Wow, this chapter was not meant to be this long. Sorry. I had fun writing it, though. I think this is what the Tandre fans have been waiting for, but I won't say anything else. ;) Read on, and leave a review. (:
We're gonna start by drinking old cheap bottles of wine, sit talking up all night, saying things we haven't for a while…
The words rang out from the radio sitting on the nightstand in Beck and Jade's hotel room. It was their last day in Los Angeles, and Beck was making sure that all of the luggage was packed and ready to go while Jade was standing in front of the mirror making sure that she looked alright before going to the airport. Beck was singing the words to the song under his breath as he examined the room, double-checking that they weren't leaving anything, and then he slowly walked over to Jade and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"She's in line at the door with her head held high," he sang softly against her shoulder. "While I just lost my job but didn't lose my pride."
Jade smiled a little and placed her hand over his gently, and she continued the song. "But we both know how, how we're gonna make it work when it hurts, when you pick yourself up, you get kicked to the dirt."
Beck spun her around so that she was now facing him, and his arms found their way around her waist again as he started to sway in time to the music. Jade leaned her head against his chest, smiling once again in contentment, and before she knew it, Beck was spinning her again. She laughed as they continued to dance, because no matter how many times they practiced, neither of them could dance to save their life. He carried on singing the song to her, which she found oddly comforting, and when the song reached the end, he dipped her without warning and kissed her passionately.
When he pulled away from her, she asked, "Can I see it?"
Beck pulled her out of the dip and looked at her in confusion. "See what?"
"My ring," Jade answered, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world.
"How did you know about-"
Jade rolled her eyes. "Tori told me. Well, I guessed. Don't worry, it wasn't intentional. She just sucks at lying. So can I see it?"
Beck sighed. He had been planning on proposing to her as soon as they got back to New York. But now that the secret was out, there was no sense in trying to hide it from her. He frowned and pulled the jewelry box out of his pocket, handing it over to Jade reluctantly.
When Jade first opened the box, she looked completely unaffected by the ring. She just stared at it, her face totally blank with emotion. Beck was growing more and more nervous by the second, because he knew from past experience that it wasn't a good sign when Jade was speechless for such a long period of time.
Jade finally looked up at him after what seemed like hours, but her face was still blank. "It's pretty," she said.
Beck let out a breath that he hadn't realized that he was holding. "So you like it?"
Jade nodded and looked back down at the ring again. "Yeah, I do."
Beck was incredibly confused. She was being really short with him, and most of the time, that meant she was angry. But she looked so calm…he was really worried. "So…will you marry me?" he asked timidly, starting to rock back and forth and not looking her in the eyes. This was not the way he planned for this to happen.
She was quiet again, and then she handed the box back to him and turned back to the mirror. "No."
"Wait, what?" Beck said as he followed after her, shoving the box back in his pocket. "You've said no five times. I have a ring this time. I spent a ton of money on this-"
"It's not my fault you're an idiot."
Beck sighed exasperatedly and ran a hand through his hair, as he always did when he started to get stressed. He could feel another fight coming on, but he was going to try his hardest to keep his voice even. He hated fighting, and he knew that she did too. "Why do you always say no? You've never given me a reason. I need a reason."
"Because my dad left my mom, okay?" Jade yelled as she turned around to face him again. "He married her, and then he left her without any warning. I don't want to go through all of that."
Beck backed away from her a little bit, taken aback by the sudden outburst. There were tears streaming down her cheeks now, and he quickly moved over to her and took her into his arms. "Jade, don't cry. Please. You know I would never do that to you. We've been together for eight years. Why would I leave now?"
She cried for a really, really long time. Sometimes she would talk about how much she hated her dad and how he had ruined her life, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. They ended up on the bed, lying next to each other, with Jade curled up against Beck's chest and Beck playing with her hair, trying to calm her down. He hadn't meant to upset her in the first place.
"I'm sorry," Jade muttered once she was calm. "I didn't mean to get all upset." She got up from the bed and wiped away the few tears still remaining. "I do want to get married, you know. I'm just…I don't know…scared. But I'll make a deal with you." She turned around to face him with that malicious smile that she always wore when she was up to no good. "I'll say yes…if you give me a real proposal. And a good one. Not one of those cheesy, clichéd proposals that you always see in the movies."
"What?" Beck asked. He was confused once again. "That hardly seems fair. I mean…marriage is supposed to be about love and stuff. Not about how awesome the proposal is."
