Summary: Never in a thousand years would I have ever wanted to admit that I needed Vega. I wouldn't admit that I'd landed in a suspicious substance that made me do things normal people can't after vandalizing a house either. But hey, that's between me and the police.

This is a Jori romance.

Everyone has a story.

But in a broken city is there anyone left to listen? All they pay attention to are the police sirens and the latest murder investigation that has gone nowhere. In all my years leading up to this day, I never would have thought I'd try and stop that. But anyway, someone convinced me to write my own story. And I—no, we—hope that in a few years somebody will pick it up and learn what it's like to feel something; what it's like to go on an adventure again. But I doubt it. Because the world is slowly dwindling to crap.

As you can obviously see, I try to stay optimistic about it.

I guess this all started a few months ago.

"You realise this was completely irresponsible for both of you. You're both seventeen and still pulling dangerous shenanigans like this one." I couldn't remember exactly what I did to get him this angry at Tori and I, but it was hilarious to see him blow up and get this angry with us. Seriously, his face was so red.

"You two may be great singers, but there is honestly no reason for you to spray paint a picture of the librarian's decapitated cat—" Ah, right. That's what I did. "—in the Black Box Theater. I'm going to have to s—"

"Mr. Evlin, you know I wouldn't do that," Tori argues and her eyebrows furrow, "I love the Black Box Theater and Elrine. Why would I vandalize school property and draw gruesome images?" She pouts, her hands flying in all directions as she tries to prove her innocence.

I scoff. Vega would be on a first name basis with the librarian, who is a complete bitch to me anyway. Every time I try and check out a book the woman glares at me with her beady eyes behind her glasses and purses her lips, as if she's trying to hide back a sassy comment. Oh, but she's just plain skipper around everyone else.

"Tori," Mr. Evlin says, "You were there when we found it and I have people who confirmed that it was, in fact, your spray paints that were used."

He turned to me, "And Jade, don't get me started on you because everyone knows you have something going on against Ms. E. Though I don't know why, I mean, have you seen that woman? I wouldn't mind just walking up to her and untying that pretty little bun of hers, sitting her up on that desk and—" He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat awkwardly. "ANYWAY. You're suspended for one week, Tori."

"What?" Tori exclaimed, shaking her head. "No, no no. I've never missed a day of school this year and the makeup work is going to be horrendous. Aw." By the end of her sentence Tori was whining and squirming in her chair immaturely. I couldn't help but smirk at the way she was acting, the misery this was causing her.

I don't know why, but I get happiness out of seeing Vega unhappy and bitter. She's like the human form of coffee I drink, really. She has light brown skin and dark hair that I would probably kill her for if I was allowed to. And her smile makes me feel warm like my coffee does sometimes. And today she was wearing a white, off-the- shoulder top that emphasizes her great chest. I mean, her boobs aren't better than mine but they are something. I wonder what kind of bras she wears. I wonder if she'd let me touch hers.

"And Jade gets two weeks," Mr. Evlin says, bringing me out of my slightly less…hetero thoughts. I realise I was starting to stare at Vega's chest and I quickly look at our principal who seemed to notice what I was doing too. Oh my god I can see something poking against his dress pants. Gross gross gross make it go away.

"Fine," I say calmly, even though I'm freaking out about how much of a pervert our principal is. I collect my stuff in slow and bored manner. Vega huffs and throws an angrily glance over her shoulder at Evlin as we leave to get our stuff from our lockers.

"I hate you," Vega still has an angry tone in her voice. Her actions are angry and she's stuffing books in her shoulder bag carelessly. We both know she doesn't actually mean it and they're just words coming out of her mad stupor. When I'm done, she's still putting things in her bag. I lean against the wall next to her. Her face is slightly red and there's a massive pout, none like the one she wore in Evlin's office, so I know this one is just for show. I roll my eyes. I stand there watching her for at least thirty more seconds before I get overwhelmingly bored. I don't know what's making me wait for her. I could have gotten the heck out of this place the second I was done.

"Geez, Vega. You're suspended for a week. Not going on vacation." I say smirking.

She glares at me half-heartedly and closes her locker shut. Vega stops trying to look angry and for the first time I see her look…genuinely sad? All the other times it was obvious she didn't give a crap about whatever was going on but right now I…frick froggers…

I frown. "Stop looking at me like that. And only take what you need."

