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“Look, I don’t wanna be your boyfriend if we’re just gonna fight all the time,” Beck said, anger scrunching every muscle in his face. He felt so frustrated, unable to contain his emotions any longer. He had just wanted to bring Jade over to show her how much damage they were wreaking on their group of friends – to the point that they didn’t even want the couple to join their card game anymore. He was sick of the fighting.
“So you wanna break up?” she asked. There was challenge in her tone. There was no way she was going to back down.
Beck fumbled. He should have known she would say that. “No, I-I didn’t say that, I’m just saying—”
“You guys might break up?” Trina interjected.
Beck cast a sideward glance at the older Vega but returned his attention to Jade, who had turned her back and grabbed one of the pillows off the sofa.
Trina continued her ramble. “Because I’m not dating anyone, and I’ve always thought that Beck and I would make the perf—”
Beck almost sighed in relief when the pillow Jade had viciously grabbed sailed harmlessly past his face but landed dead center in Trina’s.
“Next time, it’s a hammer,” Jade threatened, her eyebrow arching. “Come on, Beck, take me to get some food.” It was an order, but also, in some very Jade sort of way, it was a plea to not have this discussion here.
Beck, unable to rein in his anger yet, sighed, “I’m tired of fighting.”
Jade paused in surprise for only a fraction of a fraction of a second before nodding. “Okay, I’m gonna walk out that door, and I’m gonna count to ten—”
“Don’t forget three!” Cat chirped. “Some people forget it.”
Jade didn’t retort or shut the redhead down but pressed on, “If I get to ten and you’re not out there, I’m going home, and we’re over.” Her voice had the ghost of a waver, but Beck wasn’t even sure, because she left the room and started with “One…”
It was chaos for several moments with Jade’s voice counting out numbers but muffled by the closed door and Trina tackling him and trying to stop him from opening the door.
Beck stopped for a breath at the door, hesitating.
“Ten.”
Silence.
Beck ran a hand through his messy hair, cold dread beginning to settle between his shoulder blades. Something inside him splintered at the sound of Jade’s car engine revving and driving away.
Beck woke up with a jolt, lurching back to reality. He was in his RV, still laying on his bed, drenched in sweat and his gut filled with a sense of unease so uncommon to him that it made it hard to breathe. “Jade,” he whispered into his empty home. He rubbed his face tiredly, trying to scrub away the dream. It was just a dream, he thought over and over.
He glanced at the glow-in-the-dark hands of the analogue clock on his wall. 2AM. He rolled back over and tried to get back to sleep before school the next day.
Beck woke up again at 6AM, well before his alarm.
He groaned then proceeded to get ready for the day. He got cleaned up and dressed for school before exiting his RV. He shut the door, or tried to. The lock still bounced back a bit, so Beck nudged it shut gently, just so it would hold. He resolved to fix it sometime this week. Jade had kicked it a little too hard to break in on one of her jealous rages.
Beck headed into his parents’ house for a quick breakfast.
“Everything alright, son?” his mom asked, seeing his tired face.
Beck gave her a warm smile. “Yeah, just had a bad dream and woke up at 2AM,” he said. “I’ll be okay.”
After breakfast, he kissed his mom on the cheek and headed for his car.
Mrs. Oliver frowned a bit at her son’s departure. It was much earlier than she was used to seeing him leave. He had taken his time with breakfast and still had plenty of time to spare. Deciding that he would talk to her if there was something wrong and that one odd day didn’t make a pattern of bad behavior, she busied herself with cleaning up the dishes.
Beck was 45 minutes early for school, so he decided to make a quick trip to Jet Brew and pick up coffee for himself and Jade.
He took his time adding sugar and cream to his before fixing Jade’s with her standard two sugars.
Thankfully, he didn’t need anything from his locker that day, so he went straight to Jade’s locker to wait for her to arrive. He leaned against the wall instead of blocking other students’ lockers and sipped his coffee while waiting for his girlfriend.
His mind drifted, and he stared straight into a crack in the linoleum, his mind getting pulled back into his nightmare.
