HE’S  CLEANING  OUT  HIS  LOCKER  WHEN  HE  SPOTS  HER,    bright  smile    &   prominent  dimples,    knows  that  things  are  different     &    he  can’t  just  wave  her  over  like  he  would  the  year  prior.    has  been  fighting  himself  on  whether  to  try  to  make  amends  or  let  things  be  as  they  are.    —   KNOWS  THAT  IT’S  NO  USE,    HE  STILL  WANTS  HER  IN  HIS  LIFE.    even  if  it  is  at  a  distance.    deep  breath  is  emitted,    ❝    tori,    ❞    he  walks  towards  her,    and  stops  at  a  reasonable  distance.   it’s  too  late  to  go  back  now.    quickly  grabs  the  pick  velvet  jacket  that  he’d  found  in  the  guest  room  two  nights  ago,    and  holds  it  out  towards  her.    ❝    i  um,    i’ve  been  meaning  to  give  this  to  you,  just  couldn’t  find  the  right  time.    ❞    he  attempts  to  not  look  so  nervous,    can’t  quite  remember  a  time  he  was  nervous  around  her.    ❝    and  i  wanted  to  apologize,    in  person,    not  over  text  like  an  asshat.    i  was  wrong,    and  i’m  sorry.    and  i  know  we’ll  NEVER  be  friends  again  like  we  were,    but  i  needed  to  tell  you  that  and  i   needed  you  to  hear  it.    ❞    now  that  it’s  all  out  in  the  open,    he  gives  her  one  last  friendly  smile,    before  turning  around  and  heading  back  to  his  locker.    /    @toriscnta​

Arlene: guess the summer of romance has died.

tori: ohh :( i’m sorry

vanessa: and now we have the whole summer to get cute and forget about all the lames here.

tori: cheers to that mami 💃 except i got summer school 🙄 but that doesn’t start til next week

        he watched her every move, amusement on his features never faltering as he observed her pluck a cherry from the bowl behind the counter. there was something beautifully intriguing in the way she lived so boldly and freely. he’d been all across the world, seen every kind of person there is, and strangely, the only ones who could truly catch his interest were from a public school in toronto.      “ a shame … wasting all that beauty talking to a guy like me when it should be shown off on the cover of vogue, or something like that. ”      they weren’t empty words either. tori was undeniably gorgeous, and that fact that she wasn’t afraid to live as herself made her all the more alluring.

       “ right … almost forgot about that. ”      the topic was bound to come up eventually, but he was glad tori chose not to touch on it for much longer. he was there to forget about his breakup, after all. though, hanging out with his ex’s best friend most likely was not the best way to go about it. in his defense, his escapades with tori happened far before anything ever got remotely serious with vanessa — and those were some of his favorite times, too. he was never the type to get attached to past conquests, but there was something about the mysterious girl he met in australia that he couldn’t shake from his mind. maybe a part of him was even happy that they were able to meet again. he was only joking when he said it was fate, but perhaps there was truth to the sentiment.

      he saw the look in her eyes — the same one she gave him right before he reluctantly agreed to something that would surely put them in hot water if they were ever caught.      “ sure, i could use some fun. ”      he doesn’t need to say it though, they both knew he’d agree, the only difference now being that there wasn’t a hint of hesitance in his tone.      “ what game did you have in mind, miss venice ? ”

the use of her old pseudonym invokes a smile, impish and perhaps the most genuine she’s smiled all day, save for the whimsical one she flashed the park vendor when he gave her a balloon, free of charge. even that was temporary, resulting in her watching her gift ascend toward the heavens and feeling nothing. but right now, in the fifth barstool from the left, underneath low light, opposite of ice blue hues she feels invigorated. alive.

“maybe a game of--pretend?” the oldest, and in her opinion, funnest in the book. she sips her third martini, and leaves him hanging for a minute before she sets the scene.

“so you are going to work your magic on that girl riiight there” she points ,albeit discreetly, to the the woman positioned just a few seats down from them, college-aged, blonde, and looking fresh off the cover of some foreign magazine. “and i, your very new, very jealous fiance am gonna put a stop to it and confront you before things can get too hot and heavy.” a bit devious, but all harmless fun in her idle mind. she slides the rest of her drink in his direction as if he needs the liquid courage to do what he does best, eyes him expectantly, and says in a tone that’s somehow both sweet and challenging, “you down?”

Clare feels a sense of relief at the sight of Tori, still beautiful as ever, standing in front of her. Once safely in her friend’s arms, burying her face in Tori’s shoulder, breathing in the fading scent of lingering perfume, which had been much stronger the night before, despite how stuffed up her sinuses had become.