Jade raised an eyebrow and joined him on the bed again. "I do love you. A lot," she said, pecking him lightly on the lips. "But I also want a nice proposal." She paused and looked down at the bed, playing with the sheets just a little bit, trying to think of what to say next. "Beck…I don't wanna go back to New York. I hate it. I wanna stay here."
Beck frowned. He felt the same way. New York had been nothing but horrible to both of them for the past five years, and he had wanted to leave since the day he got there. "I do too. I just don't think I can put up with New York anymore. And plus, I don't want to raise a kid in New York City."
"Can we move back here?" Jade asked. It was sudden, but they had both been thinking it for a long time. It was just the first time that the idea had been spoken out loud. "Do we have enough money to move back? I mean, you have a job when we get back home, and we probably can't afford a new house right now."
Beck hesitated for a second. "Um…well, we could stay with my parents-"
"Ugh, your parents."
Beck rolled his eyes. "They're not that bad. We can stay with them for a little while until we can afford our own place, if you really want to move back that badly."
"I do," Jade said. "I can't stand New York anymore. It's like it's mocking me. I know I have talent, but it's like…in New York, I'm not worth anything. I just sit in the apartment and stare at the wall all day."
Beck nodded in understanding. He knew exactly how she felt. He hadn't done much of anything since high school, and they were living on a very low budget. Both of them wanted to be professional actors more than anything, but he knew that Jade's passion and longing for the stage were much stronger than his. And he would do anything to make her dreams come true…
"Alright. I'll go back to New York. I'll quit my job, get everything packed, get rid of the apartment, and come back here," he finally decided. "You can stay with my parents until I get back, okay?" Jade groaned again at the idea of Beck's parents, but he silenced her again. "I'll only be gone for a few days. Now come on. We have to say goodbye to Cat before she leaves for Paris."
…
Tori walked into the hotel for the last time before they were all going to separate again. The week had gone by entirely too fast, and she felt like she had barely had any time to spend with all of her friends. She sat down with Trina in the lobby, waiting calmly for one of her friends to emerge from the elevator directly across from her.
Surprisingly, the next person she saw was not Cat, Robbie, Beck, or Jade. Andre walked in through the front door holding a large stack of papers and a manila envelope. He seemed to be totally absorbed by the papers, and Tori walked over to him, cautiously eyeing the papers as she did so. She knew they had something to do with Chelsea.
"Hey, Andre," she said quietly with a small smile, placing her hand gently on his arm. He looked up at her and returned a small smile, but she knew that he wasn't very happy. "What's going on?" She nodded toward the papers.
Andre frowned deeply and sighed as he flipped one of the pages and shook his head. "Chelsea called me last night. I thought for sure that she would have calmed down a little bit by now, but she told me that she went down to the courthouse, and she got annulment papers. Not divorce, annulment. She said it was easier to do than divorce. She's already signed." He continued studying the pages, his eyes narrowing every once in a while as if he didn't like what he saw, and then he looked up at Tori. "She said that I was under the influence of drugs during the ceremony. That's the reason that we're getting annulled." He grumbled under his breath and moved over to a small table in the corner of the room, pulling out a pen and angrily signing his name on the front page of the stack.
Tori grimaced as she watched him forcefully writing, and she slowly sat down next to Andre. "So…this is it, huh?"
Andre didn't reply. He just continued to sign on each page that was necessary, and after a long time, he finally stuffed the papers back into the envelope and threw them to the side. "Yeah, that's it. I'm taking them down to the courthouse, and then it's over. God, I don't know why I even decided to marry her. I don't even know why I loved her. We didn't have anything in common." He shook his head and blew out an exasperated breath, turning away from Tori.
Tori started biting her nails, that awful habit that she had picked up in the last couple of years, and looked over to Trina for support. She honestly had no idea what to do or say in this situation. Should she just tell him that everything was going to be okay? Trina didn't seem to be interested in anything that was going on, though. She was completely distracted by her phone in front of her. So, with a small sigh, Tori moved closer to Andre and started to rub his back soothingly, hoping that that would calm him down.
Andre turned around to face her again, his eyes meeting hers. And for a second, it seemed as if they were the only two people in the world. Andre actually found that he was completely speechless, getting lost in those dark chocolate brown eyes that he had fallen in love with so many years ago. Who had they been talking about? Where were they? He was in his own world.
The moment ended when Tori looked down at the floor, taking another deep breath in. Now was the time. Damn it, she had been interrupted every single time she had tried to tell him how she felt. She was not going to let it happen again. She was just going to spit it out. It would be like ripping off a band-aid. The quicker she did it, the less it would hurt.