“Beck?”
Beck’s head snapped up at the sound of his name and the feel of someone’s hand on his bicep. His face softened when he looked up and right into Jade’s blue eyes. “Hey,” he greeted, kissing her cheek before offering her the cup of coffee in his hand. “Coffee?”
Jade’s eyebrows furrowed, unaccustomed to Beck bringing her coffee unprompted. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just got in a bit early. I thought I’d surprise you,” he said, pressing the warm cup into her hand.
Jade continued to eye him suspiciously, even as she brought the cup to her lips and took a sip. It was that perfectly drinkable warm temperature. It made her smile a little at the sensation.
Beck couldn’t help smiling to himself when Jade cracked her tough exterior just a fraction over something as small as a cup of coffee. He drained his cup and chucked it in the trash nearby while Jade went about getting things from her locker.
He watched her quietly, taking in her dark hair with the green streaks, the black top with lace sleeves, black skirt and black nylons and those long legs of hers encased in black leather shin-high boots. His gaze went back and settled on her throat, where she wore her gold-ring necklace as a choker.
He felt the weird anxious cloud he had left home with recede just a bit, knowing she chose to wear something he had gotten for her.
Jade caught the strange look he was giving her but said nothing. She stuffed her books in her bag, grabbed her coffee from where she had set it down in her locker and shut the door. She adjusted her bag on her shoulder before grabbing for Beck’s hand, interlocking their fingers and nudging him in the direction of their first period.
That night, Beck had almost the same dream, or nightmare rather.
“Ten,” came Jade’s voice with a touch of heartrending finality, and then silence.
Her car started, and the engine roared as she drove away.
Instead of waking up, Beck heard a much louder engine roar followed by the sickening sound of a heavy collision, the screech of tires, shattering glass, a thud and a blaring car horn.
His hand, which had paused on the handle of Tori’s front door, gripped hard and twisted. He shot out of the Vegas living room like a bullet, running toward the street.
There was a hiss from an engine as Beck came upon the scene.
Jade’s black car had been rammed in the rear at an angle by a neighbor going way too fast in a much larger SUV.
Beck ran over to Jade’s car where it had probably swerved uncontrollably and then hit a large tree across the street. “No!” he cried, seeing Jade’s head against the horn, blood trickling from her hair and her eyes open and unseeing.
Beck woke with a start again. The image of Jade’s bleeding (and most likely lifeless) form burned into his mind. He rubbed his face, trying to wipe the image from his mind’s eye. He realized his hands were wet. He wasn’t sure when he had started crying, but there were tears pouring from his eyes as he tried to breathe past the panic his dream had caused. He calmed down and checked the time. It was 4AM. He didn’t think he could go back to sleep anymore, so he got up and grabbed his headphones, trying to drown out the awful dream in the music blaring in his ears.
He tried to piece together the dream. The most vivid parts were the ones before he awoke, but he had a vague recollection of minor details before the uncharacteristic breakup that he had dreamed of twice now. Something about Sinjin hosting a gameshow and the two of us fighting. He wracked his brain for the last thing they had fought about for real. Maggie Vickers, he remembered. She was a girl in his English class, which Jade wasn’t in. Maggie had been over at their lunch table yesterday. It was after Beck had worked on a library assignment with her. He had known Maggie was trying to insert herself at their table for lunch, and Jade had arrived from her History class at the completely wrong moment – when Maggie had grabbed his arm, before he could have said anything to make her stop. Jade had screamed at Maggie to unhand her boyfriend until the other girl made a run for it.
“You didn’t have to yell,” Beck admonished.
“It wasn’t like you were going to do it!” Jade shouted.
“I would have asked her nicely to move over to where her friends are,” Beck said as calmly as he could.
“Well, not fast enough!” Jade retorted, settling into the seat beside him.
“We just finished at the library, and we just got here. It was nothing. It’s not like I knew she was going to grab my arm or anything!” Beck said, his voice rising. This was always a struggle with her. She got so jealous all the time!
“Like it’s completely out of character for all the pretty girls in your classes!” Jade shot back.
