when it rains
summary: because. both of your hearts are broken together. simutaneously. Or, how Jade and Andre get together.
The sky is dark, heavy and thick with rain when he finds her, thunder roars in the background and lightning lights up the secluded alleyway as to punctuate the statement of her deterioration. He doesn't say anything just kneels down beside her and brushes a strand of black hair out of her face.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this." She says and the rough edge of her voice is barely audible as the rain pounds down around them. He lets her say that the rain ruined her make-up, even though he knows it was already ruined before it started.
He drapes his Hollywood Art's jacket off her shoulders and leads her out of the alleyway back into the school building.
.
The asphalt café's never looked so miserably desolate- the two of them the only ones daring to eat outside. The other students munching inside in the library, the auditorium, anywhere and everywhere except outside.
Jade stares down at the salad on the tray in front of her before brushing it to the side.
"I'm not ready." She says quietly. "to pretend I'm okay."
He doesn't say anything because he's not really sure what he's doing here with her anyway, so he just nods.
"Yeah. Ok."
.
"I bet she's lonely." Cat says quietly staring out the window in the library watching the rain pitter patter against the glass. She's oddly still for someone of her energy and oddly quiet- eyes wide and lost staring out the window. "I think I would be lonely."
"Who?" Andre says, even though he's pretty sure he knows the answer.
"Hey guys!" Tori says approaching, Beck's hand wrapped around hers. Tori's energy is so big and strong it breaks the air of seriousness in the room and makes even the rain outside feel awkward.
Beck wraps his arm around her like it's the most natural thing in the entire world, like he's been doing it for years instead of days.
Andre doesn't bother to stick around, "Ill see you later Cat."
He doesn't say goodbye to Tori.
(She doesn't notice.)
.
"You two are perfect together." Robbie muses one day at lunch, when the sun is out instead of the rain.
"Why?" Andre says not bothering to look up from his pizza, Jade not bothering to acknowledge the comment.
"Because..." Cat finishes for him, "both of your hearts are broken together. Simultaneously."
Blue eyes meet brown eyes and as if on cue they both shrug and turn back to their plates.
.
"We should talk."
She stares at him pushing a teal clip on out of her face shoving her history book into her black locker.
"About?" she asks raising a pierce brow, not bothering to face him.
"Jade." His voice was aggravated and gruff, she was familiar with it- the calm right before the storm.
"What Beck?" and her voice is louder and sharper than she intended it to be, the opposite of the composed role she's supposed to be playing. "What would you like to talk about? How you cheated on me? Is that what you'd like to talk about?
Her eyes betray her and she can feel the emotion well up in them, she sighs in frustration and slams her locker shut, leaving him there to stare at her absence.
.
"Do you hate her?" Jade asks one day looking up at Andre from his living room floor, his fingers tentatively stroking the piano keys.
"Sometimes." He muses without skipping a beat, his eyes not even bothering to turn off the page. His melody slows and he asks her the same question reversed "do you hate him?"
She laughs, it's soft and more importantly it screams heartbreak. She shakes her head, and bites her lip. He watches her flood with color at the constant attempt to fight what he assumes is tears.
"No." She whispers. "not even at little."
.
"Andre." Tori says softly one day, gently tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. He fights the urge to pull off in disgust.
"Sup?" he says, and he doesn't know why he bothers.
"It doesn't have to be like this." She says softly. "Beck and I…"
"Listen, Tori your relationship is your business. I don't need to know about Beck and you."
"Wait!" She says and her arms are on him again, and for a moment he lets himself think its because she doesn't want to let him go.
"Get off Vega." Jade says prying Tori's fingers off of Andre's arm. "Haven't you heard?"
Andre doesn't have time to process much as he watches the smirk glide over Jade's porcelain features, her pale arm draping across his shoulders, her other hand grabbing him by the jaw and tilting his head down to her. "This is my boyfriend now."
And she punctuates her statement by kissing him full on the mouth.
(She tastes like revenge.)
.
"What's up with all the flannel?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to Andre."
He can take that.
.
"Your dating Jade?" Beck says grabbing Andre by the arm outside his locker.
"Dude, what is it with you and your girlfriend touching me?" Andre says aggravated throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. "And yeah, what if I am, do you have a problem with it?" He's not sure why he's being so defensive.
Beck sighs running a few fingers through his hair. "She'll suck the life right out of you Andre."
"Is that why you cheated on her?" His voice sounds like a snarling dog, and he's actually thinking about punching Beck right in his pretty little mouth.
Beck looks taken aback for half a second before shrugging lamely. "Yeah…maybe it was." He sighs before placing a good natured hand on Andre's shoulder.
"She's amazing though. She really is. And…she didn't deserve what I did to her. I know that. Hell, I knew that. Just….I didn't want her but I couldn't let her go either." Beck pauses before removing his hand more awkwardly than when he put it down. "That must make me sound like an ass."
"Yeah." Andre says a small smile playing across his lips. "It does."
.
"You're not eating very much."
"Don't ask questions you don't want answer too."
"Not a question mistro, a statement."
He doesn't mean to but he laughs.
.
He sees the first sliver of red after he catches Beck looking at it in Sikowitz's class. His face is etched with concern though he does nothing than chew on the inside of his cheek. Andre is a bit less passive. He grabs her by the wrist just a little too tightly and he feels some of the skin give under his touch.
"What were you thinking girl?" He whispers a little bit harsher than he intends to, only startled by the slightest twitch in her jawline.
"Don't touch me." She whispers jerking back, red staining the inside of her sleeve, a sick wet feeling washing over her.
