Lonely Souls
Chapter One
Forests and Cigarettes
Disclaimer: I have exactly zero percent ownership over Victorious. Sorry 'bout that.
"It's not fair," Cat said, shivering. She pulled her jacket tighter, but it didn't do much to keep the night's coldness from creeping in.
Beck laughed. It was humorless laugh, cold and cruel, the type that made Cat's heart ache. "Life's not fair," he told her. Smoke from his cigarette painted the air behind him gray, and pale spears of moonlight pierced the forest canopy. Cat thought it was beautiful.
"They can't do this. They can't just-" she stopped talking before her voice broke. She had read somewhere that men are never attracted to women that cry. "What are we going to do?"
He dropped the cigarette, and smothered it under his foot. "Deal with it, I guess."
"Deal with it?" Cat asked.
He nodded, still looking at the cigarette bud.
"Deal with it!?" She asked again, heat rising in her voice. "They're taking you away! You won't get to go to Hollywood Arts, or get to eat at that cheesy fifties diner on Seventh Street, or get to go to my birthday parties, or anyone's birthday parties, and you're just going to deal with it?" Cat thought that she was going to hit him. "Beck, you-"
He had his arms around her before she knew what was happening. "I know, I know," He said into her hair. "I'm just sort of stuck, there's not much I can do."
She could've stayed there forever, wrapped in the smell of him, all forest and cigarette smoke and just Beck. "We could run away," she whispered, not sure if she actually wanted him to hear.
He did hear, though.
He pulled away from her, and a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. "Run away, huh? And exactly where do you think we'd go?"
"Everywhere! We could go across the country and rob gas stations and pick pockets and be outlaws!" Cat jumped up and down suddenly excited by her fantasy. "We could be Bonnie and Clyde!"
"Minus the romance. Jade wouldn't like that very much."
She stopped; her best friend's name had sobered her momentarily. "Fine," she said. "She can come, too. You guys be Bonnie and Clyde. I'll be Muttsy."
"Muttsy?"
"The dog."
He laughed again, but this time it was genuine, and that made Cat feel fluttery and light. "No, no. You're too pretty to be the dog. You could be the kitten."
Blood rushed to Cat's face, and she turned away from him to mask it. They stood in silence for a few seconds. "Would you, though?" Cat finally asked, turning to face him again.
"Would I what?"
"Run away with me?"
He took a step towards her, and pushed a strand of hair out of her face. His voice was gentle, and his eyes were soft, but his words still stung like a million tiny shards of glass in Cat's heart. "You know that I can't do that," he said.
A low whistle sounded somewhere in the distance. Beck started running towards its source. "I'll miss you," he called over his shoulder.
"Wait!" But he was already too far out of the forest to hear her.
Cat looked around. She was alone, abandoned by her best friend. His smell and the smoke had both been cleared from the air, like he had never been there. She yearned for some sort of proof that he had been with her seconds ago, something to remember him by. Without Beck, the darkness felt heavy and menacing, the moonlight to sparse to be any comfort.
She fell to her knees, and cried. Tears ran down her cheeks and made little puddles on the forest floor that caught what little moonlight there was. Cat thought that they looked like itty-bitty, magic swimming pools. She reached down to touch one with the tip of her finger.
Then she saw it.
Her souvenir, a cigarette bud Beck dropped earlier. It wasn't much, but it made her less afraid.
It made her less alone.
A/N: Short and sweet. Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote fanfic! I'm reattempting Horror/Thriller writing, so brace yourselves for future chapters ;) .
I apologize for any OOC-ness, it's been awhile since I've actually watched the show.
So, whaddya think? Reviews are the bestest things in the whole wide world, even if you just want to tell me how much you hate my soul!