Tandre, Angst/Romance, Rewrite of Tori Fixes Beck and Jade

Dedicated to Guest (sorry, you didn't mention your name!)

"You know… Cat isn't dating anyone right now."

"You… are a dangerous person."

~Tori and Andre in Tori Fixes Beck and Jade

***Rated T for mature themes and cursing

People say that being in love with your best friend is one of the hardest things imaginable. You want to be more than friends with him, but you don't want to risk losing him if a conflict should ever occur. Your cheeks grow hot with jealousy and you want to slap that cute little blonde chick that he talks to in the corner in the morning, yet you want him to be happy at the same time- even if it means not being with you. You want to spend every waking moment with him just because you enjoy his company so much, but you don't want to suffocate him and have him get annoyed with you.

You're torn between two different places- keeping him happy or making yourself happy, exploring what could be or reminiscing about what could have been, risking your friendship or risking your sanity. But either way it seems like there are endless possibilities to get hurt in the end.

It's kind of like living through your own personal hell. You have fantasies at night of you two walking along the beach or watching a movie together or just snuggling on the couch. He kisses your temple, whispers sweet nothings into your ear, and makes you feel like you're flying and no one can bring you down. He's the one person that understands you and would never leave your side. But as soon as he kisses you on the lips, full of all that love you've always dreamed of having… you wake up. And then you realize it was just a long, blissful dream that your subconscious made up because you just want him to like you as more than a friend.

But he doesn't. In fact, he has a crush on a girl he can never seem to stop talking about. It annoys me to no end.

Oh… you thought I was just saying all of those deep clichés to be general? To teach you a lifelong lesson about how not to fall in love with your best friend because it will just cause you so much internal pain and torture in the end?

Hell no, I was talking about my own life. What I'm going through right now.

Let me take you back to what has happened so far and you'll see what I mean.

The irony is that I didn't fall for him until his crush on me faded. When he finally did tell me he had feelings for me, he said he had loved me ever since the day we met, when Trina was paired with him to perform in the big showcase and I helped him put up with her selfishness. He said that his unintentional crush on Jade a year ago formed out of desperation because I had a boyfriend at the time and she was the closest thing to me, even though Jade and I completely despised each other.

Now look how things have changed; he's this close to having his dream girl (which, by the way, isn't me, if that hasn't been drilled into your brain yet) and Jade and I have made amends- sort of. Well we don't hate each other, at least. Or at least I don't think she hates my guts anymore.

Looking back upon that incident, I feel bad telling him that he would only ever be a friend in my eyes, that he was just… Andre. I said it like it was a bad thing, too, which just made the whole situation even worse. He ignored me for days before things were completely back to normal again.

But once he got over me, I started noticing his idiosyncrasies, the things that made him…well, him. The way he seemed to drift into an alternate universe whenever he was writing a new song. How his eyes would shift from side to side when he was anxious about something. I even started thinking about how cute he looked while he was sleeping, all curled up in the fetal position on my sofa, after we pulled an all-nighter rehearsing a scene for an acting test we were supposed to take in Sikowitz's class the next day.

By then, however, it was too late; he was hopelessly in love with a foreign exchange student that had been admitted to Hollywood Arts in the middle of the year. She was from Russia. She astounded everyone with her strong Russian accent and impressed the teachers with her crazy violin-playing skills. She wooed the boys with her sleek, thin legs (that her black stilettos showed off flawlessly) and curvy hips that most girls would kill for. And yes, she just happens to be the blond tramp that talks to Andre every morning before school starts.

That used to be me once upon a time. Go figure.

He chats about her nonstop. At lunch it's all about Catia's new symphony that she has been composing or how she wants Andre's help with writing a song. And when it's just two of us, he's all like "You two have so much in common! You should talk to her sometime and maybe we can all be friends."

Yes, Andre, I get that she's perfect- in your eyes, anyway. Whatever happened to you saying I was perfect and flawless all the time? Now I'm just second best?

They say that people that place second are the biggest losers. I can't agree more with that statement.

Poor Cat was so confused all the time whenever Andre talked about Catia because their names were so similar. She would always whip her head out of whatever she was doing at the moment, ask him which girl he was talking about, and when it wasn't about her she would pout and blurt out some random fact that no one cared about.

See what that girl does? She confuses everyone. She turned Andre's brain to mush, she makes Cat even more scatterbrained than she usually is, and she makes me want to rip my hair out until I'm as bald as Sikowitz.

I just want her to go away so everything will turn back to normal. Then maybe I could somehow take back everything I said and have a chance with him.

What a stupid fantasy that is. This is the real world, Tori, not some utopia where everything turns out alright in the end.

