April? It's been since April that I updated this? I thought I got a chapter or two out at some point during the summer, but oh well. I hope this update will satisfy you a little, especially since if nothing gets in my way, I can have another update by Sunday then we'll be in the home stretch surprisingly for this story.
Martial Arts Student: I got really busy during that time and I wanted to get another chapter out to my dedicated fans. Sometimes self editing slips. I really don't use a beta most of the time.
Agent-M-0167: Teddie can be quite the tease in a T-rated fic. I know there are some good authors out there that would write some fantastic M-rated stuff about them to show how well they go together on a physical level.
darck ben: Thank you
mkpunk: I personally think it is a hard-T as well, but FF ratings have a lower threshold than what most of us I would wager consider what is T and M. M-rated is listed as in this regards 'non-explicit suggestive adult themes' and that scene wasn't explicit.
I consider the Teddie pairing what the Creddie pairing should have turned out to be with the archetypes involved if the original setup between the characters had actually played out. It may seem a little simplistic to say one could just swipe out Carly for Tori, but in the sense of the archetypes they are interchangeable. I consider it the same what between Jedi and Seddie: good guy/bad/mean girl, but played out seriously and with care.
Whether they are really together within 9 to 10 hours is left to be seen and I will address in this chapter about what might have happened if Trina hadn't arrived.
Fanfic-Reader-88: The question about them going all the way has to be weight by their respective upbringings. For them, it isn't a trivial question with how Marissa raised Freddie to the point where she genuinely considers 'Oh my God' a form of taking the Lord's name in vain to the point that she will humiliate her own child in front of a million people and I'm assuming for story purposes that Tori is at least nominally Catholic. If you recall 'Jade Likes Nice Guys', that was actually one of the underlining themes I explored for Freddie to deal with the fact that he and Jade actually went all the way outside of marriage.
In regards to Trina, I'm seeing in that despite all the lack of caring on her parents' part, she continued through the series witnessing it yet kept silent about it, perhaps wanting to live under the allusion that deep down they did love her and they were a family. The news that her parents could split was something she couldn't ignore and it basically shatters the illusion.
Tori has sunk her claws into Freddie whether she verbalizes it or not. He's off limits to all other girls until they figure out if they want to be together and that especially goes for her sister.
Challenge King: Thank you. In this story, Freddie is a challenge to write emotionally since (in my opinion that a lot of Seddies would disagree with me on) I'm moving him forward past the series and trying to reconcile basically several weeks of OOC portrayal of him in the Seddie Arc with the rest of the character portrayal from the series and now he's having to really face it with Tori instead of trying to pretend it didn't happen (like half the iCarly fanbase did).
Freddie doesn't have siblings (that he knows of), but he's been shown many times how he's been caught between Carly and Sam who are sisters short of blood. Sometimes he's stepped in, other times like in iQuit iCarly, he's stayed on the sidelines, but either way, he has experience in fighting female siblings.
illusorygentleman: Don't make promises you can't keep :P Then again, I know your are busy with some very important stories.
Twilight Warrior 627: Thank you. Those questions will be answered over the next two to three chapters.
Long time reader: Thank you. I can only guess why the shows didn't try this. The first where I'm letting Dan off the hook is that he couldn't really do long story arcs because he had no control over airing order. Nick aired the episodes in whatever order they feel like. You can't have an arc where the network could show episodes in order 5, 3, 4, 1, 2 and have it make any sense. Second, Dan can't write pairings. He just can't and his ego is too big to let his other staff writers that know what they're doing the opportunity to do such a thing.
Rating: T
Chapter 14
Vega Residence
Hollywood Hills
Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Holly Vega hurriedly made her way to the front door as the doorbell repetitively rang, the person on the other side of the door not waiting for one bell to finish before pressing the button again, clearly agitated that they had to wait at all for someone to open the door. She opened the door and froze in shock for a moment to see not only her youngest daughter return after the bombshell yesterday, but her eldest daughter standing beside her. She uttered seconds later, "Trina? Tori?"
Her eldest daughter brushed passed her as she did her younger sister hours ago, but to get out of the house, then snapped around to face her mother. "How in the Hell could you do that?!"
Mrs. Vega stared wide eyed at seeing the furious expression on the dark and highlighted brunette.
Trina crossed her arms under her chest and snapped, "I want an explanation how you could do this then tell me what you're going to do to fix this."
