It's been more than two weeks, which I feel bad about. But I've also had a horrible cold, which makes me not want to do anything either.
Thank you for the reviews, I love you guys! Also, I just put up an Austin & Ally oneshot that you might want to check out. :)
"Tori?" Andre called. She was still in the bathroom, shaking after listening to the audio clip. "Hurry up, girl!"
She wanted to open the door and run into his arms, sobbing at what her sister had had to go through, with no help from anyone, especially not her. And she almost did. But then she remembered that she was half naked, that they had to go to school, and more importantly, what Jade said. 'You have to move on sometime!' 'Andre's grandma is just getting sicker, but you wouldn't know, would you, because you barely talk to him!'
"I'll be out in a minute!" She called, hopefully sounding cheery. Well, if you ignored how her voice had cracked. She pulled on her clothes (for the first time in weeks she was in actual jeans and a top) and finished brushing her teeth before opening the door. Praying her eyes weren't red and that her hair wasn't a total mess, she dragged him outside to his car. "Come on!" She shouted. "I call shotgun!"
Andre gave her a confused look. "There isn't anyone else in the car, and you don't have your drivers license….."
"I know!" She exclaimed, more than eager to get to school before Andre saw her break. But as he continued to stare at her, even while starting the car, she sighed. It was going to be a long 5 minutes.
xx.
Beep, beep, beep.
Jade opened her crusty eyes. Ugh. It was Friday, the worst day of the week. And they were 5 minutes late already.
"Beck, come on, we have to go to school." She sat up, shaking the boy beside her. He twitched slightly, and she sighed. There was only one person whose voice would wake him immediately when he was like this, and she reluctantly grabbed her phone.
xxx.
Cat was already at school, like everyone else should've been, but most of her 'friends' weren't there. She still sat next to them in class sometimes, and at lunch when she couldn't skip and go to the library or the Black Box Theatre, or even Lane's office, but lately, she hadn't been going at all. Until she got the email invite from Tori for Trina's funeral. She was still friendly to everyone, and even though she was pretty sure they didn't like the real her, she was worried about Tori. Even while treating her like a baby, Tori had always been nice and fun, and she knew she was hurting.
Her phone buzzed, and she almost picked up, before realizing it was Jade. Frowning, she pressed ignore, before crudely saying she had to pee, before rushing out of the classroom. She had to admit, there were perks to being crazy Cat Valentine.
And so, she called Tori.
"Hello?" Tori asked Cat through the phone. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
"I am, silly? But why aren't you? I got the email you sent." Cat said, as tactfully as she could while remaining in character.
"Oh, I'm almost there. Andre's driving me today." She replied, ignoring Cat's other comment.
"Kay kay! You aren't going to be in sweats today, right?" Cat squealed, before hanging up and rushing back into her math class.
xxxx.
They were finally at school. Tori had never been more relieved in her life. Andre was still looking at her strangely, and she really wanted to tell him what was wrong, but she couldn't burden him with her problems.
Sometimes she wished her life was like the movies, where all of her problems were solved within 2 hours.
xxxxx.
And then it was lunch. Tori had successfully avoided anyone invited to the funeral, and she was dreading sitting down at the lunch table, where Jade was berating Cat.
"You just had to leave your phone in your bag the one day I needed you." Jade spat, eyes fiery. Beck was seated next to her, and looked half asleep.
"But you didn't, Cat." Robbie said. "I saw you run out of the room with it in Math."
Cat's eyes widened while Jade's narrowed.
"I'm sorry, but maybe I didn't want to deal with your problems, okay! Maybe this is the reason why I haven't talked to you in days! You don't know me, and you treat me like I'm your slave!" Cat hissed, before looking defeated. "I have to go." She ran off, leaving her book bag, but not her keys, on the bench.
Andre and Robbie were looking on, shocked, like most of the students eating lunch. Most of them hadn't heard what Cat had said, but they did know one thing. Crazy Cat had stood up to Jade West.
Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, Tori sat down, before turning to glare at everyone staring.
"What's up guys?" She asked casually.
"Why are you avoiding me?" Andre asked.
"What's wrong with you?" Jade added.
"When's the funeral?" Rex fake whispered. Robbie didn't bother reprimanding him.