So here's an update about what's going on at Hollywood Arts. Beck and Jade have been broken up for months now and Beck likes this girl Meredith. However, she constantly tried to steal Beck from Jade in the past, making her incredibly jealous and crabby.

Actually, I take that back; crabby is an understatement. Downright frightening is more like it.

Anywho, Beck doesn't want Jade to find out that he's into Meredith or else he's afraid she would behead her out of jealousy. So during lunch yesterday, I had an idea that involved Andre because I knew he had a crush on her in the past.

Yeah, he didn't take my suggestion like I had hoped he would.

"No no no! I'm not doing that, Tori!" He looked at me incredulously.

"Come on! Please? For Jade?" I begged him.

"I'm not going out on a date with her!"

"You have to! Beck says that boys don't ask Jade out because she scares them. So if you ask her out, boys will notice and they'll want to ask her out," I reasoned.

Andre still wasn't buying it. He shook his head furiously. "I'm still not doing it."

"But what about last year?" I waved my finger in front of his face. "You really liked her."

"And when I was three, I loved my glow-in-the-dark dinosaur boxers," he responded sarcastically. "Things change."

He took a bite of his burrito and I nibbled on my bottom lip, a nervous habit that I had recently developed. "Besides, I'm planning on finally asking Catia out soon. She asked me to help her finish her symphony tomorrow before I have to MC for the Full Moon Jam."

My stomach sank. I thought she wasn't going to make it into the conversation this time and bam! There she appears again. "What are we going to do?" I groaned, completely ignoring his last statement.

"Well, we could always pay someone to ask her out."

"Hmm..." I thought about it for a moment. "That could work. How much do you think we'd have to pay him though?"

Behind us, we heard an ear-piercing voice behind us. "Sinjin!" a girl screamed. That was definitely Jade; she must be rehearsing for her performance tomorrow during the Full Moon Jam. "Fix my microphone right now before I rip out all of your teeth and make them into a pretty little necklace!"

We turned around just in time to see a bunch of tech-crew guys drop whatever they were doing and run inside in fear, and I swore I saw a couple of them with wet patches spreading down their pant legs. Oh boy. This wasn't going to be easy.

Andre sipped his chocolate milk casually. "A lot of money."

Later that day, we put our plan into action. As soon as we saw our guy making his way towards Jade's locker, I pulled him behind the wall to watch everything unfold. "Ssssh!" I exclaimed quietly. "There he is! There's our guy."

"Cool, cool, how much did you pay for him?" Andre asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"A lottttt of money."

We gave Gilbert the go-ahead as he gulped and fidgeted with his hands. "Hey Jade."

She gave him an evil glare and slammed her locker door shut loudly. Gilbert gasped and started to shake uncontrollably.

"Stick to the plan, Gilbert!" I hissed under my breath. This had to go as planned; otherwise we may have been in a boatload of trouble.

"I like your boots," he stammered.

"I hate these boots," she replied automatically.

"Then why do you wear them?"

"Because I like to punish myself."

A creepy smile sneaked across her face, and I was surprised that Gilbert wasn't wetting his pants yet. He was holding up well so far. "I think you look really nice today."

Oh, shit. After holding your ground for so long, Gilbert, you just blew it.

Jade's face contorted into a scowl and she become furious. "Oh, so you're saying that I didn't look nice yesterday?"

He backed away as she started walking slowly towards him. "No, I-"

"That usually I look disgusting, but today I just got lucky?" she ranted on, making people in the hallway stare as she cornered him.

I saw the fear take over him as he slid out of her grasp to look at us. "Forget it!" he shouted, blowing our cover. "I'm not asking her out! You can keep your money!" And with that, he sprinted away as fast as his scrawny legs could carry him.

"Hey!" I shouted, coming out of my hiding place with Andre close behind. "We had a deal, you coward!"

"Coward!" Andre echoed behind me.

Suddenly, we stopped in our tracks and exchanged looks of horror as Jade gave us a look of pure fury. "You…paid a guy…to ask me out?" she seethed. Her hands balled up into fists and her pale face turned a light shade of red.

It only took us a second to figure out what to do. "Run away!" I screamed at Andre, and we both scrambled down the hallway as if our lives depended on it.

Eventually, we secured a safe haven in the janitor's closet. "I think we lost her," Andre panted as we plastered ourselves against the metal shelves full of various cleaning supplies.

"Yeah, I think so too," I said with relief, equally out of breath from running around the school for a full twenty minutes.

"You think she'll cool down anytime soon?"

"Well, she can only stay mad for so long…"

"So forever?"