Beck chose to ignore it in favor of motioning to the spot beside him, and they dug into lunch in silence.
It wasn’t as heated as the nonsense arguments he had been having in his dreams, but he did sense that it was something that kept repeating itself. But why? He considered what it would have been like if the roles were reversed. Imagining Jade sitting with some guy like Braden from History was admittedly unpleasant to him. He couldn’t imagine her even touching Braden, let alone allowing him to sit in her presence longer than she deemed necessary. I was just trying to be nice, not hostile, he thought, but he shook his head, realizing that the interaction with Maggie was only ever going to end with Jade’s jealous screaming, because Maggie had already sat down. He had let both Maggie and Jade walk right into that situation.
With that, Beck resolved to pay more attention to what sorts of situations he got caught up with other girls in. He wanted to avoid the confrontation and possible breakup from his bad dreams. He wasn’t so superstitious as to think that causing a breakup could cause Jade’s death, but he shivered at the memory of her in that nightmare car wreck.
In that moment, he ached to hold her and assure himself she was really alright. Even if he knew it was just a dream, he couldn’t shake it.
At school the next morning, Beck showed up at Jade’s locker to wait for her with her coffee on hand again.
“Okay, out with it, what is going on with you?” she demanded.
Beck shrugged sheepishly before offering her the cup of coffee.
Jade took it. “Not that I don’t appreciate it, but this is two days in a row, and I haven’t asked you to bring me coffee. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” he said. “I just felt like doing something nice.” He said the last bit as more of a question than a statement, which caused Jade to raise a questioning eyebrow.
Jade opened her locker and set her cup down while she waited for Beck to say something. She reined in her irritation that he wouldn’t just tell her what was going on. She hated it when people kept things from her, and she could always tell if Beck was. “What is it? Did you mess up a rehearsal schedule? Are you breaking up with me over coffee? Is there another girl? What?” she rattled off as neutrally as she could. Truth be told, even the suggestion that there was someone else he could be interested in hurt.
Beck squinted in confusion. “What? No!” he exclaimed. “Babe, I would never,” he said, a little more desperately than intended.
Jade shut her locker, taking a long sip of her coffee. “How long have you been standing here?” she asked sharply, realizing that the coffee was pretty cold already.
Beck ran a hand through his hair. “A while?”
Jade grabbed his hand and hauled him to the janitor’s closet for some privacy. She put the cup down and crossed her arms over her chest. “Spill.”
Beck sighed and rubbed his face. “I’m sorry,” he said.
To her credit, Jade did not go nuclear with how annoyed the nonsensical apology made her. She just waited for clarification.
“I’m sorry I sound off. I just haven’t slept well the last couple of nights. I keep waking up way too early because of some bad dreams, and I spend my extra waking hours thinking about you,” he said. He brought his hand to her cheek, tracing it with his fingers. “You make things better.”
Jade’s eyes softened. Her hands came up to his face. “Are you sure that’s all there is to it?” she asked seriously.
Beck nodded, dropping his mouth to hers in a brief kiss.
Jade smirked at him. “You know, if all you wanted was a kiss, you could have led with that.” She pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his again. “If you’re up too early tonight, just call me.”
The dream tonight was different, Beck could feel it.
He saw Jade at Hollywood Arts, but for some reason, he could never reach her. Every time he saw her in the hallway, she stalked off in another direction.
He checked the Slap. They were broken up. It was just like the first dream.
He watched her with Ryder Daniels and other guys from school, always too many steps ahead of him and never looking him in the eye.
“Jade,” he called out, finally getting to her near the soda machines.
“I have nothing to say to you, Beck Oliver, you made your choice when you didn’t open the door. Screw you,” she spat.
Beck rolled over as he woke up. This was a little less jarring than before, but it left him feeling bereft and hurt still. He checked the time on his Pearphone. 3AM. He considered calling Jade like she had told him to. He frowned to himself, unwilling to disturb her sleep. He settled for sending her a text message instead. I love you, he typed out then hit send.