The mother glanced to her right to seeing Tori timidly enter the home, clearly not wanting to step foot in the residence. If she was expecting any support from her youngest daughter, she was would be disappointed. She looked back to Trina and started with a forced smile in hoping to reduce the tension of the situation, "Trina, I'm not sure what your sister has told you—"
"She told me everything: how you cheated on dad with his partner Gary. How in the Hell could you do such a thing?"
Holly took a slow, deliberate breath, trying to buy herself some time to reorganize her thoughts. As Trina stewed, her mother calmly replied, having rehearsed such a justification in her head many times in case the news ever got out, "I know you girls are upset, but you have to understand… I needed attention and I'm sure you can understand that. Your father is always busy—"
"Dad's busy? How is Gary any less busy? They're janking partners!"
"He would make the time," Holly snapped back at her daughter as the anger readily built for having to defend her actions at all to her children. "It's nice when you have a nice, handsome guy paying attention to you." She turned her gaze particularly to Tori. "You have to understand it with Freddie staying with you. I saw how you paid attention to him when he stayed for the weekend and he did the same to you, so I know he must be doing it no—"
Tori fumed and shouted out from a pit of rage she didn't know she had in her, "Don't you dare bring Freddie up in this! Don't you dare compare yourself to me! I'm not attached. I'm not cheating on anyone and what Freddie and I do or don't do in the privacy of our apartment is none of your damn business! It doesn't affect you!"
Holly was being hit with a double whammy of not only her eldest daughter lashing out at her, but her youngest and honestly favorite daughter.
Trina was stunned the veracity of Tori. She knew her sister could get mad and irritable, but what she was witnessing caught her by surprise. She didn't even initially register how possessive of Freddie and her apartment with her.
The older Vega sister rallied herself and came to her sister's defense with an accusing tone, "Hey, don't you try to drag her into you trying to justify anything. If she says it's none of your business, it's none of your business. You're the one that decided to cheat on dad and didn't give a damn about any of us. If you loved us, you wouldn't have done that. You wouldn't have broken our family just so you could get laid!"
"Girls, I love yo—"
Trina interrupted her with a sharp tone, "You haven't loved me in years, but that's a conversation for another time. What is important is what you're going to do about fixing things."
Holly squared her shoulders and looked to her oldest daughter with a defiant look in her eyes.
The daughters instantly sized up their mother and Trina was the first to respond with a furious shout, "Are you even ashamed of what you did? Of betraying dad? Of betraying us? You have torn our family apart!"
The Vega Matriarch kept her voice steady, believing one of them had to remain calm if she was going to be able salvage anything with her daughters, "Girls, I do love you and your father despite what you may think at the moment—"
"Bullchizz!" Trina shouted in outrage. "Don't make excuses or try to lie to us. Stop seeing Gary and find someway to fix this with dad then maybe, just maybe we can fix the stuff between us."
Holly studied her daughters' expressions for what felt like an eternity, realizing they didn't seem to understand the depth of what happened or how they had all got to this point. She finally answered with a slow and deliberate tone, "Girls, as much as you feel betrayed and as much as I hurt your father—and whether we can come back together… I'm not really sure that I want to get back with your father. I wouldn't have looked someplace else if I had been satisfied."
If the Vega daughters could be any more stunned after the last twenty four hours then that bit of news was it. The three stood silence for several seconds before Trina found her voice and spat, "Wow… did you ever really love dad? All it took was a few bootycalls from Gary and that was it?"
Mrs. Vega furled her brow and shouted back, losing her cool for a second, "It's not like that! I… I really like Gary and he likes me and I told you that things haven't been the same with your father in a while."
Trina palmed her forehead and muttered, "Oh my God," while Tori looked on beside herself. The betrayal had hurt enough yesterday, but the idea that her mother could move on from their father was too much.
The older sister couldn't deal with the news any better than her younger sister, so she went ahead and turned and headed for the door in disgust, trying to suppress the pain of knowing that her family would remain broken and there wasn't anything to be done to fix it.
Tori wasn't as successful in hiding her pain as she shook her head and quickly caught up with her sister, leaving their mother behind to deal with the fact that her daughters had turned their backs on her.
