A/N: This is for the final round of badeprompts' "(S)he didn't tell you, did (s)he?" writing challenge. My other prompt was "What are you grinning about?"
Beta'd by my good friend lian_willow from LJ!
I hope I executed it ok. Enjoy!
Tori Vega liked to think that she was a good person.
She was generous; the other day she let Robbie keep her favorite pen after he had returned it with bite marks and a bit of drool on the cap. She was a good listener; after everyone had walked away from Cat trying to tell her story about her brother and the time he was found naked in a delivery truck with a bunch of raw meat, she had stayed to hear the story and it had nothing to do with the fact that Cat had grabbed a hold of her right arm and squeezed so tight that she left finger nail marks. Lastly, and Tori considered this to be the most important, she was helpful. In fact she already couldn't count how many times she had come up with different ways to help out her friends; it was almost like her life was a bad sitcom.
So yes, Tori Vega liked to think that she was a good person, however, when a certain brunette came out of nowhere and dragged her into the janitor's closet that was right across from her locker she began thinking that maybe being nice wasn't necessarily a good thing. She also thought that maybe it was time to ask Lane for a locker transfer, preferably a locker that was far away from any janitor's closet on campus.
Once she had given up screaming for help and demanding Jade release her arms, Tori heaved a sigh and focused her gaze on her boots as they were dragged across the linoleum tiled floors, right up until the door was closed behind the two of them.
Straightening herself, Tori shot the girl a dirty look. "You know, every time I'm in here with you, I end up in some pretty awkward situations and I'd rather not this time around okay?"
Jade rolled her eyes at the comment and checked the door to make sure it was locked and that no one was about to come barging in. Once she was sure that the janitor's closet was as impenetrable as any Hollywood Arts janitor's closet could be, she crossed her arms and gave out an irritated sigh.
"I need…ugh, I need your help Tori."
Tori raised a perfect brow and leaned back against the wall, "yeah I figured, isn't that the only reason you drag me in here?"
Jade's glare at the statement was enough to make Tori straighten up and force a smile on her face. "So what did you need my help with?"
"I need you to buy drag racing tickets for me."
It took a while for the demand to process in Tori's mind and even after it did, she still waited a few seconds more for the punch line that never came.
"Well are you or aren't you?" Jade's screech was enough to jolt Tori out of her shock.
"But you hate drag racing."
"You think I don't know that?!" Jade heaved a frustrated sigh and ran a hand through her long black hair and lavender extensions in an attempt to calm herself, when she spoke again her voice was considerably calmer. "It's just that when Beck took Sinjin drag racing the idiots actually had a good time together and there is no way I'm letting that freak beat me when it comes to having fun with my own boyfriend!"
Tori felt her eyebrows furrow in confusion, "Well then you should've just—" the sentence died in her throat when she realized that pointing out to Jade that this whole situation was her fault would simply end with a pair of scissors aimed at her jugular. Groaning in dejection, Tori screwed her eyes shut tight and pinched the bridge of her nose while counting to ten in her mind. "Why can't you buy your own tickets?"
The look that crossed Jade's face was one of disgust, "No way I'd be caught dead buying tickets to stupid drag racing." She said, as if it were the most obvious statement in the world.
"Well then," Tori's voice had gone soft and slow, like she was speaking with a toddler, "why don't you just tell Beck that you want him to take you drag racing?"
"Because it's supposed to be a surprise! God Tori, how slow can you be?"
Closing her eyes in defeat (it was impossible to argue with Jade) Tori made a show of rolling her eyes before finally nodding her head. "Any particular day?"
A small smirk of triumph graced Jade's features, "this weekend." With that, she gracefully pivoted around and exited the janitor's closet as if nothing had happened.
Staring after her friend incredulously, Tori was about to walk to her own class when she remembered something. "You didn't give me any money!" she shouted at Jade's retreating figure.
"I'll pay you back!"
/./././
"Hey André, you've got a cousin that works at Ticketworld right?"
"Yeah, why?"
Beck pulled his best friend into the boy's bathroom and shoved a printed flyer into his hands, "I need you to get me a pair of tickets for this concert this weekend."
André nodded slowly as he turned the flyer around in his hands, his eyebrows furrowing when he noted the picture of a hanged man in the very center with what looked like cannibalistic females stabbing him with spears, "Killing Kings?"
"Yeah, it's Jade's favorite band."
André gave his friend a once-over before shaking his head as he chuckled to himself. "Man, you are whipped!"
"They're not so bad once you get past the creepy wailing and man-hating lyrics." Beck said with a shrug, taking the flyer back and pocketing it as he leaned against a sink.
"Tsch, Whatever you say bro."
Rounding on his friend, Beck looked him square in the eye "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I know you Beck," André said, clapping a hand on the taller boy's shoulder, "so I know that this stuff ain't your kind of music."
"Well, they're—I mean, once you listen to—it's sort of an acquired—yeah I hate them." Beck conceded with a mutter, his face darkening infinitesimally.
