All new series. Hope you like it!
I call this the 2nd person P.O.V. but some people call it the 'roleplay' P.O.V.
CPOV
You giggle lightly, breaking the silent air in his house. You're crouching down besides the fireplace, right behind that round, plush, circular ottoman that you always loved to sit on because it spun. The house is dark with not a sound to be heard, but if you listened closely, you just might be able to hear the slow, deep breathing of other people.
It's your best friend's birthday; he just turned seventeen and you and his other five friends have planned a surprise birthday party for him at his house. His parents are out of town on his request as his birthday present. He claimed that he just wanted some silence when you asked him why.
You mentally sigh as you remember that you still haven't gotten him a birthday present. The idea of pooling some money into his savings for a car was put to a rest when his parents bought him that expensive new Ferrari last year. Other than that, you couldn't think of a thing. Something lurches in your stomach and you know for a fact that it's guilt.
Suddenly, you hear the sounds of an approaching car, coming up the long driveway, then the sounds of someone slamming a car door shut and setting the alarm. You giggle again to only receive several shushes from the hidden guests.
There's a rustling of keys, then the door swings open. You only see his frame, but you can tell that he's glad to be home. His shoulders aren't slumped like usual at school and he seems to be whistling a happy tune. Wait, you know that song: it's YOUR song. You deemed it that only three days ago.
The lights snap on and everyone is jumping up, yelling "Surprise!" or "Happy Birthday!" You sit so wrapped up in your thoughts that by the time you jump out of your hiding spot and scream "Happy Birthday, Beck!", everyone is giving him a hug and laughing at the look of shock on his face.
He just laughs like he usually does on your mess-ups. But not the mean laughs. No, the ones that means he understands why you messed up and basically explaining that he would, too.
You rush forward to hug him, but you're cut off by your OTHER best friend. She elbows you in the side and flings her arms around his neck, slapping her lips to his. He moans and you look away pointedly, along with the other people who are just as disgusted with this couple as you are. After a few minutes of struggling, he pushes her away, breathing heavily, a crazed look on his face, but she surges forward again.
You know that he loves her; he's loved her from the beginning. From the day he saw her at your house in ninth grade. She likes him back, but it took a while for her to get there. She's mean, bitter, with a sarcastic tongue. Pretty much the opposite of you.
But opposites attract and you can't help but love her just the way she is. She protects you from all of the people that make fun of you at school. She calls them names you would never dare to whisper, even when you're alone in your bedroom with the door locked. When their hurtful words get to you, she says the kindest things she can make to you, throwing in a comment here and there about how they are just jealous for how talented you are.
And you believe her. She's talented herself. Maybe not in the same things, but in her own way. So you love her, like you do with your other best friend.
But you can't help to wonder what he sees in her. She has raven-black hair with turquoise streaks in the back. She has a star tattoo on her wrist and an eyebrow piercing over her left eye. Her lips were always turned down in a scowl, lines running horizontal above her furrowed brow.
You, on the other hand, have hair as red as a red velvet cupcake and it's long too, well past your shoulders. Your eyes are a warm, brown chocolate and you have dimples on your cheeks every time you smile.
"Jade!" your friend Tori yells. "Give him a chance to breathe!"
You hear the jealousy in her voice. She had told you a mere two days ago that she liked him, oblivious to the fact that you're his best friend, and as his best friend, you tell each other everything and watch out for one another. All of your secrets are in between the two of you.
But Tori made you promise that you wouldn't tell him, whether best friends or not. You feel guilty every time you think about it, especially since it's one of the two secrets that you have ever kept from him.
Finally, Jade and Beck pull apart, slightly breathless, and smiling widely. Tori's head is a certain shade of pink that stains her Latina face, and you can't help the slight frown that appears instantly on your lips. The people around you are 'oohing' and whistling, making fun of the panting couple.
"Sorry," Jade snaps, giving Tori a scathing look, but when she turns to you, she gives you a small smile. You automatically smile back, a reflex reaction you got from living with your brother, but there's the hidden pain behind it, and your mind floats to your other secret.
He's your best friend, so of course you love him, but you can't tell what kind of love it is. Is it brother-like, or something more? It tears you apart each time you see him.
"You guys," he says, blushing slightly. "You didn't have to do this for me, I swear."
"Of course we did," you pipe in. "It's your birthday, Beck."
He smiles at you like you're his favorite person in the world, then takes that one step to wrap you in his arms; this is the place you always think you should be in. But as soon as he comes, he leaves, being tugged away by Tori, practically dragged to the refreshment table.
