A/N: Hey fam. Enjoy this thing I wrote.
"Here you go!" Cat hands me something she made from scratch. She smiles and sits down on the coffee table. She crosses her legs and interlocks her fingers with an anxious expression on her face. She's staring me down.
"Okay…" I say, hesitantly. "Here I go." I lift the spoon up to my mouth and blow lightly on the food that looks like lasagna. I slowly put it in my mouth. I chew slowly at first, but as my taste buds become more acquainted with the rich flavor of the food, I start craving more.
"Cat, this is delicious." I dig in even further, shoveling bite after bite into my mouth.
"Good, I'm glad you like it!" She smiles and slightly bounces in place. I guess the fact that I liked her dish made her happy. That kinda makes me happy. A small smile forms on my face. She's turned these past two weeks into something really special and almost… bearable.
Soon enough, my plate is clean. I felt like licking the rest of the sauce off of the plate, but I figured with Cat sitting her watching me, it may be just a bit unladylike and impolite.
"Is it sad that I want to lick the rest of this off the plate?" I ask, slightly ashamed.
"Absolutely not. Food is good, and I don't blame you for wanting to eat it all. Not one hairy bit."
It's funny. You'd think I'm just now realizing that I can be myself around her. My nasty, unladylike, impolite self. Maybe after all this time, Jade West actually could've rubbed off on me in some small ways.
That food was something else, though, man.
"Cat, where did you learn to cook like that? That was amazing." I marvel.
"My Nona. She's the best cook ever. My whole family has Italian roots, and you know they're like the best cooks in the world over there. So she just taught me everything she knew and now here we are." She says. "And to be honest, I'm really not that great of a cook. My Nona is ten times better."
"Well I'd love to see how well she could make this. I mean…"
"Let me guess. It's amazing?" She says sarcastically with a smirk on her face. Jade-like, almost.
"It's amazing. Will you teach me how to cook?" I ask. I mean it. One day, when I have someone I'm sharing my life with, I want to be able to cook whoever it may be an amazing dinner. Hopefully all this stuff will go over smoothly and I'll be able to find that person.
"Oh, that'd be totally cool! I'd love to teach you. There's really nothing to it." She acts like cooking isn't a big deal and that it's so easy. But just like everything in my life, I'm sure it'll be hard.
"You didn't mean tonight though, did you?"
"Oh, no. Absolutely not. I'm too worn out for all that. I meant like… after everything soothes over. If… everything smoothes over." I say, sadly. It's crazy how your mood can just flip on a dime.
Cat scoots from her seat on the coffee table to sit beside me on the couch and puts her arm around me. She squeezes me tightly, and gives me all the love she can muster.
"Hey…" I turn my head away from her. "Hey, look at me." She grabs my chin and turns my head to where my face is visible. A tear falls from my eye, but she quickly wipes it away.
"I'm sorry." I wipe the rest of my face off and throw on a fake smile, trying to make her drop this subject. I hate talking about it because I probably won't have any time to do anything with my best friend in the entire world. I'll be making new friends somewhere else.
"Hey… just don't talk like that. You heard everything Agent Borland said he would do. You heard all that. He's going to help us if we let him. Your dad will never know." I shudder at the work "dad". "You're going to make it through all this. And I'll be damned if I ever stop believing that. Have I ever broken a promise to you?" She asks.
She really hasn't broken a promise to me. She's let a few secrets slip that I needed her to keep, but she never promised me anything where she went back on her word. Not one time.
Keep in mind that this is the girl who I sprayed hot cheese on when she was making out with my ex-boyfriend, Danny. Then, I proceeded to make out with said ex-boyfriend and got caught. But somehow, she still keeps her word. Every single time, she never fails to keep a promise.
"I don't make promises I can't keep, Tori. And I sure as hell don't give up on anything I love." That brings a tear to my eye. It actually does. I lower my head and smile.
She pulls me closer and squeezes me even tighter than before. I hug her back and after all that, I'm happy again. Her words, her very few words, have completely turned me around.
"You mean that?" I ask, quietly.
"I promise, I really do mean it." That makes me smile. Because I know she means it because she promised me.
She stands up after squeezing me one last time and takes my plate to the kitchen. She places it in the sink and starts to wash the dish. As she does so, I lay my head back on the couch to get a little rest for my tired, tired eyes.
After everything that happened that day, I doze off. And then, what seems like all of a sudden, I wake up the same way I had each of the past three nights. Cat is right beside me in her bed. I hope she doesn't notice the Tori-shaped sweat stain on her bed.
I place my feet on the cold floor and stand up. The sound of Sam's insane snoring was too much for me to listen to while going back to sleep, so my only way out was to get up.
