The Slap Scandal: Another Side of Tori Vega

Pairing: Tori Vega/Andre Harris

Note: For mature audiences. Don't read if you're under 13, please. I don't want to have to explain anything to angry parents.

This takes place during the group's senior year. The characters are seventeen years old. This is a more mature take on their high school experiences. This will get AUish, but stick with me and I'll make it worth your while!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Characters, questionable slang, etc. belongs to the comedic genius, the one and only Dan Schneider.

If you had asked Andre Harris if, how and when he thought this would play out, he wouldn't have had an answer for you. I mean, Tori Vega was his friend. His best friend, in fact. They were tighter than tight. Chiller than chill. They got along great, joked around all the time and hung out quite a bit. They had worked on music together from the very beginning of their friendship and right from the start, it had clicked. They had clicked. It felt almost like they were musical soulmates at times. But lovers? No flipping way.

It was the farthest thing from what they were, what they could ever be. And Andre didn't think of her that way. He just didn't. Okay, so there had been some confusing dreams he had had in the past in which she had been the um… ahem… "star"… shall we say… for lack of a better word? But he had no control over those. It's not like he had planned on dreaming about her or even thinking about her in that way. Stupid brain. What the chizz? Besides, those dreams were only for him, locked away in his dormant mind when he was unconscious and carefree. That's all they were anyway, just random projections of his subconscious. He'd planned on taking those dreams with him to his grave where they belonged.

Besides, Andre had seen Tori making eyes at Beck Oliver when she first arrived at Hollywood Arts. It had been glaringly obvious that she was into him. Andre and Beck were good friends, but Andre himself had never really understood the crazy storm of girls that followed Beck around when he was single and ogled him from afar when he roamed the halls of their high school with Jade West on his arm. Then again, he guesses that's why he was into chicks and not dudes. Sexual persona aside, Andre certainly appreciated and admired Beck both as a friend and as an actor.

There had been others though. Andre remembered the few boys Tori had shown interest in at their school, sometimes guys from other schools when they went to parties and mixed with the other performing art school students in LA. Most were white dudes with tousled brown hair, and it's not like Andre didn't think himself a fly guy, but who was he kidding? He just wasn't that. He wasn't the type Tori Vega was into, or at the very least, showed interest in, and he couldn't compete with that. He was who he was and he was okay with that. He wouldn't try to change himself for a girl. Been there, done that. He had learned from his mistakes in the past.

For years, Andre had been content with his role as best friend to Tori. No one else had really questioned it, well, except for that one time when Andre and Tori had been working late on a school project all week and Tori's dad had sat down with him when Tori had gone to the bathroom to have a "man to man talk". You know the type of talk that starts with "You and my daughter have been spending a lot of time together….". Andre used to cringe at the memory. Living through it had been even worse. But apart from that, no one had questioned his and Tori's relationship. It was the perpetual norm for them to pal around together, and Andre didn't have the time to question their relationship either. What with his grandmother taking up most of his time that he wasn't writing music or doing school projects.

In short, it made no sense at all how Andre and Tori had gotten here. Wherever here was. Okay, so "here" was Andre's grandma's house, where he too, lived. It was a Friday night and he and Tori were alone, trying to write a song for the next school event which was a week from today. So, why were they working on it over the weekend? They had all week, right? Wrong. Tori had insisted there was going to be tons of other work they were going to be given during the week and there was a play she wanted to try out for, and so on and so forth. Andre was an easygoing guy by nature, and it was simplest for him to just shrug his shoulders and say all right.

Trina and had dropped Tori off an hour ago and Andre has been sitting with his keyboard on his lap playing some rifts while Tori sat with her PearPad on her lap, pretending to write down lyrics, and vocalizing softly in the background. He didn't know what it was about tonight, but they were getting nowhere. Maybe it was because Andre was thinking about his grandma being in the hospital or maybe it was because Tori was still wazzed off that she had been stuck with Trina giving her a ride and had been forced to run errands with her before Trina had actually taken her over to Andre's.

"You know, it's kind of quiet here." Tori finally speaks after what feels like five to ten solid minutes of them exchanging no words at all. "Is your grandma already asleep? It's only… seven."

"She's in the hospital." Andre says, not even pausing from playing his keyboard.

