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"All aa-haaboard!" Sikowitz called out, leaning out from the middle step of the bus, waving the various students forwards toward the bus as Lane stood at the foot of the bus collecting permission slips.
If you had asked Tori what the bus for Hollywood Arts would look like, she would have guessed exactly the graffiti clad cousin to the Electric Mayhem's touring vehicle that she found herself slowly shuffling towards across the far end of the parking lot from the Asphalt Cafe on a sleepy Saturday morning. She tilted her coffee cup up, taking a quick sip to try to clear away some of the fog, finding herself falling into step next to Beck.
"Someone's a grumpy bunny," he chuckled at her.
Tori just gave him a sidelong glance and shook her head. "Is that why you and Jade are broken up this time? Did you call her a grumpy bunny? Cause I feel like she'd be entitled to kick your butt, if you had."
Beck shook his head, chuckling again, but stayed in step with her as they made their way up to Lane to hand in their permission slips and board the bus. He nodded briefly at each of them, taking each of their slips as they walked up the steps onto the bus and down the narrow aisle to find seats. Tori slid in to a two-seater, pushing up against the window, scooching over as Beck slid in next to her. She gave him a small smile, as he lifted one of his legs to rest it against the seat back and she in turn slid her leg over slightly to take advantage of the room under the seat he had just freed up.
"How far is it?" Tori asked Beck, who shrugged.
"Depends on traffic, really," he said. "Could be like two hours, maybe? But more probably more like three."
Tori groaned and rolled her head back. "I don't have nearly enough coffee for that."
"So take a nap," Beck shrugged.
"Maybe in a little bit," she said, then jiggled her coffee at him. "Not tired yet."
"Backstory game?" he asked her and she raised her eyebrows, nodding excitedly.
She wasn't sure who had first come up with it here at Hollywood Arts, but it seemed to be the most popular option among all the students for waiting in public or on road trips - anywhere that there might be other people around.
The last students slid into their seats. The engine rumbled to life and with a jerk as the breaks disengaged, the bus started moving forward out of the parking lot and onto the road, and Tori slid over towards the window, scanning out for a likely target. She could feel Beck's warmth as he tucked in tight behind her, looming over her shoulder, looking as well.
"That minivan," Tori pointed, at a blue minivan with a harried looking young woman inside driving. Beck hummed and nodded behind her.
The rules of the game were simple enough. One player chose someone, and the next had to figure out what their backstory was, who they were, why they were here. And then they rotated.
"She's too young to be the mom," Beck extemporized. "So she's the older sister. Babysitting her little siblings, back from college. Parents recently divorced and so she's moved back home to help take care of them and drive them to soccer practice on Saturday, while her inventor father works on his latest project, which is apparently a shrink ray, based on the miniature German Shepherd in her back seat."
"You watched Honey, I Shrunk The Kids last night, didn't you?" Tori turned around and asked him. She was rewarded with him blinking in surprise and pointed up at him. "Hah! It was on the classic movie channel. I caught the beginning but then fell asleep right after the machine exploded in sparklers."
He grumbled good naturedly, but awarded the point to her, and started scanning for his first target. They continued playing the game for the first hour or so, as Tori slowly drained her coffee cup, and the morning wore on. But eventually, her yawns became more and more frequent and she slowly found herself nodding off.
The next thing she realized, she was waking up, as the bus arrived at their destination. She had that faint moment of half wakefulness, where she was aware of her surroundings but still had her eyes shut and hadn't yet moved. She realized something wasn't quite right, that she wasn't exactly where she was supposed to be. It took her a moment to catalog her surroundings before she realized what was wrong.
She was sitting on the bus still, in her window seat, but her head wasn't tilted towards the window - it was tilted the other way, and was resting on Beck's shoulder. And her mouth was apparently open. And she had been drooling on him. For quite a while, if the wetness under her chin was any indication. She blushed slightly, and shifted herself back to fully sitting upright, pretending she was doing so while still asleep, jerking over towards the window, before she opened her eyes and feigned waking up for real.
"What did I miss?" She yawned, stretching her arms out, realizing that the sun was starting to hang low in the sky and it was clearly late afternoon.
Beck smirked at her, clearly not buying her act for a second, but letting her save face, and she blushed and ducked her head at his knowing grin. "We're pulling into the hotel entrance now. It's just around the corner from the concert hall. They're going to announce room assignments, then once we check in, we're free until the concert at 8 - we need to dress up and be in the lobby half an hour early to walk over and get seated. But otherwise, we're on our own? Bus in the morning at 10, and we can find dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning on our own if we want, or go with Sikowitz or Lane if we want to."
"Ohhhh," Tori shook her head. "Hard pass."
"Yeah, same," Beck nodded. "If you want to, we can grab dinner?"