I walk into the living room and look at the clock on the wall. Three-forty-five in the morning. Whenever I fall asleep early, this happens. I never can just sleep the whole night. But this time, it wasn't because of how early I went to bed. I honestly think I needed the sleep. I think this time… it was dream. This one wasn't bad though. It went on from the time that I bumped my head on the side of the house to when I got in the car and pulled out of our subdivision.
After standing in place like an idiot for five minutes, I turn towards the kitchen and walk towards the back door. I pull it open and step outside onto the patio. The mild, yet humid weather of California hits my face and it allows me a fresh breath of air. The night is absolutely perfect.
I look up above me and look up at all of the stars shining ever so bright in the night sky. They make me feel one of the smallest things known to man. Because those stars are light years away and somehow, some of them are still manage to blind me on Earth. We can barely see an airplane flying with the sun shining. Those things are only twenty thousand feet up. Those stars are… countless miles away from us, but they still shine so bright. How small am I?
"Inside my mind is one weird place." I mutter to myself.
"Why don't you let me in there? Let me see what it's all about. Maybe I can help." I hear a voice come from behind me, and there's no mistaking who it is. I turn around and see the little red head wrapped up in her robe, hair a complete mess.
"How long have you been there?" I ask.
She shrugs and walks closer to me. She stops when she's directly beside me. "I guess I came in about halfway through your thought about the stars and how small we are down here."
"Did I say all that stuff out loud?" I ask. "Or did you read my mind?"
She laughs but she quickly stops. She continues to look up at the sky that only seems to be getting clearer. We are, for once, quiet.
"Can I ask you a quick question, Cat?" I ask.
"Of course… ask away."
"Do you think… I mean… don't you think it's a little weird that Agent Borland wants to help us like this? When have you ever heard of any police officer or agent or detective… whatever you want to call him… don't you think it's a little weird that all of a sudden, after making that stink in the hospital, he has this change of heart?"
She processes the question for a minute. I can tell she's thinking hard because she's biting her bottom lip lightly. She looks up at the sky and starts giving her answer.
"So you think all this is weird, huh?" She asks. That's really a no brainer. Where exactly is she going with this?
"Well, yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. I've just never seen something like this happen. Not even on TV. And everyone knows you can do just about anything on TV."
"Well, I have a question for you. What about all this isn't weird, Tori? This whole situation is weird. When do you see a case being looked into on such little evidence? They have your Blood Toxicity Level. What else? There's an agent volunteering to help you. And the weirdest thing of all: you have never done anything like this. This sounds awful… but you almost drive better when you're wasted. That's not to say it's safe, of course, because it's completely unsafe. But I've driven behind you before and you look just fine. What was different about this time? I understand that it could happen at any time, but what are the odds that it was that night?"
"Cat, I was drunk. Like I was completely trashed. I was gone. I barely remember anything. I don't have much reason to doubt that I actually did it. I mean, for God's sake, the only way I'm remembering anything is because I'm having dreams." Speaking of which, I have to remember to tell her about that. "I'll acknowledge that this situation is quite unique. I haven't seen anything like it. But all it takes is one time for something of this nature to happen and it just so happened to happen to me." I know I'm being negative, but what exactly is there to be positive about?
"I'm just asking you to stick with this investigation. I think that recruiting Agent Borland to help out would benefit you greatly. And I have a few other connections I might be able to bring in." She says.
"Cat, I don't know. I just…"
"Tori Vega, when have you ever been known to not try at something? Have you ever half-assed something in your entire life?"
"Well…" I start.
"Your first day at Hollywood Arts, you got coffee poured all over you. The second day, you stood up to the girl who poured said coffee on your head. And you even kissed her boyfriend!" She laughs. "I'm also not so sure you didn't want to do that." She smirks.
"I guess I really tried there." I admit.
"The Bird Scene… Damn… How long did you work on that? What was it? A week or so? Non-stop?"
"Something like that." I say quietly.
"You got old lady glasses. You created your own backdrop. You made the clothes you wore. You downloaded prairie. You even went as far to train that bird to come in and go out whenever you told it to. If that's half-assed, then I don't know what effort really is."
I see her point. I really didn't do anything half way in high school. I either did it or didn't do it at all. I guess somewhere along the way, that part of Tori Vega went away. Too bad I don't know where to look to find her.
"We'll skip down the line a little bit. Prome. It was so much fun. I mean, there were a few things you couldn't control. Like Jade's incredibly cruel sabotage of the whole night and Robbie constantly getting onto me for 'not letting him bring me to the prome' because 'I already had a date'. And I really did. But that night was great. We sang a song in the rain and it was amazing. Everything was great and you planned it all."
