Complicated
Beck&Jade
She wakes up with her head pressed down into her pillow and her mind aching.
For a second she feels as though she's been hit by a train. Placing her face into the pillow to muffle her moans, she makes herself stretch out, and then sits up to take in the room around her. It's a nondescript hotel room, with light brown walls and putrid green curtains that make her want to vomit. Standing up at last, she walks over and glances in the mirror, at her tousled black waves and her streaked makeup. Only then does she realize that there is someone else lying in the bed she had just been in.
She screams.
The person shifts a bit, just enough so that she can see his face, and it takes her only a moment to realize who it is. She inhales deeply to calm herself down, then hisses, "What are you doing here?"
In a voice obviously plagued by sleep, the boy replies, "I'm just as clueless as you are. But before we start jumping into the hard questions, can we start with where exactly we are?"
"A hotel, idiot," she informs him, pacing back and forth. "Though where exactly I have no clue." Her eyes fall upon a post-it note with the name of the hotel, and she reads it aloud. "Eternity Hotel, Las Vegas. Oh right, Vega convinced us all to come to Vegas. Now why did we think that was a good idea?"
"I have no clue." He groans, sitting up. "Now that we're past where we are, can we move on to what happened last night?"
"Sounds like the title of a cheesy chick flick," she mutters, then continues on, saying, "Well, we're both clothed… well, sort of. That's a good sign."
He gives a small laugh. Shaking his head, he says, "Yeah, for that, I'm glad – wait, hang on. There's something on your hand. Your left hand."
Quickly, she glances down at her hand, and she finds that he is correct. There is a ring – not an elaborate ring at all, but its purpose is immediately evident. She stares at it in wonder as she pulls it off her finger, and then gives a small gasp, letting the ring drop to the ground.
"You don't think –" she whispers.
"I don't know," he tells her sadly, finally getting out of the bed. She realizes a moment after that this is probably a bad idea, seeing as he's in his boxers and he's not exactly... well, let's just say he has a very appetizing body, and she kind of can't keep her eyes off of him. He starts to sift through things, and at last he seems to find something of worth. With a frown, he reads over the paper, and then he hands it to her, his hand shaking slightly.
"You were right," he whispers, his voice still husky with sleep. "Congrats, Mrs. Jade Oliver."
It takes her only a moment to realize that she is holding a marriage certificate.
They decide to discuss it 'rationally' (if such a thing exists between the two of them) once they're both dressed and showered and looking like normal people instead of hooligans. So once they've both had a chance to get themselves back to 'normal', they head down to the coffee shop down the street.
"Is it even legal for us to get married?" Jade muses, taking a sip of her coffee (two sugars, she tells him, I know what to do, he says).
"Apparently." He snorts. "We're both twenty, you know. I guess they're not as strict with this sort of stuff as they used to be. You know, with divorce rates being what they are and all of that."
"That's stupid." She rolls her eyes. "You realize the only rational thing for us to do is to annul the marriage."
"I know," Beck replies, but something in his eyes tells her that he's not as okay with the idea as he's pretending to be. "I mean, we're way too young."
"Not to mention we're not even dating," Jade points out.
"I know," Beck repeats, but his voice is sounding more and more irritated. He sighs, placing his head in his hand. "I dunno though, Jade. What if this gets out to everyone? Oh yeah, I've been married before but we annulled it after one day. How's that gonna sound to the press?"
"You act like I'm super famous," Jade mumbles, rolling her eyes at him. Truth is she's had quite a few parts in movies and is high on her way to becoming famous, and the same for Beck. That's how they'd kept in touch; they'd been in a few movies together and despite their bad history, had become fairly good friends. Having an annulled marriage, though, Jade thinks, will put a damper on their friendship.
"You will be," he promises, staring at her and smiling, that look in his eyes. She's seen it a million times before, back when they were dating. They would just be hanging out, talking, kissing, and then suddenly he would look at her like she was the most amazing thing in his world. It was slightly alarming at first, but after a while she grew to appreciate it. It was, after all, a confirmation that he did actually love her, and in a school where 90% of the students doubted their relationship, it was a nice confirmation to have.
And suddenly it all makes sense. He doesn't want to annul the marriage because he is still, in some part, in love with her, or at least he thinks he is. This, Jade thinks, is insane, absolutely insane, but it sends an odd thrill of euphoria through her nonetheless for reasons she cannot exactly explain.
She doesn't say anything for the longest time; she just sits and stares at him, trying to figure out what exactly one should do in this situation. At last she shakes her head and decides that maybe it's time she starts doing the right thing, at least where he's concerned. "You don't want to annul the marriage, do you?"
"What? I never said that," Beck splutters, but the expression on his face clearly shows that she has hit the nail right on the head.
"You didn't have to," Jade says with a small smile. "But you know, maybe you've got a point. Maybe this happened for a reason. And if that's the case, I suppose we're obligated to give it a try."
The smile that lights up his face is breathtaking.
He promises to take it slow, to not push her in any way, shape, or form, and she finds that kind of amusing, since no one ever really sees him as the romantic sort of guy. But it's sort of weird that they're taking it slow now, when they're married already.
The first few days are awkward, as first days of relationships already are. Neither are sure what boundaries there are exactly, and how far they are to push them, so they rarely ever so much as touch. They do hold civil conversations, though, and occasionally Jade finds that Beck can't take his eyes off of her ring.
On the third night, Beck kisses her cheek and asks her if she's up for a dinner date. She nods and feels all of the air leave her, just like that, and she wonders when exactly she fell so in love with her husband.
(She supposes it must have been a few years back. Oddly enough, she's unsure of what's going to stop him from hurting her so irreversibly now.)
Cat is the first to find out.
