I do not own Victorious.
Cat: But u have to be at my play in two days Jade! Please! I'll reserve you a front row seat! We can go eat after!
"You have to come to my play to make up for leaving me. If you don't come that means you aren't my friend like you claim" Cat thought biting her lip waiting for an answer.
Jade: Fine Cat! Let me talk it over with my mom.
Cat: KK
Jade: CAT STOP TEXTING ME WHILE I PEE!
Cat: KK. Can I unpause the movie then!
Jade: NO -_-
.
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Jade had been Cat's best friend since middle school. They'd done plays, musicals, even concerts together. Whatever it took to earn their stripes at Hollywood Arts.
They decided they wanted to be go to Broadway together, Jade writing screenplays while Cat starred in them. People were surprised by how good both were considering their ages. They said they never expected that out of those two. Cat could read between the lines though after a while. They meant they never expected something that good to come from someone who looked like Jade.
Jade stood out. People always figured she was the quiet Goth chick until she opened her mouth and demanded your attention. The way she dressed was scary, but once you got to know her…she was still scary.
She made an exception for Cat though. She was the only one. That is until a boy named Beck tapped Jade on the shoulder one day. Cat and Jade became Beck and Jade.
Both their stars had begun to dim a bit. "Not everyone could be in every play" Lane had told them.
Cat figured that was why Jade hated Tori so much. Jade said she disliked how everyone at Hollywood Arts had worked hard for years, while she appeared and didn't even have to audition
She took it to heart. Jade lived for performing. She fought all the time with her dad over it.
Well Wishes was like old times for them. Jade wrote and Cat acted. The fact that it was the only play of Jade's her dad saw and liked made it even better. Jade didn't get to do plays as frequently after that still. Administrators were still freaked out.
She told Cat she preferred not to waste her talent on them anymore. Cat didn't understand how that would work until after her friend had left her.
.
.
After Beck yelled at Jade on Sinjin's game show and they argued during the closet party, Cat knew this time, this fight was different.
Tori invited everyone to play poker like usual. When she didn't see the couple, Cat figured they were staging an intervention to help their friends.
"You know if we invite Beck then he'll bring Jade and they'll argue" Andre said. They didn't want Jade around? Cat began to get up when the door rang.
A few minutes later Cat was sure she'd just seen her best friend get her heart broken.
.
.
Cat was distraught when she found out Jade had left. She snuck away like a bandit in the middle of the night, leaving to find happiness she claimed.
"You weren't happy here?" Cat asked her over video chat.
"I'm just closer to my dream here, our dream Cat: Broadway."
Cat thought about what she'd said. They'd had performed less of their shows together lately but for her to just leave...
"Will you visit me?" Cat asked.
She saw Jade hesitate before nodding her head yes. "I'll visit for you and only you next time I can."
"What about our other friends?" Cat asked?
"They're not my friends Cat."
Cat wanted to argue, but only nodded her head.
Cat got a starring role in a play and said she reserved Jade a seat. Up front a chair was wrapped in pink caution tape, a black giraffe sitting in it.
Jade rolled her eyes but laughed as she ripped the hideous decoration off.
She hears voices laughing behind her and sighs. Unsurprised, she turns to find Tori, Andre, Beck, and Robbie.
"Aren't any of you in the play?" Jade asked.
"No, can you believe Sikowitz gave all the parts to the kids who sit in the back?" Andre said.
She snorted but thought about those kids in the back, who only reacted to things around.
While she complained about her star fading, they barely even had one. Jade wondered what made Sikowitz realize he taught more than five students all of a sudden.
She sat down, shoving the stuffed animal under her seat. She pretended not to notice the others take the seats around her.
"Jade, do you want to hang out with us after the play?" Tori asked.
"How about no" Jade answered.
"Come on it'll be fun!" Tori said.
"Why? I could've sworn you all deliberately left me out of your little get togethers."
She ignored Tori's face falling.
"Why are you being so mean to Tori?" Beck said.
Jade sighed. It was beginning to feel like old times. She was the group nuisance that needed to be handled. Now though, Jade refused to be made a heel.
"How is the truth mean?" Jade asked.
"You make it seem like Tori had it out to get you." Beck said.
"That's right!" Tori said looking at Beck. "All I ever tried to do was be your friend."
Jade tilted her head to the side.
"Yeah, the same way he just tried to be my boyfriend. News flash, you both really sucked at it." she said, just as the lights turned down signaling the start of the play.
"What do you mean I sucked at being a boyfriend?" Beck asked. Warning shushes echoed around him.
