A Singer or a Fighter (Tori Vega/Shelby Marx)

Coastal View

Late Saturday morning found Tori riding her bike along the coast with Sam on her own motorcycle. Sam had suggested it through text the night before and Tori excitedly agreed. It's a relaxing rush if that makes sense. It was a warm day and the beach views were amazing! A pang went through her. If only she could keep doing this. This sense of knowing she could go anywhere if she wanted to. Go where no one had expectations of her or find people who did care for her in a way that wasn't surface level and only cared when they wanted something.

Her Hollywood Art friends were great, but they would only know half of her and that made it lonely sometimes.

Tori glanced to her side. Sam was laidback, easily following the road in soft turns that her bike was meant for. Compared to her own, Tori's fingers itched a bit in curiosity to see how fast she could go on these curving hills and lanesplitting traffic.

She shook her head at her unsafe thoughts. Maybe she should lift some weights when she gets back.

Taking a deep breath, she took in the pretty view of the ocean as she and Sam cruised along for another thirty minutes until Sam pointed out a diner that was coming up ahead. Tori nodded her agreement and they exited the highway, pulling up to the diner.

They got a booth in back, but still with a good view, with Tori facing the rest of the diner. The waitress came around with a pen and pad, "What can I get ya?"

"I'll have the spaghetti and if you could be a doll and also bring taco shells? Thanks." Sam handed her the menu, "Oh and a coke please."

Tori and the waitress both raised their eyebrows at the strange order.

"Um, and I'll have the breakfast combo with hash browns, pancakes, bacon, and over easy eggs with orange juice, please."

The waitress nodded and went to get their drinks.

Tori tapped her fingers, "Thanks again for the flowers, but now my friends think I am dating someone and trying to keep it a secret," her amused smile became a grimace.

Sam burst out laughing, "Hahaha, what! Why would they think that? They're just flowers."

Tori smiled too, "You do know that there's such a thing as flower language."

"And how was I supposed to know? I asked for the best damn flowers there and that's what they gave me! Are you complaining?!"

Sam and her eyed each other before laughing again. The waitress took the opportunity to set down their drinks.

"Ha, but now things are awkward. Jade said something that kind of hurt... And there's this party tonight that I promised my friends I'd go to."

"Well, do you want to go?" Sam asked.
"I do and don't. I haven't gotten to see my friends lately, but my ribs are also fractured-"

"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU'VE BEEN RIDING WITH ME FOR THE BETTER PART OF THE MORNING WITH BROKEN RIBS??"

The diner went silent.

Tori shrugged and took a sip of her drink, "Maybeee."

Sam shook her head, chuckling, "Seems to me like it's something else because it isn't your ribs that are stopping you. CLEARLY."

"What? That isn't-." Tori looked down, the waitress just brought over their food and she stared at her hash browns like they'd give her the answer.

Tori sighed, "Okay, so Jade is bothering me a bit more that usual and she will be there for sure. Other than that, I would like to go. I haven't celebrated my win against Maren yet after all."

Sam smirked, "You haven't celebrated yet? Well we can't have that. How about this, I also go to the party. That way we can drink, play beer pong, and generally be better than everyone there."

Tori looked up in surprise, "Really?"

"Sure, it's been awhile since mama has been let out of her cage."

Sam grinned and Tori grinned back, raising her glass that Sam clinked to, "To generally being better than everyone else."

Tori felt a lot better knowing she'll have Sam to talk to. Cat usually disappeared to chase boys, Andre chasing a girl(or a panda), Robbie chasing any girl that would glance at him, and Jade and Beck arguing or sitting in stony silence.

Tori was about to take her first bite when a group of blushing girls came up to their table, "Hi, sorry to interrupt, but are you Shelby Marx? Can we take a picture with you?"

Sam pulled her hoodie over her face which Tori understood, sometimes you don't want to be recognized.

Tori, or Shelby, nodded and smiled. She got up and got into different poses with the group, she stiffened when one of them wrapped an arm around her waist, but she didn't hurt her ribs thankfully.

A few pics later, they all thanked her profusely and offered her some get well soons. One of them pushed a paper into her hands and waved at her before they left the diner.

Tori waved back and looked at it after sitting down, "Ummm-" It was one of those instant pictures that the girl took of just the two of them, "-why did she give this to me?"

Sam rolled her eyes and chuckled, "Flip it over dummy."

Tori glared at her calling her a dummy, but did what she said. It was a girls name Anaya along with a phone number and hearts.

"Oh."

" Yup. You seemed cool and aloof when you were with them, but you literally didn't know they all had crushes on you." Sam started laughing while Tori's cheeks burned.

"I know people get crushes on me, but it's the first time someone gave me their number in a kind of cute way." Tori thought of the creepy fan letters she would get and shuddered.

"Anyway, Ms. Hot Stuff-" Tori glared again, "- Let's have a race to see who finishes their food first."

"It's on!"

~~~

So Sam won that time. Tori called her a cheater for starting when Tori was still talking.

Flashback:

"It's on!- Hey! Sam, you didn't say start!"
*eating noises*
A muffled, "Cheater," was said.
Sam flipped her off.

End of flashback.

Sam said she shouldn't have wasted time talking.
Tori rolled her eyes.

That was a couple hours ago and now she's back at her house. Tori is laying on her bed upside down and Sam is looking around her room.

"So this is the room of the Great Shelby Marx." Sam marveled, she ran her fingers over some of her Shelby stuff she had laying around.

"Yup. Disappointed?" Tori joked.
"Not at all." Sam said.
Tori's chest warmed. It felt strange to know that someone aside from her family knows about her being Shelby.

"I'm glad you know or I guess I'm glad you figured me out. Feels nice that someone knows about me."

"Don't be getting soft on me Shelby," Sam said, laying next to Tori.

Tori smirked, "Not even a little. Aren't you my biggest fan that watched every single one of my fights live and even spent a hundred dollars for pay per view?"

"What! How do you know about that? And it wasn't my money, it was Spencer's," Sam folded her arms.

"A little birdy told me. Haha, my number one fan girl!" Tori hugged Sam and Sam kept pushing her away, "Is your little birdy Carly! I'm so going to get her back that little sneak!"