Sorry it's been so long! I've been super busy with exams and projects and end of the year school stuff.
But anyways here's chapter five and I don't own Victorious.
[Treat us like ghosts.]
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After their breakup Jade refused to talk to Beck, or anyone else in the group for that matter. She seemed to be distancing herself from him and anybody else that reminded her of him. Or maybe she just found better people to hang out with. He noticed her walking down the halls with these two other girls, Aimee and Natalie who seemed to have similar interests as her (eyeliner, playing with sharp objects, intimidating others, etc) and he figured that was just how she was preoccupying her time these days. He never saw Jade as the type of girl to form a "clique" or whatever, but he knew she needed some place to fit in since she wasn't talking to any of her old friends anymore. (Well surprisingly, she apparently still talked to Tori but that was it). Beck was able to get over the breakup pretty quickly though since he and Cat were together now. He still didn't like the way things ended with Jade, but now that things were the way they were with him and Cat, he realized that he couldn't see things having happened any other way. If he could go back in time, maybe he would have done things a bit differently, like with the cheating for example. But regardless of that he realized the breakup was for the best and it probably would have happened eventually anyway, because maybe deep down he had always felt something for Cat. And now that he was finally acknowledging it he really felt more at ease with himself, and maybe even a little bit happy.
But even though she and him were happy together, Beck sometimes worried about Cat and the current state of her well-being. He told himself that she'd be fine as long as he was always around because he would never let anything bad happen to her, but still there were some things that he knew he couldn't protect her from, the main thing being herself. Sometimes he wished he could get inside her mind and figure out what it was that made her so nervous all the time, and so sensitive to every emotion, every feeling she felt. He wondered what it would be like seeing the world the way Cat did, where sometimes everybody looked like giants and somedays it felt like the sky was falling, and every time she felt something it was always ten times more intense than if it were a normal person experiencing it. He'd always wondered about that, the curious case of Caterina Valentine.
Cat was definitely a different kind of girl, different than any girl he'd ever known before. But he'd always liked that about her because to him that made her special, even though some people didn't see it that way.
At school everyone had heard about Beck and Jade's breakup and by now they had gotten wind of who had caused it. So if things were awkward for Beck and Jade with people talking about them, things were probably twice as uncomfortable for Cat. It wasn't fair to her, the way she was being scrutinized and recieved the brunt of the criticism over something he did to his girlfriend, but there was nothing he could do about it because in situations like those, people were gonna blame whoever they wanted to blame.
"I feel...like everyone is staring at me," she said to him.
He looked around; at first he hadn't noticed it but with all the rumors circulating about him cheating on Jade, people definitely turned to look whenever he and Cat walked down the halls together.
"Just ignore 'em," Beck told her. She gave him a hopeful smile and linked her arm around his, but then dropped it when she spotted Jade across the hall from them. Jade barely even looked at them though, just kept moving along with her eyes focused straight ahead.
"And she definitely hates me," Cat said, frowning.
Beck glanced in Jade's direction and watched her back as she walked, heels clacking hard against the floor. "Join the club," he muttered.
Beck and Cat shared the majority of their classes so they spent the day glued to each other, side by side facing the rest of the world together. Beck could handle the people staring at them and talking about them because he didn't really care what people thought of him. But Cat maybe cared too much, and he noticed she was starting to let it get to her. At one point when they were walking to class together, a girl (Natalie, one of Jade's new friends) accidentally bumped Cat on the shoulder when she was walking past her.
The girl apologized but the corners of her lips turned up slightly into a grin, giving the impression that she wasn't really sorry at all. Beck rolled his eyes.
"It's okay," Cat mumbled.
After that he noticed she was pretty much on edge the rest of the day. He tried to distract her and get her to ignore everyone else, but it didn't really work. At lunch when they went to sit at their usual table with Tori, Andre and Robbie, Cat hesitated before sitting down.
"It's okay," he told her. "Right guys?"
They all briefly exchanged awkward glances before nodding in agreement.
"Of course it is," Tori said.
"Yeah, don't worry Jade doesn't sit here anymore," Robbie pointed out, garnering him a jab in the shoulder by Andre's elbow. "Oww! Well she doesn't..."
Cat sat down next to Tori and they switched the conversation to a topic that didn't involve Jade, which Beck was grateful for.
Then Cat turned to Beck and told him that she'd accidentally gotten a regular milk, instead of chocolate. "Oh no," she pouted.
He offered to get it for her almost automatically (she sorta had that effect on him). And just to be polite, he asked if anyone else wanted anything too since he was already getting up.
"I'll have another juice-"
"Could you get me a spoon-"
"Fries please!"