He isn't offended and when he presses the base of her wrist against his lips, she stills drastically. He takes her into his arms and holds her for the rest of Improv unconcerned with the looks passed between Tori and Beck.
"It doesn't have to be this way you know." He whispers against the shell of her ear.
"Yeah." She whispers back, not turning to meet his eye. "Yeah..it does."
.
They spend a lot of time at each other's houses Andre notices- mostly his. And while his parents don't necessarily like her- they don't hate her either.
That's more than she can say about Beck's parents.
"It didn't use to be this civil." Jade says looking up from her Shakespearian book, which Andre's come to find it's her first choice reading material. "You and me." She continues. "Did it?"
Jade was never really openly attached to anyone other than Beck, and though they were just using each other to spite their…(what do they even call Beck and Tori?). The air between them had most defiantly changed.
"No." Andre says in agreement.
She gets up leaving her book discarded on the floor and crawls next to him on the bed. It's a subtle gesture for her, but sometimes it feels like they really could quite possibly be in love. He slides his fingers through hers and stares up at the ceiling.
Her fingers fill the spaces in his perfectly.
.
Jade glares at some pink wearing blonde headed freak whose polished nails are dancing their way flirtatiously against her man's arm muscles. She keeps her stride as she walks over to them, cup of coffee in hand careful not to puncture the cup before the opportunity to spill it over the girls head presents itself.
"And who is this." Jade hisses giving her a once over, face clenched tight.
"Sophia." Andre says quietly. "She needs help with math."
"Oh well than." Jade says mocking Tori's voice as she slides the paper from the girls hand. "Let me take a look."
And in one swift move the paper is drenched in coffee, and Sophia's gone tears running down her face.
"I thought we were just pretending we were together." Andre says through clenched teeth.
"Pretend better." Jade hisses and turns on one black studded combat boot.
.
Beck grabs Andre by the arm one day and swings him around, eyes burning with anger.
"Andre I swear to god, if you're just dicking her around I'm going to.."
"You're going to what Beck?" Andre glares invading his personal space so that their chests are touching. "Maybe if you had treated her right, you wouldn't have to worry about someone treating her wrong. I sure as hell love her more than you ever did so how about you back up?"
He punctuates his statement by pushing Beck back against Jade's locker.
Only later does he wonder if he was acting or not.
.
"This isn't real is it? You and Andre? What are you up to Jade?" Tori says arms crossed over chest.
"Andre!" Jade barks over her shoulder, and he comes in one smooth stride.
"Whats my favorite book?"
"Romeo and Juliet."
"Whats my favorite color?"
"Purple."
"Not black?" Tori pipes up.
"Can it Vega."
"Favorite drink?"
"Water."
"Favorite composer?"
"Mozart; Jade is there a point to this?" Andre says, eyes moving from her to Tori.
"Ask Beck how many of those things he knew about me, Vega." Jade snaps blue eyes glaring.
She stomps off leaving the two of them miserably dumbfounded.
.
It happened slowly, inconveniently, and completely out of order- Andre falling in love with Jade West, his pretend girlfriend.
"Kiss me." She mutters at the asphalt café right as he's getting to the good part of the story involving his crazy grandma, but her hands dancing over his inner thigh and the story is seeming drastically less important.
He's never been one to deny her anything anyway.
.
Tori and Beck break up one week later.
.
"Think we broke them up?" Andre says later that day casually leaning over her as she slides her history book into her locker.
"Maybe. But we better play it safe to make sure it was *us* that broke them up and not some other bullshit reason." She smirks taking his jaw in between her black nails and kissing him possessively on the lips. "I think you can suffer a few more weeks of me as your girlfriend."
He thinks he could suffer a lifetime as long as she was his girlfriend, he just doesn't tell her so.
"Yeah, no problem."
Though the question lingers on his tongue- he just walks away.
Is this still really just about Beck? Because, its defiantly no longer about Tori.
.
"Your red lines went away." Cat says quietly as she sits on Jade's bed, watching the brunette throw random black outfits onto her floor.
"What?" Jade snaps, not by the statement but from frustration of not being able to find the perfect, 'in your face Beck' attire.
"You don't have the red lines on your arm anymore."
Jade stops dead cold, hand on a hanger. She hadnt realized Cat had noticed anything, and without meaning to her eyes linger down at her bare wrist, no new red lines have danced across her flesh in god knows how long.
"Andre fixed that didn't he?" Cat says when Jade doesn't respond. "So. You don't need Beck after all."
Jade turns around and slowly crosses to the room to the wide eyed red head. "No." Jade says quietly a small smile displayed across her features. "No, I don't."
.
Two weeks later, he confronts her anxious to get this fake break up over with.
His heads mixed up with do's and don't's and wants and cant's and Tori's already asked him to help her write and rehearse another song. He know's Beck's bought her at least three cups of coffee, all of which she's accepted smugly.
"So. This is it." Andre says. "We're breaking up now, right?" He tries to keep his voice level and hope she can't hear the emotion in it.
"We were never together." She says giving off a casual shrug, and it infuriates him how this was only a business transaction to her. "So we cant really break up now can we?"
He turns to leave before he says something he regrets when he feels black nails bite into his bare hand.
"You're mine Harris." a small smirk playing over her features, her eyes a little softer than normal. "If you still wanna be."
A kiss is her answer.
.
A/N: I just wanted to do my version of the whole over-used Jade uses Andre to get back at Beck; and they end up falling in love with each other bit. Hopefully mine stands out a little in the over-used mix. Reviews are excellent, Flames are for children.
=D
