>UNLIKELY DRAMA< {Victorious}

2. Kitties and Cats

UNLIKELY DRAMA

2. Kitties and Cats
🎭 Beck Oliver 🎭

I pull into the driveway. Cat is the famous one out of the two of us. She has friends in both high and low places. Everywhere she goes she's photographed and asked to sign autographs. It's not so much that I'm jealous as I am annoyed at myself.

People think I married Cat because I wanted her money. That's not true. Cat and I grew a lot closer over the years when Tori was out with her band and Jade singing songs until her voice box exploded. Yet because I'm not as famous as Red, her fans assume I'm a gold digging crook.

I step out of my car and rub my hands together, ready to break the big news. Striding up to the front door, I ring the doorbell. For a few minutes there's silence and then my gorgeous wife opens the door and gasps that sweet, high pitched gasp she has.

"Beck!" she squeals and wraps her arms around me gently. I smile. Her hair is red as ever. She steps back and flicks my nose. She giggles.

Then Kyle and Jesse come rushing to the door to hug me. I am the luckiest man alive, is what I think to myself as I hold my sons. Kyle has black hair that is curly and bouncy. Jesse has dark brown hair like mine that is straight and soft.

"Daddy!" Jesse yips. His voice is as high pitched and hyper as his mother's.

"Da," Kyle adds more calmly. He is more like me in that manner.

"Hey kids, why aren't you in bed? It's nearly midnight."

Cat gasps again. "It is? Oh no! You boys better go to bed."

"Awww..." they whine in synchronisation.

"Do as your mother says," Beck says and they give in.

"Race you to bed!" Jesse yips excitedly.

"'Kay-'kay," Kyle responds - just like Red - and then they stumble up the grand staircase, speeding towards their shared bedroom.

Our house is an enormous mansion. Cat and I didn't really want one but the agent said it would promote us as important and impressive and as idols. Even then, with a million rooms, Cat and I agreed the boys should share until they are older so that they are close and don't age in isolation. So far this has been effective.

"Hey Kitty Cat," I say, shutting the door behind me, "I have something to tell you."

Cat nods. "Okay B-Dawg."

She giggles and I smile.

We walk through into the living room which is pristinely white except for one wall which is splattered with paint. There are handprints and stamps and names written with shaky fingers and too much ink. I remember last summer when Cat, the boys and myself painted that wall. It was a great moment and a lovely last day before I left to shoot a film.

"So what's up?" Cat asks, sitting down on the sofa and patting the space to her right.

I sit down.

"I met Tori."

Cat's eyes widen and she beams at me. "Tori's back? That's amazeballs!"

I nod. "I told her that we should meet up. She has a daughter who is just two years younger than our boys. I suggested that they could have a play date."

Cat thinks it over. "Okay. How about this weekend? Wait, who's the father?"

This time I hesitate for much longer than a few seconds. I look around the room nervously and then inhale deeply and slowly as I look back at Cat. Her usual naïve, oblivious expression is gone and instead, a serious, somber character stares at me through Cat's eyes.

"What is it, Beck?" she asks softly and I shiver at the sound of such a curious, monotone voice coming out of my wife's red, cherry flavoured lips.

Finally, I exhale, the air whistling through my teeth, and tell her.

"It's Giles Andrews. The guy you told me about."

Cat's eyes widen. "What?! You mean the man I met in a club two years ago?"

I nod. "You said he tried to force himself onto you...?"

Her face twists and she rubs her arms as if all the heat in her body has suddenly left it. "He tried to kiss me but I hit him with a glass. His face was all bloody and horrid."

I nod. "I recognised the scar up the side of his face. It had lots of gashes littered up his right cheek. They were mostly healed and almost invisible but I saw them. It's that Giles, Cat. And he has a six year old daughter."

"How long have he and Tori been married?" Cat presses.

I hesitate again. "I'm not sure but Tori's not the kind of person who gets pregnant with any random guy."

We brood for a moment and then everything grows tense. Cat is twitching and looking at me with nervous eyes that tell me she's withholding something.

I reach out and pick up her hand. "Tell me, Cat. You know you can tell me anything."

Even then Cat stays quite for a few moments longer. Eventually, though, she manoeuvres her hands so that she is holding mine instead. She squeezes my palms gently.

"Beck. I know you don't want to hear this but it's been ten years since we've seen Tori. She could be a completely different person. I mean, look at the rest of us! Robbie has a wife. André is engaged to Jade. We got married... I don't think we can follow our old rules anymore, Beck."

I almost wish she had stayed quiet but I know that these were the words I needed to hear. Reaching up, I entwine my fingers through that strand of red and Cat smiles shyly, tangling her fingers in her own hair.

I take my hand away from my hair and take hers from her own and we smile adoringly at one another. "We match," I whisper softly. "We're one of a kind. We belong together. We can tell each other anything. I love you Cat."

"I love you too, Becky," Cat murmurs and we embrace, holding each other together like string around the pages of a book.