"STOP IT!" Tori shouted, and the cafeteria was silent for the second time in 5 minutes.
Looking around, Tori faltered. "I'm sorry, I.. just can't. Not today."
And, without another look back, she walked away slowly, shielding her face with her hair as tears spilled.
She walked into the janitor's closet blindly, not even noticing there was someone else there.
"Come on." Cat whispered. "Let's get you home."
And all Tori could think of was that she'd have a lot of work to make up.
xxxxxx.
Tori woke up again, confused as to where she was. She didn't panic, though, because this was becoming a trend and she knew she was safe…Probably.
Cat was next to her in a flash, or maybe not, because she was still sleepy and minutes could've passed already, and helped her sit up.
"We're in your mom's bed." Cat said, and she looked kind of sad. "When we got back, you climbed up here, literally." She almost giggled. "You crawled up the stairs and started rooting around the room, until you found Trina's tape. You fell asleep then, but I listened to it already." The sad look was back, and Tori felt a maternal urge to make her laugh again. "Do you want to listen to it now?"
"Ye-" Tori coughed. Her throat felt clogged, and, now that she was thinking about it, her nose felt stuffy and her head was fuzzy. "Yeah."
"Okay." Cat said softly, and before the tape started to play and Trina's face was shown on the tv, Tori thought that Cat would make a good nurse.
"There are a lot of different kind of crying, but there are two main categories, silent and loud. The silent ones come in all different forms, stinging, burning tears, or large droplets that plop onto your cheeks. But the loud ones, theres only one type of sobbing, and that's the ugly, messy one. The one where your nose runs, and your throat hurts and your tears come out between strangled whimpers. And you guys have made me cry every one of them.
First, it was the loud cry. It started when I was 7 or 8, when you actually came to my soccer games and criticized my performance soundly afterwards. 'Why were you defense the whole time? They don't do anything important.' and 'Don't you have any common sense?'. I was sensitive back then, too sensitive. I craved your approval, longed for it, but I never quite did. My B's and A minus's were always too low, and my attention span was nonexistent. You were always comparing me to perfect Tori, even back then. And I hated it.
Next, was the stinging one. The one where you introduced me and Tori to all of your friends, calling me pretty and an 'achiever', but never sweet, or kind, or smart. And then, when I snuck downstairs, leaning on the railing as I eavesdropped, thinking I was oh-so-clever, I heard you tell them about how I had messed up lately, or wondering 'why me' when I had a tantrum. Tori wasn't exempt from this either, but it always hurt more whenever it was me.
I stopped eavesdropping after a while.
Finally, you started telling me to do things you were too lazy too. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration, but when you tell me,or should I say, told me, to clean this or dust that or make that or get this, it drove me crazy. You almost never told Tori to do anything, and I wonder if it's because you never saw her- she did learn to master the 'if you don't see me i'm not there- technique- or because you thought her time was spent doing more valuable things than mine.
I was the one who was the attention seeking brat -look look at me, see me sparkle - but it always hurt that you, my parents, saw me as that too.
That was around the time I started referring to you by your first names.
I could tell you about all of the times you've yelled at me, or wanted to stop paying tuition for HollyWood Arts because I didn't belong there, or bought me what I wanted but didn't give me what I needed, but I won't. Or how you, David, stayed out working later and later, or how you, Holly, never seemed like you wanted to be here in the first place. I spent half of my life just wanting to get away away away because my home felt more like a prison than a safe haven, but I will be soon, so what's the point?
Don't think I didn't hear you say you wanted me to stay in Yerba, or the many other times you expressed your desire to be family from a distance.
You're the ones who wanted me to go far far away in the first place, so now I am."
I didn't think Cat would feature heavily in this story again, but then this happened….
If you didn't get it, Tori has a cold/fever and she's kind of out of it. And Trina's reason is more about how her parents didn't love her, although I'm pretty sure all of these things she mentioned are what most parents do. I know mine do. Except for the first name thing. But seriously, family sucks sometimes.
I am posting this on Thanksgiving, though, so I really shouldn't say that. I'm thankful for them most of the time, as well as for all of you.
Hope you enjoyed! :)