Tori sighed as her eye caught on the colorful poster, strategically placed on a pole in the center of the Asphalt Café. They were posted all over the school, mocking her as she roamed the hallways between classes, waited for her friends at their lockers, and most recently, attempted to eat her lunch during free period.
"Hollywood Arts Junior Prom", it read across the top in a big, swirly font. The graphic on the poster depicted a teenage couple slow dancing; the boy tightly grabbed his date's waist, and the girl's arms looped around the boy's neck. Their eyes were fixed on each other's gazes and both of their mouths were curled in a genuine smile.
Tori averted her eyes angrily and hung her head in defeat, picking up a plastic fork and forcefully stabbing her bean and cheese burrito. She wasn't all that hungry anymore.
"Hey!" a familiar peppy voice rang out from across the courtyard. Tori didn't even bother to look up and greet the happy girl who fluttered over and took her seat. "Why the long face?" Cat asked earnestly, pulling a lunch bag from her floral print backpack and plopping it down in front of her.
Tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder, Tori glanced up and acknowledged her friend Cat. "Oh, hey. And I don't know," she muttered, pulling the plastic utensil back from out of her entrée and setting it down on her tray. "I guess I'm just kind of upset because I don't have a date for prom yet."
Cat scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. "Really? I thought someone must have asked you by now," she observed thoughtfully. "Like, at least Sinjin would." Cat giggled, resuming her usual bubbly disposition.
Squinting and crossing her arms over her chest, Tori snorted disdainfully. "Well, if you would really like to know, I did get asked to the prom already." Cat stopped laughing and took a bite of her peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich. "But I'm not really interested in the guys who asked me," Tori said in further explanation, taking a sip from her water bottle.
It was true; she wasn't all that interested in boys lately. After being cheated on by Ryder Daniels and all but harassed by those two ganky guys while she was with Jade at Nozu, Tori had decided to give guys a break for a while. But that didn't mean she wanted to be alone on prom night.
A moment passed before a thought crossed Tori's mind. "Cat?" she asked suddenly, her curiosity piqued.
Cat looked up, her mouth full of creamy peanut butter and artificially-flavored jelly. "Yeah?" she answered, gulping down some of her Vita Coco to wash the food down her throat and out of her mouth.
"Um, who are you going to prom with?" Tori asked, hoping that Cat was actually going and she wouldn't freak out at Tori for asking. Cat was quite possibly the sweetest girl alive, but she did have her crazy moments.
"Robbie," Cat answered simply, as if her news were nothing out of the ordinary.
"Robbie," Tori repeated disbelievingly, almost as a question, but not quite. "I didn't know that you like Robbie."
Cat only shrugged.
From the corner of her eye, Tori could see Beck, Jade, and Robbie walking over to their table. Jade had switched the color of the streaks in her hair from blue back to green, Beck looked like he didn't really care at all about what was going on around him, and Robbie… was wearing a crisp white dress shirt and a skinny red tie. Tori subtly raised an eyebrow at that last one, but otherwise tried to ignore it. She couldn't take much more weirdness today.
"What's up, losers?" Jade said dryly as she sat down in her regular seat. Beck sat next to her and Robbie plopped down on the bench beside Cat.
The tiny redhead looked up and smiled widely at Jade, then waved animatedly. "Hi friends!" she laughed, looking around at the various faces seated around the table. "Where's Andre?"
"Right here!" a voice belonging to their musically gifted friend answered from behind Tori. He quickly sat down next to her and placed his lunch tray on the table in front of him. "So what's up?" A chorus of half-hearted replies sounded from the group, causing Andre to sigh dramatically at the pathetic response. "Well, someone has to be up to something. Right?"
A grin spread across Cat's face as she remembered her plans for that night. "Jade and I are going shopping for our prom dresses!" she squealed happily, waving her arms around in the fashion of what seemed to be a little dance.
Jade rolled her eyes and took a swig from her Skybucks coffee mug. "Ugh, do we have to do that tonight, Cat? I'm not really in a shopping mood."
At that, Tori crossed her arms and smirked. "Jade, I don't think you've ever been in a 'shopping mood' since I've known you." She glanced over at Robbie, who nodded at her rebuttal and grinned.
Jade shrugged and took a bite of her chef salad, not denying the accusations. Secretly, she was kind of excited to go dress shopping with Cat, even though she would never admit it. Wanting the attention off of herself, Jade glanced back at her frenemy. "So who are you going to prom with, Vega?"