Once they'd gotten back to the hotel, Beck had slipped the ring back onto her finger and kissed it lightly, making sure not to push any boundaries. Ever since then, though, she'd scarcely taken it off. So when Cat invites her over for dinner at the apartment she shares with Robbie, Jade kind of forgets it's there and leaves it on.
Robbie doesn't notice, of course; Robbie hardly ever notices anything. But Cat sees about halfway through the meal and nearly chokes on her spaghetti. Robbie finds it highly amusing, and he pats his girlfriend on the back, telling her he's more than willing to perform CPR. Cat just shakes her head at him and turns her head back to Jade, mouthing the words "we need to talk."
Of course the girl pulls her aside after the meal, and then wordlessly points to the ring that sparkles on Jade's finger. Jade fidgets with it for a moment, debating. Before she can decide whether or not to, though, the words spill out. "Beck and I got married."
"You and Beck?" Cat exclaims, her face clearly showing her shock. "I didn't even know you guys were dating! Seriously, where was I? On the moon?"
Jade chuckles at Cat's reaction. "No, Cat. You know a few days ago, when we all went to Vegas and Beck and I kind of disappeared the last night? Well, we kind of got very, very drunk and then got married… and yeah. We're married."
Curiously, Cat stares at her. "But… I thought you guys didn't love each other anymore. Wouldn't you like, get divorced or something?" She yelps. "Not that I'm saying you should, but… it's a little bit weird, Jade!"
Jade shrugs. "I guess we decided to give it a try."
"Well, okay," Cat says brightly, since she's not exactly the type to go all freaky-judgmental on her best friend. "But y'know, I'm still upset because you were supposed to have a pretty wedding when you got married to Beck, and I was supposed to be your Maid of Honor!"
One night he calls her up out of the blue and invites her over for movies. She accepts immediately, driving over to his apartment (he's grown out of the RV) and actually knocking this time. (Though when he opens the door, she is sure to say 'took you long enough' in a slightly bitter tone, which makes him laugh.)
They end up watching Jade's favorite movie, The Scissoring, and halfway through the movie her head ends up on his chest and his hands start to play with her hair. She stares up at him, a soft smile on her face, and realizes that even though her favorite movie of all time is playing, she's more interested in Beck.
"You're so stupid," she whispers, but the fondness in her voice clearly implies that she doesn't really mean it.
"Thanks, darling wife," he says, amusement clear in his eyes.
"You know," she mutters, rolling her eyes at him, "had it been anyone else that I'd ended up accidentally married to, I would've divorced them first chance I had. Consider yourself special, Oliver."
He smiles slightly, wraps an arm around her shoulders so it ends up on her lower back, then says, "You know that I love you, right? I mean, we broke up ages ago, but it hasn't – it won't just go away. And I know that I broke up with you, but that doesn't mean that –"
She cuts off his pointless rambling with a kiss on the lips. They don't talk much more that night.
"You know," he murmurs absently at lunch the next day, "You've grown up so much since we were in high school. If you'd woke up two years ago with a wedding ring on your finger and me beside you, I wouldn't have survived the night."
"I wouldn't have actually murdered you, stupid," she retorts, slapping him on the arm. "But I probably wouldn't have been okay with it."
"What changed?" he inquires, leaning back and staring at her.
"You've grown up too," she points out. "Back then, you were conceited and you thought it was okay to hurt me. And now… you know, I don't think you loved me back then. Not like you love me now."
"I was a stupid teenage boy," Beck points out, leaning up to kiss her on the forehead. "And I was stupid enough to hurt you. You know, that's one of the things I regret the most."
"See," she says. "You're more mature now. More… I don't know, capable of handling me. And I guess that's why I'm okay with this. With screwing up our lives."
He laughs. "Hey," he says, pushing her lightly on the shoulder. "Who says we're screwing up anything?"
"Our parents," Jade retorts, grinning. "Vega, of course, and Andre agrees with her, mostly because he has to."
"Tori's only saying that because she cares about you," Beck points out.
"I don't care," Jade tells him darkly, and then she decides to change the subject by leaning over and kissing him. (Beck, it would seem, is not adverse to this idea in the least.)
They get married six months later. It's kind of funny, since they're already married, but Cat insists on having an official ceremony to 'affirm their love' or whatever. Jade wears black and Beck smiles when he finds out, kissing her lightly and saying that he wouldn't have it any other way.
Jade had insisted on changing up the vows, mostly because she finds the traditional ones stale and boring. Beck, of course, being the traditional one, had kept the vows, only opting to add onto them: "You're the most unique girl I've ever met, Jade West, and I wouldn't want it any other way."
Jade gets a bit more creative with hers, since she jumps in with "You know, Oliver, marrying you in Vegas was the best decision I ever made, even if we have no clue what happened that night," and finishes with "And I'm glad that you finally grew up and learned not to break up with your girlfriend from the other side of a door." Clearly amused, he shakes his head, and then kisses her before the minister can even say 'You may kiss the bride'.
But you know, that's all typical for them.
And at least now she's officially Mrs. Jade Oliver.
Six months before, a girl stares at the marriage certificate, at the letters spelling out "This certifies that Jadelyn Elizabeth West and Beckett James Oliver were legally joined in marriage on August 31, 2020." She'd set down the certificate, giving a harsh laugh, and then said, "We are so, so stupid."
"I know," the boy mutters, running a hand through his hair. "But maybe this isn't so bad."
She glances up at him, about to ask 'What could be good about this situation', but then she sees the smile plastered upon his face, the way he's looking at her, and she immediately falls silent.
"Always the optimist," she mutters, turning herself around and wondering if being married means that he'll look at her like that all the time again.
(If that's the case, she's not entirely adverse to this whole marriage deal.)
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