Author's Note: Hey everyone. Here is the epilogue to my labor of love story. I can't thank you all enough for reading and reviewing this story. I also can't tell you how your reviews and feedback have been helpful in the writing of this story. They do matter.
Twilight Warrior 627: I'm glad you loved it and that I could surprise you with an early posting. Elizabeth's birthday was a great motivation to get it done early.
ArtisticAngel6: I'm glad you understood Jade's reaction. I think it was quite in character with the way she has developed over the last six months their time.
BushwellFanNYC: I'm glad you liked Jade's reaction as well and thanks for all the support.
Agent-M-0167: I'm glad you and the others have seen the change in Jade's character. Unlike Dan, I thought I could use the breakup (which I predicted for identical reasons 8 months before 'The Worst Couple' and still waiting for my royality check) to develop Jade's character in which he has failed to do since February of this year.
There is something that PD31 pointed out to me today that I messed up in a previous chapter. When Beck is going home after leaving the Wests' home, Robbie is suppose to be in Sinjin's car not in Beck's car. He's not supposed to be with Beck and hear him call of Carly. That was my goof up and I wanted to clear that up for future reference.
Now on with the final chapter.
Chapter 35: Epilogue
West Residence
Los Angeles, CA
Monday, January 2, 2012
Jade pulled her bag tighter on and over her rolled up sleeved red and black flannel pattern shirt covered right shoulder. She wore the unbuttoned shirt over her white athletic tank top and the hem blew freely in the soft breeze and against her dark blue jean covered thighs as she walked out of the opened garage and approached from behind the polished black Charger sitting in the driveway of the Wests' home.
She walked to the passenger side of the car and looked over the black beauty as the rays of the morning sun shined off the restored and polished vehicle. Her fingertips grazed across the side of the door as she thought on the fact that the car spent less than a week in the shop to come back whole after years of neglect and mistreatment. She wore a regretful smile as she wished it was as easy to put her boyfriend back together as it was the muscle car.
Freddie was mostly himself now after months of soul searching and coming home yesterday, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Carly's betrayal (and she didn't doubt for one moment that was exactly the girl's intention) had damaged a part him on a fundamental level where once a little piece of his heart would always love Carly as his first love had now turned into a hateful pit of regret and disgust and that she had no clue how to fix. Freddie's love turning to hatred of Carly further disturbed her even as she hated the Seattle girl because it reminded her how easily even the truest of loves could turn into bitter hatred. However much that potential pitfall could befall on them as it did her parents she was not paralyzed by fear or hopelessness of such a possibility because they had shown that Fate could not dictate their lives. Ironically the strength of her friendship with Beck after their breakup also defied that those feelings were inevitable was a much needed reassurance.
She pulled her mind away from her musings and opened the passenger side door, but before she could toss her bag inside and onto the back seat along with two other bags, a modern black Dodge Charger pulled up next to the vehicle. She dropped her bag into the passenger seat and closed the door to walk around the front of the classic Charger to meet the arrivals.
André turned off the ignition and put the vehicle in park then he and Tori exited his vehicle wearing smiles on their respective faces.
Jade cautiously asked the pair, "Hey… what are you doing here?"
Tori's smile somewhat faltered as she answered, "We heard that you were just going to…" The brunette made a sweeping motion with her right hand out and away from her body as she finished with a forced laugh, "Go off? And we wanted to say bye if that's the case."
Jade let a smile play on her face as she leaned back to rest her behind on the front of the car and support herself by palming the end of the hood on either side of her. She smiled at the lighter brunette as she answered, "Freddie would appreciate that. It's actually a road trip without a destination. We're going to see California. Freddie wants to at least make our way to San Francisco; he wants to see if there's a chance to meet the Mythbusters."
The lighter brunette asked with a soft, but nervous laugh, "Any particular reason why you're heading out?"
Jade smirked at her, but decided to be honest with her, "We just want to get away from everything to spend some time with each other with no school or work or… crazed psychotic girls or ex-girlfriends."
André laughed out with a halfhearted joke, "While you're on your road trip, you're not going to make a detour to Vegas are you?"
Tori eyes opened wide and she pursed her lips for a moment.
Jade frowned and looked at André as if he had lost his mind. "Real funny André."
The songsmith's laughter died down and him mouth formed a crooked smile of embarrassment. "Just a little joke." He casually brush over his mouth with the top of his hand and look away.
"That's one way to describe it," she remarked with a roll of her eyes.
Tori clapped her hands in front of her and forced a laugh to ask the blue streaked hair teenager, "So how long are you going to be gone? School starts back on Wednesday."
A corner of the pale girl's mouth lifted up and her eyes narrowed on the brunette. "We haven't decided yet, but I doubt you'll see us on Wednesday or Thursday… probably not until Monday."
