The Way We Are // Jori A.U. (DISCONTINUED)

chapter 1 - City of Angels

The photo is how Tori dressed up. Also since Victoria hasn't been releasing any new music, I will be underlining some song titles that I will pretend are hers when they're really mine just to emphasize originality because I don't want Tori to "write" songs that are originally by like Maroon 5 for example or Kiana Lede so yeah, be prepared for a lot of my upcoming songs and lyrics to be mentioned in this story! Also, we will just pretend that Gold was written recently and not YEARS ago hahaha enjoy!
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"I told you I'm busy, Cat. I just got back two days ago and I was just so tired, had to sleep in for a couple of days and I really need to unpack." Tori chuckled into the phone.
"Yes, but we haven't seen you in almost three years, Tori! We have so much to tell you and we really miss you and you have no choice." The redhead girl named Cat sternly stated.
"What do you mean I have no choice?" Tori asked, chuckling in confusion. Just then, the doorbell of her house that she hasn't heard in a long time rang throughout the house.
"Coming!" Tori called out, covering the mouth piece of the phone. "I'll call you back later." She muttered back on the phone before hanging up and making her way down to the front door. On her way down, she passed a mirror that hung beautifully in the hallway to the stairs. Tori couldn't help but take a good look at herself for a moment. She was back home after years and she remembered the last time she looked into this mirror. It was two and a half years ago, she had just graduated Hollywood Arts and was leaving to New York to audition for a spot at Wilford University of Fine Arts. They were holding entry auditions for vocalists and she was ready to perform a ballad version of Finally Falling. She was young, naive and filled with hopes and dreams. Her hair was longer and wavier then, and her face was rounder. She was skinnier, too. Now, her hair was still as long, but was now thinner, dyed black and permanently straightened. Her face matured like fine wine, making her beautiful cheekbones more prominent. Her eyebrows were shaped and she had a nice, natural tan that would fade back in whenever she was somewhere with a lot of sun, but would gradually fade away when she would be somewhere that was the opposite as it should since she was a latina. She tucked a lock of hair that framed her face behind her ear before moving on to the door. She reached over to the handle of the heavy door and saw a group of familiar faced people standing there with smiles and balloons.
"Surprise!" They all yelled. It was her friends - her high school friends. She hasn't seen them in a long time and the feeling of home and nostalgia hit her hard. Tears of joy burst out as Tori opened her arms to bring them all into a group hug.
"Oh my God, you guys! I missed you all." She cried out, hugging each one of them individually. She wrapped her arms around Cat, who now had her natural, brown hair grown out and showing. She had tied her long hair up into a high ponytail, exposing her matured face. Her face was slimmer, her features were more defined, she got a nice tan that made Tori's memory of a pale, red head girl disappear and overall she looked great. Tori smiled at Cat warmly before turning to Beck who engulfed her in a tight hug. Beck had his fluffy mane cut into a shorter, yet fluffy quiff, and had a simple mustache and goatee type of beard. He had gotten slightly more muscular and grew a couple more inches taller than Tori. Next was Andre, he practically pulled Tori off Beck and into his strong arms. Andre had cut off his braids and had small curls on his head instead with a sheer mustache and lined beard on his face, lining his jawline. His eyes had sunken in more, making him seem more matured. Robbie was shaken the most since Tori basically forced him into the hug without letting him even open his arms. He had bloomed into a geeky hottie - his voice got huskier and lower, his wild curls were finally tamed by a good shave to the sides and a permanent straight on the top, creating a natural fringe. His face had slimmed in, and his baby face transformed into a sharp lined model's face. Most surprising was that Rex was no longer resting on his hand.
"Guys, I missed you all so much! You have no idea." Tori gushed, wiping away her tears.
"We missed you too!" Cat exclaimed. Her high voice has now lowered slightly and she seemed more down to earth than high in the clouds.
"My, you've all changed so much! I can't believe this!" Tori exclaimed, stroking Beck's face, twirling Cat's long, brown hair, patting Andre's hair and squeezing Robbie's cheeks. Then it hit her - there was one person missing. "Where's Jade?"
"Jade's at work." Beck commented, taking a seat on one of the couches.
"Oh." Was all she could say. She felt the tension in the room, and the deafening silence was making things worse so she decided to change subject. "So, since you guys are here do you wanna go get dinner? I really want us to catch up! I know some things you've all been doing through Cat, but it's not the same."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat inquired furiously confused. I guess old habits die hard, Tori thought to herself before chuckling.
"I mean that I wanna hear more from all of you, even you Cat." Tori smiled.
"Well, we thought of going to get a drink at a club. It's pretty new and we wanted to check it out - you down?" Andre asked from the piano.
"Definitely, let me just go get changed and let's go." She responded. She turned on the television and watched as her highschool friends got comfortable around the house as if nothing's changed. Tori smiled to herself at the top of the stairs before making her way to her bedroom. Nothing's changed in here either, there were only some of her boxes that she was going to have her parents send over to New York to her new apartment. Looking through her luggage, she eventually decided on a pair of denim jeans with buttons on the front and a frayed seam, a black shiny, leather top with elbow-length sleeves and completed the look with simple black heels with ankle straps and toe straps revealing her perfectly painted toe nails. Not wanting to take too long and do something crazy, she went with a safe look and brushed her messy hair down, parting her hair in the middle instead of the side and added hoop earrings. With a ready base and simple mascara and eye liner, she added a dramatic black lip to her simple eye look and deemed herself ready with a spritz of Chanel number 5. Packing her black hand bag with her necessities, she made her way down to meet her friends who immediately noticed her presence and gawked.
"Wow, you never dressed like that before." Beck pointed out calmly with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
"Yeah, what happened to your ripped jeans that were all cool and stuff?" Cat asked, waving her sleeve-covered hand around.
"I-I guess I grew out of that? I mean you did too. You're style's changed in a good way - you used to wear these colourful clothes and now you're wearing a nice neutral hoodie with matching high boots." Tori blushed feeling slightly over dressed.
"You look great. Let's go." Andre smiled. The Hollywood Arts postgraduates wailed in excitement and stumbled out the red door. Tori locked the door behind her and walked out of her parents' driveway into Andre's car.