Chapter 9

Robbie's POV

It was about two in the morning when I woke up. As I rubbed sleep out of my eyes, I looked over and noticed the form of Jade West lying in my bed. I watched her as she was breathing deeply, and her chest would rise and fall each time. In my mind, I could hear the intense battle that was going on within my conscience.

'You need to control yourself. She does not even want to date anyone right now since what happened between her and Beck. She may not even have any feelings of more than friendship to return.'

It was at this point that I began to think to myself, 'Do I have feelings for Jade?' I had never thought about it before, but the way that my mind was thinking about her, it could be possible. I had always thought she was beautiful, and that I would not mind dating her, but when she began to date Beck, I just kind of forgot about those feelings and went on with my life. Could the fact that she is not dating Beck anymore be allowing those feelings to return? I did not know the answer, and my head was beginning to hurt, so I rolled back over and went to sleep again.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock ringing a few hours later. As I reached over to stop the sound, I noticed that Jade had one arm wrapped around my waist, and her head was lying on my chest. It felt good, and I hated to wake her up, but we had to be at school in an hour and a half, so I began to call her name out softly.

"Jade….. It's time to wake up."

All she did was make some soft growling noise that signaled her displeasure of waking up this early, but she began to stir and eventually got out of bed.

"I am going to take a shower", she stated, and grabbed some clothes and headed to the bathroom. I made my bed, and heading to the kitchen to make something for breakfast. I finally decided on eggs and toast, as I could make it quickly. I got out the pan and the toaster, and made a pot of coffee. While I was cooking the eggs, I could make out the sound of Jade singing. It was a beautiful sound. I knew that she could sing, but I forgot just how good it was, probably because ever since Tori came to Hollywood Arts she got everything that Jade used to get.

I sat there and listened to her sing for a few minutes, and after the water turned off, I had finished the breakfast. I put everything on a plate, and went back to my room to get some clothes so I could shower, and I waited for Jade to return. After a minute or two, she came back into my room, and the smell of her shampoo filled the air and intoxicated my senses. It smelled like strawberries, and it was amazing.

"There is food in the kitchen if you are interested; I am going to go take a shower."

She just gave me a small smile and nodded. I proceeded to the bathroom and closed the door.

Jade's POV

After Robbie had gone into the bathroom, I went downstairs to the kitchen to see what he had made for breakfast. I smiled happily at the coffee, and went to get a cup, as well as some eggs and a piece of toast. As I was eating, I began to think about last night, more specifically, the dream I had last night.

I was lying in a field, under a clear nighttime sky. I was just gazing up at the stars, crying because of Beck, when all of a sudden, someone came and laid down next to me. It was dark, and I did not see who it was. He took my hand and whispered in my ear that it was going to be okay. The voice sounded familiar, but I could not place who it belonged to.

Then he pulled me closer and kissed me, and it was the best kiss I had ever had. It lasted for a minute or two, and when I pulled back, that's when I finally got to see who it was. The guy next to me, the guy who held my hand, and the guy who kissed me amazingly, was Robbie Shapiro.

I did not know what to think about this dream. Robbie was a good friend, maybe even my best friend, besides Cat, but I was not sure if I was beginning to have feelings for him, or if I even wanted to have feelings for him. At least not right now. I just told myself to forget about it for now, and maybe it will go away.

Shortly after I had finished eating and began my second cup of coffee, he came downstairs. He was wearing a blue button up shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, and a pair of blue jeans. For his usual nerdy self, he didn't look half bad. The fact that he didn't have Rex with him was a big plus as well. He ate his food quickly, and we were out the door on the way to school.

Robbie's POV

We get in the car, and begin the drive to school. Jade begins to fiddle around with the radio, and she eventually finds a station that she deems acceptable, and begins to sing along with the music playing. Eventually, I find myself joining in, and after the song, Jade looks over at me, and she begins to laugh slightly.

"What's so funny? Is my singing that bad?"

"Not at all, it's actually better than I expected it to be."

I was not sure if I should take this as a compliment or not, so I just gave her a small smile. I had actually been working on my singing just in case things didn't work out with Rex; I could have a fall back plan career wise. Andre had taught me how to play guitar, and I had gotten pretty good at it. I had actually written a few songs, but I didn't think they were good enough to show my friends.

