A/N As I said in the summary, this is after Jade and Beck broke up in The Worst Couple. Watching it, I really wished that at least one person would go after Jade and hoped that if it continued, someone would. Being a Bade shipper I would obviously want Beck to go but it was doubtful so if it wasn't Beck, what about Cat?
I have always loved the sisterly friendship I could see these girls having! Even with all of their arguments and fights (*cough Crazy Ponnie *cough). I really hope I captured it and their personalities alright. I hope you enjoy it!
Jade sat in the bathroom connected to her bedroom, alone hugging her knees. A small tear escaped from her normally hardened eyes which she quickly wiped away. Stupid Beck she thought angrily, reducing me to such a weak state. Messing around with my emotions. Every single time! I'm Jade freaking West, queen of steel and concrete! All those years, slowly crumbling down for him, what was I thinking? Now look at me, ruins on the ground.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, she hugged her pink heart plush pillow tighter. Yes, pink heart pillow; not something many people would think of when they thought of Jade West and if they did, she would make them quickly think otherwise. It was her's though, her comfort of childhood, one of the only things her father ever allowed her to have for herself other than textbooks and brochures to "advance her learning" and her hammer and tools which she snuck into her house . As a tear yet again escaped, exploding onto the pillow, she reached over her buzzing phone to grab her scissors.
Before she got her chance to cut her ex-boyfriend out of her life and picture she held in front of her, her phone buzzed for what seemed to be the zillionth time. Groaning in annoyance, she looked at the most recent message from Cat, there seemed to be at least ten all from the last fifteen minutes. There were also texts from Tori, Andre and Robbie but she quickly discarded them for they all said the same thing in different wording. Are you ok? Jade almost laughed. Of course I'm ok! It's not like my boyfriend of three years, two months just ripped out my heart in front of all of our friends. Oh wait, he did! Delete.
There was nothing from Beck, of course. Another message from Cat came in though. She opened the first message from her, which read Jade? Three others were the same and another stated the ever popular Are you ok? but the newest one simply stated kk... Jade looked at it in quick puzzlement before discarding it as just another random Cat message.
She swiftly got back to work, watching in small satisfaction, as Beck after Beck fell dejected to the floor. Then she picked up on of her old favorites; the picture of Beck, her and her other friends at the beach. Cat was giving herself and Jade bunny ears, grinning proudly into the camera. Tori, was laughing, Andre was giving a peace sign with his fingers next to her and Trina was pushing in front of Robbie who seemed to be protesting. Jade had her arms wrapped around Beck, grinning smugly at the present Jade as if she was saying look at what you lost as Beck looked adoringly down at his girlfriend. Anger bubbling and overflowing out of her, Jade quickly ripped up the picture into mini pieces, not even bothering with the scissors.
As she stared, steaming at her handiwork, she heard a knock at the door and then a small voice. "Jade?"
Jade sighed recognizing the high-pitched whisper. "Go away. I'm not here Cat." she called back, not in the mood to see anyone, or hear any type of perk.
"But I can hear you!"
Reluctantly, Jade shuffled over to the door. "Who let you in? Shouldn't you be at Vega's?" she asked cautiously through the door.
"No, I left. Your mom told me you were here." came the simple reply. Of course she let Cat in. Jade mentally groaned.
"No kidding?" she drawled the sarcastic response out.
"Yep, oh! I know what will work, guess what I have for you!" Before Jade could respond, Cat continued. "Gummy bears!"
"Gummy bears, really?"
"Yeah! The juice filled kind, your favorite!"
Hesitating for a second, she thought about it, before giving a small cough and opening the door.
Cat squealed and ran through the door, bouncing on her friend's bed. Jade followed her, slowing sitting down and snatching the bag of gummy bears, taking one out. They sat in silence for a few minutes as they chewed. Jade's mind began to drift again thinking about Beck, unwillingly. She started to rip off the heads of the gummy bears to watch the juice spill out, in satisfaction, to distract herself, which Cat seemed to notice. At first she turned away to get away from the sickening sight, but remembering why she was there, she turned to give Jade a hug. Jade flinched and didn't move, but slowly tears began to streak down her face, involuntarily. Feeling the tears drop onto her shoulder, Cat pulled away and looked at her friend with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry Jade! I'll never hug you again if you don't like it! I swear."
"No it's not that. You better not say anything but it's just, no one has hugged me for a while. Except for Beck. I'm just not used to anyone else even trying. Everyone was too scared, except for him. And Vega though I don't count her hugs, those were meant to annoy and get the best of me."
"Aw, Jade!" Cat hugged her and Jade awkwardly patted Cat on the back, in return. "You aren't that scary. More like... a frozen gummy bear!" she said, picking one up for a visual reference. "Seemingly frozen and hard on the outside like it will hurt you if you try to do anything but just a sugary sweet teddy bear on the inside! I don't know why he doesn't get that. Do want me to never speak to him again? I can you know. I have been practicing my ignoring skills. Watch." With those words she turned away from Jade, sticking her nose in the air.
