Jaded Eyes (Jori)

19: Secrets and Saviors

Tori woke up earlier than Jade. Around
04:45, Tori decided to actually get up. She had been up for a while. She played with Jade's hair, and just stared at her peaceful face.

Tori got out of the bed slowly, making sure not to take the covers off of Jade and that the floor doesn't creak below her. She walked over to the bathroom and started her morning routine. She started by washing her face, and then moved to her hair. She combed it out best she could. She would need a shower eventually this morning. But before she does that, she heads back into her bedroom.

She went over to her dresser and pulled out some blue jeans and a pinks and gray stripy shirt. Something else catches her eye as well.

The papers Jade had brought in yesterday.

They were all crumbly and a lot of the writing was smeared. Tori shuffled through some of the papers. Though she would never read an entire entry, she did skim, and her name was there a lot. Some other common words were Cat, dream, kiss, and dance.

Just from context clues, Tori gathered that Cat and Jade knew about a dream she had, and she was excited for homecoming.

Another word that was frequent was 'mom.'

The words hate and anger surrounded it and it clicked in Tori's mind.

The bruises weren't from Beck.

Tori's entire head filled up quickly with hatred and confusion. Tori looked over at the sleeping Jade. How could anyone hurt that beautiful girl on purpose?

Tori rearranged the papers to how they were before, and carried her clothes into the bathroom.

During the whole shower, Tori was trying to connect the few pieces she had together. The dream, the kiss, homecoming, and her mom. Maybe they didn't actually connect.

Another thing that didn't make sense was why Jade brought the papers over. And where did they come from? Why were they torn out? Why did Jade only bring these when clearly they were apart of a larger notebook?

Tori turned off the faucet, and reached for the towel. Before stepping out, she wrapped the towel tightly around herself. Tori then walked over to the countertop where her clothes were. She clipped her bra in place, and tugged on her shirt. Then, she pulled up her underwear and jeans. She combed through her wet hair, and this time she could actually see improvements.

Tori checked her watch. 05:30.

Tori normally leaves for school around 07:30, so she had plenty of time to spare. She walked over to her desk where handprints of purple and blue frosting were smeared everywhere. Tori would've wanted so badly to clean it, if there wasn't a memory attached to it.

She grabbed her laptop from her book bag and went to turn it on. But, the computer showed her that it needed to be charged. She plugged it in, and occupied herself in the meantime.

She cleaned up the cupcakes and put away the coloring books along with the bucket of pencils. She still couldn't bring herself to wipe off the handprints though.

06:30 came around, and that's when Jade's alarm went off. Jade however didn't move a muscle. Tori didn't know how or when Jade wakes up, so she let her sleep another 15 minutes before waking her.

Tori gently soothed Jade's arm by running her hand along her forearm. Slowly and surely, Jade's eyes became more alive. Tori swore she even saw Jade smile a little when she looked up at her.