At school the next morning, Jade was there before Beck. This time, she bought the coffee but opted to wait for him at Jet Brew, knowing he might be inclined to get her coffee for the third day in a row.
“I told you to call me,” she said sternly.
“Sorry,” he said, kissing her forehead as he sat down. “It didn’t feel right to wake you.”
Jade shifted closer to him, bringing his arm around her. “Tell me about your nightmares?”
Beck planted a kiss on her cheek, just enjoying the fact that this version of Jade – the real one – hadn’t run away from him or thrown him aside.
Jade sighed exasperatedly but chose not to push. She kissed his lips before settling against him for a few more minutes. If he wouldn’t talk, the least she could do for him was be present there with him.
They were in Sikowitz’s classroom, but the teacher was nowhere to be found.
Jade moved her chair close to Beck’s and rested her legs over his, staying close. Something was bothering him about those nightmares, and somehow being with her was keeping him grounded. She figured if he was always there grounding her before she flew too far off the handle, she could ground him for a change.
Tori’s phone blared in a way that was not safe for human ears.
Beck flinched, overcome with a sense of déja vu. Tori’s phone being broken was part of that nightmare.
Jade felt Beck’s movement, since she was practically in his lap. She glanced at him before glaring at Tori and her busted phone. She almost felt sorry for Robbie, who was too nice to tell Tori to go plug her own 10-mile long charger cord in. Almost sorry.
Sinjin walked in and started blubbering about a game show he pitched to GameGoober.com. Jade immediately hated it, but instead of protesting loudly like she wanted to, she stayed quiet. Beck’s hand found its way to hers and squeezed.
Jade glared at the text blast she received from Sinjin. She and Beck were sitting at their usual table at lunch, waiting for the others to arrive.
“Do you want to go?” Beck asked.
Not in a million years, she thinks. “Do you?” she asked him instead.
Beck shook his head.
Jade tilted her head to the side. That was unheard of. She was usually the one that says no to things, and he was the one who proceeded to change her mind (which she tended to regret thereafter, but whatever). “You’re being weird again. What’s going on?”
Beck was a bit taken aback with the softness with which she asked. He took a moment to gather his thoughts. “I keep having nightmares of you breaking up with me.”
Jade’s eyebrows shot up.
“You walk out and give me up to the count of ten to follow you or else we’re done,” he told her, dejected. “I can never seem to open the door and follow you, and in one of those dreams I didn’t chase after you, you ended up in a car accident.” The words flowed out in a rush, as if he were embarrassed that he’s even telling her. “We fight so much I worry it’s just a matter of time.”
Ignoring the fact that Beck has just voiced an insecurity she had never thought possible, Jade chose to ask, “What does it have to do with Sinjin?”
“I’ve known about his little GameGoober.com application for a while. I overheard him in English last week, and for some reason,” he sighed, ruffling his hair. He took a breath and continued, “For some reason, I’ve been having nightmares of being one of the couples in his game show, and us losing really badly against people who aren’t even really together, because we just can’t seem to agree on anything, and we fight… a lot, and it all comes to a head, and you walk out.” He fiddled with the sleeves of his flannel. “I’ve had that dream end three different ways, and I don’t like any of them.”
Jade’s lips pressed in a frown. She was usually the insecure one, which she always covered up with bravado, threats and screaming to keep herself above her own messy emotions. She felt completely out of her element. Any other day, she would probably have rolled her eyes and asked him if he wanted to call it quits or wanted her dead, because why else would he dream of those things? But today, she didn’t think that was the way to go. Beck looked genuinely distraught and sleep-deprived to her.
Before she could say a word, she heard Andre and Tori coming, chattering about plans to go support Sinjin. “We’ll talk about this some more later,” she whispered before pecking his lips reassuringly.
Beck put on a cool front, and Jade set her face in her usual scowl as the others rounded the corner from the food truck.
“Did you two have another fight?” Tori whined, dropping her large bag down on the bench on Beck’s right side. She sat down and looked at the couple patronizingly.
Jade rolled her eyes and picked at her salad.