"I wish," Jade responded. "Not bad, at least for you, but it's not like we can avoid him forever. We kinda see him every day in. Anyways, maybe he is right. Maybe we do fight too much. Maybe he is better off with someone "nicer", hotter, less stubborn, less, well me. Someone like Vega, or Liz, Celine or even Kristina."
Cat smacked her on the arm gently, ignoring her friend's surprised and annoyed glare. "Don't be crazy! That's his loss, not yours. He just doesn't know to appreciate a great, exciting gummy bear friend like you!"
"Wow! Um, thanks?" She said not knowing how to respond to such kindness. The words felt foreign to her mouth, as she played around with them before spitting them out. They sat in another silence as time seemed to stand still.
"By the way, thanks for not kicking me out right away." Cat said faintly, shattering the silence.
"And miss out on gummy bears and actual company? Why would I?"
"Because you have before."
Jade let her friend's words sink in. At first she had no idea what she talking about, but then it hit her. The last time she had broken up with Beck and yelled at Cat when ever she came near.
"Oh, look, I really am sorry. I didn't want people to see how broken we actually were. I wouldn't have told Tori, if she wasn't there and witnessed our fight. No one else would understand."
"Oh, alright, I guess. I will always understand you know. I'm still your friend." She still spoke in an unusually soft-spoken voice, and Jade almost missed what she said, though she couldn't. She felt a pang in her chest, that she had rarely ever felt. After some thought, she decided to do something that under normal circumstances she probably wouldn't do.
"Cat?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, um, I was thinking that if you were interested you could stay for a bit? For dinner? I really don't feel like having another "family" dinner with my mom complaining again about her new boyfriend that she should dump but won't. I am not in the mood, you know after everything."
"Really?" Cat perked up immediately, all solemnness gone, as she grew more and more excited that her friend was reaching out like that. She hadn't eaten at Jade's house in so long. She was always too 'busy' or with Beck. "This is going to be so much fun! What are we eating? When are we eating? We can do so much while we wait! Do each other's hair, sing karaoke, eat gummy bears and don't worry not once will I mention you-know-w-"
"Ok, sounds great." Jade interrupting with a sinking feeling. Before she got a chance to say another word, she heard a voice call for her downstairs. "What?" she screamed down.
"Come here!" came the response. Sighing and rolling her eyes at her mother's subtlety, she told Cat that she would be back, and then stomped down the stairs to meet her mother. "What?" Jade asked again sharply, crossing her arms.
"Will your friend be staying long?" Her mother asked, wondering if she needed to cook more for later.
"Yes, for dinner. You got a problem with that?"
"No, I guess not." Her mother sighed. "Will you at least go and take care of the rice? It's boiling on the stove but I need to finish the meatloaf."
"Fine, whatever." Jade responded. That was the last thing she wanted to do, but she wasn't in the mood to argue. She had already had enough in that day alone. Doing her mother's bidding quickly to get it over with, she tried to focus her thoughts off of gummy bears, her mistakes and ripped pictures and back on the rice. Finally she finished and hurried back upstairs.
Opening her door, she saw Cat stand up by her bed, holding her pink heart pillow.
"You still have this?" she cried happily, hugging it before running over to her bag. "I still have mine!" She pulled out her own plushy pillow; this one was black, triggering the long forgotten memory to come rushing back to Jade.
"Oh yeah," she replied, slowly. "That's where I got it from. We bought matching ones in second grade-"
"And traded to remind ourselves of our friendship which would last as long as this pillows, forever!" Cat finished. She gave the black one to Jade who fingered it gently. As she looked up from it, she noticed something on her bed. "What's that?" she asked pointing at it.
Cat turned to see where she was pointing, and recognizing it, she went to pick it up. "Oh this? You were gone a while, and I got bored and I found these pieces scattered on the floor of your bathroom so I put them back together." She handed it to Jade, who recognized it also immediately. It was the picture of them at the beach that Jade had ripped up. She had thought it to be impossible to repair; some pieces should have been too small but apparently not.
There was one small difference though, aside from the tape and the rip lines which you could still see a bit, in the place where Beck used to be, there was background. It almost was like he wasn't there at all and instead, her past self was hugging her friends, smirking. When she asked Cat why, the girl nodded her head. "Oh yeah, I couldn't find the piece that went there, so I just moved you around a bit and got rid of it. A bit better than an ugly hole right?"
"Yeah, I guess it is. Thanks Cat. That was really... thoughtful."
"Yay! I knew you would like it." Cat squealed happily and hugged Jade again. Jade looked past Cat at her trash can which stood directly in her line of vision. Seeing a small scrap of paper of a boy lying in the midst of the rest of her garbage, that she could have sworn wasn't there before, Jade began to smile and hug Cat back.
Thank you…