Beck has been your best friend for as long as you can remember, longer than either one of you have even known of Jade West's existence.
You wanted her, she came strutting into the room that first day of seventh grade, and you were hooked. She was beautiful and terrifying and so painfully real that it broke your heart. She was like a really great song, painful and wonderful and enthralling, she was a work of art, a masterpiece. But Beck saw it too; he must have, because he started telling you all about his plans to win her over. You should've said something, should've spoken up on that very first day, but it's too late now. By voicing his interest, Beck had essentially claimed her, or at least made her off limits to his best friend.
So you watched in silence as they melded together, and it didn't hurt as much as you thought it might. It didn't kill you to watch them laugh at their own little inside jokes, you didn't feel nauseous every time you saw them kiss. Slowly, you came to the conclusion that unrequited love wasn't nearly as horrible and dramatic as every teen movie made it seem. It stung a little, but that was all.
But when ninth grade rolled around and girls started flocking to him, that was when everything got majorly screwed up. Beck didn't do what he was supposed to, didn't tell them gently but firmly that he was taken. No, he flirted right back, most of the time neglecting to even mention that he had a girlfriend. That was bad, but understandable, it was harmless. But then, he started doing it right in front of her, seeing the way her eyes filled with hurt and continuing anyway. And yeah, that pissed you off.
He started forgetting that Jade was a masterpiece, that he would never find someone like her if he spent the rest of his life looking. He started treating her like a burden, an annoyance, acting like he was with her because he just hadn't gotten around to breaking it off yet. Then he had the nerve to be surprised when she didn't trust him to be faithful, to look at her like she'd lost her mind.
She started yelling, because he never listened when she talked. She started getting defensive, because he always made her the bad guy. She started not trusting him, because he never gave her a reason to. Honestly, you didn't know why she stuck around.
Then you met her father, and suddenly it made sense. You hated him immediately, just because of the way Jade acted around him, like she was never going to be quite good enough to belong. The girl would do just about anything to feel loved, because she wasn't getting it from where she was supposed to.
So the first time he made her say please to tell her he loved her, you were understandably furious. You didn't say anything though, and looking back maybe you should have, but it wasn't your place. She was his, not yours.
He held love over her head like he was teasing a cat. She would jump for it and he would pull it away until she would do anything he told her just to hear the words. Every time he told her what to do, every time he made her feel like she wasn't good enough for him, you willed her to walk away, to find somebody else.
She finally walked away, leaving Beck in the dust, but she turned around, she came back and he shot her down.
You want to hate him, to tell him just where he can shove his mind games, but you can't. You can't because he's your best friend and she's just a girl. So what if he treated her like dirt? So what if he might have completely destroyed her? It's none of your business. Jade West isn't yours to defend, and she never will be.
You forgot her for awhile, you erased her with sparkles and sunshine and all that was Tori Vega. There was that brief moment when you weren't on her side, when you didn't care about her, and you can't help but regret it. You can't help but think that you of all people should've stayed by her side, should have made her feel like she was loved, even if only as a friend. Maybe that would've made a difference.
Maybe you could've helped her instead of just standing there as she fell to pieces. You wonder if you're the only one who saw it, who saw her slowly turn to stone and crumble. You wonder if everyone else is just as much of a coward as you are.
But most of all, you wonder why the heck you're sitting here with Beck, listening to him complain about Jade and how unreasonable she's being. You hear that tinge of desperation; that little bit of hysteria that tells you he knows. He knows he's wrong, he knows that everything he's done, especially in these last few months, has broken her heart. He knows, but he won't admit it, he won't say it out loud or do anything about it.
As long as he doesn't say it, then you can't, because once again it's not your place. You want to be mad, to punch him right in the face and go find Jade, but that would make you a hypocrite of previously unheard of proportions.
This is why you're best friends, because you're both criminally silent.