The Slap mobile
Tori Vega: OMG. Tonight is Opening Night
Feeling: Nervous
I smiled at my girlfriend's latest update as I checked the site on my break from work. When I'd last spoken to her she had seemed prepared, focussed and ready. We hadn't seen much of each other over the past fortnight – extra rehearsals had occupied most of her evenings this week so I'd taken extra shifts at work, and Andy and I had got our project pretty much finished, weeks ahead of the deadline. He'd asked for a ticket for the performance (personally I think he just wanted to drool over Tori) so I'd got him one and arranged for him to drive us to Hollywood Arts for the evening. How I'd return to UCLA would depend on Tori and whether we made plans for afterwards.
The afternoon dragged on, it was a fairly quiet day customer-wise but finally my shift ended and I made my way back to the form for a quick bit to eat and a shower before meeting Andy and heading for the Hollywood Arts theatre.
On the short journey to Hollywood I was able to reflect on one thing that I HAD been able to do over the last couple of weeks, which was to talk to Carly and, occasionally, Sam. There was still something of an aloofness to Sam towards me, particularly when Carly enquired after Tori or about how things were between the two of us. I find it hard to believe that she's actually jealous, or that she still has those feelings for me after all this time, despite what she said after graduation. We had worked out most of what to do on the iCarly special, though we still hadn't been able to arrange a date for it, over Christmas was still looking the most likely time, giving us plenty of opportunity to mobilise the old message boards and get the fans back for the night. There were a couple of blank spaces in the provisional schedule, though Sam said she had an idea about how to fill them. That set a few alarm bells ringing inside my head but, after everything that had happened, I knew it couldn't be TOO bad for me – there's no way she'd pull something bad enough to risk the still-fragile peace between me and them, and I'm sure Carly would never allow her to jeopardise both the show and what remained of our friendship.
Act one of the play was SPECTACULAR, my friends were all word- and note-perfect, culminating with Tori and Jade singing a duet called Because He Loves Me. Basically they're playing two girls in love with the same guy (played by Beck) and fighting over him (sorry Tori, but if it comes to an ACTUAL fight then my money's on Jade – unless you can get Shelby in as a ringer of course). Andy got us drinks during the interval, then suddenly asked me:
"So, how did you two meet?"
"Remember the impromptu iCarly from Kenan's house a year or so ago?" I asked.
"Of course!" he said, with a look of dawning comprehension. "THAT'S where I recognised her from – she and Carly were dating the same guy! Then they humiliated him live on your show. I KNEW she looked familiar from somewhere but I figured it was that she bears a bit of a resemblance to Shelby Marx."
"You think so too?" I laughed, then continued. "Yeah, we hit it off that night at the party and kept in touch. And as you saw she's not someone to get on the wrong side of. She may seem all girl-next-door but what she and Carly did to Steven? Just one example of what happens if you upset her."
"What else has she done?" asked Andy, sounding rather surprised that my girl had this side to her.
"Well," I continued, "on her first day at Hollywood Arts she accidentally spilt coffee on Beck. She tried to mop it up then Jade walked in and thought she was groping him. So Jade dumped a load of coffee on Tori during class, then the next day Tori engineered a scene that had her and Beck making out in front of Jade."
"Ouch, so those two don't get on?"
"Well, things are better between them these days, but just after Tori started at Hollywood Arts, yes there was a lot of animosity there."
"And, rather surprisingly, Tori sounds like someone not to cross."
"Nope – she found out that her ex-boyfriend was dating Cat, flipped out with jealousy and dumped hot cheese over the pair of them – then kissed him in front of Cat. Not something she's proud of, but something she did." Andy was looking incredulous by now. "Then there was a guy called Ryder – he dated her for a bit, until she found out he dates girls to help him get a good grade in a class and then dumps them. She and André then wrote a different song, turned Ryder's mic off and Tori sang this song calling him out over all the girls he'd messed around with, utterly humiliating him in front of everyone. So you don't upset Tori Vega!"
"Wow, lucky she doesn't hate me anymore" he said. I laughed.
The show resumed after the intermission – if anything Act 2 was even better, once again everyone was pretty much perfect in their performances, drawing a standing ovation from the audience at the end. Andy and I hung around as everyone else began to dissipate after the show. Tori came out quickly to see me, we shared a long, passionate kiss, I congratulated her on her performance and she asked me to wait around and we'd head back to her place for the evening. I said goodbye to Andy and he headed for UCLA while I waited for Tori to get ready. I passed the time talking to a couple of the staff from Hollywood Arts, particularly Sikowitz, who I'd met briefly at Kenan's party, and André who was behind the scenes dealing with the musical side of the show.
Tori, Beck and Jade emerged a little later; I congratulated the others on their excellent acting and, in Jade's case, singing. She and Beck soon headed off to do their own thing so Tori and I headed for her car and she drove us back to her place. As soon as we entered her house she surprised me by pushing me up against the door and taking ownership of my lips. There was no feeling of romance, just raw urgency, need and passion in her kisses. I responded in kind, returning her kisses with equal fervour. Eventually we had to come up for air, her eyes never leaving my own, an expression of pure love lighting up her eyes and her face. She reached behind me and locked the front door before taking my hand and leading me, wordlessly to her room. As we entered she wrapped her left arm around my waist and leaned back against the door, pulling me close to her for another kiss. As she used her right hand to lock the door and deepened the kiss I knew that tonight our relationship was going to change forever.
And there, gentle reader, we must leave our young couple – in the interests of preserving this story's T rating. What happens on the other side of that door I shall leave to your imaginations, though anyone assuming that they played World of Warlords all night may find that some of the next chapter doesn't make very much sense.