Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Victorious, and the title of the story was inspired by Avril Lavigne's song Things I'll Never Say. Also, the play that is mentioned in this chapter is based on the book The Full Catastrophe by David Carkeet.

Chapter Five

Tori Vega may have appeared calm, cool, and collected as she sat in Beck's RV, but inside, she was a nervous wreck. She was sitting at the foot of his bed, patiently waiting for him to upload some pictures from her digital camera on his laptop. Even with Beck's back turned to her, Tori dared not move, afraid to do or say anything that would ruin the illusion of her composure.

She had an upcoming project due in her photography class that proved to be more difficult than she had expected. Luckily, Beck did some photography in his spare time and had offered to lend her a hand.

"It's done uploading," Beck said, swiveling around in his chair to face Tori. "One question though. Why do you have a picture of a half-eaten burrito?"

"Just in case Trina took a bite out of it while I was at school. It was a really good burrito."

"Makes sense," said Beck before turning back to his laptop. "Your pictures look pretty good. You just have to pick out the right ones for your project."

Tori smiled optimistically. "Really?"

"Yeah. Just take a few more pictures with good depth of field and you're good to go."

"Depth of what now?"

Beck smiled affably as Tori approached his desk. One of the things he liked about Tori was her willingness to admit when she was wrong or didn't know something. It was this simple modesty she possessed that Beck had often found lacking in Jade.

"Depth of field," he repeated. "It just refers to the sharpness of the background in a picture. Here, look."

Beck pressed a couple of keys on his laptop and an album of his own personal pictures soon appeared on the screen. As he scrolled through each photo, explaining the concept of depth of field, Tori suddenly felt embarrassed by the quality of her work.

"Beck, these are amazing!" she exclaimed, admiring a close-up shot of a sleeping puppy.

Tori rested her arms on the desk and leaned forward to get a closer look. Beck caught the scent of her perfume as she did so and he drew in close. The sweet fragrance of lilac played on his nose as he gazed at Tori, no longer caring if what he said was making any sense. Tori herself didn't even notice when Beck stopped talking, as she continued to look through his photos in awe.

"I had no idea you– "

She turned her head and was suddenly face to face with Beck. With their noses nearly touching, the world around them came to a halting standstill. Tori's mind screamed move! but her body remained motionless; her eyes locked with Beck's in gripping intensity.

After what seemed like eternity, Beck cleared his throat and, with great effort, looked away. He pushed his chair from his desk to create some distance between him and Tori. The bittersweet moment had passed and Tori hesitantly inched her way back to her seat on the bed. Neither one of them looked at each other as an awkward silence settled in the room.

For a while, Tori's eyes wandered around the room until they came across the script for the play lying on top of some textbooks by the bed. She picked it up and began perusing the pages, a small smile forming on her lips.

"So what's the play about?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the page.

"A couple that's always fighting." Beck replied, relieved that the tension was lifting. "Their daughter secretly hires an unconventional marriage counselor, who ends up living with them for a whole month to fix their marriage."

Tori looked up and shot Beck a questioning glance. "Wow. It's almost like…"

She stopped, unsure of whether to finish her sentence.

"Like the play was custom-made for me and Jade?" Beck raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Tori chuckled. "I wasn't going to say it."

"But you were thinking it," said Beck, smirking.

The memory of Jade's outburst when Sikowitz announced her part flashed in Tori's mind.

In a delicate manner, she said, "Jade kind of hit a whole new level of scary yesterday."

Beck nodded in agreement, though the smile fell from his face. "She'll be okay. At least the fighting will be convincing."

Tori mentally kicked herself for bringing up the topic. Though he wasn't always an open book about his feelings, she could tell that a small part of Beck still felt guilty for breaking up with Jade.

"You two will do great," she said with a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah," Beck quietly agreed. Then without thinking, he added, "It'll just be really awkward when we have to kiss."

Tori faltered. Did she hear that right? A kiss? Beck blinked a couple of times, realizing his mistake. Smooth move, he thought as he dodged Tori's gaze.

"Oh…there's a kiss?" she asked lightly, trying to mask the apprehension on her face.

He nodded slowly as his mouth pulled into a tight-lipped grin. "It's in the final act, at the very end."

Tori nodded back, not knowing what else to say. An awkward silence stepped into the room once again like an unwanted guest. Even without the exchange of words, the same thought came to Tori and Beck's mind: maybe it was about time to tell Jade about their almost-kiss.