"Yeah, that would be great," Tori nodded, feeling slightly guilty about falling asleep on his shoulder. She probably would have said yes anyway, since she didn't have any reason not to. "You have any idea what there is to eat around here?"
"I looked at a map when we got close-" Beck started to answer.
But, whatever he was about to say was cut off, by Sikowitz at the front of the bus, sounding a horn like a siren.
"Now hear this, children! Time for your room assignments! Pay close attention!" he announced.
Lane shook out his head, rubbing his ear from where it was clearly ringing, so close to the siren, but then started reciting names. "Abbey and Meyers! Andrews and Oliver!"
"Guess that's me. I'll text you the deets," Beck nodded at Tori, and started making his way to the front of the bus, meeting up with a boy she recognized from around campus, but none of her actual classes, fist bumping him as they made their way off the bus to head into the hotel.
Lane continued calling out names alphabetically, and Tori's eyebrows grew together, as he continued working his way through the alphabet. Surely, she must have a partner by now, right? What were the odds that she'd be the first name alphabetically with the surname Vega, all the way at the end of the alphabet? It wasn't like there were all that many letters that came after V, only four of them, starting with -
"Vega and West!"
W. Tori shut her eyes hard. Well, that explained that. She stood up, grabbing her bag, shouldering it, meeting Jade's eyes across the bus, and waving shyly. The other girl visibly breathed out her nostrils and Tori froze.
She and Jade had been on better terms lately, friends, almost. They had started hanging out, just the two of them, after she and Beck had broken up this last time, right at the end of summer, and Jade had been desperate for something, anything to do, to keep her mind off of him. Tori had almost thought she was like a cigarette addict, sometimes, desperate for the flare in the dark of one last hit of their relationship, even knowing it wasn't right, that she didn't actually want it. And so, she had turned to Tori as a distraction, to help her through the rough first few weeks when everything and everywhere reminded her of Beck.
And they had bonded, over the neon lights of arcades on the pier at night and whizzing down deserted mountain roads with the top down, the whistle of air in their ears, anytime Jade had texted her. Or, at least, Tori had thought they had bonded, because right now Jade was looking at her again like she had all too many times back when she had first started at Hollywood Arts, when Jade was still acting like she was a bomb about to detonate any time Tori so much as breathed wrong around.
Tori carefully made her way to the front of the bus, letting Jade take the lead, trying her best not to provoke her, not to undo the progress they had made.
---
Tori huffed as the door to the hotel room shut behind her. She'd had to struggle to keep up with Jade the entire way from the bus to here, and she was out of breath entirely.
Jade had stormed off from the bus to check in to the elevators to the room, moving with urgency, forcing Tori to run after her to keep up. And when they had gotten to the front desk, she'd snatched the folder with their key cards out of the clerk's hand, so Tori had to keep up with her, or be locked out of their room, and couldn't just find her later.
She truly was in a foul mood, even now, isolating herself that they were in the hotel room by locking herself in the bathroom, alone. Tori just collapsed onto one of the chairs, exhausted from having to keep up with Jade.
Finally, though, she roused herself up and went over to knock on the bathroom door.
"Jade?" she called through it. "Can we talk?"
"Ugh, take a hint, Tori," Jade called back.
"I'm not even sure what I did wrong!" Tori called back. "Can you at least tell me why you're mad at me so I can fix things? It felt like we were fine the last time we talked, yesterday!"
The door wrenched open under her, and Tori scrambled to adjust her weight so she wasn't falling now that the door she had been leaning on wasn't there anymore.
"You want to know what's wrong?" Jade told her, crossing her arms across her chest. "I don't like how friendly you and Beck were all morning on the bus. And now you two are getting dinner together? Are you making a move on him?"
"Oh, that's - am I making a move - Jade!" Tori threw her hands up in the air. "Of course I'm not making a move on Beck. And - wait, I thought you were over him?!"
"I am over him!" Jade shouted. "But that doesn't mean I want him going out with you!"
"Oh. My. G-" Tori cut herself off, grinding her teeth. "What can I do to convince you that I'm not actually after him, Jade?"
"Well, if you weren't dating him -" Jade started.
"Dating? Who said anything about dat- wait, is this cause we made plans to get dinner together today?" Tori asked. "You're unbelievable! Fine!"
She stormed back across the room to her bag, grabbing her pearPhone, and quickly unlocked it, pulling up her text thread with Beck.
"What are you doing?" Jade asked, following her in from the bathroom.
"Cancelling my dinner plans," Tori told her, before pressing send. "Which means you'd better be joining me for food instead."
"What? Eww," Jade responded instantly, without any vigor behind it. "No."
"Oh, yes, you are," Tori nodded, flipping her phone over to her maps to see what was nearby. "I'd say that little freak out counts as a Beck Intervention Distraction, which means you're officially mine for like the next hour. At least."
Jade groaned and threw her head back, but Tori knew her well enough by now to know that it was an act, that she was only playing up her displeasure to maintain her image. A smile tugged at her lips as she looked for a place for them to go to eat.
