André Harris loved his new best friend. She was/had everything he needed in a friendship. She was smart, funny, nice, sporty, musically inclined, and didn't mooch off of him. Plus she regularly interacted with his grandmother and only ever seemed amused, if albeit confused, by some things his grandma did or said. Not once had Tori ever been rude or snappy with the elderly woman. And after last week or so when they had bounded to quickly over burgers and fries. The amount of time they had spent together was the biggest problem. They may have bounded but waiting a week and a half was hardly good form. Still they had had some epic moments sword fighting swimming and when Tori had told to him at the skate park had opened herself up to him about her prick ex boy friend and his psycho girlfriend. That was amazing she obviously trusted him a lot, so, to say that André wanted to take things to the next level was an understatement. Everything in his heart and soul was telling him to snag up the fun-loving half Latina, before someone else swooped in and claimed her. But his head kept him from doing so say it wasn't fair to either of them he still needed to forget about Al and she deserved the chance to scope out potentials. It was only after his heart swelled with unbridled pride and joy when the girl had mastered the ways of The Bird Scene that he knew it was hopeless to fight his heart. He was going to move the two of them forward screw Al, and he would be damned if he let that poser get in his way! It was a fact Tori wouldn't have to search for a long freaking time to get someone better then him. So when she texted she was coming over to see him at the nurse's office, where he had been since after Robbie attacked his manly bits, he steeled his nerves. He would need to be on top of his game to pull this off. She walked long brown hair perfectly framing her face with its incredible cheekbones. She looked awesome in her black skinny jeans black tank and purple flannel. But what totally rocked was the look of kindness and sympathy to his plight it spread a wave of happiness through his body and he knew he had made the right choice. Apparently I should just start getting myself in excruciatingly painful situations so I'll make good choices. I'll tuck that away for all multiple-choice tests, maybe not. Andre sarcastically thought to himself He finally pulled out from inside his to listen to the still rambling Latina "…but I want it to be creative and deep like Beck's and cool like yours and I can't even begin to think about it. I know I need to stand by my ideas but gosh darn it I don't have any ideas!" By the flush and her state of breathlessness.
"Look Tori I feel you. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted my locker to look like." André said shifting carefully to avoid hurting his man bits.
"And your locker rocks I know but what if mine isn't good enough I will be so embarrassed hell that pink stripe makes me embarrassed."
"Just come over to my house after school. I'll help you with the guitar and piano and locker and you will help me fight off boredom with anything we want and booze." giggling the Latina seemed to relax a little. They agreed that Tori should go get showered changed and packed for the night and André would get the all clear from the nurse he before going home icing his man bits showering changing and going to pick up Tori. And pick some other things up as well.
Tori's POV
I had just finished getting everything ready when I heard André pull up in to the driveway. "Hey Tori ready come over to casa de Harris for the night?"
"Yeah! Sure, I'll just let my mother know not to expect me for dinner" I said walking up the stairs. André looked at me funny. Then pointed in to the kitchen at my oblivious dad who was making his awesome guacamole,
"Isn't you father standing in the kitchen making guacamole? Why don't you just ask him?" And André just happened to say it loud enough catch my father's attention.
"Ask me what Tori?" I cringed inwardly at my father's tone. My father is a cop and he is not afraid to use that against any boy that talks to me, he figures any body normal will run away from Trina and she strangely dislikes weirdos.
"I wanna stay over at André's house tonight because it's parent teacher conferences tomorrow and he wants to teach me how to play the drums."
"Well son why don't take her now and bring her back tonight…before 10." My father replied not even bothering to look at me as he stared André down. "I don't think it's very appropriate for my daughter to spend the night at some stranger's house when I don't know him or his family." Surprisingly André didn't fall apart he just put on a polite smile and put out his hand.
"Hello Mr. Vega my name is André Harris and I want to introduce my bro, your daughter, to my family." He said it with such conviction that both of us missed the bro part at first.