"Cat, this is all fine and good, but that stuff wasn't of this caliber of seriousness." In the dark, I can see her eyes roll in her head. She steps away for a moment and puts her hands on her hips.
She's quiet for a good minute. So am I. I can feel her frustration with me. Right now, I'm being super difficult and I know I am. It's not like I'm trying to shoot her opinions and her views of things down. I just can't see any way that we… I… come out on top in this. It's intoxication manslaughter. How do I win? In what scenario do I come out a winner?
She turns back to me and in the moonlight I can see a small tear running down her cheek. It rolls all the way to the base of her jaw and drips off, leaving a trail of water behind it.
"Tori, I'm trying so hard to help you. I'm a positive person. You know this. But you are making it incredibly hard to maintain positivity. Let me help you here. Tori, you can't do this alone. You won't do this alone. But with me, Agent Borland, and anyone else who is on our side, we're unbeatable. Give this a chance. Save yourself. You can do this if you try. I know you and I know you know you can."
"But Cat…" I cover my face with my hands.
"No. There are no buts here." She says sternly. I almost jump at her tone. Her sad demeanor is all but gone. "I know I'm being slightly harsh here. And I'm not going to push you to do anything because you're your own person and you can make your own decisions. But I'm going to say this one time and I'm not going to sugar coat it. If you don't prove yourself innocent, you're gonna do time, Tori. You will be locked up and taken away from the outside world for a while." That hits me hard.
"If I don't prove myself innocent, I'm still going to prison." I say
She grabs my shoulders.
"You don't have to, Tori. You don't have to. You can be free. You just have to work for it. There was no Prome without work. You didn't stand up to Jade without work. You didn't perfect that stupid bird scene without work. Nothing is free in life." She softens her voice a little. "Not one damn thing. You know that."
I lower my head, slightly ashamed of the way I've acted. My negativity has swallowed me. It made me a sad, confused wreck.
"I just want to say one last thing: you're my best friend, Tori. You always will be. And because of that, I want you to think of something for me. If you go to prison, I'll be without you for years. Years. I can't go without my phone for a week. What makes you think that I could ever do without you for years?"
"Cat, before all this, it had been five years." I say. Tori, shut your negative ass up.
"See that's the thing. I knew in those five years that there was always a slight chance I might see you. I could see you at the grocery store or at a restaurant or… I don't know. I could've seen you somewhere. But if you're in jail, I'd get to see you at one place. Wearing one thing. I'd get to see you wearing the same orange jump suit I saw you wearing the last time I visited. I'd only get to talk to you through a nasty, germy phone." She pauses. "I'd only get to see you through a smudged up piece of glass that you can't even hear anything through. I don't want that, Tori. And I know you don't want it either."
I let a tear fall. I'm so sick of crying. I'm tired of being emotional. I'm tired of feeling sorry for myself when I could easily get up and do something about all this.
"And to tell you the truth, I really don't know how I'd handle that." She chokes out. "I would be without my best friend in the world for years. Maybe not forever, but it would be a minute. Just imagine what that would do to me. Think about Trina. Trina loves you to death, regardless of the way she acts towards you. Think about what that would do to Andre. He's like your brother. Just… don't deprive the world of yourself. Do something to prevent that from happening."
"Let's say I do actually attempt to do something about this. What if it doesn't work out?" I ask. This is a legitimate question. I'm not asking it to be negative.
"Then you went down in a blaze of glory. You went out kicking and screaming; trying to do everything you could possibly do within the legal limits. You just lost the game of black jack. The cards weren't playing for you."
I pause for a moment. This is huge for me. It would be so easy to just say, "no, I'm not doing anything." But I'm not so sure that's what I want to do.
"I'll give you some time to think about this. I know I was a little harsh earlier… I just… I hope you realize what you could be throwing away by doing what you're thinking about doing." She turns around, opens the door, and steps inside. Before shutting it, she says, "Come back to bed whenever you want."
It came as a relief when she revealed to me that she was going to let me have some time to think. Given, there's not much to think about. It's either go to prison or fight to stay out of prison.
It's getting chilly, so I step inside myself. But I don't want to go to bed. So I just go into the living room and sit on the couch. No TV. No music. No light. No nothing.
I'm facing something that could potentially ruin my life. It's insane how fast a life like mine- one that once held so much promise- could crumble like it has been over the couple of weeks. Who knows? Maybe my life does still hold promise. In California, the maximum sentence is ten years. Ten years of my life would be gone. I'd be 33 or 34 by the time I got out.
