Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

(Jade's POV)

"Hurry up. We're going to be late."

"Don't rush me!"

Beck sighs behind me and walks around the rv. I roll my eyes and move to the next section of my hair, carefully wrapping the section around the iron. I watch him through the mirror. His hand runs through his hair before he grabs his wallet and keys.

I unwrap the hair and adjust the curl. Then I move to the last section. Beck is getting restless by the door. "I'll be done in a minute." Beck nods and gets on his phone. After my hair is finished I turn the curling iron off and unplug it before touching up my makeup.

"Do you really need to wear makeup?"

"Yes."

"We're going to the beach."

"So?"

"It's just going to wash off."

"You know I don't go in the ocean."

Beck sighs. "Right."

I roll my eyes and grab my bag. He goes outside and I follow him. Beck gets into his truck and I sit down next to him. He turns the radio on and starts driving.  We sit silently, his focus on driving, mine out the window.

My head leans back against the headrest. I try to think about anything else. Anything besides the unopened letter in my bag. Anything other than Beck's unopened letter in my bag. Anything that doesn't have to do with college.

Without saying anything, Beck reaches over and takes my hand into his. I hold it tightly. We still don't speak. We don't have to, we can still feel the nervous energy radiating off ourselves.

"What if we don't get in?" I ask quietly. A sense of vulnerability accompanies my words, something that happens very rarely. It usually comes out with Beck and as much as I hate to admit it, also Tori.

"You'll get in." He glances over at me.

"No. I mean us. Both of us."

"Jade."

"Seriously Beck. What happens if we don't both get in? Do we go long distance? Do we break up? What happens?" I sit up and lock my eyes on him.

Beck sighs. "I'm not sure."

"Not helpful."

"You asked! I just answered the question."

"Whatever."

I sigh and lean my head back against the headrest again. He doesn't say anything else. We go back to silence with the background noise of the radio.

I pull my knees up to my chest. My phone buzzes so I take it out of my pocket and turn it on. Just a stupid slap notification. Beck turns the music up.

We're the first to get to the beach. Beck finds a parking spot and we get out of the truck. I make a beeline for the beach and claim a spot. Not that it's crowded. It's a Sunday in April, nobody's going to be here.

Beck joins me and lays the towels out. He sits down and pats the spot next to him. I set my bag down and sit beside him. His arm goes around my shoulders. My head leans against his shoulder. He presses a kiss against my head.

"We're gonna get in." He tells me quietly.

"What if we don't?"

"We'll make it work."

"We don't have a great track record."

Beck laughs and pulls me closer. His gestures pull me over and I fall onto his lap, knocking over my coffee in the process. It spills into the sand and onto my bag.

"Beck!"

I scramble to get my bag before the coffee ruins it or anything inside. He sighs and picks up the cup. Beck walks away and takes the empty cup with him. I sigh and pull the letters out. They're dry. Thank god.

Someone starts to walk over. I'm too focused on the coffee staining my bag to care. I use the end of the towel and hold it against the spill. The person approaching stops and sits down.

"Hey."

I glance up and sigh.

"What Vega?"

"What happened?" Tori asks.

"Beck spilled my coffee."

"Need help?" She offers.

"No."

Tori nods. André joins us a minute later and sits down next to her. He starts to ask what happened but Tori cuts him off and explains. Beck returns, holding a new coffee.

He sets it down next to me. I roll my eyes and start pulling the rest of my things out of my bag. Pretty much everything is fine until I find my scissors. One of my favorite pairs, covered in coffee. I look up slowly and glare at Beck. He looks at the scissors and back at me. 

"You ruined my scissors!"

"It was an accident!" He puts his hands up defensively.

"Beck! Seriously!"

"Seriously what?! It was an accident, Jade! I didn't mean to spill your coffee! I didn't mean to ruin the scissors or your bag!"

"I love that bag and these scissors! You're so careless!"

Beck scoffs.

"You never think, do you?!"

"You're one to talk!" Beck retorts.

This time I scoff.

"So you're saying you don't want to be with me?"

"When did I say that?! I never said that!"

"In the car!"

"I didn't say we were breaking up! I said I don't know what's going to happen!"

"It's the same thing!" I cross my arms.

"That's not the same thing."

I shake my head and get up, walking away quickly and heading for the pier. There's not a single person at the pier. I'm decently far away from Beck, Tori and André too.

I lean forward against one of the rails and stare at the ocean. I sigh to myself. I don't understand why he's being so difficult today. He's been so unlike himself all morning. Quiet footsteps echo in the silence.

"Go away Beck."

"Not Beck."

"Go away Tori."

Despite my warning, Tori joins me. She stands beside me and leans against the rail. She doesn't say anything at first. We just stand together. It's weird to be like this with her.

After everything that's happened since we've met, after how horrible I've been to her. She's still insisted on being my friend. Not that I'd ever admit it out loud but it's helpful having her around.

She's there, always. Tori helped me get back together with Beck after I'd terrorized her for weeks. She helped me with my play just so I could prove myself to my dad. She said I was pretty that one time. She said I was her friend. Tori's there in a way Beck never has been. She and I fight, yeah. But not the way Beck and I do.

"Are you alright?" Tori asks hesitantly.

If it were anyone else, I would have yelled at them. It wasn't their business. But Tori isn't anyone else. I sigh and keep my eyes on the waves.

"No."

"Do you want to talk?"

Just another way Tori and Beck are different. Tori never forces a conversation. She never forces me to confide in her. Once Beck gets it into his head that I'm upset, he refuses to let me just be upset.

"Just Beck stuff."

Tori nods.

I originally started to confide in her because I thought she wasn't cool and didn't want anyone who was cool to see me upset. But then sometime in the last couple years, I went to her because she cared. A lot of the time we never even talked. We just sat together in her living room, she'd read or do homework. I'd usually just sit there and watch or cut things up.

"He's acting different."

"How?"

"I don't know. He's texting more than he used to. It feels like he's pulling away. I asked what would happen if we don't get into the same school. He just said he wasn't sure. Then when we got here he said if we don't both get in we'll make it work."

"Maybe a break would be good?"

I look over at her.

"It worked before. You guys were broken up for a few months and then when you got back together you were as good as new."

I shake my head and look back at the ocean. Tori sighs and moves a bit closer. I think she gets the hint that I don't want to talk about Beck anymore. She goes back to being silent.

After a while she speaks again. "We should head back. Cat and Robbie are probably here."

"Great." I roll my eyes.

She starts to walk away so I follow her.

"They're insufferable." I cross my arms.

"They're cute." Tori smiles.

"They're annoying. That's what they are."

"No. They're definitely cute."

"No they're not. It's annoying. 'Oh Robbie! I had a dream that we rode a unicorn across a rainbow and then got married at the pot of gold!' 'That's a wonderful idea, cat! We should get married by a pot of gold!"

"Cat and Robbie do not sound like that." Tori rolls her eyes.

"Yeah they do." I smirk.

"Can't you go five minutes without mocking one of us?"

"Not when you all are so easy to mock."

Tori rolls her eyes but I notice a small smirk on her lips. We make it back to everyone else. Tori was right, at some point while we were gone Cat and Robbie arrived.

André is sitting next to Beck while Cat is practically in Robbie's lap she's so close to him. I sit down on Beck's other side. Tori sits on my right so now we're all in a circle.

"Alright. Let's open these letters." André says.

"I wanna go first!" Cat exclaims and reaches for hers.

How is she not nervous? None of us object. I think we're all pretty anxious but don't want to admit it. I definitely don't. I keep my expression as bored as I can.

Cat tears into her letter and starts to read it. Within seconds she's squealing and throwing her arms around Robbie. His arms incircle her. "I got into Hollywood Arts University!"

Everyone offers congratulations. I give a mumbled "good job." Robbie goes next. The result is the same. He's going to HA University. It's a new school that was built last year. It's run by whoever runs the middle and highschool that we all went to.

André grabs his next. A look of relief comes over his face. "HA!" He high fives Robbie and Cat hugs him. They're all going to be in college together. "Who's next?" André asks.

Beck, Tori and I all look at each other. Beck reaches for his. I watch him closely. He opens the letter slowly and pulls out the paper. Beck's face is hard to read while he reads the letter to himself. After a minute he looks up at everyone.

"Did you get in?" Tori asks.

A smile comes over him. "Juilliard."

"Oh my god Beck! Thats amazing!" Cat squeals.

Andre and Robbie high five him. Tori smiles and hugs him. There was a time where I'd have yelled the minute Tori's hands touched his shoulders. But not anymore. I just stare at them. They pulled away and Beck's eyes meet mine.

I give him a small, rare smile. He nods and turns his attention away. I stops smiling immediately. I would have expected more of a reaction. For him to hug me, for him to kiss me, literally anything. Not whatever that was!

Tori reaches for her letter and starts opening it. She skims the letter quickly and breaks into a smile. "Juilliard!" She exclaims.

"Go Tori!" André matches her energy. Everyone else follows quickly with congratulations. I nod and look over at her. She smiles at me. I give her a small smile back, not enough for anyone else to notice. Only Tori.

"Alright Jade. Your turn." Tori grabs my letter and hands it to me.

I sigh and start to open it. Slowly, I take the letter out of the envelope. Unfolding it carefully, I start to skim it. There's no reason to read the whole thing unless I'm expected. Very quickly my eyes land on the words 'you've been accepted into Juilliard.'

My eyes widen. I don't say anything. I can't pull my eyes away from the words. Relief floods my body. I'm going to be with Beck and Tori. Beck and I can still be together.

"What's it say?" Robbie asks.

"I got in." I say quietly.

"Where?" André asks.

"Juilliard."

"That's amazing!" Cat squeals excitedly.

"Good job!" Robbie tells me.

"That's awesome!" André smiles.

"They'd be stupid not to accept you." Tori says and I look at her. She's smiling again. She looks ecstatic. Possibly even more than she did for herself.

I look away from her and over to Beck. "Good job." He says and flashes me a small smile. No hug, no kiss, no reaction. Again. His phone buzzes and he looks at it then starts typing. I look back to Tori who is frowning as she watches him.

*A couple months later, still Jade's pov*

"Are you nervous?"

I look up from my dinner and at my little brother, Max.

"No." I answer coldly.

"Jade. Don't be rude." Mom says sternly.

I roll my eyes and take another bite.

"Are you excited to live in a dorm?" Max asks.

"I'm not living in a dorm."

Dorms are disgusting. I'm not sharing a bathroom with twenty something girls and boy. I'm not sharing a room with a complete stranger either.

"Where are you living then?"

"Beck and I are renting an apartment."

"Woah! That's cool!"

"Mhm." I roll my eyes. It's not cool, it's stressful. Now we have to worry about bills and rent.

"What about your friend, Tori?" Mom asks.

"She's getting a dorm."

"Why don't you let her live with you?" Max asks.

"Because."

"That's not an answer."

"Because that's just what we're doing."

"That's still not an answer." Max points out.

"You're a pain in the ass. You know that, right?" I retort.

"Jade! Language!" Mom scolds.

I let out an exasperated sigh and get up.

"Where are you going?" She asks with a stern tone.

"Bed. I have to be up for my flight tomorrow."

I go upstairs and into my room. The room is pretty boring now. Beck and I packed up my room and his rv a few weeks ago. He went to New York early to make sure all our furniture got delivered and put together and to make sure all our stuff from LA got shipped, not lost in a random state.

Tori and I are flying out tomorrow morning. She'll get settled into her dorm. I'll get settled in the apartment. I change and get into bed. I grab my phone, I texted Beck a few times before dinner. He still hasn't responded.

I sigh and plug my phone in. After making sure my alarms are on, I close my eyes. Sleep doesn't come easily though. There has to be something going on with Beck. There's no other way to explain it. Unless he just wants to break up. He wants to break up. He doesn't love me. He wants to leave. Again.

Giving up on sleeping right now, I sit up and turn on the scissoring. Then I lay back down and watch the movie. A sense of calm washes over me and I relax. Any thought of Beck drifts away. My eyes struggle to stay open. They close and I'm just listening to the movie. A few minutes later and the sound starts to fade.

Chapter Text

(Jade's POV)

Class couldn't end fast enough. The minute the clock hits two, I'm the first out of the door. The hall is filling quickly with other people which makes it hard to get through. I maneuver around a few groups of people before a clearing opens up.

Tori walls out of the classroom a few steps away. She looks over and smiles, stopping to wait for me. I catch up with her and we start down the stairs.