Bots Restaurant
Venice, CA
Freddie idly sat in the booth alone staring at his dessert of a small piece of chocolate cake. He idly poked at it with his fork as his mind was heavy to say the least. He expected that he'd face with a whole new level of stress when he reached college, between the workload and the new friendships he hoped he would forge. However, he didn't expect to be dealing with all this heavy and complication so soon.
Who would have thought—him of all people—would accidentally get roomed with a beautiful girl that wanted him to be around, least long with a girl that he had some past dealings where he had some wishful thinking about possibly pursuing her between the chaos of being caught between his first love that would never give him a real chance and an abusive she-demon.
However to him, it was like dangling a prize just out of his reached (not that he really thought Tori was an actually 'prize' to win) since actually being her roommate complicated things for him. There were plenty of others that wouldn't see it as much if at all a problem of sharing such living arrangements, but he was raised by a devout woman and co-habitation with people of the opposite sex was not really acceptable. He still hadn't informed her mother of that bit of news and had no intention of doing such a thing anytime soon.
He could ignore that, just as he ignored just outright common since when he said yes to Sam, and take his shot at Tori who clearly had feelings for him. He couldn't deny that he was attracted to her and not just in the physical aspect.
If he decided to ignore that one hurdle, Fate seemed to be rearing her ugly head with this latest unfortunate event with Tori's parents potentially divorcing over infidelity. He didn't know how he could really help other than being a shoulder to cry on since he didn't know much of anything about his father and his mother had always been tight lipped about what happened to him and more importantly, he didn't want to take emotional advantage of her in her time of need. He didn't do it with Carly and her hero worshiping and he certainly wouldn't do it with Tori.
Nothing was ever easy for Freddie Benson.
A sweet voice called out to him to pull him out of his thoughts, "Hey."
He turned his head up to see the sweet expression of Cat softly waving at him. He smiled at the cute and sweet redhead. His smile slightly faltered at seeing Sam stand beside her.
The dirty blonde returned in a tone that suggested it bothered her to even to speak with him, "So what are you up to?"
Freddie shrugged a shoulder and replied in a similar tone that it bothered him to answer her, "Oh, just enjoying some desert after lunch."
Cat looked around then questioned with a perplexed expression on her face, "Then where's Tori?"
The former Seattleite wasn't going to mention anything about what happened to his roommate's parents, but he did wonder for a moment if he should mention Trina. He quickly decided to refrain from mentioning the older sister returning from New York City because it might raise more questions that he didn't want to have to lie about, so he decided to stick to his roommate's original plan for the weekend.
Sam followed up before he could answer, "You and Tori have a fight?"
Freddie tilted his head slightly and mouth became a thin line. He dryly replied, "No, but even if we did would I really give you the satisfaction of knowing?"
"We were… 'friends'."
The corners of Freddie's mouth turned down and slightly tilted his head down while keeping his eyes on her before he remarked, "You can barely get the word out of you mouth in regards to me. Carly was your friend—your only friend and now she's in Italy."
The red velvet haired teenager was quick to retort, "Sam is my friend."
Freddie turned a sympathetic gaze to the redheaded girl in pitying her in believing such a thing. Perhaps he was wrong, but at the moment he doubted it and on some level, didn't really care. He politely answered with a tight smile, not wanting to upset or offend the girl for Tori's sake and she had always been friendly to him since they had first met at Kenan's party, "Cat… you can believe anything you want, but in the end, the only one she cares about is herself and Carly—unless it interferes with what she wants too much then even Carly takes a backseat."
Sam snorted out dismissively and laced with disgust, "You don't have to be any more of a nub because Tori ditched you for the day."
He sighed, "Tori is just visiting her parents for the weekend, remember? It has been three weeks—probably more since they went to New York to help Trina move—since she's seen them. How would that upset me at all?"
He doubted logic would work on his ex-girlfriend, but she could surprise him at time with thoughtful insight.
Sam slipped into the seat across from him with Cat naturally following her in the booth seat. "Oh, so you're just hanging out here by yourself?"
The former tech-producer had a weird sense of déjà vu of one of their dates when they shared a booth. He tossed that aside from his mind and answered, "Done with all my homework and since everyone is busy, I thought I'd take the chance to explore the city a little by myself."
"You might get lost."
Freddie dryly remarked, "I have a PearPhone; it's not hard to bring up a map of the city."
Cat eagerly suggested, "Why don't we do something together? We could go to the Santa Monica Pier or maybe the movies?"