Behind me, I hear footsteps. I quickly turn around, think they belong to Cat.
"Hey, Cat, I…" I stop. "Oh. Hey, Sam. What are you doing up?"
"I got thirsty so I figured I'd come in here and get something to drink." She opens the fridge and looks up and down in the door. She pulls out a brown glass bottle. I guess it's beer.
"What's that?" I ask.
She takes a big swig. "Barbeque sauce; want some?"
"I think I'll pass." That just grossed me out. I don't think I'll ever want to have barbeque sauce with anything for a pretty good while.
"You know, it's funny." She says. "I came in here to get this because I was thirsty, but now that I drank it, I'm more thirsty than I was before I came in here."
"Uh, probably because that's pure salt. It dries up all the liquid in your body." I say. She looks at me like I'm stupid or something.
"How does that have to do with making me thirsty? When I'm thirsty, it's just because my body wants something wet. Not because all the liquid in my body is gone."
"But… that… that's the same exact thing, just in different words!" I exclaim, trying my best to get my point across.
"I still have spit in my mouth so I can't be completely out of liquids."
"Yes, I know, but…"
She hocks it back, lunges forwards, and spits a big, giant blob of spit out. At this point, I almost can't stand to be around her. This is repulsive.
"Yep, you really did just spit all over my foot." I say, cringing and shuttering.
She shrugs. "Maybe some barbeque sauce would help dry it up?"
I don't even bother to respond to that. After waiting a second and finishing off the barbeque sauce, Sam stands up and begins to walk back to her and Cat's room. But I stop her.
"Wait, Sam. Do you have a minute? I need to ask you for some advice. If you're willing to give it, of course."
Again, she shrugs and slowly trudges back to the couch and sits down beside me. She slaps me on the knee and sits back and relaxes.
"What can I do you for?" She asks.
"Well, first I need to know what all Cat has told you about me." I state.
"She's told me pretty much everything. I know you're going through a lot of stuff right now. What you're going through is worse than anything I've had to go through."
"What have you gone through?" I ask.
"Hmm… Let's see." She thinks for a moment. "'02, assault. '05, shoplifting and assault. '07, '08, and '10, were all misdemeanor assault and battery charges. I had to do a little time in Juvy and a little community service. And then I got caught fooling around in a car about two years back. The cop was weird and let us go without any questions asked. But that's about it."
Fooling around in a car? "So… how was Juvy?" I ask.
"It was okay. The food was alright. They gave us these real comfy pillows and they even gave us a couple of pieces of cardboard to put over the springs on our beds so they wouldn't squeak." She smiles. "They treated us okay there."
"No, I mean, like how were the people? How did they treat you? And did you get to see anyone in there? Like from the outside?"
"Well… my mom is in Seattle, so I haven't seen her in a while anyway. At least I think she's in Seattle. Nevertheless, I didn't see her. Carly couldn't come because she had to keep iCarly going and manage her schoolwork along with regular life. Freddie's mom won't let him within three hundred feet of a place where people are being held because of their bad deeds. She thinks they'll rub off on him. The only real person that came in to see me was Cat." She says. "She's a good friend."
That makes me smile a little bit.
"Don't tell her I said that." She sticks her finger in my face and gives me a stern look.
"Hand to God." I laugh nervously.
She smiles a little and lets the whole thing go. She's just about to stand up and go back to bed, but again, I grab her arm and pull her back down to the couch. Surprisingly, she doesn't huff or complain or… act like Sam Puckett.
"What's up, ya ding?" She asks, sarcastically. There it is.
"Is it worth going to jail if there's even the slightest chance you might be innocent?" I ask.
"Wait, I'm not sure if I get what you're saying."
"Like, if I had an opportunity to prove my innocence, do you think it'd be worth it? I mean, there's always a chance it could work against me and throw me in prison."
"Well here's the way I look at it." Sam becomes very engaged in the conversation. Even though she's mean, nasty, violent, and pushy, she can be a very good listener, and if she's good in the area you're talking about, she can give some good advice, too. "Look at it like this. If you sit and do nothing, you're going to prison anyway, more than likely. Whereas if you make a push to prove you're innocent, you split the chances in half. There's a 50% chance you could go to prison and there's a 50% chance you could be set free. And sometimes the chances are actually good. You just have to dig deep."
"Could I handle jail?" I ask her. She gives me a discouraging look.
"Look, chick… if jail is anything like Juvy, I don't think so. I even had a hard time every now and then in that hell hole. And I'm not afraid to say that I, a strong person, had to fight to keep from being broken in that place."
"So…" I mumble.
"All I'm going to say is that you need to try. You really have to strive to prove your innocence." She pauses for a minute. "I'll even help."
