A Perplexing Universe
2
He finished his breakfast, quite rapidly, watching Jade finish hers. She then strapped on her heels, and got up from her chair, a couple inches taller, reaching for his empty plate. She took it and walked over to the sink, rinsing her hands.
"Let's go." She said, spinning around to look at him. He quickly got up and grabbed the script as he followed her out the creaking main door, and looked around for the car. She walked into a simple black car, turning her key into it, and starting it up. He stared momentarily in disgust, shaking his head as he made is way slowly to the car.
"Are you coming?" She shouted loud enough to hear through the tinted window. He nodded, opened the door, and slowly went inside.
"So, you're dropping me off?" He asked, wondering where his car could possibly be.
She nodded as she reversed, "Yeah, I picked you up yesterday from my meeting."
"What meeting?"
Pausing, she said, "Well, I have to get a production crew together, for a script I've already finished. I'm going to talk to them again today."
"You don't have an agent, either?" He asked. Didn't any person in the industry need an agent to get anywhere?
"No. I mean, yes. I did. But he frustrated me, so I fired him. You should remember, you where there." She rolled her eyes, driving down
He decided not to answer, and looked back down at the script. He decided he would take the packet in the audition room with him, and just improvise. Honestly, he didn't really care – he was more interested in getting back to his real home and living his life again. This was unnatural to him. He wasn't used to not having an agent, and having his "girlfriend" drive him around places.
She began to drive faster, on what seemed like a highway.
"Where are we?" He asked. The place looked oddly familiar, he just hadn't been there in a while.
"Hollywood." She scoffed, looking at him in pure irritation.
"But I live in New York." He said, completely forgetting the façade his was attempting to pull off.
"No," She said, stopping at a red light and turning to him, "You live here, in California. You have been since you were a kid," She paused, "Do I need to take to a doctor? Did you suddenly lose, like, all your memory?" She asked, vexed. It was clear that from the last time he had seen her, meaning years ago, she still had absolutely no patience. She huffed loudly, and then he decided to shut up for the rest of the ride.
After a horrible audition, the judge looking at him in pure disgust, he walked out to find Jade waiting for him. She was sitting on a small park bench, checking her phone. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and she looked stressed. He carefully walked to her, knowing her irascible tendencies.
She turned her head, a softer expression on her face then before, "How did it go?"
He looked down, embarrassed, "They didn't let me use the script."
"So? You had it memorized." She said, allowing him to sit down next to her.
He hadn't had it memorized, but he didn't want to frustrate her with dumb comments, "Well, I forgot," He sighed, "and when I went into the audition room, I just sort of winged it."
"So it was bad?" She inquired, pointedly.
"Yeah." He exhaled. That was probably the worst audition he had ever given. It was unbelievable how unprepared he was, even his improv skills needed work.
"Well, that's too bad. You were perfect for the part." She said, standing up and walking towards the beat up black car. She looked thoroughly disappointed, he noticed. Feeling slightly upset with himself, and her reaction, he followed her into the car. As he got in, he thought about her meeting, and decided to ask her about it.
"So, uh, how was your meeting?" He asked, looking at her.
She didn't answer, and he took as a bad sign. He contemplated on whether to push for the answer, but easily chose the idea of staying quiet and the drive back home.
Halfway through the drive, Jade turned to him briefly, "Your house, or mine?"
He quickly opted that it was time to see how his house looked like, "Mine, I guess."
"Okay." She said, as she took a sharp, probably dangerous turn to the left.
They drove for a while longer, finally stopping at a rather nice looking building.
She turned to him, "Sometimes I wonder how you afford this place…" She said, smirking, and taking his hand inside.
They took the elevator to the 13th floor, and she led him to the end of the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a large window and a door to the right. Outside the window was a nice view of the mountains, a blurry, unclear white sign in the distance.
"Is that the…" and before he could finish, she'd already answered. Yes, it was the famous Hollywood sign.
Momentarily, she asked, "Hey, do you have the key?"
He hurriedly fished through his pocket grabbing hold of a cellphone, but hoping that he had the keys, "Am I supposed to?" He asked, a small smiling grazing his face. Just like high school, he thought.
"Yeah." She said, as she took her purse and took out a long black keychain attached with multiple keys. She picked one, and stuck it into the keyhole. The door swung open, and she made her way in. She quickly found herself in the kitchen, rummaging through a dark wooden cabinet and pulling out a bag of potato chips. She sat on the on the couch which he had comfortably settled on, peeling the bag open and stuffing her hand in.
