Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious... Dan Schneider does.
Chapter 11
They drive for a little while in silence. Beck looks over to her. "Down for some fro-yo?"
She smiles and nods, leaning her head back against the headrest.
Beck sets out for the nearest frozen yogurt place and sees the bummed look on her face. He sighs. This really isn't how he wanted this to go.
"Look, can we just forget about everything for an afternoon? I don't want to be weighed down by all this drama." He says, meaning it too. This afternoon was about him and Tori.
She's quiet for a few seconds and eventually smiles. "You're right; I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Letting it get to me."
"Don't be sorry about having feelings, Tori."
It's silent until he hears her quiet, yet cheerful voice.
"So… you seem like a vanilla person," She says.
He smiles. "Oh, how wrong you are. Addicted to chocolate, and proud of it." He grins over at her and she returns it.
"Really? Never would have thought." She mulls it over.
"That's kind of an insult, Vega. Vanilla's plain and boring. Do you see me as plain and boring?" He teases and changes lanes.
"Well…" She starts.
"Hey!" He exclaims and laughs.
"I'm kidding. There's nothing plain about you, Beck." She says, and looks out the window.
He ponders that the rest of the way there.
She settles on strawberry with a ton of fruity toppings and he proudly sports a cup of chocolate concoction with all the works. They settle into a booth at the back of the yogurt shop.
"That is the cutest thing I've ever seen." She teases, pointing at the gummy bears awaiting their demise in his mouth.
He shrugs sheepishly. "I love the little guys," He admits.
After she takes a bite of her own yogurt, she looks at him with a thoughtful expression.
"What did you want to talk about?" She asks as she swallows.
"Huh?"
"Yesterday. When you invited me, you said we should talk about things. What things?" She asks.
He pauses, spoonful of gummies and sprinkles halfway to his mouth, and thinks. There was definitely a lot he could mention.
"Just... stuff." He oh so eloquently grumbles, and swallows the spoonful of sugar.
"Like…" She presses. She's more persistent than he thought.
"Um…" He hesitates.
"Spit it out, Beck." Persistent and demanding, that is. He kind of likes it, he decides.
He sighs. Why not jump the gun already? "Us, Andre, last Friday, feelings… Need I go on?"
"What about feelings?" She asks, setting her spoon down.
He shovels another spoonful into his mouth and treads these waters carefully. "Well…"
She changes the subject spontaneously, much to his relief. "How about you tell me what was up with the scene you and Andre did yesterday?"
He stops mid-swallow and almost chokes. Relief over. "What do you mean? It was a fight scene." He supplies, after he recovers.
"Seemed a little too fishy for me." She says with a determined look on her face.
He says nothing.
She raises her eyebrows. "Okay, well I guess I'll show you." She says and reaches over in her bag and pulls out a crumpled wad of yellow paper and sets it in front of him.
He furrows his brow. "What's this?"
"Open it." She commands.
Hesitantly he reaches over and unfolds the paper in his hand. He recognizes it as the script from yesterday and his attention is drawn to the last page that it was already flipped to. His heart skips a beat as he realizes that this showed how the rest of the scene really went and that she must have read it.
"So…?" He feigns ignorance and looks up at her, stone faced as stone faced could be.
"Beck, I'm not stupid. I thought that scene was a little too strange, so when you all left I grabbed that and read the rest of it. And that is not what you guys acted out yesterday. Or were you even acting?" She asks and sees the look on his face and his clenched jaw and deduces that as a solid no.
He doesn't know what to say, so he doesn't.
"And it didn't take long for me to figure it out. I was a little thrown off with Andre's girlfriend comment, but I realized it soon enough. You were talking about me." She says and any trace of humor or mirth is wiped from her expression as well. She matches his intense stare.
He still stays silent for fear of what he might say.
"And I heard what you said to him." Is all she says on the subject.
He's glad she doesn't specify. But he knows what she means. She heard him say he loved her, just as he heard her say the same thing.
She doesn't say anything else after that, seeming done with the topic, and neither does he.
