By Any Other Name

Chapter Thirteen

Tori gnawed at her thumbnail, eyes darting back and forth from one side of the view from the window to the other. She was nervous. She felt like she was going to vomit. She felt like... like...

...like she was doing something illegal.

I can't believe I'm about to do this! I can't even, like, begin to understand how I ended up in this situation! How is this even happening?!

As her other hand fingered the fabric of the curtain, Tori continued to fret, worrying away at her nail even as her jaw started to ache. She'd been standing there for at least seven straight minutes, and she hadn't moved an inch.

The sound of her sister's irritating voice shouting her name caused her to jump, hand flying away from her mouth as she turned her guilty gaze towards the eldest Vega girl. Trina stood with her hands on her hips, face somewhere between serious and irritated as only an older sister's face can be. "What are you doing? You've been acting like a twitchy piece of furniture for like, ten minutes and it's starting to give me the creeps! And why are you dressed like that?"

Tori groaned, eyes closing in exasperation. "Trina," she whined, "Can we not do this right now? I'm already on edge as it is, I don't need you-"

"But why are you on edge? What's going on?"

Nervous brown eyes opened as Tori bit at her bottom lip. Should she confess? Should she tell her sister what was going on? Maybe for once in her life Trina would play the part of loving older sister and offer her some actual advice. Considering what she was about to do though, she doubted that would happen. She was actually almost positive that it wouldn't happen.

She sighed, turning to look over her shoulder and send her sister a desperate glare that she hoped screamed 'Go away you irritating thing I am already ready to explode and you are not helping'.

But Trina didn't take the hint. Instead, Tori saw her eyes flick over past Tori's shoulder and widen in surprise. Her own heart clenched in her chest as she turned back around and looked back out the window. She could see headlights, and the sight of them, finally here, made a lump form at the back of her throat. "Do you have a date?! Who is it?! Why didn't you tell me?! Oh my god!"

Suddenly hands were on her shoulders and her eyes were ripped away from the dual lights waiting outside to her sister's crazed face, inches away from her own. "Who is it?!"

Tori immediately tried to get out of her sister's grip, fighting to free herself as Trina continued to ask her over and over again, voice getting more and more irritating each time. Trina kept her grip firm though, and eventually Tori got sick of being manhandled and shouted, "It's Beck!" The fighting stopped and Tori's gaze fell to the floor, embarrassed. An awkward silence passed before Tori looked up and saw her sister staring at her in shock. "...it's Beck, alright? I gotta go."

And before her sister had a chance to rant and rave about how unfair life was or how dare Tori go out with Beck when she knew that her gorgeous older sister had called dibs the second she'd found out he was single, Tori grabbed her jacket and ran for the door.

Hurrying out into the cool fall night, she pulled her jacket on and headed straight for Beck's car. This whole situation was quite frankly terrifying; it was hard to believe that she was about to go on a date with Beck... and it was even harder to believe that she had kissed Jade last night. She had kissed Jade. Not the other way around, like that first time. Tori had actually initiated something and she had to admit... it had felt pretty amazing.

Seeing Jade smile, being the cause of that smile... it had warmed her from head to toe and leaning in had seemed almost instinctual.

And she was so sweet about it; when she warned me to leave before she lost it and kissed me... something changed. It all became so much more concrete. I mean, before that it was still just so surreal! The thought of Jade liking me that way, I don't think I really understood that she was serious even after that first kiss. I was terrified that it was all just some crazy dream, that I'd wake up and she'd still be dating Beck and we'd still be fighting with each other like always.