“No, what makes you think we had a fight?” Beck asked. His left hand found its way to Jade’s right leg.
Jade continued to poke her salad with her fork in her right hand, but her left hand covered Beck’s.
“Jade looks like someone tried to pull a Maggie,” André said, sitting beside Tori.
Beck withdrew his hand and brought it around Jade’s shoulders, moving himself closer to her and away from Tori. “If someone did, I’d probably be groveling right about now,” he replied vaguely.
Jade smirked into her food but said nothing.
After a beat, Cat and Robbie came over.
“Hey, could we get a ride to the studio for Sinjin’s game show tomorrow?” Cat asked.
Jade glanced over at Beck whose face gave nothing away.
“Sure thing, Cat,” Beck said.
“So, do you guys wanna come over for cards later?” Tori invited.
Beck reined in his reaction, as André, Robbie and Cat all said yes. “I, uh, I’ll have to pass. I have to do some repairs on the RV,” he said.
“What repairs?” Robbie asked.
“Oh, the door,” Beck said.
“Oh! What happened to the door?” Cat asked.
Beck cleared his throat while pointedly glancing at Jade.
“That explains a lot,” Tori said, recalling that time Jade had burst into Beck’s RV in the middle of a video call for an assignment. She looked at Jade. “Do you wanna come play with us?”
Jade looked like she had eaten something too sweet. “Okay, I’ll be there.”
Jade was at her car after school before anyone else. She saw Beck’s car a few yards away and decided to wait for him there.
Beck came by a few minutes later.
“What changed your mind about Sinjin’s game show?” Jade asked.
“I couldn’t say no,” Beck replied with a frown.
“You could have,” Jade said, her nose scrunching a bit at how Beck always seemed to struggle with saying what he meant.
“It’s Cat,” he said.
Jade sighed in resignation. That really was the only explanation she needed. As weird as she found Cat, the little redhead she called a pet was her best friend. “Okay, they’re not all going to fit in your car, and I’m not about to let you go to that thing without me. I’ll take Cat and Tori.”
“Are you sure?” Beck asked.
Jade glared.
“I just mean that her phone is probably going to piss you off,” he said, trying to avert Jade misunderstanding his question. “It’s not that I want her in mine.”
Jade shrugged. “She’s not plugging that thing into my car. No power, no noisy broken phone.” She stepped closer to him, bringing her hand up to his neck and guiding him to look at her. “Why are your dreams really bothering you so much?”
“I-I don’t want to lose you,” he said. “I’m freaking out that any time we fight, it could be our last.”
Jade huffed and shook her head. “So you’re just going to buy me coffee and butter me up every chance you get?”
“Hey, I was not buttering you up,” he responded.
“’If someone did, I’d probably be groveling right about now,” she said, using her manly voice.
Beck laughed at her impression. He wrapped his arms loosely around her middle. “I meant that, though,” he said, looking deep into her eyes.
“Beck, this doesn’t work if you just give in to me like you’re some lackey,” she said. “I don’t want someone to grovel at my feet.”
“How you scream at Burf and anyone else could have fooled me,” Beck teased.
“Let me rephrase that then,” she said, her mouth quirking in a smile. “I don’t want my boyfriend to grovel at my feet. Every other guy can, because I won’t let anyone else touch me.” She pulled him closer to her until their lips met.
“I did mean it, though,” he said, as he pulled back from her lips but stayed close. “I’m sorry if you’ve ever felt like anyone like Maggie is a threat.”
Jade’s eyes hardened. “Are you saying they are?”
“No,” he replied seriously. “I just mean that I know having girls like her hanging around makes you uncomfortable.”
“That’s an understatement,” Jade quipped, looking away from him.
“Hey.” Beck caught her chin with his hand and kissed her again. “I love you,” he said against her lips.
Jade bit her lip against an uncontrollable smile and nodded. “I want you to promise me you’ll call me if you have another nightmare tonight, and I want you to promise me you’ll talk to me, okay?” she said.
“Okay,” he replied.
“Even if you think I’m sleeping,” she said, poking his chest.
