Final Project

XXX.

"…and then we kissed without even thinking and…Andre caught us…"

Tori and her mom were sitting side by side on the couch, and though Tori wanted, more than anything, to not talk about this with her mother and just show her pictures of her trip, she couldn't help but finally talk to someone about this.

Holly stared at her, mouth slightly agape, having not expected to hear anything like this come out of her daughter's mouth (well…if it was Trina, she wouldn't be so shocked).

When Holly didn't say anything, however, Tori couldn't stand the silence and had to continue talking, "And I haven't talked to him since. I've been waiting for him to try to reach me, but…" she trailed off again, her hands shifting nervously together. She honestly didn't know what else there was to tell.

But when Holly still didn't answer, just kept staring at her like she was…well, not her, Tori threw her hands up in frustration, "Mom, please say something!"

Holly finally closed her mouth and scratched the side of her head with uncertainty, "I'm sorry, Tori, I'm just…shocked! I really thought you loved Andre."

"I do!" Tori contradicted quickly, leaning toward her mom with desperation in her eyes, "I mean…like, as a friend I love him."

"So you dated him for two years and only love him as a friend?"

Tori could hear the accusing tone in her mother's voice and almost snapped. She was her mother! This was stuff she would maybe expect Cat or Robbie to say, but to hear her own mother throw her own words in her face was almost too much to take. Then again…her mother was always like that. She always acted more as a friend toward herself and Trina than a mother. It was just how she was.

Holly, however, did feel horrible when she watched her daughter slump against the back of the couch and breathe in a harsh breath. And for once, she really wished she had the skill to say the right thing at the right time. She wanted to pull Tori in for a tight embrace and tell her that everything will be okay and that she did nothing wrong.

But instead, she just rested a hand on Tori's shoulder, "Honey…what do you want me to say?"

Tori closed her eyes to try to reclaim herself. She could tell her mom was trying and didn't want to stop now after everything she just explained, "Was I wrong? To cheat….even though the way I feel about Beck is…so…" she couldn't finish her sentence.

Holly pulled in her lips as she tried rubbing Tori's shoulder sympathetically. She hated seeing her favorite daughter in so much turmoil…so much so that she was almost inclined to tell Tori her own secret. But thinking about Gary…and how she promised her husband's co-worker that she wouldn't tell anyone…fear overtook the need to help Tori. What kind of mother would she be to tell her daughter that she was screwing around behind her father's back? Besides…they only hooked up every once in awhile. And after all this time, they never got caught…

No. Holly Vega couldn't risk that now.

"Tori…if you want to be with Beck and feel that it's not wrong…then it's not."

Opening her eyes, Tori's eyes almost begged her to give her a better answer than that, "Mom…cheating is wrong, no matter how you look at it. I know that, it's just…I'm so happy with Beck, but I feel like I don't deserve it because of how I made Andre feel."

Holly swallowed, suddenly feeling very trapped, "Then it seems like the only person that can help you through this is Andre." She said before quickly standing up, "Hey, did you miss pizza? Let's order a pizza." She quickly pulled out her phone and walked away as she dialed.

Tori could do nothing but watch her mom avoid the subject…but it was okay, because their conversations usually always ended this way.

She didn't have time to dwell on it too long, however, as her phone that was sitting on the coffee table began vibrating. She picked it up a little too fast…a little too hopefully…but when she looked at who the texter was, she saw that it was just Cat.

Cat: Heeeyyy! I made it home! My brother filled my room with uncooked bacon!

Tori ignored the second part of the text as she responded.

Tori: Can I come over? Need to talk.

Cat: It looks like there's a million tongues in my room.

Guessing that that meant that Cat didn't want her to come over, Tori quickly replied.

Tori: Can you come over here then? ANYWHERE! Please, Cat!

Cat: Sure, I'll ask Robbie to drive me.

Tori almost told her to come alone. But she understood that Cat didn't exactly live close to her and always depended on someone to drive her, so she accepted it at that.

"Cat and Robbie are coming over," she told her mom.

Holly was already on the phone, so told the pizza guy to make it two pizzas instead.