Sam threw Cat a disapproving expression.
He cracked a smile at seeing Sam's true colors. He had no real interest in hanging out with her either. He glanced to Cat and politely declined, "I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn't want to intrude on your day since you're obviously out together."
Cat smiled at his consideration. "'kay, 'kay."
Freddie felt a wave of pity for the redhead at the sight that she really did want to hang with Sam regardless of the warnings. He just hoped she wouldn't learn the hard way.
The happier girl counter offered, "Okay. Maybe we can plan something together later? Ohh, I know, Halloween is coming up. I know it's still a few weeks away, but maybe we could all get together then?"
He passed a quick glance to his blonde former friend. Her expression softened and realized in nearly an instant why: she would most likely skip out on any Halloween festivities entirely since Carly wasn't around and not have to deal with him. The girl could barely throw together a costume at all—and hadn't when they filmed their first Halloween special. Her last costume was merely a hat during their 'Half-o-ween' stunt that brought back too many anger filled memories.
The former tech-producer nodded along and replied, "Okay, that sounds good. I don't know what you guys usually do for Halloween, but I'm in."
Cat's face lit up with his agreement. "YAY!" The redhead immediately pulled out her PearPhone and started swiping her finger across the screen.
Sam squinted and questioned, "What are you doing?"
The redhead kept her eyes focused on the screen and answered, "Looking for Halloween costume ideas."
"We could be here for a while," Sam muttered in mild disgust.
Freddie shrugged a shoulder and remarked with a smirk, "Look on the bright side, you're in a restaurant, so you can do one of your favorite things: eat."
The blonde devilishly smiled then leaned over the table slightly to reach for the plate. She got a hold of the edge of it and started pulling it towards her when Freddie jammed the fork on the counter, missing her hand by a hair's breath.
She looked up at him with nearly bulging out eyes.
He whispered coldly, "Get your own."
Sam scrawled at him and was about to verbally challenge him when he uttered, "I had a lot of time to reevaluate my life after you left. Are you so sure?"
The lovely blonde deepened her frown, not sure if he was bluffing and that alone gave her pause. They maintained a staring contest for a few seconds until she let go of the plate, turned her head and yelled pass Cat, causing the redhead to yelp and stick a finger in her right ear, "Hey! Tandy!"
Cat looked to Sam with an annoyed expression which the girl from Seattle pointedly ignored while she waited for the red robot to roll over to take her order.
"Robot, I want a big bowl of fudge right now, chop, chop," Sam demanded with a clap of her hands.
Tandy motioned towards the edge of the table and pointed out in a mechanical voice that resembled a very successful show creator for the Nickelodeon Channel, "You place your order on the PearPad then we will bring your order."
Sam quickly brushed off his complaint with a wave of her hand and demanded, "Big bowl of fudge, now."
Tandy the Robot 'sighed' then rolled away to fulfill her order.
Freddie just gave the girl a disgusted look, feeling sympathy for the robot as it exhibited far greater sentience than just a mechanical device. He pushed aside in his mind for the moment about the ethical question of whether the restaurant was engaging in slavery.
The robot soon returned with a dessert and Sam started gorging herself on it.
The former friends stared at each other while they ate on their respective deserts, the redhead being oblivious to the 'confrontation' as she looked through possible costume ideas with the one as a pink clothed genie taking the lead.
In Route to Vega/Benson Apartment
Tori was behind the wheel of her car, her head propped up with her left arm braced against the top of the door with her elbow, nearly zoned out while navigating the streets of Los Angeles.
Trina broke the quietness in a cautious voice, "Do you want to talk about it?"
The younger sister blinked and lifted her head up to pass a side glance to her older sister. "I thought we already talked about it. Do you need to talk about it?"
"Not really… not right now at least, but I was wondering for you because of what mom said about you and Freddie. That obviously hurt. I've never seen you get that upset."
Tori remained quiet for a few seconds as she focused entirely on the road. Trina thought her sister would just decide to remain mute on the subject until she blew out a tired breath and answered, "I didn't like her trying to get me to understand what she did by suggesting that I should understand with bringing Freddie into the conversation. Our situation is nothing like what she's done to dad and us and it isn't fair bringing him involved."
"That and you like Freddie," the older brunette lazily remarked.
