I'm watching her again. It's Jade. She's been in my class for a year now. Everyone is scared of her. Except me. I'm a little cautious, but not scared. I couldn't be scared of such a beautiful person. She has wavy shoulder length hair with green and blue streaks. Her eyes are blue-grey or blue-green depending on the light and she has two piercings and a tattoo. One piercing is in her left eyebrow and the other is in the right side of her nose. Her tattoo is on the underside of her right arm. Anyway, she's not scary, you just have to be careful what you say or she'll bite your head off. Whoops she's caught me staring! Sikowitz isn't here yet so she stands up and strides across the room coming to a stop in front of my chair. Nobody dare watch so they all just keep talking. Her combat boot makes a loud thud as she taps her foot on the floor. I slowly lift my head until my gaze meets hers. Her piercing eyes flash with fury as she glares at me, arms folded across her chest.
"Hello." I say innocently
"Why are you always staring at me?" she hisses.
"You're interesting." I reply, wrong answer…she grabs my wrist and drags me outside the classroom. Then she suddenly blows up. "I'M INTERESTING! DON'T THINK YOU CAN JUST WIN ME OVER BECAUSE YOU CAN'T! I'M NOT ONE OF THE STUPID, DITZY BARBIE DOLLS THAT WALK AROUND HERE!"
"I don't think you're a Barbie, I just think you're interesting." I reply calmly. She looks at the ground, maybe feeling bad for shouting at me, I dunno.
"Interesting, how." She mumbles.
"Well, as you said you're not like all the other girls that come here. You're different and it's fun to watch the way you move and the way you speak. I'm not used to you and I want to find out more about you." Our gazes meet again and she has a slight sparkle in her eyes.
"It's Beck right?" she asks. I just nod but I'm secretly thrilled she knows my name. "I'm Jade." she says.
"I know." I reply quietly. A smile flickers across her face before it clouds with confusion as if she's contemplating doing something. The confusion fades and she holds out her hand. It takes me a minute before I realise she wants me to shake it. I quickly wipe my sweaty hand on my trousers and grip hers. I needn't have wiped mine because hers is sweaty too. She's just let out a load of anger, she's bound to be sweaty I say to myself. I hope that's not the reason. I hope she likes me too.
Sikowitz appeared "Hello children, inside my classroom!" he said making his usual weird hand gestures. We exchange a small smile before following him into the room. I can't believe I've actually talked to Jade. She's not scary, at all. I need to get to know her better, she's special.
The bell rings for lunch and everyone leaves. I wait for Jade, (she was obnoxious so Sikowitz is talking to her) she turns and her eyes widen when she sees me leaning against the door. She tries unsuccessfully to hide her surprise as she walks past me through the door. Halfway down the hallway she stops and turns on me.
"Why are you following me?" she spits out and the hallway quickly hushes, everyone wants to see who dares follow Jade West. I just stand there, speechless.
"I just happen to be going this way…" I lie.
"Well don't walk so close then." She says coldly, though I don't think it's quite as cold as usual. I hold my hands up in mock surrender and wait for her to walk a little way ahead before following again.
She picks up her lunch from the Grub Truck and I do the same. After paying Festus I see her sitting alone at a table. I search quickly for Cat, Andre or Robbie (and Rex). Nobody around, nobody to tell me off for not sitting with them…I decide to risk it. I start walking over to Jade's table and sit across from her. Her eyes slowly rise and then almost fall out of her face when she sees me again.
"Hey Jade." I say in a friendly voice.
"…Hi…" she says. I can hear it in her voice; she's wondering why I want anything to do with her. She's used to sitting alone and not speaking to anyone unless they're in her way. I'm not sure what else to say.
"Is your salad nice?" I ask, stupid question.
" I guess." She replies stabbing holes in her lettuce. We haven't really made eye contact so I decide to slide closer to her and see if she'll look at me. It works, even if she does look slightly disturbed. She raises one eyebrow before she says.
"Why are you here."
"I'm an actor." I say knowing full well that she doesn't mean Hollywood Arts, I just want her to talk.
"No. I mean at this table, with me." She says with a hint of frustration. I don't want to get her annoyed so I fake that I really thought she meant HA.
"Oh, I don't know. But I like it here…I like you." I hesitate before that last part.
" Alright, I guess." She says awkwardly. We sit in silence for a bit. She sighs.
"Something wrong?" I ask unsure of what to expect.