“I promise,” he said.
Jade huffed one more time. “I’m off to Tori’s,” she told him.
“I’m surprised you said yes,” he said.
“They’re my friends, too,” she replied before adding, “sort of.”
Beck grinned proudly.
“This is not funny!” Beck yelled.
“Right! What’s funny is you freaking out over a dumb game show!” she shouted back.
" We were voted worst couple, and the other two couples weren’t even real couples!”
Jade shook her head like she didn’t get the point.
“And one had Robbie in it,” Beck continued, annoyed. Why couldn’t she understand why losing was so upsetting?
“Why do you care if we were voted worst couple?” she asked.
Beck exhaled angrily. “It’s a matter of whether or not this works!”
“What?”
“We’re fighting all the time. It makes all our friends uncomfortable, and we can’t even beat two pairs of fake couples in a game show run by Sinjin! Sinjin, of all people!” Beck shouted.
“Is that all that matters between us?” she asked, her voice suddenly a lot quieter than it had been a minute ago. She crossed her arms defensively.
“Jade…”
“Is it?” she asked again, more demanding this time, “because if it is, then maybe we really do deserve that trophy.”
“What do you mean?” Beck asked, confused.
“I thought we were together for our own reasons,” Jade said evenly. “I didn’t realize this was some democracy where other people get a vote.”
“What? No, I don’t—”
“You don’t what? You don’t actually care what they think? That’s a lie, and you know it,” she spat.
“I don’t. I just—”
“You know what? Fine,” she said. “If that’s what really matters to you, then we’re done. Go find someone else to be your girlfriend who’ll give stupid answers to a stupid game show that match yours, who appears to everyone else to be the perfect girl to be in a stupid relationship with!” She made to move around him toward the door, to make a dramatic exit.
“Jade, wait,” Beck pleaded, grabbing her by the arms before she could reach the door. He turned her to face him. “I’m sorry,” he said. He gripped her arms firmly. “That’s not what I meant.”
Jade scowled and raised her eyebrows at him, daring him to explain.
“Are you happy with the way we are?” Beck asked her.
“Most of the time,” she replied bluntly.
“And when you’re not, you don’t think about breaking up?” he asked.
Jade’s eyebrows furrowed. “No, why would you even think that? What am I, four?”
Beck woke from another dream that revolved around breaking up with Jade. He checked the time. 2AM again. He grabbed his phone, willing himself to make good on his promise. He hit Jade’s number on speed dial and let it ring.
“Hey,” came Jade’s voice on the other end. It was rough from sleep but it was welcoming.
“Are you happy with the way we are?” Beck blurted out.
“What? Why?” she asked.
“Just answer the question.”
“You should know better than to ask me if I’m happy about something, Beck,” Jade responded, half-teasing.
“Jade,” Beck called her name.
“To put it into words you might understand better, then yes, I am,” she replied.
“You don’t think we fight too much?” Beck asked.
“No, we’ve always pushed each other a lot,” Jade said matter-of-factly. “I always thought it was just because we both knew what we wanted and so we took a while longer to compromise.” She paused before added, “Or at least I did. I don’t play well with others, even you.”
“I know that,” Beck chuckled.
“Is that what’s been bothering you? Is that why you’ve been having those dreams?” Jade asked.
“Maybe, I don’t know,” he answered.
“Do you want to break up?” she asked.
He realized she had never asked him that seriously before. It was always some threatening challenge, something over-the-top, like she knew he wouldn’t consent. With the exception of the one time she had broken up with him over Alyssa Vaughn, she had never actually followed through on that ever again.
“Beck? Are you still there?” she asked.
Beck recognized the quiver in her voice as vulnerability. “Yeah, I’m here,” he said. “No, I don’t want to break up. I’ve been having nightmares of you wanting to break up with me,” he said.
“Relax, Beck, I don’t either,” she replied, a little more playfully now. She waited a beat and said, “I love you.”
Beck’s heart caught in his throat. She had been the one to say it first much earlier in their relationship, but she said it so sparingly that it shocked him in a good way every time.
