Green Eyes

Happy Families

Hi, we're back. Thank you so much for your reviews - it's good to know you're still with me :)
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Tori's diary

Jade stayed over last night, for the first time since we had our argument. I don't know why I blew up at her so bad, I mean, it brought back a lot of bad memories and everything, but I don't think I'd have made such a big deal out of it if it had been Andre, or Cat. I think it was because it was her - I've come to trust her so much that it felt like a betrayal, like a slap in the face. Not that she might think that about me, but that she'd find it something to mock – that if I had been gay, she'd think that was a bad thing, she'd think less of me. And that's crazy, because she couldn't have known about Sherwood, and she wasn't trying to hurt me, she thought I'd just laugh it off, and I should have. All I did was make it worse by yelling about it.

But she's here now, and I can't tell you how good that feels, knowing that we're back to normal. I can't believe she came all the way over here, and brought Beck too, to help me out. I guess I could have handled Ted on my own, he's not a bad guy, but calling her just seemed so natural. I've come to rely on her a lot, she's the first person I want to talk to when something happens, she's the first person I want to talk to when nothing happens, she's just the first person I want to talk to. The start of a friendship feels the way I always imagine a relationship ought to feel, everything's new and exciting, you can't wait to hang out, spend time together, share each other's life.

And why shouldn't it? Why shouldn't a friendship feel as intense as a love affair? Why should it be second-best? After all, people fall in and out of love all the time, but friendships can last forever. You can't say that one means less than the other, because you can't have one without the other. A good relationship is just friendship with the squicky bits thrown in.

Well, I guess I better go now, she's waking up, and I don't want her to see me writing this, I'd never hear the end of it. Promise me, Mr. Diary, that if she ever comes near you, you'll spontaneously combust, or something.

Tori slipped the book back into her desk drawer, as a long groan indicated that Jade was, indeed, waking up. A voice from somewhere in the middle of the covers said, "Do I smell coffee?"

Tori sniffed. "No, I don't think so."

"Well, why not?"

"Because I haven't... Ugh." Tori threw a spare cushion at the lump in the bed, and headed off downstairs to make coffee. She returned bearing two cups, placing one on the desk and one on the nightstand.

"Here."

Slowly a hand emerged from the bed, groped its way up the nightstand and crawled across the top until it came into contact with the cup. It prodded it a few times, and only then, once the physical existence of the coffee had been confirmed, did the rest of Jade follow, propping herself up against the headboard and bringing the cup to her lips. "Thanks," she muttered from somewhere inside it.

"You're welcome," Tori said. "You're not really a morning person, are you?"

There was no answer, except a slurp. "Anyway," she said, "thanks again for last night. You really didn't need to do that."

"My pleasure," Jade said. "And by 'pleasure' I mean, hideous ordeal that somehow I managed to endure."

"Or a people person."

"Mornings and people are my two least favorite things." Tori pouted, until Jade relented. "Present company excepted."

"That's better. So," she said, "what do you want to do today?"