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Sinjin groaned and Burf grunted as they each heaved a barrel twice the width of their lean torsos, unloading them from the back of Sinjin's uncle's white van.
"Are you sure," Burf panted with exertion, "that we can't ask anyone for help?" He dragged his barrel a few inches forward to make room for Sinjin to set his down.
"I told you," Sinjin replied, equally breathlessly, "we can't trust anyone with this top-secret operation." He wiped some sweat from his forehead and managed to lift his barrel a few inches off the ground. "Come on," he said through gritted teeth. "We have to get set up before anyone sees!"
Burf sighed and tilted his barrel to start rolling it along a bottom edge and quickly caught up to Sinjin.
Halfway to their destination, a pretty girl by the name of Meredith crossed their path. "Oh, hey guys," she said cheerfully.
Sinjin and Burf immediately stopped in their tracks, mouths agape at being addressed directly by an attractive female. They made noises somewhere in the ballpark of a greeting in response.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at the barrels.
"Nothing!" Sinjin practically shouted.
Unbothered, Meredith simply responded, "Okay! See you around!" And she skipped away.
Sinjin and Burf watched her go for a moment before Burf shook himself out of the daze. He smacked Sinjin on the shoulder. "What was that?!"
"We can't trust just anyone! Especially a face as pretty as that," Sinjin replied. "Let's get these to the chemistry lab. We got more to unload from the van."
"Isn't the chemistry lab one of the off-limit classrooms tonight?" Burf asked nervously, following Sinjin's lead once more.
"Yeah, but I'm tight with the janitor, so he gave me a copy of the master classroom key for tonight," Sinjin said with a grin. He unlocked the door with a quick flick of the key, and they breathed in a sigh of relief once they were alone in the silence and darkness of the empty classroom. "Alright, now remember, the one with blue tape is our experimental mixture, and the green tape is the control." He pointed to each of the marked barrels in turn. "Got it?"
Burf nodded. "But, how are we gonna get people to come here?"
"They're not gonna come here," Sinjin scoffed. "We're gonna take cups, fill them up, and then quietly distribute them to the masses. And we'll check back in every half hour to share our findings."
"Okay," Burf said, wearing a new mask of determination. "Sounds like a plan."
"Get the cups," Sinjin ordered.
The night was alive with the distant sound of music, laughter, and chatter as Tori and her friends finally arrived at the Hollywood Arts Senior Grad Night Kickback. A special semester kickback just for the graduating class, as one final sendoff to the next chapter of their lives.
Tori had been looking forward to the party ever since the morning announcements of the last day of school. There was something so fitting about spending one last night celebrating in the halls of the school before they said farewell to their high school days and their high school selves.
But Cat was the first of the six to verbalize her excitement. With a squeal, she began bouncing in place as she glanced at each of her friends. "I have so many autographs to collect!"
"They're not autographs, baby girl," Jade repeated with a sigh for the hundredth time since last week.
"Not yet," Cat retorted cheekily, as she had every time Jade tried to correct her before. "Everyone is gonna go off to do amazing things. I can just feel it! Can't you?"
"Yeah, can't you?" Andre said, bumping shoulders with Jade slightly.
Jade just rolled her eyes. She had relaxed considerably in recent months about unsolicited physical contact from her friends. She didn't hesitate as long to return fist bumps or high fives (and in rare cases for Tori, even hugs), and she didn't make as big of a deal if someone nudged her jokingly. She still shot a weak, playful glare at Andre for old times' sake. "There's bound to be a diamond in the rough somewhere," she admitted begrudgingly. Her eyes drifted towards Tori, then quickly snapped away.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing," Beck said in a deep, solemn, robotic voice.
Andre and Robbie burst out laughing.
"God, not you too," Jade muttered. The boys had finally shown Beck the original Star Wars trilogy, and now it was like having a second James around with all the jokes and references and nerdy little reenactments.
"I appreciate your faith in us," Tori said, pulling Cat into a side-hug. "How many more do you think you'll be able to fit in there?"
"As many as I can," Cat replied, flicking through the pages as if she hadn't been studying them with fondness ever since the yearbooks were distributed over a week ago. "Oh! Before I forget, did you bring yours?"
"Yes!" Tori reached into her purse and pulled out her own copy of the yearbook. "Thank you for the reminder text."
"Of course!" Cat chirped, delicately selecting a bright hot-pink glitter pen as her weapon of choice before opening the yearbook to its inside cover. For the next few minutes, Tori and Cat stayed hunched over their respective works of art, silently putting to paper heartfelt words of fond memories and love, before finishing the note off with a large signature. "There! Don't read it 'til later," Cat winked.
"I won't," Tori promised, just as Cat had made all the rest of them promise when she signed theirs.
"Done with the sap fest?" Jade quipped. Her arms were crossed, and evidently she was bored with the boys' antics but didn't want to intrude on Tori and Cat's concentration.
"Yeah, let's go!" Cat shouted, immediately hooking arms with Robbie and Tori and starting them towards the Asphalt Cafe proper.
"To our last night at Hollywood Arts!" Robbie shouted like a war cry. Together, they charged into the party, headed directly for the refreshments table.
Andre was predictably absorbed by the performers on the rooftop stage, and he waved to a couple of them, recognizing them as band members who had frequently backed him up throughout the years. He slowed to a stop so that he could fully immerse himself in the performance for a moment.
Beck elbowed Jade and fell into step next to her as she ambled more slowly than the rest of their friends, taking in the scene around them. "Are you as sad as the others to finally let go of this place?"
"You mean 'be free'?" Jade scoffed. "Yeah, I can't wait to get out of here."
"But you'll miss it though, right?"
"Don't try to trap me into the sentimental shit this early in the night, Oliver." Jade looked at Beck. "Will you miss it?"
