Final Project
V.
Sunday night came before Tori knew it. She had hardly slept at all Saturday night and had too much to do during the day to take a nap. Andre agreed to help her pack since his flight to Argentina wasn't until 4:00 PM on Monday and he had plenty of extra time to gather his stuff together.
He also wanted to be the one to drive her to the airport, even though he knew he couldn't wait with her at the terminal gate.
"You look like a little kid who lost his puppy," Tori tried to joke as she threw some toiletries in her suitcase. Andre was sitting on the bed staring at her suitcase as if it was the cause for Tori leaving.
Andre sighed and forced a smile, "Hey, you know I always wear my emotions on my sleeve. Can't help it if I look this way."
Tori forced a small smile, too, but inwardly felt terrible because she was way more excited than depressed about leaving. Even during their ride to the airport, she was too overwhelmed with thoughts of all the fun she was going to have in Japan to say anything; thus, the car ride was silent. Andre kept looking like he wanted to say something, but would then change his mind, and Tori felt that anything she could've said would be too cheerful, and Andre didn't seem to want cheering up.
It was about 1:30 AM when they arrived at the airport, and though it was still pretty busy for so early in the morning, it wasn't terrible.
Andre helped carry her luggage inside, but since he couldn't go past the ticket line, they decided to say their goodbyes near the entrance.
He breathed in deeply, and then let out a shaky breath, "Well, I guess this is it."
She punched him playfully on his shoulder, "Don't say it like that. You make it sound so final."
Staring at her for a very long moment, as if he knew something that she didn't, he opened his mouth to say what was on his mind, but got interrupted before he could even begin.
"Hey, perfect timing!"
Tori and Andre both turned to see Beck and Jade walk inside the automatic doors, Beck being the only one carrying his luggage, which only consisted of a large suitcase and a small carryon.
"So perfect," Jade said sarcastically, wishing she could plant some sort of devise on Tori that would cause alarm and have her kicked off the flight. But she didn't think that far ahead. So she had nothing available.
Andre clapped his hands together and licked his lips before folding them in, "Uh, listen guys, Tori and I were just saying our goodbyes and…you know…there's only a few minutes left, so…"
"Got ya," Jade said, being more than happy to pull Beck aside so she could have her last moment with him, too.
Tori smiled shyly and pushed her hair behind her ear, "What did you wanna say, Andre?"
He opened his mouth to speak again, but then seemed to change his mind. Instead, he just pulled her into a tight hug, "I hope you have a great time, Baby Girl."
She hugged him back just as tightly, "I will. And you better enjoy yourself as well."
Andre continued to hold onto her, and she was perfectly fine with it until she cocked her head up from his shoulder and spotted Beck and Jade saying their goodbyes.
She watched them talk softly to one another for a moment before Beck cupped Jade's cheek as he leaned down to kiss her. Tori turned her face away immediately.
"I'll miss you," Tori whispered to Andre, pressing her lips to his in a way that seemed very…finalish. She wondered if she should be crying or if she was right to not find this trip that big of a deal.
Andre was the one that broke the kiss, but kept his eyes closed as he put his forehead against hers, "You got your laptop?"
She nodded once, "I'll set video chat up as soon as I get set up in my room."
"I'll do the same," he kissed her quickly, "Got your toothbrush?"
She laughed softly, "Yes. I got everything."
He opened his eyes and smiled sadly at her, "Just making sure," he paused, "I love you, Tori."
"Aww…love you, too, Andre," Tori happened to catch sight of the clock behind Andre and saw that it was already going on 1:45, "But I have to go now…they're probably going to start boarding soon."
Andre sighed inwardly. How come airport goodbyes are never as dramatic as the movies make them out to be?
"Okay, Baby Girl. Stay safe and have fun," he watched as Tori got her passport and ticket ready, then pick up her luggage to begin heading toward the ticket and check-in counter.
"See you soon, Andre!" Beck suddenly yelled to him as he, too, picked up his things to begin heading out with Tori.
As Andre watched his girlfriend leave with Beck, and as Jade watched her boyfriend leave with Tori, they both inwardly thought that it was the worst moment of their lives.
The plane ride was, to say the least, very uneventful. Right before they boarded, Beck offered Tori some sleeping pills to help make the long trip more bearable. So, after taking two of those, plus having had hardly any sleep the past few nights, Tori was out like a light.
Before she knew it, Beck was shaking her shoulder.
"Tori…Tori," he kept repeating her name, and through her grogginess, she couldn't force her brain to work to figure out why Beck was next to her.
She groaned and turned her head toward him with her eyes still closed, "Beck? What did we do last night?"
Beck laughed at her sleep talk, "We rode a plane, that's what. But we're here now, so wake up."
Her eyes snapped open and she sat forward quickly, hearing about ten different bones crack as she did it, "Oh man…" She wrapped her hand around the back of her neck and rolled her head around, "Did I really sleep the whole ride?"
He nodded, "Yep. I bet everyone wishes they had your talent to do that."
The captain came on the speakers, "We're about to make our landing, so I want to ask everyone to fasten their seatbelts."
Tori checked her seatbelt, even though she never even touched it since she buckled herself in for takeoff.
"I have to pee so bad…" she thought out loud.
"Well, you're gonna have to hold it now," he eyed her from his peripheral vision, "Unless you wanna…"
"Don't even say it," she smiled when Beck chuckled, then she turned to look out the window to see that it was slightly dark out.
