Woo, It's been so long. I didn't mean for it to be another 3 years before I updated again. Time sure does fly doesn't it. I'm not going to waste time with excuses. Just know that this story will be finished. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to anything, they all belong to the main man Dan.

Confrontations

Andre POV

As I exited Tori's room, I put my back against her room door and released the breath I wasn't even aware I was holding. Seeing her like that was hard. This entire situation was an emotionally draining mess, but there was hope. For the first time in days, there was actually hope.

Moving away from the door, I sat in one of the chairs in the waiting area outside of the rooms.

"How are you, Andre?" Mr. Vega's voice startled me. I looked over to see him sitting next to me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine. I just didn't notice that you had sat next to me. I'm okay, sir, better now that Tori's awake," I answered honestly.

He looked at me, thoughtful look on his face as he asked, "So how long have you and my daughter been together?"

"Oh, umm, What?" My eyes went wide. How did he… Tori and I haven't even had a real chance to discuss our relationship yet. I knew the whole telling the families thing was going to happen eventually, but this was definitely not how I wanted it to go down.

Mr. Vega chuckled. "My wife and I have had our suspicions for a while. Well, my wife had suspicions, I, on the other hand, wanted to believe that the two of you were just friends. We even put a wager on it, I just lost $50 bucks, but anyway…"

"Oh, this hasn't been going on long, we just… It just happened while we at the beach house… made things official, I mean. We weren't together secretly or hiding anything from you guys… We just-"

A hand on my shoulder stopped me from speaking. "Calm down, Andre. It's okay." I looked behind me to see Tori's mother with a cup of coffee in her hand. "I didn't think my darling was going to do this now, but I guess we are," she shot Mr. Vega a quick pointed look. I avoided eye contact with both of them. "We are not upset in the slightest, shut up David."

I stayed silent, not knowing how to respond.

"You know, over the last few years I've noticed how you and my daughter interacted with each other, how fast the two of you became such good friends. I noticed that it started changing as we started seeing you more than the others. I could tell there was a little extra something there," She paused to look me in the eyes. "It's funny, of all the boys that my daughter has dated, I can say, without a doubt, that I like you the best. Don't tell Tori I said that."

I smiled at that, feeling a little calmer, "I won't ma'am, promise"

"I know how Tori feels about you and your actions over the past few days gives me a good idea of how you feel about her. I say all of this to say that we're just fine with you and Tori dating. You have our blessing. Isn't that right, David?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it is. You're a good kid, Andre. But if you hurt her-"

"David." Mrs. Vega gave her husband another look.

"I love your daughter, Mr. Vega, Mrs. Vega. I have no intention of hurting her." I told both of them with complete confidence.

"Glad to hear it," Mrs. Vega said as she reached to hug me. I settled for a friendly handshake with Mr. Vega. I never really thought about it, but I'm really glad that Tor's parents approve of our relationship.

As I let go of Mr. Vega's hand Cat and Robbie came around the corner. They let us know that Tori's asleep before walking off. I take the opportunity to go to the cafeteria to find something to eat. I couldn't remember the last time I did.

As I turned the corner to go near the elevator, I spotted Trina leaning against the wall with her head raised ceiling, eye closed.

"I knew that kiss meant something when I saw it," she said, causing me to pause as she continued, "Tori tried to deny it, said that the two of you just got caught up in the moment, but I knew it was more than that," she sighed, "a sister always knows," those words were barely above a whisper.

I stayed silent.

"You know, she had no idea that you liked her, thought the idea was completely crazy when I even brought it up, but I knew. I mean you made it so damn obvious."

I rolled my eyes and continued to stay silent. I mean, it wasn't that obvious was I?"

"So what made you two finally stop dancing around each other?"

Not wanting to rehash the events that have taken place over the last few days at the moment, "It was time for the truth to finally come out."

"Yeah it was. I don't think I could have taken much more of your shameless pining," coming from Trina, her words were almost endearing.

"Yeah, well, there's going to be no more of that, I guess."

I started to walk away when I heard her say, "You're good for her, just, continue to be that, Andre."

"It's," I started, when I realized that she had actually gotten my name right. "Thanks, Trina. I will." I turned towards and she offered me a small smile before I continued towards the elevator.

I took the elevator down to the first floor. As soon as the doors opened, I heard a bunch of yelling. Wondering what was going on, I rounded the nurse's station to see Jade with another girl, who's back was to the wall and looked frightened, Cat and Robbie screaming, and security trying to calm the situation down.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, It happened so fast-" I heard the girl cry.

"You're sorry? Sorry doesn't fix any of this" Jade seethed. She took a step closer to her.