The first rehearsal for the play the next day was brutal. Robbie and Sinjin, for one reason or another, couldn't figure out the correct settings for the lighting. Throughout the rehearsal, random bursts of light would flash in the black box theater; each time Cat would cower under a chair and cover her eyes, crying about how she hated lightening. The chaos only added to the tension between Beck and Jade, which was quickly turning the humorous play into a catastrophic tragedy.

Sikowitz stood in the back of the room, rubbing his scruffy beard thoughtfully as he assessed the disastrous scene.

"Somehow this played out a lot better in my head," he said, frowning.

Tori and Andre sat in a nearby corner, watching Cat crawl out from under a chair.

"At least the play's living up to its name," Andre joked.

Tori smiled and then looked up to see Beck approaching them with a sullen look on his face.

"Hey man." Andre grinned teasingly. "Married life wearing you out?"

Beck ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "Half of the arguments we had just now weren't even in the script."

"Could've fooled me," said Andre as Tori nodded in agreement.

Across the room, Jade angrily stuffed the script into her backpack. Sikowitz had just made the announcement to call it a day, saying that all the fighting was too believable and could potentially scare the audience. If the next rehearsal was going to be anything like this it would be too soon.

As she headed for the door to leave, Jade caught sight of Beck talking to Tori and Andre. She watched as Tori smiled sweetly at Beck and placed her hand comfortingly on his shoulder. Seeing this, Jade pursed her lips and clenched her hand tightly around the strap of her backpack.

"Hey Jade," Robbie said as he approached her. "Sorry about the–"

Before he could finish, Jade had taken the gum she was chewing and jammed it into his mouth in mid-sentence. Then she walked away without another word, leaving Robbie behind, dumbfounded.

Jade strode through the empty hallway and stopped by her locker to grab a notebook. Upon hearing footsteps, she turned to see Beck walking towards her. Though caught off guard, Jade maintained an air of indifference and coldly stared at him.

"Hey," he greeted.

"What do you want?"

"I was hoping we could talk."

Jade slammed her locker shut and briskly said, "Rehearsal's over. We can 'talk' some more tomorrow."

She then tried to walk away, accidentally bumping into his shoulder as she cut past him. Beck however was quick to grab her arm.

"Wait," he said, gently tugging her hand.

This was the most physical contact they had had since the break-up. It felt both strange and familiar at the same time, and made Jade long for Beck to put his arms around her. Not wanting him to see her break, she immediately pulled her arm away and shot him a menacing glare.

"Don't touch me."

Beck had known her long enough to see past the tough-girl act; but, nevertheless, he raised his hands in surrender and took a step back.

"Look," he reasoned, eyeing her earnestly. "We're going to be working together for the next three weeks."

"Yeah, no chiz," Jade retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "So what?"

"Well, maybe we'd get along better if we just stopped…" He paused, trying to choose his words carefully. "Being so hurt over this break-up."

It took Jade by surprise the minute he looked her straight in the eyes with an apologetic expression. She had to hand it to him, he still knew what to say, still knew what to do to sway her resolve. She hated that he understood her so well.

"I'm sorry about what happened between us. But I still care about you and I really want us to be friends if you're willing to give it a chance."

Jade frowned. He might as well have snapped her favorite pair of scissors in half. She wanted to argue and yell at the top of her lungs. She wanted to tell him about what she saw that night before the award show. Tori was the one who had put a stop to the kiss, not him. His intention had been so painfully clear. But she held back because, all of a sudden, she remembered what Cole had said the other day: Beck wants to be with someone like Tori, not you. How could she have missed it when the answer was so remarkably obvious! Right then and there, she knew how she was going to win Beck's heart back.

In her most even tone, Jade said, "Fine. Friends it is then."

It practically took everything in her to get that sentence out.

Beck arched his eyebrows, surprised by her unusually calm reaction.

"Really?"

"Don't make me repeat myself."

"Okay…great," said Beck with a reluctant grin. "So we're cool?"

"Like a cucumber," replied Jade, forcing the sweetest smile she could manage.

Though Beck found Jade's quick turnaround oddly suspicious, he decided against questioning it and giving her the benefit of the doubt. Who knows? Maybe she just needed to hear an apology for something to click. With awkward but pleasant goodbyes, the teenagers parted ways. That night, motivated by her new intent, Jade went home to mentally prepare herself for the most challenging role of her life: being nice.

Oh, Jade, you and your devious plans. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Don't hesitate to review!