"Of course," he replied without hesitation. His eyes drifted across the scene. "It was weird as hell, but it was also home."
"Yeah," Jade had to agree. "It sure was."
"Hey bro," Andre said, hurrying to tap Beck on his shoulder. "You're gonna wanna see this. I think Sinjin and Burf are up to something."
Beck's interest was piqued, but Jade's was not. "Go," she said, nodding at his silent request for permission. "I'll manage."
"We'll meet back at our usual table in an hour?"
"Sure."
Beck gave Jade a look, a lingering, knowing look, but Jade waved it off. "I'll be fine."
With a final wave, Beck followed Andre's lead to a shady corner of the parking lot.
Beck jogged to catch up to Andre, who was impatiently waving at him to catch up. They crouched together behind a small bush and silently watched Sinjin and Burf unload a large barrel each.
"Is this the last of them?" Burf asked, breathing hard.
"Yes," Sinjin sighed, slamming the van doors shut. He waited a beat to catch his breath before they both began to roll the barrels along their bottom edge toward the far hallway entrance.
Beck and Andre exchanged a glance before stepping out of their hiding spot and casually sidling up alongside the weary boys.
"Good evening, gentlemen," Andre greeted them cheerfully.
Sinjin and Burf stopped in their tracks, exchanging a panicked look. "Um, hi guys. We're not doing anything interesting."
"Oh really?" Beck said, with exaggerated confusion. "Then, uh," he patted the barrels. "What're these for?"
"Refreshments," Burf blurted out.
"Burf!"
"Sorry!"
"Refreshments?" Andre repeated, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "What kind are we talkin' about?"
"Sinj," Burf said quietly. "I think we can trust these guys. I mean, come on. Meredith, I understand. But these guys? They're cool, and popular. They'll understand."
Sinjin crossed his arms and leveled a look at each of them. Finally, he relented with a sigh. "Okay, help us get these to the chemistry lab, and we'll tell you everything."
Beck and Andre looked elated. "Deal!" they agreed immediately, making short work of the heavy lifting Sinjin and Burf were struggling with for the past twenty minutes.
As soon as she was alone, Jade's eyes subconsciously sought out Tori's figure. She shook her head at herself. She wasn't going to last the night at this rate. She was being hopelessly, painfully obvious about her crush to anyone looking too closely, and if she intended to keep it all bottled up inside until she was safely on the other coast in the fall, then she really needed to get a better handle on the definition of "pushing it down."
Still, Jade's feet dragged her closer to where Tori now stood alone, abandoned, and awkwardly people-watching the peers they had seen all their years together but never really got to know.
"Cat and Robbie ditched you already?" Jade drawled, pretending to peruse the measly selection of drinks. She selected a cup at random and assumed an identical pose to Tori, shoulder to shoulder with her, nearly touching.
Tori laughed. "Cat said she needed to maximize her signature collection, and Robbie tagged along. I think they headed toward that group of modeling students."
"Why didn't you join them?"
"I never really got to know them," Tori admitted. "It feels weird getting their yearbook signature if I don't even remember having a conversation with them."
"That's what old reliable is for. HAGS. Two seconds, done."
"It's so…" Tori wrinkled her nose. Jade tried not to think about how cute that expression was on that face. "Impersonal."
"You did spend two and half years calling most of them shruggers."
"So did you!" Tori retorted, giving Jade's shoulder a playful shove. "And the rest of the group. Except maybe Cat. She's the only one who probably has actually talked to everyone in our grade at least once."
"Leave it to Cat," Jade agreed quietly.
"What about you?" Tori rounded on Jade. "You ditched the boys already?"
Jade chuckled. It was adorable that Tori was so willing to give Jade the credit of leaving out of her own volition. "They ditched me actually. They mentioned Sinjin and Burf, and I'm not gonna let those two weirdos fuck up my last good memories of this place."
"Those boys will be boys," Tori sighed wistfully. Then, she suddenly laughed. "I just realized, we promised we would stick together once we got here, but we almost immediately split up into pairs. Just like—"
"—like that time we went to Mystic Mountain," Jade said along with Tori, smiling. "Yeah."
"You remembered!"
"Hard to forget the second time ever that Rex almost died. I'm just glad Robbie finally shelved that puppet for good."
"Oh sure," Tori rolled her eyes teasingly. "That was the highlight of that day."
"It was!" Jade insisted. "What, that wasn't the highlight for you?"
"No," Tori shook her head, smiling. "It wasn't."
"Then what?"
Tori tilted her head, milking the suspense for just a moment longer. And just when it seemed Jade was about to threaten the answer out of her, she finally spoke. "It was the first time we ever hung out together during summer. I was so convinced that I was really going to lose you as a friend that summer because we didn't talk for months. Well, not directly, anyway. And then you showed up that day at Mystic Mountain, and we were able to talk and joke like nothing happened. And we were okay." Tori paused before adding, "You helped me feel okay again."
Jade furrowed her brow. "That was after the whole Steven and Carly thing, right?"
Tori hesitated a little bit before nodding. "Yeah."
"Well, shit, Vega," Jade chuckled. "I didn't know you gave me so much credit."
"Yeah, well," Tori's voice grew soft as her gaze settled on Jade. "You know I always give credit where credit is due."
Tori was looking at her with that dangerously perceptive look in her eyes, her warm, coffee-brown eyes. And Jade felt her cheeks heat up. She pointedly looked away, clearing her throat and taking a sip of her drink. A few unbearably slow seconds later, Tori returned to people-watching instead of watching Jade.
As the two of them stood there side by side in silence, Burf jogged up to them, holding two very full plastic cups identical to the one Jade was holding. Except, he had just jogged from the far side of campus, it seemed, judging from how out of breath he was. And the cups were suspiciously much more filled than the stingy portions on the refreshments table.