"What?" Tori says in disbelief, setting her PearPad aside and sitting up straight to look at Andre better. "What happened?"

"She fell while I was at school today." Andre says. "I think she fractured her hip. They don't think she needs a full hip replacement, but she needs screws put in to hold her bones together."

"That's awful." Tori says looking suddenly stricken. "Why aren't you at the hospital with her?"

"Well, I can't stay there all night." Andre says, his hands finally ceasing their movement. "I needed to come home and work on music with you."

Tori rolls her eyes and smiles a little.

"Plus we have school tomorrow." Andre points out. "I do need to get sleep. I have my cellphone if she wants to call or text me."

"Hopefully they're giving her lots of pain pills so she'll just me knocked out and feeling good." Tori says.

"True that." Andre agrees and sets his keyboard aside.

"What?" Tori asks noticing Andre leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees, and looking at her as if trying to decide something.

Andre rubs his hands together and licks his bottom lip.

"I think we need to get this Friday night turnt up!" He finally exclaims all but jumping to his feet.

Tori practically snorts.

"Turned up?" She repeats.

"Turnt. Up." Andre corrects going into the kitchen.

Tori's eyebrows crinkle together, but she stands up and follows him anyway.

"What are you talking about?" Tori asks and watches Andre reach into the cupboards above the sink and rummage around.

Andre doesn't reply until he lets out a triumphant, "Hah!" and pulls down two large glass bottles of hard liquor. One is clear and the other is an amber color.

"I think we need a little inspiration juice." Andre tells her with a grin. "What you think, muchacha?"

Tori leans on the counter and looks at him in disbelief.

"Andre, we're not going to get drunk." She says matter-of-factly.

"I never said drunk." He replies and goes over to the lower cabinets and pulls out two small glasses which Tori knows to be shot glasses. She's done shots at parties before, but it had never been her thing. "I just said a little inspiration juice. You know, for inspiration."

Tori shakes her head and laughs when Andre moves his eyebrows up and down at her.

"What do you think?" Andre continues. "On the rocks or straight?"

"Go ahead and drink your inspiration juice." Tori tells him, and then taps her fingers to her head. "I've got all the inspiration I need up here."

"Suit yourself." He replies, but he brings the vodka, whiskey and both shot glasses with him when they head back into the living room.

"Your grandma drinks vodka and whiskey?" Tori has to ask when they sit back down.

Andre shrugs as he cracks open the whiskey and pours himself a shot.

"Sometimes." He says. "Not often. She's a fun drunk, believe it or not."

Tori tries to picture his already batty Grandmother intoxicated, and starts to laugh from the absurdity of it.

"What?" He asks with a smile and then downs the shot, grimacing after he swallows. Tori imagines it burning on the way down.

"Nothing." She says putting her hand to her stomach, it aches from her laughter. "Does she let you drink too?"

"Of course not." Andre says. "But I have before… when she isn't around."

Tori looks intrigued if not surprised.

"Really?" Tori asks. "How come? Like, just for fun?"

"Nah, not for fun." Andre says and his smile dims a bit. "Sometimes just to, you know, get my mind off stuff."

"Oh." Tori says softly. "I just never pictured you… drinking alone. I've seen you drink at parties, but for fun. I didn't know… It's just… whenever we're together you always seem so…"

Andre pours himself another drink and forces a tight smile before lifting it and knocking it back.

"Happy." She finishes dumbly.

"I am." Andre tells her. "Happy, that is. I'm usually happy, but sometimes… sometimes I think about my parents after my grandma goes to sleep and I'm just sitting up alone… and sometimes I just…"

Tori suddenly shifts forward on the couch and reaches for the empty shot glass, anything to keep Andre from going on. She's not entirely sure she's ready for this serious of a conversation with her friend, especially not this sober. She doesn't often think too much into Andre living with his grandma and she never had asked him what brought him to live there. To her knowledge, he hadn't told anyone in the group what had happened to his mom and dad either.

"Pour me a drink." Tori says.

Andre looks skeptical.

"Tori, you don't have to…" He says with a friendly smile, and Tori almost resents the way he tries to give her an out so easily. "I was only joking about the inspiration juice."