"What time is it?"
"It is approximately six AM. We jumped ahead sixteen hours," Beck said, looking at his phone that didn't have any signal.
"Hm, so it's almost like we were only on the plane for four hours," she joked, only then feeling how puffy her eyes felt. She slammed her palms into her eyes and began rubbing away, "Ugh, I must look terrible."
"I've seen you worse," Beck commented, trying to hide a smile when she glared very non-threateningly at him. It was Tori! She could hardly pass as threatening, and Beck was more than happy with this change of pace, if you know what I mean.
"Look at all the lights!" Tori exclaimed as she was once again looking out the window, watching as Tokyo got closer and closer.
Beck leaned over her to try to see what she was seeing, which was kind of hard since he couldn't get out of his seat, "I'll see it when we leave in three weeks."
Tori smacked him on his arm, "Don't say that! I don't even want to think about this trip ending!"
He grinned, "Yeah, but time flies when you're having fun."
She crossed her arms and tilted her chin up, "I guess we'll just make sure not to have fun then."
Beck shook his head, "That's bad, Jade-like logic right there."
"Oh, sorry…" Tori apologized quickly, but immediately wondered why. Was it because Beck really seemed like he was beyond relived that he was going to get to spend a month apart from Jade? She contemplated asking him about it.
She jumped when she felt the plane hit the ground. It was pretty boring as the plane lingered around the runway until it was able to slow down enough to come to a stop. She was relieved when the captain said that they reached their destination and they could unbuckle their seatbelts.
A flight attendant started speaking Japanese, and it was only then that Tori realized how many Japanese people were returning home from their trip to America. She started to become even more excited when she looked around to see hardly any native English speakers.
"What are we gonna do first, Beck?" she asked animatedly.
"Um, probably try to find the hotel we're staying at," Beck suggested, which made Tori's eyes go wide as she gripped onto his arm.
"Oh no, I just thought about something!"
"That we mighta got the same room?"
"Yes! Wait…what!" Tori yelled, suddenly very flustered and anxious, "No! I just thought about how we're going to get around. We can't read Japanese!"
Beck laughed at her liveliness, "Relax, Tor. I think the school set up some sort of guide-like person to help us."
"Oh…" How in the world does he know this? She noticed that he was still laughing from his previous joke. They stood up to exit their isle and get their baggage in the glove department, "You're not funny, by the way."
"I thought it was very funny," he countered, handing her bag to her, then grabbing his own.
They waited for their turn to get off the plane, and once they stepped inside the Tokyo airport, they saw that it looked completely different than the Los Angeles one.
"I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore…" Tori said, looking around at all the foreign signs.
"We were never in Kansas to begin with."
"Konnichiwa! O-Genki desu ka?" A very pretty girl jumped in front of Beck and Tori as she yelled words to them that they did not know.
"Umm…si?" Tori answered.
Beck looked around, looking slightly embarrassed. He leaned closer to her, "Tori, that's Spanish."
The pretty girl laughed, covering her mouth as she waved them off, "I'm just kidding with you two!" Her suddenly perfect English threw them off.
"You must be Tori Vega and Beck Oliver, correct?" she asked, her head nodding enthusiastically. Her dark, shiny, shoulder length haired bobbed with her, and Tori couldn't help noticing the very cute green and white schoolgirl outfit she had on.
"Yeah, that's us," Beck answered, smiling at the hyper girl that kind of reminded him of Cat.
"Sugoi! I'm Shiori Takahashi; I'm here to help you navigate around Tokyo," she smiled hugely and cocked her head to the side.
"Can we stop at the hotel first so we can drop off our luggage?" Beck asked, holding up his carryon bag.
"Sure, let's go over to the luggage belt and get the rest of your things," she began leading them to where they needed to go, at one point turning around and walking backwards with her hands behind her back to talk to them.
"How was your flight?" Shiori asked.
"Fast/Long," Tori and Beck both said at once, Tori having felt it was fast, obviously, because she slept the whole time.
"Oh, it was long for you?" Tori asked him.
"Yeah, I only slept for a few hours," he answered.
"You probably have terrible jetlag," Shiori told him, somehow stopping right on queue when she reached the belt, even though she wasn't looking, "I'll leave you guys alone for awhile when we get there so you can rest."
"I actually feel fine," Tori commented.
Shiori giggled, "Tori-chan, you look like you have worst jetlag than Beck."
Tori smiled when she heard her new nickname, but then it quickly turned into a scowl, "Hey! I've looked worse!"
"Oh look, there are our bags," Beck cut in, grabbing his and Tori's.
"Aw, what a nice boyfriend," Shiori said, cupping her cheeks in her palms.
"We're not dating," they answered at once.
"Uh-huuuhhh…." Shiori dragged on, smiling slyly at them. She walked in between them and looped her arms through theirs, "Tell me all about it on the way there."
Tori smiled despite herself. They had only met Shiori a few minutes ago, but already she knew she was going to like her.
()()()()()()()()
Hey guys! Sorry for the wait…I'm totally swamped with math and English homework. But I wanted to try to get another chapter in for you guys before I really hit the books before my trip down to South Carolina next week. Not sure how updates are gonna look for the next few weeks.
A little side note that I found very interesting: I've lived here so long that I've kinda taken it for granted, but I recently realized that I live on a street named Victoria Street, and a few miles down the road, there's a Beck Avenue. HA! What a coin-kee-dink!