"Bro?" we said in unison.
"Yes sir I hope that Tori and I are in the beginnings of a bromance. Actually T, I was going to officially ask you later, and make it a lot more epic, but I guess if it now then it has to happen now." And then he walked out of the door leaving my father and I totally stunned and mystified. 30 seconds later he walked back in holding medium sized red velvet covered box dropping down on one knee he held up the box he looked at me with that charming smile. Flipping his dreads behind his head, tilting his head, down and looking up through his eyelashes with over the top coyness seeping out of his every pore he asked "Tori Vega will you be my bro? And agree to continue to explore our blossoming relationship through a bromance of epic proportions!" opened the top of the box to reveal a brand new Channel watch. (I looked it up later and it was a black 42mm J12 marine.) I knew in that moment that he was being serious about us having a bromance. I had always wanted to be in a bromance and I was stoked such an awesome guy wanted me to be his bro. Jumping into his arms I started screaming, "YES! YES! YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!" and we were hugging and crying and it was a super cute moment. I think the overly emotional teenagers is what convinced my mom to over rule my dad and say I could stay over at Andre's house. She got like a million pictures before we left saying that it would be great to show our children the beginnings of what would eventually become an epic bromance.
Finally we said our goodbyes and drove across town. The ride seemed super short because we were jamming out and acting silly. We pulled up to a medium sized white condo building that had a big parking lot. A couple of skate boarders and some break-dancers were chilling and listening to music out of one of those old school boom boxes that looked like it weighed a shit ton. They all seemed to know and like André waving at him gesturing for him to come over. It was all fine and nice but I was shocked when as soon as we stepped out of the car a lemon came whizzing over my head. Then another lemon came at me, and another, and another and I was dodging and freaking out looking around. André seemed totally unfazed and he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me across the parking lot into the building. As soon as we stepped inside the lemon attack stopped and the skaters and break-dancers all went over picked up the abandoned ammo and ate them.
"What the hell was that?" I asked the exasperated faced boy but he just shrugged and said, "That's my grouchy one legged neighbor Mr. Petersburg. He just doesn't like me very much, which I don't get because I have been nothing but polite to the guy and he seems friendly with everybody else."
"Maybe he's jealous of your lovely skin." I teased nudging his shoulder as he led me to an elevator. Someone had just come out and the door were closing we just squeezed in before the door slid shut.
"Why thank you for the touching compliment." André joked right back. By the time we went up the five floors to where André's apartment was located we were laughing so hard we were crying the 30 second ride was filled with enough jokes to bring Mr. West to his knees gasping for, I'll explain later. We played tag in the halls out side of his apparent. Making lots of noise until finally he managed to slip past me unlock his door and step inside. "SAFE." he screamed out bending down and spreading his hands like an umpire. That was right before I came up from behind and leaped on his back. It wasn't a well thought out method of revenge seeing as the momentum sent us both to the ground. So there we were, me sitting on top of him, at least, until he flipped us over and we started an impromptu wrestling match in front of his door. That of course sparked a tickle fight because obviously this was just a day filled with maturity. By the time we stopped laughing and rolling around we were side by side, gasping for breath. André and I had fat tears openly running down our faces and into our mouths because our smiles were practically breaking our faces.
