The next day, Beck walked in to school, looking for Jade but being met with Tori and Andre. Of course Tori had to come clean to everyone about why they really had to leave early last night, so now everyone in the group was wondering how the night had gone for Beck and Jade.
"Hey." Tori sang, "How'd last night go? Did you guys snoodle?" She smiled wide.
"No, there was no snoodling." Beck sighed.
"What? Why not? We left you guys alone in a restaurant, what more could I do?" She exclaimed.
"I know, I just, I don't know if I should ask her out." Beck admitted. "She hasn't given any signals that she likes me that way, and if I do and she says no then I ruin our friendship. And what if I just hold out a little longer, you know, feel her out a bit more? That would be okay, right?"
"I don't know man. If you develop a greater friendship, it's only going to be that much scarier and harder to make that jump. Besides, do you really think Jade is going to show you any kind of interest? She shows no emotion except pure fury." Andre explained.
"She has shown me a softer side though."
"Well, then that's a good sign that she is into you!" Tori squealed.
"I guess." Beck shrugged.
"I think it's better to try now. Worst case scenario she says no." Andre states calmly.
"I just don't want to lose her as a friend though." Beck sighs.
"Well, if she says no, tell her you are sorry for making things uncomfortable and that you want to remain friends if you can." Tori gave a weak smile, trying to reassure her friend.
"Okay, but now the other issue. I'm really scared guys." Beck said, trying to maintain a normal breathing pattern.
"It's going to be okay Beck." Tori cooed, rubbing his arm.
"Just do it the next time you see her, no excuses. You have to do it, and get it over with." Andre stated.
"Right. I'll just do it, quick and painless, next time I see her. No excuses." Beck repeated, trying to get confident and mentally prepared.
Just then Jade West turned the corner by the soda machines and was making her way towards her locker. Beck stood up straight, and gulped before nodding to his friends and moving towards her. Before he could reach her though, Robbie came running through, and bumped into Jade, spilling her coffee all over her shirt. Robbie stopped and turned, ready to apologize, until he noticed how red and angry Jade's face was becoming. Beck was quick to act though. Just as Jade started to jump at Robbie, Beck wrapped her up in his arms and carefully walked her backwards, towards the janitor's closet.
"It's okay, it's okay, no need to kill him." Beck laughed nervously as he opened the door and walked her in.
"Ugh, that loser owes me a new shirt and coffee!" she screamed.
"I'm sure he will rather pay you back than die." Beck joked, grabbing some paper towels.
"I mean, god, what was he even running from a group of girl scouts?"
Beck laughed as he began to dab her shirt dry. He wasn't totally focused on her, but on the fact that he said he would ask her out the second he saw her, and this was not how he was planning to do it, but he said no excuses. If he made an exception this time, he would time and time again.
"Beck. Beck. Beck." Jade kept repeating, until Beck seemed to break out of his trance.
"Huh? What?" He snapped his head up.
"Stop touching me." She glared.
Beck finally realized he had been dabbing her shirt all over her chest. Definitely not how he wanted to ask her out, but no excuses. He stopped cleaning her up and handed her the towels so she could instead. He was blushing like crazy and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He just wanted to get this over with before it got worse.
"Hey, Jade," he started, grabbing her attention. "I was wondering if you, um, would, uh, what are you doing tomorrow night?" He switched.
"I don't know." She shrugged, still focused on getting her shirt dry.
"Well, would you want to go on a date with me?" Beck quietly asked.
Jade frowned, finally looking up at him. Beck was once again trying to calm his breathing and also maintain eye contact, which was hard when Jade wasn't giving him anything to go off of.
"No." she answered bluntly and then pushed past him, out the door.
Beck was left there, standing in shock. He felt so much pain, including heart break and loss of a friend. He knew by the way she had ran away, that he had made her uncomfortable and possibly pushed too far. He figured he wouldn't be able to rebound from this.
He saw her soon enough in class. He was already seated, towards the back since he didn't feel like being a big part of the class. Jade walked in right before the bell, along with Robbie, who was arguing with her.
"Jade, please give Rex back his leg!" Robbie yelled.
"No, not until you buy me a new coffee!" Jade yelled back.
"I will once I get an allowance from my dad!"
"I want it now!"
"Jade." Sikowitz interrupted.
"What?" she screamed, whipping around to face him, and causing the whole class to scoot back.
