Melodious Endgame

I.

About time Tori made it back to her hotel room, it was almost 2:30am. Her crew always liked to wait until traffic cleared up despite them being able to exit through the back way where traffic wouldn't be bottlenecked. It was a little annoying, but she understood that it was done to keep her safe, so she couldn't hold it against anyone.

She threw the room key down onto the desk beside the TV and flopped down on the bed. Now that she was in the comfort of her room and the tour was successfully over, her body was starting to come down from the adrenaline rush. But she still had to brush her teeth and shower. She could smell the sweat all over her. She groaned, needing motivation to get back off the bed.

Then she thought about her bright idea that she told Emily without even thinking. The whole drive back to the hotel, Tori's anxiety continued to rise the more she thought about what she was going to have to do to make this happen. She was going to have to call Andre. Andre, who, outside of the sporadic congratulation texts they exchanged over the years, hadn't spoken to her since high school.

Well, she took that back. There was a brief moment about six years ago when their paths did cross. She was waiting at the Chicago O'Hare airport for her flight, which had been delayed due to the crew working too many hours without a break. It was because of this reason that Tori didn't feel annoyed that she was stuck in the airport, because she knew what it was like to work so many hours without a break.

She just grabbed a coffee when she saw a crowd of about twenty people rushing by her. Most of them had small carryon bags, but she saw a few pieces of musical equipment that caught her eye.

And that's when she spotted him. Andre was right in the middle of the running group, sunglasses covering his eyes despite them being inside and it being a gloomy day. Her heart jumped into her throat and before she could even think about what she was doing, she called out his name.

Upon hearing this, Andre stopped and looked around, thinking it must have been something important. He was already famous at this point, and Tori wondered what he would have done had it been a fan that called out to him. Would he have stopped to give an autograph?

Though Andre's eyes were covered, Tori could tell he was searching for the person that called him. She almost hesitated to raise her arm, but she knew she was on limited time since it seemed like his group was in a hurry. She waved her hand as high as she could reach, even standing on her tiptoes. This got his attention, and she could tell he spotted her.

He dropped the bag he was carrying in surprise. They were about twenty feet away, but neither made a move to get closer.

"H—," he started, but she would never know what he was going to say. One of his group members ran back to him and picked up the bag he dropped.

"C'mon, Andre! The gate's about to close!" She yelled, nudging him to snap him out of it before she hurried to catch back up to the rest.

"Oh, right. Um—n-nice seeing you!" he yelled to Tori before waving and turning back around. It was such a pleasantly standard thing to say that Tori flinched and felt embarrassed. What did she expect? That he would completely lose track of time and his group to come say hi, miss his flight, then get stuck at O'Hare with her to catch up? That only happens in the movies.

Still, seeing him in person felt surreal. She had been watching him on TV for the past six years, but just like meeting any celebrity in person, it invoked something completely different inside of her. Of course, he wasn't just any celebrity. Once upon a time, they were everything to each other.

Back in the present, Tori sat up quickly to rid herself of that now secondhand embarrassment. She still wondered how strange she looked just standing there with her hand in the air. Then she started thinking about how embarrassed she was going to be when she called Andre, and he turned down her request for songwriting help. That is, if he even answered her call. She started to panic. What if he hung up on her? Would he do that? She remembered calling him on graduation night when he was already a hundred miles away, and he answered then. Not on the first call, but still. By him talking to her even just a little that night, it made her strong enough to do what she had to do.

It'd been twelve years since then. But him texting her when she achieved something must mean something, right?

"What if I call him now? He's probably sleeping so he won't answer and then I can just leave a message," she was talking out loud to herself, so she knew she was upping her anxiety and getting ready to do the thing that was sure to cause her a few sleepless nights. "Then if he decides he doesn't want to do it, and he probably won't, he won't have to acknowledge it. No answer is an answer, right? Should I just text? No, because then it'll just be sitting in our text thread, and I don't want to taint it."

She stood up and paced her room. She sat back down. She stood back up. She opened her contacts and stared at Andre's name. One thing about his name starting with A was that he was always at the top of her lists. No need to scroll to find him. Her fingers shook as she hovered over the call button. "It's okay, it'll just go to voicemail," she reminded herself. She wasn't sure exactly where Andre was at the moment, but she had to assume he was in a time zone that was in the middle of the night.