"Jade stop this!" Cat screamed as she held on to Robbie. I pushed through the small crowd that was forming and over to where Cat and Robbie were standing.

Ignoring Cat, Jade stepped even closer to the girl, "Do you even realize the amount of damage you've caused? They could have died because of you. You piece of shit."

Jade raised her fist to hit the girl, "whoever has my arm has one second to let me go before..." she snatched her am away, violently, and turned to see me. "Andre."

"What's going on? What are you doing?" I said pointedly, keeping my voice calm.

"This is the bitch that hit, you, Tori, and Beck," As soon as the words left Jade's mouth, I looked at the girl. The slightest pang of anger pooled in my gut. I tamped down on it as I saw Jade trying to move towards her. I grabbed her before she could, "Let me go Andre. She needs to pay for what she did." Jade struggled and fought to get out of the hold I had her in, I just held on tighter.

The girl in front of us was a shaking. "That's why I came up here. I wanted to apologize for what happened. Look, that day I caught my boyfriend cheating and I had taken some pills and went on a long drive to clear my head and I just… I remember losing control of the car and next thing I know I had crashed. I just got out of jail this afternoon, I found out you guys may still be here. I wanted to make this my first stop."

"Oh well isn't that sweet," Jade spat as she pulled at the restraint I had on her again.

The girl jumped at Jade's tone, "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry. I know that fixes nothing but I'm just so sorry."

As much as I tried, and I hate to admit it, I didn't know if I was ready to forgive her just yet. We all could have died because you were high? All of this was too much to take in at the moment, so I stowed it in the back of my mind. My primary focus was to prevent a pissed off Jade from doing something stupid.

I looked to see a security guard walk through the crowd of people "Ma'am you're causing a scene, we're going to have to asked all of you to leave,"

"That's fine, we'll go," I told him, deciding that it was the best and safest option for everyone involved.

"What the fuck? Are you kidding me?" Jade said.

"Ma'am if you don't calm down, I'll be forced to call the police," the security guard said sternly.

"That won't be necessary, sir, we're leaving, come on Jade," Jade tried to say something else but I stopped her before she could, "this isn't going to solve anything or fix what happened. Let's just go,"

She looked at me, back at the girl, and back at me again before saying, "Fine."

She grabbed her coat off one of the chairs, knocked over a couple of chairs and left out of the double doors.

I motioned for Robbie and Cat to follow as well. At this point, it would be good if we all just left for the rest of the day.

"I would tell you that your tattoo is really cool, but you hurt my friends so I won't," Cat said to the girl before turning the walk out of the doors.

Robbie looked at Cat with wide eyes and tried to fluster out a response as he followed her. I rolled my eyes as I went to follow all of them out. I felt a hand on arm.

"Wait, I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I just want you all to know that I'm really sorry, about all of this. And thanks, you know, for not letting that girl kill me," I could hear the sincerity in her voice, but I still didn't know if I was ready to forgive just yet.

There were so many things I want to say to her, so many things I could have said, but I settled on, "I understand and you're welcome." She offered me a small smile and I returned it out of politeness before making my way to the exit.

As I walked the short distance across the parking lot, I was just thankful that the whole situation took place in the lobby and not anywhere near where Tori's room. I was thankful that Beck was gone too. It wouldn't have made the situation any better for either of them to be a part of that.

As I approached the car, all of them were already inside. I remembered to send a quick text to Trina to let her know we were leaving. No one said a word on the ride back to the hotel.

I was so exhausted from all of this. I couldn't wait until Tori got out of the hospital so we can finally start putting all of this behind us.

It was a few hours later when the rumbles in my stomach were alerting me to the fact that I haven't eaten since yesterday. Oh yeah, Jade was supposed to be getting us food before we all went back to the hospital. I guessed now was as good a time as any to go get some food. I was about to ask Robbie and Cat if they wanted anything when I noticed both of them, plus Rex, were asleep in Robbie's bed. I decided to let them sleep and I would bring something back.

Grabbing my phone and wallet, I left the room, careful not to disturb them. I was walking over to Jade's room when I noticed her sitting by the pool area. I walked around to the table she was sitting at. She straightened a little and took her feet off of the table when she saw me. "So you asked me earlier about making a food run, just wanna know if that offer is still on the table?"

"Yeah," she said as she stood, grabbing her phone and the car keys, "where do you want to go? Where are Cat and Robbie?"

"I found this sushi place not far from here that got some really great reviews. Cat and Robbie were asleep, so I thought I'd just bring 'em something back," I told her.