"Hey girls," he panted, trying to catch his breath. "Would you like to sample something new and fresh?"
"I don't take mystery drinks from people I don't trust," Jade said curtly, keeping her hand curled around her existing cup.
But Tori had no such party-awareness, and she immediately reached toward Burf.
"Vega!" Jade exclaimed, catching Tori by the wrist and firmly shaking her head in disapproval. "You don't know what's in there."
"Oh come on, Jade, it's Burf. He wouldn't put something poisonous in a drink and offer it to his classmates." She turned to Burf. "Would you?"
"Nothing poisonous!" Burf said, shaking his head vehemently. "Cross my heart, I swear!" He did his best to cross his heart while still holding onto the very full cups.
"Have one with me, Jade! Let's celebrate!"
"Is it booze?" Jade questioned Burf after a moment of hesitation. The cups looked innocent enough, but she was still suspicious.
In Jade's moment of distraction, Tori swiped a cup out of Burf's hand, which was now shaking from the effort of trying to keep his noodle arms steady and outstretched. She pressed it into Jade's hand and took the other off of Burf too. She touched the rims of their cups together and cried out, "Cheers!" Then she got a whiff of whatever it was and wrinkled her face with disgust before hacking out a cough. "Whatever it is, it definitely has alcohol."
"No no no!" Burf said, waving his hands. "I swear, it doesn't have any alcohol in it! That's the magical part."
Tori eyed the drink with a healthy dose of suspicion now. She glanced up at Burf. "Are you sure?"
Jade sniffed the cup tentatively. "I don't smell any alcohol."
"Really?" Tori pushed her cup to Jade. "Smell mine."
Jade complied. Still nothing. "Nope."
"I'm trusting you," Tori said, keeping her eye on Jade.
Jade smirked. "Yeah, yeah. Big mistake." She pushed her cup to meet Tori's and muttered, "Cheers," before taking a swig of whatever mystery concoction the cup contained.
It… surprisingly didn't taste bad. A little tasteless, with perhaps a faint hint of an indistinct fruit. But no alcohol, as Burf promised.
Apparently, Tori didn't share the same experience.
"Ugh," Tori blanched. Her entire face was screwed up with disgust as she tried to shake the taste off her tongue. "Yeah, there's definitely booze in there."
"I didn't taste a thing."
"Try it!" Tori insisted, once again practically shoving her cup into Jade's face.
With great hesitation, Jade took a sip from the opposite side of where she had watched Tori's lips meet the rim.
She smacked her lips, studying the flavor, but it tasted mostly the same. "Yeah, still nothing. Maybe you're imagining things, Vega."
"Am not!" Tori protested.
But Burf was muttering to himself, "Subject 1 was given the green tape, and Subject 2 was given the blue tape. Results… mixed. Effects to be studied further…"
"What are you muttering about?" Jade pinned Burf with a glare. She glanced between the two cups. Both bore a small strip of blue tape.
"Nothing!" he squeaked. "Thank you both for participating!" And he scurried off before Jade could get more answers from him.
"Participating in what?" Tori wondered aloud, taking another sip of the drink, despite the supposedly horrible and obvious taste of alcohol.
"Fuck if I know," Jade sighed. She glanced at Tori. "You don't have to drink it if you don't want to."
"I know," Tori shrugged. "I'm drinking it because I want to drink it," she said with a smirk, imitating a tone learned long ago from Jade herself. She winked at Jade and gulped down another mouthful.
"That makes one of us," Jade muttered, trying to hide her slight blush behind a sip of her own mystery drink. It tasted bland, but there was a distant, faint hint of… something. Like a super-watered-down LaCroix. Or an extremely diluted White Claw.
"You think this is what a college party looks like?" Tori asked with way too much earnestness.
Jade glanced at Tori, surprised and a little confused. "Why, is Sweet Sally Peaches scheming to attend a rager?"
Tori laughed. "No! It's just… I don't know where I'll be this time next year." She threw a sidelong glance at Jade. "But I bet you'll be partying it up."
"You think so little of me, Vega," Jade scoffed with mild offense. "I'll have you know, I take my education very seriously."
"I know," Tori said simply, with that quiet, unshakable confidence of hers. She held Jade's gaze for a moment before bursting into a fit of giggles. "But I know you also know how to have fun."
"You know it," Jade muttered, escaping eye contact with a sip of her drink once more. It was disappearing alarmingly fast, and she was finally starting to feel the start of a slight buzz. She made the mistake of glancing at Tori once more, and their eyes met magnetically, like two opposite poles snapping together.
Tori was biting the rim of her cup slightly, barely masking an unquenchable smile. Jade tried not to trace the shape of her lips with her eyes, and then found her own mouth growing ridiculously dry.
"Take a picture, Vega," Jade growled, tearing her eyes away. She fixed her stare to a pillar in the distance. "It'll last longer."
"Maybe I will."
"You're insufferable."
"But you like me."
Jade swallowed hard before muttering, "I'm not your friend."
Tori burst out laughing. "Whatever you say, Jade."
Cat's loud, musical laugh lilted high above the gradually growing noise of the party. Both girls snapped their heads towards the sound, but Jade straightened up at attention.
Across the way, the petite redhead was joyously laughing and jumping into the trembling arms of an unsteady Robbie who looked nervous about carrying any amount of weight that wasn't his own. At the same time, a resounding cheer erupted to the left, and a crowd of bodies parted to reveal that Beck and Andre breaking apart from a rather intimate distance.
Both Andre and Beck were shouting something indecipherable at this distance, even though their voices carried easily. Andre lifted Beck by the waist and spun him around in a full rotation before setting him down again.
