Final Project

XVII.

Tori and Beck didn't see each other at all the following day, Wednesday. The sky was overcast and from what Tori could tell from the TV (while trying to ignore the stripping weather reporter), they called for rain all day, but none of it ever came. So it was a teaser day. And for some reason, this made it hard for Tori to text or call or go over to Beck's room to ask what he wanted to do today. What was there to do if it started raining? Not that they were strangers to getting caught in the rain or anything.

So she ended up talking to everyone else that day on video chat, starting with Andre, but once it reached one in the morning his time, he told her he was going to bed. He didn't even ask why it was one in the afternoon her time and she wasn't out doing anything.

Then she talked with Cat, mostly listening to her talk about her silly adventures that wouldn't normally be "silly" but Cat always made it work out that way. Tori even three-way chatted with Cat and Robbie for awhile, but she was starting to tell that something was up between the two of them. She didn't want to ask what triggered this spark when the two of them were in separate countries, because, honestly, she just wasn't in the mood to hear a love story. And so when it became obvious that they were more interested in talking to just each other, Tori politely dismissed herself from the chat.

Surprisingly, she then was able to chat with Trina. Since her older sister had gone away to college when Tori started her senior year, the two hardly got to see each other. Trina was way out of Tori's league now…

Though Trina didn't get accepted into any performing arts schools. But instead of this bringing her down, her prideful mind believed it was only because the school boards thought she was too talented for their "dinky little college." Somehow, this led Trina to major in Psychology so she could "professionally manipulate people using reverse psychology."

Tori truly felt bad for any and all of Trina's future patients…

"So Mom and Dad told me you went to Japan! And you didn't think about inviting me along?" Trina asked near the beginning of the conversation. The older Vega still dressed and acted the same, which made Tori smile despite how annoying that kind of was.

"It's for a school project, Trina. Hollywood Arts came up with this new thing to send the seniors to different countries to learn the culture and whatnot," Tori explained, laying on her stomach with her arms propping her upper body up, "Then we have to perform what we learned when we go back."

Trina looked disgusted, "Of course they would start something cool like that after I graduate! But you still coulda got a big suitcase. I woulda fit."

Tori rolled her eyes, "I'm sure you would have."

"Are you there alone?"

"No, I got paired up with Beck. Everyone was able to—."

"You got paired up with Beck?!" Trina suddenly yelled, and her voice was so loud that Tori had to wonder if Beck didn't hear that from his own room. "Are you one lucky girl or what? First you get to go to Japan, then you get paired up with the hottest guy in school…wait, is he still dating that goth chick?"

Tori closed and opened her eyes slowly, really irritated at herself for allowing the conversation to go this way, "Jade. And yes, he's still dating her. And I'm still dating Andre."

This time, Trina rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair. She was sitting in her dorm room, and she randomly started filing her nails, "I don't know why. You guys don't make a very good couple."

Tori pulled half her upper lip up to show her disgust, "Excuse me! A lot of people do think we make a good couple! And besides…two years means something, right?"

Trina looked at her with mock sympathy while slowly shaking her head, "No…no, it doesn't. My poor, naïve, juvenile, innocent, little sister…it means nothing at all."

"Okay, look, if you're just gonna insult me this whole time, then—."

"If I was you…I'd so make a move on Beck while I have the chance," Trina said out of the blue, never for once breaking her serious look despite all the expressions that were flashing across Tori's face.

"What!...What do you mean "while I have the chance"? I'll have you know that I did have a chance before but I turned it down because of—."

"Because of Jade, yeah, yeah…I know. I heard the whole thing between you and Andre before," Tori didn't even have time to be shocked that Trina knew this the whole time but never said anything until now, because Trina continued on with her initial statement, "You know, I was seriously considering stopping you and Andre from hooking up that day, but…well, I thought that maybe you would try to go after Beck again while I was still trying to get him."

Tori's face was completely blank, "Um…you do realize that Beck and Jade were already back together by that point, right?"

Trina rolled her eyes again, "Well yeah, but he obviously didn't want to be with her! He wanted a Vega!"