"Give Robbie back the part of his puppet." Sikowitz stated calmly.
"No." Jade stated calmly, crossing her arms.
Beck flinched, remembering the recently way she told him no. It was very similar to how she said it now.
"Give me my leg you witch!" Rex demanded.
"I'm going to take your head next!" Jade hissed.
"Jade!" Sikowitz snapped. "You are going to give the boy back his leg and then sit down." He said firmly.
Jade groaned and rolled her eyes before digging into her bag and handing Robbie Rex's leg back. She then stomped over to her seat and plopped down, not even noticing him in the back.
"Thank you." Sikowitz bowed.
The class went by slowly to Beck, who just sat and watched Jade. He needed to talk to her so bad, but what was he going to say to her anyway. The bell rang and he moved onto the rest of his classes, trying to avoid Jade.
At lunch, he saw her sitting at her table alone. He watched her and thought about how he could approach this, but nothing came to mind. Every way he saw would only lead to pissing her off and making things worse. The rest of the gang had joined him, and had already guessed how thigs went by his mood, so they remained quiet and allowed him to think.
Finally, Beck thought of something. The way Sikowitz always handled her. He tried to calm her down at first, be polite, but if she didn't respond correctly he got more aggressive and demanding. Jade was hard to handle, she had a lot of complex emotions and expressed them in violent ways, which made her dangerous and intimidating. Beck thought more, that maybe she was constantly pushing people away because she couldn't control them either. She probably needed stability in her life, some sense of it at least, and people didn't always add to that. Maybe she needed a firm hand once in a while to bring her back down and tell her how to go about something. He's not saying she needed to be ordered around, she has her own mind, but perhaps it helps to unload some of the pressures of life onto someone, but Jade West would never show that she needed someone. Maybe that's why she rejected him. How could she maintain her independence and be with someone?
Suddenly, Beck stood up, grabbing his bag and walked over to Jade's table. Tori and Andre watched tentatively. He sat down and ignored the dirty look she gave him.
"Why don't you want to go out with me? I deserve a reason." Beck asked calmly.
"I don't need to explain myself to you." Jade stated, going back to her salad.
"I thought we were friends. Can't you give me some kid of closure so we can save that friendship?" Beck pleaded.
"Why would you think we are friends?" Jade scoffed. "I didn't ask you to help me or like my play or care about me. Did you ever think maybe, not every girl wants to be with you?"
"I know not every girl wants to be with me, just the majority." Beck smirked.
"Well, if you didn't notice, I'm not like the majority." Jade sighed.
"Believe me I noticed." Beck smiled, "I just, I would rather have you in my life as friend than not at all."
Jade frowned and looked at him from the corner of her eyes, "I don't care what you want. Leave me alone."
Beck took a deep breath, "If you aren't going to be my friend then you are going to give me chance. It's the least you could do to repay me for helping you put on your play."
"Wow, so you only do nice things for girls so that you can get into their pants? Why is it so hard for you to wrap your mind around the fact that I don't like you," Jade yelled, emphasizing the last four words, "and I don't need to give you a reason, but I will. You are cocky, popular, a flirt, full-."
"We are going on a date!" Beck yelled, causing everyone to look and Jade to stare at him.
Beck groaned and grabbed his bag before stomping off.
The rest of the day went by quickly, thankfully, and now Beck was packing up his things from his locker. As he had time to think, Beck realized how embarrassing and rude that was to do to Jade. He must have really blown his shot with her. He stood up and saw her approaching her locker. He knew he had to apologize, and then he would leave her alone.
"Hey." He whispered, as he leaned against the wall next to her locker, "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have yelled or tried to force you to go on a date with me. I'm everything you said I was, and I guess I just lost it a bit."
Jade just glanced up at him, but then continued to put her books away.
"I'll leave you alone from now on." Beck said, turning around the corner and started walking out the door.
"Pick me up at 7." Jade yelled.
Beck frowned and rushed back to her locker, "What?"
"Saturday, pick me up at 7." She said, nonchalant.
"Okay." Beck nodded, in shock.
"I don't want to go on a basic date like dinner and a movie."
"What would you like to do?"
"You asked me out, you figure it out." Jade scoffed before walking past him and out the doors.
Beck stood there for a second, his smile getting bigger and bigger as time went on.