"Any plans tonight?" She asks.

"I think I'm gonna ask Beck about a date night."

"That'll be fun!" Tori smiles.

I nod in response. We walk outside and the cool autumn breeze hits us. We've been here for about a month, it's mid September now. There are trees all over campus and leaves are changing colors already. Colored leaves are sprinkled across the lawns. It's a bit overcast and it's definitely going to rain soon.

"I love fall, it's so pretty. Don't you?"

"It's nice." I shrug. I do love fall, it's my favorite season. But I never fully admit it to people.

"We should stop by that coffee shop and get pumpkin spice lattes!"

"I can't believe you drink that garbage."

Tori sighs and we continue walking across campus. As much as I despise pumpkin spice, I don't argue when Tori walks into the coffee shop. Instead I just follow her inside and cross my arms, waiting impatiently by the door.

When she walks over, she hands me a coffee. "What's this?"

"I got you a drink." She answers as we walk back outside.

"I can see that. I said I don't want a gross pumpkin latte."

"It's not a latte. It's black with two sugars."

I'm a bit taken aback when she tells me what she ordered. I've never told her how I take my coffee. Not commenting, I take a sip. It's not bad. Tori happily drinks her latte.

"Where's Beck?"

"His classes don't end until three."

"Oh ok. I think it's gonna rain. Let's go to your place."

"Let's just go to yours. It's closer."

I start to walk towards her dorm. She follows quickly. Tori huffs, seemingly unhappy about my suggestion.

"Can we just go to your place?"

"Why?" I stop and turn to look at her.

"My roommate is gonna be there."

"Oh." I cross my arms.

Tori's been complaining about her roommate since we got to New York last month. Emma is obnoxiously loud and is such a teacher's pet. She's in my creative writing class and I can't stand her. Nobody can. She's worse than Trina. I've had to deal with her a few times when trying to go to Tori's dorm room. It didn't end well.

After hearing Emma would be there, we end up going to Beck and I's apartment. It's not huge but it's not tiny either. There's two bedrooms which Tori had been utilizing a lot lately. On nights where Emma is being so insufferable and not letting her sleep, she's been coming over and crashing in the extra bedroom.

She sits down at the table and starts to do some homework. I walk over to the kitchen and make a bag of popcorn and pour it into a bowl. Then I sit down next to her and put the bowl in the middle of the table. We sit together while each doing our respective homework.

My pen bounces around between my fingers as I stare at my assignment. After a while I put my pen down with a sigh. Glancing over, Tori is still peacefully doing her homework. I get up and put my stuff away and pick up a bit. Beck should be home soon.

I leave Tori by herself and head into the bathroom to take a shower. I'm in there for long enough that when I get out, Beck's voice is audible from the other room. After getting dressed and walking into the living room they both look up.

"Hey." He says.

"I was thinking we could go out tonight. Why don't we get dinner and go see something on broadway?" I suggest and sit down next to him. I drape my legs over his lap.

Beck sighs. "I'm not really feeling broadway."

"Let's go get dinner and see a movie."

"Not really in the mood for a movie."

"How about dinner? Just dinner." I suggest, starting to feel annoyed with him.

"Why don't we just stay home tonight?"

"We haven't gone out in weeks!" I respond shortly.

Tori gets up suddenly and grabs her stuff. Then she heads for the door. Beck watches her go. She doesn't say anything as she leaves. She probably doesn't want to get caught up in our argument. Tori's been doing her best not to get roped in anymore. Once the door closes he looks at me again.

"We can have dinner at home."

"No. We're going out for dinner. Get ready." I demand and get up.

Beck follows me to the bedroom with a look of annoyance and goes into the bathroom. The shower turns on a minute later. I sit down at the small vanity and start to do my makeup while my curling iron heats up.

What is going on with him? He's been acting so put out since we came to New York. I don't know what's gotten into him. He never wants to do anything. I try to plan things on the weekends and he doesn't want to go. I try to spend time with him after school and he blows me off to spend all day at the library to do homework.

I get having homework. I have a lot of it too. But I don't blow anyone else off over it. I'm not in the library all day every single day. Neither does Tori. It's gotten to the point where she and I have been going out to do sight seeing and doing whatever else I plan for Beck and I instead.

Never did I ever think I'd be closer with Tori than my own god damn boyfriend. When I met her I never even thought we'd be friends. I set my eyeshadow down a bit harder than intended, practically slamming it down. I sigh and take a deep breath before starting my eyeliner.

If I had a conversation with my sixteen year old self she'd have just about lost her mind when she found out how different her relationship with Tori would become. There was something about our junior year. She and I started spending more time together, then when Beck and I broke up we were together even more. Sikowitz was pairing us up for projects together almost every chance he got.

Then during our senior year we started spending even more time together. She would invite me to hang out a lot. Overtime we just became close, even if she is a bit annoying sometimes. The curling iron finishes heating so I start to curl my hair.

At some point while doing my hair, Beck's phone dings on the bed. Then it dings again. A few minutes later it dings again and again and again. Once my hairs done I get up to see why his phone is being blown up. There's a bunch of text notifications, from Alyssa Vaughn.

My eyes go wide, immediate anger fills me. I click on the notifications and his messages open. How long has he been texting her again?! I start scrolling through, trying to get to the top. It's never ending. He hasn't texted me like this in months. When it stops, the date says they've been talking since April. The first conversation was only a few days before we all opened our excellence letters. That's why he was acting so weird.

The conversation makes my blood boil. Alyssa said she had just moved to New York and if he ever came to visit they should meet up. Beck agreed and told her he might be going to school here. They talked for the next few days and then after he opened his letter he told her he got in. A few weeks later he texted her and told her we were getting an apartment out here. She was excited and said she wanted to see him soon.

The messages just get worse and worse as I read them. She starts to flirt with him. He didn't even try to stop it. He just flirted back! My eyes somehow widen even more when I reach messages from when he came to get the apartment ready before Tori and I flew out. He and Alyssa Vaughn were going out together and he was having her over to our apartment?!

Suddenly the bathroom door opens and Beck comes out. My head turns to look at him. His expression shifts to be worried. He opens his mouth to speak, most likely going to ask what's wrong. But I cut him off.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I burst out.

Beck looks taken aback. "What are you talking about?"

"You and Alyssa Vaughn! That's what I'm talking about!"

His expression shifts again almost instantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't know what I'm talking about? This! This is what I'm talking about! You are cheating on me with that fucking socialite!" I yell and throw his phone towards him.

He catches it before it hits anything and sighs. "Babe."

"Don't 'Babe' me! You're an asshole! You know that?"

Beck runs a hand through his hair. "Let's just talk about this."

"What is there to talk about?! You obviously don't care about me! Not if you're with her!"

"I do care!"

"No you don't! If you cared we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

His phone dings again and he starts to look at it. "Don't you dare."

Beck puts his phone down on the bedside table and sighs. "Jade."

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

"Get out."

"What?" He looks at me, perplexed.

"I said get out. If you want to be with her, fine. Be with her. But not here. If you're dating her, you're not living with me."

"No. You get out." He folds his arms over his chest.

"I'm not leaving." I match him and my arms cross over my chest.

"It's my apartment." He counters.

"It's mine too."

Beck lets out a frustrated huff. "I'm not leaving."

"I'm not either."

"You obviously don't want to live with me anymore." He points out.

"No. I don't. I'd rather slam my hand in my car door than spend another night with you."

"Then leave!"

"No!"

"I don't know what you want me to do, Jade."

"I want you to leave."

Beck takes a deep breath and shakes his head slightly. "I don't think there's a way for us to both live here. Unless you decide to be civil."

"Why do I need to calm down?! You're the one who cheated!" I yell back while Beck crosses the room.

I follow him to the living room. "Don't you walk away from me! I'm talking to you!"

He turns to look at me again. "What?"

"Why would you choose her over me?" A sliver of vulnerability slips through my words.

Beck sighs again and looks down before looking at me again. "She's easy. I thought I wanted something difficult. I was wrong."

My face hardens. Internally I feel like he slapped me. Without a word I turn and go back into the bedroom. Grabbing a bag, I shove all my makeup and clothes inside. I look around the room and grab my chargers and anything else I'll need. Then I grab my school bag as well.

Emerging from the bedroom, I head for the door. "Jade, where are you going?" Beck asks as he watches me from next to the couch. I open the door and walk into the hall. "Fuck you." I say without looking back. Then I slam the door.

My body moves on auto pilot. Next thing I know I'm in my car, heading back to school. Then I'm walking through the rain across campus. By the time I get outside her door, I'm soaked. My knuckles knock on the door a few times before it opens.

"Jade? What are you doing? I thought you and Beck were going out tonight." Tori says but moves to let me in. I walk into and set my stuff down by her bed. I don't say anything. She walks over and looks at me closer. Tears threaten to spill over. He's hurt me in a way I never thought he would.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Her words push me over the edge. The tears start to fall and I wipe them away. She sighs and just stands closer. "Do you want to talk? Or would you rather I leave you alone?"

I look up and my eyes meet hers. She looks so worried. It's not often that I cry, especially in front of her. Usually if I do cry then I'm alone. The only times I have cried in front of her were when Beck and I broke up the last time he talked with Alyssa freaking Vaughn, and when we were stuck in the RV during the heatwave. There was also the time I fake cried to try to get on her brain squeezers team. But that wasn't real crying so it doesn't count.

"He's cheating on me."

Chapter Text

(Tori's POV)

"What do you mean, he cheated on you?" The words burst out of my mouth. Jade looks heartbroken. I've never seen her like this before. I don't blame her either. She has every right to be upset and pissed.

"I mean he cheated on me!"

"What happened? With who?"

"That bitch, Alyssa Vaughn!" Jade exclaims.

My eyes go wide. "No."

She nods. "He did!"

"How long? Did it just happen once? Maybe it was an accident?"

There is the possibility that Jade is just blowing it out of proportion a bit, like she tends to. Maybe their relationship is salvageable and they just need to take a small break. She turns to face me, looking as if I suggested that she kiss Sinjin.

“A few months! At least! It was no accident! He had her in our apartment while you and I were still in LA!” 

“Are you sure they’re together?” I ask hesitantly. 

Jade scoffs. “Oh they’re together. Trust me.”

She turns to face away from me again and it’s as if a dam broke when she turned. I can’t see her face but I can hear her sobs. She’s trying not to let me hear it. That much is obvious. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to fix this. There’s no simple solution this time. I can’t just help her get Beck a dog. This fight wasn’t a simple high school drama kind of breakup. This is real and it’s not going to just go away. People are going to get hurt from this. They already are. Jade inhales shakily and continues to cry.

I can't stand seeing her like this. She didn't deserve this. If sixteen year old Tori saw us now, she'd probably pass out from shock. She'd be surprised to see how my feelings for her have changed. Without speaking I wrap my arms around her and she practically melts. 

“What am I going to do?!” Jade sobs. Not knowing what to say to make her feel better, I just sit down on the floor and she follows suit. We don’t talk for a while. It’s quiet other than the occasional sound from Jade. We just sit there and listen to the rain hitting the window. Time goes on and she starts to calm down. I don’t say anything to her though. I don’t want to push her. She’ll say something when she’s ready.

“Where’s Emma?” Jade asks quietly.

I look up from my phone and over to the empty side of the room. “She moved out. I got back from your place and found her side empty. There was a note saying she’s switching dorms.”

“Why’d she leave?” Jade wipes her eyes.

“I’m not sure. The note didn’t really explain much. She mostly just said she didn’t want to be my roommate.”

A look of realization crosses her face but then it neutralizes quickly. Does Jade know something I don’t? Did she do something?

“Jade, do you have anything to do with this?”

“Nope.”

I find it hard to believe that she hasn’t contributed to Emma moving out. But I don’t press the topic. I glance at the clock. It’s around seven now, I hadn’t realized how long we’ve been sitting here. Jade got here around five. “Do you want to order some food?” I suggest, doubting she wants to go out for dinner.

“Whatever.” She answers and leaves the room. So in Jade terms that’s a yes. I pick up my phone and order her favorite pizza. Maybe that’ll help take her mind off everything. While she’s gone, I move her things to the empty side of the room. She didn’t bring a whole lot. But I guess that makes sense if she left in the middle of a fight.

“What are you doing?” 

I turn and see Jade’s back from the bathroom. “Putting your stuff on your side.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” She crosses her arms.

“I’m just trying to help. Do you want help unpacking?” I start to unzip her bag.