That shocks me. My jaw drops and I really don't know what to say. All I can do is hug her, except this time, she doesn't shove me away. She actually hugs me back.
"Why do you want to help?" I inquire.
"Because of Cat." Because of Cat? "I care about her. And she cares about you just about more than anything. Every now and then, when you guys weren't close anymore, she'd tell me stories over and over again about when you guys were at Hollywood Arts and all the shenanigans you all would get into." She laughs. "Like when she shaved Jade's eyebrows off."
"Oh, that was too good. Jade was furious. She actually shaved Cat's head." I laugh hysterically.
"God, I love that woman." Sam smiles. "But Cat talked about you a lot. You made her very happy. You're still making her happy even though the circumstances suck. So that's why I'm caring. I care about her being happy which means I have to keep you from being put into the big house."
I smile a little bit at how much she cares about Cat. Somebody is actually giving me a run for my money. But that's a good thing. She deserves more than just one person making her happy at a time. More than two, really.
"Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. You can always count on Sam Puckett to do her duty as a friend." She jumps up off the couch and starts walking to their room. "Goodnight, Tori."
"Goodnight, Sam."
I made a new friend tonight. Go Tori.
"Tori, we have to leave in ten minutes!" Cat yells, finishing her makeup.
I stumble out of the bathroom with my dress barely hanging on. I'm pulling my heels on with a bunch of unnecessary force. I almost trip and fall trying to pull them on.
"I know! I'm sorry, I just lost track of time. Are you almost ready?" I pull my dress up to a point where it was secure and there was no way I'd have an embarrassing moment.
"Yeah, I just have to finish curling my hair and touching up my makeup." She says, running a curling iron through her hair. She curls the last part of her hair and grabs a shade of lipstick to put it on her lips. She finishes applying it and pops her lips.
"So what do you think?" She stands up. She's wearing a long, silky red dress that's almost the exact same color as her radiant red hair. She adjusts a few of the curls and smiles.
My god.
"Why aren't you saying anything?" She asks. "Does it look bad? Oh, God, it looks bad. Do I have time to change?" She starts scrambling and runs into her closet.
"No, no, Cat. It looks amazing. Trust me. It's… beyond amazing." I chuckle.
"Well, I guess I had to look amazing for once, you know? I mean, Beck and Jade are probably only going to get engaged once." She says.
Early this morning Andre had texted me to let me know that both Cat and I had been invited to a dinner with Beck and Jade along with the rest of the gang. According to Andre, Jade doesn't even suspect what Beck intends to do. She just thinks it's a regular dinner with her friends. Think again, West.
Beck is going to propose. I find that hard to believe. Not because it's unbelievable; just how far all of us have come since high school… a world where Beck and Jade broke up over dumb things, where Robbie carried around a puppet, where all Beck cared about was cars. We've all changed for the better. The only bad part about it all is where I've ended up.
Hopefully I'll find what Beck and Jade have soon.
Then I turn back to Cat. She blinds me. Her bright white teeth and amazing smile. Her insanely bright red hair.
"Cat, you look amazing." I'm baffled. Truly, I am. I forgot how well she could put herself together.
"Well you don't look so bad yourself there, Tori." She smiles. She steps closer to me and lowers her voice a little. She puts her hands on my arms as if she was trying to hold me still. "Tori, I want this night to go smoothly. I want to have fun. But most importantly, I want you to feel relaxed. I want you to enjoy yourself and not worry about anything that's going on right now. Can you do that for me?" She asks.
I pull her in for a hug. The fact that she cares about me and wants me to have fun; the fact that she felt the need to say all that to me makes me happy. Because she cares about me. She genuinely cares about me. And it makes me happy when people do that stuff for me because I get to take a break. I get to sit for a minute and not be nice to everyone. For once, I can enjoy what I try to give people.
"Yes, Cat. I can do that for you."
"Thank you. Now come on. Let's have a little fun." She exits her room and I follow her lead. Here we go, Tori. Let's do this.
"Hey!" Beck says as we walk into the front part of the restaurant. He gives Cat a hug and gives me the same treatment. He pulls back and runs a hand through his hair, smiling.
"Hey, Beck. How are you?" I ask.
"Oh, you know… just swell. I'm not freaking out at all right now. And I'm definitely not nervous about asking my girlfriend to marry me, if that's what you're talking about." He starts moving around the room nervously.
"Are you calm or not?" Cat questions.
"Not even remotely calm. I'm freaking the hell out." He answers loudly.
"Would you say you're about to…" I smirk. "Freak the freak out?"