"Just pour me a drink, Harris." She says and she looks so Latina when she gets indignant, it makes Andre smile more. He has to admit it to himself then and there, his friend is very pretty, especially when she has fire in her eyes like she does now. "And not that whiskey chizz. I got sick off that at a party once. It tastes even worse coming back up. Vodka for me."

Andre unscrews the cap to the vodka and pours Tori a drink. He watches her drink it fast and then shake her head side to side, letting out a noise of disgust.

"Pretty awful, huh?" Andre says.

"Not the worst thing I've ever tasted." Tori insists. "One time when me and Trina were little, Trina threw up on me and some got in my mouth."

Andre looks absolutely horrified.

"That is on a new level of nasty." He tells her.

"You're telling me." Tori says and reaches for the vodka to pour herself another shot. She downs it and cringes.

"Trina sounds like she has been unbearable to live with from day one." Andre says.

"She came out of the womb unbearable." Tori replies and then changes the subject. "Do you think we're actually going to get any writing done tonight?"

"The only way that's going to happen is if we slow down on the shots." Andre says, but then takes another.

"You've had more than me." Tori points out. "You should let me catch up first."

"This isn't a competition." Andre says putting up a hand.

"Right." Tori replies. "So we should be even."

Andre stares at her for a moment and then shakes his head a bit.

"I can hold my liquor better." He insists. "I have a higher tolerance because I drink more often than you."

"Oh, please!" Tori says. "Soon you'll be using the 'I'm a guy and guys can hold their liquor better than girls' BS."

"That was my next argument." Andre admits and points a finger at her and makes a clicking sound out of the corner of his mouth jestingly.

Tori pulls a couch pillow out from behind her back and throws it at Andre's head. She must not be too drunk yet because it connects.

"I don't feel anything." Tori says by her fourth or fifth shot.

"Oh, yeah?" Andre asks. "Try standing up."

"Fine." Tori says sounding haughty, but when she does, she gets dizzy and falls back down onto the couch causing Andre to burst into laughter and clap his hands together. "Screw you, Harris." She tells him.

Andre knows there's a ton of inappropriate things he could reply with, but he keeps the quips locked away safely behind his tongue.

Andre doesn't say anything for awhile and Tori is also quiet. Neither of them seems interested in reaching for another drink at the moment, but for some reason, Andre feels compelled to move closer to Tori on the couch. He turns toward her and somehow ends up mirroring her position, one leg draped over the edge of the couch, the other leg folded so that foot is resting against the opposite leg's inner thigh.

"Do you… do you remember your first official day at Hollywood Arts?" Andre asks, and he's suddenly grinning goofily.

Tori grins back, reaching out to take one of Andre's hands. Andre doesn't think much of it, his mind feels cloudy and hazy, body warm and content.

"Of course I do." Tori replies, a slight slurred edge to her words now. "I remember thinking everyone there were freaks. I wanted to leave and go home because I thought I didn't fit in."

"Yeah," Andre says. "But you did, you just didn't know it yet."

"You were right." Tori tells him, hand dropping down from Andre's and tracing the pattern of his shoe instead without thinking about what she's doing. "You supported me from the very beginning and you still do. You always have."

"I always will." Andre insists smiling. "Always." He repeats for emphasis.

"I'm so lucky." Tori tells him. "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have made it through that first day."

"Yes, you would have." Andre insists. "You've always been stronger than you give yourself credit for."

"I'm lucky." Tori says. "Lucky to have you by my side."

"Yeah," Andre shrugs, and sounds very macho indeed. "You are."

Tori snorts and shoves him in the shoulder.

"I'm lucky to have you too." Andre says softly, keeping his hands to himself, but scooting even closer until their legs are touching. "It's like you were the missing link to our group in a weird way."

"I guess." Tori replies and raises her shoulders.

"You were." Andre says and he doesn't know what makes him say the next part, it just slips out. "But you liked Beck."

"What?" Tori suddenly demands. "I didn't like Beck."

"Girl, you lyin'." Andre says with a laugh. "You were so into him. Remember you kissed him during that Alphabet chizz in Sikowitz's class?"

"That wasn't 'cause I liked him, okay?" Tori pushes him again and Andre grabs her arm. "That was 'cause Jade was awful to me and that gank needed to be taught a lesson, all right?"

"Maybe so." Andre says letting go instantly when Tori tries to pull her arm away from him. "But you also had a thing for him."