“Fighting with you is something safe for me, if I’m honest,” she confessed. “It reminds me I can be who I am, I can want what I want, and I can tell you even if you don’t agree, and you can handle it.” She waited a moment for him to say something, but there was no response, so she continued, “But if that’s an issue with you, then maybe we can find some other way around it.”
“I hadn’t thought of the fights that way,” Beck said truthfully.
“Of course not, you’re always too busy thinking of what other people are seeing,” Jade replied. It was statement of fact, not really an accusation.
Beck realized she was right. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” Beck asked.
“I’ve sort of accepted that about you. You’re the cool guy,” she commented before changing to her male voice, “If I were any more laid back, I’d be horizontal.”
“Hey,” he admonished with a laugh.
She laughed, too. “I’ll try to rile you up a little less,” she said.
“I’ll do the same,” he replied. “Although, I have to admit, jealous Jade is pretty hot.”
“So you do that on purpose?” Jade snapped.
Beck could hear the flash of both hurt and curiosity. “I don’t go around looking for it, and I admit I could be a lot faster at shutting other girls down, but sometimes, I like knowing you get jealous.”
Jade sighed.
“I promise I’ll do better,” Beck said.
“You don’t have to promise me things just so I don’t break up with you like in your nightmares,” she quipped.
“I know, but I’m serious about this,” he said. “I’m serious about us.”
“Good to know.”
The next morning, Beck and Jade raced each other to Jet Brew for coffee, with Beck beating her to the tab.
Jade only smirked. “I let you win,” she defended.
“I know, babe,” Beck agreed, even if he had well and truly beaten her there. He kissed her cheek.
They strolled into Hollywood Arts together afterward, splitting up to their respective lockers before coming back together on their way to their first period.
Later in the afternoon, the gang piled into Jade and Beck’s cars and headed to the studio.
Beck maneuvered himself and Jade to sit on the third row with the rest of their friends, rather than be in the second row like in his nightmares.
Jade smirked to herself, noting how smoothly Beck made the change. No one else would notice. “Just relax,” she whispered in his ear.
Beck nodded resolutely.
Tori asked some Northridge girl to plug her phone back in for her.
Jade rolled her eyes but bit back a volley of insults for how insensitive Tori was. She contented herself with leaning on Beck, hoping it would distract him. She could practically hear his thoughts buzzing, cataloguing everything that seemed like some terrible omen. She lifted her head off his shoulder and used one black-nailed finger to tilt his face toward her and planted a kiss on his lips. She let go, gave him a rather forceful thump on the arm and settled herself back on his shoulder.
Beck exhaled and tried to calm down. He was not going to let his nightmare dictate his future. He just needed to get past this night. He had to prove it to himself that that wasn’t where he and Jade were headed. Even if as he thought this, Harvey Goobenstein was telling Sinjin to replace his unappealing test contestants.
Sinjin came over and pleaded with his friends to help him out.
“Alright, alright, we’ll do it,” Tori said, volunteering all of them.
“You’re not the boss of me,” Jade growled.
“Come on, Jade, we’re here, we may as well help Sinjin,” Tori begged.
Jade rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
They got up from their seats --- Tori with her screechbox of a phone --- and took their places on stage.
Beck noted that the pairings and places were different. He and Jade were in the first booth, André was with Tori in the second one, and Robbie was with Cat in the third. He smiled a bit as he took Jade’s hand. Maybe this will turn out different.
“Beck and Jade,” Sinjin said into his mic. “Your first query is for Jade to lock in the answer she thinks Beck will give, and for Beck to answer. Jade has bad breath, what do you do? A) Tell her. B) Ignore it because you love her. C) Dump her.”
Beck and Jade shared a look, and Jade pressed a button without looking.
“So Beck, what do you do?”
“Well, my real answer isn’t one of the choices, but I guess I’ll have to go with A),” Beck replied.
“And Jade’s answer was…”
The screen flashed a large letter A.
The pair high-fived as Sinjin moved on to André and Tori.