He laughs. There we go. Problem solved. Way to go, Tori. You made someone's day a lot easier by doing what you just did. It wasn't intentional though. I was just making a joke.
Soon enough, everyone else gets there. Andre is the first one to show up. He greets Cat and I with a huge bear hug and gives Beck one of those classic "bro hugs". There's a lot of love there though. They'll always be best friends.
Next, Robbie pops in. Again, he is Rex-less. He says hello and gives us a dorky wave and he even throws a nerdy joke in there. I laugh and prompt Cat to do the same. You know, just to humor the poor guy. Then he tells another one and I just can't humor him more than once.
"So, are you excited for the big moment, fam?" Andre asks Beck after clapping his hands together quietly. Beck smiles nervously and laughs a little.
"I think I've been ready for this for a really, really long time. Personally, I think Jade and I both have. I mean, it's been what, seven years? I think it's time. Don't you guys?" He asks.
"Absolutely." Cat says. "It was time four years ago!"
"Time for what? What did I miss?" Jade asks, walking out of the lady's room. She looks amazing. She looks better than she ever has. She doesn't have all that dark makeup on under her eyes, and she actually took the highlights out of her hair. She looks… like… amazing. I don't know how else to say it.
"Time for what? Are you grunches gonna let me in on it or what?" She snaps.
I see the attitude still stayed.
"Uh…" Andre said. "Cat was just saying… uh…" He rubs the back of his head, nervously. "I CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT." He takes off, running towards the restroom, bumping into people all the way there.
"What's his deal?" Jade asks.
"Well, we were talking about Friends, and Cat said that it had been time to make a reunion episode three years ago." I explain.
"Then what does that have to do with him running off like that?"
"Uh… Matthew Perry really hurt him when he came out with his new show. So he's really emotional." I say.
"Oh." Jade frowns. "That Matthew Perry is one funny man."
As we stand in the lobby of Maestro's, we all suddenly become anxious and ready sit. Although some of us are probably anxious for other reasons.
Soon enough, however, a hostess calls us to be seated and we're all most grateful. He leads us to our regular table at this restaurant: the one right by the window and right in front of the piano. And now we're back in high school. Except now, we're twenty-three years old, two of us are about to be engaged, one is a music producer, and another is facing what is essentially a murder charge.
Tori, you're thinking negatively again. You told Cat you wouldn't do that tonight. Remember? Of course you do. This is a special night; one we'll remember for a long, long time.
"So Beck, how is the career going?" Cat asks.
"It's going okay." He says, modestly, with a big smile on his face. "I actually just signed on to direct Brad Pitt's newest drama movie." Everyone lets out a large gasp.
Andre stands up and says, "I CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT!" He then runs off.
"So does he say that to everything now?" Beck asks.
No one gives a real answer. They just carry on with their conversation and continue to be marveled at the fact that Beck is going to direct Brad Pitt's newest drama movie.
"So you've met the hottest guy known to man, right baby?" Jade asks.
He laughs a little. "You know I, your boyfriend, am right here, correct?" He asks.
"Yes, yes I do." Jade answers. "Answer the question… darling." She says, deviously.
Beck nods, half-depressed. "Yes, I have met the 'sexiest man known to man'." He puts it in air quotes.
"She never said sexy." Cat giggles.
"She just said hottest." I say, giggling also.
"Do you think Brad Pitt is sexy, Beck?" Jade uses her trademarked smirk here, the same way she did the whole way through high school and as long as I've known her.
"I think the man is rather good looking but I… I don't think that…" Our stares become more and more fixed on him. Even Robbie, who has very oddly stayed quiet for the majority of the time, starts staring at Beck to make him feel pressure. "I don't think he's… I CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT!" He runs out of the room as Andre comes back in.
"Hey, he stole my bit." Andre says.
He sits down again, now calm, and begins socializing with us all.
My mind begins to wonder again. It seems to do that more than ever now that everything that has happened is becoming a larger part of my life.
I begin to think that we've gone a pretty good ways through our meal, yet a now call Beck still hasn't popped the question.
I pull my phone out of my purse and select Beck's name to send a text message to.
"When are you going to do it?"
I see him reach into his coat pocket and pull out his blue pear phone. He laughs a little and starts typing. The little typing bubble pops up on my screen.
"Very soon. Brace yourselves."
I look across the table at him to see a big smile on his face. I then show Cat the phone. She takes it from me and shows Robbie who is sitting beside her, then I take it back and show Andre. They all smile.
"What are you all smiling at?" Jade asks. "What are you all smiling at and why aren't you showing me?" She starts freaking out.
"Oh, it's nothing." Andre says, trying not to laugh.