Jade ignored him and clapped when Cat, along with their classmate from the back, stepped on stage.
Beck told her she couldn't be mad at Tori, said she's never done anything deliberately mean to her.
Jade laughed. Yeah, not deliberately. She turned to find Cat, stopping to face Cat's leading man.
"Hey" she called. He looked surprised to see Jade back. "You didn't completely suck" she said.
He smiled "Thanks Jade!" He said going in for a hug.
"No" she brushed past him, letting Cat bear hug her.
"Did you find your seat okay Jade?"
Beck stomped over, interrupting the reunion.
"What do you mean I sucked as a boyfriend?" He asked, not caring if he made a scene. If people saw him raising his voice, showing anger at someone. There was a first time for everything. Or in his case, second.
He'd done it once before in front of a studio audience. That had been a disaster. She was looking at him the same way she had that night. He realized he preferred her anger over indifference.
Cat stood beside Jade, her lips pursed and head turned to the side. He realized that meant she was annoyed.
Beck didn't think he'd ever seen anyone annoyed at him.
His face felt hot, but he stood waiting.
"I am not doing this here with you" Jade said turning her back on him.
Cat gave him a pleading look, while someone, he assumed Andre, put a hand on his shoulder.
He watched her walk backstage with Cat. She'd left him behind again.
As much as she hated Nozu, Cat loved it. That's the only reason she allowed herself to be dragged there to celebrate Cat's performance.
Cat told her it could be a going away party since she never got to throw her one. Cat ordered an Ooshii Nozu with two straws and spoons. Jade was confused but kept quiet.
"Ohh Caterina Valentine!" a voice called.
Jade closed her eyes willing herself invisible like when she was a child.
"Robbie!" Cat yelled "Hey guys!"
"Hey, you two celebrating?" Tori said, eyeing Jade.
"Yes, Jade said I could go anywhere I wanted and order what I want."
The group grinned at Jade.
"That's oddly nice of you Jade" Tori said.
"Anything for a friend." Jade deadpanned.
A waiter reappeared followed by three others carrying a mountain sized sundae topped with lit sparklers and placed it between the two.
"Cat, well never be able to finish this!" Jade said.
"Mind if we all join you?" Tori asked.
Cat pursed her lips and looked at Jade. "Do you mind?" she asked.
Jade shrugged "Your party." The dessert was slid into a booth along with Cat's friends.
Jade texted, while they all talked about upcoming events in school. Jade recalled when she would've been the first to audition and first person cast. She'd imagined when she became famous she would reminisce about her Hollywood Arts days fondly. Praise her teachers in interviews and talk about her accomplishments. She snorted.
They all looked at her but she'd gone back to her phone. They talked more about weekend plans, reminding her how she was excluded at times before she'd left. She didn't pretend to care now.
She rested her head in her hand while drowning out everyone around her. She wondered if this was how they'd done with her before she left. Did they tune her out whenever she'd tag along with Beck? Did they get as tired as he did when she got jealous and angry?
Jade couldn't hide a yawn and put her head on the table. Cat elbowed her and whispered something in her ear, causing both to laugh.
"What are we so giggly about?" Robbie asked. Cat waved him off and took another spoon of sundae.
They all looked down, shutout from their inside joke. They look like outsiders, wanting to intrude where they aren't welcome anymore. Jade knew the feeling.
"You about done Cat?" Jade asked.
Cat shoved another spoonful in her mouth before shaking her head yes.
"Great" Jade said picking up her keys.
"You guys are leaving?" Beck asked. "It's still early."
"I have somewhere to go" Jade said. She and Cat were halfway to the parking lot before she heard her name called.
"That was really messed up how you left without warning anybody Jade." Beck said running after her.
"I clearly said I was leaving just now" Jade said. Cat got in Jade's car.
"You know what I meant" Beck said "Now you're back and all you've done is dump on everyone. You really need to stop trying to play the victim Jade. Trying to get sympathy from everyone when we don't even know why you're mad! You left your friends without warning and now won't talk to us. Unless you're telling us how much we sucked."
"Playing the victim? Really Beck? Me moving on with my life and being happy is me playing the victim? I worked my ass off for years and you wouldn't know it the way people treated me"
"You blame all of us because you didn't get your way?" Beck jeered.
"Wrong. I blame Hollywood Arts for keeping me from being great." Jade said.
"I blame you for not being there for me. You pushed me away just like everyone else did."
"I wasn't there for you?" Beck said. "I always had your back when no one else did. When something bad happened you came to my RV and cried your eyes out. You know it's true or else we wouldn't have dated so long."