Jade glanced between Cat's obviously-tipsy form and whatever chaos Beck and Andre were stirring up, and the choice was clear in an instant. Without a word to Tori, she headed off to make sure Cat was okay. She much preferred the simple familiarity of taking care of a drunk Cat than getting involved in anything remotely related to Beck and the concept of romance. The two of them may have found their equilibrium as good friends, but the rest of the school was still obsessed about their abrupt breakup several months ago.
Tori started after Jade, but stopped herself after just a few steps. She couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't feeling 100% herself anymore. The world around her was moving like it underwater, and even her body moved slower than she wanted it to, because her thoughts were racing at twice the speed they usually do, and mostly incoherently at that.
Tori had gotten drunk for the first time in her life just the other week, when Cat suggested a small sleepover party between just the girls. They had, at Jade's insistence, broken into Cat's brother's alcohol stash and passed around a bottle of vodka a couple of times, sharing secrets and stories and dreams before Cat promptly fell asleep.
The sensations from that night were scarily similar to what Tori was feeling right now, and if that was any indication… then Tori knew she couldn't trust herself around Jade at the moment. After all, in the quiet of Cat's bedroom and vodka on her lips, Tori had leaned in close, and… almost… kissed… Jade.
Almost.
Regardless of what Burf said about the drink having zero alcohol in it, Tori needed to keep her distance, so she kept her feet firmly rooted to the spot instead of following after Jade.
Even though she really wanted to.
With slow, deliberate movements, she focused on mixing an entire juice cup from the refreshments table into her cup of experimental whatever, then turned around to walk over to the commotion that was surrounding Beck and Andre a short distance away.
"Burf!" Sinjin cried out, storming toward his partner in crime. "You mixed up the barrels!"
"What? No, no I didn't." He held up the two cups he was currently trying to pawn off to Braden and his girlfriend, but with Sinjin's sudden stormy appearance, the two of them quietly edged away. "Look, blue tape," he held up the cup in his right, "and green tape." He held up the cup in his left. "Just like you told me."
"Those are both blue tape!"
Burf blinked. He stared down at the cups and their colored tape markers. "They are?"
"Are you color-blind? You couldn't tell them apart this whole time?"
"Well, they've always looked similar to me. I… I didn't think…"
Sinjin sighed. "How many of those cups have you handed out?"
"Maybe fifty?"
Sinjin gaped wordlessly at Burf before turning around wildly to scan their peers. More than a few of them were starting to have alarmingly loud laughs and raised voices, as if they were at a concert the rest of their peers weren't experiencing. "Great." He raised his arms and let them fall to his sides, gesturing toward their clearly inebriated classmates. "We've unleashed a beast."
Burf chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment before extending a cup toward Sinjin. "At least we can enjoy our hard work?" He grinned hopefully.
Sinjin felt his anger slowly subside. Burf was always just trying to help him feel better. He broke into a hapless smile. "Sure. Why not." He took the cup, clinked rims with Burf, and chugged half of the contents. "Who cares if the experiment is ruined?!" he yelled out to no one in particular. "Let's party!!!"
He held his hand out to his partner in crime, and Burf took it happily.
"So you're not gay?" a guy was asking Andre as Tori approached the conversation. "You just… you just kissed the hottest guy on campus, and you didn't feel anything?"
"He's my best friend, and I love 'im," Andre nodded. "But I don't feel that kind of feeling. And I realized I haven't for anyone I've dated."
"Even Tori?" another person asked, pointing at her.
"What about me?"
"You two were so cute together!" a third bystander added, gulping from a cup marked with blue tape.
"I can kiss my friends on the lips and feel nothing. It's just how I am," Andre shrugged. "Right Tori?"
Tori smiled, remembering the long conversation she had shared with Andre about discovering the aromantic spectrum. "We all love differently," she agreed, slapping a hand to Andre's shoulder. "And you finally found a feeling that fits you."
"Look who decided to join us!" Beck's voice cried out from behind her. "Tori!"
There was a chorus of groans mixed with whistles and indistinguishable shouts that maybe sounded a little angry.
"Tori, I'd like to introduce you to… the Beck-ettes!" he explained, wrapping an arm over her shoulder and turning her around. He gestured to the crowd of girls around him, and as Tori scanned their faces, she realized she recognized most of them. Not by name, but from all the times they had peeked around hallway corners, swooning at Beck from a distance, and throwing either her or Jade dirty looks. "And I was just explaining to them," he hiccuped briefly, "that I am no longer exclusively theirs. And I haven't been, for a while now. But you, my good good friend," he booped Tori on the nose, "already knew that, didn't you."
One blonde girl Tori definitely didn't remember the name of sighed dramatically and turned to her sisterly companions on either side of her. "I guess this marks the final gathering of the Beck-ettes." Several disappointed sighs sounded across the crowd.
"Nice to meet you all. Officially." Tori waved sheepishly to the crowd. She tugged on Beck's arm and steered him a few paces away. She grabbed Andre as well, yanking him from a conversation he was clearly having trouble following. "Hey guys, you didn't happen to drink anything that Burf gave you… did you?"
"Burf?" Beck lit up with a bright smile again. "No, Burf didn't give me anything. Sinjin did! Sinjin is a real one. Did you know he's really into drag races? Like almost as much as me."
"What did Sinjin give you?" Tori's eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Shhhh!" Beck shushed her loudly. "It's a secret," he stage-whispered before giggling loudly.
Andre giggled along with him before tapping his chin and thinking aloud, "I dunno, should we tell her? She's our friend, and she's not gonna tell anyone, right, chica?"
"Sure, I won't tell anyone," Tori said, undecided if that was a white lie or not yet.
Andre beckoned Tori to come closer, and Beck huddled up with them. "Okay, you can't tell anyone, okay? It'll ruin the experiment."