“No. I’ve got it.” Jade walks over and starts unpacking herself. 

I let her be and sit down on my bed. It’s hard to believe Beck cheated on her. He totally seemed head over heels for her. Obviously he hadn’t really been if he cheated on her. I can’t imagine him doing anything like that. Yet he has. I would never do anything like that to anyone. Not even Jade. If I were Beck, I wouldn’t throw away my relationship with her. I wouldn’t flirt with other girls all the time around her. I wouldn’t cheat on her. I’d appreciate her.

My thoughts stop as abruptly as they started when someone knocks on the door. Jade answers it and takes the pizza from the guy. I walk over and hand him the money. Jade sits down on my bed with me. She takes a piece while I grab my laptop. 

I’m about to ask if she wants to watch Celebrities underwater when I remember she hates that show. “What do you want to watch?” 

“I don’t know.”

“Want to watch Trina’s new reality show?”

Jade nods. I open my laptop and search for the show. I never watch Trina’s show but I know Jade would find it entertaining to make fun of her. We sit in silence again while we eat the pizza and watch the show. I was right and Jade seems to visibly relax while making fun of how insane Trina is. 

As much as Trina claimed the show was a hit Divertissimo was, it got canceled after one season. That’s what made her decide to try out reality tv. Now she’s a huge reality star. The episodes are an hour long each and there are only six out at the moment. We end up watching all six. The show was way more entertaining than either of us realized. It’s safe to say that we’re both hooked. 

By the time we finish the last episode, it's around midnight. Jade looks like she’s going to fall asleep right this second. “I’m gonna go brush my teeth and stuff. Are you coming?” I ask while grabbing my stuff. Jade sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “I’ll be there in a minute.” I nod and leave. 

The bathroom is relatively empty when I get there. I change in one of the stalls before going to the sink to brush my teeth. I assume Jade is changing in the room. I would have just changed in there too, but I feel awkward changing in front of Jade. The door opens and I expect it to be Jade. No, it’s just a random girl.

I finish up and return to the dorm room. I don’t really know what I expected to find when I walked in, but it wasn’t what I was met with. When I open the door, the first thing I see is Jade sleeping on my bed. She’s curled up where she had been sitting near the end. She hasn’t changed or anything. The laptop and pizza box are still next to her.

Jade looks so peaceful, so relaxed compared to earlier. I don’t have the heart to wake her up just for her to switch beds. So instead I move the box of pizza to the mini fridge and put my laptop back on my desk. Then I grab a throw blanket from the edge of my bed and lay it over her. I turn the light off, plug both of our phones in and lay down in Jade’s bed. The room is illuminated slightly by the small lava lamp. My eyes find Jade in the dim lighting. I just want to give her a hug and fix everything for her.

The next morning when I wake up, Jade is gone. I grab my phone and see it’s nine already. She must be at work. It’s Saturday and she works early on the weekends. I get out of bed and get dressed. Once I’m ready, I grab my purse and leave. It’s a short walk to the campus bookstore. I started working there a couple weeks ago. Jade has been working at a record store about fifteen minutes from here. It’s halfway between school and her and Beck’s apartment which is half an hour from here. Or would it now just be Beck’s apartment? I’m not sure.

My shift goes by pretty slowly. There’s not a lot of business on a Saturday morning. It doesn’t help that I'm the only one here today. The only exciting thing happening later is that Jade and I are going out for lunch. We made the plans a few days ago and had planned to go out with Beck. I doubt Beck will show up.

Every now and then, someone comes in. They mostly just look around before leaving. Occasionally they buy a book or two. The clock ticks by slowly. I spend most of the time working on writing a song for my songwriting class. I’m not really sure what to write about though. André and I have been texting about it for a few days, but we haven’t come up with much.

I get to leave around one. Jade meets me at this nice little restaurant off campus. She chooses a table near the back. We sit down across from each other. The waiter takes our orders, we both get pasta salad but she gets water and I get pink lemonade. After the waiter leaves, Jade looks at me.

“Why didn’t you wake me up last night?”

“You seemed pretty tired. I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Whatever.”

I look at her, she looks relatively alright. But she doesn’t at the same time. “How was work?”

“Work.” 

I nod.

An awkward silence falls over us. Jade ends up on her phone. I look at mine but don’t really pay attention to it. Is she upset I didn’t have her switch beds? I just didn’t want to bother her. I guess she could be, I mean she was upset that I tried to help her unpack. 

The waiter brings our food over and then disappears. We stay silent as we start to eat. Things almost feel different. Obviously they feel different, Beck and Jade just broke up. That changes everything. I keep my eyes on my pasta and push my thoughts away. The last thing that needs to happen is a confession of untold feelings. She never needs to find out, especially not with the situation she has going on with Beck. Sixteen year old Tori would probably be screaming if she knew she’d still have feelings for Jade after three years.

“Any plans tonight?” I break the silence, tired of how tense it feels.

“Mhm.” She stabs her pasta with her fork.

“What are they?”

“There’s a party.”

“Oh, alright.” I nod and take a bite of my own food. Jade and Beck have invited me to parties with them before but I've never been very interested in them. I’ve been to a couple and they were alright.

“I need to go to the apartment.” Jade says after a minute.

I look at her again. “Why?”

“A bunch of my shit is still there. My entire scissor collection, my cd collection, my dvds, my bunny.”

I sigh. “You can’t have pets in the dorms and I don’t know if you can fit all your stuff in the dorm. It’s pretty small compared to the apartment.”

“I’m not leaving my bunny!’ Jade argues, setting her fork down.

“I don’t know what to do though. We could get in a lot of trouble if we brought the bunny to the dorm.” 

“Then I’ll just get the apartment back.”

“I don’t know how easy that’ll be, Jade.”

“I’ll figure it out. Beck needs to understand how he made me feel.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” I’m honestly scared to hear her plan.

“I’m going to get the apartment back, make him feel how it felt to have to leave. Then I’ll make him regret even leaving me for that little rich princess.”

“Maybe that’s not a great idea. The best revenge that you could have, is not giving into the satisfaction of getting revenge and just moving on.” There are so many ways her plan could go wrong.

“No, the best plan would be to make him miserable. Make him feel how I felt when I saw those messages with Alyssa.”

“How would you do that? Trash the apartment? Date his best friend?” I can see the gears turning in her head. I don’t really see how she could date André to hurt Beck, he’s still in LA so they’d have to be long distance. I doubt he’d agree either. Beck is his best friend, he’ll be upset when he hears what happened but he won’t want to hurt him either. If she trashed the apartment, she would probably get arrested for vandalism or something. She’s smarter than that. The sound of Jade’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.

“Pretend to date me.”

Chapter Text

*Beck's Pov*

"This is nice." Alyssa says softly, tucking her feet beneath her while simultaneously laying her head on my shoulder. She has on a rom-com that I've never seen or even heard of before. Jade never wanted to watch them. “Mhm.” She pulls a blanket over our laps and focuses on the movie.

I try to keep my attention on the screen but my thoughts drift. I wish I could have had a better conversation with Jade. I wish she would have just let me explain. I didn’t mean to hurt her, I just needed something different. Alyssa wraps her arms around me.

“I’m so glad we can just be us now. I’m so happy she’s gone.”

“Mhm.” I mumble in response. My eyes drift down to my phone, hoping Jade will text me. I’ve practically been blowing her up since she left and she’s been leaving me on read.

“I was thinking, what if we paint the apartment? I think we should start fresh now that she’s gone.”

“Sounds great.” I respond without really paying attention to what she says.

“We should take the rest of her stuff to the dump too. I’d say we could donate it all but I doubt anyone would want that trash.”

My phone lights up and I sit up quickly. It’s just André. I sigh and lean back again. Alyssa shoots up and whips around to glare at me.

“What?” I ask.

“She’s still your lock screen?!” 

I inhale sharply at her words. I hadn’t changed it yet. That would have been a good idea. “I just haven’t changed it yet. I was going to choose a picture of you today.”

“Like hell you were!” 

“I was!”

“You’re still in love with her! Aren’t you!” Alyssa gets up from the couch.

“No! I’m with you!”

Alyssa rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “Yeah right.”

I stand up and put my arms around her waist. She lets out a huff but doesn’t fight it. “I’m with you. I chose you, didn’t I?”

“You did.” Her expression softens.

“I’m sorry. Why don’t you choose a picture?” 

Alyssa smiles as I hand my phone to her. She goes through my photos while I go into the kitchen to get a drink. I grab two cans of Wahoo punch and then go back to the living room. She takes her drink while I sit down next to her. 

“Did you find a good picture?”

“Yeah.” She hands back my phone.

I look at the picture that she chose. It’s from when we went to the park, she’s standing under a tree and holding flowers. She’s wearing a light pink dress and silver jewelry. She looks gorgeous. Alyssa gets up and goes into the bedroom. I open my messages to respond to André.

That’s weird. My messages to Jade are gone. All of our messages, they’re all gone. I close out of the messaging app and go to my photos. Every picture of Jade I’ve ever taken is gone too. Alyssa. She must have deleted it all. She really wants to pretend I never even dated Jade. It doesn’t work like that, she can’t just erase my dating history. I run my hand through my hair before finally responding to André.

Alyssa comes back with her arms full of Jade’s scissors. My eyes widen and I jump up. She heads outside and I follow her down the stairs. “What are you doing?!” I exclaim as we walk through the lobby and out onto the sidewalk.

“Cleaning.” She throws the pile down onto the ground.

“You can’t just throw Jade’s stuff out!” 

“I can and I am!” She argues.

“Alyssa!” I groan with expiration.

She walks back into the building, slamming the door in my face.

*Jade’s Pov*

“Pretend to date me.” I suggest and a smirk forms on my lips.

“What?” Tori almost chokes on her lemonade.

“You heard me.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s perfect! To make him understand how I felt, he needs to feel betrayed. The best way to do that is for me to date his best friend. André is in LA. You’re here, it’s the next best thing.”

Tori sighs. “I’m not going to pretend to date you.”

“Why not?” 

“You just said it for yourself. I’m one of his best friends, he’ll feel betrayed. I’m not going to betray him. I’m sorry.”

“Tori!”

“I understand you’re hurting Jade, but this is not the way to feel better. Try going back to the dorm and watching a movie while eating ice cream and crying. That’s how normal people deal with breakups.”

I sigh. “But-”

“No buts! I am not pretending to be your girlfriend!”

I’m taken aback at how harsh she is. Does she really care that much about Beck? She looks pretty upset. Does she have feelings for Beck? Was I actually right in highschool? My heart sinks and a lump starts to form in my throat. She seems genuinely upset, almost mad at me. My phone dings and I look at it, glad for the distraction.

Beck

These past five years with you were torture. The best time I've had in the last few years was when we were broken up. Being with you was like being in hell for five years. Being with Alyssa is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I’ve found real love with her. She, unlike you, is not a psychotic little bitch. Never contact us again. Fuck you Jade.

I throw my phone back down into my purse. Tori’s expression changes to concern. “What’s wrong?”

I ignore her and get up. My feet carry me to my car without even thinking. The sound of Tori following me reaches my ears faintly. I don’t acknowledge her when she gets into the passenger seat. I can feel her eyes on me as I start to drive. She doesn’t ask where we’re going. In fact, she doesn’t speak at all. The drive lasts all of fifteen minutes. 

The car door slams closed as I get out. Tori’s door closes quieter than mine did. “What’s going on?” She asks, still following behind me. I continue to ignore her.  She huffs slightly but doesn’t push it. The closer we get to the building, the louder their voices become. 

“Alyssa stop!”

“It’s my apartment and I don’t want this trash in there!”

“You’re being ridiculous!”

“Why do you care?! She’s not your girlfriend anymore!” 

“Is that her bunny?!”

“I don’t know. Is it?”

“You can’t just throw her bunny onto the streets! It’s a living creature!’

Beck and the prissy little princess come into view and my blood begins to boil over. All my things are thrown onto the sidewalk. DVD cases have broken open and the discs are on the sidewalk, my scissors are scratched and some are broken. Some have even landed in the street. The rest of my clothes have been tossed in a pile of mud. My bunny, Aster, is in his cage on the edge of the sidewalk on the verge of toppling over to fall into the street.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” I burst out.

Beck and Alyssa spin around to face us. The socialite's expression shifts within seconds and she drops the pile of pictures. The frames shatter on impact. 

“Jade.” Beck speaks tentatively.

