xxxxXxxxx
CHAPTER TWO
xxxxxXxxxxx
"My thoughts cannot move an inch without bumping into some piece of you."
-Unknown
"Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer."
-Jean De La Fontaine
xxxxXxxxx
Andre had set his phone on vibrate, but the buzzing noise was still loud enough to wake him up from a near dead sleep. He opened his eyes and raised his head, spotting his phone at the end of the bed by his feet. Tori was lying turned away from him, facing the closed blinds over his window, her head resting on his wrist and forearm. Streams of morning sunlight came through the cracks in the blind slats.
The phone kept vibrating, and it started moving like it was going to fall off the end of the bed. Andre disengaged his arm from under Tori and picked up the phone before it could hit the floor. A check of the caller ID revealed that it was only 7:50 in the morning and the caller was his grandmother. He let out an exasperated sigh, then answered the call.
"Hi Grandma-"
"Andre! Hello, it's me Andre!"
His grandmother's voice sounded like it was on speaker phone, even though it wasn't.
Tori shifted from the loud noise, turning around to face him with a slight groan. She brushed a hand under the edge of her nose before lying still on the pillow.
"ANDRE!"
"Grandma, I'm still here!" Andre climbed off the bed stepping on the floor in socked feet.
"What is that sound?! Are you a hostage?! Blink if you are, Andre!"
"Grandma I'm not a hostage!" Andre opened the sliding door of his closet. Inside was a wood veneer Ikea five drawer dresser and a set of his t-shirts hanging up above it on metal hangers. "And you can't hear a blink over the phone!" He pulled out a clean pair of boxers, tan cargo pants, a dark maroon graphic t-shirt with the gold lion Moone Tsai winery logo.
"Do you need me to call the Neighborhood Watch?!"
"Grandma, it's just Tori," As he said this, he stole a glance Tori, thankfully she hadn't woken up despite his grandmother being damn fucking loud. "She came over to work on a song we have to do for school."
"Then why can't I see her?!"
"Grandma, it's because you're on the phone!" Andre took his clothes and walked out of his bedroom, closing the door softly. "Look you're gonna wake up Uncle Nester and Aunt Leola if you keep- um, talking. Why don't you just go fix yourself a cup of tea, and watch some TV?"
"What kind of tea do I want!?"
"Just look for whatever's in the kitchen cabinets."
"Do you want some tea?!"
"No grandma, it's okay, I'm good."
"Okay Andre!"
The call disconnected. Andre shook his head in exasperation, setting his phone on the kitchen counter. His grandmother had always been eccentric. She used to wear a Japanese Kimonos to dinner every night and washed all his clothes when he came over in a tin bucket on her porch and dry them by hanging them on the trees in the front yard. But after his dad had died, things had gone up to a whole other level. His dad had been her only son; after she found out he had been killed in Iraq, she basically snapped. She tuned out to reality. She stopped cooking, a task she loved, stopped going outside, and spent hours watching old reruns of Threes Company, MASH cackling at the TV, even when no joke was being told. His mom wanted to have her institutionalized, but Andre fought her on it. If she had been, she would most likely lose her house. Andre had convinced his mom that they should move in with his grandma to help take care of her. His mom had stayed for the first four days, then when he woke up on that first weekend, she just wasn't there. There was a scribbled note and a voicemail that said she was going up to Seattle to stay with her brother, and he could stay with his grandma, and that she was sorry.
Andre had given up being pissed at his mom for basically walking out on him years ago. Instead, he focused all his energy into helping his grandma. It wasn't too bad of a set up. He'd be 18 next month, and he was hoping to transfer his grandmother's power of attorney to him so he would have more legal ways to help her.
But right now, he was focused on taking a shower, because the clothes that he was wearing stunk of dried rainwater and greasy pizza. Though there was an overlaying scent of the soap Tori had taken a shower with that he wasn't complaining about. He walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower, Tori's bra was draped over the shower curtain rail. He pulled it down setting it on the bathroom vanity. His mind rolled over the events that had occurred last night as he waited for the water to heat up. He could still feel the warm softness of Tori's lips pressed against his, the smoothness of her legs under his hands. His face flushed. He turned the shower a little cooler and stripped of his dirty clothes and jumped into the shower emerging 10 minutes later. He took the towel off the hook on the bathroom door, dried off and wrapped it around his waist. He threw on some deodorant and then got dressed, picking up his dirty clothes in a bundle wrapped in the wet towel. As an afterthought, he grabbed Tori's bra and set it on top of the pile.