"You know why we broke up?" Jade said "Because you started treating me like everyone else. You were annoyed and tired of me, just like everyone else."
"Annoyed by you? Everyone bowed down to you Jade. They still do! If anything you got tired of us."
"Bowed down to me? Who? Not the school, not our so called friends, definitely not you!"
"I always stood up for you!" Beck said. "So did out friends. Did you forget about Well Wishes? Even Trina helped out, and all you ever gave her was crap. Tori really –"
"Here we go again" Jade cut him off.
"Tell how Tori swooped in and saved the day while I was an ungrateful gank."
Beck frowned "You weren't…no one thought you were."
"Sikowitz called me one everyday while you sat there and laughed, when really it was you. It was everyone!" Jade said.
"I went from Jade West, singer/actress to the Gank that became Prome Queen." she said.
Beck turned his head remembering how angry Jade had been when recalling that weekend.
"It's okay, you can laugh. Everyone else did when that pervert carried me away." Jade said.
Cat sat on the passenger side of Jade's car with her ears covered.
"You treated me worse than anyone else."
"I loved you! I never stopped!" Beck yelled.
Time stopped. Beck thought his heart would jump from his throat.
Jade was caught off guard by his admission. Beck noted her face contort into anger.
"No you don't" she said.
"Yes I do" Beck said walking towards her. "I –"
"No, you don't!" Jade yelled.
She scoffed "You love me and still do? Are you serious Beck? Are you serious?"
"Jade I–"
"You didn't love me Beck. Not for a long time."
"Jade, I know towards the end we fought more than ever but –"
"I'm not talking about the end of our relationship Beck. You hadn't done anything to show you loved, hell even mildly liked me for a long time." Jade had wanted to show him as much indifference as he'd shown her in recent months, but knew it was in vain. He was impassive, she was not.
"You let girls be all over you, then turned around and made me out to be a psycho when I got jealous. Can you blame me? You never stopped loving me? You drug my name through the mud trying to get in Tori's pants not too long ago. She had to push you off. People tried to make me seem like a bad person for being myself but at least I had a personality. You, you're just hair and a cute face with no emotions underneath Beck. Except annoyed. Or pissed at me and only me."
She saw his eyes widen. "Jade" his voice broke.
Jade's horn blared. Cat had both hands on the wheel and was pointing at her watch. Jade exhaled and turned. She walked past Beck and opened her car door.
"If you really did love me like you claim, then you know everything I just said is true."
Beck was fighting back tears. He tried to speak but no words would come. He let out a sob that Jade thought sounded like her name when she slammed her door shut.
She pulled Cats shaking hand into hers, willing the red head to take a deep breath. She owed it to her this time to leave on a good note.
Beck didn't bother heading back inside Nozu. Everything Jade said to him replayed ad nauseam.
"No emotions underneath. Drug my name through the mud. You didn't love me, not for a long time."
"I did love you!" he said punching at his steering wheel.
He swerved and skidded to a stop, realizing he was a block from her house.
He recalled the night a dog maul his dad. He didn't know what insane gesture he could pull to get back in her good graces after what she'd said.
Should he even bother?
His legs traveled a familiar path to the door while he contemplated, the ring of her doorbell sobering him. Beck backed away realizing he didn't know what would happen. He heard the door unlock before his legs could take flight out of the situation.
"Beck?" Jade's mom answered.
He tried to steady his voice before he spoke. "Hi Ms. West, I saw Jade's car, is she home?"
She shook her head. Beck felt his stomach unknot.
"You just missed her sweetie. I just dropped her at the airport."
The knot came back doubled tied.
"She left!" he said holding the wall for support.
"Yes, she was going to leave yesterday but she wanted to see Cat's play. Those two crazy girls love each other!" her mom laughed "She won't be back till Christmas."
Beck let out a dry heave.
"You okay sweetie?" she asked.
Beck swallowed "I think I left something in her room. A shirt."
She widened the door "Well she left a few items in her closet. You can go look."
In her room, he was greeted by Jade's unmade bed and the giraffe Cat put in her seat from earlier. Lying back, he was enclosed by the smell of coffee and her shampoo. He spread his arms and felt something pointy under her sheet.
Lifting it, he found a picture of the day they were trapped in his RV. They were on the end, her arms wrapped around him, smiling wide.
He sunk to the floor, tears falling onto the picture.
Part 1 End / To Be Continued
I decided to extend the story a little since I got such a great response for it. Thanks for reading :) Reviews are kind!