"Freddie's my friend, of course I like him," Tori replied in a defensive tone and knotted brow.
"It's obviously more than like since you admitted I walked in on you two going PG-thirteen when I arrived this morning."
Tori took a deep breath then replied in a curt tone, "I don't want to talk about this right now. I don't want to talk about Freddie right now. I don't want any connotation with what is going on to Freddie. I don't… I don't want anything I'm feeling right now to poison my feelings with Freddie or make me second guess anything."
Hearing the definite in Tori's voice and not wanting to upset her further, Trina calmly answered, "Okay, we don't have to, but I just want you to know that you're right about whatever is going on between you and Freddie isn't anyway similar with what mom did and that I support you one hundred percent on whatever you decided with Freddie…" She finished with a teasing laugh, "…except going triple-X with him without protection. I'm not ready to be an aunt."
The younger sister's expression softened even to the teasing and uttered, "Thanks Trina."
Apartment 316
Venice/Barry Apartments
1811 Venice Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
Sunday, October 7, 2012
After a surprisingly enjoyable end of lunch with the redhead and former girlfriend, Freddie arrived in mid-afternoon to his shared apartment. Cat really seemed like a sweet girl and nice to be around—which he would have to be while being friends with Tori and burgeoning one with Jade—even if she seemed so childlike and probably made Gibby look smart. His next thought was to wonder what she had to do in life to deserve someone like Sam as her roommate. The next thought in his mind was she probably didn't deserve anything to get her as he hadn't done anything to deserve the treatment the blonde loved to dish out on him.
He slipped the key inside and pushed open the door, immediately spotting Tori sitting in one of the chairs in the kitchen lazily browsing on her laptop while Trina was sitting on the couch watching television.
The brown eye teenager quietly spoke up, neither appearing to recognize his presence, "Hey."
Tori pulled her gaze away from the laptop and gave a half-hearted smile to him, yet he could see in her eyes that she was happy to see him. "Hey," she answered with a sweet and tired voice.
He tightly smiled and hesitated to ask, but did so anyway as there wasn't any reason to try to pretend otherwise what was going on, "I take it that it didn't go well?"
Trina tore her eyes from the television and snapped, "You think?"
Freddie turned his attention to the older sibling and gave her a challenging expression, something that older girl had not much experience in confronting. She found it a bit of a turn on from the handsome fellow.
The younger sister looked to the older brunette and admonished, "Trina!"
Trina threw a glance to her younger sister then back to Freddie. "I'm sorry."
Freddie's somewhat cold gaze softened then patiently smiled. "It's okay. I don't know how you feel, but I know it must hurt. My parents broke up when I was a baby so… split parents, no pain…"
The sisters gave him guarded looks, not sure how to respond to his statement. It didn't seem particularly flippant, but regretfully detached.
He took a seat cattycorner to her at the table and asked in what he hoped was a supportive tone, "Did you accomplish what you wanted?"
Tori leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms over her stomach. She breathed out, "We found out why she cheated. Dad wasn't around enough with work—"
Trina interrupted with a disgusted tone, "—didn't pay attention to her enough, wasn't emotional available to her, blah, blah, bullshit. She just wanted to step out and have some fun. Dad was around plenty. When he'd have extra paperwork to get done, he'd come home and do it and they would go on trips together without us."
Freddie hesitantly brought up, "Not to justify what she did, but there is a difference between being physically there and emotionally there." He shrugged a shoulder and remarked, "I have experience in that area." He glanced down at the table and muttered in a defeated tone, "Guy works hard to provide for his family and give them a good life then it's turned around on him as an accusation and defense to cheat…" He looked up to his roommate and finished, "We just can't win can we?"
The Vega sisters studied their lost friend from Seattle before Tori defensively stated, "Hey, we're not all like that."
He surprised them with a soft smile. "You're not your mother's daughter? Good… I really don't consider myself my father's son."
Tori slightly squinted, seeing another facet of the handsome fellow and realizing his meaning.
Freddie's smile grew when he saw the recognition in her eyes.
Trina quietly watched the pair, seeing another connection being made between the pair. She hated to interrupt their googling eyes towards one another, but she got up from the couch and lazily remarked, "I guess need to pull myself together and should head for the airport. I can catch a redeye flight."
Tori broke her eye contact from Freddie and shook her head and quickly insisted, "I already told you that you can stay the night. You don't have to go. You're exhausted. You just can't just right back to class tomorrow."