As the party goes on, Beck is hardly talking with one person for very long. Jade tends to be with you pretty much the whole time, but there are times when she leaves. She takes off in the direction of Beck whenever he talks with a pretty girl. You smile and giggle on the outside, like always, because you are humored by your friend's constant jealousy.
But on the inside, you're just as green with jealousy as she is. It's not hard to see the coveted looks the girls give him, or the light touch of a girl's hand on his shoulder. It's not heard to hear the want in their voice as they suggest a movie. So you'd love to stalk off after Jade and stand on the other side of Beck, making the girls around him back off slowly.
He doesn't notice this when Jade does it. He's too busy staring at her, drinking in her beauty.
You sit alone on the steps outside his front door. It's almost midnight, but the party still rages on. Although Hollywood Arts is a different kind of high school, the parties are more or less the same. There's still the drama, the excitement, the make-ups and the break-ups, and of course: the booze. Every party you've gone too since the beginning of your Junior year has always had the buckets full of Bud Light, or Samuel Adams.
You've stayed away, and so has Tori, Beck, your good friends Andre' and Robbie, but Jade was a different story.
Living with divorced parents is what you think made Jade the angry, bitter girl she is today. And the only way she found an escape from her parents' fighting or the pressure of each parent bad-mouthing the other, is through drinking. She doesn't drink a lot. Maybe two beers a party. Four is her max.
But what scares you the most it's the way she changes while she drinks. And you don't like to talk about it. Who could you talk about it to, though? Beck refuses to stop her because otherwise she gets mad at him, and he can feel for her. His parents are controlling and strict –kind, but still very controlling and strict. So one day, he decided that he would move out. Not far away. More like a few 20 feet away in an old camper parked in the driveway of his house.
His parents gave him limits, and he gladly accepted them, as long as he didn't have to live under their roof with their rules. You admire him for this, wishing that Jade could find a different way to escape all of the anxiety she got at the two houses she alternated between each week.
You left Jade after she grabbed her second, quickly told Tori that Jade was drinking (whenever Jade drank, she was nicer to everybody – except Tori, who probably had to deal with Jade's cutting remarks the most), then stepped out the front door to get some fresh air.
Although most people take you for an idiot, you know better. Sure, your mathematical skills and history skill aren't the best, but you have a certain area in your brain that the special doctor said 'was abnormally large and took up your other smarts' space'. You decided that it basically meant that you were smart in different areas people often didn't consider to be smart at all.
It was like your own, private joke – which you shared with Beck.
The door is flung open and a couple stumbles out. You watch with a wrinkled nose as they make their way drunkenly down the driveway towards the cars that had been hidden a block down the road. A small part of you worries if they should be driving at all, but you say nothing; you just hope that they pass out before they even drive.
You even hope they aren't going to their car to drive home, instead do some…other things.
The door is flung open once again and you jump lightly. Whoever came out laughs and takes a seat beside you, throwing an arm around your shoulder.
"Hey, Beck," you mumble.
"What are you doing out here, Cat? The party's inside."
"I just…needed some fresh air."
"Well, come back inside with me. Tori's bringing out a cake," you see him frown a little at saying this, "and after we were going to get the party games going. Whoop!" he cheers sarcastically and you go into a fit of giggles. When you finally finish, you clutch at your sides and moan.
"Beck, you made my stomach hurt."
"I'm sure some cake could fix that," he says teasingly.
You laugh once and nod. "Okay."
He gets to his feet and offers you a hand. You take it, loving how right it feels with your small hand inside of his big one. But the feeling lasts for only a second as he pulls away as soon as you're on his feet. He slings his arm around you again, but you prefer that he would just keep your hands entwined.
The music is almost blasting even louder than it was before you left to sit outside, and you cover your ears childishly. He smiles at you and tries to pry one hand from your ear; he succeeds and moves close to yell in your ear so you can hear.
"I'll go get you a piece of cake. Tori's already brought it out."
You nod at him then slap your hand back onto your ear. He smiles at you one more time before he vanishes into the crowd. You sway a little while you leave your hands clamped onto the sides of your head, humming a different tune because you can't hear the one that's blaring all around you. People look at you funny, but you ignore them, sighing internally and wishing a little that Jade was here to scare them off.
Beck returns a moment later carrying two plates of chocolate-chocolate cake. One has sprinkles on it, and the other has whipped cream on it.
