A/N: Chapter Three! This song is When I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles.
"well she was just seventeen… so how i could dance with another,
oh, when i saw her standing there."
…
"Please, Jade? Please?" Cat begs, looking up from under her eyelids, her brown eyes round and pleading. The two of them are sitting on Cat's bed, Jade in her dark, green v-neck and black skirt, her hair a tangle of green. blue and black, and Cat in her jean shorts and hot pink camisole, hair flaming red and swept over her shoulder in a curled ponytail.
"No." Jade says firmly, looking almost mournful for a moment. Almost.
Cat nods, taking in a deep breath and wiping a hot tear from the corner of her eye. Her facial features seem to sink, as though the only thing holding them up was hope that Jade would say 'yes'.
"No, Cat, please…don't cry. I wish we could, you know I do, but I'm dating Beck! You know that. Hell, the whole school knows that. How would it look if I showed up to the school dance without him?" What she really means to say is 'how would it look if I showed up with you?" but she can't bring herself to hurt Cat anymore. She absolutely hates when the red-headed girl cries. She thinks it's like watching a kind of tragic irony, like watching something go wrong.
"But I love you." Cat's voice is soft, her words simple. She means them, and Jade's heart breaks, knowing that Cat can't comprehend why love isn't enough.
"I know. I love you too." Jade reaches out and runs her fingers through Cat's dark red hair. She loves Cat's hair- it's so smooth, and it's one of the many things that make Cat Valentine stand out.
"Then…then…" Jade can see the cogs working in Cat's brain, she can almost hear Cat's internal struggle. "Then why can't we go together?"
"Because we can't, Cat!" Jade snaps.
The two of them are quiet for a few minutes; Cat looks hurt and jade looks pained. The bedsprings creak as Cat shifts her leg out from under her and begins to wiggle her finger under the hem of her bright-pink sock. Jade toys with one of her rings, swiveling it around and around her finger, leaving a reddish bruise behind. The butterfly clock on Cat's nightstand changes from 6:25 to 6:26. Jade opens her mouth to say something, when Cat speaks.
"Do you love Beck?" Jade blinks, stunned. This was the first time Cat has ever asked her that. She wasn't exactly sure how to answer. Beck was a great guy, anyone could see that. He was one big checked-off checklist (perfect hair, check. sense of humor, check. incredibly loving, check. handsome, check.). Jade did love Beck, but not in the way everyone thought she loved Beck.
"No," she decides, after a long pause. "No. Not in the same way I love you."
"Then why would you choose him over me?" Cat's voice rises. As an extremely literal person, it is clear she can't understand why Jade refuses to go with her. Cat had a knack of taking a long string of complicated circumstances, and snipping it into fragments. She had a simple answer for everything. It did not matter that Jade was supposed to be dating Beck; it did not matter that no one knew about Jade and Cat; it did not matter how people would talk, or what they would say.
Jade wishes it could be as simple, as easy as that. She almost admires Cat's ability to disregard labels; Cat doesn't care what she is, or what Jade is- Cat just knows that she loves Jade, and Jade loves her. In her head, that is all she needs. Jade envies Cat's naivety.
"Cat, please, it just has to be this way." she pauses. "I'm sorry." she bends down to kiss Cat, to make it all better, but Cat turns her head.
"Save it…" she whispers. "Save it for Beck."
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Jade's heels clunk noisily on the floor of Hollywood Arts as she enters the dance, Beck's arm slung possessively around her waist. They move, as one, to a table in the back where Beck sits down and pulls her along with him. Jade falls into his lap and he rests his hand on her leg, as if to say "she is mine." Jade wishes she could tell him how wrong he is. She is talking to Robbie when she sees Cat walk in. Cat doesn't have a date, and her eyes look red and puffy. Jade's icy heart shatters into a million tiny icicles.
Cat looks gorgeous, and Jade watches her all night- watches in envy as she is asked to dance by almost every boy there. She turns them all down, and Jade breathes again. The tiny girl's pink dress and white heels give off the impression of young innocence. Jade, in her turquoise dress and black gloves, feels like the thorn that has corrupted the rose.
Every so often, Beck pulls her in for a kiss, and when she surfaces, she glances at Cat, her eyes leaking fresh tears that she isn't doing a great job of wiping away. She dances with Beck, and puts on a smile when he whispers to her how much he loves her, and how beautiful she looks tonight, and how he can't wait to take her home after this is over. Jade wants to cry, to scream, to run to Cat and hug her and kiss her and tell her she's sorry. But Jade shakes her hips, and licks her lips, and tells Beck she can't wait. Only Jade knows that what she really can't wait for is the moment she can be free.
A/N: So, this story has gotten SO many hits and no reviews? Come one guys, have a heart...