He exited the bathroom, laying Tori's still damp bra over one of the kitchen stools where he had also set her black converse to dry. Then he went to the washer and threw the bundle in his hand into the machine.
He also turned on the dryer because he had forgotten to check it last night and the clothes inside were still damp. The dryer clicked with the sound of the metal hardware of Tori's jeans rotating inside the drum.
He made a cup of dark roast coffee in his 3-cup Keurig and filled a bowl from the cabinet with corn flakes. He took the cereal and black coffee over to the couch, flipping on the TV. An old gameshow was playing, and he watched it absentmindedly as he ate.
If his shirt had smelled like Tori, the couch had it beat. What had happened last night had happened so quickly. The feel of her breath, warm, smelling like mint and peperoni, her tongue gliding over his teeth, the way her hands moved on him. He meant what he told her last night, she was perfect. It took almost everything he had to not just continue.
But she had been comforting him, and he didn't want to be that guy, that dick who screwed his best friend when their emotions were so raw. He valued friendship over fucking.
He changed the channel from the gameshow to a Saturday morning Superman cartoon, finishing the last bits of his now soggy cornflakes. One he was done eating he set bowl down on the coffee table just as a knock came at the front door. He checked his black banded Fossil watch: 9:15. His brow furrowed, who the hell would come this early? He suddenly remembered that Robbie was swinging by to pick up some guitar strings because he had snapped all his playing his insanely odd songs.
"Hello? Andre?-"
"Yeah," Andre stood up, "Hang on," he walked over to the front door and opened it.
Robbie stood there and flashed him a smile. "Hey Andre," Robbie was dressed a blue and yellow short sleeved plaid button up and a pair of stone washed jeans. Rex wasn't with him, and Andre was secretly glad about that because it kind of creeped him out to see Robbie talk to that puppet like he was actually alive.
"Hey Rob," Andre greeted back, surprised to not only see him but also Beck standing there in a button up like Robbie's, but left open to a gray singlet and a pair of cargo jeans. "-Hey Beck-"
"Sorry," Robbie apologized. "I know I said 9:00, but Mamaw decided to go meet her girlfriends for a manicure and took the car. So, I called Beck to give me a ride."
"It's cool man," Andre responded, "Come on in."
"Thanks," Robbie said as both he and Beck entered the house, Beck closing the front door behind him.
"I'll grab those strings for you in a minute," Andre said to Robbie.
"No worries," Robbie responded. He went to sit down on one of the stools by the kitchen, while Beck occupied the couch.
Andre picked his breakfast dishes off the coffee table and set them in the kitchen sink.
"Hey, you want to hit up Jet Brew with us?" Beck asked Andre. "There giving out free pastries with every medium cup coffee."
"Yeah, sounds like a plan," Andre agreed. "I just gotta take care of a few things first." He walked into the living room and took out a set of new guitar strings from a drawer of his grandmother's cherrywood curio shelf.
"Um, Andre-"
Robbie's voice made Andre turn around.
Robbie lifted Tori's bra from the kitchen stool he wasn't sitting at. He held it up slowly.
Beck raised his eyebrows at the sight of the bra, then shot Andre an incredulous look. "Are we interrupting something?"
"No," Andre said quickly, maybe a little too quickly because Beck's eyes widened even more.
"You sure about that?" Robbie was twirling the bra by one of the straps like he was examining a raw steak.
"Look guys, it's not what you think," Andre handed Robbie the guitar strings inside a small white paper envelope. He was about to give an abridged version about what happened the previous night, leaving out certain-details - for obvious reasons. But before he could he heard his bedroom open, and then came the sound of bare feet on the carpet.
"Hey-" Tori's voice was slightly sleep heavy as she emerged into the living room, her braids frayed in places. The shirt that she borrowed from him was wrinkled.
