Hollywood Arts, lunch had ended and Sikowitz's was about to start. We hurried in together, taking our seats in the back and dropping our bags on the floor. Sikowitz gave us a surprised look. "Oh my dear goodness, you two are actually on time, look at that," he said ecstatically. 

 I saw Jade's eyes dart to Beck, holding Percy's hand on the other side of the class and fill with tears. I intertwined our fingers and leaned down a little to whisper in her ear softly, "you don't need a rebound. Remember what I said yesterday. You're sleeping at mine for the weekend, and if it gets too painful, squeeze and I'll get us out." 

 She nodded, but I could see the tears about to spill out. 

 I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, letting her cry silently into my shoulder.