A Jori Story: We're Just Acting, Right?

The Five Stages of Grief

The end of the semester came faster than they could anticipate. Tori and Jade had practised their songs a mere handful of times and could only hope that it would be enough. The day before the talent show was a Thursday and Tori decided to finally break the silence between herself and Jade.

It wasn't necessarily silence, but they hadn't spent time with each other in the following days after Cat's birthday. Random texts here and there but that was it. Those few days were the longest in a while that Tori had been away from Jade and it was agonizing, to say the least. Now the performance was tomorrow and they hadn't gotten any last minute practice done.

So Tori waited patiently at her locker for Jade to show up. Her neck was starting to hurt because of the speed with which she looked up whenever the door opened. She looked up for the sixth time and smiled still even though it wasn't Jade. Beck walked up to her with a coffee in hand and kissed her on the forehead.

"Morning, beautiful."

"Good morning," she whispered, collapsing into his embrace and breathing in his cologne. He gave the best hugs.

She took the coffee from him and tiptoed to kiss him lightly on the cheek. He smiled at her and leaned down to peck her chastely.

"Who are you waiting for, exactly?"

"Jade. I wanna apologize."

He nodded and told her that he would meet her in class. She waited anxiously at her locker and waited for Jade to walk in. She was usually never this late. Class would be starting in five minutes but Tori was determined to wait. Right as she pulled her phone out to call Jade, the dark-haired girl walked in the door and Tori couldn't help the smile on her face.

"Jade!"

Jade looked up and saw Tori marching toward her with purpose. She could feel her jaw tense, a smirk playing lightly on her lips. When Tori was within talking distance of her, she grabbed the brunette's wrist and dragged her into the janitor's closet. When she had shut the door behind them, she turned to see Tori frozen, not knowing how to act or what to say.

"What is it, Tori?"

"Huh?"

"You were waiting for me, weren't you?"

"Oh... yeah, that. I - uh - performance tomorrow. Practice tonight? M-my place?"

And Jade said nothing at first. She had been practising not tackling Tori all week but being alone in this room with her, in such close proximity to where Jade could inhale Tori's perfume. It was too much to bear.

"Jade?"

"Tori..."

She walked closer to the brunette, a hand wrapping around her waist to pull her in. Tori stumbled, surprised. She felt the butterflies in her tummy awaken all at once. She looked at Jade, her eyes glazing over as their gazes collided. It felt so surreal.

And all the feeling she tried to contain the past few days came spilling out when she threw caution to the wind and kissed Jade full on the lips. This kiss was way different than the first one because it was soft, slow. Gentle. They held and tasted each other for what felt like hours but was only a few minutes in that janitor's closet.

It was only then that they realized that the bell had rung and if they continued sucking face they would be late for class. They hurried out of the closet and fixed their clothes before going to their first class of the day. But even as they sat there, neither could focus. All they were capable of doing was steal glances at each other.

This went on the whole day until it was time to go home and Jade told Tori she'd follow behind in her car. Great, more alone time. Tori was simultaneously dreading and looking forward to it because as much as she felt bad for Beck, she couldn't get Jade out of her head. And for a moment, she let herself forget about Beck entirely.