Chapter 10

Tori scrolled through pictures of venues and groaned. "You know, I am so close to jus dragging you to Las Vegas." She told Beck, who sat next to her, he looked up from his own laptop to Tori's screen. "I thought you were settled on an NY wedding?" Tori opened her mouth to reply but was cut off, "No conferring." Interjected their wedding planner, at 5'3" in stilettos, she wasn't a tall woman but, intimidating she was.

She scowled the couple through the glasses that perched precariously on the tip of her nose. "You are choosing these venues individually." Tori dropped her head back down to her screen, but Beck spoke up, "If weddings are about people coming together, then why are we doing this separately?"

"Do you singlehandedly run one of Manhattan's finest wedding planning businesses?"

"Well, no but-"

"Are you paid thousands by millionaires and celebrities alike to create their dream weddings?"

"No, but I just think-"

She put a hand up to halt him, "Exactly. Keep your opinions to yourself." Beck rolled his eyes and faced his computer again. A few minutes later a bell rang out and Jillian slammed the notepad she was scribbling in shut.

"Right, well, time's up. Compile your list of dream venues and we shall compare them in our next session. No conferring. I will show myself out." With that, she stood from her chair and strutted out of the apartment.

Tori let a big breath and Beck ran his fingers through his hair, leaning back on his chair. "She was…nice." Tori said, hesitant. "That's one word for her, I guess." Beck agreed, standing from his chair and stretching out his arms.

Tori scrolled down the wedding website biting her lip, "I had no idea weddings were so expensive. Maybe I should get a job." Beck chuckled and put his finger under Tori's chin, lifting her head to face him. "Hey, you do not need to get a job. We have more than enough to pay for our wedding." He whispered before kissing her gently.

Tori gave him a small smile, "I know but I feel bad that you're paying for it all. All I'm doing is showing up in a dress."

Beck laughed again, "And that's all you have to do to make me the happiest guy on Earth." He lowered his voice to say, "Though the dress isn't compulsory, feel free not to wear anything."

Tori smacked him on the arm and pushed him away so she could stand up, "You are so…urgh!" He laughed so Tori smacked him again, just earning her a smirk in return.

"I'm serious though, I don't like that I'm just asking you to pay for everything." Beck shook his head and pulled Tori into him by her waist. "That money was given to me by someone I love, to spend on people I love, to spend on you and the best day of our lives. There is nothing wrong with that."

Tori rested her head on his shoulder, "Okay, but I think I'll still get a job, even if it's just to make me feel better." Beck chuckled and kissed her forehead, "Fine, if you insist." Tori smiled and pulled away.

"What time is it?"

"Erm, nearly 3, why?"

"I'm supposed to be meeting Kat, Kayleigh and Julie for coffee, I better go. And remember you're going out with Jared tonight." Tori darted out of the kitchen and went to retrieve her bag and jacket. "See you later, love you." She shouted to Beck as she went through the door.

"Love you too." He replied, making his way to sit down at the kitchen table, he was doing some minor editing of his short film before the competition and was using any spare time he had to do it.

Tori pushed open the door to the coffee shop, the smell of freshly ground coffee diffused through the air and surrounded her senses. Across the room she spotted Kat and Julie at a table. Julie saw her and waved her over.

"Hey" Tori said when she sat down, "where's Kayleigh?" she ordered her coffee and looked at her friends. "Her grandparents came to visit for the weekend, she's just dropping them off at the airport. How come you're late?"

"we had a meeting with Jillian, the wedding planner. Her perfectly coordinated outfits and bags led me to believe she was nice, but she's actually Ms Trunchball in disguise." The girls laughed and a waitress delivered Tori's coffee.

"So guys, I was thinking of getting a new tattoo." Kat declared, Tori looked up from her coffee and noticed for the first time that Kat had purple streaks in her otherwise black hair.

"Oh yeah? What of?" Kat reached into her bag and brought out a crumpled piece of paper, unfolding it she revealed a drawing of some birds flying upwards and the words 'sometimes you gotta fall before you can fly' written underneath.

"Oh that's so pretty!" Julie exclaimed, holding the paper in front of her face with a big smile. "I wish my mom would let me get a tattoo but, she says they're not for girls like me."

Kat rolled her eyes and tore the sheet away from her, putting it back into her bag. "Well I'm glad you like it, I was thinking of getting it done tonight."

"Whereabouts are you getting it?" Tori asked, the only tattoo of Kat's she'd ever seen was the dragon on the inside of her arm and a star behind her right ear, though she'd been told that there was more of them. To add to that she had three earrings in both her earlobes and four other piercings on her right ear. Tori wondered if she had to take them all out to go through airport security.

Julie then started to describe the dress that she bought to wear for her date on Friday night; she was going for dinner with a guy called Chase that she met in her English lit class. When Julie was halfway through describing the way his hair curled, Kayleigh burst through the doors of the coffee shop.

She sat opposite Tori and flung her bag down with a sigh, she then peeled off her leather jacket and took a large gulp from her coffee. The three girls watched, bemused, until Kayleigh started to talk.

"So, I rock up to my apartment at 7 am on Saturday morning, wearing last night's dress and a guy's hoodie, Jimmy Choo's in hand after spending the night with a guy called Miguel, to find my grandparents waiting on the street for me to let them in. Didn't want to call in case they 'interrupted my studies.' But you know, showing up on my doorstep unannounced isn't interrupting my studies at all!"

She finished her story and took and deep breath, then another sip of her coffee. Tori had come to expect this kind of tale from Kayleigh, every little event was a crisis. It was what she had missed in her life when she moved away from LA and Cat.

Beck woke up feeling like he had just crawled out of a grave. He threw the covers off of himself and headed to the kitchen. The ability to walk in a straight line and see clearly was seriously unappreciated, he concluded.

His head hurt and his body ached, his stomach felt like it wanted to escape from his body but the worst pain was the one in his ear. What he could possibly have done to his ear was a mystery.

Running his fingers through his dishevelled hair, he searched the cupboards for some hangover relief. Jared stumbled into the kitchen behind him, without a word he made up a smoothie of random fruits and poured it into two glasses. He handed one to Beck and threw his own down his throat before dropping the glass into the sink.

Beck swallowed his own concoction and peered at Jared, across his chest there was a big bandage. "What happened to you?" he asked, tipping his head to the bandage. Jared shrugged and in one swift movement pulled the bandage off.

Below it, the words 'to live would be an awfully big adventure' were scrawled in sloppy black writing, carved into very sore looking skin. Jared's eyes widened and he threw the bandage on the floor.

"Shit."

"Tori would kill me if I was you right now."

Jared scoffed and tipped his head to look at Beck, or more specifically his right ear. He got closer and brushed the hair away from it, "Dude why do you have an earring?"