"Possibly." I forgot that Jade had a raging temper. She was very good at holding grudges and staying mad for long periods of time. "We just have to wait until her anger fizzles out. Or, you know, until she strangles a bear."

We sank to the ground, exhausted, and just sat there in silence for a good fifteen minutes or so. We didn't care if we were missing class; graduation was coming up soon anyway, so our grades didn't really matter anymore- in our minds, at least. "She has to be gone by now," I commented, leaning my head against the wall. "We should head back to class."

"Sure thing." Andre got up and turned the metal handle on the door to open it. However, there was one slight problem- the door wouldn't open. "Shit, the door is jammed!" he exclaimed, yanking the handle over and over again.

"Great, what do we do now?" I wailed.

"I don't know. We'll get someone in trouble if we call or text people. We'll just have to wait until classes are done before we can get someone to free us."

I sighed. "I guess that's our only option."

He sat down next to me again and I buried my head in my hands. "Hey girl, are you ok?" Andre asked, noticing my distress. If only he knew what was really bothering me right now and had been for days.

"Yes, Andre, I'm fine," I reassured him, lifting my head up.

"Liar. When a girl says she's fine, that's a sure sign that she's lying so she really doesn't have to tell the other person what's going on."

"And what makes you think I have something going on?" I retorted.

"I don't know, you've seemed more bitter than usual lately. Almost as bad as Jade at some points."

I groaned as I hoisted myself up and walked to the other side of the closet. "I've just been over-thinking things, okay? Nothing worthwhile that you need to know."

He got up, crossed his arms in front of his chest, and looked at me pointedly. "Come on, Tori. We're best friends. What is there that you can't tell me?"

"A lot of things," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," I dismissed it quickly. "If it was worth you knowing about, I would tell you. But trust me, it's absolutely nothing. I'm a girl, I'm moody, and I overreact to things. Get over it."

"Goddamnit Tori, what's the matter with you?" he practically shouted at me. "What are you overreacting about? And do you hear yourself talking right now?"

"Well maybe I wouldn't be getting all worked up if you would quit bugging me and questioning me about things that don't matter!"

"I'm trying to help you because I care about you!" He threw his hands up in frustration. "You know what? Forget we even had this conversation in the first place."

"Gladly!"

We pouted at each other on the opposite sides of the janitor's closet until I couldn't take it anymore. "I don't like Catia, okay?" I admitted.

"Ah-hah!" he yelled triumphantly. "Wait. Why don't you like her?"

"She's too perfect!" I walk over to him and stand beside him again. "She gets everything she wants without doing anything! All she has to do is bat her eyes and everyone will do everything she says. She's just annoying."

He sighed. "Tori, there's so much to her than that. She's funny and smart and she has a way with a violin. She's so talented at everything she does. But what you don't know is that she works a lot harder than she seems to in order to get to where she's at today. You gotta give her some credit, girl."

"How can I give her credit if the person I want to notice me instead of her keeps talking about her every second of the day? Sometimes I wish he would just open his eyes and see that the girl he really wants has been in front of him all along!"

I finally gained the ability to shut up and I gasped as soon as I heard what I had just said. I was supposed to be saying that in my head, not out of my mouth! His mouth dropped open and his eyes grew ten times bigger than usual. "Huh?"

At that moment, Beck could not have picked a better time to unjam the door and barge in on us. We were so focused on our argument that we didn't hear him join us. "Hey guys."

"Aaaaah!" We screamed and hugged each other tightly, thinking it was Jade trying to murder us. Of course I've hugged Andre plenty of times before, but this time seemed so different. Butterflies were fluttering wildly in my stomach, making me shake uncontrollably. Thankfully, Andre didn't seem to notice.

Beck gave us a queer look and, sighing with relief, we separated. "Thank god it's you, Beck," I said.

"We thought you were Jade."

Suddenly, Jade appeared in front of us, making us scream even louder and hug each other tighter. In our stupidity and panic, we had totally forgotten about the secret passageway that led from the janitor's closet to the library. Cue internal face palm. "Yeahh, this is a bad place to hide from Jade," Beck commented.

She grabbed a roll of toilet paper from one of the shelves and waved it in front of our faces. "I ought to take this roll of toilet paper and kill you both with it!" she growled.

Still holding Andre tightly (secretly wishing that I could stay like that forever), I tilted my head to the side. "How could you kill us with toilet paper?" I wondered out loud.

"Don't you dare question me, Vega!"

"Jade, put it down." The order from Beck surprised her and she glanced at him warily. "Put it. Down."

She paused briefly, probably contemplating whether to listen to him or not, then placed the roll gently at her feet.

