Chapter 2.
"What!?" Beck and Tori said at the same time.
The girls turned to look over at him, standing in the doorway with the tray of food steaming.
"Did you just make a deal Jade?" He asked, walking the food over to the kitchen table.
All of them started making their way over to eat.
Jade, who had imperceptibly tensed at his question initially, now waved it off, "Don't think too much of it, I just don't want Vega messing up my sleep if she's tossing and turning all night from her pitiful little nightmares." She gave a sideways glance at Beck who met her eye with a raised brow.
Tori caught the interaction but didn't say anything about it.
They all made plates and grabbed drinks before moving to the couches.
"Yo, Tori, where's your fam?" Andre asked in between bites.
"They took Trina's back to her college campus since she had that weird growth removed yesterday, they didn't want her driving." There was a pause in the conversation as everyone stuffed their faces.
Jade had finished her's quickly, grabbing a chocolate from the candy stash before sitting in the large space between Beck and Tori, Andre was propped with his feet on the length of couch remaining.
Tori went back to the kitchen for a drink refill, and grabbed the sour patch straws.
Andre suddenly spoke up, "Hey, uh, I wanted to tell you guys something...s." Everyone more or less looked up at him before he hastily let out a mumbled mess of words. When no one responded with anything but looks of confusion, he tried again, "My salmonella case wasn't as bad as I made it out to be, I was better by the second week. I used that time to go to New York for an offer. There's a program at NYU that my composition teacher recommended me for and I got accepted…" There was a collection of shocked faces and gasps, an Oh, wow" and a couple of "Congrats", but he didn't stop there. "While I was there I met a girl who also got accepted to the program but she lives in Cali for now, we kind of hit it off and officially started dating last night. So, I think I'm going there after graduation."
Huge grins were in place, except for Jade who just nodded in approval. With him breaking this much news there were a lot of questions all being asked at the same time, the chaos of everything took its time dying down, but eventually the main details were hammered out.
This ice-breaker allowed everyone to start catching back up, and multiple little conversations started up between everybody.
When there was finally another lull it was after 8.
Tori took it upon herself to stir the pot as it settled, "Since this is a time of catching up and sharing….I still think we would all like to know what went down with y'alls breakup?"
Jade looked at her with a blank expression, and Beck held up his hands in a way that made it clear he wasn't getting involved in the conversation.
Under previous circumstances, Jade's stare would have made Tori back down, but after getting one compromise out of the goth tonight, she was hoping to test her luck. She purposefully avoided the piercing gaze of Jade's blue eyes, focusing instead on Beck, who was staring at Jade, but she couldn't resist a glance towards her.
"I wouldn't worry your straight little self about it," Jade spit the first words out in her Tori mocking voice as soon as their eyes met before finishing normally, "we broke on good terms and stayed friends, much to all of y'alls benefit. I don't see the big deal."
The initial comment wasn't fully caught by everyone else, but Tori on the other hand paused, furrowing her brow and looking for the right words to respond, "We are all glad you both worked something out, but as your friends we were all curious, and maybe a little worried." There were murmurs of agreement. "However, for the record, I never said I was straight." Tori said as she looked down at the carpet.
Silence.
Her jaw set, and slowly she moved her eyes back up, first looking to Jade whose expression was of mild surprise, an eye brown raised slightly. Tori looked to everyone else in an attempt to feel the vibe of the room. No one seemed too weirded out by her off hand acknowledgement.
Robbie was the first to respond, "Although I wasn't expecting it, we do go to a performing arts school, I think everyone is a little fruity." Andre laughed.
This was enough to break the tension, and it all evaporated back to normal and small conversations erupted. However, Tori made the mistake of glancing back to Jade, who apparently never quit looking at her, and she watched the pale girl tilt her head in thought- full staredown still in place. A palpable shift in the air had occurred.
Tori took a deep breath, and Beck's hand movement caught her eye. He was rubbing his chin, a little zoned out but then glanced sideways at Jade briefly. He looked over to Tori and realized she was watching him.
"Good for you Tor, glad to hear you're not afraid to be yourself." He smiled at her, and she shrugged.
Jade suddenly got up, obviously done with the conversating part of the night, and grabbed the dvd case of the horror movie, "We decided on this one, any objections?" The look she gave after her question stopped any objections that may have been intended to be expressed. She gave herself a self satisfied smirk as she put the disc in the player.
Cat went to turn off the light's, although Tori turned on the lamp on the side table before she hit the switch, before returning to her spot next to Robbie. No one said a word as he moved to cover them both with the same blanket.
Jade rolled her eyes at the lamp being on, but otherwise made no comment.
