They're sixteen and adulthood still feels worlds away.
"Jade?"
Cat's voice is soft and quiet as she speaks into the almost silent bedroom. It's close to four in the morning and her best friend is fast asleep in her bed next to her, the result of their almost-monthly sleepover, but she can't seem to fall asleep. Every law of nature says that she should be exhausted by now, she had gotten up for school around twenty-two hours prior and stayed up well after midnight watching movies, but sleep just won't come.
"Jade?" She says again, a little louder this time, as she nudges her friend awake "Jade, wake up."
"What do you want, Cat?" Jade groans, pulling a pillow over her head and rolling to the side "I'm sleeping."
Jade West wouldn't admit that she 'loves' many things. She loves her boyfriend, Beck Oliver, that's no secret to anyone. She loves Cat Valentine, in the way that best friends do. She even loves her family, although it might be harder to get her to confess to that. But she really loves to sleep, and she hates when her sleep is interrupted by anything or anyone. Even if it's someone she loves.
"I know you are, but it's an emergency."
"Someone had better be dead or dying..." Jade sighs, rolling over to face her friend "What's wrong?"
"You're my best friend, right?" Cat asks her "And you're always going to be my best friend?"
"Jesus Christ, GOODNIGHT." Jade rolls her eyes, attempting to roll over and face the other direction once more
"No Jadey, I'm serious!" Cat grabs her friend's arm
'Jadey' was a nickname that Jade absolutely despised, but one that she would allow Cat, and only Cat, to use. It had started in elementary school, and much to Jade's dismay, she had never grown out of it.
"If I answer you, can I go back to sleep?"
"Probably."
"Of course you're my best friend." Jade assures her, propping her head up on her arm "And I'll never go anywhere. I read this thing online one time that said after you've been friends with someone for seven years, your friendship is basically cemented forever."
Hearing that, especially coming from Jade's mouth, makes Cat smile. They've known each other for eight years now, which is basically half their lives. They had gone to different elementary schools, but met through local community theater. From their first production they had been absolutely inseparable, which their mothers found to be odd seeing as they were so different, but their friendship was genuine and anyone could easily see so. Both girls had attended the same junior high school and made the decision to audition for Hollywood Arts, and thankfully they both got in. One might say the rest is history, but it's really not. They're juniors now, with their whole lives ahead of them still.
"Even when you and Beck are married with a thousand babies?"
"A thousand?" Jade laughs "Well, I don't know about that. But yes, even when I'm grown up and married and maybe if I have kids, I'll still be your best friend. As long as you promise that you'll always be my best friend."
"I promise." Cat smiles, holding her pinky up
The two girls each wrap their pinkies around the other, before laughing a bit and laying down flat on their backs again.
"Goodnight, Jadey." Cat says into the dark room "I love you."
"I love you too, Cat." Jade tells her "Goodnight."
They're eighteen and the world feels like it's falling apart.
Colleges in different states hadn't seemed like that big of a deal when the time came to make their commitments. They had all summer to prepare for the fact that for the first time in what feels like forever they wouldn't be seeing one another every single day.
Cat had opted to stay home and attend UCLA, it was more cost efficient and the drama program is one of the best in the state. But Jade, she's going all the way to NYU. There's nothing wrong with California, hell it's the place to be if you want to make it in the entertainment business so there's not a doubt in her mind that she'll come back as soon as she graduates, but she's lived in the same city her whole life. She wants something different. And for actors and singers and everyone of the sort, New York City is the best place to be next to Los Angeles.
"Thanksgiving is only like...three months away." Jade says, sounding braver than she feels as she packs the last of her bags into the back of her mom's car "And FaceTime is a thing. We'll still talk all the time, it will be okay."
"Yeah..." Cat says softly, kicking at a rock on the ground
They both know that for the first few weeks, it won't be okay. They'll be adjusting to college life, and meeting new people, and missing each other like crazy.