It took Cat and Robbie about forty minutes to arrive at Tori's house. Forty minutes of torture. Tori didn't know what to do during that time. She knew she couldn't text Andre or Jade, and she didn't want to tell Beck that she was about to talk to Cat and Robbie (she wasn't sure why she didn't want him to know). Holly had retreated upstairs, and the TV seemed unappealing.

So when the doorbell rang and Tori opened the door to find a beautiful, bubbly redhead, she all but pulled the tiny girl against her, "Oh, Cat, I've never been so happy to see you!"

Cat gasped against the hug, "Never?!"

"Hey, Tori," Robbie smiled, albeit shyly, because he no doubt knew what kind of conversation was going to occur.

Tori offered a small smile as well, "Hey, Robbie…" and she actually considered asking him if he minded leaving so she could talk with Cat alone, but then thought better of it. He was still one of her closest friends and figured the more friends she could talk to, the easier it would be to get by.

After she closed the door behind them, her hands immediately started their nervous habit, "So, umm….do you guys know if Jade or Andre are home yet?"

"I know Jade is," Cat said, bouncing on the couch as she took a seat.

"I can check if Andre is," Robbie offered, already texting away on his phone.

Tori was about to stop him, but then let it go. She wanted to know too badly to decline. She flopped down on the other couch, resting her elbow over the back to face them, "Guys…I feel icky…"

Cat giggled, though she looked a bit ashamed for doing so, "Should we start calling you 'Icky Vicky'?"

Tori's mouth twisted with slight disgust involuntarily, letting her head flop onto her arm.

Robbie placed a gentle hand over Cat's, "I think she needs us to help her feel better, not encourage appropriate nicknames."

"Appropriate!?" Tori exclaimed, sounding more surprised than upset.

Cat rested her hand over Robbie's now, giving a much too serious look, "You're right, Robbie. We need to tell her that everything bad she did was good."

Tori groaned, "Guuuys, I'm right here, ya know? Shouldn't you have discussed these sort of details on the ride over here?"

"Tori...Tori," Cat repeated, reaching across the small gap between couches to pat Tori's leg, "There's nothing wrong with what you did. You did what you had to do." Tori noticed that Cat was talking like a robot, or like she was repeating lines from a script that she was told to memorize on the way over.

Tori was beginning to regret telling her to come over. But, well…she didn't know who else to talk to. Her mom wasn't any help, Cat was offering little advice, Trina wouldn't be any better, and Jade was definitely out of the picture.

Robbie saw the look of helplessness on Tori's face, so began slowly, "I think the only person that can help you is Andre…"

Tori groaned loudly, "Why is everyone saying that?!"

"I didn't say it…" Cat said despondently.

"No, but Beck did, and my mom, and now Robbie!"

"Three's a charm. Must be true then," Robbie said.

"Ugh, but Andre won't even talk to me!" Tori flung her back against the couch, slowly sinking down until she was slouching halfway off.

"You just have to corner him and force him to listen," Robbie suggested with misplaced passion.

When Tori only stared at him like he was crazy, Cat slowly inputted: "One time, my brother tried to force two turtles to do something…"

Tori merely raised an eyebrow, but Robbie had to ask, "You mean, like, he forced them to fight?"

Cat shook her head, "It didn't look like they were fighting to me…"

Before Cat could continue on any further, Tori quickly asked Robbie, "Did Andre text you back?"

Robbie checked his phone, "Nope. However…he did update his Slap status."

"What's it say?" Tori asked, leaning closer.

"It says, 'Made it home. Chillin' with my new girl'."

Tori felt the blood drain from her face, "W-what?"

Robbie cleared his throat, "I said, it says, 'Made it—."

"I heard you!" Tori yelled, her voice coming out louder than she anticipated.

Hearing her outburst made Cat and Robbie both stay quiet as they folded their hands in their lap. Cat kept peaking at Tori from behind her hair as she tried not to reveal that she was taking in every single one of Tori's facial expressions, which went from shock, to angry, to hurt, then back to shock.

"Gimmie that!" Tori snatched Robbie's phone away from him.

"Hey, you have your own phone, ya know!"

Tori quickly read Andre's status, her head trying to make sense of the words. She went to his page, scrolling through his photos to see if he posted anything new. There was nothing. So she resorted to texting him through Robbie's phone.