"Andre, I'm not going to let anything stop me from telling you this," she murmured, not meeting his eyes. "I've been trying to tell you ever since I got here, and I'm tired of not getting to say it. So here it is. Are you ready?" She paused, making sure that she herself was ready, and then said, "I'm still in love with you, Andre."
There was no response for a very, very long time. Tori looked up from the floor and bit her lip. Andre's face was exactly how she had imagined it to be at this point. He was staring at her in disbelief and shock, clearly struggling for words to say.
"I um…I don't really know what to say to that-"
Without warning, Tori busted out laughing, almost falling out of her chair as she did so. Andre jumped back in his, startled by the outburst, and he quickly glanced around the room to see that everyone was looking in their direction, hoping to find out what was so hilarious. If only Andre knew the answer to that…
"Um…" he said, turning back to Tori with an amused smile on his face. "I wasn't aware that I was being funny."
Tori was still giggling insanely, and she grabbed his arm tightly, trying to regain her composure. Her sides were aching now, and tears were streaming from her eyes, and she was finally able to cool down enough to talk. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, but I just heard what I said, and it's the craziest thing. I haven't seen you in five years, five years, and now I'm telling you that I'm in love with you. It's just so stupid. I'm stupid. I'm sorry." She wiped a tear away from her eye and chuckled a little bit more.
Andre's eyebrows knitted together as he stared at her in confusion. He had yet to find what was so hilarious about the situation. "Um…well, I don't think it's all that stupid," he muttered, rubbing his neck and looking anywhere but at her.
Tori's beautiful smile disappeared, and it was replaced with a look of confusion, much like Andre's. She tilted her head to the side and contemplated what he could possibly mean by that. Did he return the feelings for her? Was she sure that she even cared about him like that? Now that she had told him, she just felt…stupid.
"Wait, what do you-" she started to ask, but got interrupted by a shrill voice from somewhere close by.
"Hi!" Cat exclaimed, coming to a stop in front of Andre and Tori and dropping her bags beside her. She was dressed in a short, pink dress with white high heels and a white beret, which made her red hair stand out more than it usually did. "I'm leaving for Paris in an hour!"
"Aww," Tori said sadly as she got up from the table and threw her arms around Cat. "I really wish we could have seen each other more. This week just flew by, huh?"
"Yeah," Cat agreed, returning the hug. "I got a call from my assistant, though, and she said that I've had a lot of customers in the past week. I need to get back." She let go of Tori and darted over to Andre, throwing her arms around him. "I'll miss you guys so much! Stay in touch. Maybe I'll be back to visit in a couple of months." She smiled and released Andre, and she checked her phone for the time. The plane was leaving soon, and she needed to get a taxi and head across town in the next few minutes. "I'll just say bye to Beck, Jade, and Robbie, and then I'll be gone."
An awful pain seemed to shoot through her entire body when she said Robbie's name. She wouldn't see him for a long time. She and Robbie had been rather close during high school, and they had made foolish mistakes in the past few days. They did not love each other in a romantic way, and she wished that she could take back everything that had happened. It had possibly messed up their friendship forever. She had to forget him. She had to get back to Paris and continue her life there. Pretend that nothing ever happened…
"Hey, Cat," Beck said as he and Jade walked over to her. He hugged her for a second, and Jade hugged her as well. "You ready to go to the airport?"
Cat frowned. No, she really wasn't ready. She wanted to stay here, but she had a life in Paris. She loved Paris, and she didn't want to leave, even if she would miss her friends greatly. "Yeah, sure. I just have to say bye to Robbie first."
As if on cue, Robbie walked into the room, slowly and warily, not looking at any of his friends. He was going to miss them all greatly, but he was going to miss Cat the most. He couldn't bear looking at her or saying goodbye. He didn't know when he was going to see her again, or if he was going to see her again at all. But he was going to pack up enough courage and do it. This was the last time he was going to see her for the time being. He wanted to remember her.
"Robbie," Cat said as she walked over to him. She could feel tears starting to pool up, and she bit her lip to try to stop them from spilling over. She had to act like this wasn't killing her right now.
"Cat," Robbie said. She was standing just a couple of feet away from him, looking innocent and indecisive of what she should do next. Robbie gulped down that awful feeling in his throat and walked forward, pulling her into a hug. He closed his eyes and nestled his head into her shoulder, hoping against hope that this was how it could stay. Her tiny frame fit perfectly against his body, like she was his missing puzzle piece. She smelled sweet, like a mixture of lavender and strawberries and all of the other amazing smells in the world. He would remember this forever.
