Part of Andre Harris had known since freshmen year of high school that he'd one day be coerced into helping Jade and Cat move in together. Perhaps not under the current circumstances, but the general outcome was inevitable.
He sets down the corner of the television he'd been holding up carefully onto the floor as soon as he steps out of the elevator. Jade sticks a foot out just in time to stop the closing door from hitting the screen, a low, frustrated growl coming from the back of her throat.
"Andre, come on. Made it this far." she 'encourages', slowly bending to set down her own corner, holding the elevator door open, still.
"You're lucky you're so scary." Andre tells her as he uses the tie on his wrist to pull the dreads back from his face, bending down to lift the television once more. Sweat beads on his forehead. Jade doesn't look too bothered.
"I'm what?" she asks as he hobbles backward into the apartment in sync with her shuffling forward. Her tone is sharp despite the strain it's under from the physical activity.
"Pretty." he tells her, without missing a beat. He catches her eye around the screen and even she can't help but smile a little, chuckling lowly as the pair makes their way into the living room area.
"Up on the stand." Jade commands.
"The TV?" Andre hears himself asking, knowing she hates the smart ass comments but having no choice in the matter. "On the TV stand? Strange." he mocks.
Jade goes to growl at him, but he can tell by the glint in her eye that whatever retort she's about to come back with is going to have no real coldness to it. Before Andre can hear whatever the mystical insult was about to be, Cat bounces in from the main hallway. She'd likely been in the bedroom, trying to figure out which one of the boxes she'd packed her cell charger in. Clearly, she's made herself comfortable already, a pair of HA sweatpants rolled down a few times at the waist, a plain white tank top. Even her hair is completely down - Andre's a little shocked to realize that he hasn't seen her like that since high school.
"You're back! Is that the last of it?" Cat asks, nodding to the TV as she runs a hand through her hair, clutching her phone in her free hand. The three of them had been back and forth across the city all day with boxes and furniture. Jade swore up and down that something was bound to go missing if they used a moving company.
"Better be." Jade immediately whines, turning to look at Andre as if it's his fault they own so much stuff between the two of them.
"There's one more box in my trunk." he admits, "I'll go down and grab it, you guys can start… organizing, all this." he gestures to the various boxes across the floors and swiftly makes his way back toward the elevator.
"Hi."
"Hm, hi."
He turns himself around and shuts the door just in time to catch the tail end of the brunette smirking and pulling the redhead in by the shoulder to kiss her temple.
The hot summer sun beats down on his head and shoulders when he steps out of the protective shade offered by the various greenery around the outside of the complex. He'll have to ask if Cat and Jade want to grab an iced coffee with him before he heads back to Hollywood. The last box is surprisingly light for such a large box, and he can't help but flick the lid off of the top to check the contents. Tori's album is crammed between the wall of the box and a pillow shaped like a zebra, and Andre has to stop to pull it out and look it over.
"Love you, kittycat, stay beautiful! XOXO"
Tori's signature is scrawled under it in silver sharpie. The tone of the message, even though it's only written, is almost cold. It's impersonal, and uncomfortable, and Andre finds himself frowning as he closes the case and sticks it back into the box. His walk back up to their apartment is too quiet, now that Jade isn't barking commands and directions at him while he walks backwards with ridiculously expensive electronics. The silence vanishes as the elevator doors open and he's bombarded with the sound of Cat squealing. It's perfectly harmonized with Jade laughing, both of them whining and exclaiming things at each other that Andre can't completely hear until he's totally in the apartment.
"Whoa." he sets down the box closer to Cat's things, in case she wants to keep it private. He's pretty sure that if she wanted Jade seeing the CD, it would have been in the boxes with the rest of their massive music collection.
Cat is nestled into Jade's lap with a small box of what appear to be photos, flipping through them while Jade apparently tries to distract her by blowing on her ears while she tries to concentrate.
"I didn't realize anyone had any of these left kicking around." Andre admits as he steps closer, picking one out of the box with a grin. It's the six of them - Cat, Jade, Tori, Robbie, Beck, and himself - they're crowded around the rec room's ping pong table, clutching the massive fake gold-plated trophy they'd just bought for themselves. Sikowitz is no where to be seen - he must have taken the photo.
"Cat's a hoarder." Jade explains.
"Am not! This is your box!" she outs the brunette, squealing again when she's rewarded with the ticklish spot under her ribs being squeezed.
"I wouldn't want to lose these if I were you." Andre eases her momentary embarrassment, smiling genuinely as he gently drops the photo back into the box. "You'll have to email me a few of those." He rubs his hands together as Cat deposits the box back onto the floor and stands up from Jade's lap, brushing herself down softly.
"Did you guys want to grab a Starbucks? It's way too hot in here." He offers the suggestion while tugging at the chest of his shirt and releasing it, trying to get a little airflow going. The air-conditioning wasn't turned on until right before bringing up the TV and the apartment windows are letting in far too much heat for the three of them to stay inside for much longer.
"Definitely. Put some real pants on, Cat." Jade stands up as well, already pulling her long black hair up into a high pony. The light curls bounce as she tightens the elastic and Andre pretends not to notice the sparkly-eyed look of admiration on Cat's face as she heads down the hallway to change again.
He's known Jade and Cat for what feels like forever, but getting to know Jade and Cat is a little different. They don't act very different from the way he's used to, but there are small things that they now do that sometimes surprise him or take him off guard. Or maybe it's that they were always that way and he'd just never noticed, before.
"And please take it easy on perfume, I'm getting a headache." Jade calls after the redhead, stretching her arms tiredly before turning to Andre. "Thank you, again." she reminds him.