The fellow brunette gave a thankful smile, knowing wholehearted that her sister meant her words and really did love her. She looked to Freddie, giving him a soft smile then answered her sister, "I wouldn't want to intrude on your love nest."
Freddie softly blushed while Tori put on a mildly irritated expression. The younger sister pointed out firmly, "It's not a 'love nest'. We've been through this: we're roommates after a mix up with housing."
Trina rolled her eyes and lazily replied with a slightly whiny pitch that annoyed Tori, "If you say so, but… if you insist on me staying, I guess I can spend the night."
Freddie graciously offered, "And you can still have my bed and I can take the couch."
Tori raised a finger and cut him off, "Oh no, my bed's big enough, so Trina and I can share. There's no reason you have to be kicked out of your bed."
Trina raised an eyebrow and softly taunted with a sideward glance at her sister, "So you have beds big enough to share?"
Tori narrowed her gaze on her older sister and clenched her jaw, the comment getting under her skin.
Freddie answered without a second thought, "Yeah, they give us nice size beds which shouldn't be much of a surprise with the price we're paying for this place."
The younger brunette wasn't sure if Freddie was just that oblivious to Trina's remark or he was trying to cover himself over the fact that they know quite intimately that the beds were easily large enough for two people—then again the way the pair had shared last night hadn't required anything much bigger than perhaps a single bed.
Trina thought back to this morning and truly wondered if her baby sister had shared a bed last night with Freddie, but refrained from speaking on that matter, but instead answered with a falsely innocent smile, "Fine, I can bunk with you… Freddie shouldn't have to take the couch in his own apartment and… it might be a little awkward if I shared one with Freddie."
Freddie cleared his throat, caught off guard by Trina's flirtation while Tori grew more annoyed with her sister turning her attention on her roommate.
The older Vega sister lazily continued as if she hadn't said anything unsavory, "So, if I'm staying for the rest of the day, what do you two do for fun on a Sunday afternoon?"
Freddie thought on it for a moment, partially to recover from Trina's comment, then commented, "Tori and I are done with all our homework and ahead, so…"
He looked to the Wii sitting under the large television and recalling that it was Trina that Tori enjoyed playing against. He turned his head back to her and grinned. "How are you up for a game or two? Tori's told me that you two played all the time."
They older sister cracked a smile and considered the offer. After the last day, it seemed like a trivial thing to do, but what else was she going to do at the moment?
After several hours of playing games with Freddie and Tori, Trina felt exhausted and had worked up a good sweat. The boy from Seattle offered her a greater challenge than her sister. He was quite physically fit to keep up with her and looked mighty fine to her eyes doing it in his muscle undershirt and workout shorts—and was a little disappointed not to see him strip out of his athletic undershirt. She wouldn't mind seeing the sight again during a proper workout and briefly wondered if Tori ever had the same idea since she worked out too on a regular basis.
Once they finished, Freddie took a shower and dressed in record time so that Trina could use his shower while he headed out to pick up a few things to make them a homemade dinner. He did that out of consideration of course for the older Vega sister, but he also wanted to get out of sight of the Vega sisters since his confession to Tori that morning that she looked quite attractive after a workout—and Trina unsurprisingly was the same wearing similar workout attire to her sister—he didn't want to risk embarrassing himself with unintentional stares at the girls.
Freddie returned about forty five minutes later and let himself inside. He saw the back of the Vega sister's heads above the backrest of the couch lazily lounging around and chatting and announced, "Hey, I'm back."
Tori turned her head to look over the top of the headrest and smiled towards him.
The teenager from Seattle paused, taken aback at the warm expression. She had directed identical ones to him several times since their reunion, but it was still something to get accustomed. He quickly brushed it off and closed the door behind him then sat a grocery bag on the dining room table before asking with a grin, "So what have you two been up to since I was gone?"
The sister got up from the couch and walked around it as Tori casually answered, "Oh, we've just been comparing notes about how college has been treating us."
Freddie tightly smiled at seeing the girls in casual wear. Tori looked adorably gorgeous as always in a formfitting baseball T-shirt and very short sleep shorts while Trina wore equally short shorts and a tank top with a baggy T-shirt with a wide collar that hung off one of his shoulders that made her look equally appealing. He wondered what false deity (as in his mind, it wouldn't be God) had finally smiled down on him or perhaps continued to play with him in throwing him into such a situation of being alone in his apartment with two gorgeous sisters in knowing that he wasn't in some movie and wouldn't be trying to get with two sisters at the same time.
