|Jade|
My mom is locking me in a cold cell. I'm lying on the floor, cold cement crushed beneath my cheek, and I staring up at her at a very uncomfortable angle, neck straining.
She has a grin on her face that's unique to her and the Joker, all sharpened teeth from one ear to the other. The key to the cell is clasped in one gnarled hand, her claws curving like talons as she raises the appendage above her head. Her fingers pinch the handle of the key above her gaping mouth before releasing it. It slides down her throat with a grotesque gulping sound and I can see the outline of the key as it travels down her esophagus. Looking at me again, that massive mouth creaks open once more, but the noise that comes out of it is not a laugh, but the hair-rising screech of a dry marker running against an erase board.
A jolt shakes me awake. I lift my head, blurry and disoriented, and I'm not in a cell at all - well, I guess a classroom could be considered a cell on a bad day, but this is just pre-calculus. I'm just sitting in my desk. The teacher is just getting a new marker from his desk drawer.
"Are you okay?"
I glance sidelong at Cat. Her red hair is bunched at the base of her head today in an intricate bun that would probably require a map to undo. I give her one corner of my mouth lifting as a smile. "Yeah, just tired," I whisper back to her, scooping up my discarded pencil and pinching it between my fingers. Cat continues to stare at me suspiciously for a few moments longer before returning her attention back to the teacher.
This week has been hell. Every moment I'm awake - and apparently every moment I'm sleeping, too - I feel like I'm being strangled by the daunting task of asking my mother for a goddamn dinner date with Tori. I've been putting it off until tomorrow every day, but now that it's Friday, I don't have any tomorrows left. Unless I push it off another week, which would not amuse Tori in the slightest, I have to ask her. Today.
I move through the rest of my classes robotically, not really speaking again until I run into Tori at the end of the day. Of course, she's bright and bubbly as usual, and I really do try to pay attention to what she's saying as she all but skips beside me to our respective cars, but my mind is back in that creepy cell my mom locked me in in my nightmare, and I'm wasting way too much effort trying to analyze it.
When we reach her car first, she stops, spins to face me, and holds both of my hands in hers. I focus on her face, trying to banish my mother altogether. The sun makes the brown of her irises almost look caramel-y, bronze skin glowing, and her hair is twirling down her shoulders like the dwindling strips of syrup after you've squeezed the bottle - like she's made of candy. Tori's smile dims until there's nothing but grave seriousness left. Her upper teeth glide over her lower lip before she parts them to speak.
"Are you okay?"
It's the second time I've been asked that question today. I nod, just like I did to Cat, but know that Tori requires an explanation. "Yeah. Just, you know. Mom."
Tori nods, lips pressing in a flat line before she squeezes my hand. "Look, we don't have to do this if you don't want to. If you're really that uncomfortable with it -"
"No." I shake my head sharply, making her teeth click shut. "Seriously, it doesn't matter if I want to or not. I have to. We have to. It's the goddamn twenty first century and I'm not going to hide this, hide you, like it's the fucking Middle Ages, okay?"
Tori's biting a grin back. I smile, leaning my head down so I can capture those incredible lips with my own. Maybe it's just my earlier descriptions of her, but she even tastes like candy. She's braces against her car door by the time I pull away, deliciously breathless.