The game went eight rounds with similarly unflattering and silly questions for each pair. Beck and Jade got half of them right, but they managed to get through it by teasing each other without bickering too much.
In the end, Beck and Jade still got the trophy for the Worst Couple, because the other two managed to match answers more often, but somehow, Beck didn’t mind so much.
Sinjin gave them their trophy outside, and Beck promptly put it in the trunk of his car and grabbed onto Jade before she could hop in her car and run Sinjin over for giving them a trophy that had Barbie on it.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” he said soothingly. “Settle, settle,” he murmured in her ear, exhaling in relief as she melted against him and wrapped her arms around his back. He leaned back to look at her face. The fluorescent lights from the lamps near them making her blue eyes shine brighter.
“I’m a little disappointed your dream wasn’t a premonition that told you all the questions in advance,” Jade muttered, landing the heel of her palm on his chest.
Beck wheezed a bit from the hit. “The first one was actually for André and Cat when it happened in my dream. I think that was the only one I actually heard Sinjin preparing.”
“How useful,” she grumbled, before tilting her head like she remembered something. “You said that your real answer wasn’t in the choices.”
“Mm hmm.”
“Well, what was it?” she asked.
Beck smiled brightly. “I’d buy you coffee with two sugars then kiss you.”
“Sap,” Jade admonished before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him in for a kiss.
Beck wouldn’t complain with Jade being extra handsy and affectionate for the last couple of days, but he knew he shouldn’t wear out her patience. He kissed her back, ignoring the rest of their friends as they came up to them in anticipation of going home.
“Can we go home before you swallow each other?” Tori whined.
“Let the Worst Couple have some time,” André said placatingly. He was just grateful they weren’t fighting. He could tolerate a little PDA over Jade screaming her head off.
“They’re so cute together, even if they lost that silly game show,” Cat giggled, hugging the Best Couple trophy she and Robbie won.
They went their separate ways, dropping their friends off at their homes.
Once Jade got to her house, she sent Beck a text letting him know she was home.
Before she could make her way up the steps to the front of the house, she heard a car pull up – Beck’s car.
He emerged from the driver’s side, and she walked down the driveway to meet him.
“That was fast,” Jade commented.
“André’s is a little closer than my place,” Beck said.
“So did tonight end like you expected it to?” Jade asked, pulling at the sleeves of her cardigan.
“No, but it ended way better than I hoped it would,” he said. “We’re still the Worst Couple, but that’s okay.”
Jade brought her hand up to his face. “Tell me you love me,” she requested.
Beck smiled and leaned in close. “I love you,” he said, whispering it against her lips before kissing her again. “I’m sorry I let the dreams get to my head.”
Jade shrugged. “I get it. It happens to me, too, way more than I’d like to admit.”
Beck’s eyebrows furrowed, curious.
“Alyssa Vaughn was one of them,” she said, licking her lips self-consciously, “but it probably hasn’t been that bad in a while.” She smiled sheepishly. “I think remembering that there was a ferocious dog involved in getting us back together kind of put things in perspective.”
Beck pulled her close and wrapped her in his arms tight, burying his nose in her dark curls. That break-up felt like a lifetime ago. He was just glad that it wasn’t a sore subject. “Next time you have one of them, call me?”
Jade’s lips quirked a bit, not that he could see. She nodded into him. “Deal.”
They stayed wrapped up in each other and in silence for a few more minutes.
“You know, you’re awfully clingy when you’re all wigged out from a bad dream,” she snarked.
“You’re the opposite,” he shot back, turning her slightly until he had her pressed up against the side of his car with his body. “You tend to push me away when you’re freaking out.”
“Don’t I know it,” she replied, pulling his face closer and kissing him for all either of them was worth. Of course she was the opposite. She was clingiest when she was sure of her place with him.
Beck wound down the kiss slowly. “I’ll keep that in mind the next time you storm out on me.”
Jade gave him a soft smile before pushing her hand against his chest gently so she could get her weight off his car. “I’ll try to storm out less,” she told him, a compromise. She pressed a brief kiss to his cheek and said good night.
Fin.