We had been lying in the doorway for about 10 minuets when a breathtakingly gorgeous woman stepped out of one of the other rooms. She was darker then André with similar hair only hers was longer, streaked with red, and in a ponytail. She also was dressed like she was going out to a club or just coming in from one. A short tight dark pink dress with a large black belt around her waist completed with large gold hoops and bangles, a hot pink and black zebra stripped fedora and last but not least gold high heeled sandals that with golden ribbons that intricately wrapped to her knees. In short her clothes seemed to scream out "knock me down and fuck me…hard!" As soon as I saw her it was like tunnel vision I got really warm and sweaty and I could practically feel my eyes darkening. Looking back it was probably so weird for her to just see some girl laying on top of André staring up at her like a sex crazed moron. It didn't help that I was flushed panting and my hair was mussed from all the wrestling. She looked down at us with a mystified, slightly apprehensive, look. In the same moment we figured out how we must have looked to the poor woman. I leapt up off of André, rambling incoherently, "oh…um no! I am not…we're not…I like different…I-I-I no! Okay? Just...no!" I finished lamely. Not that André was any help he just shook his head hard and made weird strangled chicken noises. Finally the girl put us out of our misery by shouting over our awkward, nonsensical babble "it's okay guys, I get you are not together in the way. Thank god because if you were I'd have to worry about this pretty young lady ending up pregnant the minuet I left the room." I sighed then blushed then just looked at the floor. "Um Mo this is Tori Vega my new bro, Tori this is Monique Harris my…"
"Your hot." I actually looked around the room trying to find the person who had said that but when my eyes returned to the open mouthed wide-eyed pair looking at me I figured out that it was I. I was shocked as well as appalled at my self. I also started blushing everywhere and started apologizing badly. "No your not…. I mean you are very attractive and I love the way you look but I didn't mean to say that. Think it maybe but...um I'm sorry cause-uh I-I broke my filter or maybe you broke m... your very pretty?" I cringed when the last part sounded like was a question. Total silence filled the room as a staring. By this point I was contemplating simply jumping out of the window, because I figured lemons being flung at me as I lay like a bloody pancake would be a lot less painful then standing in that entry hall. I was literally tensing up for the flight out the door or flight out the window either way I was pretty sure I was outta there when Monique started to laugh. She laughed and laughed until finally André started laughing and they were leaning on each other laughing and crying. Finally after and eternity and a half Monique finally said, "Sugar you are sweet and if you think I am hot your not wrong. Now come inside, close the door, and let's get introduced properly. And this time lets skip the side of crazy hormones... for now." She turned and walked into the house. She swayed her hips perfectly making my breath hitched and I fallowed her like a puppy after a goddamn treat. Let's just say I ended up with the wrong chocolaty delight in my mouth when I followed Monique into huge as fuck, spotless, sweet smelling kitchen. Immediately my eyes went to the pile of fresh cookies sitting on the counter with steam rising out of them. As soon as André saw them he bounded over to the refrigerator and grabbed a tray of all different milks. There were all types of plain as well chocolate, strawberry, hazel, almond, vanilla including lactate free milk. He took out three glasses and Monique and André sat down with the milk tray and the cookies. I stood in the doorway awkwardly until André beckoned her over. "Come on T, chat with me and Mo." "Mo and I." Monique scolded playfully, "Aww whatever Mo she knows what I meant." I went over and sat down. Again with his stupid coy act André looked up at me and lowered his voice and said, "Pick a milk, any milk." I blinked at him getting the reference. I successfully connect what he said to the common phrase of a magician doing a card trick but I looked over at Monique for help. "Give her a mudslide she looks like she could use It.," she said simply André shrugged draining his glass of chocolate and vanilla milk, he grabbed Monique's similarly drained glass and asked "mudslides all around." I thought it was sweet the way he bustled around the kitchen humming a tune from his head. I watch as he put the milk tray back in the fridge but left out the whole milk and the chocolate syrup. He put down the milk and chocolate syrup next to a high Tec looking blender before over to a small liquor cabinet. Next he pulled out Bailey's Irish Cream and Kahlua then began making the mudslides. I kept looking back at Monique who was filing her nails though every once and a while her head would snap up and she would catch my eye. It would go something like this:
André would pour something into the blender and I would look over at Monique.
She would look up from her nails and do something flirty i.e., wink, lick her lips, or once she leaned back in her seat to stretch and pushed her chest forward.
That would jump start my hyperventilation.
To calm down I would look at André again and she would go back to her nail.
Finally he would pour something else into the blender.
This cycle happened again and again until André came back over, after an eternity and a half, with the drinks.