"What experiment?"
"Sinjin and Burf," Beck stifled a laugh. "Sinjin and Burf are trying to make an ultra-effective, ultra-low alcohol… alcohol!"
"Isn't that cool?!" Andre exclaimed.
"That's the big secret? Sinjin just yelled about an experiment being ruined." Tori found herself grinning at the silliness of it all. "Are you talking about that secret experiment?"
Beck and Andre looked at each other and burst into laughter. "I guess the cat's out of the bag!" Beck wheezed while Andre bent over double.
Tori watched her friends with equal parts amusement and concern. "Wait, how much have you guys had?"
"Not a lot," Beck said once he caught his breath. He smiled slyly at Andre, who mimicked the expression.
"Okay, maybe a little a lot…" Andre conceded.
"Like one…"
"Or two… cups…"
"More than recommended…"
"Two cups?" Tori gaped at the two boys. No wonder they were in this state.
"So, like, three," Andre grinned guiltily. "Each."
"Each?!" Tori couldn't fathom what their bodies were going through if she couldn't even handle finishing one cup. "Are you guys okay?"
"The world is just a fun tilt-a-whirl," Beck sighed with a dreamy smile on his face, "but I'm havin' a great time!"
"The best time," Andre agreed, hanging off of Beck with one arm wrapped around his best friend's shoulder. "Oh hey! Look who's joining the party!" Andre pointed, and before Tori could blink, a red-velvet-cupcake-colored blur sped into Tori, pushing her back several steps from sheer momentum.
"Tori!" Cat squealed in her ear.
With a slight ringing in her ear, Tori patted Cat's back and surrendered to the tight hug. She looked past Cat to find she had towed a very confused Robbie and a disgruntled Jade in her wake. Cat soon let Tori go in favor of trapping Beck and Andre in their own tight hugs.
When Cat reached Andre however, Andre said, "Hey Little Red, help me prove something?"
"Kay kay, whattie?"
"That I can kiss my friends just because."
"Oh, that's it?" Cat leaned up and pressed a chaste kiss to Andre's lips and he reciprocated easily. It was over in moments.
"See? No romantic feelings required. I love this new feeling! I love my friends, and I can kiss them on the lips!"
Tori then noticed Beck looking for someone. His gaze swept past Tori like she wasn't even there, and a part of her was relieved that he wasn't going to rope her into this bizarre display of platonic affection. She had had quite enough of that kind of speculation throughout her years at Hollywood Arts. Beck's eyes seemed to settle instead on an unsuspecting Robbie. Beck strode confidently over to the lean boy and wrapped one hand behind behind Robbie's head while the other snaked around his waist, pulling them flush together.
Robbie went stock-still, frozen in shock and perhaps something else. His eyes were wide open, and he didn't move a muscle. Even after Beck pulled away, grinning slightly at what he had just done. But when Robbie still didn't react several seconds later, his grin began to fade. With one desperate glance between Beck and the crowd of their peers, Robbie took off in a sprint towards the main hallway of the school.
Beck followed just a few seconds later.
"Way to go," Jade muttered just loud enough for Beck to hear as he brushed past her.
Beck shot her a look, only barely slowing in his pace long enough to make sure Jade received it, before hurrying after Robbie.
In the midst of that display, Cat had apparently returned to her dogged mission of collecting signatures of everyone in their graduating class in her trusty yearbook. She was passing around the thick tome, along with her arsenal of glitter pens, to every member of Beck's fan club she could reach.
Tori sidled back up to Jade's side, now that their friends had all dispersed themselves across the party once more. "Did you know about them?" Tori asked, gesturing to where the crowd of "Beck-ettes" were threatening to swallow Cat's figure whole.
"Beck's Bitches?" Jade scoffed. "Yeah, I knew. What about them?"
"That's not what they're called," Tori insisted, swatting Jade's shoulder lightly. "They call themselves the 'Beck-ettes.'"
"And why do you care so much about them?"
"I don't," Tori admitted. "But it's mean to call something by the wrong name."
"I do it all the time to you. You've never corrected me."
"Well, technically you're still right. Vega is my last name. But you can't just go around calling other girls… the b-word."
Jade laughed. "I'll get you to curse someday, Vega."
Tori huffed but didn't argue.
"You're still drinking that shit?" Jade spied the cup in Tori's hand.
Tori shrugged. "I mixed it with some juice. It tastes a little better. Wanna try?"
"No," Jade said, jerking out of reach. "But, thanks for the offer." She hurriedly cleared her throat and squinted at the distance. "Hey, is that… Cat's roommate?"
"Sam?" Tori's heart leapt to her throat. Ever since she found out that Cat was roommates with the former iCarly co-host, Tori had been eagerly awaiting a second chance at meeting her. It hardly felt fair that their first interaction revolved around finding out that Tori and Carly were dating the same Steven.
"Yeah," Jade said as the figure drew nearer, cutting through the crowd like she was parting the Red Sea.
"Huh," Tori mused, "I wonder why she's here."
Tori's question was soon answered by the sight of Sam making a direct beeline to the heart of the crowd. To Cat.
Jade looked at Tori, her pierced eyebrow raised slightly. "You were saying?"
"I— well, I didn't know," Tori blustered. "Wait, did you?"
Jade shrugged. "I had a hunch." At Tori's persistent but silent stare, Jade caved. "Okay, remember the time Robbie got hospitalized in Venice Beach and was out of commission for a couple days? There were a few more things that happened that week…"
The crowd parted around Cat with gasps and whispers, and Cat looked over her shoulder to see what that was all about. Her eyes fell upon her roommate, Sam Puckett. The latest girl to give Cat these little chest flutters and butterflies in her stomach.
"Sam!" she cried out, jumping into the strong blonde's sturdy arms. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she was gently set back down.
