The next day at school was, well…

Silent.

This was strange considering that Hollywood Arts was filled with young, aspiring artists. Even if there was no juicy gossip, there was always the sound of actors reciting their lines to an either non-existent audience, or one that was less than attentive. Even if there were no current plays, generally the music from the practice rooms would float out into the quad.

… But not today. Today everyone seemed too scared to speak as if they were playing a large-scale version of the silent game. The sound of my boots clicking against the ground was probably audible across campus and every pair of eyes was glued to me with rapt attention. I tried to ignore the less than subtle stares by plugging in my headphones and cutting up the newest issue of Vogue.

It didn't work for too long.

Whenever I would glance up from my snipping, I would see at least ten pairs of eyes direct their attention away from me.

For a school filled with actors and actresses, they are surprisingly terrible at the art of subtlety.

I tried to direct my attention back to cutting the heads of the perfectly proportional models but the staring made me feel as if I were being observed under a microscope. My precise cuts eventually divulged into violent hacking as I lost patience with everyone. As I was making work of destroying an article called "What Guys Love About Girls" (an incredibly sexist article; is it so strange to think that a girl does not have to be obedient and obnoxiously bubbly to attract male attention?), I ended up slicing my index finger because my movements became sloppier as my vision blurred.

"Shit shit shit shit shit," I chanted as I applied pressure on the mutilated finger in hopes of slowing the bleeding.

I grabbed my things and made my way to the girls' bathroom to flush out the wound. I hurried, keeping my eyes glued to my finger – which, in retrospect, was not the smartest thing to do.

Of course, with my luck, I ended up running into a very solid object in my haste to leave. Hands grabbed a hold of my shoulders to steady me after the collision. I bit my lip in hopes of stopping the tears that threatened to spill over.

An annoyingly familiar voice interrupted the pity party I was currently throwing myself. "Hey, are you okay?" Ryder's concerned voice questioned me.

I tried to blink back tears but was only successful in pushing them over the edge. I hastily wiped them with the back of my hand and tried to form a response. "I'm-

"Wait, are you crying?" He asked, this time much more softly and wrapped his arm around my shoulder almost as if he were trying to shield me from the onlookers.

I shook him off almost immediately and cleared my throat. "I'm fine Ryder, my eyes are watering because I just sliced my finger open… it's a natural reaction."

He simply kept walking and I tried to keep my pace up with him. Eventually, when I would have to break into a light jog to keep up with his long strides, I called after him, "Hey, what was with that whole superhero act you just put on?"

"Superhero act? The only one acting here is you!" His voice boomed and I quickly glanced around to make sure no one was around to listen in on our conversation. Luckily, we were in the middle of the senior hallways and most of them were working on their final projects.

So that meant at lunchtime the hall was almost completely deserted. "You and I both know you were not crying because of your finger."

I opened my mouth to argue but he put his hand up to cut me off. "Don't try and lie to me West. I have known you since you were 6 and you didn't even cry when you broke your arm in first grade." He looked away from me and sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "Why do you think that me caring about you is some kind of act?"

I bit my lip and stared at his shoes. "We're actors, it's what we do."

"No," he stated simply. "Beck is an actor. You have got to stop expecting every guy to be like him if you want to be able to have a fully functional relationship."

My mind was stuck on the word relationship and before I could stop myself I blurted out, "What a relationship with you?" I ended with a snort.

His face hardened at this. "I just meant in general, but if you are going to push out anyone that tries to be a decent human being and get to know you, you're going to have a sad and lonely existence."

It wasn't until he walked away that I noticed tears continued to stream down my face. I wiped them with my sleeve and made my way to the bathroom. I examined my cut and noticed that luckily the bleeding stopped. After a quick rinse and band-aid, it was as good as new. If only everything could be healed that easily.

After quickly contemplating what to do, I decided going back to lunch like nothing happened would be the smartest thing to do to quell any more rumors that may have started after Ryder chased after me.

There you again, Jade… acting. But it is all I know how to do and the only thing that still makes sense.

I spotted the group quickly because of Cat's bright red hair. I took a deep breath and made my way over to them, mentally preparing myself for an ambush.

Tori was the first to spot me and could not adequately conceal the shock on her face. Really, that's the girl Sikowitz chooses for the lead roles? She gathered her wits – however little that may be – and spoke up, "Oh, um. Hey Jade! Wasn't expecting you to come here but I'm glad you did!" Her voice sounded high and strained as if she were nervous.

The rest of the group just stared up at her with curiosity written all over their faces.

"Hey Jade!" Cat exclaimed in her usual cheery way. "You missed it this morning!"

The rest of the group turned quickly to stare at her as if to try and stop her from saying something. Weird.

My brow quirked at the statement and the table's odd reaction to it. "Wait, what exactly did I miss this morning?"

"Oh, you haven't heard yet? Well – ouch Tori that hurts," Cat said while rubbing her shin carefully. Tori tried to give her a meaningful look but Cat was not taking a hint well.

I slid into an open space at the table and smirked in amusement at both Tori's antics and Cat's obliviousness. "What happened Cat?" I questioned innocently.

"Tori just kicked me!" Cat exclaimed.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at that. "No I meant what you were trying to tell me before you got kicked," adding a silent duh to the end of the sentence in my head.

"Oh it's just the fact that Ryder made an announcement to everyone and told everyone that nothing was going on between you two." Cat said in her usually ditsy tone swinging her legs back and forth under the table. "Oh I almost forgot! When Sinjin tried to restart the rumors about you and Ryder, he canned him and threatened that worse will happen to the next person he hears talking about you!"

Well that was the last thing I was expecting. I looked to the table Ryder usually sat at and noticed his spot was empty and began gnawing on my lip with guilt.

Wow I'm an asshole.

Author's note: I honestly have no excuse as to why I have not updated in years or even why I am updating now. I think I'm just as curious as some of you are (if there are any of you left) and want to see this end.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long!