After a few minutes of singing, we arrived at school. As we were walking up to the building, Jade gave me that look that said she wanted to say something.

"I'm listening, Ms. West."

She rolled her eyes slightly, but still gave a slight smile.

"I just wanted to say thanks for letting me stay at your place. I really do appreciate it."

I looked at her and gave her a small shoulder hug.

"Anytime you need something, you know that Robbie will be there to save the day."

She rolled her eyes again and chuckled, and with that, she headed towards her locker.

The day went by fairly quickly, and soon we were all at our usual table at lunch. Tori was sitting in between Beck and Andre, Cat was sitting next to Beck, and next to cat was Jade, and then myself. We were all talking about the upcoming showcase, and if any of us were going to enter. Tori and Andre were planning on doing a duet, like usual. Other than that, nobody else was planning on entering.

I began to think if I should enter or not. I am sure I could write a decent song that I would feel comfortable with performing. Andre might help me out with some lyrics once I got the music down. I told myself I would think about it, and I began to listen to Andre talk about the crazy thing his grandma did last night, and Cat beginning to tell a story about her brother. I swear, there is something wrong with her family.

After lunch, we all went our separate ways until the end of the day. In what felt like a few minutes, the final bell rang, and I was headed to my locker. When I got there, I saw the figure of Jade West leaning on my locker, and I went up to her.

"You have a good day?"

She just gave me an indifferent gaze as she moved out of the way so I could get into my locker.

"It was alright I guess. I am getting tired of seeing Beck and Vega together though."

I won't lie, I was impressed that she was able to control her anger towards Beck and Tori all day. I know that Jade will never admit it to anyone, but she really does care about the group. She won't do anything to make things more difficult than they have been for the past few weeks. She is a good actress though, because I know at lunch she wanted to reach across the table and beat Tori to a pulp.

"It will be okay. So, I guess I am going to take you since you drove here with me?"

"Well duh, you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We made our way to my car, and after the traffic of students slowly made its way from the school, we were on our way. After a little while, I looked over to Jade and saw her staring out the window, thinking hard about something.

"Where are we going? You want me to take you back to your house?"

I broke her concentration, and she stared at me and began to think about my question. After a few seconds, she answered, "I guess so, my dad is probably pissed that I never showed up yesterday. I forgot to tell him anything."

I nodded in approval, and headed to her place. The drive went by fairly quickly, and shortly I was pulling into Jade's driveway. She got her things out of the back, and turned to look at me.

"Thanks again, I will text you later."

And with that she walked to the front door and went inside. I pulled out of the driveway and began to head home. The drive was lonely, but short. I walked in my house when I got home and headed up to my room. Jade had made me leave Rex at home, so he was not all that pleased with me when I walked in. I was able to make him happy by turning on his favorite TV show, Adventure Time, and I went to get my guitar to work on something that I could possibly use for the showcase.

A few hours had passed and I had come up with some ideas, and just as quickly as I came up with them, threw them out. I decided I would have to talk to Andre sometime tomorrow about some help. I decided I should start on my homework, which was math and english. It didn't take me long to finish, and I found myself hungry. I headed down to the kitchen and made myself a sandwich, and headed back to my room to watch some TV with Rex.

After I had finished my dinner, I got a text message. I looked at my phone and saw it was from Jade.

To: Robbie

From: Jade

Hey, so yeah, my dad is slightly pissed off about me not coming home yesterday, but I talked him down, so everything is okay now. I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you did for me yesterday.

I let out a small smile, and wrote her back.

To: Jade

From: Robbie

Yeah, I know, you have only told me about three times today. It's cool, that's what friends are for.

Ding!

To: Robbie

From: Jade

Shut up! Well, I gotta go do some homework, so I will see you tomorrow. Bye.

I put my phone down and went back to watching TV with Rex. The hours passed, and I got up and turned off the TV and got ready for bed. Once me and Rex were finished preparing for bed, I turned off the lights and laid down, and I let began to drift off into sleep.

AN: Well, there you have it, the long awaited return of Were Friends, Reluctantly. This is officially the longest chapter, and I am pleased with the quality of work with everything that is going on in my life right now. I appreciate your patience with me, and I hope you like this chapter. Don't forget to leave me a review to let me know what you think.