“Oh don’t even! I’ll get to you.” I cross my arms, stopping in front of the couple. Tori stands behind me and off to the side slightly.

“You!” I turn to solely face Alyssa. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Cleaning.” She states simply.

“Cleaning? Oh I’ll show you cleaning. I’ll clean your clock!” 

My words register a moment too late and she doesn’t have time to react before my fist is about to hit her face. But before I feel her face collide with my knuckles, Tori’s arms wrap around my waist and pull me back. At the same time Beck grabs Alyssa and pulls her out of the way. Simultaneously, they both yell, “NO!”

“Let go!” I wrestle against Tori’s grip. 

“Not unless you calm down.”

I try to push her off of me and continue to fight against her grip. Alyssa starts fake crying into Beck’s chest while he consoles her. “Stop babying her!” I exclaim. 

“You were going to punch her!” 

“She was going to leave Aster out to die!”

I manage to shove Tori off of me and she stumbles backwards. I step closer to Beck. He glares at me. “You’re right, that was wrong of her. But you are acting insane! You can’t just go around punching people!”

“Stop defending her!” I break out a valley girl sounding accent to mock her. “Oh the all mighty Alyssa Vaughn who can do no wrong!” 

“Stop acting like a child.”

“Like you have room to talk! Only a child would behave the way you have!”

“What did I do?!”

“You cheated on me with that!” I gesture to Alyssa. “Then you sent me the horrible text! Now you’re letting her throw my stuff out and get my bunny killed!” I exclaim and throw my hands up slightly.

“What text?” His expression changes to confusion.

“Oh don’t try to pull that on me! You know what text!”

“No I really don’t.”

I scoff and cross my arms. “You’re an asshole! I hope you’re happy with yourself.”

Beck looks even more confused and glances over at Alyssa, then Tori and back at me. I turn around and pick up the cage. Tori moves to grab the few clothing items, DVD’s and scissors that haven’t been ruined. As we walk away from the bitch and her dog, I speak loudly without even looking back. “You’re going to pay for this.”

*Tori’s Pov*

Somehow we managed to sneak her bunny into the dorm and so far we haven’t gotten caught. After having most of her things ruined, I’ve noticed scissors going missing. I keep buying more and they keep disappearing, then she suddenly has a new pair. I have a feeling Jade has been trying to rebuild her collection of scissors. I haven’t said anything about it. She needs something to be happy about right now. 

It’s been a couple weeks since the breakup and lets just say she has not been handling it very well. She’s been partying pretty much every night and pretty much every morning she’s hungover. Then she’s also missing classes. There’s been a few days where she hasn’t even made it to a single class. She spends most days sleeping most of the day until she gets up and gets ready for whatever party she’s going to.

Honestly, I'm worried about her. I want to help her. I really do. It hurts to see her spiraling like this. Even though she’ll never admit it, I know how much Beck meant to her and how much she loved him. I can’t imagine how she feels right now. I really want to help her, but I just don’t know what I can do to help. She needs something to distract herself. She needs a rebound.

I sigh and put my head down on the table. She knew that she needed a rebound. She said so at the cafe a couple weeks ago. Technically she wanted a fake rebound to make Beck jealous. But I think deep down she wanted to pretend to date me to help herself move on too. 

Being Jade’s friend is so hard! Part of me does want to go find her and agree to the deal. The other part of me does not for so many reasons. First of all, Beck is still one of my best friends and I don’t want to betray him. Second of all, I don’t know if I could pretend to date her without letting my own feelings slip out. Third of all, if my feelings did slip, would she feel the same way or would she never talk to me again? Finally, it’s Jade we’re talking about. That would make things so awkward for everyone. 

Why are relationships so complicated? In a perfect world I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this. I could just be with Jade without all the complications. I know Jade is interested in girls. When she and Beck broke up for a while junior year, she had a few flings with some girls at school. But those never lasted more than a few weeks. She also had a bunch of posters of different girls in her room before we moved to New York. She had posters of guys too but there was a decent amount of girls, more than the guys. Then her favorite movie is literally The Scissoring. From an outside perspective I think she has a preference for girls but obviously how am I supposed to know for sure? I’m not her.

But just because she likes girls doesn’t mean she would have real feelings for me if she were to find out. If she found out, the most likely scenario would be that things get awkward and we stop talking. Which I don’t want to happen. I’d rather her never find out and we stay friends than her find out and we never talk again. If only this was a dream world where things didn’t have to be complicated.

Giving up on studying anymore, I grab my books and laptop as I stand up. It’s a short walk from the library to our dorm. While walking through the courtyard I do see Beck in the distance, walking with Alyssa. They’re heading for the parking garage. She’s probably picking him up. 

I walk into the dorm room and my eyes widen at the sight of Jade. She’s sitting on the floor and using her laptop camera to bleach her hair! I close the door and throw my stuff down. “What are you doing?!”

Jade looks up, for once looking startled. “Jesus! Don’t scare me like that! I’d rather not get bleach all over myself.” She rolls her eyes.

“Again, what are you doing?” I sit down next to her.

“Bleaching my hair so I can dye it.”

“With your laptop?”

“Mhm.”

I sigh. “Let me help you.”

“I’ve got it.”

“Seriously, let me help.”

“No.”

“It’ll come out more evenly if I do it cause I can see the back.”

“Whatever.” She rolls her eyes again and hands over the bowl.

I move to sit behind her and start to apply the bleach. She turns on a movie on her laptop to give herself something to do. “What color are you dying it?” I ask curiously.

“Red.”

“Red like Cat’s hair?”

“No. It’s a bit darker.”

“That’s cool.”

“Mhm.”

“Do you want me to just give you highlights?”

“No. Do the whole underside.”

“That’s different. Normally you just do highlights.”

Jade shrugs slightly.

“I didn’t say it was bad, just different. I think it’ll look great.”

Her face softens slightly. “You should dye your hair too.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Just a little bit. Just like highlights like I normally do.”

I look at her face through the small makeup mirror that’s on the floor. She looks so tired and upset. “Fine. Just highlights.”

The next thing I know, Jade is putting bleach in my hair. Then we watch the new episode of Trina’s reality show while it sits. When it’s done we both rinse our hair in the showers in the bathroom. We take turns dying each other’s hair red. It’s about another hour and a half later when we’re finally blow drying each other’s hair. Jade takes the time to style her hair afterwards. Then, surprisingly, she moves and starts to style mine. I never expected to be in a position where Jade would be doing my hair. Yet here I am. Throughout the entire process, she was drinking. Mostly shots. She kept offering me shots which I declined cause I need to do homework when she’s gone. I don’t really get why she’s drinking already if she’s going to a party where she’ll be drinking. Maybe it’s just a weird Jade thing.

When it’s completely done, she looks a bit more alive than she has in the last couple weeks. I just want to give her a hug and magically make it all better. But as much as I wish that could actually work, I know it won’t. As much as I have been trying to stay out of the whole thing between Jade, Beck and Alyssa, I don’t think I can stay out of it. I never have been able to. I was roped into it when Jade showed up here crying and moved in. 

Jade stands up and feeds Aster. Then she grabs some clothes and starts to change for the party she’s going to tonight. The cycle is just going to repeat. I look away and back at the bunny, watching it eat. “Not like what you see?” She comments with a smirk. She must have noticed me looking away.

“I’m not going to watch you change. It’s weird.” I roll my eyes even though she can’t see.

“You’re not curious?” She walks in front of me and kneels down to my level. She’s dressed now. Her outfit consists of a short black dress, fishnets and black heeled boots. She has on a few silver necklaces and earrings along with her signature facial piercings. She’s been debating getting another one. She’s also been debating getting a new tattoo.

“No. I’m not.” I try to keep my tone as normal as possible.

“If you say so.” Jade stands back up and starts to touch up her makeup. 

I sigh quietly and stand up as well. I can feel a slight blush in my cheeks but it’s not enough that I think she would notice. After she finishes her makeup, she grabs her small purse and heads for the door. In the moment, something inside me breaks and I give into the idea that was put into my head just a couple weeks ago.

“Jade, wait.”

She turns around, an eyebrow raised. “What?’

“Come here.”

She sighs and walks over. She’s surprisingly calmer and nicer when she’s buzzed. I pull out my phone and hold up the camera. “Say cheese.” Jade gives a classic Jade smile. I take a picture of us together with our freshly dyed hair. Then I post the picture on all my slap page with the caption, ‘Love matching hair with my girlfriend!♥’

Chapter Text

*Andre’s Pov*

The dreaded sound of my alarm blaring fills my ears. My eyes open and glance around my room which is bright from the sunlight streaming through the window. The alarm stops abruptly and begins a minute later. That’s not right. Alarms don’t do that and my alarm doesn’t sound like that. I sit up and grab my phone. It’s not an alarm, someone is calling me. 

“What do you want, man? It’s not even eight yet.” I run my hand over my face.

“Have you seen Tori’s post on the slap?!” Robbie bursts out.

“No. I literally just woke up.”

“You have to see this!”

“What is it?”

“Just look at it!” 

“Alright, give me a second.”

I get out of bed and dig my laptop out of my bag. Sitting back down on the bed, I get on the slap and go to Tori’s page. There’s a new post from about ten hours ago. She and Jade are smiling at the camera, the entire underside of Jade’s hair is dyed a dark red. It’s only slightly darker than Cat’s. Tori’s hair is also dyed but not as much as Jade. Her hair is dyed the same way Jade always used to do it. Her’s is also red.

“Tori and Jade dyed their hair? I mean I can’t say I'm surprised about Jade. She does that a lot. I didn’t expect Tori to do that but it looks good.” I say to Robbie.

“No! Look at the caption!’ He sounds anxious now.

I look down and my eyes widen at the words beneath the post. ‘Love matching hair with my girlfriend!♥’

“Holy shit!”

“Did Beck and Jade break up?” Robbie asks.

“Not that I've heard. I’m pretty sure someone would have mentioned that.”

“Then why is Tori calling Jade her girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she means it as friends?” My phone starts ringing again and I look to see Cat’s name pop up. “Hold on, now Cat’s calling.”

I put Robbie on hold and answer the incoming call. “What’s up, lil’ red?”

“Did you see that Tori and Jade dyed their hair! Now all three of us have red hair!” She squeals.

“Yeah, it looks pretty cool.” I go along with it, my mind more preoccupied by the conversation I was having with Robbie.

“I’m so glad they’re best friends now! I’ve been wishing for them to get along! I kept locking them in closet’s together to try and make them be friends! And it worked!!” 

“I’m happy abo- did you say you were locking them in closets?” I have to do a double take to make sure I heard her right.

“Yes! I just figured that if they were locked in together that eventually they’d have to become friends! And they did!”

“I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later, lil’ red.”

“Ok! Bye!!” 

I hang up with her and get back on the call with Robbie.

“What did Cat want?” He asks.

“She wanted to know if I’ve seen how cool Tori and Jade’s hair was.”

“That sounds right.”

“She said she's been locking them in closets to try and make them become friends.”

Robbie sighs. “Of course.”

“You have to give her some credit. They don’t exactly need to be locked in any more closets now. They seem pretty close.” 

“Do you even think they could actually be together? I mean Tori’s never really seemed like she’d be into Jade.”

“She’d never try to get in between Jade and Beck either.” I point out.

“I better go. Talk to you later.” 

“Bye man.”

The phone call ends. I sigh and stare at the picture on my laptop. There’s no way they’re together. I don’t believe it. She was so adamant that dating Jade would be a bad idea when I had a crush on her. She probably just meant it in a friends kind of way.

*Jade’s Pov*

“Jade! Wake up!” I groan and reach my hand up, waving it lazily. Tori sighs and walks away. I readjust slightly and realize how uncomfortable I am. My eyes open and I'm laying on the floor by a couch in the middle of the common area. My head aches as I sit up and I have to blink a few times to adjust to the light.

“What’s going on?” I ask as I stand.

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

I shrug.

“You went to that party last night and when I woke up you weren’t in bed. I thought something happened to you. You’re not exactly in the right state of mind when you’re at those parties! What if something happened to you?” 

“Nothing would have happened. I know how to handle myself.” I roll my eyes and step around the table to head out to the vending machine.

Tori’s boots click on the floor as she follows. “Seriously Jade! Something bad could have happened! We’re lucky you passed out here instead of at the party or on the street!’

We reach the vending machine down the hall and I look at the options. There aren’t very many. My fingers tap the keys for a moment before I buy a bottle of water. It drops down and I take it out, taking a drink from the bottle. 

