"You don't quite look 'okay,'" he pointed out to her gently, a frown tugging at the corners of his own lips. He was no idiot, and when he, Robbie, and Andre had sat down in Robbie's bedroom yesterday to put together the pieces of the puzzle, it hadn't taken a genius to figure out what had happened to their favorite Latina near Maestro's. "Are you sure that you need to be back at school already?"
Tori nodded, and he saw that she was trying to seem resolute when she said, "Yeah, of course. No biggie."
"Okay," Beck smiled gently at her, knowing better but letting her off the hook anyway.
Deciding to test the waters, he stepped up and gave her a side-hug as he said, "In that case, it's nice to have you back, then."
She tensed instantly, and Beck withdrew his arm as soon as he sensed her discomfort, mentally cursing. As much as he had hoped that they were wrong, he knew that Tori's reaction just now was going to be as much proof of what had happened to her as he, at least, was ever going to get. And her reaction spoke to the fact that the three boys had been right in their deduction.
For the rest of the school day, all of her friends watched Tori closely, both to gauge her behavior and state of mind and to ward off any of the kids that might want to talk to her about her ordeal. By the end of the day, Beck Oliver was entirely certain that, unfortunately, he and Andre were right.
Poor Andre had been a wreck as well, though, Beck noticed. Not that he blamed his best friend. When that had been him four years ago, he had been a mess for a long while. Andre had been the one to find Tori, and besides that, Beck had long known that he had entertained feelings for the Latina. What had happened to her was hitting Andre pretty hard too.
For that reason, he decided that he would discuss the boys' theory with Jade first before he brought it back up to Andre or even Robbie.
Sorry about the shortness of this chapter. I'm going to try and get one part of the story each from everybody's POV - Jade's next, with a bit of a twist in that chapter. Reviews make my day full of sunshine and spur me on in my writing! Thanks!:)