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Content Warning: This chapter contains mild violence/subjects that may be sensitive to some readers.
Chapter Six || Complicated
"It's okay, Andre. I believe you," Beck said with a smile, shaking his head at his friend's nervousness. "Those girls will believe any rumor they hear."
Andre and Beck were hanging out after school, sitting on the hood of Beck's car in the parking lot. After the girls came to Beck saying that Jade and Andre were dating, Andre frantically tried to tell Beck that it was all a misunderstanding. And that was the truth. Of course, even though Andre did have feelings for Jade, she never got a chance to hear how he truly felt about her. She fell asleep on his shoulder right before he admitted everything. Nevertheless, he couldn't even think about that right now. He just needed to make sure he smoothed things over with Beck.
"So everything's good, right?" Andre asked. He examined his best friend's face and didn't see even a small hint of anger or anything negative. Beck was somehow always cool, calm, and collected.
Beck nodded. "Don't worry about it. I wouldn't believe something as ridiculous as that anyway. I mean, you and Jade?" He let out a small laugh.
Andre awkwardly laughed along with him. "I know, right? Me and Jade? Like that would ever happen," Andre said, attempting to sound genuine. "Ha, those girls gotta be out of their minds."
They were silent for a couple of seconds before Andre had to not-so-subtly chime back into the conversation. "But, you know, hypothetically speaking," he said while scratching the back of his neck. "Y'all are broken up, right? So, let's say one of your friends wanted to get with Jade. That'd be all right... right?"
Beck looked into the distance, thinking about Andre's question for a moment. He turned to Andre and simply blurted out, "No."
He wasn't sure what he was expecting Beck to say, but his answer still caught him off guard. "N-no?" Andre asked, slightly confused. "But I thought you broke things off with her."
"I know," Beck answered with a straight face. "But that doesn't mean I want to see her with anyone else. Especially not one of my friends."
It was verbal confirmation that Andre didn't have Beck's "blessing" to date Jade. Hypothetically, anyway. He could feel the guilt rising up inside of him. Andre still loved Jade, and he still wanted to tell her how he really felt. It was going to be much harder knowing that Beck didn't approve, even if they were broken up.
While Andre processed everything, Beck smiled and gave his friend a pat on the back. "Good thing I don't have to worry about that, right?" he chuckled, hopping off the hood of his car. "I'm gonna grab some tacos from The Grub truck before they close up. You want some?"
"Nah, I'm good, man," Andre said, not feeling hungry anymore. This situation just got a whole lot more complicated.
Cat giggled and jumped on Jade's bed. "So, what do you want to do, Jade? Can I paint your nails?!" the redhead exclaimed with excitement. Jade stomped over to her bed, annoyed that her mom had let Cat in their house again after she specifically said she wanted to be left alone today. It was bad enough those stupid girls at school were running around telling rumors about her and Andre. And then to top it off, her stepmother had texted Jade "Please take your piercings out around your brother. He shouldn't be exposed to bad influences like that". The nerve! It made Jade so angry that she texted her stepmother where she could "shove her opinions". Jade knew in her heart that her stepmother was the reason her father hated her. She couldn't stand that woman.
And she didn't feel like dealing with Cat today. She watched as her friend jumped around in her floral pink dress and cardigan, her eyes closed and her smile big. She even had on pink socks with bunny ears. It was a big contrast from Jade's black-themed room. "Cat, not today!" Jade yelled, pointing at the floor. "Get down!"
Cat pouted, sad that her friend still wasn't in a good mood. She jumped down to the floor and sat on Jade's bed normally. "Rude..." she commented, watching as Jade threw her purse on her desk and sat on the bed next to Cat. The red-haired girl could tell something was on Jade's mind. "You have a secret, don't you?" Cat giggled, poking Jade's shoulder.
Jade looked at Cat from the corner of her eye. How did her best friend know her so well? For being a ditzy redhead, sometimes she wasn't that ditzy. "You can't keep a secret to save your life, Cat. I wouldn't tell you even if I did," Jade replied, laying back on her bed. Her mind was racing with everything that had happened today. Andre was in the middle of telling her something when she dozed off. What was he going to say? It bothered her that she didn't get to hear it, since not knowing how he felt was driving her crazy.
Andre was one of the few people Jade liked at Hollywood Arts. She had a certain respect for him, and she could actually tolerate hanging out with him sometimes. She never considered that she could feel romantically towards him, but now? It was a weird feeling. And not the good kind. It was a mix of butterflies in her stomach, her heart fluttering when she thought about him, along with the urge to vomit. Is this what it felt like to have a crush?
She shook off the feeling. There wasn't time to be thinking about things like that. Beck was all she knew. They broke up a lot, but they had so much history together. Whenever they'd make up and get back with each other, she felt an overwhelming feeling of safety. Like everything was finally back in place. Their relationship was like a rollercoaster: it was fun, scary, and addicting. The thought of Beck never coming back into her life made her afraid. Who else would she have? Of course, she had Cat, her best friend. But without Beck, she always felt an emptiness in her chest. She needed the validation that she could be loved by someone, even when it seemed like her parents never gave her a second thought. There was no way she could leave Beck. They had to stay together, no matter how much arguing, fighting, and crying she went through. That was just a normal part of relationships, right?