---
Tori slid into her side of the booth opposite Jade and glanced around the dimly lit Indian restaurant she had picked. There were bowled lanterns hanging from the ceiling directly over the various tables that gave the various settings more focused lighting that kept the tables well lit, but left the majority of the restaurant darker, giving it an overall vibe of dim privacy, even though it wasn't hard to see. Paper dressing screens were spaced throughout the dining area, subdividing the room into more isolated sections, further making it feel more private, even though it was a single open floor plan area.
"This is a cute little place," Tori said, her voice dropping to closer to a whisper than her natural speaking tone, to match the intimacy of the setting around them. She picked up the menu and started scanning through it. "Why don't we do Indian food more often?"
"Because Cat doesn't like trying new things, and Robbie and Beck both hate it," Jade answered, smirking, scanning her own menu. "It's too spicy for Beck and Robbie."
"He doesn't like spicy food?" Tori scrunched up her nose, putting her menu down momentarily to look at Jade for confirmation, who nodded.
"He really doesn't," she said, still focused on her menu. "Canadians. Why do you think I have such a grudge against them? They like syrup. And gravy. And fried things. Poutine. Like that's a real dish. But they're not big on actual spice up there."
"Such a pity," Tori shook her head, deciding on her order. "Life without spicy food is just ..."
She searched for the right metaphor. "It's like amplifiers at a concert? It just makes everything taste more intense, more of what it already is. It makes food better."
"I know what you mean," Jade nodded along. "It isn't so much its own taste. Just makes a meal better. Like ... like how you put fireworks over a baseball game or a parade or whatever, they just make a party better."
Tori nodded enthusiastically as the waitress returned to take their orders. "I'll have the, uhh, palak paneer tonight?"
"And I'll take the tikka masala," Jade said and turned to face Tori. "And naan?"
"Of course naan," Tori nodded immediately.
"Very good," the waitress asked. "And how spicy would you like those?"
Tori saw the gleam of challenge in Jade's eye and immediately grew worried. She quickly hissed across the table. "Jade! We have the concert tonight! We can't get into a full on spicy tolerance battle! We need to be presentable in like two hours!"
Jade furrowed her brow, clearly upset, but the waitress just chuckled and spoke up. "If you would like a suggestion? I can make them medium to mildly spicy, and then bring out some small tasting cups with all of our various spice levels for you to try a small bite of?"
This time, Tori met Jade's smirk with one of her own and nodded, not breaking eye contact as she directed her voice to the waitress. "That would be perfect, actually, thanks."
They stayed there, staring at each other, as she walked away, sparks flying between their eyes intensely, like kids running through a backyard holding sparklers.
It wasn't long before the waitress returned, setting the plate of steaming flatbread between them, flakes of garlic and cilantro topping it, and arrayed a set of dipping cups filled with various sauces carefully around them.
"Here," she said. "The chutney down there is the most mild, and then they roughly work their way up, and this murgh is around the hottest we do. I asked the chef to just let me grab a couple of small samples from what he currently has on the stoves, so it's a bit all over the place flavor wise, but-"
"It's perfect," Tori reassured her, and Jade nodded agreement. "Thanks for humoring us."
"Thanks," Jade agreed.
"If you need anything else, let me know!" the waitress chirped happily before moving on to check on her next table.
Tori reached for the first piece of naan, ripping off two small hunks, handing one to Jade, and offering her the cup of chutney to dip in first before proffering her dipped piece for a toast.
"To our senior year?" she suggested.
"To late night drives," Jade retorted, and tapped her piece of bread against Tori's.
"Mmm," Tori moaned. "This is really tasty. Just -"
"Just not spicy?" Jade countered and snorted, pushing the cup to the side as she pulled the next one to the center, and took her turn to tear them off a piece of naan each.
"I have a question for you," Jade asked her, as she gave the bread a quick swirl through the sauce before offering it to Tori. She took a tentative bite. "Uggh, this one pisses me off."
Tori quickly took her own bite, but couldn't taste anything offensive. "Why? It doesn't taste spicy to me."
"That's why," Jade nodded. "If you were Beck, he'd be sweating and fanning his face and saying how this was the hottest thing he'd ever had in his life, and we can't even taste the spice."
Tori threw her head back and laughed, and dipped her piece of naan in for another bite. "What was your question?"
"Oh, right," Jade nodded. "When I was in your room ages ago, I saw a picture you had tucked in your corkboard. It was you in some, like, camp, thing? With another girl? What was the story there?"
"Oh!" Tori blushed slightly. "That was this science summer camp I went to when I was in the third grade? We all stayed in cabins and it was half summer camp but with science mixed in. We went on hikes through the woods but then got told about different trees and insects. We swam in the lake and kayaked and learned about marine biology. Instead of arts and crafts we did science experiments. Anyway, I got this super huge crush on this cute guy named Casey, and we were chatting all summer long and he was totally my very first crush ... and then at the end of the summer I learned that Casey was actually a girl, too."