Tori quit her laughing at Jade's expense and dropped her gaze. "I, uh, don't have a date yet…" she whispered almost inaudibly.
"What was that?" Jade mocked in her fake Southern accent, enjoying Tori's obvious discomfort. "I couldn't quite hear you."
"I said I don't have a date for prom!" Tori yelled exasperatedly, attracting the attention of several students sitting at other tables close by. The brunette girl groaned defeatedly and slammed her head on the lunch table, narrowly missing her tray of half-eaten, picked at food. Jade was grinning slyly, scoffing at Tori's over-dramatic confession but otherwise not saying a word.
"Don't feel bad," Andre started, patting his friend's back comfortingly and making her feel a bit better, like only he could. "I don't have a date for prom either."
Beck questioningly raised an eyebrow. "You don't?" he asked his best friend disbelievingly. Andre shrugged in response.
Tori raised her head back up and turned to Andre. "Honestly?" She went on when he nodded in affirmation. "I thought you were just making that up so I wouldn't feel so bad." The two went back and forth for a while, reassuring the other that they were probably too good for everyone else at the school and that was the reason they couldn't find anyone.
Jade rolled her eyes at the exchange and pretended to file her nails. "Why don't you just go with each other and solve both of your problems?" she suggested, almost sarcastically.
Tori's eyes brightened and she smiled hugely. "Sounds like a good idea to me," she proclaimed, happy that they were finding a solution to her somewhat embarrassing problem. Maybe not having a date to prom was only a minor setback to most people, but it was definitely a dilemma to Tori. She'd been dreaming about prom night since she was a little girl.
Andre looked taken aback at first, but he quickly covered it up with one of his signature smiles. "Um, yeah that sounds fun!" he agreed, looking a bit awkward as he tore open a small bag of potato chips. Tori didn't catch his slight discomfort, but Beck did. And he had a theory as to why his friend was acting so nervous.
Oblivious to what was going on around her; Tori clapped her hands happily and exclaimed, "Awesome! So, Cat, can I go dress shopping with you and Jade tonight?"
Before Cat could give her an answer, Jade choked on her coffee and spit it out, coughing manically. "No way, Vega," she spluttered, taking another sip from her mug in hopes of regaining her composure. "You are not going with us, no way."
Tori whined and rested her chin in the palm of her hand, looking back up at Jade with puppy dog eyes. "Please?"
Jade sighed loudly and leaned forward, examining her nails as if they were much more interesting than the conversation she was currently engaged in. "Fine. But if you start irritating me, even once, you're walking home."
Tori smiled and nodded. "Deal."
Out of nowhere, Cat suddenly swung her head around to look at Robbie, who was too busy messing with the knot of his tie to notice. "Rex isn't going with us to prom, is he?" she asked innocently, although it was easy for her friends to detect the longing for a 'no' answer in her voice.
Rex looked up at the tiny girl and scoffed. "Like I'd even want to be around you and Afro Man over there," the puppet sneered in reply, earning a 'Hey!' from Robbie. "Besides, I'm busy that night. I've got a date with two Northridge girls."
Beck shot him a confused look. "But wouldn't you need Robbie to—" He was cut off before he could finish his inquiry.
"Shut it, pretty boy!"
The group just shrugged and brushed it off. Rex's outburst wasn't unusual and they each had more important things to worry about, anyway. Except for Cat. All Cat was currently undecided on was whether she should buy an ice cream sandwich after lunch or not.
Later that day, around five o'clock in the evening, Jade and Cat pulled up into Tori's driveway. After waiting for a few minutes, Jade got annoyed and turned to look at Cat, who was sitting there looking completely unbothered. "Can you go up and get Vega?" Jade asked shortly, drumming her fingers on the leather steering wheel.
"Kk," Cat agreed, getting out of the car and skipping to the front door of the Vega household. She rang the doorbell and, liking the way it sounded, rang it a couple more times.
"Just a second!" a muffled female voice called from inside, and sure enough, Tori stumbled out the door less than a minute later. "Ready to go, Cat?" she asked, out of breath.
Cat giggled and twirled her hair, flitting down the sidewalk back to Jade's car. "Yeah, we've been ready for a while. We were waiting for you!" The two girls climbed into the vehicle, Cat called shotgun so Tori had to sit in the backseat, and the trio was on their way.
"What store are we going to?" Tori asked no one in particular, gazing out the window and looking at the big houses that lined the streets of her neighborhood.