He swallows and thinks of something to say. "So what did Cat and you talk about on Saturday?"
"Honestly? You." She says bluntly and he's a little surprised. She looks calm, picking up her spoon to take another bite of her slightly melted yogurt.
"What about me?" He asks a little quieter than normal because he doesn't know for sure if his voice will shake or not.
She smiles. "Later," She says and pats his head.
He's reminded of the time he said the same thing to her when she was asking about the bird scene. He smiles a little, relaxing and shoveling yogurt into his waiting mouth.
He thinks for a moment of Cat. Would Tori know anything about that? He knows he said he'd put it to rest but damn, he's still curious. "So, have you noticed anything weird with Cat?" He asks her.
"You mean how she was flirting with you?" She asks, and crosses her arms across her chest.
He laughs. "She was not flirting." He says and leans back, spoon in hand.
"She was too! Today in the hall. And she was pretty quick to say you two were 'just friends' to Andre yesterday." She says, accusingly.
He laughs some more. "Why, Vega, I'd say you were jealous!"
She flushes a little. "It's just, you two seem like better friends now."
"We are." He says evenly.
Her face falls a little.
"But, not in the way everyone thinks. Trust me, me and Cat are just friends. Despite what Andre or Jade or anyone thinks." He didn't like having to always defend his friendship with Cat. It just wasn't like that between them. Sure she was a little friendlier than normal today, but he figures that's just her, and it was probably something he would need to talk to her about later.
Tori however, doesn't look convinced. "Look… I love Cat. And I… you're both my friends. If you two want to date, I'm okay with it." She says.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa… who said anything about dating? I'm not dating Cat, and I'm not planning to. We are just friends, Tori. Besides, I only wanna date one person." He says the last part without really thinking.
She freezes and speaks in a quiet voice, seemingly afraid of his answer. "Who?"
He levels her with a stare and decides he's really sick of pretending around her. She deserved to know.
"Honestly? You." Their eye contact is so intense, it's almost hard to keep looking but no one breaks it.
"Beck…" She tries, but he cuts her off.
"No, listen to me. I wasn't planning on doing this today, or anytime soon. But… I feel like I should tell you. I… really like you Tori. I always have. And I know that this is probably not the best timing right now, because I don't have any clue why I'm saying this right now and this isn't how it should go, but all I know now Tori… is that I want to be with you. But I know there are all of these things in the way and it just… I wasn't even going to tell you this because there's no way in hell that I deserve you, and maybe Andre is right in that respect. I'm sorry. But… I'm not good enough for you." He finishes, not believing what he just blurted out to her and now she has this look on her face, her eyes are wide and her mouth is open and he can practically see her mind racing.
He realizes he has just made a colossal fool of himself so he does the cowardly thing, he rushes out of the place and goes to sit in his car. He's itching to go to the beach, but the rational part of his brain tells him he shouldn't just ditch her.
What the fuck did I just say? You weren't even going to tell her this and now you almost said you love her! You idiot! She wasn't supposed to know!
He fumbles with his keys, yelling at himself in his head, trying to unlock his door when he hears her screaming his name and running towards him. She's getting closer now, and his hands just won't cooperate and he accidentally drops the keys on the ground. He curses and lets out a frustrated yell and kicks his tire as hard as he can and he just can't do this.
She reaches him and puts her hand on his arm. The hands that were clenched in his hair drop to his sides as she urges him to face her. His eyes are clenched shut because he doesn't want to see her reaction. She's silent for a while as she tries to catch her breath, and he opens his eyes just in time to see her propel herself forward and crush her lips to his. He's wildly surprised.
