Something to Talk About (Original Posting Date: April 19th, 2009)
Author's note: This little story was originally written as a Christmas present for a really great friend who is a big fan & writer of Duster, whose work I've had the honor and pleasure of betaing for a while.
"Tori? Tor?" Dustin called out as he stepped into the doorway of his childhood friend's bedroom. The room was barely lit, and Tori sat on her bed, her back to the door, whimpering softly.
"Go away, Dustin," she replied, her voice quavering, not turning around. "Please."
"But I rented that new movie you wanted to see. Blue Crush?" Dustin tentatively offered, taking a few steps toward the bed.
Tori turned around to face him, a tiny smile visible on her lips, her reddened eyes watering up.
"What's going on, babe?" he asked her, walking around her bed and taking a seat across from her on the desk chair that was by her bed.
"I screwed up so bad today, Dustin," she confided in him.
"What happened?" he continued softly.
"I… I asked Jamie out after fifth period today," Tori answered.
"Jamie?" Dustin repeated, frowning. "Oh!" he eventually exclaimed, realization dawning upon him, before he followed with a more subdued, "oooooohhh."
"Let's just say I wiped out," Tori continued, sniffling. "It was pretty much all over school by the end of the day."
"Wow," Dustin said softly, "you asked Jamie out. That was gutsy."
"No, Dustin, it was stupid," she replied.
"Dude, you put your heart out there," Dustin declared, smiling earnestly as he took her hands in his and looked her in the eyes. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. You seized the moment. I'm so proud of you."
Tori returned his smile for the briefest of moments before her fears and her anguish took a hold of her again, her eyes starting to well up with tears.
"Oh God, Dustin. I don't know how I'm going to be able to show my face at school tomorrow. People are going to look at me like I'm some sort of giant freak," Tori confessed, shaking her head as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Don't worry about tomorrow," Dustin comforted her as he wiped the tear away with his thumb. "They'll have something else to talk about by then. They always do."
"And what if they don't?" she asked, a mix of fear and uncertainty in her eyes as her head dipped downward.
"Trust me," he reassured her, smiling as he gently raised her chin until his eyes were locked on hers. "They will."
When Tori returned the smile, he reached over to the discarded disc on her bed. "So, we gonna watch that movie, now?" he asked her.
"Okay," she said, nodding once.
Dustin stood alone in his washroom later that evening for several minutes, staring blankly at his reflection in the mirror that adorned the medicine cabinet.
As he opened the cabinet and looked at its contents, he swallowed hard. After the last time, he'd sworn to himself never again. But he couldn't not do it. Not after seeing Tori so devastated.
Dustin closed his eyes for a moment and held his breath. When he opened them again, he reached for something on the bottom shelf, his hand quivering slightly.
The next morning, Tori arrived at school with only minutes to spare before first period. As soon as she'd made her way in the crowded school hallways, she became conscious of the excited chatter that always accompanied the latest and juiciest gossip. Convinced her humiliation of the previous day was the topic being discussed so feverishly around her, she brought her head down and walked quicker, fighting back the tears that were so close to betraying her unaffected appearance.
As she took her seat for first period, she focused on drowning out the voices of the people surrounding her. Pulling her notebook and a pencil from her backpack, she cast a hopeful glance at the door, desperate to see one of her friends walk in.
Eventually, it seemed her prayers had been answered, as she saw Shane and Blake step through the door. Her two former teammates bumped fists as they laughed, apparently under the thrall of the same news that had everyone else so agitated.
Blake quickly made his way to the back of the class, giving her a quick nod and a smile as Shane went up to his own seat right behind her.
"Hey Shane," Tori greeted him softly, barely able to make eye contact.
"Hey Tor," Shane replied, a wide grin on his face. "You are not going to believe what I heard."
"What?" Tori asked him, feeling her world crashing around her, as her gaze dropped.
"It's all over school," Shane proclaimed, before his attention was caught by something at the entrance of the classroom. "No. Way. I don't believe this," he whispered, his grin growing even wider.
Tori turned around to see what Shane and almost everyone else was looking at. Walking into the room with all his confidence and his head held high, smiling brightly, was Dustin, his face the same tone as the time he'd been tricked by CyberCam into using a can of sunless tanner on his face, right down to the paler area surrounding his eyes, making him look like he'd gotten a sunburn while wearing a pair of shades.
The moment he caught her looking at him, Dustin gave her a small wink. A smile broke out on Tori's lips as she silently mouthed the words thank you to him.
Dustin took his seat, right in front of Tori, completely oblivious to all the stares and the comments around him. A few moments before class started, he slipped her a note. Tori discreetly unfolded the piece of paper and couldn't hold back a giggle as she read the note that was followed by a smiley face: Dude, if you think this got their mind off of you, just wait until they see me and Hunter make out on the quad before fifth period.
The End