"Oh-"
Andre's 'oh' was drowned out by the combined stunned looks of Beck and Robbie.
"Hey Tor," Andre managed to finish his remark.
Tori ran a hand through her mused-up hair, yawning. "Did I hear your grandma?"
"Yeah," Andre responded. "She called, asking about tea and shit, you know how she gets."
Tori nodded sleepily and yawned again.
"I didn't wake you up did I?"
By this time, Robbie's mouth was opened, looking at Andre like a landed fish.
Tori shook her head. "It was your neighbors. Do they always play pickup basketball at eight am?"- her remark ended when she finally realized that she and Andre weren't alone anymore. "Ohhh-Robbie, hey—" she turned her head towards Beck on the couch. "-Beck."
"Hi." Beck greeted her.
Robbie closed his held up his hand in a wave. "Hey Tori."
"Hey," Tori finger waved back, suddenly feeling nearly naked in what she was wearing. She pulled at the hem of Andre's shirt, trying to make it reach longer to cover more of her legs.
"Robbie came over to pick up some strings for his guitar, Beck gave him a ride over here." Andre told her.
"Oh good," Tori gave up trying to lower Andre's shirt and crossed her arms over her almost bare chest. She looked at Andre. "Um, where did you put my clothes?"
"They're in the dryer," Andre said. "I'll grab'em." He walked over to where the stacked unit was.
"Thanks," Tori said, she finally looked up to Beck and Robbie, because she could only avoid their gazes for so long. "So, what are you guys doing today?"
"We were going to hit up Jet Brew with Andre after we left here," Beck held out his hand towards her. "Of course, you can come too-"
"Here," Andre interrupted them, handing Tori her clean clothes in a folded pile.
"Thanks," Tori took the clothes from him, then looked back at Beck and Robbie. "Thanks for the invitation, but I really need to get home."
"How about dinner then?" Robbie asked. "You guys, me and Cat, and Beck and Jade. They finally finished refurbishing Karaoke Dokee."
"I thought Cat and Jade weren't allowed at Karaoke Dokee anymore." Andre said.
"New management," Beck returned. "After Tori, killed those girls in singing, they fired the old guy, made it amazing."
Andre's lips pulled into a slightly proud smile at Tori. "Then it sounds good to me," he looked over at Tori "Tori?"
"Yeah," Tori agreed smiling. "Sounds great."
"So, when are we doing this?" Andre asked.
"7:30," Robbie said. "Cat has to take her brother's car to the garage. She said the mechanic should be done fixing it by then."
"What's wrong with it?" Tori asked him.
"Cat said he was trying to rotisserie a chicken on the engine block and the skin melted into the battery," Robbie told her.
Tori's right eyebrow shot up in complete bafflement. To say Cat's brother was eccentric was an understatement. "Okayyy, 7:30 it is. She turned to Andre again. "Drop me off after I change?"
"No prob," Andre agreed. "You want any breakfast before you head home?"
"No, I'm good," Tori said. "We did eat pretty late last night after all."
"Alright cool, I have to swing by school to pick up my bike and take care of a few things. I can take you home after Karaoke Dokee; but I'm not sure I can pick you up before."
"It's cool," Beck told him and Tori. "Jade said she can give Tori a ride over, she's already picking up Cat."
"Jade said she's giving me a ride?" Tori's eyes widened in pure bafflement. She remembered the last time Jade had given her a ride on a nearly deserted desert road, and she had been so terrified about what might happen that she threw herself out of the car.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Andre said to Beck. There had been a time when he had been majorly crushing on Jade. So much so that he begged Tori to help him shed those feelings because there was no way in hell he would make a move on his friend's girl. But ever since Junior Year ended and Senior year had started, those feelings had thankfully dissipated. "I mean, Jade's kinda-"
"It'll be fine," Beck said in defense of his girlfriend. "She gave me her word she'd behave."
"Well, that sounds promising," Tori said, she waved the pile of clothes she held. "Guess I should go change."
"We'll be here," Andre told her watching her walk back to his bathroom in bare feet. The door closed behind her with a 'click'
Robbie turned to look at Andre. "So, what exactly were you guys eating?" he held up Tori's bra again.
