Hello readers and followers! Sorry if I haven't written anything in almost a month but truth is, I was thinking of discontinuing the story. I was so sad that Victorious is no more! :'( It's a sad truth and its affecting my creative juices. We'll see how things go. Anyway, I guess I owe you all another chapter. I'm not that cruel to just leave you all hanging. Here goes.

Chapter 14 – I made her smile!

BECK's POV

It's been exactly a week since. Ryder got out of the hospital yesterday with only one visit from Tori and I. I almost blew my top off when Tori sat on the couch and watched Jade tend to Ryder's every need. Jade glanced at me a few times but I didn't even return the favour. For me, we're not together right now. I just couldn't imagine what Tori felt that day. She was supposed to be doing what Jade was doing for Ryder but she had no choice but to watch. Before we left, Ryder asked her not to visit anymore because he really isn't comfortable having a stranger around. Ryder's parents also felt bad for Tori and kept reassuring her that everything will be back to normal soon. Tori always replied with a weak smile. I almost walked across the room to knock some sense in his head. How could he just forget her? Jade just swallowed when Ryder said this. Everything about Tori since has been on Zombie mode. She goes through all the motions in school but she was always quiet. I would drive her home, she would just get out without any word. I would text her and all she replies is 'K.' Andre, Cat and Robbie tried to bring her to Karaokie-Dokie to cheer her up but she didn't even sing any song or dance to any of them. She always had this hollowed look in her eyes. I have to do something about this. I need to take care of her. She needs to smile. She deserves to be happy. I need to see her smile. This is driving me up the wall. I miss Tori. I miss everything that makes her who she is and this is definitely not her. I know what I'll do. I get up from my bed and walked over to the main house. I looked in the fridge to see what's in it. I know exactly what to make for her. I ran back to my trailer and grabbed my coat and keys. I drove away with Jason Mraz voice blasting out of my speakers. She's going to be surprised but she has no choice but to go with me. Her mom is going to insist she gets out of the house. I pulled up Tori's driveway and let myself in through the back yard. Trina and her mom, Holly, were sitting at the dining table. They seemed to be in a serious conversation. Trina looked up and saw me.

"Beck, thank god you're here. Sit." Trina pulled me to sit beside her.

"What's going on? Everything okay?" I asked both of them.

"We gotta so something about Tori." Trina genuinely concerned for Tori? Something must be really wrong. Things are already going downhill but this is entirely about Tori's behaviour.

"She's not coping well with all this, Beck." Holly looked like she was going to cry. She's usually cool with everything but whatever's going on with Tori is affecting her severely. Heck, I'm even greatly affected and we're only best friends. How much more her family?

"Tell him what you saw mom." Trina instructed.

Holly squared her shoulders and took a deep breath before she leaned closer to lower her voice.

"I saw Tori on her weighing scale this morning. She has that digital one that records your most recent weight. When she left for school, I checked her record. She's drastically losing weight, Beck. She hasn't anything aside from a few pieces of toast or a bowl of cereal at night and a few glasses of water since I got home."

"How much weight has she lost exactly?"

"Within the week? 9 pounds." Trina answered. Oh gosh, what is she doing to herself? She doesn't weigh much to start with. No wonder she had looked slightly paler and thinner this week. I thought it was just because she didn't bother to fix herself up. Just as I was about to speak, Tori bounded down the stairs.

"Oh. Hey, Beck. I didn't know you were coming over."

"That's cause I didn't tell you."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to kidnap you. If that's okay." I smiled at her and she returned it weakly.

Holly stood up from her chair.

"That's a great idea, honey! I have book club tonight, Dad's working late and Trina has a date."

Tori's jaw fell open.

"Trina has a date? Who would-I mean with who?" Tori forced her smile and I chuckled.

"You know that boy, Sean? The one I delivered free pizza to?" Tori nodded and I shook my head.

"Well, we've been working on a school project together, he broke up with his girlfriend before we became partners and we've been having so much fun together."