This wasn't supposed to happen! But he's definitely not complaining, and within seconds he's kissing her back, just as fiercely. His eyes shut and he wraps his arms around her waist as hers go up around his neck. He pulls her even closer, and soon she's flush against his body and his mind is blank as he feels her tongue in his mouth and oh my god this is not happening. This is nothing like their first kiss, which was done out of revenge to get back at Jade. This one is hot and full of emotions. Anger, frustration, embarrassment, shame, fear, anxiety, curiosity, admiration, surprise, love, lust… just, everything they are feeling is coming to the surface at the same time. Her hands tangle in his hair and he pushes her back against the side of his car and everything is just so intense and emotional and as he moves his attentions to her neck he's thinking how he just can't get enough of her and his pulse is pounding everywhere and he's never felt so vulnerable yet feral at the same time.
He quickly pulls back when he hears a car honk and remembers himself. He puts a foot of distance in between them to clear his head. They catch their breath and he sees just how much her hair is slightly mussed and her lips are swollen and redder than usual and her eyes are wild and soon they're just looking at each other.
"You're wrong." She breaks the silence. "You are good enough for me, Beck. Just by thinking you aren't…you are. And you don't have any idea of how I feel about you… you're right this is sudden, but, it just… feels right. And I don't care if Andre or anyone else doesn't like it. It's not about them." She finishes and stares at him.
He slowly begins to grin and puts his hand on her cheek. "You never cease to amaze me, Vega."
They drive home in comfortable silence, and she's clutching his hand like she's afraid to let go; he knows the feeling.
He pulls up to a stop at her house.
They sit there for a while. The sun is just setting on the horizon, and Beck briefly wishes he took her to see it.
"What now?" She asks, looking over at him.
"We just… see where it goes, I guess." He replies after a while.
She nods, and he nods, and then he meets her gaze.
She smiles. "I had fun with you today, Beck."
"I did too." He replies and leans closer to her.
"Thank you for asking me to hang out with you."
"Thank you for kissing me." He smirks.
She blushes and he brushes it with the pad of his thumb.
"Why do you do that so much around me?" He asks.
"Do what?"
"Blush."
"You make me nervous, Beckett." She admits, and pulls her bottom lip in her mouth with her teeth.
He smirks again and leans into her until their lips are almost touching. "You have no idea what you do to me." He whispers, his voice doing this weird deep thing he's not used to.
But all thought is erased from his mind as she captures his lips with hers for the briefest of seconds before pulling away. "I should go." She smiles and opens the passenger door. She places both feet on the ground before turning around again and opening her mouth say something before he's kissing her again, long and hard.
She blinks when he pulls away. "Bye, Beck." She whispers in a daze and gets out of the car.
He watches her get to the front door and waves him goodbye. He smiles and returns it as he pulls away. "Wow..." He whispers as he drives home.
Tori enters her house and is immediately met with Trina.
"Where were you?" She demands.
She's still in a dreamy state as she answers her sister with, "Um... with Beck."
"Isn't that Jade's boyfriend?" Trina asks, and Tori is just surprised she remembers their names.
"No." She smiles and makes her way up the stairs.
"Wow." She sighs as she leans against her bedroom door once she's inside. Her Pearphone rings in her purse and she fishes around for it and sees that it's Andre calling, probably to check up on her. She hits reject without any thought. She didn't feel like listening to his nonsense right now.
A/N: Well hi guise. If any of you still read this. How do I even begin to apologize? I'm a pretty shitty person, I'll give you that. School started on Monday, and I get home at five o'clock every evening, and shit, dude, I already have homework coming out my ass. I'm so sorry... I meant to get in a chapter before the week started but alas, I didn't. Enough of my excuses.
We got a kiss :) Exciting. Now I know I kind of crammed a lot of stuff in here, but it had to happen and I didn't want a bunch of filler chapters. Looks like Tori has a backbone. I wonder how Andre's gonna take it when he finds out? I don't know. (Really, I don't.) And the whole Jade and Cat thing... I'll shed some light on that shortly.
If you haven't checked out my new story, you should, if you want. It's a Bori, but it's going to be super angsty and all that good stuff... so... happy readings and I love you all.
Like I said, school just started again so it might be a little longer between chapters. Basketball season is slowly descending upon me, so that will take up some time as well, but not for a little while longer.
Anyways, thank you for the reviews. They mean the world to me.