"Bye, Robbie," she whispered in his ear, and just like that, she let go of him. She waved goodbye to Trina, who was still on the other side of the room, and grabbed her bags, turning to face Beck once again. "I'm ready."
"Great," Beck said as he turned to give Jade a goodbye kiss. "I'll see you in a few days." When he started to head out the door, he noticed that Cat was not following him, and he spun around to see that everyone was staring at him questioningly. "Oh, Jade and I are moving back here. We hate New York."
"Oh, yay! That's so exciting!" Cat squealed, and then she remembered that she no longer lived her. She frowned and looked up at Tori. "Are you coming?"
"No," Tori said, shaking her head vigorously. "I hate New York too. I called to quit my job this morning. I'm calling my landlord when I get back home."
"Oh," Cat murmured, looking down at the ground. "Well…okay." She was the only one that was not moving back, and she hated that. But she had to return to Paris. "You ready to go now?" she asked, casting a glance at Beck. He nodded, and with a final goodbye to everyone, they were gone.
Robbie watched her until he saw her loading all of her things into a taxi outside, and then he turned around to face his four friends that were still in the room. He tried to fake a smile, tried to show them that everything was okay, but it wasn't. His insides were on fire, and he was starting to hate himself more and more for not begging her to stay. He wanted her to stay more than anything…
As he watched Tori sit down at the table with Andre again, he saw them shoot a glance at one another that was probably supposed to go unnoticed. Their high school love was catching up with them now, so why couldn't his? He was practically in love with Cat when they were teenagers, and if he had to fight for that love now, he would. Maybe he was being foolish, but he didn't care. Without any explanation, he ran out of the hotel and onto the busy streets of Los Angeles. He was going to make Cat stay, whether she liked it or not.
It took a long time to get a taxi. It seemed like the whole world was against him today, but he was going to fight it. He checked his watch frequently, counting down the minutes until Cat's plane left. The taxi got stuck in a huge line of traffic at one point, and he had half an hour to get to the airport before Cat was gone.
After a while, he grew impatient with the waiting. "Is there any way you can pass all of these cars?" he asked, leaning over the seat so that he could see the driver's face clearly. "I mean, can't you just drive on the sidewalk or something?"
"I'm doing the best I can, pal," the driver said exasperatedly as he pulled the car forward just a little bit.
Robbie sighed and checked his watch again. Twenty minutes. The airport was still several blocks away. In this traffic, it would be impossible to make it in time. With a final glance out the window at the cars in front of him, Robbie groaned and pulled out all of the money that he had in his pocket, handed it to the driver with a "thank you," and got out of the car, slamming the door behind him.
He ran as fast as he could, trying to avoid the people on the sidewalks, but it seemed like everything was moving ten times slower than it normally did in LA. He shoved his way through crowds and picked up his pace. His lungs were about ready to explode from the heat and from running so fast, but he persisted. It would all be worth it. Cat had to stay with him.
The airport was just as crowded as the sidewalks. He rushed past the security without even being noticed, and he immediately began searching the place for that bright, vivid red hair that he loved so much.
The 10:00 flight to Paris will be leaving in approximately five minutes.
Robbie mentally cursed that stupid voice on the intercom, reminding him that he only had five minutes. She couldn't have boarded the plane already…no. It was impossible.
Just when he was about to lose all hope, he spotted her on the other side of the room. "Cat!" he screamed, although he doubted that she could hear him. He rushed forward as fast as he could, once again not caring that his lungs were on fire and his breath was coming out short. "Cat!" he yelled again, once he was closer.
She turned around with a startled look on her face, but before she could say anything, Robbie collided with her and pressed his lips against hers. It didn't last for very long, though, because Cat jerked herself away from him.
"Robbie, what are you doing?" she demanded. "I'm supposed to be on the plane right now."
Robbie shook his head and took her hands in his, squeezing them tightly. "Please stay, Cat. I'll miss you too much."
Cat was speechless. No one had ever tried to stop her from leaving. She didn't think that anyone had ever cared enough to try. But now that Robbie was here…no, she couldn't. Paris was waiting for her. "I can't, Robbie. I'm sorry," she murmured. Tears were rolling down her cheeks now, and she didn't bother to wipe them away. She pulled her hands away from him and waved a little as she began to walk away. "Bye, Robbie. I'll see you soon."
With that, she was gone. Gone from his life for now. They had gone five years without contacting each other. It was sure to happen again. But she was on the plane now, on her way to Paris, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. So Robbie left the airport with tears in his eyes and a broken heart.