"Because you're here, dummy," Sam replied easily.
"But you said it was going to be a stupid boring party. Oh, if I had known, I would've filled out the form and submitted it to the office—"
"Don't sweat it, kitty Cat," Sam assured her. "If they really wanna kick me out of the party, let them try."
Cat grinned. "That's my Sammy," she said, pinching Sam's cheek lightly.
Sam peeked past Cat's shoulder. "You busy right now? I wanted to talk."
"Like… serious talk or just talk?"
"Kinda both." Sam finally unwound one of her arms that was still encircling Cat's waist snugly to reach behind her and accept the yearbook that was patiently being offered back to Cat. "Let's find somewhere a little quieter, hm?"
"Kay kay," Cat chirped happily, allowing herself to be tugged by the wrist in Sam's firm grip. Through the crowd of onlookers and toward a further, quieter corner of campus.
"And that's how Robbie ended up with a fractured tibia and all those bite marks," Jade concluded with a final sip of her drink from Burf. They had migrated a safe distance away from the screeching Beck-ettes, who had all gotten their hands on Burf and Sinjin's experimental drink.
"Wow," Tori breathed with wonder. "I can't believe all that happened."
"Well, you never asked," Jade remarked.
"I guess so," Tori mused, watching Andre in the distance be led away by yet another ridiculously good-looking student Tori didn't recognize. Wow, she really didn't interact with a lot of her peers, she was realizing.
"I guess they have a lot to talk about though," Jade said, tilting her head up to observe the starry night sky above them.
"What do you mean?"
"With Cat off to college, Sam probably has to find a new roommate, or figure out a new place to live. Not to mention their babysitting business. I doubt Puckett can keep that up by herself."
Tori hummed in thought. "We still have the summer, right?"
"I guess. But summer always ends a little faster than you're expecting. The school year starts up, things get busy… before you know it, a year passes you by."
Tori fell quiet.
Jade noticed and elbowed Tori to break her out of her thoughts. "Share with the class?"
Tori shook her head. "Life after high school just feels so big. I used to be so sure about becoming a pop star and super famous and signing onto a huge record label, but ever since the PMAs… and Mason Thornesmith… and Neutronium Records…"
Jade nodded slowly.
"But I still love singing. And I'd love to keep singing. I just don't know if I want to go to a university for it anymore." Tori rounded a sad smile on Jade. "I'm jealous of you, you know. Of all our friends."
"Why?"
"Everyone has a plan after tonight. You're all going off to college to follow your dreams. You're moving away to study film and directing. Beck is traveling the world before settling down to become a serious actor. Andre already has two offers from different record labels. Meanwhile… I don't even know if I want to go to college."
"Say you don't. What would you do instead?"
Tori shrugged. "Maybe go on a roadtrip for a while. Beck has his whole gap year travel-abroad plan. But, I don't know. I kind of like the idea of just… wandering for a while. Maybe a month or so. Traveling, but without a set plan."
"That sounds like fun," Jade nodded. "You could knock a few things off your bucket list. Visit some monuments. Live out of a van or an RV. Just you and the open road."
"Would be fun to do a road trip with the whole group. I don't like traveling alone."
"I'm down," Jade said.
Tori looked at Jade as if searching for any sign of deceit. Apparently she was surprised to find that Jade was being genuine in her offer. "Really?"
"Yeah," Jade shrugged. "Road trips can be fun. Especially with a group like ours. I mean, at least it would be memorable."
"Yeah," Tori agreed. "I guess it would." She stayed quiet for a moment. "I meant what I said earlier. I really believe you're all going to do amazing things. You're gonna go on to be the new Hollywood Queen of Horror. And Beck is gonna be a super-famous movie star. And Andre is gonna be making amazing music. And… and…"
"And you're gonna do what you do best," Jade supplied quietly as Tori trailed off into silence. "You're gonna follow your heart, wherever it takes you."
Tori blinked her watery eyes at Jade, too stunned to speak for a long minute.
Jade stepped half a pace closer to Tori and bumped shoulders with her. "Besides, we still got all summer before we all go off and do our own thing. It's not like we'll all disappear overnight."
"Yeah," Tori nodded and squared her shoulders with a deep breath. "I guess you're right."
"I usually am."
Tori snorted and nudged Jade off-balance, and Jade scoffed with mock-offense. They burst into laughter together.
And just like that, their eyes met, snapping together like oppositely-charged poles following their natural course.
Just like before, Jade broke eye contact first. (With a great amount of effort and reluctance.) She sucked in a deep breath and looked around them. "God I'm bored," she declared. "The least they could've done is set out some games or something."
"How about signing each others' yearbooks?"Tori suggested.
"I don't—"
"Oh please, Jade, I saw it in the backseat of your car."
Jade narrowed her eyes, almost into a glare, before relenting, "Fine. But only because I got nothing better to do." She fished out her keys from her pocket. "Wait here."
"Whatever you say," Tori said softly, biting the rim of her cup again. With those soft, too-perceptive, coffee-brown eyes.
Jade hurried to her car, cursing the reactions her body was having whenever Tori looked at her like that.
By the time Jade returned, Tori's hands were free of the mystery drink, and her cheeks looked noticeably flusher than before. Since Tori still looked steady on her feet, Jade pushed the small seed of concern to the side and held up her own copy of the yearbook. "Here, happy?"
"Always," Tori said simply. "Do you have a pen? What am I talking about," Tori shook her head at herself before Jade could even open her mouth to respond. "Of course you do."
"And you know this how?"
"Please," Tori leveled a knowing look at Jade. "Do you know the number of times I had to borrow a pen from you because I forgot mine? You always have a pen on you."
"Not my problem you're so unprepared, Vega."
"I guess I'm just lucky I have you then," Tori shrugged, grinning.
