Chapter 11: Drake

Tori's POV

I just got home from school, and right away I hear the doorbell go off. Jade said to meet her at her place after Mindy dropped me off, but… there's no way Mindy could have gotten here this quickly. She had to stop by her house first- or so she told me, before coming to get me.

I was stumped. It could be either one of them.

"Beck?" I question, opening the door.

"Is your sister home?" He asks, and peeks inside.

"Um, no. But why are you…" I pause. "Well come on in."

"Thanks." He steps inside, and puts his backpack next to the couch as he takes a seat on the armrest.

I meet him over there, and take a seat while shutting the lid on my laptop before returning my attention to him. "So, why are you looking for Trina?" I ask.

"I'm not." He replies. "I'm sick of Drake complaining about her during lunch, and I came over to tell her to knock it off. He's sick of it, and I know exactly how it feels."

I laugh a little. "Well you can try, but I've already talked to her about it. She's not giving up on that boy for anything."

He sighs. "Alright. Well I'll see her at school or something, I guess." He decides, and stands from his spot.

"Waaaait." I say, and take a step towards him. "Why do you all of the sudden care about this 'Drake' kid's problems?" I ask, and I think I see him blush a little. "You don't… you don't have a crush on Trina, do you?"

He rolls his eye, but his face was still glowing. "No, Tori. I don't."

My eyes widen. "Oh my god! You have a crush on Trina!" I smile, but it fades. "Ew, wait, why?"

"I said I don't, okay? Of all the people, I thought you'd understand that."

He's right. I am her sister. I know what Trina's like, and it's not fun. It still didn't add up, though. He was suddenly acting all nervous.

As he left out the door, Mindy came inside. She gives me a questioning look as I meet her at the door, and Beck drives off.

"He wanted to tell Trina to get off Drake's back." I explain.

"Ah." She nods. "Wait, he came all the way here to tell her that?"

I nod. "Weird, right?"

"Well, I don't know." Mindy ponders. "Do you think Beck has a crush?"

"That's what I thought!" I excite, and squeeze her shoulders. "The way he was talking and acting when he came in here- it definitely sounds like it."

She grins. "Aw, that's kinda cute."

"So what do we do about it?" I ask, and take her hand. "Should we try to get him to admit it?"

She leads me to her car, and opens the door for me. I hop in, and she closes it, runs to the other side, and jumps in as well. "I don't know if we should interfere. I mean, it would be great to see them get together, but…" She shrugs. "Well I didn't have anything planned anyway. Let's go!"

"Yay!" I excite.

Mindy was actually doing a lot better since her break up with Josh. She's sleeping at her house again- well, most of the time, anyway, and the two, though they haven't interacted yet, can be in the same room without the world imploding on itself.

But anyway, it's good to see her participating in an activity she seems to be enjoying.

First things first, we decided to go find Trina. I agreed, and told Mindy where to find her; at an audition for a commercial involving hair products. And yes; this is the same audition she was practicing singing for.

"Oh, hey!" Trina greets as we walk in. "Are you guys here to wish me luck?"

"Actually, we-"

"Trina Vega." A lady calls, stepping halfway out of the door.

"Oops, hang on. I'll be out in just a minute!" Trina announces, and heads inside.

I look to Mindy, who shrugs and takes a seat. I sit next to her. "So what are we going to tell her, anyway?"

"I guess we didn't really think that one through." Mindy notes. She takes a breath. "How about… 'Trina; stop harassing Drake, he's off limits, and you need to move on.'"

I nod. "Perfect!" Perfect and discreet, that is. After all, we can't just tell Trina that Beck likes her. She'll go all crazy and obsessive, and… Trina.

Mindy and I wait. Five minutes later, she stumbles out, smiling and waving. "Thanks! So, I'll hear from you soon?"

The lady glares at her, and slams the door.

"How'd it go?" Mindy questions.

"Awesome." Trina declares, looking proud of herself. "Thanks for coming down here, but it totally wasn't necessary. I don't need your luck; I'm a star."

"Actually, that isn't really why we came down here." Mindy begins.

She looks between her and me. "Well, what, then?"

"You need to lay off Drake." Mindy says. "He's sick of you chasing him, everywhere, okay? He's off limits, period."

"Aaaand." I throw in. "You need to move on, start thinking about dating other people, hmm?"

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Drake loves me, and I'm not going to stop until he understands that." Trina says, and speed-walks to the door with her head up.

I chase after her. "W-wait!"

Mindy and I follow her out the doors. She continues to walk. "What?"

"Don't you think there's better looking guys out there than Drake? You know, like guys you've known longer?" I ask her.

"And besides, he's just not interested in you. I hate to burst your bubble, but Drake's already got his sights set on someone else." Mindy informs her.

"He does?" She asks, and stops in her tracks.

He does? Well, maybe Mindy knows something I don't. Oh! Or, she's just making it up to further convince Trina he's not interested.

"Sorry." Mindy shrugs.

Trina makes a pouty face. "Look. I don't need you two telling me who I can and can't have feelings for. Who do you think you are, anyway? I don't know about you Mindy, but of all people, Tori, I thought you'd understand that."

That being said, she slams her car door, looking very upset with us as she drove away.