Tori snorted out a breath and shook her head.
The sound of the door from the kitchen to the garage opening caught the three teenager's attention. Jade turned her head while the pair looked passed her to see Freddie struggling out the door carrying a suitcase in each of his hands.
André quickly jogged up to help him and offered to take one of the suitcases which Freddie gladly accepted the offer and handed him the one in his left hand. They reached the back of the car then Freddie pulled his keys from his jeans' pocket and opened the trunk of the Charger. He slid in one suitcase into the trunk while André slid in the other one next to it.
Before Freddie could close the trunk, André spoke up with a soft laugh, "Road trip with the girlfriend?"
The brown eyed teenager grinned, "Yep… just the two of us to get away from everything and just be us like we had together that first week when it was just the two of us at the workshop."
"Sounds like a great idea." The songsmith closed the trunk for him and then reached into his jacket pocket. He handed Freddie a thumb-drive and the tech producer glanced down at the blue piece of computer hardware between his fingers then looked back to the songsmith with a curious expression, "What's this?"
André laughed softly and pointed to the thumb-drive. "Road tunes in case you want something else to listen to that's different than what you have in either of your play lists."
"Thanks," he answered with a grateful smile.
As the two friends were talking, Jade pushed off the front of the car and walked around the car and Tori to open the passenger door. She picked up her bag she dropped in her seat then tossed her it in the backseat then slipped into her seat. She kept the door open and looked to Tori with a hesitant expression who had followed her to the door, "Tori?"
"Yeah?"
The darker brunette cleared her throat then cautiously began, "Thanks… thanks for being there for him… for me."
The lighter brunette gave her an embarrassed smile.
However, before things could get mushy between the frienemies, Jade looked over her shoulder and out the opened door to see Freddie and André still talking after closing the trunk.
Jade called out, "Freddie, we're burning daylight!"
Freddie let out a soft laugh as the pair looked to the impatient teenager. They made their way over to meet the girls then Freddie looked over to his friend and smiled. "André?"
The songwriter gave a friendly nod and answered, "Freddie?"
They shared a quick handshake then a quick one arm hug.
He looked over to a smiling Tori and was surprised by the quick hug she gave him. She whispered into his ear before letting him go, "See you when you get back."
He smiled in return when she pulled away and commented, "We'll see you when we see you." He looked to them one last time and commented solemnly, "Thanks for everything."
They raised their respective hands to wave then Freddie walked around the back of the car and slid into his seat and pulled his door shut with an audible secure slam.
Jade pulled her door shut and put on her seatbelt.
He glanced over to her with a smirk and asked playfully while putting on his seatbelt, "So you're going to drive at night, right?"
Jade pulled out her sunglasses from her flannel patterned shirt pocket then slid them on her face with a soft laugh.
The brown eyed teenager joined her in laughter as he started up the muscle car.
He put the passenger window down and the couple waved at the pair. They took a step back so Freddie could safely pull away out of the driveway and shouted out their farewells as the Charger pulled into the road.
Tori casually shuffled her feet and stuck her hands in her jean pockets while she commented idly watching the car drive out of sight, "A week by themselves."
André gave a nod as he let a smile form on his face, "I think they deserve it. It's not everyday you realize that you're in love with a girl, especially after everything they've gone through to get here. It's kind of nice to celebrate that."
Tori glanced over to her friend and gave him an awkward smile. "Sounds like an idea for a song."
He softly laughed and answered, "Yes it does, but after I write it, you'll record it for me."
She hesitantly asked with a playful smile, "You're not concern about me singing it?"
His brow instantly furled as he asked with concern, "Why would I be concerned?"
She turned and took a step forward to him with a smirk on her face to answer him, "Because… you might fall in love with me this time."
André looked down and shook his head as he bit his tongue trying to hold back a laugh while the lovely brunette burst into laughter.
Shay Apartment
Bushwell Plaza
Seattle, WA
Monday, January 2, 2012
The morning was still dreary from the lingering clouds from the storms that passed over much of the West Coast the previous night passing over the city as Carly, still in her pajamas of a spaghetti strap tank top and pajama pants, sat on the couch in the living room staring at the television. She wasn't really paying attention to the rerun Girly Cow episode displaying on the screen or the half eaten breakfast sitting on the coffee table in front of her as she had tuned out the world.
She was alone in the apartment as Spencer was out and about doing something; she wasn't too sure what exactly he was doing, just that he wanted to be out after a day of observation in the hospital. She had sent Sam, Brad and Gibby out of the apartment with the instruction of not coming back for a while as she just wanted to be alone. None of the teenagers had the courage to challenge her wishes through a combination of their pity for her and fear of her if they crossed her.