Both Andre and Beck shot Robbie looks, but before either of them could say anything, Tori's voice interjected.
"It was pizza," she glared insistently at Robbie, holding out her hand, "Can I have my bra back please?"
Robbie handed her the nearly dry bra, his head hanging down. "Sorry."
Tori took the bra and looked ate Andre "Out in 20." She grabbed her black Converse sneakers off the stool, heading back into the bathroom, shutting the door.
"Dude," Andre looked at Robbie. "You're sick."
"Yeah," Beck agreed "Sometimes not saying what you're thinking is a good thing."
"Fine," Robbie agreed, slightly dejectedly.
xxxxXxxxx
After Tori changed back into her clothes, Andre drove her home, insisting on buying her an iced coffee from the drive thru stand near her house. Despite the sneakiness of it, Tori thanked him because it was actually a very sweet gesture. They finalized their plans for dinner, and Andre drove his black Camaro out of Tori's driveway. She held her iced coffee in one hand and unlocked her front door with her other hand, spitting part of her braid out of her mouth.
She closed the door, but then nearly jumped a mile high at the sight of Jade and Cat sitting on the red sofa in her living room.
"WOAH!" Tori dropped both her backpack and her keys in fright, but managed to hold to her coffee before it spilled everywhere. "Cat, Jade- what are you doing here?! How did you get inside my house?!"
"I let them in," Trina emerged from behind the opened steel door of the refrigerator, in a while slouchy shirt, cuffed jean shorts, and grey knitted Uggs.
Tori looked at her sister incredulously "Why?"
"Because Jade insisted," Trina said this like it explained everything, pouring the milk she had gotten over a bowl of Cheerios.
"And why did you agree to that?" Tori asked her.
"Because she scares me," Trina grabbed a spoon from the drawer and stuck it in the bowl.
Jade nodded with a slightly satisfied smile. "She's not wrong."
"Trina!" Tori complained. She had really wanted to have some time for herself to process everything that had happened in the last 48 hours.
"I'm eating this on the patio," Trina took her bowl and walked to the glass door that led outside to their pool and patio deck. "And don't question me, I'm not the one who stayed out all night." She opened the glass door, slamming it behind her.
"So—Vega," Jade drew out the words, her black lined eyebrows raised, she propped one foot up on the coffee table in black leather knee high boots. "Like your sister said, you never came home last night, or even texted your location. So where were you?"
"You know where I was," Tori insisted, picking up her bag and keys off the floor, and set both on the coffee table. She took a seat next to Cat on her sofa. "Andre and I stayed after school to work on our song." She took a sip of her coffee through the straw.
"You two stayed at the school all night?" Jade rubbed her right pointer finger over the silver lapis lazuli ring on her left one.
"Why not? I did." Cat insisted, recalling the time when she had lived in an attic nook of the Black Box theatre when her parents had left to commit her brother.
"Cat, you were basically homeless," Tori insisted. "And I thought you were waiting at a garage to fix your brother's car."
"I did, but my mom is taking my brother over to pick it up once they scrape all burnt chicken skin off the battery." Cat said with a slight wispy smile recalling that. Her brother had come home back in January, along with her parents. Things weren't exactly sunny, but she was still glad to be living at home again.
Jade leant forward over her ripped black leggings. "Stop side stepping the question Tori. What went down with you and Andre last night?"
"Nothing," Tori insisted again. She set her cup down on the coffee table. "We bailed after the storm hit, grabbed some food- and-"
"And?" Jade said. "And what? You can't end a sentence like that."
"We ate pizza and watched television," Tori said.
"All night?" This time Cat was the one who said it. Even though everyone thought of her as a bit of a childish, whimsical girl, she wasn't ignorant about what went on with certain things.
"What do you both want me to say?" Tori asked them.
"The truth," Cat said.
"Yeah," Jade's response chased Cat's. "Your hair's a mess, you're wearing the same clothes you had on yesterday, and you didn't come home until just now. So, what really happened?"