"Seriously? And he likes your usual self?" Holly asked. She is just too funny.

"Mom! Of course, he does! Apparently, he has a thing for silly girls."

"Well, since you put it that way." I nudged her side. Trina turns to me, puts a hand on her waist and smiles.

"I'm sorry, Beck. I know you had this major crush on me before but it would've never worked out between us. You're too young for me." She walked away.

"I'm glad it didn't." I muttered under my breath and Tori forced another smile. I turned to her.

"Well, grab your coat and let's go." Tori turned around and walked towards the closet. I follow her and help her in her coat. I pulled her hair out of her coat and the sweet watermelon scent of her hair wafted in the air. Mmmmm...I love that smell.

"So where are we going?"

I held the door open for her and waited for her to step outside.

"Grocery."

"You're taking me grocery shopping?" Her eyebrows shot up in sarcasm.

"Yeah, I need some stuff for our dinner." I open the passenger's door for her. She slid in and I shut the door close. I walked around to the driver's side and buckled my seatbelt.

"What's your mom making?"

"Nothing."

"You're cooking?" I smiled at her and nodded. I pulled out her driveway and headed for the closest store. I grabbed a basket and lead Tori to the fresh produce section. I put a container of fresh mozzarella in the basket, a pack of fresh mushrooms and a piece each of red, yellow and green bell peppers.

"What are you making?"

"It's a surprise." I stroke her hair lightly and color filled her cheeks. I missed that so much but not as much as seeing her smile genuinely. We checked out and drove to my house. After half an hour, Tori and I are clad in aprons and are both chopping, slicing and dicing.

"Since when do you cook?" Tori asked me. She threw a piece of mushroom at me. It landed on my hair and stayed there. I walked towards her and grabbed her around the waist.

"You're gonna pay for that. You know how much I love my hair." She smiled weakly.

I moved away and took out the flour, yeast and salt.

"I've known how to cook since I was 13 I guess?" I portioned everything according to the recipe I know by heart.

"And why haven't we seen any of these skills?"

"Same as you, Vega. I only cook for special people." I looked over and found Tori's face filling up with color again. She watched me as I started kneading the dough for pizza.

"You're making homemade pizza?!" Tori squealed like a kid. I was almost there. I saw her almost saw her heart melting, award winning, commercial worthy smile. I'm breaking her ice. We topped the pizza with all the ingredients we have and slid on the pizza stone I had warming up in the oven. I set the timer for 20 minutes and wiped my hands with the towel hanging out my apron pocket. Tori was taking hers off when I looked over at her. Her shirt rose a bit exposing her smooth waist. I wanted to touch it so much and just hold her close to me. I quickly turned away when she turned around. God, why am I feeling this way? I don't even a tinge of regret with my cooling off with Jade. I was mostly upset at Ryder. But then again, it's not his fault. All I know right now, Tori is very important to me and I would do anything to make her happy. I'm her best friend. I'm supposed to want that for her and I do. But, who am I kidding? I'm developing feelings for her that I never had. I have never looked at her this way. Tori walked over to the high chair lined up in front of the breakfast counter. She crossed her arms on top of each other and looked up at me. I was right across the other side of the counter leaning on the sink.

"Hey, wanna do something while we're waiting for the pizza?" I asked her.

"Sure. What do you have in mind?"

"Come with me." I go around the counter and grabbed a hold of her hand. I entwined my fingers with her and she tried to control her gasp but I still heard it. I lead her to my old room upstairs and walked in my closet that's now more like a stockroom. I dug for my guitar. I pulled out the dusty black leather case and set it down right in front of her feet. She sat on the bed and I took my spot in front of her on the floor.

"Sorry, it's kinda dusty. I haven't taken this out for years."

"It's okay. Why haven't you taken this out for so long?"

"Something happened with Jade that made me not want to play anymore so I stored it."