André's chuckle turned into full-blown laughter. Composing himself, he grabbed Beck by the shoulders and steered both of them out of the boy's bathroom. "Look man, I'll score you the tickets no problem, but I'm just sayin' you're the one who has to sit through an entire concert where all the girls will be hatin' on you instead of admiring that fluffy head of hair."
As if on cue, Beck ran a hand through his hair, his mouth setting in a grim line. "I know but, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I don't do stuff that she likes every now and then?"
With a shrug of his shoulders and a quirk of his eyebrows, André turned to leave for his Jazz Appreciation class, but not before he heard Beck call out after him.
"Oh yeah, and don't tell her okay? I want it to be a surprise!"
"Yeah sure thing."
/./././
"What are you grinning about?"
Tori and Beck were the only people at their table, Cat was prancing about the Asphalt Café showing off her new Pearphone case that tripled as a swiss knife and a hairbrush that she got from the Sky Store. Robbie and Rex were with Lane for counseling after Rex started hitting on the new Advanced Speech teacher. And André and Jade's music writing class had been dismissed late so they were still coming from the third floor.
"Nothing," Beck replied, as he stared at his plate of chilli fries and contemplated buying a burrito to go with them, "just excited for the tomorrow."
"Oh so you know the weekend plan already!" Tori said brightly as she picked up her pizza and took a small bite.
"Well yeah." He drew the words out slowly, unsure about her statement and why André had told Tori about his plans with Jade.
"Great! I hope you two have fun! Oh, and can you remind Jade that she still owes me eighty dollars?"
"Wait, why does Jade owe you eighty dollars?"
/./././
"Cause my grandma broke the kitchen window, cause she thought it was a TV, so now I gotta pay the landlord to eighty bucks to fix it."
Jade smiled for the fifth time since their music writing class began. "You're grandma is messed up."
As they walked to the Asphalt Café, André couldn't help but sneak glances at the girl beside him, not sure he could believe the sight before his eyes. By the fifth time he turned to look at her, Jade smacked his face with her textbook.
"Ow, my eye! Dang girl, what was that for?"
"For staring like a creeper! Cut it out, you're starting to act like Sinjin." Without waiting for him to recover, Jade marched on toward the stair case, fully aware that her friend was already jogging after her in an attempt to keep pace.
"I'm sorry, it's just that, you were smiling back there!" André rubbed the spot where the book had come into contact with his face and felt his eyes water slightly. It was a pretty big textbook.
"Yeah, so? I'm not allowed to smile anymore am I?" Her harsh tone had other people in the hallway staring after them, and it didn't miss André's notice how some of them seemed to automatically shy away from Jade as they walked past.
"Well you hardly ever smile." He retorted as they turned a corner and went down another flight of stairs, his vision was clearing already and he thanked his lucky stars that Jade's textbook hadn't caused permanent damage. The last kid she hit with one of her books ended up with a cracked rib.
"And your point is?"
"What were you grinning about?"
Rolling her eyes, Jade gave a casual shrug of her shoulders as she shook her head, "none of your business."
"Oh come on," André's good mood had come back by now and he playfully nudged her with his elbow, "C'mon, tell your old pal André the chizz."
"I just have plans with Beck, that's all."
"Oh you know!"
Jade spared a glance at him over her shoulder and felt her brows furrow in confusion at what he said. "Of course I know, why wouldn't I know?"
"Well," André began, gesticulating with his right hand, "I just figured that—you know what, nevermind. I hope you guys have fun!"
"Yeah," her tone was dripping with sarcasm as she hopped down the final step and made toward the doors that led out to the Café, "thanks."
"Yeah, y'know my cousin really hooked you guys up."
The sentence made her stop dead in her tracks. Pivoting sharply, Jade rounded on André and jabbed a finger into his chest. "What are you talking about?"
/./././
"You know, your tickets? For tomorrow? I paid for them."
Tori glanced nervously at Beck, now completely unsure as to whether or not the two of them were on the same page.
"That's impossible," he began, shaking his head as he leaned back and popped a chilli fry into his mouth.
"No it's not, I have the receipt in my bag!" In the back of her mind, Tori began wondering if she should stop talking now while she was still ahead.
"No," Beck insisted, staring at her like she were a child who couldn't quite grasp the concept of the conversation at hand. "That's impossible because André's cousin got the tickets for me and Jade."
"What? What does André's cousin have to do with any of this?"
/./././
"He got your tickets!"
If there was one thing Jade prided herself on, it was that she was always in control of any situation, this conversation with André, however, was leaving her more than a little confused which made her more than a little irritated. "I don't even know your cousin! I made Tori buy the drag race tickets for me days ago!"
"Drag race tickets?"
/./././
"Yeah! Jade told me to get you two Drag race tickets cause she didn't like that you and Sinjin had fun that last time you went!" By now, Tori pretty much knew that Beck and Jade's weekend was screwed, but she was in too deep to let the conversation go now. Besides, Beck and Jade still owed her eighty dollars and there was no way she was letting that one go either.