"I'll take good care of her, babe." Beck Oliver grins, throwing an arm around Cat's shoulders and pulling her into an almost headlock "Don't worry."
He also chose to stay in Los Angeles, although college isn't in his plans. He wants to be an actor, and he feels the best preparation for that comes from real life experiences and the occasional workshop. It certainly doesn't come from sitting in a desk for eighteen hours a week and stressing out over term papers. Not that he has anything against those who pursue an arts education, that's what all of his friends and his girlfriend are doing. He just doesn't feel it's for him. So, he's going to find a part time job to keep him busy while he waits for his big break, which he prays is right around the corner.
"Let me go, you weirdo." Cat laughs, wiggling free from Beck's grip "We all know I'm going to be the one keeping an eye on you."
"You'll both look out for each other." Jade says "And it will put my mind at ease."
"C'mon, kiddo." Jade's step-dad calls out to her, catching the car keys as his wife tosses them over to him "If we miss our flight, we'll have to drive. And no one wants that to happen."
"Be there in a minute." Jade nods to him, before turning back to her best friend and boyfriend "Well..."
"I'll go." Beck steps towards her, sensing that it will be harder on Cat to say goodbye "I'll see you in a few weeks, okay?"
A benefit of not being tied down to collegiate education is that he can fly out to visit her whenever he pleases, which he'll do for the first time about a month or so into her semester. He wants to give her time to settle in, and it was the cheapest airfare weekend.
"I'll miss you." She says, resting her forehead against his "Don't go chasing after any new girls while I'm gone, okay?"
"Wouldn't even dream of it." Beck assures her "Go do great things, okay? I love you."
"I love you too." She tells him, before kissing him like it will be their last kiss for years, not just weeks
It's Jade's mother who finally clears her throat and brings the couple back to reality. After an embarrassed 'sorry', Jade turns to Cat.
"Just a phone call away." She reminds her, brushing a tear from her eye
"Is Jade West crying?" Cat gasps
"I don't have to say goodbye to you." Jade reminds her "I'll just get in the car."
"But you won't."
"You're right, I won't." Jade nods "I...I don't really know what else to say, though. I love you, Cat. You know that don't you?"
"I do." Cat nods "And you know that I love you too, right?"
"Like you'd ever let me forget." Jade chuckles "Gimme hug."
The two girls embrace one another longer than they ever have. Eventually Jade is the one to break the hug, muttering more 'I love you's to both Cat and Beck before climbing into the back of the car.
She waves goodbye as her step-dad backs out of the driveway and starts the car down the street. More tears slide down her face and land on her lap as the two people she cares about the most become smaller and smaller in the distance, until they disappear altogether.
They're twenty-one and life is good.
Well, at least it is for Jade. Normally Cat would also agree, but tonight has been...an experience.
"You're the best friend I've ever had..." Jade slurs, smiling as she cups Cat's face in her hands "...you know that?"
"I know that, Jade." Cat nods "You've only told me thirty times in the past hour."
It's Jade's twenty-first birthday, and Beck is away filming a movie, so Cat had taken it upon herself to make sure her best friend had a memorable night. Unfortunately, she's not really sure Jade is going to remember any of it. She's seen her drunk before, Cat doesn't know a single college student who hasn't been drunk at least once before it was legal for them to be, but this drunk is a whole new level for Jade.
"Remind her of this tomorrow when she tries to rip your eyes out for letting her get this bad." Cat's boyfriend, Robbie Shapiro, chuckles from the front seat
He had agreed to be their sober-driver for the evening, so that both girls could enjoy themselves and celebrate. However, Cat had been too worried about Jade for most of the evening to even get past feeling buzzed.
"I tried to warn her. Several times." Cat reminds him "But what college kid is going to turn down a free drink if someone offers to pay?"
And when it's your twenty-first birthday, someone always offers to pay. Even strangers at a bar who have never met you before. It's all 'part of the experience'.