Jade suggested one of her creepy Goth stores, Cat recommended that they should go check out one of her favorite places (a little boutique that specialized in frilly dresses and purses built to carry Yorkies), but they ended up just going to one of the many popular stores for special event clothing.
The three girls got out of the car and Tori lead the way through the front door. A tiny bell tinkled as it opened, and a saleswoman with the name Brooklyn printed neatly on her name tag greeted them politely and invited the potential customers to feel free to come to her with any questions about the merchandise. The store was fairly large, with rows and rows of dresses lining the sides of the aisles. The various types of fabrics were in an array of rainbow colors, which promised that there was definitely something for everyone in stock. Speechless about the display, Cat, Jade, and Tori stood and gawked at the sea of evening ware and party gowns.
Cat instantly ran off to look at a glittery pink number, which looked as if it were challenging the school dress code for what length an article of clothing had to be until it were deemed too short to wear on campus. Jade calmly walked over to a long green dress toward the back that seemed to perfectly match the shade of her newly-dyed highlights. And Tori strolled through the aisles for countless minutes, not finding anything that matched up to her high standards.
After about an hour, Cat found her way back to Tori. Her hands were full of garment bags, shoe boxes, and countless pieces of sparkly jewelry. "Any luck?" the short girl asked, looking up at her friend with big brown eyes.
Tori sighed and pinched the fabric of a strapless red gown, then let it go and moved on to the next one. "Not yet," she answered somewhat sadly, approaching the end of the aisle and finding herself with nowhere else to look. "I think we might have to try another store."
"Nonsense," Jade dismissed from behind, shooing Cat out of her way and confronting Tori. She gently placed a long, dark blue dress in Tori's arms, grinning smugly as she watched the brunette beauty's face light up.
"It's perfect," Tori sighed dreamily, feeling the soft, shimmery fabric and examining the size tag, only to find that it was indeed her size. "How did you find it? I swear I looked through everything in this store."
Jade simply shrugged and crossed her arms, careful not to crease or harm her own garment bag. "I found it before you got over to that section, I guess," she admitted nonchalantly. "And I want to get out of this place as soon as possible, so I figured I might as well help hurry you along."
Tori gave a small smile at the pale girl's thoughtfulness, even though Jade would never admit that she was being nice, and went to try the gown on. A few minutes later, she emerged from the dressing room and twirled around. "Well?" she asked somewhat uncertainly, even though she had already determined that this was the perfect dress for her and she was going to purchase it no matter how much it cost.
Cat oohed and aahed at how pretty her friend looked, and cheered a little louder than was needed. "It's so pretty!" she exclaimed, setting down her own dress and getting up to examine Tori's. "Andre is going to love it. It's so gorgeous on you!"
At her seemingly innocent observation, a blush crept on Tori's cheeks and she played with her hair nervously. It was going to be a bit awkward being Andre's date to prom, but she reminded herself that they were only going as friends. Desperate to change the subject, Tori went back into the dressing room and started to change into her normal clothes. "So who are you going with, Jade?" she asked over the stall's door.
"Beck," Jade's voice sounded from the other side.
Tori stumbled out of the dressing room, clutching the gown she had just tried on with one hand and placing the other firmly on her hip. "Beck? But you guys broke up," she stated, reminding herself more than anyone else.
Jade shrugged for the hundredth time that day and combed her fingers through her hair. "Yeah, we did. But prom is in two days and neither of us had found a suitable date yet, so…" Jade trailed off, spacing out as she recalled the conversation she had had with her sort-of-ex-boyfriend that morning. "We just decided to go with each other. It would have seemed weird if we didn't."
Cat and Tori said nothing, although both of them were secretly thinking that it was a bit odd that they were going with each other. The pair glanced at each other questioningly but dismissed the feeling. It wasn't as if Jade were going to listen to their opinions, anyway.
The three girls bought their items and left the store, each lost in a sea of their own thoughts.
Tori finished up the last touches to her hair and smoothed out her dress. She had already applied her makeup, and personally, she thought it looked spectacular. Her chocolate brown eyes had on a touch of eyeliner, dramatically long fake-eyelashes (although she had previously made sure that they didn't look too fake), and a few shades of gold and brown eye shadow in order to give her eyes that smokiness that all the models in her favorite magazines were currently wearing. She looked perfect; and with not a bit of help from anyone.
Tori glanced down at her midnight blue dress. Well, maybe she had a bit of assistance from Jade.