"She didn't tell you, did she?" Tori asked, her eyes widening as she began realizing it herself
Beck shook his head, albeit the fact that his shock at the idea that his Jade was actually trying to do something nice for him that didn't involve setting wild animals on his parents actually made him smile for a moment. Before he could fully appreciate the moment, however, there were still other matters he had to take care of first. "But, what about the concert?"
"What concert?"
/./././
"Killing Kings? Your favorite band? Beck made me ask my cousin for tickets so that you two could go see it."
By now, Jade and André had reached the Asphalt Café and after everything he had just told her, she felt like her head was swimming.
"He didn't tell you, did he?"
Ignoring André's last question, Jade scanned the Asphalt Café until she spotted Beck and Tori at their regular table. Jade felt an unusual surge of irritation flood through her veins. As she stomped away from André she zeroed in on her boyfriend and simultaneously pushed aside some random sophomore that happened to be in her path.
"Hey!"
Tori immediately yelped as soon as she caught sight of Jade, she felt her eyes widen as the girl drew nearer and nearer despite the fact that beside her, Beck was still as calm as ever. When Jade finally reached the table, she glared down at her boyfriend while pointing an accusatory finger at him.
"How could you get me concert tickets when I went through all the trouble to get you drag race tickets!"
"Tori bought the tickets," Beck replied, standing up so that he and Jade were eye-level. There was no way she was going to pin the blame on him for this situation. "And I don't even get why you're mad, you love Killing Kings!"
"Yeah," Jade's voice was growing shriller by the second, "but that doesn't mean you can go around using them to ruin my plans!"
"I didn't even know you had plans! And what about my plans?"
As the two bickered back and forth, André carefully sidled up beside Tori and helped himself to a slice of her pizza. Beside him, the latina was watching the couple bicker with growing worry in her eyes, it was no secret that Tori hated watching her friends fight but she particularly disliked watching Beck and Jade fight.
Not only because it didn't bode well for the entire school population in general but because it meant that some time in the near future, Tori would be once again dragged into some crazy scheme that involved getting the two of them back together. And she didn't want that. Gritting her teeth in determination, Tori stood up from the table and walked over to where Beck and Jade's argument was escalating by the second.
"Figures, the one time I plan something nice, you end up screwing it up!"
"Jade, I didn't screw anything up!"
"Okay quit it!" Stepping in between the couple, Tori stared at both of them evenly, waiting for the fire to dim in Jade's eyes just as Beck ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. "Okay," Tori began, making her voice as calm and friendly as possible, "you know what guys? Instead of trying to outdo each other with stuff that the other person likes, why don't you two just agree on doing something that the both of you enjoy doing together? Huh?"
There was silence as Beck and Jade stared at one another, their expressions unreadable as they carried a conversation that only the two of them were privy to. Finally, a mischievous grin broke out over Beck's face and despite the fact that she rolled her eyes at his expression Jade couldn't help the smirk that quirked her lips upward. Taking each other's hands, they sat back down on the table and went on as if the entire argument had never happened.
Tori and André stared at each other in confusion for a moment before the latter finally cleared his throat awkwardly.
"So which event are you two going to this weekend?"
/./././
Beck had his arm draped over Jade's shoulder and she was leaning into him as the crowd all around them cheered loudly. Chancing a glance up at her boyfriend, Jade noted the goofy smile plastered all over his lips before she rolled her eyes and poked him in the stomach to get his attention.
"What are you grinning about?" she made sure her voice was loud enough to carry over the screams of the fans surrounding them.
Beck shrugged as he pressed a kiss to the side of her head, "I'm glad we picked this," he yelled back.
"Yeah, definitely much better than watching Killing Kings with a bunch of posers."
"Or going to a drag race and getting exhaust all over your face."
Grinning brilliantly at his reply, Jade was about to say something else when the hockey game they were watching live suddenly went into time out as one of the players skidded across the ice, a thin line of blood trailing in his wake. When he stood up to face the crowd, the applause was thunderous as he revealed a bloody mouth and a new tooth missing.
From where they were standing, Beck and Jade were both cheering loudly. He was there for the players, she was there to watch grown men beat each other up on ice.
As he watched his girlfriend's smile brighten when the player spat out his blood in the ring, Beck felt a surge of affection for her, angling her chin towards his, he pressed his lips against hers as the hockey game waged on.
Now this was perfect.
A/N: Suffice to say that André and Robbie ended up getting beat up by angry females at the Killing Kings concert and Tori ended up listening to Cat talk about how her brother streaked naked at the Kentucky derby at the Drag race.
SO happy ending for everyone! :))
The transitioning in this one was the hardest part for me, plus some parts felt kind of awkward/OOC, or idk, maybe that's just me! Let me know what you think in the comments section so that I can be a better fic writer in the future! :D