"Whatever." Tori says. "So, maybe… maybe I liked him when I didn't know him. Maybe I kind of thought he was cute or whatever, but I realized we were better off as friends. I'm not really his type anyway, you know. He likes the… the… ganky girls."

"Right." Andre says, amusement clear on his face and in his voice.

"I mean it." Tori says. "I don't think of him that way anymore. We just hang out as friends just like you and…"

Tori trails off and looks silently at Andre for a moment, really looks at him.

"What?" Andre coaxes. "Go ahead and say it, Tori. Just like you and…?"

He knows what she's going to say and what she's implying. She and beck are friends. Only friends. Just like the two of them. Just like her and him. Friend zoned with a simple sentence. Well, not even a sentence. An incomplete sentence.

Tori just gazes at him, blinks a few time, and then leans in. Andre thinks he would be more shocked by this turn of events if he were sober, but as it is now, his lips are reacting, moving softly to capture Tori's. Their first kiss is short, but they don't pull back afterward. There's a small breath where their lips separate about an inch, and then come back together.

"Tori…" Andre breathes softly, although inebriated, having to remind himself over and over that Tori, too, is drunk. Alcohol doesn't change who Andre is and through and through, he is a gentlemen. "Look, we've been drinking. I don't think this is the best thing to be doing. You said yourself, we're…"

Tori kisses him again, effectively shutting him up. Tori hadn't really said they were anything, had she? But was it heavily implied?

Tori suddenly swings a leg over both of his and positions herself so she's sitting on his lap facing him. Andre can smell the sweet scent of her hair and her skin. He's never really been this close to her, not in this way, and she smells really, really good. She takes his face between her hands and it's so intimate, so beyond what Andre has ever imagined would happen between them. She brings her lips down to his again, and screw it, he kisses her back with all he has. His hands go to her hips and his fingertips press into the bare skin that is revealed from her shirt riding up.

The taste of alcohol mixes between both of their mouths. Andre's hands slide down farther until he's cupping Tori's ass. He squeezes and she squeaks in surprise, mouth opening enough that Andre can slip his tongue inside. She half whimpers, half moans around his tongue as his big hands knead her ass, squeezing gently. Tori really had a great body. How had he not noticed that before? Or had he, but hadn't wanted to admit it?

She finally breaks her mouth from his for air. She's breathing heavily, and he moves his mouth to her neck. He should stop, but Andre has never been good at controlling his emotions when he's worked up. He alternates between kissing and sucking at her skin as she whines and moans and says his name softly. All the noises are going straight to his cock and he tries to will it to stay down, but he can feel the steady throb as he begins to get hard. God, her skin even tastes sweet.

The voice in the back of his mind that keeps reminding him "This is tori, this is Tori, this is Tori" is beginning to fade and disappear. Andre's teeth scrape across the base of her neck and Tori actually jumps and gasps.

"Sorry." Andre said. "Did that hurt?"

"Mm… No…" Tori says and he realizes that's she's looking down between them and he follows her gaze to where his cock is tenting his jeans. She raises up on her knees a bit so she's not pushing against it as much and he wonders if it's so she can get a better view. "You're hard."

"Yeah…" He agrees in a soft, deep voice. There's no point in denying it when the proof is right there in front of them.

"Can I…?" Tori leaves the question opened ended, but reaches her hand between them and runs her fingers lightly over the shape of him. Even through his jeans, the touch makes his cock leap.

Andre reaches down and takes her hand gently, steering her away from where things could… lead. And it's not like at this moment, especially in this state, he didn't want it to go further. His mind was going all sorts of places, but he had to slow things down. He couldn't… he didn't… he wouldn't fuck this up. This wasn't some sloppy drunken Northridge girl looking for a one night stand. This was Tori. Tori Vega. His best friend. His sidekick in a lot of different ways. If he let things get out of hand… if they ended up doing something they regretted… would their friendship be salvageable?

"Tori, we gotta stop this." Andre says. "It… feels good now. It really does… and and… I… really want…" He doesn't know what he's even trying to say, but it doesn't even sound good to himself.

"Doesn't it… feel good?" Tori asks and her eyelids look heavy and droopy and it sounds like her tongue is too big for her mouth, but still, she looks damn hot.

"Of course it does." He says. "And you… you're beautiful."