She pressed Call and pushed the phone tightly to her ear. Either time stood still, or it took longer than usual for the call to connect. But when the ringing started, she nearly jumped out of her skin. 'Okay, so his phone isn't going straight to voicemail…it's okay. It's okay….'

It rang four and a half times before the ringing stopped. She was preparing herself for his voicemail message, but then she heard a crowd of people, many of them talking at once in the background, too many to make out anything they were saying, and a few seconds that felt like minutes of shuffling, and then…

"…Tori?" His voice came through from the other end, and Tori swore she was about to vomit all over the hotel room. She ran her hand through her hair and tried to swallow but her tongue felt thick. "Hello?" he asked when she didn't respond.

"H-hey! Andre! How—how are you?" she winced at her voice and her words. She should have written something down. 'What am I doing?!'

"I'm…hey, gimmie one sec, it's really loud in here," he told her, and it sounded like he was trying to make his way through a tight crowd.

"Okay…" she said softly and she knew he didn't hear her. Tori tried not to panic in the time it took Andre to get somewhere quieter.

"Can you hear me?" he finally asked.

"Yes!" she said a little too loud and enthusiastically. She winced at herself again.

"Aight, cool, cool," he responded, but didn't continue with anything else. Tori was silent as well, but knew she had to say something. She was the one that called him with something to talk about after all. "You still there?"

"Yes!" Tori had to quit doing that. She closed her eyes and shook her head, "I uh…" she chuckled despite herself, "I'm sorry, I…I wasn't expecting you to answer…"

"Yeeaahh…I almost didn't. I mean, not because it was you calling. I'm at this party and can't really hear anything but somehow noticed my phone…" he faded out and Tori hoped the call wasn't about to drop suddenly. She didn't think she'd have the courage to call back.

"A party, huh?" she tucked her hair behind her ear, "Celebrating somethin'?"

"Hell yes, your tour ended tonight, right?"

Tori's stomach flipped and she suddenly didn't know words, "Uh…um, ye-yeah, yes, but you…uh…?"

He chuckled. Hearing his laugh did nothing to stop her stomach flips, "I'm messin'. I mean, your tour did end, so for real, congrats on getting through that! Nah, but I'm here because one of the gals I discovered just got done recording her first album."

'How is he being so casual?' Tori wondered, but was glad he was able to form normal sentences because it helped her remember to speak like an adult too.

"Oh, wow, so congrats to you too! This is the seventh person you signed, right? Lucky number seven for VT Records," Tori paused here, then blushed when she realized she may have sounded like a fangirl. Velvet Theory Records was the company that Andre started in the last couple of years to find new talent. He had gotten where he wanted to be in life, and he was ready to give others that opportunity. Or…so she read in a magazine interview he did.

Andre chuckled again, "That's right. Now that VT got this album on the books, it's time for a little break. What about you? Taking a break now, too?"

This question made her remember exactly why she called. Oh, but he said he wanted to take a break…that automatically meant the answer was no.

"I wish," she laughed breathily, "I actually have to get started on what my next album is gonna look like."

"They're not even giving you a little time off? …do you need to drop them? You wanna come over to my company?" The teasing was thick in his voice, and it was only then that Tori recognized the way he was slurring some of his heads. And of course he was at a party, so he had been drinking. He didn't sound drunk in any way, but the drinks were possibly helping him get through this conversation.

"Um…well, not sure I can do that right now, but it's funny that you should mention something like that," she felt like this was a good segue into her actual reason for calling, "So my company thinks I outgrew my sound and should look into writing different songs than what I've been used to. My manager knows I'm no good at writing songs on my own and is on a hunt to find a songwriter to help me out, but then, haha, this crazy idea popped into my head. I'm like, hey! I know the best songwriter in the world. I should give him a call. She agreed and, ah, here I am. Calling you…"

It wasn't until the silence that followed did Tori realize just how much she rambled. And…that was not the way she wanted to ask him for help. She looked at the TV remote and wished she could rewind the las few seconds and start over.

"Wow, um…I gotta be honest, I was not expecting this tonight. This morning?" Andre's response, or lack of response as it was, did not make Tori feel any better. Their conversation was going fine before this, and she wished she would have left it at that. Now she put him on the spot, and he had to search for a good way to tell her no.

"I'm sorry I brought this up," Tori said when he was silent for a little too long, though in reality it was no more than fifteen seconds. "It was a crazy idea that came to me literally as soon as I finished the concert, and my manager was already hounding me to—."

