Once outside Andre and Tori's apartment, Beck begins a mad dash down the four flights in an effort to catch up with his wife. As he descends the steps, he begins thinking of what he can say to Jade. How does one begin to explain the situation to one's spouse? He wonders how Tori told Andre about their affair. Will it be easier to do it as fast as possible and try to avoid any details that would make things worse, or is it better to explain it all? Hell, he doubts Jade would even give him the opportunity to explain himself.
As he makes it outside the building complex, he scans around the area and after a few seconds he sees Jade a few yards away walking towards her car. Beck quickly runs towards her. "Jade" he calls out to her. He can't tell if she's heard him or not, but by the way her steps quicken he can assume she has. "Jade" he yells once more and wills himself to run faster.
Within a short time he is mere feet away from her. She continues walking ahead of him, not once turning to acknowledge him. The only sounds that can be heard are their shallow breathing and the clicking of her heels resonating throughout the night. For the first time all night, Beck allows himself to take in his wife's form. Her black dress stops just above her knees and a pair of lace stockings shield her legs from the chill of the night. Her leather jacket cinching at her waist helps display her curvy figure and her wavy dark hair is blowing freely in the wind, covering her face from his gaze. Without even looking at her face, Beck can not deny her beauty. Besides his affair, his regret is taking her for granted and not telling her more often how much she means to him. As cliche as it sounds, you truly don't know what you have until you lose it, although Beck can only hope that he hasn't lost her.
"Jade" he says once more. He notices her body stiffen as he says her name. "Let me explain, please" he begs, hoping that he can elicit a reaction, any reaction.
Jade stops dead in her tracks and turns to face him, a scowl prevalent on her face. "You," she starts as she lifts a finger to point at him , "don't get to justify what you've done. You don't get to stand there and feed me some bullshit story about this" she finishes.
Beck nods his head in understanding. "I don't want to justify it, because I can't. Nothing I say can make what I did okay Jade."
Jade rolls her eyes at him. Why did she expect him to say something less obvious? Did cheaters ever have something original to say? "You don't say" she replies, her tone annoyed.
Beck takes a few seconds to observe her, and it surprises him that she's no longer crying. She doesn't look very sad at all. Instead, she is furious. In fact, he can't think of a time throughout their entire relationship in which she was ever this upset over something. Even when Sinjin sat on the scissors Cat had given her for secret Santa, she was less upset.
"Look," Beck starts, "I know you don't want to hear this but I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I hurt you like this Jade-"
"Are you sorry you did it or sorry you got caught" she interrupted. "I mean, it's not like you would have told me yourself. Andre had to tell me."
"And he shouldn't have" Beck answers, his response more aggressively than he meant.
"No, you should have. But instead you stood there, not saying anything."
"Jade-"
"All I want to know is how long you were seeing her for" Jade says.
Beck shakes his head from side to side. To tell her that he's been having an affair for half the amount of time they've been married is probably the way to make the situation worse. It was already bad enough that he's been sleeping with her high school nemesis, but to tell her the length of his affair? He might as well be planning his own funeral.
"Might as well be honest, you've already been caught" she says as she crosses her arms across her chest. He watches silently as she distributes her weight from one foot to the next. Her bright blue eyes radiating an intensity unfamiliar to him, almost intimidating. "Well?" She adds expectantly, her brow raised.
Beck heaves a frustrated sigh, "just over two years" he responds, his voice low and coarse.
He gazes at her as her countenance falters and her arms drop back down to her sides. She slowly shakes her head and looks down at the ground. An awkward silence consumes them and Beck is unsure of what to say. He thinks hard of the appropriate way to disperse the tension but nothing seems right.
"Why?" She simply asks taking Beck by surprise. Where is the yelling, the hitting? He expected for her to tear him a new one. Actually, he even welcomes the idea of her reacting as she normally would because he knows how to approach that Jade. This unfamiliar Jade, that is a little too calm, much too collected...this Jade is throwing him for a loop.
"It...we were going through a tough time, you and me. Just always arguing and-"
"So this is the part where you blame me right? Nice" Jade interrupts.