She looks so grateful for the compliment that it almost makes Andre's heart melt in a very strange way.

"You think I'm beautiful?" She asks with a wide smile.

Andre reaches out and tucks some of her hair behind her hair.

"Well, yeah." He says. "I think mosts guys do."

"But you… you've never said that to me before." Tori says, her hands resting on Andre's shoulders now.

"Yeah, well…" Andre searches his hazy mind for something smooth to say, but he's fresh out.

Tori sways toward him as if to kiss him, but Andre stops her as gently as he can.

"Maybe we should just leave it for tonight." He tells her.

"Leave it?" She echoes. "Leave what?"

"This." Andre motions to himself and then to her. "I don't want you to do anything that you're going to regret and I… I don't want to take advantage of you or our friendship."

Tori just stares at him for a moment.

"Excuse me?" She finally says, face changing from cheery and giggly to offended and angry in less time than Andre has to blink. It's almost unsettling and he feels a heaviness in his stomach suddenly. "'Take advantage of me?'"

"I just mean…" Andre begins as Tori moves off up his lap suddenly and he starts to go after her incase she takes a spill. "I'm the one who initiated all this with the alcohol and whatnot… but I never meant for it to turn into this."

"Turn into this?" Tori sounds even angrier. "You didn't initiate anything, I kissed you!"

Tori's voice is beginning to rise and it's so unlike her that Andre is kind of frightened in a way. He knows it's the alcohol making her feel more upset and out of control than she would be. Then again, this never would have happened if it weren't for the alcohol. He was an idiot. A world class idiot. What had he gotten himself into?

"True, but…" Andre doesn't even know what to say. He puts his hands up in a peacemaking kind of way. "Look, Tori, I don't think either of us meant for things to go this far. We're… we're friends, right? I don't want things to get screwed up between us. Maybe we should just chill down… sober up a bit… you know…"

"I'm leaving." Tori says.

"L-Leaving?" Andre eyes go big. "You can't leave. You're drunk and you… you wouldn't be able to make it home from here on foot even if you knew which direction to go."

"Well, I'm not staying here with you!" She spits at him.

Ouch. That kind of hurt. Andre didn't know Tori could ever say such a simple sentence and make it sting so much, especially with the way she referred to him simply as 'you'. And with emphasis.

Tori grabs her purse and stumbles to the door, Andre hurrying after her and shutting it with his hand just as she goes to open it.

"Look, I'm not letting you leave like this and I can't drive you in this state so…" Andre trails off. "Besides, you think your parents would be happy about you showing up drunk? They'd never trust me again and your reputation with them would be shot."

Andre isn't sure how he's managing to be so eloquent at the moment, but he seems to be making sense to Tori because she's suddenly stopped trying to escape. She goes limp and slides down to the floor, back against the closed front door.

"You're right." She says and flings her purse, making Andre cringe. "I can't go home like this."

"Yeah…" Andre says slowly, calmly. "So, you can just stay the night and go home in the morning. I'll drive you when I'm sober."

Tori puts her head in her knees and wraps her arms around her legs.

"Can you get me some water?" She asks, sounding almost like she's going to cry.

"Sure." Andre says gently. "You can sleep in my bed and I'll take the couch if you want."

"I'll take the couch." Tori insists.

"All righty, here." Andre reaches a hand down to help her up and amazingly, Tori takes it and lets Andre help her to the couch. "I'll get that water for you, and a blanket and pillow too, okay?"

"Okay." Tori says laying down and placing an arm over her face.

Andre hadn't been aware that Tori could be so unpredictable when she was under the influence. Her emotions fluctuated faster than he had time to process.

Breathing out a big sigh, Andre walks into the hallway to grab a blanket and pillows. Tori is already falling asleep when he returns. He helps her take off her boots and settle back onto the pillow. He tucks the blanket around her and then stands back to survey her for a moment.

"You still want that water?" He asks.

"Wha…?" Comes Tori's nearly unintelligible reply.

"Nothing." He says with a breathy laugh. "Go to sleep, Tori. You'll feel better in the morning."

'Maybe,' Andre thinks to himself as he locks up the house, shuts off the lights and heads to his bedroom.

He doesn't even know how he's going to feel tomorrow. About anything.

To Be Continued...

Drop me a comment if you'd like to know what happens next.