Tori had waited for Jade to take a sip of her water, and was rewarded with her snorting it, choking, as she started to laugh.
"Yeah, my streak of picking great guys really started early," Tori deadpanned. "Way before Steven and Ryder and any of the others was Casey. Fortunately, she had a sense of humor about it, she was a bit of a tomboy, at the time, and we became friends after? That's us in the photo. We still write to each other, we're pen pals, and we see each other like every few years or so."
"Of course Tori Vega has a pen pal," Jade rolled her eyes, but started quartering up the next slice of naan while Tori shuffled the next cup of dip into position for them.
"My turn to ask you a question," Tori stated, as she dipped her naan into the dark green sauce that smelled of tomatoes and fennel. "You and Beck have been broken up for a while now, and, you say it's for good. So. Do you think you're ready to get back out there? Start dating again? When do you think you will be?"
"Tired of playing Beck Intervention?" Jade snarked at her and Tori shook her head rapidly.
"That is not it," she denied. "I like hanging out with you. I don't need the excuse to do so, and you could date, get married, and I'd happily still hang out with you, just us. But I want to make sure that I'm not holding you back when you need a push, not pushing you when you aren't ready to put yourself out there yet."
"Umm," Jade thought for a second. "I think I might be ready to start dating again. Maybe. If the right guy comes along? I'm definitely not going looking just yet. It's not a priority for me at the moment to be in a relationship. But if the right person comes along, who I don't hate ..."
"You're open to it?" Tori offered, and Jade nodded at the phrasing. "Okay. So, don't send every cute guy your way, but if I see someone who is willing to drive all night in the hills with the top down and watch The Scissoring on repeat-"
"Yeah," Jade shrugged. "You could point him out to me."
"Okay," Tori nodded, with a small, tentative smile on her face. She reached out for the pile of naan shreds, dipping it into the next cup of almost radioactive looking yellowish sauce and took a bite. "I think this is the first one we've had that I would call properly spicy."
Jade took her own bite and nodded. "Yeah - you could definitely taste some spice on the last one, but it wasn't really spicy? But I would agree that this is spicy. Not burn your tongue off -"
"No-" Tori quickly agreed.
"But still spicy," Jade finished. She got a devilish smirk on her face and leaned forward slightly. "So, a 'properly spicy' question to match - now that we're roommates and I'm going to see anyway, what sort of undergarments does a prim and proper Southern belle like Miss Tori Vega prefer in her boudoir?"
"I do not talk like that!" Tori hissed, blushing bright red, and glancing around furtively, but no one was visible nearby in the restaurant's sectioned off booths. "I can't believe you're making me answer that question!"
"I can't believe you think I wouldn't ask that question with how long you've known me," Jade smirked at her.
Tori stared her down for a long moment, her blush unrelenting as her gaze, before she finally crumbled. "Fine. I like bright colors."
"Oh, that is so not what I meant and you know it," Jade waggled her finger back and forth. "Try again."
"Ugggh," Tori groaned. "Fine. Underwire bras."
She squirmed in her seat and dropped her voice to a whisper. "And thongs."
Jade's eyebrows flew up, shocked for once. "Well. I didn't expect that answer."
"I know everyone says they're uncomfortable, but," Tori shrugged. "I actually kind of think they are?"
She quickly pulled the next cup over before Jade could make any further comment and dipped her naan in, shoving it over towards Jade aggressively, thinking of her question as the spice burned her mouth slightly. She took a sip of water to clear her throat and then spoke up.
"Okay, here goes," she said. "Why didn't you and Beck work things out?"
Jade tilted her head, confused, as she ate her own piece of naan, and Tori elaborated.
"You two broke up and got back together so many times," Tori continued. "Why did you break things off for good this time? Why didn't you work them out? What was wrong? Why wasn't he the one? I mean, clearly he wasn't, or you would have worked it out a long, long time ago. Come on, you have to have learned something from your relationship about what you want from a partner, what you want in life, or all of this was meaningless. In the end, what did you learn you're looking to avoid next time?"
"Wow," Jade sat back in her chair, stunned. "You're not holding back, are you? How long have you been holding that rant in?"
"Ages," Tori groused. "Seems only fair after the question you just made me answer, though."
"Fair enough," Jade tapped her finger on the table, thinking. "I ... sometimes, I felt like I didn't have his attention when we were dating. He's just so ... disaffected? I don't let things bother me, either, but it's different. With me, I'm at least aware of them happening. Sometimes, with Beck, it felt like he wasn't even aware it was going on around him. Detached. I need someone who is attached to me, at least."
"That makes sense," Tori nodded. "It's good to have someone who cares about you."
