Chapter Text
It was when their palms touched open hand and innocuous that everything changed.The Colombian sun shone down on the Hollywood Arts gang as it shone down on everyone else. They were not special in that regard, but with this event transpiring a rarity nonetheless.
After days of soaking up everything the tourist island had to offer on their graduation vacation, the Hollywood Art graduates grew desperate for varied entertainment. The alcohol had been fun, even a new experience for some of them. The clubs they were able to get into were okay too yet they found themselves at the beaches more often than not, an ironic reality for them all.
Andre, desperate for entertainment himself had tried to find his excitement in the beautiful women of the resort. Despite his charms he came off as too fresh faced and eager to the majority of them and was sent on his way.
The chances of him attempting the hopeless mission again lowered in one single instant.
It wasn't all beautiful and miraculous, Jade and Andre's moment of alignment.
The pain sears so deep and sudden across their body that briefly they both only see darkness blinding their vision as they were bounded together.
Andre only manages to keep himself standing upward because Jade did not. Instinctively he keeps her from falling when her feet end up lurching forward on its own. As she takes a deep breath in through her nose her head lulls briefly into his chest.
The rest of their friends begin panicking now. In seconds It went from a group of performing art kids playing improv to a potential medical issue in a foreign place. Beck steps forward because it was more his right than anyone else's to help his ex-lover but his movement stalls in place; halting in the sand.
Jade had regained herself by this point amd pushed Andre away. She was in far too much pain and it was far too crowded to think.
"Your back...." Beck states and then turns to his friend. "Your backs..."
Raw like a brand new tattoo on flesh in the deepest and darkest black ink; written words that weren't there until Jade and Andre's hands met mere moments ago presented themselves on their spines. In a flurry everyone circled to look.
"Oh my god! When did you two get those?! I want one too!" Cat, oblivious, is the first to speak up clearly as realization crossed everyone else's faces and shocked words immediately turned into a buzz of noise.
Andre and Jade were soulmates.
The two in question could not see the lines upon their own skin but still they weren't as lost as Cat, they knew what this meant.
It wasn't long ago that people had been actively catastrophizing about chat bots like Talking Tom being the first step to robots taking over from inside a seemingly harmless app on phones.....then actual real magic began to show up and shook the whole world 'round.
Andre and Jade heard about it because it forcibly became a part of their life. Every drama kid had to perform at least a dozen half-assed original scripts about the phenomenon before they could get out alive and everyone, absolutely everyone wanted to be the lucky person that found their true love in the blink of an eye and a flash of pain.
A flash. The definition of that was 'Something that moved on or passed very quickly.' The mark still burns though, stings as hard as Jade snaps for people to back up and get the hell away from her. Andre's arm shoots out to protect her. His arm, instead of Beck's, or anyone else's. It serves as a barrier between them and the rest of the group, just like their new marks do.
Covered by his shield, Jade only turns on her heels and runs off to the car. Tori looks between her and Andre unsure what she should do in a situation that concerned and potentially hurt both of her best friends.
"Go." Andre tells her and her feet burrow through the sand fast as if that was what she wanted to do in the first place. She picks up both Jade's and her own possessions along the way and she leaves behind a silence....silence only broken by Cat asking what was going on.
Robbie pulls her away, whispering the situation quietly and consequently leaving Beck and Andre alone.
"...so." Beck laughs, and even his tone as he continues was more casual than the entire situation permitted as if he was purposely trying to add as much levity to his next statement as possible. "Guess you're the reason me and Jade didn't work out."
Andre's stiffness, his head spin, his confusion pauses briefly to think that over and within only milliseconds he rejects the conclusion and declares it insane. "Nah man. Don't blame that on me." He replies with a feint of neutrality.
The car they all came in drives off from the parking lot. Their hotel wasn't far so away and everyone else could easily walk. Andre doesn't blame Jade and Tori for escaping. He would now, if he could...
"Why not? I mean - if she's your soulmate then obviously I couldn't end up with her...even if I wanted to." Beck looks off to the mid-distance his hands stuffed inside his board short's quirky mismatched pockets. They were fun but now felt misplaced just like Beck's griping.
"Yeah... but you two had a hundred and one issues dude. Not like without this..." Andre motions towards his back. "You would have been happy-"
"We were happy." Beck cuts him off. "I...think."
"But messed up." Andre adds with a shrug. "You told it to us yourself how the relationship screwed up your head. Jade did too...in her own way. I don't think the magic could have did anything except convince you two to finally let go."
"...so I should be thanking you?" Beck's next laugh is frayed around the edges. One could almost hear the bitterness peaking through his calm facade, a certain frantic desperation that wanted to claw to the surface. The breeze blew through his hair that had only gotten longer, messier throughout the years.
Perhaps there was a part of him that still hadn't let go of Jade. He didn't join Andre when he sought out girls at the club or beach always staying back and watching something.... or someone quietly.
"Nah. I didn't do anything that needs thankin' man. I was just doing improv...and now look at where we are."
"I couldn't thank you even if I tried." Beck continues, completely ignoring Andre's statement. It wouldn't have mattered if Andre insisted he bowed down and kissed his sandy toes since he would have responded the same anyway. "So I guess I'll warn you instead...that if you hurt Jade-"
"Listen man." Andre says softly. He was, perhaps, not being the best friend to stop Beck in the middle of his rather defeatist monologue but it was all a little too much melodrama for him. The situation was already a lot to deal with and the forlorn teenage angst felt a tad much for the recent graduates. "No offense but you're not really a part of this narrative and if you knew anything about me and anything about her you'd know she's not the one in danger of being hurt here."
"See but, Jade isn't like that-" Beck goes on defense. "She might be a little short-tempered sometimes but she's-"
"Amazing, I know." Andre affirms before Beck could get the chorus of praise out. "Amazing and fierce...ly independent. She isn't gonna follow any sign on her back unless she wants to. And do you really think she wants to?" He asks. "For me? This means nothing. She'll come up to me when we reach the hotel, tell me she doesn't owe me anything and I'll accept that. The end."
"...you don't get it, do you? This isn't just an aggressively placed suggestion from the sky. Soulmates don't work that way. The couple always ends up together even if they try to fight it. That's what every person who has gotten them says." Beck complains.
"Maybe." Andre replies. "Can't take people's word for everything and they haven't met Jade."
"Alright." Beck says, moving on to another topic lest they go around in a circle of who believed in what magics and who didn't. "Do you even want to be with Jade? You're treating this like it's a problem that'll just go away."
Andre, who'd turned to the ocean by now, peers at Beck and relays a piece of information long held almost too casually. He had little to lose admitting it now. "I've liked Jade since Sophomore year."
Parsing the information, Beck frowns. "Then...why are you acting so apathetic about it?"
"Because I know a dead end when I see one and with me and Jade... that's all my crush has ever been. Do you see Jade here celebrating our future together?"
"She's scared." Beck insists.
"So am I."
The silence comes back as the ocean does its best to make up for the dropped conversation with their own ocean sound, waves crashing down near enough to reach both mens' sandals.
"Congratulations!" Cat's cheer breaks through it all.
Andre sighs and looks at his red-haired friend who was still apparently slow on the uptake despite being caught up. "Thanks, little red. Let's go back to the hotel ok?" He guides her away, already a little too tired for it to be midday.