This was a long term thing. I don't know why it popped into my head, but it evolved. This is Jade's story. I also understand how strange the end is. I apologize. It's a bit...mm, confusing. It's Beck asking for an answer (in song lyrics to Suggestions) and then Jade replying
Use Somebody For Suggestions
Summary: Jade West has always preferred being alone, even as a little girl. But not so much when she realizes how completely alone she is, with no-one to turn to. This is her story. Based on Use Somebody and Suggestions.
Her Daddy died when she was three. Her cat died when she was four. Her Mother stopped caring when she was five. Jadelyn West has always been good at avoiding people. She learnt how to skip school at seven, and she knew how to get away from nosy adults when she was nine. Yes, she's always been good at disappearing.
When she was fourteen, she got a scholarship at Hollywood Arts. She knew she'd nailed it when she belted out that last note of the song, her eyes finally opening and the smirk that could be misinterpreted for a smile spreading across the bottom half of her face. She'd raised her eyebrows at the line behind her, as if to say, "Beat that."
Jade knew how to get everyone's attention - except of course, her Mother's - and she knew exactly what to do with it. If she wanted something, she sure as hell got it. She didn't really want friends, but she got them. Cat grinned at her and told her that she was amazing, that her singing voice was out of this world. Jade had gingerly patted her shoulder and thanked her.
Cat followed her around school for weeks until Jade finally gave in and linked her arm through Cat's skinny one. "You're freaking freezing!" Cat exclaimed, her warm skin turning icy. Jade had smiled wryly and said it was her frozen heart.
"You don't have a frozen heart, Jade."
"Mm."
"Hey, wanna go out with me?" Beck asked Jade, casually leaning on her locker.
"One," Jade says calmly, "Move out of the way of my locker." He does. She opens it and takes her books out. "Two, what is your name?"
"Beck."
"Great. Three: do you know my name?"
"Jane."
"Incorrect. You're out." She raises an eyebrow, and then turns to leave. "And one last thing: no."
"Jade!" Cat squeals. "I can't believe you are going out with Beck Oliver!" She breathes later that day, emphasizing her shock.
"I'm not." Jade shrugs. "Who told you I was?"
"Naomi." Jade slams her locker shut again that day, and marches over to Naomi.
"Do NOT scream in my ear. Who told you?"
"Well, May told Janine, and Janine told Billie-"
"Oh, for god's sake," Jade mutters. "Who the hell told May?"
"I don't know, ask her."
"Right, I will."
With a face like thunder, Jade storms over to Beck Oliver, who smirks at her, playing her at her own game. "Don't look so smug," Jade frowns. "You're the idiot who's single."
"And you're not?" Jade blushes a furious red, and narrows her icy blue eyes.
"No. I have..." Jade searches the room, desperately trying to find someone. "Cat!" she calls, widening her eyes at her, calling her over. Beck nods knowingly. Jade wrinkles her nose.
"What?"
"So, you're with the ladies."
"Huh?" Cat giggles.
"No, no," Jade insists, trying to keep a straight face. Cat glances over at Beck's grinning face.
"Yes, yes," she says absentmindedly, twirling her hair. Jade laughs, hand over mouth, and drags Cat away. Cat throws her head back and roars with laughter, though at what, she's not sure.
The next day at school, Jade and Cat are the newest gossip. "Jade West is a lesbian! And she's with that Caterina Valentine!"
"Jadey, why are they staring at us?" Cat asks, self consciously looking down at herself.
"I haven't the slightest," Jade says, turning so Cat can't see the smirk.
"Oh," she says, crestfallen. "I spilled chocolate on my skirt and wondered if it was that."
"You can't see it," Jade promises. They spend the rest of lunch having a mini fashion show in the black box, using Cat's hairbrush as a microphone.
When Jade is sixteen, her best friend moves to New York. Jade stays strong and together and waves Cat off at the airport terminal. Cat steps up onto the stairs that takes her up onto the plane. Then she drops her pink backpack and hurtles down the stairs again, running over to Jade and hugging her hard.
"I'm gonna miss you so much, Jadey, I don't know what to do!" Jade forces out a smile for the little redhead standing before her, and puts her hands on Cat's shoulders.
"You're gonna get on the plane and wave at me and have the best time of your life in New York, and then you'll come see me, okay? I love you, Cat, okay? Right." Jade steps back. "Goodbye, Cat." Cat sniffs and snuffles.