"What happened?" She tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. I wanted to do that but she beat me to it. I lifted the lid of the case and took out my guitar. It still looked pretty good and still had a little bit of shine to it. I strummed the strings and adjusted a few strings to tune it.

"Jade took up most of my time. One night I didn't want to hang out with her and just wanted to play. I know she would get pissed off if I blow her off for some alone time so I made up some stuff hoping she would buy it. She didn't. She burst into my trailer and we had a huge fight about it. I thought it was too much hassle to have alone time to play so I stopped."

"She should be happy that you're doing what you love and she should understand that this is something that you love."

"It doesn't matter now. Anyway, I want you to listen to this."

I strummed the first chords of the intro. I closed my eyes and let the sound of the strings take me to a whole different place.

I don't know why or when

I don't see how it could happen

I didn't expect it to change

But I remember that kiss onstage

I still don't know why or when

I still don't see how it could happen

An angel flew down from heaven

And I remembered then

Coffee stained shirts and dying aliens

Why did we have to be best friends?

Hate that my arms can't be around you

For you there's nothing I won't do

Coffee stained shirts and dying aliens

Can't we be more than best friends?

I don't know why it hurts

But I blame the coffee stained shirts

Now I know why and when

Now I see how it happened

Now I know what changed

Because I remember that kiss onstage

You can't be mine, No, you can't be mine

I wish I could turn back time

But all I can do is hurt

And I blame it on the coffee stained shirts.

I continued to strum the last chords of the song and slowly opened my eyes. Tori's face was flushed with hot tears streaming down her face. Her shoulders were heaving up and down and she brought her hands to her face. I just waited for her to release and vent out. She was about to breakdown soon. She needs this release. Maybe after this, she would feel better and do better. I heard the timer of the oven buzz but I didn't get up to check on it. Tori tried to brace herself by putting her hands on her knees but her shoulders were still heaving so hard. A few more minutes of waterfall tears and she started to calm down. I slowly put the guitar back in the case. I looked up at Tori and didn't like what I saw. Her eyes were so puffy, her face was so red it looked like she was sunburnt and the part of her hair that hung around her shoulders were wet from her tears. She was fiddling with the cuff of her long sleeved shirt and I took her hands in mine. I was kneeling in front of her now. She cleared her throat.

"When did you write that?"

"I've had the tune in my mind for a long time, just didn't have the right words for it."

"So when did you finish it?"

"The day I came home from the audition with you." I was basically confessing all of my feelings for her and I didn't know how she was going to respond. She looked up at me and I saw the first genuine and truly happy smile this week on her face. Her eyes were so round and I was melting in the vast pool of warm brown. I smiled back at her and pulled her in my embrace. I buried my face in her hair and she gripped the back of my shirt like she was hanging on to dear life.

"Thanks, Beck. I'm so lucky to have a best friend like you."

That stung. Apparently she didn't realize that I just confessed whatever I was feeling for her through that song. I was clearly still in the friend zone. Doesn't matter as long as she smiles. I'm sure she's still shaken up about all that's going on. I'll give her all the time and space she needs. Right now, I'm just overjoyed that she's in my arms. Although, not technically mine to enjoy but definitely happy that she's in my arms. Well, I just destroyed the dam now I gotta wait to see where the water leads.

A/N: The song that I wrote didn't really have chords or anything. All it is is a tune that's in my mind and the words fit right in. Anyway, hope you like this extra long chapter I wrote. Thoughts to leave you with: Did Tori realize that Beck just confessed to her? How will she respond? Don't forget, there are still thing that Beck and Tori don't know. How will their movie shoot go once they both recognize their feelings for each other? More revelations to come soon! Keep following, share this to your co-fanfictioners, post your reviews and hold to your seats! Cheers!

PS: My 20th chapter will be all about my readers! So send me your one-shot stories about Tori and Beck and the best one will be chosen and published as the 20th chapter! Your name will be there of course! Hope you guys join!=)