No more hugs occurred after that, but somehow we ended up telling Jade about Beck wanting to ask Meredith out. Words were said, misunderstandings were sorted out, and after all was said and done Jade gave Beck permission to ask out Meredith. Nevertheless, even though she told him so nonchalantly, Andre and I knew she didn't like it one bit. She stormed out the door and slammed the door behind her so forcefully that I thought I felt the whole closet shake.

Beck followed her out shortly after, and then I was going to exit next when a voice stopped me. "Tori?"

Startled, I whipped my head around to see Andre staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face, which disturbed me greatly because I had no idea what the heck he was thinking. "We need to talk."

I gritted my teeth together in anger and squinted my eyes at him. "There is nothing left to say. Ask out Catia. I don't give a damn. It's obvious you two belong together."

With that being said, I whirled back around and ran into the hallways towards my next class. Tears threatened to run down my face and ruin my makeup, but I wiped them away furiously with my fists.

I may have been able to escape that conversation, but I haven't been able to escape my personal hell- not yet, anyway.

So here I am, the following night, at the Full Moon Jam, watching the sappiest thing I have ever seen. It was like it should've happened in a movie, not here of all places. Jade sang a song, which she subtlety sang for Beck, and now they were making out on stage as if somehow all of their past problems had disappeared into thin air. I was happy for the both of them, of course, but I was in such a bad mood because of what happened yesterday that all I could think about was how I wish it was me having my happy ending up there on that stage instead of them.

Instead, I'm down here screwing up my life and my relationship with my friends. Yippee skip.

At that moment, I decide to tell Andre how I feel. We haven't talked to each other all day since our fight and it has been killing me inside. Did I just ruin everything? Why won't Andre talk to me and attempt to work things out with me? How are things between him and Catia?

I see Andre talking to someone in the far corner and I grasp at my chance. It's now or never, I motivate myself. It's now or never.

Boy, do my eyes deceive me. As I got closer to him, I see that Beck and Jade weren't the only ones making out that night. Andre had his lips all over Catia, his hands clasping her curvy waist and barely grazing her perfectly toned thighs. She's wearing her black stilettos, as usual (sometimes I think she even sleeps with them on, she wear them so much), along with a blood-red dress that matched the color of her lips. It hugs her body tightly, showing off all of her incredible features.

She's like the devil in disguise. My blood boils at seeing him practically devouring her face off. God, don't they have the decency to get a room? That way, they wouldn't have to torture me like this.

I'm such an idiot. I had to open my big mouth not once, but twice, and now I'm paying the price for my actions. I feel like my heart is being yanked out of my chest and pulled a million ways in different directions.

I just… I don't know. I feel so broken. Heartbroken, to be more specific.

Something brushes against my exposed shoulder, making me squeak and jump out of my reverie. I turn around and see something that has to be too good to be true. He scans me up and down with piercing blue eyes, his muscles nearly bursting out his skin, they're so huge. His mouth curve into a dashing smile as he grasps one of my hands and brings it to his impeccably–shaped lips. "A little forward much?" I smirk at him.

He blushes ever so slightly. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself. I'm Trevor." Keeping my hand in his grasp, he shakes it. "Nice to meet you, Tori Vega."

"How do you know my name?" I ask him.

"Everyone knows your name here, Tori. You're like a legend. You get picked for all the leads in the school plays, you sing every song like an angel, and you have one of the highest GPA's in the class of 2013."

I blush at his compliments, and then I have an idea that seems so brilliant at the time. I take one last glance over at Andre and Catia, almost crushing Trevor's fingers in the process, and turn my flirt on. "Wanna get out of here? There's an after-party I'd love to take you to if you weren't invited already."

I squint at him seductively and he seems to take the hint. He shoots me a pearly-white smile. "Yes ma'am."

Little did I know that was the worst possible decision I have made in my entire life.

I wake up not knowing where the heck I am. My vision is blurry, distorting everything into a flurry of colors randomly scattered everywhere, before focusing on my surroundings. I'm inside a house that is very familiar, though I can't quite put my finger on it just yet.

I attempt to sit up only to be sideswiped by a sharp pain radiating down my back. I yelp and crash back down onto the couch I was placed on, sweating profusely in panic. What the hell is going on right now? Where is Trevor?

"Tori!" I hear someone call my name from the other side of the room, and I witness a dark blur zoom to my side. He places a cold, damp towel across my forehead and strokes my hair gently. "Thank god you're awake."

Wait… I'm in Andre's house? What?

"Andre, what happened?" I hear myself garble weakly. What the hell happened to my voice? "One minute I was at a party and the next minute I'm lying on a couch."