Tori got closer to the screen with a bit of fury in her eyes, "Yeah, this Vega, not you Vega!"

Widening her eyes with over-exaggeration, Trina responded: "No need to get jealous, baby sister. You don't have to worry about me being competition anymore…I found myself some hot college men!"

Trying to find a smart comment to retaliate with, Tori opened and closed her mouth continuously, but her frustration was making it hard to say anything.

Trina gave her an appalled look, "Don't do that, Tori…you look like a fish."

Tori quickly closed her mouth then flopped her face right into her bed. She spread her arms out to her sides and just laid there completely lifeless. Trina stared at her for a few moments before sighing, "Look, all I'm saying is that you and Beck make a better couple then you and Andre…or Beck and Jade. She always scared me."

"She scares everybody," Tori's voice came out muffled from the bed sheets.

"Well, hey, you have fun over there, okay? I'm gonna meet up with some friends. Lata Sista!" Trina blew a kiss and then ended the call.

Tori didn't even bother to raise her head. Maybe if she stayed like this long enough, she'd suffocate and she wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore. Of course, this was an absurd thing to think, so she turned her head to the side to stare out the window. The sky was still dark, but no rain was falling. She then turned her head to stare at the door. She couldn't believe how much she missed Beck even though they just saw each other the day before and he was only a couple doors down…

Over in Beck's room, he was flipping through channels without even bothering to really catch what was on any station. He had been talking to Jade most of the day…well, it was mostly her talking about her days and how her partner always wanted to follow her even though Jade just wanted to go exploring on her own.

"But that's why they set us up in pairs," Beck told her, feeling bad for whoever that chick was that got paired with Jade.

Jade shrugged, "Then they should have thought about who they paired up before they sent us off."

And then he quickly asked her about all the souvenirs she bought, not wanting the "pairings discussion" to go any further. If it did, Tori was more than likely to come up and not only would it put Jade in a bad mood, it would cause Beck to think about her…not that he wasn't already. But talking about her sure wasn't going to help.

It got to the point where he seriously got tired of talking to her and said he had to go. He had to assure Jade that he just planned on going to bed early and was not going to hang out with Tori. This seemed to make her happier than he's seen her in quite some time, which wasn't that odd, since it was the thing that depressed him most.

But that was over an hour ago and it was already close to seven. He suddenly heard his phone go off in his pocket and due to the chance of the text being from Tori being fifty-fifty (since the only other person that had his number was Shiori), he quickly snatched it and looked at the screen, his heart skipping a beat when he saw Tori's name.

Tori: I'm ordering take-out. What do you want?

So she pretty much ignored him the whole day before, and totally avoided him today, and that's all she has to say? Truthfully, however, he thought it was a smart move. By asking what he wanted, she avoided the awkward question of "Want to go get something to eat?" Beginning a conversation in the middle was usually the best and most effective ice breakers, but because Beck was aware of this little trick, he didn't respond in the normal way.

Beck: Nothing. Not hungry.

And it really sucks when the one person you want to see more than anything indirectly asks to see you, but you turn it down. How does that work? But it was getting late, she was ordering food, so he would probably end up going over to her room to eat, watch a movie, blah blah blah…and he just didn't trust himself with her right now. He wanted to yell at her for being so stupid, slap some sense into her, and kiss her until the sun came up. And slapping girls just isn't right…

He was extra disappointed when she didn't text anything back. Sighing after about five minutes, he threw his phone on the floor and slumped on the couch so that he was lying down. Guess it didn't mean that much to her to see him…

If only he knew that she was a few doors down, crying into her pillow from the heart ache that was becoming more and more overwhelming.

The next morning, Beck came over and got Tori for breakfast. They still had a week and a half left in Japan so they couldn't avoid each other completely. And he liked to think he was mature enough to act like everything was okay and to not bring anything up that would trigger any negativity.

Tori tried to go along with this, but though she was a good actress on stage, when it came to acting in "real life," she was terrible. It was obvious from the bags under her eyes that she got little or terrible sleep. She had to find ways to perk herself up though…the party was tonight and she didn't want to be a thorn in Shiori's side by acting cranky or like she would rather be anywhere else.