"Beck, what are they laughing at?" She grits her teeth.
"I'm just as clueless as you are babe." He says, coolly. Typical Beck… always cool under pressure. Unless talked to about Brad Pitt and his amazing manly beauty.
"Beck, tell me, or no sex for a month…" She threatens.
"Tell her. Tell her now." He says quickly.
I laugh at that and come up with a devious plan. "We're just smiling at this old lady on a bicycle. She ran over a huge rock and then she flipped over the handle bars and fell right on her face!" We all start laughing as the rest of the group knows what I'm trying to do.
"Was there pain involved?" She's almost shaking.
"So much. So… so much pain was involved." I laugh.
"NO!" She screams. "NO! I LOVE PAIN! YOU HAVE TO LET ME SEE IT!" She bangs her hands on the table.
Everyone looks at her. She smiles at them all and instantly calms down. She sits in her chair and then returns to looking at everyone with a death stare. Her words are at a normal level now.
"Let me see it or I'll make your lives painful." Too late. Mine already is but whatever.
"You really want to see it?" Cat asks.
"Yes, you know I love to see people in agony." She says.
"Are you sure you want to see this?" Andre smiles.
"Yes, damn it, how many times do I have to say it?" She exclaims.
"Turn around then." Beck says from behind her.
"Why would I…" She stops. Dead. She just stops moving. She stops talking. And it even looks like she stopped breathing.
Everyone who was shocked at her behavior a moment ago is now watching Beck, who has a small box with a rather large ring in it, down on one knee. He's smiling ear to ear. Jade sits there, simply, with her jaw on the floor.
"Beck… oh my God." She breathes. Her hand covers her mouth and her eyes begin to tear up.
"Jade, ever since I've known you, you've made me happy. You've made me sad. You've made me angry. You've picked me up when I was at my lowest. Sometimes you actually put me at my lowest. But I wouldn't change any of that because without it all, we wouldn't be in this exact moment. We could've experienced some of these things, but something would be different. We wouldn't feel as we do right now if some of those things hadn't happened. I love you. And there's nothing I'd rather be doing, no where I'd rather be, than on my knee, right now, in front of you, our friends and all of this other people asking you to marry me."
Cat puts her arm around me and pulls me close to her. I smile even more at that. Her embrace feels natural; comfortable.
Andre is tearing up at the sight of his best friend becoming a true man. And Robbie is simply smiling.
"So, Jade West, my girlfriend and the love of my life, would do me the extreme honor of becoming Jade Oliver, my wife?" He asks with a tear in his eye.
I've never seen Jade look like she does except a few times. Completely vulnerable.
She nods. "Yes. God, yes." She stands up and kisses her soon-to-be husband. Beck wraps her up in a hug and holds her for a good while before letting go.
Andre stands up and shakes Beck's hand and gives him one of the quintessential guy hugs. Robbie does the same. I even give Jade a hug. It's that big of a moment for everyone. They're going to start a life together and a family together. That's just insane to think about.
We all calm down and have a fun time the rest of the night. But by the time everyone is done eating, we're all tired and full, so we're ready to go. Beck generously offered to pay the check, but Andre insists on paying at least half.
On the way out, Jade pulls me by the arm and beckons me to talk to her. She's probably mad about the video I lied about.
"Hey, Cat, I'll be right there." I yell after her.
Jade pulls me back near the door of Maestro's, and stays quiet for a minute.
"There wasn't a video of a woman falling on her face, was there?" She asks.
"No." I say.
"Damn it." We both giggle a little bit. She looks down at her finger and plays with her wedding ring. She smiles a little while she's at it. She looks up at me and copies Cat. She opens her mouth and doesn't say anything.
"Everything okay?"
"It couldn't be better. I have what I've wanted ever since I was eight years old. I'm gonna get married. And it's the… best feeling I've ever felt, knowing that I'm marrying the man I want to share my life with. And it's comforting knowing that he wants me for me. All my perks, my quirks. Everything. It's amazing. Best day of my life, actually."
She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.
"Jade, what's the matter?" I ask, genuinely concerned.
She sniffs and wipes her eye.
"Vega, you're… you know what, no… Tori, you're my best friend. I can't tell you how much I mean that. From the bottom of my cold, dark, bitter heart, I mean that. I've treated you like garbage the entire time we've known each other. And you've done nothing but cater to me and be a friend."
"Jade, you haven't been that bad to me." I say.
"Tori, I poured coffee on your head on your very first day at Hollywood Arts. I put makeup on my eye to make people think you actually hit me. And you have no clue how sorry I am for all of that."