Clare snuffles painfully as she gets dragged to sit down. She meets Tori’s deep dark eyes with bloodshot, bright blue eyes, still unable to keep the tears from flooding. As she tries to piece together some sembelance of an excuse to explain such a franic morning call, she realizes how stupid it was to call Tori. Getting her mixed up in her own relationship drama with Jake, that wasn’t like Clare, but she didn’t know who else to call.

“He’s really leaving, T,” she chokes out and runs a hand through her tangled, disheveled curls. “He-he’s actually following that hag.” She’s still in disbelief that Jake was actually going to leave. Although, she had sprung her own truth as well; shooting the same action back in his face.

she stares back at her, wordlessly demanding. and the thought plays out all over her face as it dawns on her just what, or rather who they’re talking about. a part of her sighs inwardly, having done what she could to steer clear of the person in question save for cordial ‘hellos’, taught smiles in passing. but clare had been there for her through so much, she couldn’t not return the favor, even if meant being drug down the jake martin rabbit hole one last time.

“oh--” is her knee-jerk response until she can muster something a bit more eloquent. “oh, clare it’s going to be alright-” she offers gently, scooting a little closer.

“it’s like i told you, c, you gotta let him do what he wants. sometimes the people we love don’t do what we want them to, sometimes we gotta let them go” she surprises herself a little, at the way she sounds. maybe she did learn one thing this year. 

“you can still call him, you can visit..” there’s a part of her believes that they’ll never abandon one another completely. theirs is a bond so deeply rooted, their roots would forever be tangled. 

because...people don’t belong to people. and it’s not like we’re together anymore. we haven’t been for a while now.

it was nice, yeah.

vanessa: a congratulations is due for you as well!

Clare is nodding, even though Tori can’t see the movement, unsure what more she could as she listened to the shuffle on the other end of the phone. Tori must have been getting herself together enough to be decent for an uber; since Clare was probably the only person in the world who didn’t care how Tori looked.

She was still struggling to breath through sobs, but got out a timid, “thanks.”

After a couple of minutes on the phone; static and tears being the only sound, Clare gets to her feet. She was only in her slip from the night before, but it wasn’t like Tori was going to drag her out in public. “I - I’ll be at the, the door,” she stutters, shuffling her way out of her room. The floorboards creak under her slow footsteps and she stops by the front door, unlocking it with a couple twists.

it takes closer to twenty minutes for her to finally arrive at the edwards’ residence, so familiar by now she’s sure she could get there with her eyes closed. and the entire ride over she can’t feel anything but nervous anticipation at clare’s cryptic call, doing her best to piece together what she could, anxiously jiggling her foot at every red light.

she tries to distract herself with a stick of gum, her faint reflection in the window, but the thump thump thump-ing in her chest doesn’t settle until they’re face to face, and can hear from her own mouth what’s set her so off-kilter.

“clare--” she considers her, tear-stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes, wraps her arms around her shoulders and consoles her in a quiet tone, a little bit unsure.

the house is still, but not eerily so. more of a solemn silence that at least rids her nerves of the fact that someone had died. still, it’s clear that all is not well. she moves carefully, sets her crocheted cross body down next to her when she sits. and she’s looking at her now with questions in her eyes, one in particular, “what happened?” 

Clare is sobbing, heaving painfully into the voice box of her phone, as Tori starts to talk. She can hear her friend piecing together what she can before Clare can even get out a word. She takes a couple deep breaths, trying to still the overwhelming flood of tears.

“T?” she finally gets out, still struggling to catch her breath. She shakes her head, her frizzy hair flying around her head. “Puh-ple-pleease,” she was already begging, “I ca-can’t be alone. Pleeeeaase, Tori.” And she’s weeping again as the loneliness is setting in.

It wasn’t fair to ask Tori to come to her aid, especially when she had previously dated Jake. But who else she supposed to call? It’s not like she could call Jake after they just let their relationship burning out. He was probably disappointed, angry with her. She didn’t really have any other girl friends she could talk to about relationship drama. And mostly, she didn’t want to talk to Tori; she just needed her to be present. Like they had done so many times before that terrible day she had left Clare too.

her heart skips a nervous beat at the sheer amount of desperation in her voice. and suddenly, she’s wide awake and looking for shoes on her bedroom floor. “what happened clare? can you tell me what happened?” she gets out, sliding into a pair of white high top converse to complement her pullover and pajama shorts, an almost acceptable ensemble, but it would certainly do for the time being. 

“okay, okay i’ll be over in fifteen--” her fingers make quick work of the uber app on her phone, and she’s trying not to let the other girl hear it, but there’s something fearful that wells up inside. immediately, she assumes worst case scenario. 

tor: congratulations queen 👑👑👑

Arlene: we kissed the other day though. definitely felt fireworks.

Arlene: sounds good to me, you know better than i would.\

tori: just in time for a summer romanceee