"Let's do it," he cut her off and it was now Tori's turn to stay silent for a little too long. Andre must have been able to tell she was left speechless because he continued, "Yeah, I think it'll be a great collab. I'll help you write some songs and in return, you can duet with some of my new artists. No one would expect Tori Vega as a backup vocalist, but your voice'll blend so well with a couple of my peeps. Sound good? I can have my manager call yours to get all the details started."

Tori's head was spinning. Was he really agreeing to this so willingly and quickly? Why did her thirty-year-old brain expect him to say "Ewww, gross! I don't want to play with you!"

Without thinking, Tori asked, "You're not drunk, are you?"

Andre laughed out loud at this question, "Why, you think I have to be plastered to agree to this?"

Hearing the lightness in his voice, Tori smiled to herself, "N-no…well, maybe? We haven't actually talked in years and…well…we didn't end on—."

"We can discuss everything when our managers figure out our schedules," Andre interrupted, to which Tori was grateful for, "Though it shouldn't be too hard, as I did just tell you I was planning on taking some time off."

"Yeah, about that, if you—."

"But you know I love writing songs, so this won't feel like working."

"…anyone tell you that you might be a workaholic?"

"And if I am?"

"You're not," she countered from her previous accusation.

"How do you know?"

"You're at a party right now."

"Hm…fair enough," Andre agreed, thus ending their banter. Tori laughed softly, wanting to talk with him more, but he spoke up again before she could get to any other topic, "Anyway, speaking of, I'm gonna get back inside. I'm sure our managers will set something up soon and work out the details of what this will look like."

"O-oh, okay, yeah, sounds good. Oh, and—thank you, Andre."

"Talk soon," was all he said before ending the call.

Tori stood in the same spot for some unknown amount of time, completely shocked by how that turned out. Her mind was trying hard to turn against her by making her wonder if Andre had just been drinking too much and he was going to regret this later. All ideas can sound good when you've been drinking. But then you sober up and realize that it's not quite the idea that drunk you envisioned. Because of these thoughts, Tori was hesitant to text Emily and tell her the news. Of course, people say one thing and then back out of it all the time; that's just show biz. But this arrangement meant so much more to her than any normal collaboration.

This pushed her call Andre Harris for the first time in twelve years. Her high school best friend that she was never able to replace. The guy that she fucked over so hard, that she still beat herself up over it every day. The guy that left an emptiness in her soul ever since the day he left, and the only thing that ever filled her soul back up was listening to his music.

As she got undressed to take a shower, she thought back to that day when she first saw his music video in that little New York coffee shop. She had just gotten done talking to Shiori who had pumped her up to call Beck. Though Tori had been in NY for about five months by herself at that point, she was able to breathe and step away from the drama she caused back in California.

She recalled Shiori hanging up on her so Tori could go call Beck. But before she could think too much about it, Andre came on TV. Like he was still there beside her, and not all the way down in Florida. She wanted to text him later to tell him how happy she was for him. It didn't take him long at all to get his name out there.

But then Beck surprised her by waiting for her outside of her apartment building, and she was in so much shock that it was hard for her to think clearly. He told her he landed the lead role in a show that would be filming right there in NYC. Tori told him they had to go out and celebrate, and she could show him around the city as well, but she had to drop off her bag and, of course, he had his bags he traveled with as well.

He didn't ask, and she didn't want to say anything, but he brought his bags up to her apartment and dropped them off in her bedroom like he would be staying with her. The apartment had two other bedrooms, which is where her roommates, Lana and Jake, stayed. They weren't home at the time, and it didn't take Beck long to press Tori against him and kiss her long and hard, their clothes quickly coming off.

While Beck was kissing down her body, Tori thought back to their first time on that ship in Japan and almost remembered how it felt. It was a mixture of emotions, and she chose, for some reason, to block it out.

Even in the present, Tori still chose to scrub the skin of her arms roughly rather than think back to that moment in Japan.

But what she did choose to think about was how after Beck and her were finished and he was rummaging through his bags for something fresh to wear for a night out in NY, Tori took out her phone and sent that congratulatory text to Andre. She wanted to Google his name and read up on what he'd accomplished so far, but she had to find something to wear as well.

Suddenly exhausted beyond belief, Tori turned off the water and got ready for bed as quickly as she could. She was thankful she was too tired to have any lingering thoughts for the early morning and passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow.