it has been a rough weekend for the world, my friends.

chapter two

Spectacular.

That was really the only word to describe it.

Tori never thought that, after living in Los Angeles, the sight of palm trees everywhere and white sand beaches could be any more beautiful than what she'd already been seeing her entire life. Thailand had taken it to a whole new level, with tropical forests and mist-covered mountain tops, and Tori spent the entirety of the ride to Khao Lak staring through the open windows, the breeze catching her hair, and gushing over the fact that she was ridiculously lucky to have the chance to be here and experience it all.

She couldn't wait until she got the chance to peek into the local's lifestyle here, but at the risk of sounding too much like the stereotypical tourist from America, didn't say mention it. Different cultures had always interested Tori, growing up in a half-Hispanic household with a thirst for globetrotting. She only hoped that one day, when she made it big as a pop singer - when, because Tori had slightly unrealistic dreams but confidence in herself - she'd get to travel and see the world more often.

When they arrived at the Khao Lak Resort, Tori made a mental note to suck up to her parents for the rest of her life.

A pleasant young man lead Tori and the other's to their respective rooms with a blindingly white smile. While Jade and Beck took the ground floor, Tori had taken the two bedroom one right above it on the second, with a balcony that overlooked the pool area and the beach only minutes away by foot. Tori followed him up a short flight of stairs with Cat, André and Robbie trailing close behind her.

"Here we are," the man said, his English well structured but accented, opening the door to their hotel room and beckoning them inside. Like everything else Tori had seen so far, it was spacious and beautiful, with a living room and kitchen and two separate bedrooms down the hall and a bathroom they would share.

"Whoa daddy," Cat said under her breath, scanning the area with wide brown eyes.

"I second that," Robbie said. "This place is incredible."

"We strive to have every room accommodate to our guests needs and make them feel at home," the steward informed, clasping his hands in front of him. "You are visiting from the United States?"

"Los Angeles," Tori answered, smiling.

"A long way from home." He smiled back at her; Tori didn't think that it had left his face since they first arrived, and wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that he was getting paid to do this or if he was just a genuinely nice person.

"It was well worth the trip," Tori said earnestly. She wasn't lying. They had only been here for a little over an hour and it was already worth the sixteen hour flight spent between several different planes.

He nodded, and reached to hand Tori four room keys, which she dispersed among her friends. After explaining where they could do their laundry and offering up some local hotspots and points of interest, he left them with one last, bashful beam. Tori made her way over to one of the living room couches, propping herself on the arm. "So, I figured Cat and I could share one room and you guys could get the other?" She suggested.

Cat gave her a dimpled grin. "Sounds good to me."

André raised his eyebrows over at Robbie skeptically, who looked somewhat sheepish. "I get the bed," he told him firmly, his chin jutted out as if in a challenge. Tori and Cat rolled their eyes and shared a look of both amusement and exasperation. Men's masculinity was so fragile.

"Oh, relax. There are two beds, it said so on the website," Tori informed, and her expression turned smug. "And, since I don't mind sharing a bed with Cat, because I'm not a baby and this wouldn't be the first time," she ignored the way Robbie's eyes suddenly widened, as if he had no idea how many sleepovers the two girls have had in the past three years of being best friends, "we get the big bedroom."

"Yay, I love big rooms!" Cat squealed, grabbing her bags and racing off to the bedroom down the hall.

Leaving the boys to their argument over who would get the bed closest to the window, Tori stood and lugged her suitcases into the room after Cat. Her redheaded friend was laying in the middle of the bed on her back, texting. The bed was huge, and made Cat, who was already tiny, look impossibly small on top of it. "So, on a scale of one to ten, one being Yerba mattresses and ten being really soft, how comfortable is it?" Tori asked, dropping her belongings by a wooden dresser.

Cat's eyes strayed from her phone and she pursed her lips, as if in deep thought. "It's like laying on a fluffy cloud. Or on cotton candy," she settled on, giggling quietly. She patted the mattress beside her. "Come feel!"

Tori complied - and then promptly wished she hadn't. How on earth was she supposed to get up now?

"Jade said she would be up soon," Cat said with a sigh, placing her phone beside her and folding her hands over her stomach gingerly. "She wants to check out the beach, but Beck wants to take a nap."