Beck and Tori went to Shi-chan's for some coffee, but Shiori wasn't working at that time. Her father was, and he informed them that she was at school. So they listened to a couple people sing, but again, they couldn't understand the lyrics so they more so listened to the tone. To try to ease the tension, since Beck was used to doing that sort of thing, he tried to start a small game with Tori.

As one of the girls was singing her heart out into the microphone, Beck listened to the sound of her voice and the expressions on her face then said: "I think this song is about someone losing their pet dog."

Tori looked over at him in shock, mostly because that was the longest sentence they've said to each other in over two days. But then she offered up a small smile, "How do you figure?"

"Listen. It sounds like she got a little puppy for her birthday a few years back, and they became best friends. But then one day, she woke up and it was gone. So she's wondering if it ran away or someone took it," he chuckled when Tori stared at him incredulously for a moment, "I think I hear her say inu sometimes, and that means dog, so I'm just assuming…"

Blinking, Tori took a long sip of coffee then said, "Well, I think that she's talking about an instance when she was at a bar and some guy wouldn't leave her alone. And she called him a dog."

Beck shook his head, "Nah, the song sounds too sad for that. Why would she be sad if some creep was bothering her? The song would sound more vicious."

Tori shrugged, "Maybe she kicked the guy, but because she was really drunk, she didn't realize that the guy was a dog, so she felt really bad about it afterward…"

Beck couldn't help but laugh at her explanation, and this caused Tori to smile. Hearing him laugh was probably the best thing that happened in her life in the last few days, and it made her want to hear so much more from him. Her hands gripped her coffee tightly, feeling the warmth spread through her fingers, but oh how she longed to touch Beck's skin instead…

The girl ended her song but right away, a young man, probably about sixteen or seventeen, went up to the mike to sing. Right away, Beck and Tori turned to each other.

"Oh, this one's definitely about his fear of clowns…" Tori said while trying to keep a straight face.

"I think it's about his amazement at how beavers build dams."

Tori laughed at the absurdity, "You know, architects actually have to study beavers when they go through training."

Beck smiled at this useless piece of knowledge she had, "Well, then maybe he's singing about his desire to be an architect."

And similar conversations continued. They were amazed at the amount of people that wanted to sing that day, but as Shiori told them later on that night, it was probably because they heard about how Shiori got the record deal and were hoping that some important person was in the audience to hear them.

So speaking of later that night…they both went back to the hotel to meet up with Shiori since she said she had something for Tori. Shiori wouldn't show either one of them what it was until she and Tori were alone in Tori's room.

Then she showed her the outfit she wanted Tori to wear to the party. It was a Japanese schoolgirl uniform. The top was plain white but it came with a black and yellow plaid tie that matched the skirt. Though Tori thought it was cute, and she did want one even before she got to Japan, she looked at Shiori like she was crazy, "Why do I have to wear this to a party?"

"Because most people go crazy when it comes to outfits here. Believe me, I could have given you something else…like a maid outfit," After she said this, Shiori looked disappointed, "Aw, I shoulda! You woulda looked so cute with that feather duster!"

Tori raised an eyebrow, "So why aren't you dressed all weird then?"

"I'm changing when I get there. I think Kaori wants me to dress up like The Black Widow from The Avengers. Hya!" Shiori got into a fighting stance that mocked a ninja more than the female superhero.

"Okay, I'll stick with this," Tori relented quickly. But once she got the outfit on, she was very pleased with how well she pulled it off.

"Aww, Beck's gonna love you in this!" Shiori commented, but then folded in her lips when Tori shot her a glare. "What? Just sayin…"

Tori sighed and went back to looking at herself in the mirror. She still caught Shiori's eye though it, "Well, could you stop saying that kinda stuff? It got us into trouble before and it took us forever to actually have a decent conversation again."

Shiori looked sad when she heard this, "You guys aren't together anymore…?"