He took a good look at her. It felt odd being in her company after five years. He remembered the day he left, and the day he decided he wouldn't be coming back. He completely lost touch with everyone, and for whatever reason, didn't even try to regret it. He had decided, then, that it was part of life, to meet people and then to let them go. It seemed practical at the time as a rising actor. Now, or well, now in the universe he was used to, the thought barely every occurred to him that he'd ever be back in the presence of his high school girlfriend.
As he looked at her, he noticed something he never had seen before. He noticed worry, stress, panic etched onto her beautiful (which he felt guilty saying – but it was true) features – something he'd never experienced. And still after the five years, the gap between their meeting, he could sense that something was wrong, he could sense her every move, and her every feeling. He just could. And it felt weird because his relationship with Alisa was never like that. He wondered if it would ever be. He wondered if his current relationship would ever spur into something as passionate and organic as the relationship he had at age seventeen.
Jade's unaware loud chewing disturbed his thoughts, and he quickly decided to ask her.
"How was your meeting?" He asked, bringing his hand over the top of the sofa, inches away from her shoulder. He somehow drilled into his mind that he was required to keep his distance, despite the gorgeous girl that sat in front of him.
She looked at him; her eyebrows knitted together, "Not great." She said, as she put the bag aside and looked down at her palms.
"What happened?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
She looked at him, and he could almost see little teardrops filling her eyes – but she was Jade, she'd refuse to let them spill, "They canceled it." She muttered, clenching her teeth.
"They canceled your movie?" He asked, eyebrows rose.
She suddenly got up, her hands flailing all over, "Yeah, they said that they couldn't bring together a production crew. So they dropped it." She said, her voice gradually getting louder.
He stared at her, unsure of what to say. She looked beyond frustrated. So he had the most brilliant idea ever.
"Wait!" He said, digging into his pockets and finding a cheap old phone. She turned to him, skeptical of his sudden outburst.
He flipped the phone open, hoping that all his contacts were still there. That way, he could contact the industry his latest film was shot under, and send them Jade's script. It seemed like a foolproof plan, until he realized that all his important contacts had been removed and he was stuck with random names he didn't recognize.
Impatient, she yelled a severe "What!" and, crossing her arms and storming off to a bedroom in the depths of the apartment, slamming the door shut and leaving Beck alone, and flustered.
So, he just sat there – he really had nothing better to do. For hours, it seemed. He wondered, for the millionth time that day how he got to this odd world, how he woke up in Jade's house, and how he ended up being her boyfriend. But he knew whatever the reason, or the answer; he had to play along until this all got figured out. He watched the night sky gradually turn a dark sullen shade of blue, and he decided to take the couch. He lay down lengthwise on the brown slouchy couch, the cushions sinking with his weight. He gently closed his eyes, internally hoping that this bizarre situation he was facing was just a dream. Despite all that, as an actor, only for acting purposes he convinced himself, if he did end up staying in this screwed up parallel world – he'd most definitely enjoy every moment of it.
It felt that he always woke up feeling something different. His back, today, was strained from the awkward position on the couch and his neck felt all twisted. Besides the physical pain, his hair felt wrong, and he knew it must look like a nest of brown, and he could already feel the dark circles under his eyes. He squinted them open, and saw Jade in a small black (of course) nightgown already up and about in the kitchen. He wondered if that was her everyday routine.
He found himself up in seconds, and she turned around, feeling the wood rise slightly with his heavy restless feet. She noticed his appearance, and her eyes slowly trailed him down as he hastily made his way to the bathroom. The oatmeal in the bowl was slowly becoming slushy, so she decided to leave it alone. She was over it, by now, she thought. It was fine that her script, that'd she'd been working on for years, was only being rejected…its was fine. Maybe she had overreacted, he didn't deserve all that stress, considering his audition had bombed. She slowly made her way to the bathroom, the door lazily shutting in front of her.
She knew she had changed. Initially, she hadn't ever been so concerned, but ever since she and Beck had made themselves even more committed than before, and after she'd spent almost her whole like with him, she felt some sort of tinge to support him, to worry about him. She wasn't like how she was in high school, at least not totally. She would still give snarky comments, and annoyed eye rolls – but when it came to Beck – she felt it was different. She knew he needed her just as much as she needed him, and after leaning on him for so many years, she decided she would finally be the one to give him a shoulder.
