Nothing Can Break Us, No One Can Make Us

Gerard walked in a few days later, hands both full of envelopes.

“Hello,” he called out. “I got your mail!” He began to rummage through it. “I’m guessing this is yesterday’s mail since today’s Sunday and it doesn’t come today.”

He turned the corner and saw Tori sound asleep on the couch in an awkward position. Walking over to her, he put the mail on the table in front of the couch and crouched down in front of Tori, shaking her shoulder. “Tori, wake up, it’s one in the afternoon.”

Her eyes shot open. Within one second she pushed Gerard out of her way and was already upstairs. He sat up from the floor and blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out what just happened. He ran up the stairs and found her in the bathroom brushing her teeth violently.

“What’s wrong?”

“You said it’s one o’clock, right,” she asked with a mouth full of toothpaste.

“Yeah, why?”

“I was suppose to be at work an hour ago,” she spat out more little squirts of toothpaste and then spat the rest of it into the sink, running past Gerard and into her room. He followed close behind.

“Well then make up an excuse,” he replied to her problem, walking down the hallway and opening a door. “Where’s Maddie?”

“She told me yesterday that she was going out today to look for a job,” she yelled, running out of her room and down the stairs. He followed her again.

“And Joe?”

“Probably still sleeping,” she said, grabbing an apple. “I gotta go, see you later.”

“Want me to drive you? I don’t trust you driving while like this,” he stated.

“Fine,” Tori ran by him and straight out the door, Gerard following her yet again out the door. Five minutes after they left, Maddie walked back in carrying a bag.

“Hello? Tori? You home,” she called out and shrugged. “Probably working.” She walked straight upstairs to her room and emptied its contents onto the bed. She opened up the box that contained her new webcam and began to install it onto her computer. While waiting for the software to load, she signed onto AIM and, of course, Pete was online.

peteisawesome65: HEY!!!!!

maddiex0x0x3: HI!!!

maddiex0x0x3: give me a few minutes

peteisawesome65: alright

After the few minutes that she had requested were up, she sent the video chat request to Pete and waited for him to respond, which did not take long.

“Hey, when did you get a webcam,” he asked the second his smiling face came up on the computer.

“Just today, I need your with a small task,” she asked, changing the tone of the conversation.

“Something wrong?”

“No, I’m just suppose to be job hunting right now and by the time Tori gets home from work I want to say that I was able to get a job. Do you know of any place that has quick hires?”

“Starbucks,” he said without even thinking.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously,” he smiled.

“Good,” she sighed with relief. “You want to come pick me up a little later to grab an application then?”

“Tori won’t be mad,” Pete asked cautiously.

“She’s at work, what she doesn’t know won’t kill her,” Maddie relieved his fear. Her computer dinged at her, signaling that she had another video chat request. “Hold on,” she paused their conversation to read whom it was from. “Ryan,” she asked out loud.

“What is it,” Pete asked through the computer.

“Ryan wants to chat with me, hold on a second,” she said, exiting out of the window and accepting Ryan’s request. When his window came up, he wasn’t looking too happy.

“Tell me what happened,” he said, skipping right over the “hello”.

“Before I tell you anything, how did you know I got a webcam?”

“You put it in your status just now,” he reminded her. “Now start talking.”

“About what,” Maddie became confused.

“About what happened between you and Brendon the last time you saw each other.”

“Why is it so important to you?”

“Not just to me,” he stated. “Spencer and Jon are also wondering as well. No noe has seen him this past week. He hasn’t been answering his phone and his house is completely locked up so we can’t get in. We need to know what happened now.”

“What happened between Brendon and I is our business and our business alone,” she stood her ground. “You don’t need to be barging into my life.”

Ryan was quiet for a bit, looking at the surroundings that were around him at the location he was talking from. “Maddie, you may not see this, but he really likes you. You guys may have ended violently and maybe you didn’t, but either way, Brendon didn’t want it to end.”

She sighed. “Look, Ry-“

“Who the hell are you talking to,” Joe barged in. He noticed the webcam set up and stood behind Maddie. “Is this your boyfriend,” he asked, looking at the screen closely. Ryan’s expression showed pure disgust. Joe pushed Maddie out of her chair and plopped himself down in it. “Hello, Maddie’s new boyfriend, I’m Joe her brother.”

“Wow,” was all Ryan could say.

“So…do you have good intentions for my sister,” he asked right off the bat.

“What,” Ryan screamed.

“Joe! Leave! Now,” Maddie screamed, pushing him off the seat and pointing at the door.

“Fine, fine, but I’m telling Tori that I got to meet your boyfriend today when she gets back,” he sang, skipping out of the room and closing the door behind him. Maddie sat back down in her chair.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized.

“He’s….charming,” Ryan struggled to get out.

“Yeah, yeah, I got to get going anyway, talk later.”

“No wa-“ was all Ryan could get out before Maddie exited out of the window and went back to chatting with Pete.

“Sorry about that, want to come pick me up now?”

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“Are you sure you don’t want me to hang around any longer,” Gerard asked Tori who was busy cleaning up a table. Her job was taking a second shot at being a waitress, hoping that the outcome would be different this time.

“Positive,” she said, pushing by him to go to a different table. He followed close behind her as if he was her puppy.

“Fine, but what if something comes up?”

“We already been through this,” she said, swiftly turning around. “Do not call me! Get it?”

“Got it,” Gerard said really fast.

“Good,” she said, pointing to the door and watched him leave. He sighed, getting into his car and driving off. Of course there would be a traffic jam on a Sunday when there isn’t anyone ever on the road on this day. He sat there, watching people enter and exit the Starbucks that stood there on the side of the road. The only time he moved was to get a closer look at Pete and Maddie leaving the Starbucks, holding hands. He immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Tori’s number. Within the first ring, she answered.

“WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU,” she yelled into the phone, Gerard hoping that she was outside while talking.

“But To-“

“No buts,” she cut him off. “Do you want me to get fired?!”

“Bu-“

“I said ‘no buts’,” she said right before hanging up. Gerard didn’t take his eyes off the couple the whole time and managed to get out of traffic to follow their car. When he had to pass their car, they were at Pete’s house. He made a quick U-turn and as he was passing by for the second and last time, they were already making out and were only halfway through the door.

“Oh, just wait ‘til Tori here’s about this,” he said, creating a new text message on his phone.