"We were never together," Tori paused a long moment before adding, "And we never will be. Let's just go." Grabbing her room key and a few other items, Tori and Shiori left her room and went down to get Beck.

"Wow…" was the first and only word that left Beck's mouth when he saw Tori in that short schoolgirl skirt.

Tori rolled her eyes as she tried to make light of the situation, "Yeah, yeah, let's get moving," still, she let out a short giggle and wiggled her finger to beckon him to follow her toward the elevator. And she didn't know it, but Beck's breath got caught in his throat when he seen this, and he was sure it looked more sensual than she intended it to be.

When they got to Kaori's, they were both pretty happy to see that she didn't live in an especially huge house, which meant there wouldn't be a tremendous amount of people. But the music was already going when they walked in, and the rooms and hallways were littered with people talking, dancing, drinking, and having a good time.

A pretty girl dressed as a teacher came over to their group and began babbling away in Japanese.

"We really need to learn some…" Tori said lowly to Beck, seeing him nod from her peripheral vision.

Shiori quickly cut her friend off, "Kaori, these are my friends from America, Tori and Beck."

"Hey/Hello!" Beck and Tori did a half wave as they offered a friendly smile.

Kaori clasped her hands together and gave a small bow, "Hello, nice to meet you. Please, help yourself to anything in house," though her English was very broken and she was hard to understand, they were glad that she at least could communicate with them.

"Show Beck around for a minute, Kaori! I'm taking Tori real quick!" And before any of them could go against it, Shiori grabbed Tori's hand and pulled her up the stairs.

Kaori and Beck watched them go before turning back to each other. This made Kaori blush, but then she waved him to follow her to meet some other people.

Turned out, Shiori just wanted Tori's help squeezing into her outfit. She turned out looking stunning as usual. However, it took Tori forever to find Beck again. The house might not have been huge, but the place crowded up pretty quickly so trying to squeeze by people was time consuming. When she felt like she circled the whole house two times, she gave up for awhile.

I hope he didn't leave. She thought to herself, suddenly worried that he got mad at her when she ditched him…though that was Shiori's fault, not hers.

Kaori had her PearPod set up in the living room, so it was obviously loudest in there, but the music could still be heard at any location. Tori stopped in the dining area after pouring herself a drink (and making sure it wasn't alcohol), leaning against the wall to try to scan the area. It really sucked when you felt completely alone in a crowded room because no one was speaking to you. Not that anyone did it on purpose…they were all having a good time, and plus, who would be able to have a conversation with her?

But then she glanced to her right and lo and behold, there was Beck. He was across the room, leaning against a wall much like Tori was doing. However, four girls surrounded him, each of them making their own exaggerated gestures to try their hardest to get him to understand what they were saying. But he just kept shaking his head, though he was smiling, since it was slightly amusing.

Tori couldn't help but smile at this also. It wasn't very often in life that someone would come across a guy like Beck. Seriously, how many guys looked like that but could still be considered the nicest guy ever? He was definitely something special, and even those girls that didn't speak English could tell.

Beck happened to glance up then and his eyes met with Tori's. Seeing that she was smiling made him keep his smile, because he saw how amused she was at his situation. As the girls continued to jabber, he rolled his eyes with good humor.

Tori's smile widened as she laughed quietly, seeing as how he was making fun of the predicament he was in. Beck looked back at the girls in front of him, and when all of them weren't look, he raised his hand up and opened and closed his hand to indicate all the chatter.

Tori laughed again and pushed her hair behind her ear. This seemed to be the signal that made Beck want to come over to her, because next thing they knew, he was excusing himself from the girls and walking over to her.

Tons of people passed in front of them, but it still seemed like they never broke eye contact. And with each second he got closer, her heart started to speed up with anticipation of feeling his body next to hers again.

The song that had been playing ended, causing the noise of the people around them to become louder. But another song started up fairly quickly, but it was a slow song…and a song that Tori recognized.

"I try but I can't seem to get myself to think of anything but you. Your breath on my face, your warm gentle kiss I taste. The truth…I taste the truth. We know what I came here for…"

"Having fun?" Beck asked when he finally reached her, an amused smile still on his lips.