A soft knock sounded from the door downstairs, and Tori's head snapped up in attention. That must be Andre, she thought excitedly, gazing at the clock mounted on the bathroom wall and seeing that her date was on time, as promised. She carefully sashayed downstairs and called out, "I'm coming!"
Andre's handsome face grinned at Tori as she opened the front door, revealing her best friend in an expensive-looking suit. She'd never seen him so dressed up before, well, perhaps when they were at that expensive restaurant instead of playing ping-pong as everyone at school believed them to be doing. She shook the memory out of her head and smiled. "Hey! You look nice. Come on in."
The dance started in a little over half an hour, but neither of the two teenagers were in much of a hurry to get going. Both of them were somewhat nervous for the night, although they would never say anything about it. Andre subtly gave Tori a once over and grinned. "You look really nice," he said honestly, unable to take his eyes off of his best friend.
Tori noticed how he was looking at her, but she didn't mind. "Thanks," she replied happily, walking into the kitchen. "Want something to drink?" she asked, opening up the fridge and peeking inside to see if anything good was in there.
"Do you have any tea?" Andre questioned from his seat on the couch, hoping that if he drank something like that, it wouldn't upset his stomach and make him any queasier than he already felt.
"Iced or green?" Tori called, holding up both options. Andre answered 'green', and Tori started to pour some in a glass. Suddenly, she lost her balance and spilt the drink all over the counter and herself. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, dropping the bottle and rushing to grab some paper towels. "This is so not happening right now…" she muttered, attempting to dab the liquid from her dress, but to no avail.
Andre stood up and looked over toward all of the commotion. "What's going on, girl?" he asked, walking over to see what the fuss was about. What he found wasn't a very pretty sight.
Tori was slumped in a heap on the floor, streaks of mascara rushing down her cheeks and a wet paper towel clutched in her fist. A large, dark stain was splattered all over the front of her dress, running from just below the center of her ribcage down to her left hip. Tori looked up at him with sad eyes. "It's ruined," she whimpered in a low, defeated tone. "I'm so sorry Andre."
Andre crouched down and took the disheveled girl in his arms, gently rocking her back and forth. "Don't worry about it," he soothed her gently, making himself comfortable on the floor and pulling Tori into his lap. "It's alright. I didn't really want to go to prom anyways." Tori started sobbing again and he cursed himself at how bad that sounded. "That's not what I meant," he said hurriedly, trying to cover up his blunder.
Wiping her eyes, Tori hiccupped. "I'm such a drama queen," she sighed sadly, attempting to push herself up off the ground, only to fall back down again.
"That's why you're going to Hollywood Arts," Andre joked, noticing a small grin spread across his friend's face. A few silence-filled moments passed and Andre cleared his throat. "So, what do you want to do now?" he asked hopefully. Tori shrugged and glumly pointed out that going to prom wasn't an option anymore. Andre brought his hand to his chin and stroked it thoughtfully. "We could just hang out here? You know, watch a few movies and just hang out." Tori agreed reluctantly, the sheer disappoint in her voice breaking Andre's heart.
Being the gentleman he was, Andre quickly stood up and offered a hand to his former prom date. She took it and slowly stood up, her legs a bit wobbly. Andre steadied her and their eyes met, making his heart skip a beat. It was no secret that he had a crush on Tori, but for some reason she had never seemed to catch on to the steady stream of clues he kept giving her.
Tori couldn't seem to take her eyes off of Andre's. She hated that he had to see her like this, but as their gazes locked, every sad emotion she had been feeling a few moments earlier faded away. It was as if something clicked, deep inside her brain. Andre's hand was placed firmly on her waist, keeping her close to him, and surprisingly, she wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
She was in love with her best friend, and she had never even realized it until now.
He was in love with his best friend, but unlike the naïve girl, he had known of the feeling since he first met her.
In the heat of the moment, they pressed their lips together and it felt as if thousands of fireworks were exploding all around them. Tori tilted her head up and Andre moved his hand to entangle it in her silky brown hair. They kissed for a few more moments and then pulled away, both of them smiling from ear to ear. "Did you feel it too?" Andre asked, slightly out of breath.
Tori nodded and enveloped him in a tight hug, feeling like she wouldn't have minded if this moment lasted forever. Pulling away, she looked up at Andre and he gently took a strand of hair out of her face and put it behind her ear. By then, she was completely sure. "I just wish it wouldn't have taken me this long to see."
A/N: Hey there! I posted this little one-shot before, but I decided that I didn't really want to continue with the idea I had included it in at first.
Thanks for reading!
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-Saorise June