He turned his attention to Trina and apologized while moving the bags to the kitchen counter, "Well I'm sorry Trina, but you're just going to have retell it again for me over dinner."
Trina sweetly smiled to him. "Oh, I don't mind, but you didn't bring anything back."
"I didn't bring back any takeout. I have plenty to make you a home-cooked meal."
The older sister's eyes lit up, delighted at the prospect of something different than just her amateurish attempts at preparing her own meals for her altering diet. "So what are we having?"
"Oh, you'll find out…" he teased to try to make the upcoming meal a little mysterious to her.
"Okay… but whatever it is, it has to be healthy. I'm kind of taking a closer look at what I'm eating and not to be too picky, I hope it doesn't have too much meat in it."
Freddie grinned and readily went along with her, "Don't worry, I learned from the best when it comes to healthy foods from my mother, but it'll be delicious and I think I can fulfill your request."
After that, Freddie went about pulling stuff out of the grocery bags and Tori instantly joined him behind the kitchen counter.
Trina took a seat at the dining room table and quietly watched as she watched her younger sibling and Freddie go about the kitchen preparing a home-cooked meal for them. Freddie was busy working on a homemade sheet pizza while Tori was getting all the ingredients she needed to prepare a large salad for the three of them to split when the pizza would be nearly done, doubly aware that her older sister had altering her diet over the summer and cutting back on meat beside her mentioning minutes earlier to Freddie.
She was content that her baby sister had remembered such a thing and curious at watching the roommates move around one another in some coordinated dance and discussing which task each was going to handle. In her eyes, they looked like they had quickly become domesticated with one another. Whatever twinge of jealousy she could have with her sister in snagging—or in the process of trying to snag him—she was happy that she apparently found a nice guy instead of some jerk that wanted to either use her or two time her.
Tori and Freddie returned to the table with drinks and had cattycorner seats on either side of her. Trina graciously took a cup of her sister's pink lemonade and needlessly asked, "So, I really get a home-cook meal."
The younger sister answered with kind of a lazy tone, "The reason for you here maybe all janked up, but I'm happy you're here, so we're going to celebrate."
Trina cracked a genuine smile. "I'm happy to be here too if it is for a chizzy reason." She turned her attention to Freddie and continue, "So what are we having pizza?"
Freddie eagerly answered, "And salad. The pizza is a homemade recipe because I take my pizza very seriously, but I changed the recipe just a little for you. I hope you enjoy it."
"I'm sure it will absolutely delicious."
"Thank you for the early praise. I hope it does live up to your expectation, but while it's cooking, why don't you go ahead and fill me in on what you've been up to in New York?
Trina's face lit up with a smile at the opportunity to talk about herself, "Well…"
Over the course of the next half hour or so, Trina went into detail and ad nauseam—especially to Tori since she had already heard it—about her classes and her attempts to find small acting and singing gigs outside of her auditions to school productions despite just starting in entry level classes, which were something that annoyed her to a great deal. She speculated to them that it was just some East Coast/West Coast rivalry that explained why her graduating from Hollywood Arts hadn't allowed her to skip some of the lower classes. She went on about her personal live about making friends with a number of people on campus and even recounted a humorous story of a trip in Central Park about meeting a handsome high school senior whose last name happened to be Benson.
Before she could start repeating anything, the oven dinged, signaling that the pizza should be done if Freddie had followed the directions and the former tech-producer nearly jumped from his seat. Tori was right behind him to quickly prepare the salad.
Again, Trina stared at the pair while sipping on her lemonade and marveling how in sync the pair moved about to prepare dinner.
Freddie returned with the tray of pizza and Tori with plates and the bowl of salad.
Trina took a bite out of the veggie pizza and her eyes lit up a second later from the flavor on her tongue. She smiled the handsome teenager while she finished the mouthful of pizza. "Freddie, this is delicious."
"Thank you."
She looked to her younger sister and remarked, "If he cooks like this on a regular basis, you need to keep him around."
Tori stiffened, the comment causing a hidden truth to flash to the forefront of her mind.
