Tightrope

Chapter Eight

When Tori pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building and parked her car, Jade had been fast asleep for nearly fifteen minutes. The task of waking her up in order to get her upstairs was intimidating, but very cautiously, Tori got out of her car and went around to the other side, nervously opening the door before she took both of Jade's shoulders in her hands and gently tried to shake her awake. It didn't work the first time, so she tried it once again. Now, the sleeping girl's eyes snapped open, and she stared at Tori for a moment in confusion, before realizing where she was.

"Come on, let's go upstairs." A tangled mash of syllables came out of Jade's tired mouth, none of which even slightly resembled actual words, but Tori took it to be some kind of agreement and helped her get out of the passenger seat.

"I'm so tired." Jade groaned as her hand was taken, and with two little beeps, the car doors locked. Tori curled her pinky finger around her keychain and started leading the way up to her apartment, while Jade followed, still grumbling about how exhausted she was.

"I know, I know. Just get in the elevator. You can sleep when we get upstairs."

"Can I just sleep in the elevator instead? Your apartment smells weird."

"It does not!" Tori took offense to the mildly inebriated girl's comment at first, but she let it slide once she saw Jade's helpless face. The mixture of alcohol and sleep deprivation certainly wasn't having a good effect on her.

"It really does."

"Stop insulting my home or I won't let you go to bed at all." Jade scowled at her but silently gave in, and neither of them said another word until after Tori had locked the door behind them. She turned around to see Jade collapsed on her cheap and only somewhat comfortable blue sofa, already in the process of falling back asleep.

"No no no. You're not sleeping in that dress. It's too expensive."

"No. Leave me alone." Jade protested, putting an arm up to ward off her companion while she curled her body around a throw pillow. Tori untangled her and yanked her off of the couch.

"You and I both know you're not too drunk to change clothes." Tori muttered, tugging the girl toward her bedroom while she complained.

"I'm not drunk at all. I'm tired, and maybe a little bit tipsy." She was quiet for a few seconds, as Tori let go in order to find something for Jade to sleep in. "Okay, maybe moderately tipsy, but not drunk. I'm just tired, and that party stunk, and that stupid radio station you had on in the car put me to sleep and I'm still not completely awake yet."

"Keep complaining and I'll put you back to sleep with my fist."

"I'd like to see you try." Jade had a grin on her worn-out face when Tori finally turned back to her with a sweatshirt and a pair of yoga pants. She held them out for Jade to take, but she just stared at the clothes as if she weren't familiar with their function.

"I hate zippers." She muttered in annoyance and put her back to Tori, with a loud sigh. The singer willingly unzipped Jade's dress without a word and helped her get out of it, before returning to her closet to find a hanger to keep it on, while Jade got herself dressed the rest of the way.

"We can talk in the morning if you still want to." Taking a pillow from her bed, Tori led the way back to her living room, where she tossed the pillow on the couch and ripped a blanket off of her recliner, usually doubling as a blanket rack, and handed it to her freeloading friend.

"I won't want to. Enjoy that feeling while it lasts. I wouldn't share my deep, dark secrets with you even if you were my real girlfriend."

"Well...as long as one of those secrets isn't that you're a serial killer planning to kill me, I think I'm okay with that." Jade only smiled and roughly tousled Tori's still neatly-done hair before she collapsed onto the couch and got comfortable.