"It wasn't that he didn't care about me," Jade shook her head, picking at the table edge. "I never doubted that. He definitely loved me. Just that he floated through life, unaffected by the world. The whole locker thing, for instance? Just got a transparent panel and was done with it. That's the difference between him and me. I don't let criticism bother me because I'm aware of my own value and skill. Beck doesn't let things bother him because he doesn't care if people see what's in his locker, or if cute girls invade his personal space. I saw this story once about a guy who got misidentified by the police as being a suspect in a crime and because he couldn't show where he was on a specific date, he was a suspect, until they cleared him. So he just took a picture of himself every day at the same time after that, for years, and years, and has been posting them online. That's the kind of guy Beck is. The sort to be falsely accused of a crime and decide the appropriate response is to share every detail of his life online."
Jade took a breath to think. "And I guess I found that sort of being unruffled attractive at first, but in the end, it made me insanely jealous when he would let girls into his personal space and not have any boundaries with anyone. That things I would tell him in confidence could wind up being shared in guy talk. So, that was the big issue for me? I need someone who, who sets boundaries and can make me not feel like I'm being overdemanding."
She looked up at Tori. "That answer your question?"
Tori couldn't bring herself to answer with words, but merely nodded, jerkily. Jade reached forward, picking up another piece of naan, dipping it into the murgh, which had cooled off slightly, and took a bite. Her eyes went wide and Tori felt her own go wide a moment later as she also felt the kick of the spice explode in her mouth.
"That, that's spicy," Jade breathed out, exhaling rapidly, quickly grabbing her glass of water to take a sip. "Okay, last question. We've talked about who I would date. But what's your type?"
Tori thought for a moment before answering. "Well, I want someone who challenges me. Pushes me to do better. I, I really care about music and acting and this business? And I want someone who pushes me, makes me better. Maybe that's fighting, sometimes, maybe it's daring me, maybe it's just pushing me outside my comfort zone. But that's the most important thing. Someone who gets me. Who wants me to succeed. And who wants me to push them, too. After that, the most important thing for me is probably ... someone who lets me be there for them. I want to be a comfort to my partner. I want to - I want to be there for them when times are rough. Help them. So, I need someone who is willing to open up and let me know when they need me. How I can help."
She sat and thought for a moment and nodded again. "And then, next would probably be that I really want someone who is loyal. Who actually wants me for me. Who isn't going to cheat, who is in the relationship because they want a real relationship, not because they see me as a means to an end. I learned from my mistakes too."
"And who knows you're actually a girl?" Jade asked with a twinkle in her eye, and Tori laughed.
"Yeah, and who knows I'm actually a girl, that one's important too," Tori agreed, and took a sip of her water. "Okay, this one was actually really spicy."
"Yeah, it was," Jade nodded. She then narrowed her eyes at Tori. "But I could totally do a whole dish of it."
"Jade! Basta ya!" Tori shook her head. "The question isn't whether we could eat a full meal of it or not, it's whether we should have before a formal concert we have to dress up for and then sit through! And the answer is no!"
Tori paused, while Jade looked chagrined, and their waitress approached with their main courses, before leaning forward. "And for the record, I totally could have done a whole dish at that spice level too."
---
Tori and Jade stumbled back into their hotel room, much happier than when they had first entered the double several hours earlier.
"Okay, we still have like two hours before we have to be ready in the lobby?" Tori checked her phone. "That's enough time for us both to take a quick shower if you want?"
She looked over at Jade, who shrugged. "Right, you haven't done one of these concerts before, have you?"
"No," Tori shook her head. "My first time."
"Relax, it's fun," Jade explained. "Rather than, like, museums and things, we get field trips to movie sets and philharmonic concerts. So we get to go to a hotel and dress up fancy and see a really nice concert. It's just like going to the movies, but with nice dresses. I've done a couple of these now, and I'm not as into the music side, so, it's not as awe inspiring for me anymore?"
Jade shrugged and then got a devilish smirk and pitched her voice into a falsetto. "But we can totally paint our nails and do our hair up in a chignon!"
"I don't talk like that!" Tori growled. "But ... that actually sounds kind of fun? If you're willing to go all out? I don't get to dress up too often, I mean, Trina has a, unique? Sense of style sometimes."
Jade chuckled but gestured to the bathroom. "Sure. You can have the first shower since you care more about doing things up."
Tori unzipped her suitcase and grabbed her shower caddy and a change of clothes and hurried into the bathroom.
"I'll be out as quick as I can, I promise," she said, turning around in the doorway, but Jade was relaxing on one of the queen sized hotel beds, already turning the TV on.
"Take your time," she waved at Tori. "They're showing the good Iron Chef on the Food Network today. Oooh, this is one of the seafood battles. I love watching them butcher their own eels."
Tori shuddered and hurriedly shut the bathroom door. She raced through, hoping that her enthusiasm would carry over to Jade and be infectious.