“Are you even listening to me?”

I turn around, my eyes trail up and down Tori slowly for a second. “I am. Someone is worried girlfriend.” I smirk.

“That’s not funny.” She crosses her arms.

“No, it definitely is.” 

“You shouldn’t be joking about this. I’m worried about you!”

“You’ve never said anything before.”

“I was trying to let you deal with this in your own way. But I can’t just sit back and watch when it could put you in danger!”

“Tori, you’re being ridiculous. I’m fine.”

I go around her and walk down the hall towards the double doors that lead outside. Her boots click against the ground again as she follows. The bright sunlight immediately hurts my eyes and makes my head ache more. I quickly dig sunglasses out of my purse and put them on.

“Where are you going?” She asks as she catches up.

“Someone's nosey girlfriend.” I tease and walk towards the campus stores.

Tori groans and walks beside me. “Really, where are we going?”

“I am going to the store. I don’t know what you think you’re doing.”

“I’m making sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

“God! Relax Vega! You are such a buzzkill.” I roll my eyes but she can’t see.

“If that’s what it takes to make sure you don’t pass out on the street, then fine. I’m a buzzkill.”

We don’t speak the rest of the walk. I walk into the first store I see and Tori follows. She doesn’t leave my side as I browse the shelves. It only takes a minute to find the ibuprofen. I grab a new pack of eyeliner and makeup wipes. She doesn’t speak again until we are walking back to the dorm.

“I don’t think you should go to parties anymore.”

I scoff. “Who are you? My mom?”

“Think about it, when was the last time you did homework or went to all your classes or weren’t hung over? I think it would be beneficial if you stopped.”

“Just because you’re my pretend girlfriend now doesn’t mean you get to tell me what to do, Vega.”

She sighs. “Maybe we could compromise on it?”

“Yeah, no. You get no say in what I do.”

“What if you just don’t go to as many parties?”

“No.”

“Jade.”

“No.”

“There has to be something we can agree on!”

“There was, you pretending to be with me to get Beck back.”

“That’s not what I meant. You know what I meant.”

“How many times do I have to say no! So just drop it and leave me be!”

I slam the door to the building in her face. I go upstairs and into our dorm. I’ve just changed into leggings and a hoodie when she comes in. She doesn’t look happy. 

“Aw, that's not a pretty face.” I mock her.

“Stop pushing me away. I’m only trying to help you.”

“If you want to help me, you’ll leave me alone.”

She sighs and shakes her head. I turn and take off the makeup which had faded a bit from last night. Then I tie my hair up in a ponytail and close the curtains. I take some ibuprofen and lay down on my bed, starting to scroll on SplashFace.

Tori watches me for a minute before sitting down on her own bed. She gets out her laptop and textbooks. I guess she’s doing homework. She’s right. When was the last time I did an assignment? I think about it. The last one I remember doing was the night Beck and I broke up. Has it really been that long? It’s been at least a couple weeks.

“You’ll never get back at him like this, you know.” Tori says suddenly without even looking up from her work.

She has a point. What does he have to be jealous about? That I’m always drunk or hungover? I’m failing all my classes? I haven’t done an assignment in weeks? I impulsively dyed my hair? There’s nothing that would make him jealous and hurt. Well, except for my fake relationship. 

My phone starts to ring and Beck’s name pops up on the screen. I hesitate, I haven’t spoken to him since Alyssa tried to throw my bunny onto the streets. I answer the call and hold the phone to my ear.

“What do you want?” I ask harshly.

“Since when are you dating Tori?!”

“Why do you care?”

“She’s one of my best friends!”

“I guess you should have thought about that before you got with Alyssa.”

“Jade, that’s not fair.”

“Oh I think it’s more than fair.”

“They’re two different situations.”

“Hmmm, see, I don’t really care.”

“You’re being immature.”

I scoff. “Bye!”

When the call ends, Tori is looking at me. I put my phone down and roll over. My eyes close. She doesn’t bother me. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m asleep. For a while I am awake, not thinking about anything. But after a while I do actually drift out of consciousness. 

I wake up and my headache has finally subsided. Tori is watching a movie on her laptop. She glances over as I get out of bed and put on shoes. Grabbing my purse, I leave the room and walk across the campus. I go to the coffee shop and get myself my regular. I also get Tori a vanilla latte.

She looks surprised when I return with the drinks. I hand her the latte and she stares at it for a minute before she takes it. Tori is right, there is no way I can make Beck jealous if I don’t pull myself together. So that’s exactly what I am doing. I sit down on my bed, grabbing all my missing assignments and start to work my way through them.

Chapter Text

*Tori’s Pov*

After my attempt to reason with Jade it seemed like she might have been trying to pull herself together. For a little while she was doing her homework and trying to catch up. She didn’t even go to any of the parties her friends were going to. The turn around lasted a week. A single week. 

I had gotten off work later than usual and texted Jade to see if she wanted me to pick up something for dinner. She didn’t respond. I didn’t think too much of it. When I got back to the dorm, she wasn’t there. That had me a bit worried so I texted her again but didn’t hear from her. I called her and she answered on the last ring. It was hard to even hear her over all the noise in the background. She promised she wasn’t going to drink much and would be home before midnight. 

But her promise didn’t reassure me. So I waited up for her to come back. It was almost three thirty in the morning when she stumbled into the room, drunk out of her mind. I couldn’t even get a word out before she collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep. So for the past week and a half it's been back to the same routine we had before of her going to parties, and being hungover all the time. Only this time, she’s going to her classes and coming to the library with me to do homework. Although half the time she falls asleep in class or ends up on her phone at the library. But it shows she’s trying.

It’s been awkward in my acting class as well. Although it would be worse if Jade was in that class too. Thankfully she’s not. Beck hasn’t said a word to me since I made the post but I see him watching me from across the classroom. It’s worse on days that Jade walks with me to class before going to her own down the hall or on days that she waits for me to get out of class. Every time I see him watching and every time I wonder if I made the right decision by pretending to date Jade or if I was just being selfish. 

Depending on the day I come to either conclusion. Sometimes I think I made the right decision because I’m able to be there for Jade and make sure she’s alright. But other times I come to the conclusion that I was selfish to agree to her idea. What has it helped anyway? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Her thought process was that if we date then Beck would want her back. But he hasn’t seemed any closer to leaving Alyssa than he did before I agreed. 

It doesn’t seem to be helping Jade either. She stopped partying for a week. That’s the only thing that has happened that has been remotely good. I’ve tried to get Jade to listen to me and get herself together. But she’s way too stubborn for her own good. If anything this whole situation is only hurting both of them. I don’t know what I was thinking would come from this. That it would work and they would get back together? That she and I would actually end up together? 

Obviously she and I would never get together. She’s so caught up over Beck but even if she wasn’t it just wouldn’t work. She and I would never work as a real couple. It’s just not realistic. She doesn’t even have feelings for me. That much is painfully obvious. I mean she teases me and she’s started making comments about me being her girlfriend but she’s just trying to annoy me. Like a couple weeks ago when she was saying i’m a noesy and worried girlfriend.

“Miss Vega!” The sound of the professor's voice pulls me from my thoughts. I look at him and he sighs. “Can you answer the question?” I glance around before looking back at him. “No sir.” He sighs again and calls on another person a few seats over.

It’s not long before class is dismissed. I leave quickly and head to Jade’s class. When I arrive the room is empty except for Jade and her film professor. They both look annoyed and seem to be arguing. Although the professor is staying much calmer than Jade. I wait quietly in the doorway until they finish. 

Jade walks past me and into the hallway so I turn and follow. She’s silent and very clearly still annoyed. I choose to give her a few minutes to calm down before trying to talk with her. We get outside and halfway to the dorm when I choose to speak up.

“What was that about?”

“Don’t worry about it.” She sighs.

“Is everything alright? You seem pretty upset.”

“I said not to worry about it!” She snaps and picks up her pace.

Great, I've just made things worse. I remain silent the rest of the way back. We don’t speak at all once we’re inside either. I sit down and start to read a book while Jade does Jade things. Despite trying to focus on reading I can’t help but covertly watch her. At first she just sits on her bed with headphones in and cleaning her scissors. When she finishes that, she moves on to feeding Aster and cleaning his cage. After that she sits back down and starts her attempt at math homework. 

My attention shifts back to the book in my hands. The room is pretty much silent as I read and Jade does homework. Every now and then I glance over to see her focusing completely on the paper in front of her. I had always known she was a good student although she didn’t really advertise it much in highschool. But watching her fly through her math assignment with ease, even after not going to classes for weeks is something else. 

“Hey.” 

I look up again and our eyes meet. “What?”

“What should we do for dinner?”

I put my bookmark in and set the book down. I’m a bit surprised she’s even talking to me right now. She still seemed pretty mad just a few minutes ago. “I’m not sure. I hadn’t given it a lot of thought.”

“I feel like sushi.”

“Then get sushi.”

Jade sighs and gets up, grabbing her shoes. She puts them on and grabs her purse as she heads to the door. “If you want something you better get up cause I am not bringing anything back for you.” 

I throw on some shoes and follow her, rolling my eyes. She can be so insufferable at times. She’s definitely still upset although I doubt she’s going to tell me why no matter how many times I try and ask. It’s just going to upset her more. When we get to the common area it’s packed with people. She stays a few steps ahead of me as we head towards the doors. 

“Hey Jade!” A voice calls out from across the room.

She turns and looks in the direction it came from. My eyes follow hers and land on a group of three other girls. They look a bit older than us but are dressed similarly to Jade. She makes a beeline for them so I follow. She reaches them before I do, one of them hands her a cup. Immediately she takes a drink of whatever is in there. 

“We should do something tonight.” One of the girls says.

“We should!” Another agrees.

“Like what?” Jade asks and takes another sip.

“Who’s this?” The third girl asks while looking me up and down.

Jade glances at me and back at the girls with a shrug. “Oh, this is my girlfriend, Tori.”

The three girls look at me simultaneously. “So you’re the nosey girlfriend.” The girl that gave Jade the drink comments.

I turn my head to glare at Jade. Of course she’s been saying that to her friends as well. 

“Tori, this is Celine.” She gestures to a girl with black and dark purple hair and dark eyeliner. Then she gestures to the girl who gave her the drink. She has blonde hair and blue ends. “This is Alice.” Jade then turns to the final girl who’s hair is black with pink chunky highlights. “That’s Dani.”

The trio look at me again and Dani holds out a cup. “Here.”

“What is it?” I ask as I take it.

“It’s just a bit of tequila.” She answers.

“No thank you.” I quickly hand the drink back.

“Aw! Jade, your girlfriend’s no fun!” Dani whines and drinks it instead.

“What are we doing tonight?” Jade asks, ignoring Dani’s complaint.

“I thought we were getting dinner.” I remind her.

“I changed my mind.” 

“Why don’t we go to that club we went to the other night?” Celine pipes up.

“Tori doesn’t have a fake ID. We’d have to get her one.”

“She doesn’t have to come.”

Before Jade can respond, I step up closer and take her hand. “I’m coming.” 

“We could always do what we talked about yesterday.” Alice suggests.

The three of them look at Jade. She hesitates for a split second, not long enough for them to notice. Then she drinks the rest of her drink in one go and throws the plastic cup in the trash. “Let’s go.” 

“Where are we going?” I ask as we all walk outside.

“You’ll see.” She responds.

I sigh and cross my arms as I follow her. She takes me to the parking garage where her car is. The other girls split off to go to one of their cars. We reach Jade’s and she holds out the keys to me.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re driving.” Jade says.

“But-”

“No. You’re driving. I always drive.”

“Jade, I still can’t drive.”

She stares at me, dumbfounded. “You’re joking.”

“No. I still don’t have a license.”

“You can’t be serious. After that whole issue with you getting rides to school and you still haven’t gotten a license?!” Jade’s voice raises slightly.

“No, I haven’t. Ok? Just drop it.” 

“God Tori. You really need to pass that test. I am not going to be the only one driving all the time.” She says as she gets in and starts the car.

I get into the passenger seat and sigh. “What do you expect me to do? I can pass the written test but I need someone in the car when I’m learning to drive.”

“I’ll teach you.” 

My eyes widen and my head turns to look at her. She’s not looking at me, instead she’s focused on backing out. Which is good. I’d rather not die because Jade wasn’t paying attention. “You? Teach me?” 

“You don’t exactly have many choices here. Take my offer or leave it.” Jade says without looking over.

