Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious!
When my hands stopped shaking and I could pretend that my heart beating so quickly was just from the intense run away from my house, I stopped on the sidewalk and dialed Andre's number.
"Heyyyyy, Tori." His voice hung wrong across the interconnect, bored and unassuming. I was going to cry anyways, but the fact that he was still having a pleasant, typical Tuesday night while my world was falling apart around me did nothing to ease the fact that I felt utterly alone.
"Tori?" He paused, waiting as the sounds of his room swirled around him; the ruffling of the blankets on his bed and a barely audible tune being played on the clock radio that he kept on at all times. His grandma let out a sharp yell. He sighed into the silence coming from my end. "Girl, you gotta stop butt calling me."
I wanted to say something, like a 'Sorry, yea, I'm here' or 'Can I come over?' but really, what could I say? What could possibly come out of my mouth that wouldn't result in a muddled explanation and some sort of sobbing session? I waited silently, pressing my hand to my face to cover my mouth that threatened to wail. Andre's grandma yelled again.
"Hold up Grandma! Just don't touch the hot st-" The phone clicked.
My pear phone felt slippery and burning hot in my hands, like holding onto a steaming coffee in the middle of August. The phone must have been feeling the heat too, acting annoyed and tired, it let out a shriller and angrier beep with each new incoming message. Or maybe the phone wasn't annoyed at the heat, but at the constant new messages, voice mails and missed calls it was having to deal with and turn away.
Before I could throw the phone away from me, it started vibrating, indicating that Andre was calling back. If I didn't answer I would be stranded here in a crying mess on a public side-walk in the middle of a heavily wooded neighbourhood. If I did answer then I would surely explode into tears.
I let it vibrate a few times and breathed in deeply, trying to pull it together, before doing my best to calmly lead the phone to my ear.
"Hey, Tori, I think you butt dialed me. Either that or Lil-Red's been snatching your phone again and called to chat but then got distracted by dancing to the dial tone."
I tried to laugh but it came out watery, "No, Cat isn't being a phone hijacker tonight-" I paused then hurried on before he could utter the question I felt him forming. "-could I come over?"
"Yea, sure, you ok?" He asked, confused. His room was strangely quiet around him.
"Don't ask-" Tears started to fall on the last syllable and made their way into my voice."I'm in Brentside by that old playground. I just... It's just hard to explain. Can you please just come pick me up?"
"You're in Brentside?" Andre seemed to be waiting for an explanation that I did not want to even try and give over the phone. "Uh, ok, I guess I'll be there soon... You're okay though?"
"I'm ok." I sniffled, "Thank you so much for picking me up." I said and hung up. I wanted to fall on my knees and weep, that he had even called me back had been a miracle.
I stood there on the sidewalk looking like a sobbing crazy person and tried not to think about all these unanswerable questions that bounced around in my head. How long had 'it' been happening? Did anyone else know? Would it be betrayal tell? Wouldn't telling be the right thing to do? But what about loyalty? What would happen if I told? What then?
No answers appeared to my questions. Only a persisting mental image bringing me back to the hot stuffy room. My shouts from moments before ringing in my ears, seeming mundane and so completely naive as I discovered his broad, disgustingly naked back hovering over her splayed out brown hair on the floor of the bedroom. I hadn't seen their faces, just flesh against flesh. Disgustingly wrong.
Then I was clumsily bounding down carpeted steps, pounding down the concrete stairs outside my house, two at a time. Running down the sidewalk and hoping that the physical exertion and this strange heat of May could somehow make me focus on the physical pain rather than the emotional. I knew I had to get away, but I didn't really realize how fast I had been running, like the track and field star that I used to be, until I found myself here.
Away from any bus shelters or train stations. I found myself in in a calm and quiet little neighbourhood where houses were cozily sheltered under large, looming trees, that hummed smoothly in the breeze. A perfect little neighbourhood where everyone was probably tucking their perfect little children into bed, whispering sweet nothings, being perfect little parents whom would never...
Anyways, I had run so fast and in such a blind shock that I ended up in a neighbourhood two blocks from Hollywood Arts. I knew I could have called Beck, but he and Jade were doing something. I could have asked Cat, but I wanted to shelter the tiny girl from having to deal with any serious situations she might not understand, or be able to handle. Robbie didn't have a proper car. Trina was at a movie.
And Andre was my best friend.
When Andre pulled up beside me on the curb I tried my best to cover my mascara that was streaking down my face. I sat down with a thump in his car that was like a vacuum when it came to the sounds of the big shadowy trees of the neighbourhood rustling urgently outside. A girl was trying to win tickets to a concert on the car's radio. Andr turned the radio down and I waited for him to pull away from the curb but he instead let the car idle. "Tori, you sounded pretty messed up on the phone. What's going on and what are you doing all the way in Brentside?"
I couldn't answer. My face was twisted into holding back a fresh wave of tears. Instead he enveloped me in a hug that was so familiar that it must have certainly been better than any hug a family member could had ever given. "Was it Ben?"
"No," I muffled/sobbed into his shirt. It was almost ridiculous he would be asking about Ben, who at the moment seemed like a distant planet and was so completely irrelevant to the situation that it was almost laughable. He wasn't even very important in my life, we had only been dating for two weeks. Nonetheless, Andr relaxed a bit when he found out Ben hadn't done anything.
"Then whats up? You're getting me worried." He said over my shoulder.
The girl on the radio didn't win the One Correction tickets. A Riranna song started to play.
I leaned away from him and took my hands from my eyes. We looked at each other. "I won't judge you whatever you've gotta say, unless you murdered Trina or something" He gave a light chuckle.
I shook my head and turned away to spare him the sight of more tears.
"Ok, Just take your time and breathe." Andre spoke quietly, peeling his eyes away from me after he was finished scanning me over for any signs of physical damage. "Lets head home."
I tried to imagine what I would do after this. How life would go on. I tried to take deep breaths and sit up with dignity. In reality I was just shaking and my eyes looked like I had berry ball slime running down them again.
"My mom-"
The only thing that I could probably do to fix this gooey mascara mess on my face would probably be 10 bottles of hardcore makeup remover. I wiped a slick of black off of my cheek.
"I saw my mother having sex." I blurt out into the quietness in the car.
His eyes widened and he rubbed the steering wheel with his thumb, "Uhm, Oh, Shit." Andre turned to me, his face wonky. "Was it- with your dad?"
I threw my hands up in the air and brought them to my face again, crying. "No, Andre! She was with my dad's stupid bastard bestfriend Gary!"
...
Ohhhhhh shizzzzzz... I agree with Andre, that's so messed up!
Anyways, I hope you liked it. This is my first story and I absolutely love Tandre and thought that the Victorious section could use just a little bit more of it ;) Let me know what you think! =) -Princess C.