Author's Note: Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Hope you all enjoy it, single or not. As my little gift to you, here's a new chapter. Please review and tell me what you think of it so far! Next chapter should be up Wednesday.
Once the door shuts behind her, Tori leans back against it, finally letting the tears stream down her face. She shouldn't have said anything. She should just have listened to Beck and kept her mouth shut. Now, she's gotten into the biggest fight with her best friend and for what? She still doesn't know what happened last night between Andre and Beck. After a few minutes, she wipes her eyes with the back of her hands and pushes herself off the wall.
Just as she does so, she sees Robbie and Parker at the end of the hallway, walking towards her. She smooths out her shirt and walks towards them.
"Done talking already?" Parker asks as they get closer to her.
Tori nods her head slowly. She tries to smile so they won't sense anything is wrong but fails miserably. The harder she tries to appear happy, the more upset she gets and soon her eyes are watering once again.
"Tori what's wrong?" Robbie asks as he takes a step closer to her. He brings his hands out and grabs a hold of hers. Gently, he caresses the back of her palms in an effort to soothe her. Tori gives him a small, appreciative smile and shakes her head from side to side.
"What did he do?" Parker jumps in, his brow furrowed and jaw clenched tightly.
"You guys should get in there, he started drinking again" is all she can muster to say.
"Damn it" hisses Parker before walking past her towards the room Andre is in.
Robbie sighs heavily and lets go of Tori's hand. He brings his hand and runs it through his dark, messy curls. "What the hell is going on with him?" he finally asks her.
Tori bites her lower lip in another attempt to hold back the tears. She inhales deeply and folds her arms across her chest. "He kicked me out of the wedding" she tells Robbie.
"What?" he asks her dumbfounded.
"I came to ask him about Beck and what happened last night. We talked and he got mad that I'm giving Beck another chance and he kicked me out."
Robbie shakes his head, not able to comprehend what is going through Andre's mind. First he gets into an argument with Beck, and now he's kicked his best friend out of the wedding.
"Something's going on with him Robbie. I've never seen him act this way before" Tori says.
"Neither have I" Robbie responds.
"Please go talk to him" Tori pleads him. Maybe Robbie can try and calm him down, find out what has him acting this way. Hesitantly, Robbie nods his head. He opens his arms and brings Tori in for a hug. Tori steps into his arms and returns the embrace, feeling lucky to have such a great friend. As they pull apart, they smile at each other and she looks after him as he walks towards Andre's room.
As Robbie turns away to go check on Andre, Tori calls out to him. "Robbie," she says and he turns once more to look at her. "Rachel's room, do you know where it is?" she asks. Robbie nods his head. "Go down the hall and you'll see a red door. She's in there" he replies.
"Thanks" Tori replies and the walk in opposite directions.
It takes Tori just a few seconds to get to the other side of the long hallway. Coming across an old red door, she inhales deeply before knocking.
"Come in" she hears a voice say and pushes the door open. A smile quickly spreads across her face as she sees Rachel and her two bridesmaids dancing around the room. Rachel, in her white robe and slippers, is jumping up and down excitedly as the other two girls, in their purple dresses, sing loudly along to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl.
"Tori" Rachel says loudly once she notices her chuckling by the door. "Where have you been?"
"My car wouldn't start, Beck had to give me a ride over" Tori exclaims. She closes the door behind her and walks over to an empty chair. "Oh Beck huh?" Rachel starts, her tone playful. "First he gives you a ride and then...you know" she says winking and laughing.
Tori immediately shakes her head. "It's nothing like that, he just did me a favor. Besides, he left right away."
Rachel stops laughing and looks curiously at Tori. "What do you mean he left?" Tori stares at Rachel. She was sure Andre had told her about it. "I..I thought Andre spoke to you already."
"I haven't spoken to Andre since yesterday afternoon. What happened?" Rachel asks.
Tori glances towards the two girls just a few feet away. Rachel follows her gaze and asks them if she can have a minute alone with Tori. Both girls oblige and step out of the room. "What's going on? Why did Beck leave" Rachel asks taking a seat on a chair near Tori's.
Tori bites down on her lower lip and looks around the room. How does she begin to tell Rachel about Andre uninviting both herself and Beck because of some drunken stupor he's decided to stay on?
"Tori, come on, we don't have a lot of time. Did something happen between you and Beck?" Rachel urges on wanting to get to the bottom of this.
"No. Actually, we were both kind of uninvited today." Rachel furrows her forehead in confusion. "What are you talking about?" she asks.
Tori takes another deep breath. "Andre, he got mad at us and told us not to come" she says as quickly as possible.
"Wait, back up. Why did he get mad at you guys?"
Shrugging, Tori says, "I don't know why he got mad at Beck and when I went to find out, he just got really mad at me and told me to leave."