“Fine. I’ll take it. But you have to tell me what was wrong earlier.” 

She sighs. “It was nothing.”

“Obviously it was something. You’ve been in a mood since your film class.”

“We were just talking about my grades. Happy now?” Her tone shifts to annoyance. 

“What about your grades?” I press for more.

“It’s nothing. Just leave it alone.”

“Fine.”

Jade reaches over and turns up the music to fill the frustrated silence. It’s some loud rock song. I’m not really surprised by this. She plays stuff like this whenever I’ve been in her car or when she lived in the apartment with Beck. I walked in a few times to her blasting music and cleaning or making dinner.

We don’t talk for the rest of the drive. It’s not until she parks that I realize where we are. I didn’t even realize where we are because of how dark it is already. Jade gets out and walks over to her friends. I get out and join them, glancing over at the building.

“What are we doing here?’

They all look at me. “Teaching Beck a lesson.” Dani says.

“You can wait in the car if you’re a chicken.” Alice chimes in.

I look between all of them, my eyes landing on Jade last. “You aren’t seriously doing this, are you?”

“What’s it matter to you? Wait here if you don’t want to come.” She crosses her arms.

“What are you thinking? I mean it. Explain to me why this is a good idea. This is not you. This is not the Jade I know. The Jade I know is intimidating and mean. But she cares about people, deep down she does. I know that. She’s nice when she’s alone with people she cares about. The Jade I know is all for revenge but even she would know how stupid this is. She would have enough common sense to not break into someone’s apartment!” I exclaim.

Jade stays silent. Her friends take a slight step back. I stare at her, the crisp autumn breeze blowing her hair gently in the wind makes her look even more beautiful. Any other time I would end up getting lost in thought, just staring at her like this. But at this moment I can’t. All I can think about is the fact she is about to commit an extremely serious crime.

“Look, if you choose to do this. I will not help you. No matter what happens. I will not help. You will be on your own. If you get caught, if you get arrested. If nothing I do to try and get in your head to help you get yourself back together is going to work, then I am done trying to keep you out of trouble.”

She stays quiet for another moment before she nods. “I never asked you to keep me out of trouble.” Jade then turns and walks inside the apartment building. The other girls follow her. I move to do the same but stop myself. Instead, I turn and walk down the street towards the bus stop just as it starts to drizzle.

*Jade’s Pov*

The girls follow me up the stairs to the apartment. They’re quiet at first but after a minute Celine speaks up. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.”

“Your girlfriend seemed pretty upset.” She continues.

“She’ll get over it.” 

“I don’t know. It seemed like a pretty serious argument.” Alice joins in.

“That was not an argument. That was just her freaking out. She’ll be fine in a day or two. It’ll all blow over.”

“She really sounded like she doesn’t want to talk to you if we do this. Maybe you should go talk things out.” Alice insists. 

“Tori’s bluffing. She’ll probably text me tomorrow and see if I want to have breakfast with her.”

“But-”

“It’s fine! Just shut up!” I burst out and turn to face them. The two of them go dead silent and Dani looks between us.

“Let’s all just stop talking about it.” Dani says and moves to walk between us. 

We go down the hall and stop in front of the apartment door. I dig into my purse and find the key. It should work unless he changed the locks. But I doubt Beck would do that. I put the key in and turn it. Almost instantly the handle unlocks. 

I open the door and peak my head in to make sure nobody is home. It seems empty. I open the door further and let myself in. Celine closes the door behind us. I make a beeline for the bedroom while they start trashing the living room and kitchen. The lights are off when I enter.

My eyes are assaulted the moment I turn the light on. That little socialite has completely taken over. The bed is covered in frilly pink pillows and a white comforter. Pictures of Alyssa and Beck are littered around the room. A pair of her heels are on the floor. There’s a pink fluffy rug in the middle of the room. 

The closet is full of her expensive designer clothes, shoes and handbags. The vanity is covered with bottles and bottles of fancy perfumes and the highest end makeup brands. I set my purse down on the bed and pull out my sharpest pair of scissors. Now where to start? That is the million dollar question. 

As I look around the room, the place to start is clear. I move over and pick up a picture frame with a picture of them at the park. I throw it to the ground and stop on it until the glass shatters and the frame is broken into multiple small, jagged pieces. I grab the picture and cut it to shreds, sprinkling them around the floor.

I repeat the process with every single picture in the room. Then I move on to the bed and cut the middle parts out of the comforter and pillows so that they are unusable. My next target becomes the carpet. I cut all the fluff off to make it as fluffy as a woolless sheep.

My pent up anger directs itself to the closet. One by one I pull each item of clothing out and cut it into the smallest confetti like pieces that I possibly can. I repeat this for the shoes and the bags. I collect as much of it as possible and stand up on the bed to reach the ceiling fan. I evenly distribute the pieces of fabric onto each fan blade so that when they turn it on, it’ll all fly everywhere. 

Lastly I lay my eyes on the vanity. I take each bottle of perfume and smash them on the ground around the room, making the entire floor a pool of scented liquid. The room fills with the different scents and quickly becomes overpowering. Then I bang each makeup platte against the wooden surface of the vanity until the makeup is unusable. After that I throw them to the ground and stomp on them too which causes the makeup dust to cover most of the ground too. 

Finally feeling satisfied, I leave the bedroom. The girls have done well trashing the rest of the apartment. It is very clearly a disaster. It’ll cost them a fortune to fix everything. Not that it’ll hurt Alyssa’s bank account. She’ll barely even notice. 

“Alright, let’s get out of here before they get back.” Celine says.

“Yeah, we can go to the club now because Tori isn’t with us.” Alice agrees.

“They’re right. We really don’t want to be caught here.” Dani crosses her arms.

“Alright. I’ll meet you outside.”

They nod and leave quickly. I find a pen and notebook in the living room. I rip out a page and write a short little note on it. Then I leave it on the counter in the kitchen for Beck. When I get outside, the girls are waiting for me. We move our cars to the small parking lot by the club. 

Time seems to fly by, especially the more drinks I have. Celine and Alice end up with two random guys. Dani disappears at some point and I find her with a girl in the bathroom. Periodically I check my phone for a message from Tori. She always ends up checking on me when I’m out. But tonight it’s radio silence. She’s probably just being petty and trying to get me to come home. 

Somehow I end up back at Dani’s apartment. She’s more sober than I am but she’s still pretty out of it too. By the time I walk into the living room I can barely stand. She puts a pillow and blanket on the couch. Then she goes into the bedroom and closes the door. I manage my way to the couch. 

Kicking my shoes off and sitting down, I check my phone again. Still nothing. I text her and tell her she can stop the charade now. I don’t get a response. I call her but she doesn’t pick up. My head is too foggy to give it any deeper thought. I toss my phone onto the coffee table and lay down.

Chapter Text

(Jade’s Pov)

“Hey, get up.” The sound of Dani’s voice fills my ears and she starts to shake my leg. I reach over and try to push her away. But Dani is persistent. I open my eyes before immediately closing them again. She shakes me again and I groan. 

“Can’t you leave me alone for five more minutes?!” I snap and bury my head into the pillow. Instead, Dani pulls the blanket off and opens the curtains. 

“I need to get to work, so I need you to leave. There’s aspirin on the table.” She responds and goes into the bedroom. Once I hear the door close, I slowly sit up.

Just as she said, the bottle of Aspirin is on the coffee table. I reach over and take a couple of the pills out. I find an almost empty bottle of water in my purse and drink it as I swallow the medicine. Then I grab my phone and turn it on. To my surprise I don’t have a single text or call from Tori. I text her again to see if she wants to meet for lunch before putting my shoes on and getting up.

I grab my stuff and leave the apartment without a word. Dani follows behind me, locking the door. We walk down the few flights of stairs and out onto the sidewalk. Her place isn’t far from the club we were at last night. Dani goes the opposite direction towards her own car. The air is cold and there’s a bit of a harsh breeze. I didn’t bring a jacket last night so I just cross my arms over my chest and keep walking. 

After a few minutes I arrive at the club. My car is still parked in the small parking lot. I dig my keys out of my purse and get in. Immediately I start it and turn the heat up. While I wait for the car to warm up more I check my phone again. Still no word from Tori. This is just getting weird. She’s never ignored me before. Even when we weren’t friends she would still answer the phone if I called. I try calling her again. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. It’s halfway through the fourth ring when the ringing stops abruptly. 

I sigh and toss my phone back into my purse. I turn the music up and start to drive back to the dorm. Thankfully traffic isn’t horrible yet since it’s still early. Although after a minute I have to put my sunglasses on because the sun is making my head hurt more. Once I get back to campus I find a place in the parking garage and start walking back to the dorm.

The common area is pretty empty, only a few people are sitting around. I walk up a few flights of stairs and down the hallway. My eyes land on the number on our door. Slowly, I open the door and see Tori sitting on her bed. She has headphones on and is doing something on her laptop. She looks up almost instantly but then looks back at her screen. I close the door and set my purse on my bed before grabbing clothes to change into. 

“It’s cold out today, I’d bring a jacket for lunch.” I say loud enough for her to hear.

“I’m not having lunch with you.” Tori responds, setting her headphones down.

I turn to look at her. Her cheeks redden slightly when she sees that I haven’t put a new shirt on yet. Tori’s eyes quickly fixate on my face. 

“Why not?” I cross my arms.

“I told you that if you broke into the apartment I wouldn’t help you anymore. You made your decision.” Tori’s voice is serious, maybe the most serious I've ever heard.

I try to recall her saying this to me but I can’t. I can’t really remember most of last night. The only thing I can envision is being at the club. Did I really break into the apartment? I couldn’t have. I’d do a lot of things but I’d never do that, at least not to Beck. Alyssa though, is a different story. But even if I did do that to her I wouldn’t do it if she was living with Beck. Would I?

“Whatever.” I finally say and grab a new shirt. 

I finish getting dressed and grab my purse. Tori doesn’t say anything as I leave although part of me expected her to. There’s no way I broke into the apartment. But if I didn’t then Tori wouldn’t be mad at me. I could have told her I was doing it to get under her skin but not actually have done it. That must be what happened.

Once I reach my car I start driving to this small diner that we go to fairly often. The thought crosses my mind to see if Celine or Alice want to join me for lunch. But most likely they’re still sleeping off their hangovers and I’d rather just be alone. 

It doesn’t take long for me to get to the restaurant. I find a small table in the back near a window. A waitress comes over and takes my order. She comes back a few minutes later with my coffee. I sip on the drink and start to scroll on The Slap. Starting off it’s pretty boring. Just pictures and videos of random people I don’t see or talk to anymore.

After a few minutes go by, a picture of Cat and Robbie shows up. They’re smiling and Robbie’s hugging her. I like the picture and scroll down. The next one is Andre with Cat and Robbie. I like that picture as well and keep scrolling. After a few more minutes one of Tori’s posts comes up. The one where we dyed our hair and she started the charade that we were dating. I sigh and set my phone down.

My eyes travel to the door as it opens. The surprise that courses through my body is immediate. Beck looks around for a minute before spotting me. He walks over and sits down across the table.

“Hey.” Beck says casually.

“What are you doing?” My voice comes out coldly and I try to suppress the mixture of feelings rising as I see him.

“Getting a cup of coffee.”

“No. What are you doing sitting here?” 

“You looked lonely.” He shrugs slightly.

The waitress returns to take Beck’s order. After she leaves he looks back at me. “So, where’s Tori?”

“Why do you care where Tori is?” 

“Well you guys have been hanging out so much lately. I just expected her to be here too.” Beck leans back in his seat, his eyes never leaving mine.

“It doesn’t matter why Tori isn’t here. I don’t need her assistance to get a cup of coffee. Maybe I just wanted to be left alone. Did you consider that?” I roll my eyes, taking a sip of my drink.

“Did you two get in a fight?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

“I never said we got in a fight.”

“Well you seem upset.”

“My head hurts.” I look down at my drink and take another sip.

“You’re sulking.” 

“I am not!” I retort quickly.

“Jade, we dated for three years. I know when you’re sulking.” 

The waitress sets his coffee down on the table and I sigh.

His voice softens. “Did you two break up?” 

My gaze quickly meets his own. I hesitate before responding. “Something like that.”

Beck nods and takes a drink of his own coffee. A silence falls over the table. You would expect it to be awkward but somehow it’s not. It’s comfortable. It almost feels nice to be sitting and having coffee with Beck again. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed him. Not that I’d ever admit that.