"Anytime." he grins, nudging her softly as Cat bounds back out into the living room, skirt twirling as she begins to dig through the boxes for a pair of suitable, coordinating shoes.
There's something in the way that Jade immediately starts opening boxes impatiently to help speed Cat's process along, huffing at her about how she should have gotten rid of a few pairs before moving instead of filling six different boxes and labelling them all 'SHOES'. Her tone is irritable, whiny from the heat. It's completely real and the way that Cat just shrugs it off and keeps looking is so genuinely them that Andre finds himself arguing, even as the argument grows to a speaking-volume level. Nothing about Jade's tone is condescending. She takes every part of Cat, her childish demeanour and lack of seriousness, with total unapologetic honesty. The brunette will snap a quick 'shut up' when Cat's getting too loud, or remind her to take her vitamins at lunch without batting an eye at her pouting about it. When Cat makes a less-than-intelligent comment, she'll blatantly ignore her or correct her - no pat to the top of her head with an 'Ok, Cat.' Jade wouldn't sign an album with 'Stay beautiful, XOXO.'
"These ones?" Jade holds up a pair of pale pink flats, but Cat shakes her head.
"The ones with the bows."
Andre expects Jade to groan and continue boredly hunting through boxes, but she lights up.
"Wait, those are in this one." she yanks another box closer from nearby and flips it open, digging through for a moment before handing the pair of shoes off to Cat.
"Can we go get iced coffee, now, please?" Andre feigns impatience, but Jade is the first one to the elevator, tugging Cat along while she continues to try to pull her shoes on.
They decide to walk, despite the heat - the light breeze gives them the impression of cool air and makes it seem less horrible than being inside the apartment. The nearest Starbucks is only six blocks up from the complex, both Jade and Cat are happy to learn. Andre drops a pin on his phone to remind himself to get out to visit them more often.
"- bonfire, tomorrow night. You're coming, right?" Andre hadn't even realized Cat had been talking to him. She pulls at his arm, all bright-eyed and smiling while Jade orders her coffee for her (grande iced caramel macchiato, seven pumps of raspberry and one pump of vanilla)
"Bonfire? Tomorrow?" He wants to be there, but he knows it won't be until late. He was sort of trying to keep it a secret, but -
"What, unless, like, you're busy with something." Jade's speaking to him, now, returned with three cold drinks and handing two off to the pair in front of her.
He scratches at the back of his head nervously. Cat's a lot easier to distract or lie to than Jade is. Maybe that's why they're such a good combination - they pick up what the other lacks to keep things balanced. "I've got some studio time tomorrow evening, so I can come, but it won't be until a bit la-"
"Shut up." Jade grins at him - he's only seen that smile a few times in his life, and it still makes him feel ridiculously privileged every time he does.
"Calm down, calm down, it's nothing big." he tries to downplay it, but he's just as excited on the inside. He hasn't had a lot of work since Tori's album and he's more than a little pumped to lay down some new material. Before he can be bombarded with questions, and things to get his hopes up, he deflects the conversation completely, "Should you even be having coffee?" he looks at Cat, though his tone is mock-serious his eyes are glinting playfully. "What time's your call time tomororow?"
"Six, Andre, it's at six." Cat's voice is surprisingly pouty, but she's trying not to smile when he locks eyes with her. "And it's not even dinnertime, what am I, ten?"
Jade opens her mouth but Cat puts a finger up.
"Don't even." she warns. She stays serious for a moment as she sips her drink before her face breaks into a grin. "I can't believe we finally moved in. This last month has lasted, like, eons."
They meander over to a nearby faux-vintage table, crowding around it as they talk. The conversation drifts from Cat's job back to Andre's studio time - he admits that he's been waiting to tell them but didn't want to count his chickens before they hatched - and he also promises to come by the bonfire afterward no matter what the cost. Jade lights up when Cat tells her that Robbie is bringing his new girlfriend - apparently she's been waiting for weeks to meet her, probably to decide if she gets the stamp of approval - and then the pair of them badger Andre about his love life until the sun begins to set and they decide to part ways for the evening. Jade promises she'll cook spaghetti if Cat stops whining about having to leave, and Andre has to admit he feels a bit jealous. He's going back to Hollywood to grab takeout sushi and catch up on paperwork which he is not looking forward to as much as the two of them are probably looking forward to going home and christening their new apartment.
The drive back to Hollywood from Calabasas is only a half hour given the traffic, but Andre finds himself doing a lap around his block before pulling over and parking the car. Tori's CD is in the glove compartment just an arm's reach away but he hasn't pulled it out in months. He hadn't been tempted to until now, really.
Track three is his favourite and he doesn't even realize he's put the CD in the player until it reaches the chorus - he must have been sitting out there a good ten minutes, just lost in thought. He's seen clips from her tour on twitter and tumblr, photos of her splayed everywhere with hashtags signifying the inside jokes her fans have and things they're trying to trend to get her attention.
"Every time I think of how it started, every time I remember where I came from ~"
Reaching over he hits the volume button with more aggression than it deserves to turn the music off, sighing and reaching for his phone before heading inside. It's easy to pretend she's still his best friend on snapchat because they talk, when it's really just mass-sent videos of her with her new crew on their bus. It's easy to pretend she's near the top of his 'new messages' list because they're staying close, when it's really just legal formalities, making sure he's still getting his cheques.
It's easy to pretend that they'll all go back to being an ensemble when she returns in a few months, when really, the circle just keeps getting smaller and smaller.