So after that moment of thought, she gently knocked on the door of the bathroom, hoping he wouldn't be upset by her constant nagging, or angry with her for yelling yesterday. She knew he wouldn't, he never had, but something in her mind told her that maybe today was different.
The door creaked open, and Beck stared at her with a toothbrush in his mouth. She raised her eyebrows at him before smiling, "Could I talk to you once you're finished?" She asked, and he nodded, looking hilariously awkward in the position. She walked off, feeling the door close behind her, the loud creaks of the wood being drowned by the sound of the tap water.
She took a seat on the couch, and patiently waiting, meanwhile, chipping her black nail polish.
He made his way out of the bathroom finding her sitting on the couch, fingernail by the corner of her mouth. By what he remembered, she was nervous. And it kind of amused him, considering she had knocked on the bathroom door while he was brushing his teeth. With an light smile he walked over to her and sat down. The couch was oddly familiar, and slightly sunken by what he figured his not so heavy body weight.
She sighed, and he looked at her intently, waiting for her to say something…she was the one who invited him to talk. She looked down again, and he could tell she was nervous and thoughtful. He decided to take initiative…
"Jade," He began, "You wanted to talk?"
She paused, looked up, "Yeah, um…" And instantly he knew she was about to talk all emotional. Besides the nitty-gritty things he didn't know about her after several years, her body language had most certainly stayed the same.
He prompted her with a gentle hand motion.
"Okay, Beck. I'm sorry," She started, and he braced himself for a ramble, "I'm sorry that I keep yelling and I keep shouting and getting annoyed, and…I'm just sorry I lashed out at you yesterday. And that you had to, you know, sleep on the couch and stuff…" She paused, looking at him; her blue eyes a hazy gray.
"That's fine." He whispered, flattered really that she cared so much.
"No, it's not fine Beck! I can't keep lashing out at you, or yelling when you have problems too. I can't, I just can't." She muttered loudly, and a lone tear spilled down her cheek – but it was safe to say she wasn't crying quite yet.
"Well, don't cry." He said, reaching over to wipe the tear of her cheek. It was instinct, he reminded himself – he'd do it to anybody. But…
Seeing Jade cry was a new story. He hadn't seen her cry since the whole airport incident, and then he never saw her again. It was an odd occurrence when Jade cried - rare.
As his finger made contact with her cheek, he felt her look up at him, crystal eyes and a slight pout. She took his hand and rested it in between of the couch, the space that remained between them, but she never let go. She let it remain there, and began speaking.
"Look, I didn't know what life would be like, I really didn't know how successful we'd be in the future back in high school. But we're out of there, and we're trying. And I know it's not easy, especially since you bombed you're audition yesterday. But it's a matter of working, right? That's what you told me. You told me that whenever times get rough, we have to stay calm to get through it. So, I know you must be sad that you obviously didn't get the role, but there's a time for everything, right?" She paused, "There's a time for everything." She muttered.
And he didn't know what quite came over him, but she looked so pretty and sad, and solicitous.
So before he had a moment to really analyze the situation, he tilted her chin and kissed her. And Alisa was no longer in his mind.
She responded seconds after, but just the feeling of being right there, then, was so perfect. He felt a couple tears fall onto his own face from her eyes as he cupped her face and she came closer to him. He wiped them slowly, as their lips moved in synchronization, and he couldn't even think. After moments, minutes he supposed, he pulled back, and saw a small curious smile on her face. And he grinned. Because he imagined that this was how it always was supposed to be.
"So," She smiled, "You're not mad at me?"
And he had to laugh at that, "No, of course not."
[ And since it was apparently Saturday, they pretty much sat there the entire day laughing and talking and doing all that couple-y stuff. Because to Beck it didn't really matter that he had a girlfriend back in his old universe. ]
Chapter 2? How was it? A little shorter than the last, I know, but hopefully that didn't perturb you...'cause you know, it sort of did to me. But before I ramble on for ages (because I tend to), I want to thank all of you SOOOO much for reviewing. It was so nice receiving all you're reviews, and I hope this chapter cleared up some possible things that confused you guys...but seriously, thank you so much. So please review some more, and let me know anything that you'd like to read about, or what you felt about what you read about. So, yeah...and I don't know how many more chapters there will be, but not too many more, just an FYI.
disclaimer: I don't own anything. And completely off topic - weren't those Bade videos like complete amazingness...?
Thanks, and hope you all enjoyed! :] REVIEW! I demand it.