Mindy sighs. "Actually, maybe she's right, Tori."

"But… but I wasn't trying to-" I stutter, but Mindy silences me by placing her finger on my lips.

"Trina's going to like who she likes, and we can't change that. We're just going to have to try something else." She claims.

Trina didn't know we were trying to set her up with Beck; she thought we were just defending Drake, and telling her to give up. I guess I could see how it may have seemed that way. Anyway, Mindy was right. There was obviously no hope getting through to Trina, so…

"Now what?" Mindy asks as she begins to drive.

"The way I see it, there's three options."

"Go on." She prompts.

"We could go to Drake, and talk to him about maybe trying to get rid of Trina. We could go to Beck, and try to convince him to open up a little, or…"

"Or what? Come on, the suspense is killing me!"

"We get Jade involved." I pitch, and move my eyebrows up and down.

"I like." She smiles, and makes a U-turn.

Mindy's POV

We arrived at Jade's house, and Tori knocked on her door. Jade wasn't expecting her until about four today, so we were a bit early. Lucky for us, she was still home.

"Tori and Mindy." She smirks, and steps to the side. She gives Tori a quick kiss before I enter too.

"What, none for me?" I joke, but Jade lays a quick one on me.

I'd be lying if i said she wasn't bold.

"What are you two doing here? It's only three thirty." Jade questions, leading us up to her room.

"Well, Beck came over after school, and he and I had a little chat…" Tori begins.

We enter Jade's room, and take a seat on her bed. "Okay. Why do I care?"

"We're getting there." I tell her, and she rolls her eyes impatiently.

"Okay." Tori continues. "Well, what happened was, Beck originally came over to yell at Trina to leave Drake alone."

"Yeah- but apparently he was acting all nervous, right?" I add.

"Right right right." Tori says. "So, I asked him why he cared about Trina harassing Drake, and…"

"We think Beck has a crush on Drake!" I blurt, too excited to hold it in.

"What?" Jade asks I shocked.

"What?!" Tori exclaims, even more shocked.

"W- but, Tori, I thought you already knew." I ask, not a little confused myself. "That's why we told Trina to back off, right?"

She looked at me with a blank expression.

"…you said he was acting nervous, you said you thought he had a crush-"

"On Trina." Tori corrects. "I thought he had a crush on my sister- not Josh's brother!"

"Wow." I stammer. "All I can say is… really?" I laugh. "You think Beck- or anyone, for that matter, would have a crush on your sister?"

Tori's POV

Well, yeah! Wait… no. What was it Beck said to me again?

"Oh my god! You have a crush on Trina! Ew, wait, why?"

"I said I don't, okay? Of all the people, Tori, I thought you'd understand that."

I can't believe I didn't see it before. Beck wasn't talking about how gross Trina was, he was talking about…

"Beck's gay?" I ask.

"You didn't know that?" Mindy asks.

"Oops." Jade says, and I look at her.

"You knew?!"

"I thought I told you that!" She defends.

It still just didn't seem that logical. I start to add it all up. "So Beck came over, because he wanted to yell at Trina to leave Drake alone, not because he likes Trina, but because he…"

Jade nods.

"And, and was acting all nervous and everything because he thought I'd caught on that he actually has a crush on…"

"Drake." Mindy finishes for me, while also nodding.

I guess that makes a lot more sense actually, but… "No way. There's no way Drake would go for him." I announce. "He's too girl-crazed."

"Actually, he hasn't had that much luck with the girls around here." Jade comments.

"But believe me- he's girl crazed all right." Mindy informs us. "But he slips up every now and then."

Jade and I look at her.

"Once in a rare while, he'll comment on guys looks or behaviors. Personally, I don't think he even realizes it. Now I'm not saying he likes Beck that way, but…" Mindy trails. She appears lost in thought, or a memory.

"Well what?" Jade stammers. "God, does anyone talk in complete sentences anymore?"

Mindy sighs. "There was something he said back when we first joined the school. I didn't think it was such a big deal, and, in regards to him, it still doesn't. But if Beck really does have a crush on him, then that changes things dramatically."

"Well what did he say?" I ask.

"Can you believe that? She picked the pretty boy over me!"

"Drake, for fuck sake, will you just let it go? She's probably his girlfriend."

"Yeah- I doubt it. I've seen, like, six other girls on him just today."

"He really called Drake 'pretty'?" Jade questions, sitting upright now.

Mindy nods. "And like I said, he probably isn't in love with Beck or anything, but maybe he's developing some sort of feelings for him besides a friendship. I say he just doesn't realize it." She pauses for a second, and returns to her thinking pose. "And actually, I don't think he realizes it all together. Like I said before, it's not the first time I've seen him slip up like that."

"It almost seems like, with the way he's always hitting on and obsessing over girls, maybe he's trying to reject the idea." I pitch.

"Guys and girls who are insecure about their sexuality tend to do that, so I hear." Jade adds.

"So that's it, then. It's very possible Beck and Drake have a sort of attraction between each other." Mindy declares.

"Aw." I smile. "That is cute!"

"And that's why you two came over- well, that's why Mindy came over." Jade corrects. "You want me to help you guys get them together?"

"Oh- this is going to be so much fun!" I excite, and Jade and Mindy agree.