She didn't know how much time had passed as her eyes were unfocused on the television when a reverberating knocking started coming from the front door. She ignored the sound initially until the knocking started becoming louder and becoming a distraction in her self torture with her thoughts. The brunette blew out an irritated breath and got up from the couch and headed for the door.
She didn't bother looking through the peephole and simply opened the door while mumbling under her breath if it was Lewbert bothering her, she would kill him on the spot. Fortunately it wasn't the annoying doorman, but still blinked in surprise at seeing the person on the other side of the threshold.
Beck gave her a grateful and relieved smile at seeing her as he casually stood on the other side of the door with his hands stuck in his pockets.
She asked with an exhausted tone, "What do you want?"
His smile slipped into a frown as he replied with a concerned tone, "I was worried."
She turned and headed back to the couch, leaving him at the door.
"You never returned my calls," he called out as he followed her into the apartment.
She sarcastically asked, "So you hopped on a plane to come up and see how I was doing? How did you pull that off without any noticing?"
He shook his head as he shut the door behind him, "Yes I did and they think I had to go to Canada for a family emergency."
She plopped herself back on the couch and tried to get comfortable with tucking her legs under herself. She flippantly asked, "Why?"
He took a seat on the coffee table in front of her and answered with a stern voice, "Because I'm your friend."
She looked down to avoid meeting his eyes. "Maybe you shouldn't be. I'll just screw that up too."
The long haired teenager shook his head and closed his eyes. He opened his eyes to see that she was still directing her gaze to the floor with a downcast expression. He had seen the same look before when they talked after finding out that her father was a first going to miss his birthday and obviously before Freddie was able to pull off his trick to get the daughter and father to speak to one another on the Colonel's birthday.
He remembered the sting he felt at the lack of comfort his words gave her the last time, but this time so he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her smaller frame.
She sucked in a surprised breath from the contact, but didn't fight his embrace. She actually leaned into it and he allowed her to cradle her head in the crook of his neck. He gently rocked with her as he ran his hand up and down her back in an attempt to comfort her.
They were like that for seconds that stretched out into minutes until Carly let out a sob and started crying. The actor pulled her a little tighter to him to let her know that he wasn't going anywhere.
She sobbed out, "He told me to go to Hell."
Beck frowned at the commented then whispered, "I know… I heard through Tori, but it's going to be alright."
She lifted her head off of his shoulder and looked him dead in the eyes with a fierce expression then shouted, "Alright! How can you say it's going to be alright? Are seriously? He wants me to go to Hell! There's nothing left. We were going to be friends and now it's all gone!"
Beck shook his head. "I don't think so." He bowed his head slightly as he continued, "There's still hope and a chance."
Her brow furled and looked to him as if he had completely lost his mind. "Hope? Where?"
"Freddie and Jade may…" He glanced away as he forced the words out, "hate you for the moment, but…" He looked up to meet her eyes again and continued, "You still have me and from what I've heard, Dusty doesn't think you planned to get held hostage by Nora. Jade may not be the most open to listen in regards to you, but I'm still her friend and my word still means something if used carefully and Dusty apparently has Freddie's confidence and I think we can use that."
He pulled his right hand away from the small of her back and delicately cupped her left cheek so he could look her straight into the eyes. "But Carls… If you and I have any chance of fixing this you have to tell me the truth."
She blinked and looked to him with confusion as she asked, "On what exactly?"
He leaned forward closer and he took a quick breath then asked with worry filling his voice and asked, "Did you go to the hearing in the hopes that Nora would try what she did and that Freddie would come up to save you?"
Carly took in a sharp breath and just stared at the handsome teenager.
Author's Note: Officially this story is done, but I'm going to add my last comedic chapter next week as a bridge way to the next story. It's my take on Blooptorious. 'We Love Each Other' should be out this fall. Oh, and just a random comment, Liz went back to her natural brunette color from Season 1 of Victorious and may have added some blonde to it. I think it's hard to tell since both pictures so far are done with a very bright light source next to her. Also, Nathan Kress has started filming some new movie. I wish them both the best.
Finally, I'd like to give a lot of shout outs to all that reviewed and supported me on this story over the last eight months (in order of review): Nashia23, LanternFan, Twilight Warrior 627, Jeremy Shane, BushwellFanNYC, Urias, Eletrickkid, PD31, Techygirl, jackpotdante, xTeionx, IntrovertedMind, eva017, Jonathan 81, 'Person', 'Guest", Wickedmatt717, SirRay, A Writer's Right to Write, ArtisticAngel6, Captain Black Feather, CartoonistGirl6, Rubbyy, daytrigg, The Reading Wizard, EddieVF, Agent-M-0167, 'Meeee', and Crovus.
Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you continuing with the next story and my other works.