"Right." Robbie smirks
He had gone to high school with both of them, in fact they had been in the same friend group. He had always tried flirting with Cat, and occasionally she would flirt back, but it never went anywhere. At least not until they both ended up at the same college and were spending a lot more one-on-one time together. They were officially a couple by Christmas of their freshman year, and Cat's parents couldn't have been more thrilled. Robbie was smart, he was pre-law, he was a gentlemen, and they loved him. Jade and Beck both admitted it took the couple way longer to get together than either of them had anticipated, both thought it would happen back in high school. Cat didn't mind the teasing, Robbie made her the happiest.
Robbie pulls his car into the driveway at Jade's mom's house and cuts the engine, climbing out to assist his girlfriend in getting her friend inside.
"This looks like my house!" Jade says excitedly
"This is your house, boozey." Cat chuckles, draping one of Jade's arms around her shoulders "Can you get her other arm?"
"Absolutely." Robbie nods, positioning Jade's other arm around his shoulders as well "Do you have a key?"
"It won't be locked." Cat assures him "Her parents won't go to sleep without her coming home or getting a text message that she's sleeping somewhere else."
Sure enough, the front door is unlocked. Cat is able to use her free hand to push it open and the three of them stumble inside.
"I'M HOME!" Jade announces, seemingly to no one
"Jade! Shut up!"
"Good lord..." Her mother sighs, appearing in the doorway at the end of the hall "Is she...?"
"Oh yes." Cat laughs "We'll get her in bed and be on our way, don't worry. C'mon, Jade. Upstairs."
Cat isn't sure she could have gotten Jade upstairs if it hadn't been for Robbie. Jade is shaky on her feet and keeps collapsing onto the stairs in a fit of giggles, which is a for-sure sign that she's drunk because Jade West is not a giggly person. Robbie has to basically pull the girl up the stairs, and she ends up crawling into her bedroom on her own once they reach the top.
"Do you think she's good on her own?" Robbie asks, flinching as he hears something in Jade's bedroom fall to the floor
"Absolutely not." Cat laughs "I'm...I think I'll stay here with her tonight. She's going to need someone to help her get into bed...and then out of bed tomorrow."
"Alright." Robbie chuckles, leaning down to press a quick kiss to her lips "I'll call you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, tomorrow." Cat nods "I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell."
"I'm sure you will." He smiles, turning to go back downstairs "Try to enjoy the rest of your evening, I love you."
"I love you too." Cat grins "Thank you for driving us around."
They're twenty-four and high school feels like a lifetime ago.
Jade and Beck are newly married, and taking the entertainment business by storm. Beck has starred in his fair share of blockbusters by now, and never has a hard time finding steady work. Jade took a bit longer to find her success, taking a role in a play here and there after college before finally catching her big break and landing a supporting role on a TV drama about a year prior. She's in talks with show creators about the possibility of her directing an episode some time in the near future, and is working on a manuscript of her own. It might turn into a play, it might turn into a movie, it might not turn into anything at all. She's still not sure.
Unfortunately, Cat hasn't had the same success in the industry as her friends have. She ended up swapping her theater major for a minor, and majored in music business instead. She works an office job at a record label in Los Angeles, and sings in a hotel lounge on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays to keep some extra cash coming in. It's not ideal, but it works for the time being. She hasn't had a whole lot of luck in the love department either, having split from Robbie just under a month ago. He was too focused on law school and not enough on his relationships with those around him. Cat didn't care if he wanted to blow his friends off, but she wasn't going to be swept under the rug like that. Not when she's been so supportive of him and gotten almost nothing in return. They fought an awful lot before they broke up with Cat finally being the one to say that he needed to meet her half way, she wasn't coming all the way to him. She moved out of the apartment they had been sharing and back into her bedroom at her parent's house until she could find something more permanent.
Both Cat and Jade are both still very present and very involved in each other's lives, just as they promised they always would be. Cat had been Jade's maid of honor, and when the day comes...Cat plans to ask Jade to be her's as well. They speak every day, whether it be over text, on the phone, or in person. There isn't anything that one wouldn't do for the other...and that includes tagging along to doctor's appointments.