She slid her dress on, doing the zipper up as far as she could in the back, but only managed to get halfway. She tugged at it a few times, awkwardly hopping and twisting in front of the mirror before she gave up. She had known when she picked this dress out that she would need help with the zipper, but she had never expected it to be Jade she was sharing a room with. Finally giving up, she opened the door and stepped back out.
"Jade?" she asked, hesitantly, still half hidden by the doorway.
"My turn for the shower?" the other girl asked, eyes not flickering away from the television. "One second, they're in the presentation and I want to see who wins."
"No - I mean, yeah, the bathroom is all yours now, but actually I needed your help," Tori explained, her face bright red and not from the steam still filling the bathroom. "Could you, umm, zip me up?"
Jade's eyes darted over instantly from the dishes being tasted on the television screen to take in her appearance. It was a more formal dress than most of the ones that Tori owned, but she had felt it was perfect for a night out at an orchestral concert - it was a deep, midnight blue, but with a handful of lines of bright embroidery traced across the chest in intricate, winding patterns, spiraling up from the hem near her ankles around to her back and around again and again, racing each other until they separated to end near her wrists and neck. She had found it in a vintage shop, and was fairly covering and loose compared to her typical style - aside from a tight hem at her waist and neck and wrists, it was very loose, with a couple of slits along the arms and one on the center of her chest the only actual skin that was showing.
She had thought it was a good choice, but now, under Jade's critical, appraising eyes, she was reevaluating her decision.
"Oh - is it too much? Too frumpy? Not fancy enough?" Tori spat out, rapid fire, but Jade just shook her head.
"Damn, Vega," Jade whistled. "No, it's perfect. All the boys will be staring, you nailed the assignment."
She swiveled off of the bed, standing up and crossing the room over to Tori, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around. She reached down, and Tori felt her gather up the fabric of the dress in one hand, the material bunching around her chest, her other hand grabbing the zipper.
And then, before Tori realized just how far she had managed to get the zipper up her back, Jade's fingers were sliding upwards, tracing along her spine, the zipper carrying with them. Her breath hitched as they reached her bra, skating upwards across the strap, and Tori shivered under the feeling. Finally though, the torturous sensation was over, and Jade tucked the zipper into the collar of her dress.
"Oh - here's the scores -" Jade turned around back to face the television, pausing for a moment, and then groaned. "I hate it when the Iron Chef wins, so boring. Give me a good upset victory every time."
Clearly bored with the program and no longer interested in the post score interviews, she gathered up her own things and headed into the bathroom. Tori in turn took the opportunity to plug in her curling iron and start working on her hair.
Just before Jade shut the door, however, she turned around and called back out to Tori, leaving her blushing red once more. "Once I'm done, it can be your turn to zip my dress up."
---
The students slowly trickled into the lobby, clustering around Sikowitz and Lane. Aside from Tori and Jade, who had both gone all out for the occasion, only Sikowitz had actually matched their level of flair, wearing a full tuxedo - even Lane was only in a suit. Jade's prediction had come true, and both of the girls were definitely catching more than a few glances from the rest of the students, especially the boys.
They piled back onto the gaudily painted school bus in the parking lot, for the short hop over to the concert hall on the other side of the highway from the hotel. Beck caught Tori's eye as they milled around at the base of the stairs.
"You two look nice," Beck gave her an approving nod. "Missed you at lunch, though."
"Yeah, sorry," Tori flashed him an apologetic smile. "Jade actually wanted to grab some lunch together? So we wound up going out, the two of us?"
"No sweat," Beck shrugged it off. "I wound up hanging out with some of the guys. We all went out for burgers. Did you want to sit together at the concert?"
Tori nodded, feeling regretful about canceling on him earlier, wanting to make up for it.
---
Tori was sitting on the edge of her seat as the final song began playing. The first two pieces the symphony had performed had both been magnificent and filled the whole space with sound. Tori had gotten used to more pop and rock and R&B and rap music from concerts at Hollywood Arts, more modern styles, and this had been such a change of pace for her. Slower pacing, longer performances, with significantly more moving parts and instruments involved, a much greater degree of complexity than she was used to. It had really opened her eyes to just how vast the world of music could be.
On the other hand, they didn't have to dance and sing and play instruments at the same time, didn't have to memorize lines and staging for an entire two hour production in between musical numbers and do three costume changes backstage and still hit their timing.
There were challenges to all sorts of performances, she supposed, and she had chosen the kind that involved her heart racing each night with the frenetic pacing and constant pop pop pop of one climactic moment after another in rapid succession.
The final performance of the night, however, was one she'd never found particularly exciting, but now had her on the edge of her chair - Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Her hands were curling on the armrests and her back was fully off the seat as she leaned forward to more fully engulf herself in the music.