After the second frozen mudslide I started to feel more at ease around Monique she was funny and charming and I had to say I really liked receiving and giving attention to her. André seemed perfectly okay with me ogling his cousin. Once I relaxed everything just sort of clicked into place. Our topics of conversation ranged from Hollywood Arts, to my family, to André and his family. I had a blast see all of the boy's baby pictures and learning each story behind them. He was apparently musically inclined from a very young age and was considered a prodigy. I had a feeling at his blush that not many people knew that and I just got ten times prouder of him it's one thing to be awesome and acknowledge it's another to be a cocky shit with problems. Also I learned a ton about Monique and the whole Harris family. Apparently André came from a long line of cooks. For example his parents owned and ran several culinary academies all over the world. And the rest of his family either in self-starting chains, or in Monique and her mother's case, a very popular cafe/bakery that mixed luxury and taste with delicious home recipes. Monique and her mother actually co-raised André. According to Monique despite his ability and many European universities willingness to let him preform at their concerts halls. He'd wanted a more normal life and so when his parents traveled to the Eurasian based academies. Monique had studied and excelled under her family's guidance but found that her cousin was never really able to find common ground with the rest of them, which was why he was at Hollywood Arts. We were all pretty tipsy by the time that it got a little darker outside. And it turned out that the Harris clan had killer stereo system throughout the house and soundproof walls. I don't know how it happened but one second we were just talking over Mudslides and chocolate chip cookies and next we were clubbing it up in the living room. André was kind of doing his own thing on the couch like jumping and flipping all while laughing and singing along. While my dear bro was rocking out on the couch I was practically fucking his cousin in a corner. It is so funny because it just started as us tangoing really badly to Latin music and ended up with my ass grinding in her crotch and her hand sliding on my hips and midriff while closer by nine inch nails blasted out of the speakers. It must have been quite the sight for the four unsuspecting college kids who waltz in on the totally bizarre sight. They came at such a suck-y time though Monique was literally just beginning to explore new territory as music turned off and a deep baritone.
"Umm... is it me or did we stumble into to a club?"
"Yeah you did... but if pop our bottles of bubbly someone will die!" André spoke up from the floor where he landed. Let's be honest even if your just buzzed doing back flips on a couch when you have be knocking back mudslides is just dumb.
"And risk incurring the wrath of your aunt? Yeah self preservation I have it!" I looked up from where I was dancing (read grinding.) with Monique. I don't know what is about flirting successfully with girls but that mixed with alcohol suddenly I felt good and relaxed. After some pleasantries and a few more mudslides the group left taking my dancing partner with them. We were pretty restless so we ventured out into the parking lot. To say we had a blast is a gross understatement. They skaters and dancers were still out there and they had gone and got some freaking awesome fried chicken and pizza. They welcomed us with open arms and we chilled for a while until about 12am when the food ran out and some woman threatened to call the cops on us. It was a pretty chill night we talked about the Bird Scene a little, but mostly it a COP marathon and watching iCarly, how I met your mother, and SpongeBob free online. It felt really good that I didn't need to come out him he knew I was bi and that meant we could also rate girls and boys on the TV shows. We stayed up till about 6 in the morning and after eating some of the pulled pork rice and beans that Monique left for us we straight up passed out. It's always nice to have a best friend…I mean bro who enjoys platonic cuddling as much as you do. It felt like I had just closed my eyes when I was startled awake by fake coughing. Blearily I found myself squished between two half dressed individuals. I saw enough skin and hair from my practically useless eyes and smelled enough Calvin Klein cologne to know one of them was André so I just assumed the other was Monique. "Ahem ahem." there it was again the fake coughing. Blinking away the tears and blurry silk from my eyes I looked up into the amused eyes of Monique and another woman who looked like an older version of both Monique and André… all I heard was, "André! Tell me you did not get this fine piece of ass pregnant!" oh god what the hell did I get my self into?