“So, where’s Alyssa?” I finally ask.

“We broke up last night.” Beck sighs quietly.

“Oh.” I can’t help the noise of surprise. I expected that when this moment finally came that I would be happy or excited. I would be another step closer to having Beck back. But for some reason I don’t. If anything I feel almost upset. I force my tone to remain the same. “What made you come to your senses and dump her?”

“Actually she broke up with me.” He admits, his eyes never leaving mine.

Internally I start to feel guilty. But I shouldn't. I didn’t have anything to do with Alyssa leaving him. Did I? This time when I speak, my voice shakes slightly. “What happened?”

“Someone broke into the apartment last night. She was pretty upset, not that I blame her. Alyssa was insistent that it had to have been you who did it. She got really mad when I defended you.” Beck explains, his eyes still glued to mine.

The guilt begins to eat through me. My mind goes back to my argument with Tori earlier. She said I broke into the apartment but I wouldn’t have done that. It has to just be a coincidence. I mean I couldn’t have, I was at the club with my friends. I even spent the night at Dani’s. But would Tori really lie about that? My heart sinks and I feel a pit in my stomach. She’s not the kind of person to make up something like that and I got so drunk last night I barely remember anything. 

“How bad was it?” I ask and try to keep myself from sounding ashamed.

“The breakup or the break in?”

“The break in.”

“It wasn’t pretty. Practically all the furniture needs replacing and most of the apartment still needs cleaned up. I worked on cleaning up for a bit after work today and took a break to get coffee. I didn’t expect to run into you.”

“That sucks.” I mumble and take a drink of my coffee. My eyes now avoid his.

Beck sighs and reaches over, taking my mug away and setting it next to his own. “I know it was you, Jade.” 

My head shoots back up and my eyes lock back onto his face. “What?” 

“You really think I don’t recognize your handwriting?” He reaches into his pocket and sets down a piece of paper on the table. 

I look down and my heart sinks even further. There’s no denying it now. It was me. That is definitely my handwriting and that is definitely a note I would have left. It’s short and simple. It’s only three words. ‘Fuck you wazzbags’.

Slowly, I look back up at him. “Beck.” I speak softly.

“I just want to know why. Why did you do it?” His voice quiets as well.

“I-I-I…” My voice trails off which earns a sigh from him. 

“I know you’ve been hurting over what happened. But that is not how you handle things.” 

I don’t speak. I can’t even find the words to respond even if I wanted to.

Beck sighs again. “I’m not going to report this or press charges.”

“You’re not?” My voice somehow manages to come out even quieter.

“No I won’t. Only if you agree to help clean up the apartment and stop acting like a psychotic ex-girlfriend.”

“Alright.” I agree quietly. 

Beck returns my coffee and takes a sip of his own. When the waitress passes by our table he stops her and orders us both some lunch. We eat mostly in silence. After we finish I try to pay for my food but he stops me and pays for both meals. He doesn’t even let me leave the tip.

He walks outside with me and walks down the street to my car. He stops and opens the passenger door, gesturing for me to get in. “What are you doing?” I look at him in confusion.

“I’ll drive.” Beck offers.

“It’s my car. I’m driving.” I argue and cross my arms.

“You’re hungover and have a migraine. I’ll drive.” He insists calmly.

I sigh and hand him the keys before getting into the car. He gets in next to me and turns the car on. The music immediately starts blaring and he quickly turns it down. The drive back to the apartment is silent. We don’t speak again until we get there. Beck unlocks the door and opens it. My eyes widen instantly at the sight of the chaos and destruction.

“Oh my god.” I mumble and step inside. It’s worse than I could have imagined. The door to the main bedroom is open and I can see the damage I did in there. The living room and kitchen aren’t any better. The couch is destroyed, holes having been cut into it with knives from the kitchen. Stuffing is thrown around the floor, dishes are broken in the kitchen, the tv screen has been smashed and is now missing. Two of the chairs for the dining table are broken.

“I already cleaned the main bathroom and got the glass from the tv off the floor.” Beck comments as he closes the door behind us. “I would keep your shoes on though because of the dishes.”

I nod and set my purse down on the coffee table. I turn to look at him. His expression is unreadable. “Beck I-”

“It’s alright Jade. I know.” 

“Is there anywhere specifically you want me to start?” I ask and glance around.

“The kitchen is fine.” He answers and heads to the guest room.

I spend the next few hours cleaning up the kitchen. I sweep all the glass off the floor and deep clean the counters and sink. I run down the street and buy new dishes. They aren’t the nicest but they’ll work for now. When I get back I load the dishwasher and start cleaning up the small dining area. At some point Beck leaves to pick up dinner.

He returns a bit later with chinese. We sit down at the table in the two remaining chairs. We eat dinner in silence. Beck tries to clean up afterwards but I beat him to it. As I walk to the sink I swear I see a small smile on his face. But when I turn back around it’s gone. By the time we finish cleaning for the night it’s dark out. I grab my phone to check the time but realize it’s dead. 

“What time is it?” I ask as I drop my phone back into my purse.

“About ten.” Beck answers.

“I should get going then.” I reach for my purse but Beck’s words stop me.

“It’s late, why don’t you just stay here?” 

I frown. “Wouldn’t that be weird or something?”

“I’m not saying we should sleep in the same bed or anything. You can sleep in the guest room.” 

Other options float through my mind. I could go back to the dorm but Tori will be there and that will just be awkward and probably lead to more fights. I could go to Dani’s but there’s only a fifty fifty chance she’ll be home. My only other option would be to sleep in my car but I’d rather not do that. I let out a sigh. “Fine.” 

I grab my purse and head towards the guest room. As I reach the door a thought hits me. I turn back around and see Beck heading to the main bedroom. “Why are you doing this?”

Beck turns around. “Doing what?”

“Being so nice to me? I broke in and trashed the apartment. I’m the reason your girlfriend dumped you. I’ve been trying to make you jealous. I’ve been a terror to you since we broke up. You aren’t supposed to be nice to me when I’ve been mean to you. That’s not how this works.” A sense of deja vu washes over me and an image of Tori scraping Mac and Cheese off the wall in the black box comes to mind.

“Because I still care about you Jade. I never stopped caring about you. Nothing could ever change that. Not even you trashing my apartment.” He walks across the room and stops in front of me.

“Then why did you cheat on me?” I ask, my arms crossing.

“I don’t know. Maybe because I’m stupid.”

“You are pretty stupid.” I can’t help the small smile that comes to my face.

Beck smiles too and pulls me into a hug. It catches me off guard but I relax and wrap my arms around him too. As he pulls away his lips graze my cheek, leaving a gentle kiss. “Goodnight Jade.”

“Goodnight.” I respond and watch him go to the other bedroom. The door closes and I step into the guest room. I close the door behind me and take my shoes off. A sigh leaves my lips when I realize I don’t have any clothes or a charger with me. I leave the bedroom and knock on Beck’s door. He opens it and raises an eyebrow. 

My eyes land on his bare chest and I can’t help but feel annoyed. He needs to learn to wear a shirt to bed. Nobody wants to see his chest every time they’re going to sleep. “Can I borrow a phone charger?” He nods and walks away. When he comes back he hands it over and leans against the door. “Need anything else?” 

“Nope.” I say quickly.

“Alright. Well, goodnight. Again.” He says and stands up straight.

“Night.” I respond as he closes the door.

I return to the other room and plug my phone in. I turn the lights off and lay down on the bed. As much as I try to sleep, my mind simply won’t turn off. Why did he kiss my cheek? He said he still cares about me, did he mean that romantically? And why can’t he learn to sleep with a shirt on? I sigh and roll over. My eyes land on the empty spot on the other side of the room. Normally there’s the sight of Tori sleeping with her blanket wrapped tightly around her. I never realized how comforting the sight was. I roll back over and pull the blanket closer, trying not to think any more about Beck or Tori.

Chapter Text

*Jade’s Pov*

The darkness when I wake up is almost disorienting. Normally Tori is already awake and getting ready for the day by the time I get up. She always turns on the lights and tries to be quiet to let me sleep but ultimately trips or drops something. At first I hadn’t even realized I was conscious when I first opened my eyes. The curtains are pulled tightly shut and the only light in the room comes from the small sliver under the door.

For a while I just lay in bed, unwilling to face the day. The idea of having to see Beck still feels awkward. I reach over and grab my phone, it’s almost eight. Instead of getting up I continue to lay in bed and scroll on The Slap. The peace only lasts for a few minutes before Beck knocks on the door.

“Jade, you up yet? Breakfast is almost done.” He says through the door.

I sigh and set my phone back down. “I’ll be out in a minute!”

Beck doesn’t say anything but I hear him walk away from the door. Slowly I sit up, my head dropping down. Then I finally stand and leave the room. When I walk into the kitchen Beck is standing with his back to me. He turns and places two plates onto the table. He’s made omelets and a pot of coffee. I sit down as he adds two sugars to mine before setting it with my plate. We eat silently for a moment before Beck speaks.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Fine.” 

“That’s good.”

“Mhm.”

“So, I was thinking that today we could go to the store and pick some new furniture.” Beck continues. 

This catches my attention and I look up. “You want me to help you choose furniture?”

“Why not?”

“I don’t live here.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t help me pick.”

My eyes stay on him as he continues eating. What is going through his mind? Since when do you take your ex furniture shopping? Once we’re done eating Beck goes to get dressed. I put my dishes in the sink and throw on my shoes. It only takes a few minutes for Beck to be ready and for us to leave.

Neither of us want to deal with New York traffic today so we end up taking the subway. We don’t really talk on the way there, we just sit in silence. I'm not really sure what Beck is specifically looking for so I just follow him around. He takes his sweet time to browse the lamp section. Whenever he finds one he really likes he points it out and asks how I feel about it.

Honestly I think they’re all boring and ugly. My mind can’t help but wander after a while. I have much better things I could be doing right now than following Beck around. I don’t even know why he wants my opinion. I don’t even live with him. Why does my opinion even matter? He eventually chooses a lamp and then moves on to dining room chairs. 

“What about these?” He asks for what could easily be the hundredth time. 

“It’s boring.” I answer, my arms crossed.

“You’ve said that about everything.” He frowns.

“Cause they are.”

Beck rolls his eyes. “Well then what do you think looks good?”

“Why does that even matter? It’s not like I live with you.”

“It never hurts to have a second opinion.”

“If you wanted that then why didn’t you invite Tori instead? You both seem to have similar tastes in furniture.” I let out a huff of frustration.

“Are you sure you don’t want to talk about whatever happened?” Beck changes the topic suddenly.

“I told you yesterday, I don’t. Would you drop it already?” 

Beck sighs and steps away from the chair selection, moving closer to me. “Jade, you clearly need to talk.”

“I literally just told you to drop it! What do you not understand about that?!”

“I can’t just drop it when something is clearly bothering you.”

“God! Just go back to looking at your stupid chairs!” 

Before he has a chance to say anything else I walk away. I can hear him sigh again as I do. I walk through the store and head outside. After a minute I find a curb and sit down on it. My eyes close and I take a deep breath before exhaling slowly. An image of Tori doing homework flashes into my mind. 

I open my eyes and run a hand through my hair. Stupid Tori and the way her stupid face looks when she’s focused. Trying to distract myself while waiting for Beck so we can leave I decide to get on my phone. Without even realizing what I’m doing I’ve pulled up my messages with Tori. She still hasn’t responded. 

Why do I even care? I’m supposed to be upset with her. I shouldn’t be waiting for her to text me back. I shouldn’t be missing her. I’m acting like a silly school girl. It’s gross. I never act like this. I never just sit around and stare at my phone, just waiting for someone to say something. 

I start to write out another text to her but erase it. Then another and another and another. I’m not even sure how much time passes as I sit here. Eventually I just end up staring at my phone screen. Someone approaches and sits down beside me.

“Hey.” Beck says quietly.

“What?” I mumble.

“Feeling any better? I wanted to let you cool off a bit.”

“I’m fine.” 

“Why don’t we get out of here? I can get furniture another day.”

I don’t say anything but when he stands up and starts walking I do follow him. We head back to the subway. I expect us to go back to the apartment but instead he takes me to a halloween store. We walk around the store, looking at different costumes and making fun of the stupid ones. 

The longer we stay, the more relaxed I start to feel. Things start to feel simpler. It almost feels like we're in high school again. Beck points out different costumes that he thinks I might like. One ends up catching my attention so I stop to look at it closer. I glance over to see Beck start to walk away. 

