AN: I know this would never happen; but the idea hit me like a brick and I just went with it. Reviews are appreciated. Flames are for children.
nobodys better than me
summary: It's just the two of them and their flaws
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The downfall doesn't begin with Beck Oliver. It begins with Tori Vega.
At least, that's what they tell each other.
.
The first time Beck decided to punish Jade was kissing Tori. It didn't seem like an illogical thing, they were in the acting industry where he would have to kiss multiple girls. Jade needed to understand she needed to get use to seeing it. Tori was just a number of faceless girls to come.
The only girl that mattered was Jade fucking West- and if she didn't know it by now- she was going to have to start.
When Jade smugly apologizes two days later with "I get it. Just don't do it again."
Beck knows he's won.
.
The second time Beck decides to punish is when she steals Tori's ipod and returns it completely empty and the screen cracked. He gives her what he thinks must be considered "the look" and walks away without a kiss, hug, or goodbye. He thinks out of the corner of his eye he sees her twitch, just slightly.
She blows up his phone calling 32 times in the period of an hour. It stops at persists again a few hours later. By the time Beck goes to bed he has 72 voicemails and 125 missed calls.
He continues this process for the rest of Saturday and when he picks up the phone to call her Sunday- she's already standing outside his door, black tears running down her face.
"You didn't even say you love me." She says trying to make her voice hard. She only sounds broken.
He collects her into his arms and isn't to worried about the lesson right now.
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Jade trips Tori about a month later as she's on her way off the stage from an audition, and Tori ends up breaking her nose and her index finger.
Beck's furious, he takes her by the arm as hard as he can and leads her out into the hallway- little fingerprints of anger pressing into her tender flesh.
"Beck, get off! That. Hurts." she spits and her blue eyes are flaming, poison tongue ready to slash.
But Beck's not to concerned about the grip on Jade's arm right now- she just gave Tori a broken nose and over what, jealously? It was so stupid! There was no logically good reason to hurt somebody.
"What the fuck Jade? Seriously? What is wrong with you!" He throws his arms up in annoyance as he glares at her. "You've gone to far."
Jade West's so angry, she doesn't even want to tell him it was a fucking accident. She wants to let him go on a tangent about how fucked up she is- about how she's such an awful bitch.
"Yeah Beck?" She says teeth bared ready to tear him apart, combat boots closing the distance between them. "What if I told you I just wanted to hurt her? What than? What if I told you Id rather ki-"
She doesn't get to finish because his hand comes across her face HARD. Jade ends up on the ground, and so does Beck looking like he just saw a ghost. The anger is gone and in it's place is a red swollen cheek and lots of tears.
On both ends.
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They don't talk about the fact that Beck hit her in the abandoned hallway in Hollywood Arts. They've cried, apologized, and its over and done with. They just want to pretend it never happened.
"I'm so sorry Jade." A sobbing boy collecting a shocked girl into strong arms. "Im so sorry I don't know what-"
She's shaking him as she presses her lips over his, tears running down her face.
"It's okay- I kind of deserved it."
They also kind of avoid that hallway too.
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Jade's tough and can't be broken easily. It's a well-known fact.
So, when Tori's over at Beck's house to drop off the mix-cd she made him, and Jade comes over just in time to see Tori Vega leaving, and begins her stereotypical flip out of what/the/fuck/was/she/doing/here? Something inside Beck Oliver's mind just clicks. She listens when you punish her.
And just like that he has her up against the wall, and the fire's immediately distinguished. Because this isn't Beck. Beck doesn't…do things like this. Her blue eyes are calm as he hand comes down across her face and his left hand digs into her hip holding her still.
"God." /smack/ "Damnit Jade." /smack/
He's crying. He hates seeing her underneath him like that. Brown hair tussled and hiding her pale face. Blue eyes wide with an emotion he doesn't like and that he wont put a name too. But it's okay. He can still see some ferocity in there too.
"Are you going to listen to me now!" He pants lowering his trembling hand.
"Yeah." she says quietly as if testing the waters- unsure if its really the right thing to say.
"She was just dropping off a fucking cd." He lets her go and collapses onto her bed, running a hand through thick black hair, tears running down his face and sobs out of his mouth.
"why do you make me do this to you? You know I don't love her Jade. I love y o u. You know that right?" and there's a desperation in his eyes she hasn't seen before.
"Yeah." she says quietly taking a seat beside him on the bed. "I know that."
.
"Yo what up with the glasses?"
"Can it Vega."
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Andre's the first to notice Jades acting a little off, it's so small he almost doesn't think anything of it. Beck drapes an arm over her shoulder and he watches Jade ever so slightly flinch on his touch. It's so slight, he wouldn't have even noticed her shoulders jumped if Beck hadn't looked at her questionously, eyebrows raised.