She felt as if she could feel the war itself, the long, bitter march as the tambourine rattled out cadence of the soldiers' footsteps, the troops rallying to battle, wheeling their formations around as the woodwinds played through their scales, and then the escalating clashes of violence as the brass section described out the report of gunfire tracing back and forth across the battlefield as both sides started firing at each other, and -
BOOM!
Tori jolted, throwing herself at Beck's arm, hugging him tightly, even as -
BOOM!
- her brain started to process what was happening and she realized -
BOOM!
- the entire reason they had come to this particular performance of the philharmonic orchestra was that -
BOOM!
- they were using live cannons for this performance of the 1812 Overture, which she had managed to forget, when she got so enraptured in the music.
BOOM!
Tori flinched, clutching onto Beck's arm for dear life, sure she had left bruises, she was squeezing his arm so tightly.
"Are you alright?" he leaned in, whispering gently. He hadn't made any move to dislodge her, however, or even indicate that he was in any pain or even discomfort, and for that, Tori mentally made a note that she would have to repay him somehow.
"Y-yeah," she nodded out weakly, after a moment. "I just got a bit startled. Was deep into the music and forgot the cannons were coming."
"There's another volley at the end," Beck reminded her. "After the bells? You going to be alright?"
"I should be fine," Tori said, giving him a small smile, and finally let go of his arm, forcing her hands to unclench from their white knuckle grip. "See?"
"Well," Beck shrugged. "You can hold my hand if you want."
Tori bit her lip, debating internally, but before she could decide, Beck casually reached out, and took her hand in his, giving it a squeeze. She rolled her eyes, but gave his hand a grateful squeeze back, glad to have someone by her side to help her.
---
Tori floated into the hotel room, feeling lighter than air. Good music had always resonated with her, and this concert had felt powerful and intense. But not the sort of intensity that she got from having Kesha perform in her living room, dancing to a thumping bass beat. It had been cathartic - she remembered something they had taught her last year in history, that Aristotle had said in the Poetics that true art was that which caused the catharsis, filled you so full of emotions that it then left you feeling hollow and purged and renewed afterwards, refreshed and cleansed.
She hadn't really understood the concept at the time, but the definition had stuck with her, and now she thought she did understand. She felt simultaneously like she was empty, and couldn't feel anything, disconnected from the world, floating above it, and yet, grounded and centered as well.
On the other hand, Jade seemed to be the exact opposite. She had been running hot and cold all day, and was irritable and in a foul mood once more, stomping into the room.
"What did you think of the concert, Jade?" Tori volunteered, offering up some conversational starter, hoping to draw her temporary roommate out. "It was a little scary. I'm glad I had Beck there next to me to hold my hand."
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, as Jade's nostrils flared and she immediately marched across the room, stomping more than stepping as she crowded in on Tori. Tori backed up, but Jade kept coming, until Tori was backed up towards the wall, but Jade reached up, grabbing her shoulder, shoving her back against the wall hard. Tori felt the impact jolt through her shoulder and down through her whole body.
"Ow - Jade, what the hell?" Tori furrowed her brows, but had never been one to back down from Jade, not even when they first met. She reached up, pushing Jade back, but the other girl had the leverage and waited for her to get off the wall before pushing her again, right back into the wall again, just as hard as the first time. "What is your damage?"
"What is my damage?" Jade growled. "My damage is you! It's you, always you! Ever since the day I met you! You came into my life and ever since you've been fucking it up! Literally every day! Rubbing Beck down after spilling coffee on him! Your whole stunt double adventure! Your not really a date, we swear, it's only an "opposite" date, date! You two disappearing for the whole night at Sikowitz's for that method acting exercise! You getting all cozy on each other on the bus this morning! And telling me I'm all crazy and you're not after him! And then you sit with him at the concert and oh, Jade, I'm so glad I had that brave fellow Beck to hold my hand through the scariest fusillade you ever did see! You've been setting this up the whole time! Just waiting for us to break up and so you could swoop in and make your move!"
She threw her hands up in frustration, and stomped off, pacing back and forth across the room. Tori just stood there, still pinned against the wall as tightly as when Jade's hand had been pressed hot against her shoulder through her dress. Before she could react, however, Jade stomped back over, her hands raised up in fists by her shoulders, before she exploded them outwards into splayed fingers, like fireworks in the night, her frustration clearly boiling over as she became lost for words, incoherent with rage.
"I can't believe I ever thought you were, were trying to be my friend," Jade finally managed to spit out, her words bitingly precise, ice cold in her anger. "When all this time you were just using me to get closer to Beck."
Tori was stunned, frozen into inaction, still trying to process, but eventually, when her lack of response prompted Jade into groaning into a high pitched yowl of frustration, she reacted instinctively.
"Are you kidding me?" Tori yelled, and pushed herself off the wall, and it was her turn to throw her hands up in frustration. "Of course I wanted to be your friend! Everything I did, all of it, everything I do, I do for you, Jade!"
