Victorious is not mine. Song lyrics and any OCs are.

I've been laying on my bed for at least two hours, just staring at the ceiling. I'd been looking forward to this day for weeks. We had all made plans to spend the day at Seal Beach. Then when the sun went down we were going to make a bonfire and drink the beer Andre's cousin had been able to get for us. But I broke up with my boyfriend a few days ago and I don't want to see him. So I'm not going. My friends are all out there now, but here I am. Staring at the unwavering ceiling.

"At least there is one constant in my life," I think as I stare. Then the lamp in the corner of my periphery flickers out. I sit in silence for a moment. "Well that's just fantastic" I say out loud. I roll off my bed and groan as I hit the floor. I don't even bother grabbing my Pear Phone as I leave, just my car keys. I drive down Sunset Boulevard and find a parking spot a block away from my favorite coffee shop.

I'm disappointed when I walk in. I just wanted to get a coffee and sit and wallow, but unfortunately it's Saturday and that means it's open mic night. A guy with dreadlocks is sitting on a stool near the window. He is playing guitar and singing some stupid song about love. It makes me want to puke.

I go up to the counter and order my coffee. The dreadlocked guy has finished his song by the time I get it. I take my drink and find the only available table. I sit in one of the chairs but it's a little too close to the currently empty stool by the window for me to feel comfortable.

I drink my coffee and suffer through two more intolerable love songs played on a ukulele by a girl covered in tattoos and on a guitar by an awkward looking guy in a tuxedo and a pair of Air Jordans. I'm about to give up and leave when a girl about my age walks up to the stool, guitar in hand. She looks nervous. She sits down and settles the guitar in her lap. She looks up and scans the crowd with her eyes. They land on mine and the last thing I hear before my entire world spins out is "Hi, I'm Tori Vega."

The last time I felt this way was when I first saw Beck. His perfect hair and his perfect smile and his perfect eyes that shone right through me when they met mine on my first day at Hollywood Arts. I momentarily lost my ability to breathe and my heart fell out of my chest and onto the ground. I hated that feeling.

And here it was again. I hated myself immediately. Hated my heart for acting on its own accord. This was happening and I couldn't help it.

After my brain calms down I use the tiniest part of it that isn't in shock to remind myself to breathe. It isn't until the last chorus of the girl's song that my paralysis neutralizes. And finally I can hear what she is singing.

"So make a wish on a shooting star or a clover."

She sings in this voice that resonates through my whole body.

"Any time when you're falling hard then it's over."

She looks over at me and the light in her eyes as they connect with mine makes me feel like she is singing only to me.

"So take a risk and look in my direction."

I can feel my cheeks catch fire.

"Make a wish, it's 11:11."

The song ends. And with it, I think, any semblance of reason I thought my life could ever achieve. This is it. And I'm not ready.

The audience claps politely and the girl stands up. She looks at me. The second she moves she turns slightly toward me and I run out of the place. The fear of her coming up to speak to me is too much. I run down the street and to my car. I'm not quite able to breathe when I reach it. I just sort of collapse onto the hood of my car and close my eyes. After a few moments I feel the weight of my car shift. I sit upright and turn to face the other direction.

And there she is, sitting cross legged on the trunk of my car, guitar in her lap. I don't think she knows that I see her there. I close my eyes and slowly, quietly, lay back down, wondering what is going to happen. Suddenly I can hear the strings of the guitar being picked ever so gently.

Her voice permeates my skin and settles in my veins.

"Hey there, princess. You look like someone I wanna know. Hey there, princess. Is there somewhere you wanna go? I'll take you anywhere as long as you stay. Hey there, princess. Why don't you come over here and play?"

A small laugh escapes my mouth. I breathe deeply in.

"I just wrote that," she says. I'm impressed but I can't bring myself to give up my game of playing dead. "For you," she continues. If I could just die right here, right now, I would. "I know you can hear me," she states matter-of-factly. I picture a small smirk clinging to her lips. But still I don't respond.

My mind goes frantic, searching for some sort of way to get out of this situation. The guitar starts up again. Louder this time.

"Why won't she say hello?" That voice again. "I just don't know. Time to give up. I think I'll go." The weight of my car shifts again and I know she has given me an out. And after all that inner turmoil... I don't know why, but I decide not to take it.

"Don't go," I whisper as I exhale the breath I've been holding for way too long. I consider hitting myself in the head. I open my eyes and sit up. There she stands, right in front of me, holding onto her guitar by its neck.

"She speaks," she says. "Well," she corrects herself, "she whispers."

"Hi," I respond, still too flustered to come up with anything else.

"I'm Tori."

"Jade."