Tori sighed. She didn't want to really tell anyone; she barely could comprehend anything that had happened. But at the same time, she wanted to tell someone who wasn't Andre so could hear it from an outsider's perspective. Even if that outsider was Jade.
"Okay," Tori said finally, leaning forward. "But you can't tell anyone."
xxxxXxxxxx
JET BREW
"Wait, you did what?" Robbie's voice was almost a shrill cry. "She was on you? On your lap? Like, riding you?" He played with the plastic lid on his coffee cup.
The two guys and one girl sitting in the red backed booth across from them turned around, their faces quizzical and slightly shocked.
"Dude," Andre said, turning around to the people looking at him until they got embarrassed and turned back to drinking their coffees. "Could you say that a little louder, I don't think the whole place heard you."
Robbie looked around the café then looked guiltily back to Andre. "Sorry."
"It wasn't like that, aiight." Andre said.
"Then what did happen?" Beck asked, seeing Andre give him a 'C'mon' look. "Look man, we're not trying to mess with you, we can just tell you want to talk about it."
Andre sighed. Unlike Robbie, his and Beck's coffee were in black ceramic mugs, sitting next to plates of half-eaten Pecan Braid pastries. He took a sip of the coffee swirled brown with cream, looking around to make sure no one was listening to them. "After we finished eating, we started talking about my dad."
Both Beck and Robbie looked at Andre knowingly. Both had known Andre since fifth grade; and they remembered when he told them about his dad being killed in Iraq.
"I started playing her that song that my dad played, you know the Lynyrd Skynyrd one. And, I don't know, she was trying to make me feel better. We were just hugging at first, like we always do; then, I kissed her. I didn't mean for it to happen, but she kissed me back—and it wasn't innocent either—things picked up from there. It was - she was beautiful, and she wanted it-"
"So why'd you stop?" Beck asked.
xxxxXxxxx
"Wait, you stopped?" Jade stared at Tori in bafflement. "Why? How do you instigate everything to get a guy that hot for you, then just pull off?"
"Andre was the one who stopped it okay!" Tori was still slightly embarrassed about talking about this to someone; but it also felt kind of good to relieve the tension she had been feeling since last night. "It's not like I—I wanted to keep going-"
"So why didn't you?" Cat asked this question.
"He said he didn't want to take advantage of the situation."
"That's sweet, but also bull." Jade retorted.
"No, he was right," Tori insisted. "He was very vulnerable, and it was late, and it's not fair to abuse that kind of moment. Also, I'm 18, isn't that like, kind of illegal?"
"Dude, Andre will be 18 next month," Jade said. "It's not like you were stealing his innocence. Plus, I've known him for years; you wouldn't be the one to take his V-Card from him."
xxxxXxxxx
"It wasn't the right time," Andre looked at his two friends sitting next to and across from him in the red booth. "It's not like it was an easy choice. But I'm not a frustrated virgin; I didn't want to just cross it off my bucket list. I wanted the first time we ever did it to be different- special."
"I get it," Beck wrapped his hand around his mug, taking a drink of his coffee. "Have you both talked since all this?"
"Not really, just a little last night before we ended up falling asleep."
"Do you plan on talking about it?" Robbie asked.
"I kinda have to," Andre answered. "She's one of my best friends. I don't want this to end that."
xxxxXxxxx
"He's my best friend," I'm not supposed to, do that with him."
"But you said you liked it," Jade said to Tori. "And he obviously liked it, so what's the problem?" She took a drink from the can of soda she had helped herself to while waiting for Tori to come home.
"Why are you so scared to like Andre?" Cat asked. "The rest of us already knew you did. We were just waiting for you to get on board." She sipped some water from a green plastic cup that she had gotten from the kitchen when Jaden had stole the soda.
"You defiantly got on board last night," Jade said.
Tori cut her a look "Jade!"
"Look, you can deny it until you're in a retirement home. But you and Andre have been eying each other since you came to this school. And last night you finally proved that you want to be more than friends. And we're here to make sure that that happens."
Tori looked at Jade little fearfully. "And do I want to know how you plan to do that?"
Jade smiled, almost wickedly.