"…Yeah, no…don't worry." She says quickly and gets up to leave. I grab my bag and hurriedly run after her into the empty school.
"Jade." I call out. She spins round stares at me with sadness in her eyes.
"Talk to me." I plead. Her eyes fill with tears. She runs towards me, grabs my wrist and drags me into the janitor's closet where she breaks down. I feel a sudden stabbing pain in my heart; I feel pity for Jade. I can't bear it anymore; I grab her and hug her tight. She doesn't react like I thought she would. Instead of pushing me away, she sobs into my chest and wraps her arms around my waist.
Eventually she runs out of tears. The bell went about fifteen minutes ago but I don't care, Jade needs somebody. I release her and she slides down the wall until she's sitting on the floor. I sit close by her side and wait patiently. She surprises me again, with the first word that she says.
" Sorry." She whispers meekly.
"Don't worry." I reply, squeezing her knee.
" You remind me of someone I want to forget is all." She tells me quietly.
" Will you explain?" I ask.
" My dad." She begins, anger fills her voice and clouds her eyes. " He hates my guts. He has never supported my dreams, he thinks that wanting to be an actor or singer is stupid. I used to try and impress him, try to prove him wrong. He would always laugh in my face, tell me I was silly for believing I could ever accomplish anything. If I ever said something without permission, he'd hit me." She pauses. Looking at me she knows I won't say anything, I can't find any words.
" He used to love me, when my mother was around. But she left us, moved halfway around the world. I haven't seen her in twelve years. Now my dad spends all his time with his new girlfriend and her yappy little dog, she hates me too…and the dog pees on me…" she finishes.
"Jade, I'm…" is all I can manage.
"Don't bother." She says "I'm pretty used to it now, I just try to keep myself to myself but if anyone ticks me off I can't help blowing up."
This time I know what words to say.
"Do…do you…wanna, get some coffee after school?" I stutter. I always manage to surprise her.
" You're serious..?" she says and I nod.
"I guess." The bell rings for the end of the day.
" Let's go." I say and pull her up with me. We join the masses and walk outside. I take her wrist and lead her to my car. She gives me directions to her favourite coffee shop and we go inside.
She orders a black coffee and I ask for a latte. We collect our drinks and sit down.
"I like this coffee shop because nobody I know comes here." She says in between sips.
"Mmmmm and the coffees aren't half bad either." I say smiling. She playfully rolls her eyes.
"I have something to tell you Jade." I pause to make sure she's focused on me. "There's more then one reason I invited you here after school. One is because I thought you needed to take your mind off things; you know get some fresh air. The other…is because I like you, a lot." She gets my hint but I don't know if she's taken it well…then her eyes sparkle and the edges of her mouth turn up slightly. She likes me
The shop is closing so we have to leave.
"I wanna come here again," I say " but with someone else." The small smile that was forming on her face twists into a frown and her eyes well with tears. I take her hand, look her dead in the eye and say "My girlfriend." I have to pat her on the back to stop her choking on her coffee.
"Are you asking me out?" she exclaims in disbelief. I nod, she still doesn't believe me so I say " To clarify; I, Beckett Oliver am asking you, Jadelyn West to be my girlfriend."
"Well Beckett, I'll go out with you, BUT NOT as your girlfriend." My feeling of confusion must have shown through my face because she adds quietly " I'm having a hard time trusting at the moment. So we can hang out, and you can ask me that question again sometime in the future." A glimmer of hope flashes through my eyes and we both smile.
We had a couple more 'meetings' I guess, and then I asked her out again. She said yes, and the rest my friends…is history. Beck finished the story of how he and Jade started dating with a smile. He would always finish that story smiling because nobody understood why he loved Jade like he did when she was so mean to him. But the truth was, Jade had reasons to be mean. They didn't justify her being mean, oh no, but they explained why she was like she was. It was all she had ever known, she grew up learning that everything you love is someday going to be gone and that everything will eventually disappoint you. Beck understood this. He tried to help and make her a better person. It didn't always work, but secretly…Beck loved Jade the way she was and didn't really want her to change too much. He looked around as his friends gazed at him in awe. Jade stood back and rolled her eyes. If he had told anyone else how weak she'd been, she would have murdered him. But she trusted Cat and Andre. She did not trust Rex, but she knew that Robbie knew there'd be trouble if he didn't keep quiet. She pulled her boyfriend of two years over to some lockers, leaned against them and kissed him. Oh how pure their love was.