"Hey, it's fine." I smile and giggle a little. "You don't have to apologize to me about that. It's okay. That stuff is ancient history. We're living in the now. And with everything that's going on in your life, there's no other place we should want to live than the here and now. And you also need to plan for the future. The amazing future with your amazing fiancé."
"You always did know what to say." She laughs and looks down. Then she looks me in the eye. "Thank you for being here for me. I honestly don't know what I would've done without all of your invaluable advice over the past seven years or so." She leans in to hug me and I gladly return the favor.
"It'll always be there." I whisper. She squeezes tighter and then lets go.
Her smirk is back. Crap.
"So… I have a question." Jade says.
"Oh, dear God, what is it? I know that smirk."
"What? I just don't know when you're going to make a move on Cat."
What the hell? Where did that come from?
"Cat? Why would I make a move on Cat?" I ask. "She's my best friend."
"Oh, come on, Tori. It's obvious you two have a thing for each other. I saw you guys in the restaurant. I mean, she practically draped you over her. At one point, I even saw her close her eyes and smile when you were that close to her." She says. "It's painfully obvious."
"Jade, no… no. I couldn't ever do anything with her. I like guys. You know this." I say.
She throws her hands up in the air. "I'm just saying that it's what it looks like."
"That was just an out of left field question."
"I know. But…" She trails off. "Look, I'm about to tell you something. And it stays between us. But Cat had a crush on you in High School. Like… a major one. She had all of your pictures developed and framed. She kept all the things you ever gave her in a box in her closet. And… a day or so ago, she texted me and told me that those feelings- even after the short time you guys had been close again- had come back."
This is a complete shock. Cat Valentine has a crush on me? Cat Valentine had a crush on me all throughout High School? No, no, no. This just can't be. Cat can't have a crush on me. I mean, I'm me. How could she have a crush on this wreck?
"I'm only going to say one thing. You know Cat almost as well as anyone in the world. And you know she's trustworthy if you need her to be. She'll never break a promise. She'll never hurt your feelings intentionally. She'll stand up for you and take your side when you're in the right and when someone else is in the wrong. She's the type that helps you up when you're down and the type that will pull you down if you get too high on yourself. You know all this stuff about her. All I ask of you is that you think about giving Cat a chance." She says. She genuinely cares about this. It's a nice quality I didn't know she had.
She steps closer to me.
"Tori, you don't know everything about Cat. She's very breakable and very vulnerable. She's constantly vulnerable. She's like a trap door. If you take one wrong step, she caves in. And I know that if you gave her a chance, you wouldn't take a wrong step." She steps back again. "You're a good person. And Cat doesn't have many of those in her life. You'd be good for her."
I nod. "Well… let me just… ponder this topic and I'll uh… let you know when I've come to a conclusion."
"Okay… thank you so much for coming tonight. It was great seeing you, Tori." She gives me one last hug and a quick kiss on the cheek as friends do, and walks to Beck's car.
I take a deep breath. How in the world am I going to face Cat? How am I going to be able to lay in the same bed as her tonight knowing how she feels?
I then put one foot in front of the other and take the steps to Cat's little car. As I approach the door, I hear a small click signaling that the doors have unlocked. I open it and awkwardly step into the car.
"Hey, what did Jade want?" She asks.
"Oh, nothing. She was just telling me how much she appreciated my friendship. She apologized, finally, for pouring coffee on my head on my very first day." I answer.
"Oh, well that's great!" She says, pulling her car onto the road. "Anything else?"
I contemplate telling her what I heard from Jade about the past six or seven years, but I decide against it, as it would just make things more awkward than they already are in our lives.
"Nope. It was just her making amends with me." I change the subject. "Did you have fun tonight?"
"I had a blast." She grabs my hand and starts holding it. Oh, God here we go. Tori, don't freak out. "It was just amazing seeing Beck and Jade take the next step in their lives; the step they should've taken a long time ago." She smiles. "The step I want to take someday."
Her grip tightens on my hand. And next, I find myself doing something I didn't think would happen: I start gripping her hand tighter, too.
"I'm glad we're getting close again, Tori." She says.
"Yeah…" I pause. "Me too, Cat. Me too." Again, my grip tightens.
What's going on right now? It's almost as if Jade flipped a switch. I see what she's talking about. She's kinda great.
Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?
A/N: This was definitely my longest chapter I've ever written. This was even longer than my oneshot I did recently. And I also think it was one of my best. But hey, it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what YOU think. So review this. Or don't. But you'd make me happy if you did.
ALSO! Tori and Cat are kinda having some moments now. Dust is being kicked up by who else but Jade? But this is good dust this time. How soon will it take and what will they have to do to become what they are destined to be?