Cat laughed her high bubbly giggle. "You really do."
xxxxXxxxx
The three boys stood on the sidewalk outside of Jet Brew amidst a scattering of people out heading to work or just enjoying their Saturday. The air was warm, and the morning sun was bright in a nearly cloudless blue sky.
"So tonight," Beck said. "7:30. Karaoke Dokee. And you'll talk to Tori about this?"
Andre looked at them both like he had been backed into a corner, but he nodded in agreement. "Okay. But please, please, let me handle this my own way—it's between me and her, aiight?"
Beck laid a hand on Andre's shoulder and roughed it up slightly. "Of course we will. Hey, you need help getting your bike back home? I still got that bike rack on the back of my trunk."
"Sure, thanks man," Andre agreed.
"Then let's go," Robbie said. "Before your bike gets stripped for parts like mine."
Andre and Beck looked at Robbie like he had grown an extra head. "How?" Andre was the one to ask. "The school is locked down all the time and there are surveillance cameras on everywhere."
"I don't know how fencing works!" Robbie said in exasperated squeakiness.
"O-kay," Beck said, looking back at his two friends. "So, we doing this or what?"
Robbie closed his eyes took in a long deep drag of a breath. "Give me a minute," He repeated the process, then opened them. "Okay, let's go." He walked with his friends to their cars.
xxxxXxxxx
6:15 PM
TORI'S HOUSE
"You almost done up there?" Jade called up the stairs to Tori's closed bathroom door.
"Give me a minute!" Tori called down to her from behind the door. "There's a lot of crap in my hair to pull out!" She came out of the bathroom in an old gray LA Lakers T-shirt and black yoga shorts, her hair folded up in a white bath towel.
Jade watched Tori descend the stairs and come into the living room, looking at her legs, up slowly back up to her face. "You shave?"
"No!" Tori said this offended at Jade's obvious implication, but then said, "I waxed."
"How long ago?" Jade asked.
"Three days, at a place downtown."
"Close enough," Jade reached up and pulled the towel off Tori's head.
"Hey!" Tori said as the strings of her wet hair fell around her face, and some of it in her mouth.
"Here," Jade held out a white, battery powered hair dryer. "Cat will straighten your hair after you dry off."
Cat giggled behind Jade and clicked the plates of the hair straightener together.
"Those are my mom's!" Tori said while spitting strands of hair out of her mouth.
"Relax. She's not here to miss them," Jade slapped the hair dryer against Tori's chest. "Get going, we're on a time clock."
"Hey," Cat said, like she just now discovered something. She looked at the shirt Tori wore: "Is that Andre's too-?"
"No!" Tori said, her voice a little shrill, looking from her to Jade: "You know, it's lucky I like you guys," She clicked on the hairdryer and began to dry off her long hair.
It took around twenty minutes for Tori to get it dry enough for Cat to be able to run the gold-plated straightener over her brown hair without it sizzling and frizzing up. Once Cat was done, Tori's hair was longer and smoother than her usual loose curls.
"Oooh, hot!" Cat squealed. She clapped her hands together like an over excited kid. "Now get changed."
"But I haven't even picked anything out yet." Tori said.
"No prob," Cat said. "Jade did."
"I did, Jade held out a pair of Tori's acid washed grey skinny jeans, and a black top that Tori didn't recognize.
Tori fingered the black satin of the shirt. "That's not mine-"
"It's mine," Jade held the fabric up against Tori's body. "I figured you would want something that wasn't hard to get off, you know, just in case."
Tori did her best to ignore Jade's remark. "How do you know it will fit? In case you haven't noticed, you're more endowed than me."
"Hell yeah I am," Jade said, adjusting her placement of the shirt against Tori's chest like she was a seamstress. "But all the better for you, you can give off a 40's jazz vibe. Also, you wore an entire outfit of mine before, so this won't be a problem." She let the shirt fall from her hands knowing Tori would catch it before it dropped to the floor. "Go change, we still need to do your makeup."
Tori caught Jade's shirt in her arms. "I hate you."
"Go," Jade pushed her back to the bathroom. "And no Converse, this is a special occasion."
Tori glowered but walked back up the stairs with the bundle of clothes.
xxxxXxxxx