Rachel got up from her chair. "I'm going to go talk to him" she says while taking a few steps towards the door. Tori quickly jumps up from her chair and rushes to block the door. If Rachel goes to Andre's room, she'll most likely find him drunk and there's no way this wedding will happen.
"It's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding" she adds quickly, trying to convince Rachel to stay.
"Only if she's in the dress Tor. I'm just going to sort this all out" Rachel says, determined to confront her fiance about uninviting their friends from the most important day of their lives.
"Rachel, don't. Look, Parker and Robbie are already trying to talk to him. If you go, he'll know I talked to you and he'll never forgive me."
"Yeah but he can't just kick you out over something that was between him and Beck, You're his best friend and my maid of honor" Rachel says, folding her arms across her chest.
"I know but I don't want him to get more upset or be the reason you guys get into an argument on your wedding day. I just thing it's best if I just leave and I'll find some other time to talk to him.
"No Tori, he's wrong and there's no reason for you to leave" Rachel continues.
"I promise, everything will work itself out, but I have a feeling he just needs time and if he sees me at the wedding...I just don't want to ruin it" Tori exclaims. Of course she would love to be a part of the wedding, and if Andre wasn't completely drunk she could let Rachel go and talk to him. Unfortunately, that's not an option and she just needs to make Rachel understand that it's better if she left.
Rachel throws her head back and sighs in frustrations. "I can't believe he would do this, today of all days" she says. Tori gives her a small apologetic smile and silently hopes that's the only thing Andre does to piss Rachel off today. Hopefully Robbie and Parker have managed to sober him up before the ceremony.
"I don't want you to be upset with him though. This is your wedding day. We should have some fun" Tori says trying her best to sound excited. "How about you find another song and I'll go get the girls and we can start celebrating?" she continues.
Rachel laughs and nods. "Great" she says as she walks over to the small stereo. Tori opens the door and goes to find the bridesmaids.
Less than ten minutes later, all four girls are sitting around, laughing as they share stories of crazy adventures they've had with Rachel or the countless times they'd had to sit through an intense argument between Rachel and Andre only to have them make up minutes later. For the next half hour, they enjoy each others company and Tori forgets all about the conflict with her best friend.
"Oh gosh, I remember the time he used the deposit for the apartment to buy a new guitar. I thought for sure you were going to kill him" says Marissa, one of the bridesmaids.
"I almost did" Rachel chuckles.
"Hey so, I know it's almost time for you to start getting ready, but I want to say a few things since...well, you know" Tori says, getting up from her chair. Rachel nods in understanding and Tori begins a speech she had saved for the reception.
"I just want to say that I am beyond happy for you and I could not have asked for a better person to be marrying my best friend. In all my years of knowing you, you've been like a sister to me and you helped me get through some of the most devastating moments of my life and I couldn't be more grateful for you. Rachel, you are by far the kindest, most selfless and loving person I have ever known and I wish you and Andre all the happiness in the world."
Tori smiles broadly as her friend stands up and embraces her. Tori returns the hug and as they pull apart, the laugh. Both have tears of joy running down their faces.
"Thank you so much Tori. You have no idea how appreciative I am of you and everything you have done for me throughout the years. Even though this whole mess is going on, I want you to know that you're the reason I'm here. You introduced me to the man of my dreams and I'm forever indebted to you." Both women bring their hands to their faces and carefully wipe away the tears.
"No more crying" Tori says, "go start getting ready."
Rachel nods and starts walking away but is stopped when Tori calls out to her. "Rache wait" she says and rushes across the room to where her purse is. She digs into it and pulls out a neatly folded piece of paper. "Your vows" she says, handing the paper to Rachel. Rachel takes the paper from Tori and lets out a breath. "Thank you, I almost forgot."
"Sure. Congratulations" Tori says, a hint of sadness present in her voice. She can't believe she is going to miss her friend's wedding because of a petty argument.
Rachel smiles at her and says, "I'll call you, okay Tori?"
Tori nods her head and looks after Rachel and the bridesmaids as they exit the room to go get ready. As the door closes behind them, Tori sighs and walks over to the sofa near her purse. She plops down on it and reaches for her bag. Once more, she looks through it until she finds her phone. She looks through her recent calls and dials the top number; Beck's.
After it rings a few times, she hears a click and then his voice. "Hey, what's going on?" he answers.
"Hi, I'm at the church, can you please pick me up? I'll explain when you get here" she replies, praying that he can come get her.
"Sure, I'm on my way" he says and hangs up.
She waits for the phone screen to go black before tossing it back into her purse. Slowly, Tori grabs her purse and gets off the chair. She takes one last look around the room and then makes her way outside the church to wait for Beck.