He muttered, "Umm, alright then," but got up to oblige his friends' needs anyway. His trip to the school's concession stand and back didn't take long because the line was a lot shorter by then. But when he got back to the table to meet his friends, Cat had disappeared.
He set the tray down on the table. "Where did Cat go?"
Nobody responded.
"Guys?" he tried.
They all looked down at their trays. Tori started playing with her fork and Andre and Robbie started to pick at their food, not one of them meeting Beck's eyes. He started to get nervous.
"Cat sorta left," Andre finally admitted. "It was all Robbie's fault though."
"How was it my fault! Rex is the one who told her about it and then I had to show it to her and-"
"Show her what?" Beck asked.
Tori placed a copy of the school's Gossip Rag or "newspaper" on top of the table and slid it over to him. "You guys made the front page."
Sure enough there was an old picture of him and Jade on the cover edited so that it appeared to be torn in half, but more importantly there was a photo of Cat with words like 'not so innocent' and 'homewrecker' plastered all over it. Beck fought the urge to crumple it up and toss it in the garbage right then and there. Didn't these people have better things to do with their lives? He sighed and slid the newspaper back over to Tori, not even bothering to read what was being said about them. He had already seen enough.
"Which way did she go?" he asked them. They all pointed in a general direction towards the parking lot so he sprinted off to go find her. It didn't take him long though. She was sitting crosslegged under a tree a couple yards away from the side entrance of the school.
"Alright, c'mon we gotta go back," he said holding out his hand to her.
She shook her head. "I don't want to go back," she told him. "Can you take me home?"
"But Cat, we've still got another period left."
She stood up from the ground and brushed off her skirt, then she gathered her bag and her books. "It's okay, I'll just walk home then." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you later Beck."
Maybe missing another class wouldn't be so bad..it wasn't like he hadn't done it before. "Alright, hold up," he said catching up to her.
They ended up going back to Cat's house. It was quieter than he remembered it. Normally Cat's house was filled with movement and energy with Cat's younger brother causing most of the commotion. But since nobody was home her house was calmer, devoid of sound and somehow that made it seem less colorful and less inviting. But then he'd gotten to her room and that feeling changed completely. He'd only seen her room once, maybe twice when they were kids but even now it was exactly how he remembered it. Her walls were pink just like her comforter and her carpet, but everything else, pillows and stuffed animals and furniture were all different colors. (She told him it reminded her of a strawberry pink cupcake with rainbow sprinkles). One portion of the wall right above her bed was devoted to pictures of Alejandra her old pet rabbit, but on the other side tacked onto a bulletin board were old and new pictures of all her friends. He noticed a picture of him and her at age ten at one of Cat's birthday parties wearing pointy hats and sharing a huge piece of cake, and he smiled feeling a bit nostalgic.
Cat told him that she was tired and really just felt like taking a nap.
He offered to leave and let her get some rest, but she told him that she wanted him to stay, so he ended up settling in next to her, putting his arm around her and letting her rest her head against his chest. She fell asleep that way, clutching one of her stuffed animals and after awhile he started to doze off too. But eventually they were woken up by the sound of someone walking up the stairs and entering the room. A tall woman with wavy dark hair, a made up face and tons of shopping bags greeted them.
They both sat up, groggy-eyed to see Rebecca Valentine, Cat's mother take off her sunglasses and perch them on top of her head. "Early day at school today?" she asked.
Cat rubbed her eyes and cleared her throat. "Umm, yeah. There was this huge outbreak of frogs in the science lab. It was so awful, they had to evacuate the building and call exterminators and everything."
Her mother seemed to deem this an acceptable explanation. "Oh, that's interesting," she said.
"I just feel bad for all the poor little frogs...I'm surprised the school hasn't called you yet."
Beck just looked at Cat and hid his smirk, surprised by this newfound ability to lie she apparently had. Cat had tons of hidden talents.
"You remember Beck, don't you mom?" Cat said.
She gave him a glance over and he waved awkwardly. She smiled. "Of course I do. You're the handsome one."
Beck was used to hearing things like that so it didn't make him blush or anything. "Umm...thanks."
"Can he stay for dinner?" Cat asked.
Her mom thought about it for a second and then shrugged. "Yes, I suppose he can if he wants to. But I'm gonna go take a bath before I go pick up Michael from school, so you kids just be good and try not to destroy anything in my house," she said wagging her finger, and then she left, shutting the door behind her.
Cat turned to Beck. "So will you stay? I promise my family isn't that weird."
He shrugged. "Sure."