Or in this case, a trip to urgent care.
"It's not that big of a deal, stop freaking out." Cat says to Jade as a nurse finishes inserting an IV into her arm "Thank you."
"We'll hopefully have those test results back for you soon." The nurse smiles to her before leaving the room
"If it's not a big deal, why did they take like a quart of blood from you and hook you up to an IV?" Jade sighs, gesturing to the IV bag "They don't just hand these out for fun."
"Because I'm dehydrated, it's just fluids." Cat reminds her "It's not like they're trying to prep me for a life-saving operation or anything like that."
Cat had been violently throwing up on and off for the past three days or so. She had started to feel light-headed, mostly because she couldn't keep anything in her system, and called her doctor to see what they suggested. Of course they had wanted her to go straight to the nearest urgent care, and both of her parents had left for work for the day, so she called Jade in hopes that she would have the day off from filming. And she did. Her best friend showed up to her house in a baseball hat and sunglasses, ready to take her wherever she needed to go.
"Bloodwork never means anything good."
"They're checking my iron levels, oh my god." Cat rolls her eyes "Sit down, Jade. You're stressing me out."
"Sorry." Jade apologizes, sitting down in the chair next to her "You know how I feel about doctor's offices."
"It's alright." Cat reaches out and takes her hand "Thanks for coming with me."
"Anything for you." Jade smirks "You know that."
There's a knock on the door and a doctor enters within seconds. He's tall with dark hair, and quite handsome by Cat's standards. If she wasn't feeling so awful, she might even consider flirting with him.
"I take it you're Cat?" He says with a warm smile, grabbing the stool from the desk beside the examination table and sitting down
"That's me." She nods "Did the test results come back?"
"They did." He nods "And the good news is, nothing out of the ordinary is going on here."
"Oh okay, good." Cat smiles "That's good."
"But there is something going on, isn't there?" Jade asks him "I mean, she wouldn't be here if there wasn't."
"Jade..."
"Sorry."
"All is well." The doctor assures them both "It's just standard morning sickness."
"Morning...I'm sorry what?"
"You're pregnant, Cat." The doctor smiles "Congratulations."
"Ohhhh of course I am." Cat sighs rubbing her temples "That's just what I need right now."
"Hey." Jade grabs her friend's arm "It's alright, you've got me, you've got Beck, you've got your parents...most importantly you have options."
"I'll give you a moment." The doctor says, standing up to leave the room "I'll leave your paperwork at the desk, along with a referral for an OBGYN."
"Thank you, doctor." Jade thanks him as he leaves "Hey, you okay?"
"Just...processing." Cat nods "Of course this would happen to me now, of course it would! As if the past month hadn't been bad enough..."
"Is it..."
"Is it what?"
"Robbie's?"
"Of course it's Robbie's!" Cat exclaims "Oh god, now I have to talk to him again."
The breakup had been messy, both of them had said they never wanted to see the other again. Cat had cried over it for almost a week before snapping herself back to reality.
"Technically, you don't have to..."
"I have to." Cat shakes her head "I know there's an easy way out of this...but I can't. I just can't bring myself to do that. And I'd never want to carry a child inside of me for so long only to have it raised by strangers...I'm...having a kid. And that's the end of that."
"Alright." Jade says quietly, squeezing her friend's hand "Well, I'll here every step of the way."
"You better be." Cat manages to crack a smile "Best friends forever, right?"
"Forever and always."
So this chapter was obnoxiously long and I apologize. They aren't all going to be quite this long, I promise. Like I said, I know this one was a lot but I wanted to use it as a prologue to kind of set everything else up. I'm not quite sure how long this is going to be, right now I'm aiming for 10-15 chapters but don't hold me to that. I hope everyone enjoyed this beginning and I look forward to getting the rest of this written for you!