"Here you go," you see him mouth, and you tentatively lower your arms. You wince as soon as the pounding music invades your ear drums, but you don't cover them again and instead take the cake from Beck, thanking him graciously.
"I added your favorite topping, too," he shouts, gesturing towards the whipped cream. You smile at him, and from a quick glance around, you realize that you're the only one with the special topping. You sit next to him on that circle ottoman that you love, moving your legs back and forth absentmindedly, making the ottoman rotate. Even though he hates it, he puts up with it good-naturedly, because he's your best friend.
He finishes his piece first and tries to smear the leftover frosting on his plate all over your nose. You shriek and duck and weave, but he manages to pin you to the ottoman and wipe his fork across your cheek. You laugh and protest, trying to wipe it off, your own almost-finished piece tossed upside down on the ground next to you.
He laughs, then groans when he spots the piece.
"Someone else better be picking this up, 'cause I'm not." He nods towards the room filled with people dancing, talking, eating, and laughing.
"Why don't you just hire a maid?" you ask.
He smiles at you crookedly.
"I don't think my parents want to pay for a maid just because our house is trashed once."
"Oh," is all you say while nodding and trying to look like you understand when truth-be-told, you don't.
He sighs next to you and you copy him, body language and all. He smiles and laughs lightly at you once, playing with his fork.
"I just sort of wished today would be mellow, you know? Like maybe a movie with you and Jade or something…Whatever, though. This is cool."
You know you should answer him seriously, but that same instinct that the doctor said you have more of than other people says that you should keep the conversation light and happy, not go into anything too deep. Like dissecting what he meant about seeing a movie with 'you and Jade'.
"What movie would you want to see?" you ask, concentrating on playing with a piece of your long hair.
Through your peripheral vision, you see him smile widely.
"Uh, I don't know…maybe-"
"Can it be Titanic?" you cut off.
"Titanic?"
"Yeah, I love that movie. We should act it out in class sometime." You let go of your strand of hair and lean forward, your arms spread apart to emphasize your words. "Like the ending."
He looks at you questioningly.
"When the boat sinks."
There's a pause and he smiles at you like you're crazy and your eyebrows come together.
"Oh my, God. I just gave away the ending," you say sadly. "Spoiler alert!" you say with a low, throaty laugh, though.
He laughs and you laugh with him, the people around you staring at you two like you have straw for hair. When your laughter dies down, Beck stretches his long legs out and yawns. He looks around and leans in close to your ear, close enough to whisper to you.
"I kind of just want to go to bed."
You just nod at him sympathetically.
"Well, go to bed."
He laughs with no humor this time.
"I can't just go to bed, Cat," he says with a hint of impatience in his voice.
"Why not?" you ask, somewhat startles with his sudden mood-change.
"Because this is my party and it's my birthday and I have to wait until everyone leaves and Jade and I…" He grumbles in annoyance and you look at the floor. Jade…again?
The two of you are silent for a moment before the song switches. You gasp and clutch his arm, squealing quietly as the first few notes start.
When you're on a holiday
You can't find the words to say
All the things that come to you
And I wanna feel it too
On an island in the sun
You'll be playin' and havin' fun
And it makes me feel so fun
I can't control my brain
"Beck! Beck" You stand up and jump around him, all while holding onto his arm. "We have to dance, Beck. This is our song!"
"You're right," he says, his weird mood over. "We do have to dance."
He brings you into the middle of the crowd of people and you dance your heart out next to him and he doesn't care.
Because he's your best friend.
But as your best friend, he also doesn't bring you close like all of the couples around you are. They are doing a sort of fast slow-dance, while you twirl and jump and stomp your feet as if you're at a concert, and he just laughs too much to make many dance moves. When the song ends, he falls backwards onto his couch, but doesn't bring you with him like the couples around you are doing.
Because he's your best friend.
And when the party's over and he waves good-bye to everyone and gives you a small squeeze, you don't argue or ask for more.
Because he's your best friend.
And he's her boyfriend.
How'd you guys like it? I don't know…I think I might just make this a one-shot. Review if you think otherwise. For now, I'll just leave it as T, though, because of mention of drinking and mild depression (Jade's story), and of course, the Bade graphic kissing, haha. Ok, maybe it wasn't that graphic. ;) Anyway, tell me how you think about this, and I might consider making this have chapters. If you know me, though, you know that I find it impossible to finish anything, so be patient.
Song was 'Island In The Sun' by Weezer.
-TeamSwiss737