DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN VICTORIOUS. This chapter is from Tori's POV.
Chapter 4
"I really like you, Andre."
Five minutes after learning that we were trapped.
"I can't take it! I can't take it! I can't fucking take it!" Jade shouted, flipping out. Please calm down Jade. Freaking out won't help us.
"Babe, please calm down and catch your breath." Beck tells her. I'm glad he's here. He's the only one who can control her.
"Does anyone got cell reception?" Robbie wonders. We all pull out our phones and I see no bars. No reception at all. A cell tower must've been knocked over by flying cars. Everyone says they have no bars. Damn.
"Do you have a radio?" Andre asks me. My eyes widen at the idea and I recall that I have a battery powered radio upstairs
"You bet we do, Andre, let me go get it!" I say cheerfully before running upstairs. I hope the radio works. Cause, it looks like we'll be here for quite some time, and we'll need to be updated on the latest. I hope my parents are ok. Trina, not so much.
I go into my room and fetch my old radio.
I come back from upstairs, carrying the radio. I set it up on the piano and turn it on. A faint buzzing can be heard from it. I clap my hands excitedly and turns the volume up so the buzzing fills the house. I then sit on the piano bench and starts tuning it. I feel the entire house is staring at me intently awaiting for a voice to come out of the box. Eventually I stop and a woman's voice comes out of the radio. Oh good, we got a signal.
"Citizens are told to stay indoors at all times until the storm blows over and take shelter if they have any until further notice." the woman said. The reception was better than I expected which is a good thing. But, that doesn't lift my spirits.
"Reports are coming in about severe flooding, rain storms, and major damage to all of Los Angeles." the woman continued. Damn.
"Holy shit, this is bad." Andre states.
"Agreed." Robbie replied. I feel Andre looking at me and notice how worried he is. He comes over to me and sits down. He was always a shoulder for me to lean on. As soon as he sits down, I put my head on his shoulder.
"We have got to do something; we can't just stay here with our thumbs up our asses." Rex stated.
"But what do we do? We're trapped in Tori's house." Cat whimpered.
"I don't know." Andre replied.
"How about a window?" Beck suggested. "There has to be one big enough for us to fit in."
"But the woman on the radio said we have to stay inside." Robbie pointed out.
"Who gives a fuck what the bitch said! We need to get outta here!" Jade shouted letting go of me and runs upstairs with Andre, Beck, and I following her.
Jade kicks open a door that leads to a bathroom and walks in with the three of us in the hallway. She pulls back the shower curtains and walks in and reaches up to the window and pries it open.
"Someone give me a boost." Jade commanded. By "someone" she means Beck. So Beck walks up to her, grab her waist, and lifts her high enough for her to poke her head out.
"What do you see?" Beck asks her after a few moments.
"Uh, a lotta vehicles and water and the neighborhood is in ruins; I'm surprised anything is standing. Pull me back." she replies and he pulls her out and put her down.
"Bedroom windows?" Andre asks me.
"Not very big, but let's try." I reply and move down the hall to my room and enter. I go inside and move to the window with Andre and we open the curtains and gasp at the sight of a vehicle propped gingerly against the house, blocking the window. You've gotta be shitting me.
"Oh no; let's see the others." I say running outside and going to the other bedroom next door, which is Trina's, who I'm thankful is not here. I go inside and pull at the curtains and the window is blocked by a pole of some sort.
"I think that's a transformer." I state. That makes since, we lost power several minutes ago, and if that's the transformer, well, that explains a lot.
I run out and go to the end of the hall and enters the final room, which is my parent's master bedroom, that happens to have a soggy floor that is covered in shards of glass. The curtains are bulged at the middle like something is pushed against them and they are billowing slightly from the wind.
"Not a good sign." Beck remarks. Nodding, I go to the window and pulls the curtains and shows the cause of the bulge, another car blocking the fucking window.
"You've gotta be shitting me." Andre states.
"Ugh, now what do we do?" Jade asks no one in particular. Beck shakes his head slowly.
"I don't know, babe." Beck replies. We walk out of the master bedroom defeated and headed back downstairs. Cat and Robbie are sitting together at the piano bench, listening to the radio. I notice how close they are. Robbie will take care of her, he has always been there for her, even if she doesn't want him to be.
"What's up?" Cat asks, without turning from the radio.
"Windows are blocked by debris." I reply. Cat squeals a little and clutches Robbie and her purple giraffe tightly afraid to let go.
"Anything new?" Jade asks.
"Storm's heading north; SoCal is in ruins. L.A. seems to have taken the brunt of the hurricane." Robbie informs us, turning the radio up for us to hear. A man's voice is explaining the situation. Well, fuck.
"Hurricane Rick has all but wiped out Los Angeles and is now currently in the northern areas of SoCal. The power plant is currently having issues maintaining power." the man explains. Shortly after finishing, the radio starts buzzing, signaling the loss of signal, most likely from the power going out altogether.
Robbie starts fiddling with the tuners and changes channels, recieving nothing but buzzing.