Dinner with Cat's family pretty much went like this:
Cat would start to talk, "So I was thinking that maybe I could do, like commercial auditions again like I did when I was a kid. I mean I only got one callback and it was for this really cute bubble gum commercial where I had to chew this gum, but I kept getting my lines wrong so I had to chew so much and it made my mouth hurt really bad...but anyways since then I've gotten a lot better at memorizing and now maybe I could try that out again. I mean I think it could be a really good start for me to become a real actress, y'know instead of just doing plays and stuff. What do you think mom?"
Then Mrs. Valentine reached over to wipe something off of Michael's face. "That sounds great dear...Michael, what has mommy always told you? Food is for eating, not playing."
It seemed like whenever Cat tried to say something her mother was always too distracted to really pay attention.
"I think it's a good idea, I mean you gotta start somewhere right?" Beck added.
"Yes, that's what everyone says...and how is this whole acting thing working out for you?" Mrs. Valentine asked him.
"Well, I-"
"Beck's been in a movie before," Cat said smiling proudly. "He takes his acting very seriously."
"Well, I'm sure he does and he should...Michael you have to eat your food, all of it," she scolded.
The boy crossed his arms. "It's gross. I hate vegetarian shepards pie."
"Well I don't care if you hate it."
That argument went back and forth and seemed to be getting nowhere.
At some point in the middle of dinner, Cat's dad rushed through the door wearing a business suit and carrying a briefcase. "Sorry, I'm late.." But just as quickly as he appeared, he was gone. He kissed his wife on the forehead, waved to the kids and disappeared into a different room.
"Dinner's on the stove," Cat's mother called out to his back as he retreated. "Cat, sweetie could you go in the kitchen and fix your father a plate?"
"Okay." Cat rushed off to the kitchen.
Michael tossed his fork onto the floor 'accidentally' but Cat's mom gave him a stern look and he quickly retrieved it. "So Beck...how are things with you and that dark-haired girl?" she asked him, just making conversation.
"I'm sorry?"
"The really pretty one with the great complexion. You guys did the talent show together last year, I believe."
"Oh you mean Jade-"
Cat emerged from the kitchen with a plate of food in her hands, but at the mention of Jade's name she completely dropped it down onto the hardwood floor, shattering the plate and making a huge mess. Michael screamed at the noise of the crash and Cat covered her ears immediately like she had been expecting him to do that.
"I'm sorry," Cat said, nervously.
Mrs. Valentine just closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, visibly frustrated. "Cat darling, remember that little talk we had? About how you're supposed to be helping, and not causing more problems?"
"I know, I know and I'm sorry. I'll clean it up, I promise."
"I'll help you," Beck offered, starting to get up.
But Mrs. Valentine put her hand up. "No, it's fine I'll take care of it. Just make sure your brother finishes eating his food."
The rest of dinner was spent without any real conversation except for Michael's protests against eating the 'horrible vegetarian crap' they were trying to feed him. Cat's dad never sat down to eat with them, but Beck could hear him talking in a different room, presumably handling business with a client. At the end of the meal when it was time for him to leave, Beck sort of felt emotionally drained from all the commotion in her house. He imagined what Cat felt like, dealing with this practically every day of her life.
"I'm sorry about them, I thought they'd be on their best behavior if you were here," Cat said as she walked him out to his car.
"You don't have to apologize for your family, Cat. They're not that bad."
"Did they make you feel like you were invisible too?" she asked him.
He thought about the way Cat's mom got distracted everytime either of them tried to talk to her. And how her dad probably didn't even notice there was an extra guest at the dinner table.
"No, not at all," he said. He wrapped his arms around her neck, resting them ontop of her shoulders and kissed her forehead. "So I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
She nodded. He turned around and opened the front door of his car but Cat grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her. She pressed her lips against his and he smiled, returning the kiss.
"Beck you're like the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me," she told him.
He smiled somewhat shyly and looked away. "Stop it."
"No, I'm serious you're like the sweetest guy. You're so nice to me and you make me feel so special. And you don't think I'm weird."
"That's because you're not."
She turned away and leaned back against his car, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I know it was wrong of me to take you away from Jade, but...I just couldn't help it. I really like you."
"I really like you too." He put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the car on his shoulder, facing her. "But you didn't steal me away from anyone. Last time I checked I was a human being, not an object."
"You know what I mean. People think I'm a homewrecker." She frowned.
He laughed. "That's so ridiculous. It's not like Jade and I were married or anything."
"But still."
"Look this whole thing is gonna blow over soon and it'll all be fine. I'm sure of it."
"Do you really believe that?"
He nodded. "Yeah I do. And don't worry about what other people think of you because none of that matters."
He gave her hand a squeeze and kissed her on the lips one last time. Before he left he told her that she didn't have to worry because he was always gonna have her back. No matter what happened she'd always have at least one person to fall back on.
She smiled and thanked him for being so good to her, but she didn't really need to thank him. It was something he was always going to do.