Vega empties a few items back into her locker, but not a lot. She shuts it and finally turns off the lights that illuminate the reason she's at this school in the first place.

"So what now?" The Latina asks like I hold the answers to everything. I shrug. The bell rings for people to switch to fourth period and I text my boyfriend, Beck, that I was suspended and not to look for me during school. He texted back a frown. I realise that Tori is still looking at me expectantly as the hallways began to clear out again. I put my phone away.

"Well, it is almost noon." My stomach growls. My mind instantly thinks of this one burger place a few blocks over and I think my mouth starts to water. They hate me there though. Maybe if I brought Vega they'd instantly love her and give me free burgers and forgive all of the mean comments I've given them…hm.

"How does an early lunch sound? My treat for getting us suspended, I guess. You have to pay though." Her jaw clenches at the word 'suspended'. It looks kind of weird but I refrain from asking her to do it again. Aw, look at me being polite.

"How is it your treat if I'm paying?" Vega asks but she's walking towards the front of the school so I know she's on board with it. I smile at her question and shake my head. When I don't answer, she looks back at me and I instantly drop my smile. I can't let her see that. She'll think that we're friends and I don't want to be her friend. I just want free burgers.

I don't talk to her on the drive there.

And just like I thought, the owners love her and I think their son has a crush on her. Well done Vega, well done. If you're wondering, the burgers weren't free but they ended up being half off which was close enough. Vega ordered two for herself along with fries and a milkshake, which I thought was disgusting. Who the heck eats fries and milkshakes together?

When I told her this she laughed at me asked me if I ever tried it. With a mouth full of burger I said no.

"Do you want to tr—?"

"No."

"It's reeeaaally good."

"No."

"Okay."

Though as we continue eating I can't help but wonder what I am missing out on. I mean, it looks grosser than Two Girls One Cup but what if it tastes good? I finish my food first and she's almost finished with her fries. Vega is down to the final two before I finally decide to take her up on her offer of eating the disgusting substances together. I reach across the table to grab one only to have my hand smacked away.

"Uh, what do you think you're doing?" Vega asks raising a sculpted eyebrow.

"Attempting to dip a fry in a milkshake and eat it. However, something is stopping me."

"Well maybe I don't want you to try my fries anymore. I only have two more anyway. And one is small and morphed looking, no offense to the delicious little guy." As she says this, she takes the good-looking fry and dips it in the milkshake. I wince as she licks all of the milkshake off the fry while making noises that I'm sure she's using to embarrass me. When she's done she smirks at me.

"Still want it?"

Rolling my eyes, I snatch the fry out of her tan hands and dip it in my milkshake. I don't feel attention to how gross it feels from Vega's spit as I pop it into my mouth. Hm, it tastes pretty good. Though I wish Vega ordered these without salt, it sort of ruins everything.

Vega stares at me as if I grew four other heads.

(That would be cool. I'll have to put that on my agenda when I get home—'Grow more heads to freak out Tori'.)

"Not so bad," I say after I swallow. "I may eat this the next time I come here."

Vega just shakes her head at this but she's smiling. "You're gross sometimes, Jade." She tells me.

Vega and I departed about three hours ago and I'm already bored. I don't want to go home yet and I don't want to call Vega so shortly after I'd left her. I don't want to look that desperate for entertainment. And besides, she makes me feel uncomfortable. She makes me feel nice on the inside. And it's not the nice meaning happy nice, but the nice meaning I want to pet the stray kitten across the street and give the (probably homeless) man walking by me checking out my rack forty bucks.

God, I need to do something bad and quick. Before I start donating to charity or something.

I ring up Chunk. You may be wondering what kind of name Chunk is and I'm here to tell you the answer. It's not his real one and he won't tell me his real one because 'it's embarrassing and brings too many flashbacks'. But anyway, on his first day in prison a few years ago he barfed some bad meatloaf on the head dude of a prison gang. The guy called him Chunk and the name grew on him I guess. That's what he tells me, anyway. He picks up on the second to last ring.

"Whoever the heck this is, listen, I don't have the money or drugs you're looking for alright? Chunk hisses through the phone.

"It's Jade," I say coolly. I lean against the seat of my car and run my fingers through my hair.

"Ah, Jade baby." Chunk exclaims happily before pausing, "What do you need and why am I the guy to do it?" I roll my eyes.