Jade couldn't think of a response before Tori swapped the books in their hands and hunched over the table to begin pouring her earnest words onto Jade's mostly empty yearbook cover pages. It took Jade a second, but she too assumed a similar pose, flipping through a couple pages to find a sufficient blank spot to make her mark. "Jesus, Vega. When did you get all of these?"
"Oh, most of those are from my R&B vocals class. We all finished the final an hour early, so Mr. Warke let us sign yearbooks for the rest of the period."
Jade scanned through several of them, noting with surprise the varied lengths and personalized messages in each. Some even spelled out "have a great summer!" just to take up some extra room. Some were straight-up illegible. Jade hesitated with her pen point hovering over the page for a moment as she studied Tori, who seemed neck-deep in writing out an entire essay.
What would she even write? What could she even write? Anything that sounded safely platonic came off as trite and cliched. Anything more personalized than that ran the risk of confessing something she wasn't ready to put into words, and certainly not to paper.
A song lyric, Jade finally decided. Songs are good. Tori likes songs. She'd appreciate a memory of a song as a symbol of the good times we shared.
But Jade's brain was stuck on the image of a watery-eyed Tori looking so scared and vulnerable at the though of the unknown future.
Jade sighed and rubbed her eyes with her free hand.
"Writer's block?" Tori asked, glancing over at the untouched page in front of Jade.
"Eyes on your own paper, Vega," Jade grumbled irritably, forcing her focus back to the blank spot she chose. She touched the pen point to paper and allowed her hand to form the words: I want to let you know that it's all okay.
Jade signed her name underneath the one simple sentence with a flourish and snapped the book shut just as Tori capped her own pen.
"All done?" she asked brightly.
"Yeah," Jade said, spying the entire quarter of a page now covered in Tori's neat, tight handwriting. "Jesus, Vega. I'm going off to college, not to war."
Tori laughed. "There's something so quaint and intimate about handwritten letters, don't you think?" She blew gently on the ink before closing the book and handing it back to Jade.
Tori immediately flipped hers open.
"Wait—" Jade blurted out just a second too late.
Tori's eyes scanned over Jade's neat handwriting, and Jade could almost trace the buffering thoughts on her face. Tori blinked once, slowly, then lifted her head to look at Jade. "Um, Jade?"
Jade looked away, desperate to avoid any and all eye contact. She was honestly considering just bolting right then and there. Anywhere to escape that scrutinizing look in Tori's eyes. But her traitorous feet were rooted to the spot. She was stuck in Tori's orbit. Just like always.
"Jade," Tori tried again. "What does this mean?"
"You… you weren't supposed to read that until later."
"But I did, so, can you please explain?"
"I'm not—" Jade forced herself to exhale. "I'm not gonna talk about it here. Not now." Jade turned to leave, but was yanked back by a hand on her wrist.
"Jade."
"Vega." Her voice was steady, but her darting eyes betrayed her. They glanced around from classmate to classmate, and Jade realized belatedly that she should shake off Tori's grip before anyone saw and drew conclusions. After all, both of them had been regular targets of the rumor mills during much of their time in high school.
Tori seemed to notice. Whether it was Jade's tense frame, or her furtive glances at their surroundings, or perhaps the tightness of Jade's clenched jaw. Whatever it was, she seemed to mysteriously pick up on Jade's emotional state and automatically moved to balance it out. The grip on Jade's wrist loosened slightly, no longer demanding her to stay but rather suggesting her follow.
Tori led her to the main hallway, straight past the doors and all the way down to the end of the hall. Directly into the janitor's closet.
They always seemed to end up here.
Somehow, this cramped little space, with its cleaning chemicals and sterile plastic-wrapped supplies, had become their little private confessional booth. A place where they could speak about things they dared not share outside, in the real world, in front of other people. A place where Jade had dared to be vulnerable, not once or twice, but more times than she cared to admit. And a stupidly large number of those times had been in front of Tori fucking Vega.
It was no surprise then that Tori threw on the lock and rested her back against the door. A silent declaration that she was both patient enough to wait until Jade was ready to speak, and also unyielding in letting Jade run away for the thousandth time.
Jade wrapped her arms around her midsection and held herself tightly. "So… I guess… you figured it out, huh?"
"Figured what out, Jade?" Tori asked carefully.
"What my note meant."
"Which is…?"
"Are you really gonna make me say it, Vega?"
"Yeah, Jade. I'd like to hear you say it."
Jade heaved a sigh. "I like you, goddamnit, alright? I like you. I know I shouldn't, and I know it doesn't make any fucking sense — believe me, I know. But I can't help it. Every time I've pushed you away, you just kept coming right back. Every time I wanted to hate you, I just… couldn't. And I know I don't have any right to have feelings for you after everything I did, but fuck, Tori," Jade exhaled, dropping her voice into a timid whisper. "I can't stop thinking about you. I never could."
Of all the reactions Jade was expecting, she didn't expect Tori's arms to suddenly wrap around her. She was expecting a scoff. Silence perhaps. Disbelief, maybe. But not a hug. Despite her shock, Jade's arms wound easily around Tori's frame, returning the embrace and melting a little into it.
"I hoped," Tori admitted, her lips brushing against Jade's neck and her breath ghosting over Jade's skin in a way that sent shivers up her spine. "I hoped, but I didn't expect it to actually be true."
"You… you did?"
Tori pulled away just far enough to meet Jade's eyes fully. "Duh, of course," she beamed. "Because I like you too."
"You what?"
"Why do you think I tried so hard to be your friend?" Tori laughed.
Jade blinked, dumbfounded and speechless.
Tori's hands slid down Jade's arms so that their fingers could meet and tangle together. It was almost too easy and natural to link them together. "Jade, are you okay?" she asked after Jade hadn't spoken for almost a full minute.