"He can join us later," Tori murmured. She figured Beck had a good idea as she fought to keep her eyes open. When it was becoming too tempting, she pushed herself up with her hands and forced herself off of the bed with a groan. Who knew sitting in the air for sixteen hours could be so exhausting. "Come on, we should go before we fall asleep and waste the day away. We should be pumped right now!"

"I am pumped!" Cat exclaimed and, as if to prove her point, hopped off of the bed graciously and skipped out of the bedroom, singing Robbie and André's names on her way out. "Let's go to the beach!"

.

.

"André! Put me down!"

Beck glanced up at the shrill voice, addled with a peel of familiar giggles, to see André hauling Cat into his arms as if she weighed nothing and racing toward the ocean where Robbie and Tori were wading. Jade had somehow managed to persuade Beck from his nap to join them at the shore, and he lounged next to her on a beach towel, trying not to doze off behind a pair of dark sunglasses. As it were, the white sand beaches and light blue water were infectious with peace and serenity and it was a much harder task than he thought it would be.

Up ahead, he could hear André's boisterous laugh. "No way, Lil Red! You're goin' in!" He shouted, before promptly tossing Cat into the deeper waters with a squeal while Tori and Robbie howled in laughter.

His mouth quirked into a small grin, and he shook his head. Beside him, Jade was watching on beneath a large black sunhat, green eyes squinted. Beck reached and traced a finger over her arm. "You can join them you know," he told her, nodding toward their friends. "You don't have to keep me company just because I'm a little tired."

"You'll fall asleep and sizzle under the sun if I leave," Jade commented, leaning back. "I don't feel like going in the ocean."

"It's not as rough as it is in LA," Beck said knowingly. "It's calm."

"Still the ocean," Jade shrugged and closed her eyes, tilting her chin up. Beck didn't bother continuing to push her to go. Jade was never very good with being in the sea; although she wasn't afraid of it, she didn't seem to like being in it very much at all, and never felt comfortable.

He hummed and sat up, stretching out his limbs and tucking a finger beneath his sunglasses to rub at his eye. If he laid down any more he would surely pass out. Ahead of them, he watched the others in the water, waving over at them when he caught their eyes. Beck was almost tempted to join them just to wake himself up - and it was beautiful and inviting, a tealish color much lighter than the Pacific - but Robbie had said it was warm, and Beck figured it would just make him more sleepy.

"You have any ideas for what you want to do for our day?" He asked, turning over his shoulder to his girlfriend.

Jade made a soft humming noise in her throat in consideration. "I'm thinking about it," she said.

"I did some research in the travel pamphlets while we were waiting for everybody to get ready," Beck said, hand digging into the soft sand, letting it fall between the creases of his fingers. "How do you feel about visiting the Ton Chong Waterfall?"

His girlfriend peered at him for a moment. "Waterfalls can be nice," Jade said.

"Well, the pictures looked nice," Beck shrugged, digging his feet into the hot sand. "It could be romantic. We could go on Wednesday. Spend a few days with the others first."

"Whatever."

Beck patted her knee before leaning back on his hands and closing his eyes, inhaling salty ocean air through his nose. It felt nice to be able to unwind, to relax and soothe his grated nerves after pushing through customs and immigration at the airport, which had put him in somewhat of a sour mood.

After a while, they returned to the resort mid-afternoon, and Tori announced that she had made reservations for dinner, and that they should all shower and dress fairly nice. And although Beck was tired and couldn't wait to finally be able to sleep, he also couldn't wait to eat and get a taste of authentic Thai food - and he knew Jade was excited too; a not-so-secret foodie with a fast metabolism.

Of course, it took all of them hours to get ready, and by the time they arrived Beck's stomach was turning over with a frenetic hunger and the day had settled into the beginnings of the evening.

The restaurant was as fancy as Tori had described it, just off of the shore and lined with tall palm trees and a spacious outdoor dining area, where they sat. Beck could look to his left and see the moon reflecting off of the ocean's surface, could hear the gentle laps of the waves as they hit the coast. He sat down beside Jade, across from Cat and André, with Tori on the right end of the table and Robbie on the left, his back to the water.

Conversation was steady while they ordered and received their food and drinks, occasionally taking photos together, and Cat was finishing up a bizarre story about her roommate adventures when Beck cut in to speak.