"Jaade," Cat said in a singsong voice. "You're doing the eyebrow thing again."
"What did I tell you about looking at my eyebrows?!" Jade snapped, turning herself around and shoving her face into a pillow. She felt like screaming from all of her emotions piling up on her.
Cat noticed her friend was having a rough day. "I think we should sing something, Jade," she said to her, slightly bouncing on the bed. "Come on!"
"No!" Jade groaned, her voice muffled from the pillow.
"Please?"
"Cat, no!"
"Pretty pretty pleease?!"
"Uugh, fine! You're lucky I don't slap you," Jade complained, turning back around and sitting up. Even though she was annoyed, Jade had a soft spot for her friend. If Cat really wanted to sing that badly, she would do it, even if it was reluctantly.
"Yay!" Cat cheered, crossing her legs on Jade's bed now.
Jade shook her head with a sigh. "Pick a good song."
"Ooh, how about Counting Stars?"
She couldn't think of a reason not to sing that song. "I guess that's fine. We'll start at the pre-chorus."
Cat was sitting up straight and smiling now that she was about to sing with her best friend. Jade didn't show it, but it made her happy that Cat was glad to spend time with her. Cat cleared her throat, looking over to Jade. "One, two, three."
I feel something so right, doing the wrong thing
And I feel something so wrong, doing the right thing
I couldn't lie, couldn't lie, couldn't lie
Everything that kills me makes me feel alive
Jade did in fact feel a little better once she was harmonizing with Cat. Through her art, she felt like the rest of the world melted away and she was in her own zone. They continued on to the chorus of the song.
Lately, I've been, I've been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
But baby, I've been, I've been praying hard
Said no more counting dollars
We'll be counting st-
"Jade!" a deep voice rang through the halls of her house.
Loud, stomping footsteps shook the floor, causing Cat to look at her friend with wide eyes. "Is that your dad?" she asked.
Before Jade could answer, her father barged into her room. He stood there in her doorway, anger clearly written all over his face. His wife was standing there behind him, arms crossed and looking at irritating as ever. "Haven't you heard of knocking?" Jade snapped, standing up quickly and facing him. Cat scooted further away from the scene, not wanting to make a sound.
Her father held up a cell phone. "Did you text this to your stepmother?" It was the text Jade had sent earlier when she was upset.
Jade didn't care. That witch deserved every insult that came at her. "So what?"
"You can't say things like that to her, it's incredibly disrespectful!"
His wife nodded behind him, looking at Jade with a glare. "I told you she's a bad influence."
"Why don't you shut your mouth, hag!" Jade hurled at her. "Who let you in here anyway?"
"Hey! I told you not to talk to her like that!" her father yelled, pointing at his daughter. He stormed closer to her, jabbing his finger into her chest. "Apologize!"
"Not gonna happen!"
Jade turned to walk away from him, but he grabbed her by the arm. "Now!"
"Stop that!" she growled back, trying to yank herself away. She scowled at him, livid that he wasn't letting her leave.
"Not until you apologize!"
Jade gritted her teeth in frustration and looked over at her stepmother. "I'm sorry I called you a hag," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "There, happy now?"
Her father let go of her arm and shook his head in disapproval. "You have no respect for yourself, do you? Your mother has done a terrible job of raising you," he commented. Jade's stepmother gave her a smug look. Jade glared back, but a part of her wanted to scream her lungs out. Jade's father never took her side. Not once. To think, all of this was over something as trivial as her piercings.
He finally left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Jade crossed her arms and huffed as she heard him walking away. She was going to kill her mom for letting her dad just barge into her room like that when she had company over. That reminded her...
"Cat?" Jade asked, looking around the room. It was empty. Her friend had to be somewhere. "Cat, where did you go?"
Suddenly, Jade remembered Cat's favorite hiding place whenever she was scared. She kneeled on the floor and searched under her bed. Sure enough, Cat was curled up under there, along with a bunch of dust and old junk Jade never bothered to cleanout. "Cat, come on, get out. There are spiders under there."
Cat scurried out from under the bed, jumping up and dusting herself off. Though Cat had seen her fair share of dysfunctional family interactions in her own home, Jade's was much scarier to her. "Jade, your dad's really mean," she commented, looking at her friend with worried eyes.
"It's all that woman's fault. I hate her, and that little rodent she calls a dog," Jade snarled, standing up and crossing her arms.
Cat felt like her body was vibrating and like her stomach had fallen to the floor. She was genuinely worried about her friend. "I don't know, maybe you should tell someone that-"
"Cat, no!" Jade commanded, making direct eye contact with her. "Don't speak of this, ever. Not to anyone. I mean it, Cat."
The redhead girl nodded, knowing in the back of her mind that nothing about this situation was right. Though she had seen Jade argue with her parents before, it never had never gone past anything other than verbal. But this time, the way Mr. West grabbed his daughter's arm made Cat nearly jump out of her skin. She knew something had been bothering Jade lately, but she didn't know this was what she was dealing with at home.
"Go home, okay? I want to be alone," Jade said, sitting down on her bed and letting her back fall against her mattress. She just wanted to sit in silence, with no one bothering her.
Cat nodded, hesitantly walking away from Jade and to the door. "Kay-kay..."
Songs used: Counting Stars - OneRepublic