Robbie: Yo Bro! Why no answer?

As soon as she hit send, Robbie was able to snatch his phone back. He read what Tori sent, scrunching up his face in confusion, "Okay, he's never going to believe that that was me who sent that!"

As soon as he said that, however, his phone chimed to indicate he received a message. Tori quickly grabbed the device again before Robbie could read it.

Andre: Sorry, Rob. Busy unpacking. What's up?

Tori couldn't help but read the message aloud anyway, causing Robbie to throw up his hands in exasperation. Cat gave him a knowing look, causing Robbie to sigh, "So what if I try to come up with cool phrases to say in text!"

Tori felt horrible for pretending to be Robbie all of a sudden, but couldn't stop herself.

Robbie: I saw your update! Who's the new senorita?

Tori stood up as she typed, not being able to sit still. Her stomach was making her feel like she was ready to throw up any second.

Andre: Tell you about it later.

"Really?!" Tori exclaimed, throwing the phone back at Robbie. Robbie barely caught it, patting Cat on the back when she covered her head in fear of getting hit. Tori tangled her fingers in her hair, "Robbie, you need to go over there and see—."

Robbie stood up quickly, "Tori, listen, I'm just gonna say this right now…I'm not gonna spy on Andre for you." He held his hands up over his face like he was afraid she would attack him.

Tori stared at him like he lost his mind, "What! I wasn't going to ask you to—," she cut herself off when she realized that that was exactly what she was going to ask him to do. Sighing loudly, Tori covered her face and turned away, "You're right, I'm sorry, Robbie…"

Robbie slowly lowered his arms when he saw that it was safe, "Hey, look on the bright side. You'll be able to see who it is Monday at school."

"Yeah, unless she doesn't even go to our school!"

"…You saying that he brought her over here from Argentina?"

Tori uncovered her eyes and looked at him strangely, "I didn't even think about that…"

Suddenly, Cat chimed in, "Get over it like I did."

Tori and Robbie shot their eyes to Cat, who was staring up at them innocently.

"Get over what like you did?" Tori asked.

"That's what Andre said."

Tori narrowed her eyebrows, "When?"

"Just now."

When Tori just stared at the shorter girl blankly, Cat sighed heavily, like she had to explain a simple concept to an idiot. Cat held up her phone as she read, "I said 'Andre, Tori wants to talk to you,' and he said, 'Why?' so I said, 'She doesn't seem to like you hanging out with a new girl,' and then he said, 'Tell her to get over it like I did.' So I told you."

Tori eyes were nearly bulging out of her head, "Oh, Cat, say you didn't…!"

"You didn't."

Tori didn't even bother to respond. She bent over the back of the couch and hid her face in the cushions. She wondered if she would be able to suffocate herself. She already felt like she was, so she might as well finish the job, right? She couldn't believe she actually thought that calling Cat and Robbie over would help her any. Maybe she wasn't supposed to be helped. Maybe she was supposed to live unhelped for the rest of her life.

When it became apparent that she wasn't going to move her face from the cushion, Cat continued on slowly at first, "…Okay, so I said, 'I told her,' and he said, 'Why doesn't she text me if she wants to know so bad?' and I said, 'I dunno, want me to ask her?' and he said, 'No'."

Tori's loud groan got muffled into the cushion.

"So what're you going to do?" Robbie asked.

Tori didn't know, but knew she had to figure it out soon.

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

Hi, everyone! Taking a time out again to give my lil AN here...

First off, sorry Beck didn't make an appearance in this chapter (which means no Bori), but I know a lot of you were asking for a Cat and/or Robbie chapter for quite awhile, so I figured I should finally put one in. Since I really didn't write their characters too much before, how do you feel I did?

Okay, so about "Brain Squeezers." Gotta be honest, didn't much care for the episode. The only part that really got me to laugh was when Tori's all like, "No, no, no, no, NO!" and Beck's like, "Wow, never got told that by a girl before." Haha, funny one-liner, Beck!

I think that's all I got this time. And remember, if you would like to see me write anything specific, please ask. Even if I don't get to it right away, it sometimes helps get my thoughts going. Thanks!

-Enula