"Alright, hold up for a second guys," Beck interrupted, holding up one of his hands. Everyone at the table fell into silence, turning their expectant gazes on him. He cleared his throat. "I just wanted to tell everyone that I'm proud of us all. We've had a crazy four years at Hollywood Arts, and it's hard to believe it's already come to an end. Look at all we've accomplished in that time so young, and then look at how much we have to look forward to in the future. I'm not going to college, and not all of us are, but all I see for everyone is success in whatever we do. There's no way this group of talented and bright people won't make it far in life."

"Amen, brother," André said, raising his glass of water as if making a toast.

"Well said," Tori agreed.

"I know that I'm going away to NYU in August," Robbie began shyly, adjusting his glasses. "But I really do hope that we all stay as close as we are. I don't know what I'd do without you guys, you know?"

"Of course we will, Robbie," Cat said, her lips pulling into a soft dimpled smile. "Distance can't stop us all from being friends."

Beck nodded. "Sure, Rob. And we're all going to make the most out of the summer together, starting with this vacation." Jade was staring at him proudly, her hand resting over his bicep and her thumb rubbing soothingly over tan skin. "It's a perfect beginning to a new chapter of our lives. We're moving on, but I know that we'll always find a way to stick together."

A chorus of murmured agreements went around the table before Jade spoke. "Okay," she said, and her smile was easy-going in contrast to her usual smirk, and Beck felt his heart warm at the sight of it, "enough with the mushy-feely crap before someone starts crying over their dinner."

Robbie discretely wiped his index finger beneath his eye before pulling a face. Beck didn't think he noticed that everybody at the table saw him do it. "Psh, no one's going to cry," he said, as if the notion was ridiculous.

Jade smirked at him. "That's what people say when they're about to cry."

"...Moving on," Robbie cleared his throat. "What should we do tomorrow?"

Tori reached for her purse, but paused at Jade's dramatic gripe and eyeroll. His girlfriend pressed her palm to her forehead, looking exasperated. "Don't bring out your stupid little to do list," she said. "I'd rather not spend my vacation following a schedule. This is supposed to be fun. Not a list of chores."

"It's just a list of suggestions!"

"It's a schedule."

"Jadey, don't be mean," Cat reprimanded, although her voice was not very stern and she looked as if she was biting back a laugh, her lower lip between her teeth. Jade shot her a look, lacking it's usual bitterness as it typically did when it came to Cat, which went ignored. "Don't feel bad about your schedule, Tori."

Jade cackled, and Tori's cheeks flushed red. "It's not a schedule!" She cried, ignoring everyone's laughter. Sighing with defeat, Tori went back to her food, pushing it around on her plate. "Fine, no to do list, then. Any ideas?"

"There's a boat tour tomorrow afternoon," Beck announced, recalling what he'd read on the pamphlet at the resort earlier that afternoon. "We could go snorkeling or diving, maybe see some of the nightlife after?"

"Funny you mention that," Tori said, pointing her chopsticks at him, "because that was on my list." Everyone around her collectively groaned, and she sank back into her seat with a grimace. "I'm just saying!"

"Anyway," André said, saving Tori from another one of Jade's biting comments, "snorkeling sounds cool. I'm in."

"Me too!" Cat gasped. "We could be like mermaids! And Beck and André could be mermen!"

Robbie's brow furrowed, looking offended. "What about me?"

Cat blinked at him, tilting her head with a blank expression. "If you say so."

When they all finished their dinner, the restaurant provided all of them and the travelers around them sky lanterns, and they stood outside, ready to release them for good luck and fortunes and unburden them of their stress. He held his beside his friends, and the lanterns everywhere covered the area in a warm, orange glow.

"One," the crowd chanted, "two - three!"

At once, everyone released their lanterns into the air.

Beck slung his arm over Jade's shoulders as the people around them cheered, tucking her in close to his chest, and her arm wrapped around his waist, looking peaceful.

He stared up at the orange sky with a blissful expression, watching as hundreds of lanterns floated up into the night, carrying their worries away with them.

turns out figuring out how I want to pace this story is a little more difficult than I originally planned lol

as usual, please review with your thoughts, and feel free to comment with anything you would like to see :) thank you all who have reviewed so far! remember, they encourage quicker updates.