"You… like me?"
"I thought I was being pretty obvious about it. You really didn't know?"
Jade shook her head, still struggling to form any coherent thought at all.
Tori's smile faded into a bashful expression. "Jade," she said quietly. "Can I… kiss you?"
Jade was pretty sure she didn't actually say a word in any known human language. She just made some sort of strangled noise of confirmation. Maybe the nod helped clarify things.
One heartbeat later, Tori was leaning in. Another heartbeat later, Jade's eyes were closed. Jade lost count after that, because their lips were pressed together and time lost all meaning.
Kissing Tori was an indescribable experience. There wasn't a single thought in Jade's brain except this all-encompassing feeling that something was finally clicking into place after so long. The kisses started out gentle and earnest, but Jade soon grew impatient, and she flicked her tongue against the seam of Tori's soft lips. Tori eagerly accepted it, disentangling one of their joined hands so that she could curl her fingers into Jade's hair, pulling them closer and flusher than Jade had ever dared to hope for. Jade was so lost in the sensation of kissing Tori, and Tori kissing her back, that it wasn't until Tori pulled away with a gasp that she realized she needed air.
They stayed like that for a moment, both breathing heavily but in sync. Foreheads pressed together like they needed to stay physically touching as long as possible.
"You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Tori admitted breathlessly.
"Oh yeah?" Jade managed to say, grinning. "How long?"
"Like… definitely since Walter and Nancy. But… maybe since my first day here."
"Really?" Jade chuckled, still struggling to catch her breath. "Holy shit." Her swirling thoughts were finally beginning to settle into actual coherent sentences again.
Tori giggled. "Good 'holy shit'? Or bad?"
Jade blinked and looked at Tori. "You just said 'shit.' Sweet Sally Peaches finally used a bad word."
Tori's giggles grew into full-blown laughter. "Hang around a bad influence long enough…" She let her sentence trail off into unspoken implications.
"It was a good 'holy shit,'" Jade said. "Definitely good."
"Good," Tori replied quietly.
Jade's brow furrowed with confusion. "How… how are you so comfortable with all this?"
"With what?"
"I'm a girl, you're a girl. I mean, I've known I wasn't straight ever since I was little but… it took me years to say anything to anyone."
Tori shrugged. "I guess I never really thought about it too deeply. I just liked who I liked. I mean, sure, once upon a time, I felt like I needed to date 'the right guy,' but every time I ignored my gut feeling, I ended up getting hurt. Or hurting someone else. It just never ended up being worth it to ignore my feelings."
"And you had a good feeling about me?" Jade's fingertips trailed up and down Tori's arms.
"I always had a feeling that you felt… right. Like I was meant to meet you. Like we were meant to be in each others' lives. It felt right to be around you. With you. As a friend. Maybe now, as something more?"
"And you're not afraid of this? Of us? Of what people might say?"
"Of course I'm afraid," Tori said, wrapping her arms tighter around Jade's waist. "But I got you. If anyone has anything mean to say… well, I know you always keep a pair of scissors on hand."
"You're damn right," Jade grinned. And then a horrible, sobering thought crossed her mind. "Hey, wait… this isn't one of those… friend-kisses like Andre was giving outside, was it?"
Tori burst out laughing. "You think that was a friend-kiss?"
"Well, I don't kn—" Jade's response was swallowed up by Tori planting another kiss on Jade's lips. This one was slow and languid and unhurried. Like they had all the time in the world. And maybe, they did. "Oh," Jade breathed.
"You're special, Jade. You've always been special to me." Tori leaned back in Jade's embrace. "But I guess that could've been a hint from Andre."
"What do you mean?"
"Andre has known about my crush on you for a while."
"How long is a while?"
Tori grinned. "All of senior year? Maybe… longer?" Tori tilted her head. "Then again, he might just be coming out as aro-spec in the most dramatic way possible."
"Maybe it's both."
"Maybe it is."
They stayed close like that for a while longer, cradled in each others' arms, pressed against each other like puzzle pieces finally fitting together.
"Think we should go outside?" Tori murmured.
"Do we have to?"
"Our friends might wonder where we went."
"Let them."
"They'll blow up the group chat. Or call us. Do you really want to deal with all those interruptions?"
"We can turn off our phones."
"And when the search parties come?"
Jade laughed. "Fine, you got me there."
Tori grinned as Jade pecked her on the lips. "Let's go, girlfriend."
"As you wish, girlfriend."
Hand in hand, they stepped out of the janitor's closet together, only to immediately come across Beck and Robbie stepping out of the Black Box Theater, also hand in hand.
For a moment, none of them moved. Beck and Jade pointed at each other, some wordless understanding passing between them, while Tori and Robbie both blushed profusely. Still, both couples kept their hands linked. Beck and Jade exchanged a smile and a nod, and the boys headed out first.
"What was that?" Tori asked.
"Hm? Nothing," Jade said, tugging on their joined hands to lead them outside. "Just glad to see Beck choose something for himself for once."
"So you knew about Robbie?" Tori gasped.
"Robbie couldn't hide the rainbow in him if he wrapped himself in blackout curtains."
"No, I mean about Beck liking Robbie!"
"Oh, that. Yeah," Jade admitted. "It came up when we decided to end things."
"Oh," Tori nodded slowly. "I see."
Before Jade could explain any further, Sikowitz rounded the corner and stopped in his tracks. He glanced at their entwined fingers, then at each of the girls' surprised faces. Clutching his coconut, a manic, elated grin spread across his features. "Congratulations, you two! At last! Now, if you girls will excuse me, I have some money to collect." Without further explanation, Sikowitz took off sprinting down an adjoining hallway, yelling, "Lane! I won the bet!"