"Power must have gone out." Robbie tells us sadly, earning him another crushing squeeze from Cat, causing him to gasp for breath. "C-Cat, loo-loosen up a bit!" Oh for crying out loud Robbie, she's barely squeezing! How can he expect any girl to like him if he's such a pussy over the smallest things?
"Sorry." Cat whines before loosening her grip on Robbie. Robbie turned the radio off.
Everyone gathered in the living room and sat down somewhere. Andre and I sit together on one of the red couches; Cat and Robbie sat together next to us Jade and Beck took the other couch for ourselves. I notice that Andre was very close to me like he was earlier when I first got the radio to work.
"How long do you think we'll be here?" Cat wondered. Good question and I wish I had a good answer.
"Awhile." Beck replies vageuly. His response is vague, but awhile could be anywhere from a few hours to several days and possibly even longer. I hope it's not gonna come to that; we only have so much food.
"We need to ration all the food in the house." Beck states suddenly. Agreed.
"That's a good idea; let's get started." I respond and jump up from my seat and walked into the kitchen and started opening cabinets that held food in them. Beck, Jade, and Andre soon followed and started grabbing food out of the cabinets and placing them on the tables and countertops.
"The food in the fridge will have to be eaten first before they spoil; I'm not sure what to do with all the frozen foods, since we have no power." I state motioning to the fridge.
"We could start a fire and do it the old fashioned way." Jade suggested innocently. Um, no we won't, Jade!
"That's really dangerous, Jade." I reply with a worried expression.
"Yeah, how are we gonna make a fire in here that's large enough to cook meat, but small enough that it's manageable?" Andre points out, giving Jade a wary look. She's edgy that one.
"Whatever; it was just a suggestion." Jade said nonchalantly.
"Wait a minute, we have no power in the entire house, right?" Robbie said out of the blue. Huh?
"Yeah, what about it?" Beck asks him.
"Well, with no power, we won't be able to charge our phones and we might need them if we're gonna be here for awhile." Robbie pointed out. Damn, that was actually an ingenious idea.
"Yeah, let's turn them off." I replied, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my blue phone and turn it off. Everyone soon follows suit and all our phones are off. We have no signal and no internet, so why kill the batteries?
Now that all of the foodstuffs are out of the kitchen cabinets we can start to ration them. If we ration them correctly, we should, hopefully, have enough food to last us the rest of the month, which is three weeks away. Unfortunately, we'll have to keep our appetites under check and have to fight the urge to eat. None of us have an eating disorder, so we should be ok.
"Do we have water?" Andre asks me. I shrug and move to the sink and turn the faucet on full blast and water comes spraying out. Shit yeah!
"Phew, at least we have water." I say relieved. Robbie and Cat soon join us in the kitchen to help with the rationing. Cat seems to have calmed down as she doesn't have her purple giraffe with her.
"Do you know what we have for food in the fridge?" Robbie asked. My eyes wandered to the ceiling as she struggled to remember what food is in the fridge. Ummmm...no fucking clue, how about that?
"Not really and I don't want to open it; we need to keep it cool for now." I reply. "We should only open it only when it's absolutely necessary." I add.
"It is absolutely necessary, Vega." Jade snapped and walked to the fridge and opened the door before anybody could object. We all walked to stand beside her. I stood beside Andre and struggled look past Jade's shoulder inside the dark fridge. It was hard to make out the containers of food inside. From what I can tell, there's dairy, condiments, sandwich ingredients, whole wheat bread, and a containers full of leftovers of foods I can't tell. It'll come back to me wh I can examine the containers' contents later. Jade then shuts the door to trap the escaping cool air.
"Not much, but it's better than nothing." Beck states. Everyone nods.
"Agreed; at least we have some idea what's in there." Jade replied. I then suddenly got hit by an idea.
I leave the kitchen and headed for the stairs. We need to start a daily journal entry for our time here, in case we don't...
"Where are you going?" Andre asked. Is it me or did he sound sadden by my being away from him for a few minutes? I think he did. I smile with my back turned. He likes me.
"Getting a notebook and a pen." I replied without looking back. I'm blushing. I ascend the stairs and vanished. I hope the blush disappears by the time I get back.
I go into my room and sigh. Andre likes me. I figured he has liked me more since he had a crush on Jade. I helped him so that I could hopefully get him to like me. I was secretly sad for two months following his crush and hoped that one day he'll like me the way I like him. And it seems that day has come. But, we're trapped and we'll do some last minute things very quickly. If we survive this (big if), will he still like me? I hope so. But, I'm gonna make my move on him.
I grab a notebook on my dresser and a pen and head back.
I reappear at the top of the steps and everyone is staring at me thoroughly confused.
"We'll make a journal entry of our stay here." I explain to them.
"Why? That seems unnecessary." Jade replied, her confused look contorting to an even more confused look. Um, really, Jade?
"Well, we need it in case we..." I started. I give them all expectant looks. Beck understood and nodded his head. Jade and Andre nodded as well. Robbie and Cat didn't reply nor nod, possibly not understanding what I mean. I like them both, but they get on my nerves really easily and really fast. I've been around Trina too much. Fortunately I know how to contain my anger when it comes to the little things.
"I don't get it." Cat says.