"No, Jade I would never blame you. This was my fault. I chose to so what I did when I should have been trying to work things out with you. I should have put more effort in fixing our marriage. I just felt overwhelmed and didn't think I could fix it, so instead I took the easy way out."
"And out of all the people you could have done this with, you choose her. After everything we've been through and all the fights we've gotten into because of her...that's what hurts the most. Even more than the lies and the betrayal, it's the fact that you chose Tori. After all the promises that she means nothing to you...did you even think about Andre?"
"Of course I did. We both did. Jade I'm not going to pretend I'm innocent, I know what I did is wrong. Even as I did it, I knew how messed up it was, but I couldn't stop and I'm sorry. Tori put an end to it a few days ago and since then I've been thinking about ways to make things better between us." As the words leave his mouth, Beck can't help but feel even guiltier. When Tori broke things up between them, he had only thought about ways to get her back. It wasn't until after Andre told him about the proposal that he truly thought about his own marriage with Jade.
"Oh, well remind me to send Tori a thank you card on behalf of me and Andre. We both appreciate it" Jade spits bitterly.
"Jade, I didn't mean-" Beck starts before being interrupted yet again. Jade raises her hand up and shakes her head.
"Just stop. I'm so tired of the excuses and apologies. This isn't like high school where you would flirt with other girls and we would get into a silly argument about it. We're married. You stood there with me and made promises that obviously didn't mean anything to you. So what now? What happens now?"
"Jade, my vows...I know I messed up, I do. But I can only hope that we can try and figure out a way to move past this...somehow. I'll do anything you want me to."
A smirk appears on her face. She looks at him up and down. His long hair is tied back into a small bun, a few strands framing his face. His shirt is half buttoned exposing his black undershirt. His dark jeans are tucked into his worn-out brown boots that match his jacket perfectly. If this was forty minutes ago, she would bet her life that the man standing before her is flawless, the epitome of perfection. Now, however, his flaws are prominent and all she can focus on.
"I don't want you to do anything except get your things out of my house." She continues to smirk as his eyes widen and mouth opens slightly.
"Is..is that what you really want?" Beck asks as he stumbles over his words.
She nods, "that's all I want" she says.
As the couple stand a short distance from each other, they notice the other occupants of the engagement party exiting the building. Many of them are carrying on conversations, probably about the disaster that ensued mere minutes ago. Some of them linger in front of the building finishing up their discussions, pausing for a bit to bid farewell to the few heading towards their car. Just a handful of them manage to spy Beck and Jade and stare curiously at the pair. Beck rolls his eyes as he makes eye contact with an onlooker.
As he turns back to his wife he sees that she has turned her back to him and has resumed walking towards her car. He runs a bit to catch up to her again. "Jade, I hope we can work this out. I know you're mad at me right now, and you have every right to be, but I can't imagine being without you" he admits.
Jade purses her lips and looks into his eyes. She can see his sincerity and part of her wants to forgive him and start making this go away, but a bigger part wants to make him feel the way she feels; hurt and betrayed.
"Tomorrow, I'll have your things ready. You can pick them up" she states before turning back and taking the few remaining steps to her car.
Beck watches as she opens the door and gets in. He sighs as she closes the door, starts the engine and quickly drives off.
Standing there, Beck thinks back on the last day he spent with Tori. He wanted so desperately for them to figure out where they were going. So badly did he want their relationship defined that he never thought about how it would affect his marriage. Selfishly, he wanted a way to be with Tori without ending his marriage or hurting Jade. In retrospect, he should have known that you can't have your cake and eat it too.
He takes another look towards Tori's building and at the few remaining people loitering in front of it. Taking a deep breath, he zips up his jacket and starts walking towards his own car, unsure of where he is supposed to go.
Author's Note: I apologize for the slight delay, but I struggled a bit writing this chapter. This is the first time I've written a chapter solely focusing on Beck and Jade and wanted to try to get the characters to sound realistic. Hopefully I have and didn't disappoint any Bade shippers. Definitely let me know if the characters are off and how I could fix it (it would help a lot). I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. The next one is the last one which I'm looking forward to posting. So, until next time!