A couple minutes go by and I look at a couple more costumes. Suddenly someone grabs me by the shoulders and yells in my ear. I jump and whip around. Beck starts to laugh, wearing a bad quality wolf mask. I roll my eyes and slap his arm lightly. “Take that off. You look ridiculous.”

“Buzz kill.” He says but takes it off. I can’t help the slight smile that creeps onto my face. 

“Find a costume you like?” He asks.

“Not really. I’l probably just wear my dress from the scissoring.”

“What does that make it now, three years in a row?” Beck chuckles.

“Something like that.” 

He sets the mask down. “Don’t you want to change it up?”

“Not really. Why mess with perfection?’ 

“Fair enough.” 

“What are you dressing up as?” I ask.

“Maybe a low quality wolf.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” I say sarcastically.

“Hey, I think I could really pull it off.”

“Sure you can.” I roll my eyes. 

“You’ll change your mind when you see it.” Beck insists. 

“I doubt that.” 

“Wanna go grab some lunch and head home? It looks like it's gonna rain.”

I look out of the window and realize how dark the clouds are. I nod in agreement before we both head out. We walk for a few blocks, to be honest I'm not entirely sure where we’re going to eat. He leads me over to a food truck and orders us both tacos and drinks.

I should have guessed he would take me to a random food truck. I grab a few napkins and find us a place to sit. He joins me on the bench, handing over my food. It’s pretty quiet as we eat. Neither of us have much to talk about. A few drops of rain start to fall but it's not bad yet. We should have time to make it to the subway before it gets really bad. 

Once I’m done I start to get up to throw my trash away but Beck grabs it from me. He gets up and walks over to the trash can, throwing it away for me. When he returns he puts his hand out, clearly offering to help me up. I roll my eyes and stand up.

“I could have thrown that away myself.”

“What? Am I not allowed to be nice to you now that we’re broken up?” 

“Let’s just go.” I say as it starts to rain harder.

He follows me down the street as we head back to the subway. The rain continues to pick up and we quickly become soaked. Between the chilly autumn air and the cold rain I start to feel pretty cold. Not that I’d admit that out loud. I just cross my arms and power through it.

We don’t get very far before Beck grabs my hand to stop me. “You’re shivering.”

“No I’m not.” I say defensively.

“If you say so, I can see it. You’re freezing.”

I don’t get a chance to argue. In a flash Beck has his jacket off and wrapped around my shoulders. “There, that should help. When we get to the apartment I’ll find you some dry clothes.”

I should say something, but I don’t. My eyes lock on to his own as his hand slips back into mine. Beck steps closer and suddenly our bodies are pressed together. His other arm wraps around my back. His head leans down slightly. I don’t even have time to process before his lips are against mine. My eyes close and my arms wrap around his neck. His arm pulls me even closer. The building rain and sounds of the city fade, for a moment it’s just us.

Chapter Text

*Jade’s Pov*

I'm trying desperately to go back to sleep but I can’t. Beck has the heat on higher than I’d like and I just can’t get comfortable. Rolling over, my eyes land on him. He’s fast asleep, not a care in the world. My phone lights up on the night stand. The clock says it's only midnight. Who is texting me right now?

I sit up and pick up my phone and there is a message from Cat. She wants to know if I'm coming home for Christmas. Another text pops up almost immediately. She adds that I’m invited to Andre’s Christmas party if I will be in town. The idea of a christmas party doesn’t sound all that appealing. 

Tossing my phone down, I move to the edge of the bed. My head drops down and I let out a deep sigh. I glance back at Beck before standing up. Quietly, I leave the room and close the door. The thought of Blue dog soda is calling to me so I head  towards the kitchen.

Once I have my drink I turn down the heat, Beck can deal with it. Then I move to sit on the couch. There’s not much to do right now so I turn the tv on and curl up under a blanket. Since it’s the middle of the night nothing interesting is on. Celebrities underwater is on but I still hate that show. Trina’s reality show catches my eye. I haven't kept up on it. It’s the only remotely interesting option so I turn it on.

Seeing Trina on my screen manages to make Tori worm her way into my thoughts. I've been doing decently at keeping her out of my head. I’ve been avoiding the pictures, I avoid her at school, Beck and I don’t talk about her anymore, anything to keep her from consuming my thoughts.

It was bad when I first moved back in with Beck. I couldn’t stop thinking about her, no matter how hard I tried. I’ve never been so consumed by a person besides when Beck and I have broken up in the past. Although this past time, after a couple weeks I thought about him a bit less than usual. 

Beck had been worried, seeing me consumed with the thought of Tori. It took a while for us to get back to normal. But within the last few weeks it’s gotten better. He doesn’t bring up Tori and I don’t bring up Alyssa. I haven’t even thought about her in at least a week. 

But now that her untalented sister is on the tv, Tori is practically the only thing I can think about. Her smile, her laugh, her voice, the way she would listen to me when I spoke. I mean really listen. I wonder if she has a new roommate now? What has she been doing the last couple months? Has she made any friends? Is she completely alone now? Is she gonna go home for Christmas? Is she gonna be at the party? Are we going to run into each other if I go home? God Jade! Stop thinking about her!

I set my drink down and get up. I walk over to the sliding glass door and step on to the balcony. It’s freezing but I don’t care. I stare at the city surrounding me. Despite it being the middle of the night the streets are just as busy. People are walking around the sidewalks. I can hear someone playing music. Even though it’s pretty far from home, it feels almost the same.

“Jade? What are you doing? You’re gonna catch the flu, or worse, frostbite.” Beck says suddenly. 

I turn my head to see him standing in the doorway. I shrug slightly. “Couldn’t sleep.” I answer simply. 

He shakes his head and comes closer. His arms wrap around my torso and he rests his head against my shoulder. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

“Nothing.” I say.

“You shouldn’t bottle your feelings up.”

“It’s nothing.” I repeat.

“Doesn’t seem like nothing.” 

“Well it is.” I insist.

“Let me take a guess. You hate my snoring.”

“You don’t snore.”

Beck chuckles. “Ah, caught in the lie.”

I roll my eyes.

“You’re mad I have the apartment heated. I noticed you turned the air down the minute I woke up.”

“I’m not mad about that. I was frustrated. There’s a difference.”

“You don’t have enough scissors. Well, I can fix that. Christmas is pretty soon.”

I sigh. “Beck, I said it’s nothing. Just drop it.”

“It’s Tori, isn’t it?” 

My body stiffens. He has his answer immediately. 

“It is her.” His voice is quiet now.

“Can we just drop it?” I continue to stare at the city.

“No. I think it’s time to stop bottling this up. It’s clearly bothering you. Let’s talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Your avoidance says otherwise.”

“How many times do I have to tell you to drop it?!” My voice harshens slightly.

“I can’t just drop it. You are clearly upset. You have been for a while. I can tell. We’ve been trying to go back to normal but it doesn’t feel the same. I think you can tell too. We can’t move past this if we don’t talk. That’s why we broke up every other time. I’ve avoided bringing up Tori for the last couple months but it’s definitely not helping. If anything, I think it’s making it worse.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I feel great. I’ve never felt better.” 

“Jade, please.”

I turn around to look at him. “How many times do I have to say this to you? I don’t want to talk!” 

Beck sighs as I go back inside. He follows quickly behind me. I’m reaching for the bedroom door when he grabs my wrist. I turn to face him. “Let go of me!”

“I will when you agree to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about!” I argue and try to pull my arm away.

He sighs again and pulls me to the couch. We sit down and he turns off the tv. We sit in silence for a few minutes. My arms are crossed and my legs pulled close. A few more minutes pass before Beck speaks again.

“We aren’t moving until we talk.”

“I told you, there is nothing to talk about.”

“Let’s start with our break up.” He suggests.

“No.” I answer immediately.

Beck ignores my protest and continues. “We broke up. You were hurt and rightfully so. You went to Tori?”

I sigh and nod slightly.

“Then what happened?”

I shrug in response.

Beck sighs once more. “Jade, this won't help unless you talk to me. Please.”

“Fine.” I grumble. “I went to her dorm and told her what happened.”

“Go on.” He presses.

“We watched Trina’s show and had dinner. The next day we had lunch and we came to get my stuff and my bunny.”

“You’re leaving something out. Aren’t you?”

Damn, he is way too perceptive. “I suggested we pretend to date to make you jealous.”

Beck sighs. “I should have seen that coming. I was pretty surprised to hear you guys were dating so that makes more sense. Then what happened.”

“Not much. We hung out, one night we dyed our hair, and I partied with my friends.”

“What caused your big fight?” He asks.

“She was upset with me cause I had been partying a lot. We were deciding on dinner and we decided on sushi. Then we ran into some of my friends, I had a couple drinks with them before deciding to go with them. Tori didn’t trust me on my own and tagged along. We came here and when Tori learned what we were planning on doing she got mad. We got in a fight and she said if I broke into the apartment she was done helping me.”

I pause and Beck stays quiet. When he doesn’t speak I continue. “She stormed off, we trashed the place and went out partying. I went back to the dorm the next day and she stayed true to her word. I left and ran into you. I think you know the rest.”

Beck stares at me for almost a full minute before finally talking. “Wow. That is definitely not how I expected that to go.”

“You said you wanted to know what happened.” I remind him.

“You’re right. I did say that.”

“Well?”

“You got me back, that’s what you wanted. Isn’t it?”

“It is.” I nod.

“What about the fight is bothering you? You knew the consequences of breaking in.”

“Just because I knew the consequences doesn’t mean I have to be unbothered about it.”

“Fair point.” He says.

A few minutes pass in silence before Beck speaks again. His eyes look at me gently. “You miss her.” It’s not a question, it’s a statement.

I shrug, looking down at the couch. Beck sighs softly. 

“It’s alright to miss her. It’s understandable. She practically was your best friend.”

“What am I even supposed to do about it? It’s not like she wants to talk to me. I blew her up for a couple days after the fight and she never responded. We avoid each other at school.” I look back up at him.

“You could start by apologizing to her. Go find her and talk to her. Take her for coffee or something. If you really care then you have to prove that.” He explains.

I nod quietly and look back down. All this talk about Tori just made it even harder to keep her out of my thoughts. Her beautiful brown eyes, her stupid humor, her clumsiness, how she cared about everyone in a way nobody else could, how she managed to piss me off but also make me smile inside at the same time. 

“Jade?” Beck asks softly.

“Hm?” I mumble.

“You love her, don’t you?”

“What? No! Of course not!” My head shoots up. What kind of question is that?

“It’s alright if you do.” He says.

“I don’t.” I insist.

“I think you do.”

“Well, you’re wrong.”

I stand up and walk back towards the balcony. He follows me back into the freezing air. It has to be around one in the morning by now. I keep my back towards him. 

“You can lie to yourself. You can lie to everyone else. But you can’t lie to me. I know what you’re like when you love someone.” Beck says gently.

My resolve starts to weaken. I sigh deeply. He steps closer and puts an arm around me. “I’m not going to force you to admit it. But I want you to know that nobody will judge you. Nobody will be mad at you, not even me. And if you need someone to talk to about it I’m here.”

I nod and look towards him. “What about us?” I ask.

“We can go back to being friends.” Beck smiles softly.

“Alright.” I agree. 

“So, on a change of topic. What are you wanting to do for Christmas break?”

“Not sure. What about you?” 

“I’m gonna go home and see everyone. Probably go to Andre’s party. You’re more than welcome to come with me. As friends, of course.” He answers.

“I might take you up on that. Cat was texting me, wanting me to come.”

“I think you should. It would be nice for us all to hang out again.”

“Does this mean I have to buy everyone presents?” I ask.

“Yeah, it does.”

I let out a deep sigh at the thought which makes Beck laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”

Just then a breeze of wind rushes against us and a few small, white things hit my arm. I look at them in confusion. More start to fall around us and into our hair. We both look at each other and Beck smiles again. The small flurries start to fall faster and the realization hits me. It’s snowing. I’ve never seen snow in person before. I’ve only ever seen it on tv or when Beck video calls me when he visits family in Canada. It never snows in LA. 

Beck disappears into the apartment, leaving me outside. He returns a few minutes later with my hoodie and two mugs of hot chocolate. I put it on and we just stand together, watching it snow, drinking our drinks. I’m not even sure how late we stay out, just enjoying each other's company and the snow. Who knew how peaceful snow could be? For a little while, all my thoughts of Tori drift away and I relax with the winter weather.