"Goodbye, Jade."
Afterward, Jade falls apart in the airport Starbucks, crying over a cup of black coffee no sugar, weeping as bitterly as the drink in her cold hands.
Her Mom still isn't interested and of course her Dad is still dead. Jade becomes withdrawn from society. The sparkle in her eyes is gone, replaced with a blank stare, lifeless, dead, unimaginative.
She stays in her room for the whole of summer, and for the whole of fall. She doesn't know how to live. She's never had the knack of knowing how to be with people, but it seemed right now she'd lost the knack of living.
It all happens very quickly. Jade's mother snaps at her.
"Jadelyn, for goodness' sake! Get up and go out! You're doing my head in and I want you gone, now!" So Jade packs a bag and leaves home at the young age of sixteen and a half.
She falls in with the wrong crowd, and ends up selling herself just to scrape together the money to live. Two years pass and she's still on the same street, same crowd, same job, same lifeless eyes. She's drinking the last of her troubles away with a bottle of blue vodka. Maybe this'll be the time her weak, scrawny body finally gives up, she thinks as she hears her real name. Her real name! Not sugar, or honey, or sweet-thing. No food name, she thinks, silently rejoicing.
"Jade West." Her head whips round, and she sincerely regrets it as she's retching behind a garbage can. Then the boy - the tanned, gentle boy that she hadn't seen in a few years, one that held her hair back for her as she was being sick at the very moment he saw her again.
Countless white, round pills begin to appear in a puddle of her vomit, and he starts to panic. "Jesus Christ," he says, shocked, "How many have you taken, Jade?" She holds a shaking hand to her burning forehead, and shakes her head. She feels her head hit the hard concrete as she closes her eyes, her hand still up at her face.
"Jade, you've been very lucky." With a pounding headache, pins beneath her closed eyes, a very sore leg, and neck pain, she didn't feel very lucky.
"I wish I were dead," Jade says, covering her head with her hands, shielding her eyes from the sudden harsh light. "Where the hell am I?"
"Hollywood's best hospital,"
"Oh, really," Jade remains unimpressed.
"Yes, young lady. Now, can you tell me what day it is?"
"Nope," she replies. "What day is it?"
"Jade," a soft voice lightly scolds. "Tell them your birthday." Jade peeks out of one eye.
"November 18th."
"Good," the doctor nods. "It's Thursday, by the way."
"What happened to you?" Beck asks her, later that day. She shrugs, not bothering to look in his direction. "I have some news,"
"Yes?"
"Your mother...she..."
"What is it, Beck?"
"She..passed away."
"Oh, well," Jade says, glances at him. "Let's hope it was painless."
"Jade, your mother died! Do you not care?"
"She didn't care about me," Jade mutters. "So why should I?"
"What happened to you?" He asks again, looking exasperated. She shrugs again, and he sighs.
"If you give me an answer that just makes no sense then what's the use?" He asks, shaking his head. She bites her lip.
"Right," she says angrily. "Here's my question - what's going to happen to me?"
"That depends," he quips, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, yes? On what?"
"On your answer."
"To what?" She asks moodily.
"Come to my house." She hides her shock with a simple nod.
She's settled into Beck's huge house. He's only nineteen, twenty at the most, Jade thinks, looking around. How can he afford this? He smiles at her.
"My father died," he explains. He sees her face soften. "He left me the house."
"I'm sorry," she says genuinely. "Mine died, too."
"My condolences," Beck says. Jade nods, looking away. That's the end of their short conversation.
Beck asks her the same question everyday, but she never gives an answer. She simply glares. "Why can you see it from my point of view?" She snaps angrily.
"Because you never let anyone in! You shut everyone out!"
"Yes, because everyone leaves!"
"I wouldn't." He promises, a fierce look on his face.
"That's what they all say."
"Open up to me," he says, almost begging her. "Please."
"I can't," she says anxiously. "I've tried and I've tried, but I just can't. Now I'm open for suggestions on how you want me to just..just trust you!"
He can't take it anymore. She can't take it anymore. They go their separate ways, wishing they could stay together but too proud to say it. Jade West and Beck Oliver are alone again.
"Oh, I plead for an answer, I plead for an answer from you."
"Oh he said it was him or the answer, it was him or the answer that day,
Well I kept shouting out the answer, so what was the use anyway?"