"We'll need it in case we don't make it, Cat." Andre tells her patiently. Cat gasped and grabbed Robbie again, who now had a terrified look on his face.
"Yeah; we'll each take turns writing a day out?" I suggested as I sat down on one of the couches and pulled the coffee table closer and put the notebook down and opened it to the first page after the cover. I looked back at us and we all nod.
"Ok, then I'll start." I said shakily. I don't find this easy and I don't think they find it easy either. Jade wraps her arms around Beck again and pulls him close to her. Beck wrapped his arms around her and pull her in closer. I start writing on the first page. Cat, Robbie, and Andre went into the living room to see what I was writing. Only Jade and Beck remained in the kitchen, wrapped together like a giant piece of candy.
I feel Andre behind me. Well, not really feel, he's not touching me. More like sensing him. I know he'll always be there for me no matter what happens and whatever comes between us.
"What are we gonna do about sleeping arrangments?" Andre asked without looking up from the notebook I was still writing in.
"Beck and I will take the master bedroom after we clean the glass off the floor." Jade replied automatically. She lets go of Beck and grabs his hand and drags him upstairs before anyone could reply.
Cat and Robbie go into the kitchen and start putting food away, leaving Andre and me alone. Andre moves to sit down next to me and looks at the notebook to see what I'm writing in it.
My daily log started to sound something like this:
Day One June 12th, 2011:
Hurricane Rick has hit Los Angeles and the city is all but destroyed. The roads are most likely blocked and the power is out. SolCal took the brunt of the storm. I am writing this daily journal so that should anyone find us too late, they'll know what has transpired here.
My name is Victoria Vega. I'm a student at Hollywood Arts high school and this is my house we are trapped in. My friends are as follows: Andre Harris, the boy with dreadlocks...
I haven't gotten far, but I can't help but wonder if Andre noticed that I put his name first. He probably thinks that I'll put Jade's last, which I will.
"It's not a bad start," Andre state. I stop writing and leans back. I read the entry over and over again, thinking that it's a good start. Andre then takes my hand in his and squeezes gently.
"Finished." I announce after a few moments. Cat and Robbie reply with "ok"s.
"Are you ok?" Andre asks me. I look at him and give him a weak smile.
"I'll be fine, it's just..." I starts. My eyes are starting to water. Andre lets my hand go and wraps me in a warming hug. I hug back tightly and I start to sob a little.
"I don't want to die alone." I mumble into his soft chest.
"You won't die alone, Tori; you got me and Cat and Robbie and Beck and in a way, Jade." he reassures me. I can't help but laugh a little at his joke and I straighten out. My cheeks are stained with tears. Andre raises a thumb and clears the tears away from my eyes. I smile at him. Come on Tori, do it! Do it! You won't get a chance after this! I urge myself to make my move.
"I really like you, Andre." I admit before leaning in. Before I know what's happening, my lips are on his and I'm kissing him! That's the way to do it! My lips musta sent a shock into his body and Andre is kissing back. He is actually a better kisser than I expected. This was worth the wait. Oh, I hope Cat and Robbie aren't watching.
After a few moments, we break apart slowly.
"I'm sorry." I say.
"Why are you sorry?" he asks perplexed.
"I like you, Andre, but I don't know what will happen."
"None of us do."
"Do you like me back?" I ask hopeful.
"No." he replies simply. WHAT?! How can he not possibly like me?! We just kissed and now he's saying he doesn't like me. I am beyond horrified and am struggling to not seriously breakdown.
"But-but-but I just.." I stuttered.
"I love you, Tori and I want us to be together even if we are trapped here forever." he responds quickly to prevent me from breaking down in the house. I am startled by this a little but glad at the same time. He doesn't like me, he fucking loves me!
"I love you too, Andre." I reply and we start kissing again.
We hear the sounds of footsteps on the stairs and we break apart and Jade followed closely by Beck enter the living room.
"Hey you guys." I greet them as they enter the living room.
"Tori finished with the day log." Robbie explained to them.
"What did she write?" Beck asks. I grab the notebook and hand it to him. He takes it and holds it so they can read it together.
"Where did you get the idea that I'm your friend, Vega?" Jade asked as soon as they finished reading the log. "And I do not have twenty pairs of scissors! I have fifty-nine!" she adds. What the fuck is it with her and scissors? I mean really?
"I'm trying to be nice to you, Jade!" I defend.
"Why?!"
"We may die here! Do you want to die alone with me and feel nothing but hate for me?" I ask hopeful. Jade contemplates this for a moment.
"Yeah." she replies. I roll my eyes in defeat.
"But, Jadey, why can't you and Tori get along?" Cat asked desperately.
"Don't call me that! And I don't want to get along with Tori because she's fucking annoying!" Jade replied. Cat covered her ears. For some reason she hates swearing. Whatever.
"It's a good start, Tori." Beck comments on the journal to change the subject.
"Thank you, Beck." I reply with a smile. Jade rolls her eyes in annoyance. Ha ha, Jade. I get the last laugh all the time, you bitch.
This will be a long stay. But at least I'll have Andre with me. I grab his hand and squeeze it.
Chapter 4. Tori's POV. Robbie's next.