You're Worth It (Jori)

Unpredictable

Jade's POV:

I want to ask her if she called the bitch. It's an itch I really want to scratch. But I don't. Out of fear that she confirms what I dread to think. So we carry on like it never happened. Like she never asked me if she could call one of my many rivals.

"Uno!" Tori shouts in excitement, back straightened as she hides her one card preciously behind her two hands.

"Already? Jade," Beck nudges me. 

"Hm?"

"It's your go."

I distractedly put down a random card before returning to my thoughts. I know I had the chance to stop it. Many times actually. It's not like Tori went behind my back to date her. That would've pissed me off way more. Instead, she tells me, asks me, like a real friend would, and yet I still kept my mouth shut. The one time I needed to speak my mind more than ever.

"Jade!" The impatient fucker nudges me again, causing me to glare at him before I throw another card down. It's the wrong color. I only realize that when they all start howling at me to pay attention. Well, everyone except one. Tori's.. Tori's staring at me with a raised eyebrow.

I snap my head down to focus on my cards, not wanting to give her anymore doubt than she already has. She's already suspicious. Not because of my zoning out, but rather my extra niceness. She claims I'm 'overcompensating' in kindness to prevent her from asking questions. All because I agreed to come over to play Uno 'too quickly' with the gang.

You know, the more we hang out the more frustrating it is to hide things from the dang girl.

She's right. Obviously. As annoying as it may be, she's got me figured out bang on. Not that I'd ever give her the satisfaction of knowing she's right.

Thing is, everything was so much simpler before. Anger being my only color. I could be happy, sad, disappointed, it didn't matter. My anger would reflect each emotion exactly the same. It was a safe mood reserved for the sole purpose of remaining unreadable. Unpredictable. Now? Now she knows every mood, every emotion I enroll.

Any other emotion, I wouldn't have minded as much.

But jealousy. Of all the fucking things I could be feeling right, of course it'd be jealousy. Towards the she-devil of all people.

"Jade!"

"What?" I hiss back, no longer in the mood to play patient. I don't care what Vega does with her face, I'm not gonna sit back and let him annoy the shit out of me.

"The game is over. Do you want to play again?" He speaks slowly with emphasis on every syllable of every other word. Robbie laughs, that is until I glare at him instead. That shuts him up quick.

I know I shouldn't but I do it anyway; I glance over at Tori whose eyes still stare at me in a very unsettling gaze. One that speaks volumes. Only of what, I don't know. I try not to let the vulnerability within me show, but it's hard not to when she's staring at me like that. Like she's concerned but not in a pitiful way. In a genuine, sincere, almost sad kind of way.

"I don't wanna play anymore," her eyes follow me up as I throw my cards in the middle, huffing to myself as I head up to her room, gently shutting the door and pressing my forehead against it. I close my eyes, taking in slow deep breaths. 

How did it get like this? So complicated yet so easy at the same time? Why can't I talk to her? Why can't I tell her what's really on my mind? What is it about her that makes me doubt myself, makes me tremble, down to my core, in fear that I mess up?

Tori's a rational person. She's not like me. She'd listen. She'd understand. Maybe even reciprocate. But that's not what I want. If it were that easy, I would've done it the second I realized I liked her.