The second thing he notices is that she watches for Tori. She watches for Tori like it's her job. The minute Tori sits down to the table- Jade leaves or attempts too. Most of the time, Beck brings her back which that in itself is strange. Beck would always go after but never bring back.
Small things.
When she dies her hair black, she wears a gray scarf, and collared jackets for a week.
.
There's moments; Jade realizes.
When he's just Beck and there's no Hollywood to think about or Tori to worry about or any type of self improvement. It's just the two of them and all their flaws.
Jade wishes there was more of those.
"I kind of like your black hair now." Beck says running his fingers through her hair. "It almost matches mine."
Jade smiles, lacing her fingers through his. "That's not the only thing of ours that black."
"What's that?" he questions, his gorgeous signature smile on his face.
"Our hearts." Jade murmurs into his chest. "Our hearts are black."
She hears him inhale the scent of her hair as he chokes back a sob.
.
Cat finds out. Than Tori finds out. Than Andre. And than somehow by default Robbie finds out.
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"There's no way Cat." Tori says once they're all together, huddled on the couch in the ping pong room.
"Yeah, Beck would never hurt Jade." Robbie nodded in agreement, Rex piping up with "Even though the witch would deserve it."
"Nobody deserves to be abused Rex." Andre says quietly before turning his attention to Tori. "I don't think what Cat's saying is that far-fetched. She's been….off her game. Not herself ya know? I'm not saying its Beck by any means but something's up."
(Cue the music)
"What's not Beck?" Beck says smile wide, arm casually draped over Jade- sunglasses fixated firmly in place, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Yes." Jade all but coos. "What's *not* Beck?"
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Tori approaches Beck; it seems like the thing to do Andre by her side.
"Itll be nothing." she assures him, flashing him her brightest smile. For once, Andre's really not reassured.
"Hey Beck!" Tori calls as Beck rises to a stand from his locker.
"Sup Tori?" He says, nodding his head non-chalantly towards Andre. Typical guy gesture. "Andre."
"Sup" Andre adds eyes shifting nervously to Tori.
"So, uhm Beck. This is probably going to sound pretty ridiculous. But- has Jade been acting a little odd to you? You know, with the sunglasses and…"
Andre watches Beck's face go blank and his mouth tighten just slightly.
"I've got to go." Beck says, slinging his bag over his shoulder, his shoulder brushing Tori's as he passes.
"Well." Tori says, turning to face Andre- her face filled with disappointment. "That's not what I was expecting."
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"Jade."
"what?"
"I hurt you don't I?"
"Only when I deserve it."
Cat slides down the wall next to the janitors closet and closes her eyes tightly.
(please,please,please be a dream. Make it go away.)
"Tell me you love me."
"I love you Beck."
She(Cat) begins to cry.
.
Cat pulls Jade into the Janitors closet, much to Jade's confusion when Cat locks the two of them in.
"Take them off."
"No." Jade says simply, and Cat can imagine the blue eyes defiant behind the thick black shades.
She reaches her hands up to the glasses and Jades hand grasps her wrist hard, Cat pauses only a moment before slowly lifting the glasses off Jade's face- Jade's hand dropping discarded to her side.
"It's time to get him some help." Cat says quietly, her thumb rubbing gently against a dark green foundation covered black eye. "It's time to get you some help too."
"He'll get in trouble." Jade says finally. "I don't want that."
"I don't either." Cat says wrapping her arms around her waste and pulling her close. "But I don't want you to go through this anymore."
Jade wishes she felt something right now, something other than the /a/n/x/i/e/t/y/ of it all.
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"Jade?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you scared of me?"
"Not really. Should I be?"
He says no. He means maybe.
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The next day Jade comes to school with a broken wrist.
Tori gets the authorities involved.
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He writes her letters from his program he was court ordered to attend. He writes her a single thank you on one hundred sheets of paper and never sends one. Beck runs his finger through his hair.
The councilors are baffled- no prior witness to domestic abuse. They toss around words like "dissociative disorder." and "splitting." Some say it was a mental snap of the girls opposite personality, and others will argue that it has something to do with his morals vs. Hollywood life style.
He stares at his cell phone waiting for her name to pop up. It never does.
"What else do you want to tell her?" The councilor asks one day taking a seat by his side. "Besides your sorry."
He just stares at the blank page of paper for a moment, before picking up a crumpled piece of paper and scribbling something across the middle and sliding it towards the councilor.
The councilor gets up without another word and disappears through a set of double doors.
Nobody's better than me
He sends it a week later.
.
Jade's probably the only person who understands what it means.
She writes back
I love you too
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It's not perfect.
Jade still yells; but she always says sorry.
Beck sometimes breaks; but he (it) always heals.
They were always perfectly imperfect.
Now they just added some disorders to the mix.
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