AUTHOR'S NOTE | i have no idea what this is. okay so i rp a lot and the first version of this was on a vampire/werewolf/fairy/everything else site but somehow it makes me think of bade so whatever, here it is. i guess it's future? where 'tori saves beck&jade' never happened, which would just be depressing 'cause that entire episode just made me so happy. anyway. i don't think this will ever be continued, it's just a tiny oneshot. like... too big for a drabble but too small to actually be classified as a oneshot. and the lyrics are taylor swift and this is all probably really terrible. but here goes.
this slope is treacherous
this path is reckless
this slope is treacherous
and i,i,i like it
she knows it's him the moment the extravagant white limousine pulls up.
everyone within a twenty-foot radius of the doors hushes like someone's pressed mute as it halts at the curb and someone approaches the purring vehicle to open the door. then, as a silhouette she recognizes immediately steps from the limo onto the pavement, they all turn away quickly to resume their conversations, just so he won't know they've been staring.
but he will.
she glances at him once or twice as he climbs the stairs with that sort of elegant grace he's always had. the sun is beginning to set in the too-quick fashion of winter and she's a statue, frozen with her tray of champagne flutes, until the two older men stationed by the double doors pull them open for the new arrival. she sees her boss eying her angrily from the kitchen doorway and turns away. it's been years and she's only lined her eyes with a thin shadow of black and a little mascara and she isn't allowed to have piercings here and her straightened hair is pulled back in a high ponytail and it's grown so much, too, she doesn't like getting haircuts anymore, so it falls even past her shoulder blades. maybe he won't recognize her.
but he will.
not right away, though. he's too busy wandering casually from one group of admirers to the next and they're all staring at him with wide eyes the way that girls used to in hallways. she takes a deep breath and goes to refill her tray and vehemently denies everything when someone asks her what's wrong. back out into the mindless chatter of the party and she keeps her distance but somehow manages to tail him around the building. he never notices her.
but he will.
she needs to stop watching him. she needs to move away and offer drinks to people who are out of sight. if she doesn't, she knows he'll see her soon, and she knows that it will be the last straw and all the work she's done, everything she's placed around her piece by piece, brick by brick, will all come crashing down. she can't have that. all those years of fixing herself, and here he was again, threatening to undo it all, just by being here, just by not quite seeing her. she can't let him ruin everything, not now. she should leave, go hold out champagne flutes to anyone in any other room, carefully avoid him until the party ends and she's allowed to go home to her tiny apartment and he can go back to his mansion and she never has to see him again. she should know better than this.
but there's just something so enticing about him, and she can't help herself. she can't pull herself away, not far enough to be safe. she can't make herself walk away.
not again.