"Okay. Yeah, that sounds good," Jade says as she starts walking to the car, "you're paying." She said as she walked past me towards the car.

As we rode to the restaurant I couldn't help but think about the events of today. I kept looking over at her to get any type of feel for how she was right now.

"Oh my god, what?" She asked suddenly.

We can't keep putting this off. "We need to talk about this, all of it," I told her.

"I'm not apologizing for what I did today." She told me.

"I'm not asking you to. Just like I'm not going to apologize for keeping you from doing something that was going add to the incredibly long list of shit that we all are dealing with."

"Oh, stop being dramatic."

"Really, Jade, dramatic? How was you being thrown in jail going to help anything right now. You were ready to do some serious harm to that girl." I said as I struggled to keep my voice in check, the last thing I wanted to do was start an argument while in the car.

She pursed her lips. "Oh course you had be the damn voice of reason, because you're so amazing like that." Jade said under her breath.

"I am pretty amazing, aren't I?" Jade looked at me, not thinking I heard what she said.

She just rolled her eyes as we pulled into the restaurant parking lot. She parked the car and sat back in her seat. "What do you want me to say, Andre?"

"I just want the truth, Jade. No more half-assing, beating around the bush. Just honesty." I pleaded with her.

"Okay, you want the truth? I'll give it to you. Where should we start?"

"Let's start with why you wished something bad would happen to Tori. Before you even go there, I overheard when you talking to Beck. You know, when you thought I couldn't hear you, but I could." I told her looking her directly in the eyes.

She sighed loudly. "Fine, you wanna know. It's because she's so goddamned perfect to everyone. I can't walk the halls without hearing her name anymore, it was driving me crazy. She had you and Beck, wrapped around her finger since the moment she set foot in that school. I blamed her for my strained relationship with you. Every time I talked to you the conversation became about her. Bad part is I don't even think you were aware you were doing it. Then she had to have feelings for you at the same time I was redeveloping the one's I used to have for you when we were dating. When I saw you to kissing in the kitchen before we left the beach house, I almost lost it. But I have to happy for you so I had to let it go. I think everything just came to a head when we were leaving the beach house. I was just thinking about all this stuff. My mind was everywhere. I was just pissed that my life was falling apart while Ve—Tori was getting everything. I guess that's what led me to the wayward thought of something bad happening to her. I just wanted her to go away, but not like this. Never like this," she ran her hands through her hair, looked away from me, and out the window.

Hearing her explanation still didn't make me much better, but I was thankful for her honesty. "You said that you didn't want it to happen like this, was there something special you were thinking or…"

"Look Andre, it was dumb, thoughtless, and super immature. I realize that now. Trust me, those thoughts have been haunting me since the accident. I don't want her to die, be seriously injured or anything like that. I just blame her for all the changes that have been happening with us. I was just thinking that maybe if she went away things would go back to way they were."

"You know none of what's been happening is her fault, right? That's all on us and some form of these changes were bound to happen whether she were here or not," I told her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know."

"And about you and me-"

"Andre that's not," she interrupted.

"No, we gotta talk about this. Where did that come from Jade?"

"That fucking play we starred in together. I guess it brought back some old feelings I thought that I buried when we broke up all those years ago and I met Beck." She confessed.

"I seems like a lifetime ago we were together."

"Yeah, it does. That's why I don't understand this."

"Jade," I put my finger under her chin and turn her head to face me, "you know I'll always have love for you, you were my first serious girlfriend, well as serious as two 13 year olds can be, anyway. And I'm flattered that you still have love for me. We agreed to always be friends after we were over, I just don't want this to ruin that," I told her and I meant it. I really valued her friendship. She is and always will be an important person in my life.

"It won't. You're one of the few people in that school I can actually tolerate. Can't lose that. I want you to be happy. I'm happy for you, Andre. Honest," Jade said.

I pulled Jade in for a hug that she, surprisingly, returned, "so we good?" I asked her as we parted.

"Yeah, we're good." She responded. "Ugh, can we get out now. I'm starving."

"Lead the way," We exited the car.

I knew it was going to take more than I night for things to get back on track, but everything seemed to be off to a good start.

I'm rusty at this, but I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Hated it? Liked it? Let me know. Reviews are love and constructive crit is appreciated.

Special Shoutouts:

Kaylee: Thanks so much for reading!

trustme93: Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Plus we're the same age. Thanks so much for continuing to support this story.

kiwimaddy: I did! Hope you enjoy.

To the people that faved, alerted, liked but didn't do either: thanks for stopping by my little tale and giving it a moment of your time.

~Peace, Tandre, Strawberries~