Andre stays silent, probably debating on whether to tell me the truth or not. He stops stroking my hair and his hand tenses up on the back of my neck. "Andre? Answer me, please," I beg him, forgetting about my weakened voice and the pain in my back for a moment.

He rests his face in his hands for a second before even daring to face me. "You were almost raped, Tori."

I feel like someone has punched me in the stomach as almost all of the air drains out of my lungs in shock. "What?! How?" I gasp, tears trickling out of my eyelids and splashing onto my cheeks.

"I saw you leaving the Full Moon Jam with a guy I've never seen before and I followed you. I was invited to Seth's party too anyway, but that guy did not give off a good vibe. He made me suspicious. I left you two alone for a while, thinking that you were just going to blow your top if I even tried to approach you, but I kept a close eye on you guys from the back of the room."

He sighs, as if the weight of the world is upon his shoulders. "I saw him spike your drink when you weren't looking, Tori, and I wasn't able to stop you from drinking it. Then, he took you outside and led you into the forest surrounding Seth's backyard. I saw him slam you against a tree trunk and try to kiss you. You slapped him because you weren't quite hammered enough yet to have him get his way, but he got mad and knocked your head against the tree, knocking you out. I tackled him and slugged him in the jaw before he could do any more to you."

"What about Catia? I saw you two talking earlier. Did she say yes when you asked her out?" I lie through my teeth, trying to erase what I had actually seen earlier tonight.

"She did, but she started getting a little…handsy. Like Sherry but worse."

I smirk internally. Hell, that was a huge understatement if I ever heard one. "Is that even possible? Sherry had her lips on you all the time at prome last year, if I remember correctly."

"Trust me; it was downright disturbing," he chuckles, even though his eyes were devoid of amusement.

I ask him to help me up, and he agrees. He takes the cloth off my forehead and steadies my lower back as I attempt to stand up. However, a wave of dizziness steamrolls me and I stumble in my pink high-heel sandals, accidently bashing my head into Andre's chest. "Oh god, I feel like shit," I groan.

He snickers. "Well, you don't look so hot either."

At that, the dizziness faded away and I smacked his chest in irritation. "You asshole."

"Hey, you're the one who bitched at me yesterday!"

I don't respond to this and I pause to come to my senses. "So…you ditched Catia for me?" My voice wobbles as the words spill out of my mouth.

He nods his head thoughtfully. "I guess I did. I could never leave you alone, Tori, especially when I thought something fishy was going on. You're my best friend."

"Yeah, and that's all I'll ever be," I mutter and walk away from him, biting my lip as the pain continues to burn through my back.

"Tori!" he says sharply, grabbing my arm and whirling me around to face him. 'You can't just keep pushing me away like this. What is up with you? You're not acting like the bubbly muchacha I thought I knew."

I hissed in defeat. "Fine, I'll tell you what has been bugging me for days, Andre. I'm an idiot. I turned you away when you asked me out only to fall for you a couple of months later. I've been standing in the background, contemplating whether I should risk everything we have by asking you out or torture myself by watching you ask out other girls. Obviously I chose the second one, but it drove me absolutely nuts. And now look at us. I almost got raped by some guy I thought was a fucking god and you are hopelessly in love with Catia-"

"I was never in love with her," he says quietly. "I was only trying to get over you."

My heart jumps wildly in my chest and I clam up immediately. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. Like I told you before, I've loved you from day one. I never gave up hope that one day you'd reciprocate my feelings for you."

I bite my lip nervously. "So…where does this leave us now?"

His eyes shift upwards as he thinks of an answer. "Yes."

"Huh?"

"Yes, I'll go out with you."

He pulls me into a hug and I bury my head into his shoulder, letting tears of pent-up fear and relief leak into his leather jacket. I have him back; he isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I don't know what I would've done if he had left me all alone with that guy tonight. I could've died. There's no way I'll ever be able to thank him for what he did for me, nor a way that I'll ever be able to let him go now.

Being torn between two different places at once is hard, but there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, a decision you'll have to make someday. You can choose to take the easy way out and hurt yourself in the process, or you can take a chance and throw caution to the wind.

Because, just maybe, by taking that chance you'll find something wonderful, something worth fighting for.

Holy crap, I haven't updated this story in a while, but I decided to write one of these oneshots because I currently have writer's block on Following the Stars. I was contemplating whether to have them kiss at the end or not, but given the condition I put Tori in, I didn't think it was appropriate. But I hope that was enough angst in there to last a lifetime lol. Please review and leave your suggestions! Because who knows which one I'll end up choosing next :).