"I need a crew and a good house to wreck. A certain someone's sunshine has been rubbing off on me. So I need a fix and fast."

Chunk is silent for a moment and all I hear on his end is the clicks of his keyboard.

"Uh, there's an abandoned house on Westrose and Thomas. It looks horrendous and—ooh, is that an empty swimming pool? Jade, we have to go, the bowl is huge." Chunk says breathlessly into the phone. "I'll bring the usual kids."

It takes only twenty minutes for me to get there. I park a few streets away from my destination and walk the rest of the way. As always, Chunk manages to get there before me. A group of scraggly teen misfits stand around him holding bats and lighters and other tools of demolition. As I approach, Chunk hands me my own bat. Taking it, I grin. This is going to be perfect.

There's some weird fix I get out of being the one to break something. Seeing something shatter to pieces pulls a chord in me and I don't know why. Maybe I like seeing it vulnerable and whispering for me to fix it, only for me to bring my fist down on it again. Or maybe it's the guilt, pain, and fear I feel after I do it. And the adrenaline rush. Feeling those emotions reminds me I'm human and they're the hugest wake up calls I've ever gotten in my entire life. So I'm really hoping that answers your question as to why I'm in an old home smashing glass and tearing down pictures from a wall.

"Best house ever," Chunk yells, repeatedly scarring a table with the marks of a golf club. He shakes his head and it's like in that moment something possesses him because he starts jerking his body as he hits things and he yells louder. I should tell him to be quiet because someone could hear him. But I don't because I think right now at his craziest he has become something frightingly beautiful.

"Check out this awesome bowl!" One misfit yells. He has long hair and I can't see his actual face because of the amount of pimples he has. I decide to name him Phil. Something is thrown near Phil's head by someone else and falls apart as it collides with the wall behind him. Phil pauses for a moment and doesn't seem to notice a shard of glass stuck in his arm. He shrugs and heads outside with, what I just now notice to be, a skateboard in his hand.

Our group follows behind him excitedly. Three of us sit along the edge of the empty pool as the others skate in it. We're not bad sports about it, we just watch and cheer the others on as they do back flips and twists that I'm sure could kill them if they messed up.

It's not long before fire gets involved in the mix. Someone found a hoola hoop in a closet so they decided to set it on fire. Chunk and Phil skate through the burning thing and I'm not sure how no one gets hurt but they're that lucky, I guess.

Alcohol joins after someone Chunk texted shows up too. I've seen him around town but have never learned his name and I still don't mean to now. He drinks a few beers before making his own try on Chunk's skateboard, which he swiftly breaks one hour later. One hour after that everyone is astoundingly drunk. We smash our beer cans by dropping them into the pool and laugh at the sound they make.

Chunk drunkenly raises his fist in the air and yells something that sounds like a faint ring to me, but the others mimic his actions and repeat whatever he yells like he's their pack leader. Like everything he does makes sense. I yell with them because at the moment I feel like I belong someplace with these people, even though we're all messed up and breaking slowly.

By eight o'clock I feel smashed and I want to go to bed. Unfortunately, the cops don't like that because I hear their sirens close to us.

"Everybody bolt," Another misfit who's not Phil squeals. A few climb a nearby fence and take off. The rest of us run out the front door and in separate directions. Chunk and I run away together, but I'm only with him for about a minute before I lose him to a bush he decides to throw up in.

I try to get as far away from the sirens as I can but they seem to be stuck with me, echoing in the back of my mind. I hit the back of my head with my hand and they still won't leave. I do it again.

As my breathing slows from running I take in my surroundings. I'm in some sort of grassy area. The full moon is my only light as I try and work my way out of the place. I pull out my phone and I have no reception. It's strangely silent here. I feel like I'm walking in circles. This is useless. I'm going to die here, probably. Tell Beck I used his sacred hairbrush on my dog once and that I'm sorry.

I feel like I've been there for over an hour. God that beer made me so thirsty. My heart is pounding. I feel light headed. Are my eyes tricking me or is that Slender-man walking towards me?

My eyes grow wide when I realise that something is coming towards me at a fairly slow pace. I run as fast as I can away from whatever's approaching me before tripping over my own feet and landing face first into something water-y. And I know this sounds weird but I feel it absorbing me.

And I let it.