Freddie laughed as he reached for a slice of the pizza, "Hopefully my place with be fairly close so we can have dinner together on a regular basis—"
"Or mine," Tori swiftly admitted with a mild blush.
Freddie glanced to her with a raised eyebrow.
Tori hastily explained with a shrug of her shoulder, "In case they find me a place first."
Trina narrowed her eyes while studying her sister's expression, sensing that something was off with it but couldn't place her finger on it. She made a mental note to follow up on it later, but she continued in a sweet voice towards Freddie, "So Tori's caught me up on what she's been doing since school started, how what have you been up to over the last year?"
Freddie finished a morsel of pizza in his mouth then licked his lips to wipe any bit of sauce on his lips and cover his apprehension to the question. He reluctantly admitted, "That's kind of a story…"
After an enjoyable meal with very pleasant conversation even if for Freddie it threatened to open up old wounds and having earned a great deal of sympathy from Trina despite not being as open on the subject that he had been with Tori that morning, the three found their way to the couch where Freddie took the right end, Tori in the middle and Trina at the left end to finish out the evening with some television. The younger sister lulled her head to the side and use Freddie's shoulder as a pillow. The former Seattleite didn't seem to mind and Trina quietly watched the pair from the corner of her eye.
They remained this way for another hour or so until Freddie got up and looked down to the sisters with a soft smile. "I'm going to turn in early."
Tori just answered with a smile and Trina glanced over her shoulder to watch Freddie walk about the perimeter of the apartment to check the door then around to check the glass door instead of heading towards one of the bathrooms or to his room. She leaned slightly to right and whispered to her sister, "What is he doing?"
Tori grinned and answered in a hushed tone, "It's kind of Freddie's nightly ritual to check the door and the windows. I ah… told him that one of the reasons I wanted him to stay when he first wanted to find a place to stay until they straightened out of the housing situation was that the makes me feel safe being here."
Trina cocked an eyebrow and started in mildly astonished, "Safe? How has he made you feel sa—"
Freddie interrupted without realizing it when he stopped in front of them, "'night Tori, 'night Trina."
The younger Vega sister glanced up and answered with a hint of a smile, "'night Freddie."
Trina politely raised a hand and replied, "Goodnight Handsome."
Freddie snorted out a laugh and gave her a boyish grin before he turned and walked towards the hallway and to his room.
"Trina," Tori softly chided.
The older brunette innocently answered, "What? He is handsome."
Tori sighed with a slight shake of her head and turned her attention back to the television.
The sisters remained up for only another half hour in silence as Tori tried to pointedly ignore her sister's occasional glance as if she was studying her before they headed to the restroom and retired to Tori's bedroom.
They were already dressed for bed, so after a quick trip to the bathroom, the girls slipped into Tori's bed. Tori immediately took the right side of the bed and turned her back to her sister to look in the direction of the window to try to get to sleep. Trina on the other hand had no hurry to get to sleep since she really didn't need to get up in the morning with blowing off her Monday classes back in New York, so she stared at the ceiling after getting comfortable and letting the day's events process in her mind.
However, the older sister unexpectedly started in a hushed tone, "So…"
The younger sister knotted her brow, mildly surprised that Trina wanted to talk instead of getting her beauty sleep. "So?"
"Are you and Freddie really going to try to make this work?"
Tori blew out a long breath and rolled onto her back to join her sister's gaze at the ceiling. "Trina… right now that's not really on my mind. I'm trying to balance school, hopefully get my music career back on track and… just deal with the fact that our parents are broken."
Trina remained quiet for about a minute, just letting Tori's point turn in her head and mentally examined it. She finally uttered, "You might be right. It's kind of hard to focus on a relationship when you're watching the one you thought was a rock just crumbled, but…"
"But what?"
"You're not mom and don't miss out on another chance with him. You two fit pretty well."
Tori remained quiet and stared at the ceiling while Trina rolled onto her left side and turned her back to her younger sister to fall asleep.
Author's Note: Well, the Vega girls look like they're in a hopeless situation about fixing their parents. Poor Freddie (yeah, him poor in anyone's opinion), now temporarily stuck with dealing with both Vega sisters in close quarters…
The food for the dinner was inspired by what Daniella posted on her blog about some of her healthy meals.
I really hope to have the next chapter by Sunday where some secrets start coming out and we'll see what it does to Teddie. Take care.