Tori shrugged, "Meh…I can see that you're having fun though," and they both laughed.

"I wanna be with you…If only for a night, to be the one who's in your arms to hold you tight…"

"It was like Northridge all over again!" Beck joked. He was then forced to move closer to her as more people tried to get by, and when his arm brushed against hers, her skin got tight and she wanted…she needed him to just stay there…

"So I'll hold you tonight like I would if you were mine….And I'll savor each touch that I've wanted so much…"

"You wanna step outside for a minute?" He asked her, mistaking her dazed look for one of feeling too crowded.

"Umm…yeah, yeah, let's do that," they spotted a sliding door that was a few feet away from them, but Beck still grabbed her hand so they wouldn't lose each other. She enclosed her fingers around his, staring down at their hands as he led her outside.

"Oh baby…I can't fight this feeling anymore…Drives me crazy when I try to…"

As soon as they stepped outside on the patio, the music got more faded as did the heat. There was a cool breeze blowing which felt especially good against their sweaty skin. Kaori had a lighted pool on the deck, and a few people were in it splashing each other.

"I woulda brought my bathing suit if I knew there was a pool," Tori commented as they put some distance between themselves and the splashing water.

Beck stopped when they got to the edge of the patio, a small, wooden railing setting up the boundary for the property, "We can always go swimming when we get back to the hotel if you want."

"Maybe…" Tori said slowly, not sure how she'd handle being next to him in a pool now. And she noticed that they were still holding hands, but she didn't want to mention it in fear he'd break contact.

But without meaning to, she ended up squeezing his hand tighter which made him look at her with concern, "You okay, Tori? You look like you're about to pass out…"

Another thing that sucks: when you don't realize something until someone points it out. She was feeling rather lightheaded and dizzy, and she knew it couldn't have been from her drink this time. But when she looked at him, the feeling came on even stronger and she knew then that what she was feeling had nothing to do with alcohol…it was her feelings for him getting deeper.

Tori put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes. She shook her head, "No…no, I mean, I'm fine. I'm just…" She squinted her eyes open to see him still showing concern. But her gaze quickly dropped to his lips and this made her lick her own lips.

"Tori?"

Seeing his mouth move to form her name snapped her out of her trance, "Sorry." She glanced around the party then suddenly said, "I don't want to be here."

Beck didn't question her, "All right, let's get outta here." Since he was still holding her hand, he pulled her back to head inside the house so they could find Shiori to help them get back.

Of course, she was disappointed that they were leaving so soon, but she agreed with Beck when he said that Tori didn't look so well. She didn't want them to have to pay for a cab, and since she didn't drink anything, agreed to drive them back. It was only about a ten minute drive, so she didn't mind.

Tori wanted to sit in the back with Beck so badly, but didn't want to seem….she didn't even know what she didn't want to seem. Didn't want to seem what she actually was? So she ended up sitting in the front with Shiori, though Shiori did most of the talking, mostly about seeing a lot of friends she hadn't in awhile.

"Thanks, Shiori," Beck said when she pulled up to the hotel to drop them off.

"No problem. Oh! And Tori?" Beck had already gotten out of the car and Tori was just then stepping out when Shiori stopped her by grabbing her arm. Tori watched Shiori nod her head up to silently signal toward Beck, "Sometimes the poison is the cure."

Tori felt that familiar sting in her nose when she heard these words, but without responding, she got out of the car and walked inside the hotel with Beck. She didn't see the huge grin on Shiori's face as she drove away.

()()()()()()

Okay, first off, I am SOOOO terribly sorry for the long wait. Like I said, homework is invading my life. But on the bright side, I got one final and two projects done. Now I just have one essay and two finals to go. And then I'm home freeee! Until September 5th when fall semester starts. Anyway, I know not a whole lot happened in this chapter, but as you can probably tell, it's leading up to something gooooood! So I'll try to update as fast as I can again, though it may not be for a few days. Thanks for your continued support!