She paced forward, and poked Jade in the chest repeatedly.
"God, you're - you're like a Prince Rupert's drop!" Tori said, as the metaphor struck her suddenly, as shattering as the glass she was thinking of.
"Wha-what?" Jade asked her, her anger blunted by her sudden confusion.
"You know, the glass - didn't you ever learn about these in science?" Tori tilted her head, not sure why Jade was confused.
"No? We barely have science, Tori!" Jade shrugged. "You and Cat got credit for a hamster wheel battery!"
"Well, I mean, I was really into - okay, so, before I got into Hollywood Arts, I was maybe considering a career in science?" Tori admitted. "I've always thought it would be fun to be a science communicator like Bill Nye or something - there really aren't that many women who do it, aside from like, Kari Byron, who was totally one of my idols before the whole showcase thing?"
"You were?" Jade furrowed her brow. "How did I never know this? Wait, what are these Prince Albert's things?"
"Prince Rupert's drops," Tori explained patiently, and pulled her phone out, searching for a video. "They're glass, they look like teardrops. They're so tough, they are bulletproof."
"Go on," Jade nodded approvingly.
"They're literally how we discovered bulletproof glass," Tori continued, turning her phone to show Jade the clip she had found, of a bullet shattering off of one. "But the thing is, all that strength ... it's all concentrated in the head. They have one weak point. That tail, if you clip it ... the entire thing shatters. Not just the tail, the head, all of it. It explodes, like, like fireworks, explodes into pieces."
She waited while the video played out, showing exactly what she had just described, and Jade flinched at the repeated slow motion replays.
"And that's what you remind me of," Tori said, patiently. "You, you're so calm, and unruffled, by anything anyone says, it just washes off of you, you're never bothered by any of it. I ... a lot of the time, I want to be more like you. More able to just ignore how rude and awful and terrible people can be, ignore the criticism of my performances and rude comments about my appearance and all of it. None of it ever upsets you! It's like you're invincible. But then you have just the one weakness, just the one thing that does, and it's Beck, and it's me, and it's me and Beck. And the slightest hint of us being together or friends or more than friends or him with a girl or anything, and you just explode! You go off like a firework! And Jade, you want the truth?"
Tori drew herself up to her full height, pulling her shoulders back, squaring them, forcing herself to look Jade square in the eye.
"Beck and I, we're friends," she told her. "And I'm glad. Because aside from Andre? I don't have any real guy friends. It's hard to have guy friends. They all want something more. Want to be friends with benefits. Think that wanting to hang out and watch Netflix with them means you want to chill with them. And I don't want that. Not with any of them. Not with Beck. Not with any guy."
She let out a deep breath.
"Because I don't want a guy," Tori breathed out, terrified of how Jade would react to her confession. "I don't want any guy. Not even a perfect one, like Beck. I want a girl."
"Oh," Jade's eyes went wide, as she suddenly realized what Tori was telling her. "I - fuck, Tori - I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"It's not your fault, Jade," Tori shrugged. "I hadn't told most people. Beck was actually one of the few people I had told."
"Why?" Jade asked her. "I mean, why Beck? I thought - I mean, I thought you and I were getting pretty close lately, after - why did you tell him, but not, not me?"
"Well," Tori drew in a deep breath. "Like I said, it was kind of nice having a guy friend who wasn't trying to pick me up. But also ... he's always been good with the girls, and, I was kind of hoping he could give me advice about trying to pick up this girl I have my eye on."
"Oh?" Jade asked her. "Who?"
"You know me," Tori gave her a bitter smile. "I guess I have a type. I got a thing for Prince Rupert's girl."
Jade's eyes grew even wider, and she stared at Tori, stunned.
---
Tori yawned as she raised her coffee cup up to take a sip, preparing to board the bus back to Hollywood Arts, back to school. She tilted her head from side to side, working out the cricks in her neck, trying to ease some of the muscle tension.
"Someone's a grumpy bunny," Beck chuckled from behind her, falling in next to her side. "Did you get any sleep last night? Jade being a rough roommate?"
"Seriously, stop trying to make that happen," Tori groaned, but nodded. "Yeah, we were up late, talking. We passed out around like, three or four in the morning I think? Just had a lot to talk about."
"Well, if you need a nap on the bus," Beck shrugged, grinning at her. "You can always sit next to me. Pillow Beck is always open for -"
"Yeahhhh," Jade shook her head, stepping up to join them, her own coffee cup dangling from her hand by her waist. "That's quite enough of that, Beck. If my girlfriend is going to be taking a nap on anyone's shoulder, it's going to be mine."
Jade lifted her coffee up, taking a sip, even as her hand snaked out, wrapping around Tori's waist and pulling her against her side, clearly staking her claim, as Beck just chuckled and laughed, offering a blushing Tori a high five.