"Hello?"

"Hey Cat, it's Beck."

Two hours had passed since the 'Jade incident' and he was still lying on his bed, unable to keep his thoughts off the beautiful girl with the rainbow streaks in her hair, and his stupidity which had certainly messed up all chances (if he had ever had some in the first place) that she could possibly like him at some point.

"Ooh, hi Beck," the redhead at the other end of the phone said brightly.

"Did I wake you up?"

"No, no, I'm still watching a movie with my brother. - Well, actually, I was watching it with him but he somehow disappeared, so I've been watching it alone for the past hour... he is so weird, sometimes I wonder how we can be related," she giggled.

"Yeah... uh, listen, Cat, can you please give me Jade's number? I need to call her."

Suddenly Cat seemed focused. "You want her number?"

"Yes, I gotta talk to her as soon as possible," he said, rubbing his neck nervously.

Cat giggled. "Why don't you just ask her for her number yourself?"

"Uh, I guess she wouldn't give it to me... or even talk to me."

"Huh? Did something happen?" Cat asked, alarmed. "Wait, did you guys go out after all? How was it? Did you have a fight?"

"No, no, we didn't go out, I... can you please just give me her number?" he pleaded.

"Oki doki loki," she said brightly and told him Jade's number. Beck scribbled it down on a loose piece of paper he had happened to find near his bed.

"Thanks, Cat, bye," he said hurriedly and hung up as soon as he had heard Cat's 'bye' as well.

Indecisively, he stared at the piece of paper in his hands for a moment. He had to. His hands shaking lightly, he started dialing the number Cat gave him. He threw a quick glance at his clock. 11:06 pm. Hopefully Jade was still awake.

He listened to the ringing tone for a while, nervously wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans. Then she finally answered her phone.

"Who the fuck are you and where did you get my number?" Jade shouted angrily.

"Hi," he said, sounding a little dejected. "It's me, Beck."

There was a long pause and just as Beck started wondering if she had hung up on him just like that, she finally spoke. "What the hell do you want?"

"I wanted to explain it to you. Today, I mean."

He gulped. Even though he had only known her for two weeks, he still knew her well enough to know that he was treading on thin ice and that Jade would probably not even give him the slightest chance to explain.

And he was right.

"Fuck you."

He heard a click and then there was nothing but silence. "Damn it," he whispered, tossing his phone on the ground and burying his face in his pillow again. Why was suddenly everything so complicated?

. . .

Jade woke up the next morning, feeling the strong need to stay at home. Not because she was afraid of talking to Beck or anything like that – God, no! –, she simply didn't want to have to deal with his pathetic tries to explain himself using some filthy excuses all day.

She knew what she saw and she knew Tori – her despicable attempts to flirt with Beck in school had been obvious. All Jade had had to do was to put two and two together, and Beck didn't need his stupid excuses anymore. She knew what had been going on.

Wasn't it obvious? Beck was a player. It was as simple as that. If he couldn't get that one girl, he'd just hit on another. Idiot.

Unwillingly, Jade got up. She had to go, or Beck might end up thinking he would affect her that much. No, he definitely wasn't. Oh God, she didn't even like him, did she? Why was she caring about him anyway? Eugh.

Only a second after she had gotten ready and left the bathroom, the doorbell rang and a excited Cat was waiting for her.

"Ohmigod, what on earth has happened yesterday? I wanna know everything!"

Jade shot her a suspicious glance. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't act as if you don't know! What happened between you and Beck?" the redhead asked impatiently, jumping up and down and bursting with curiosity.

"What should have happened? There was nothing." Jade lied.

"Come on, Jade, why would he call me at 11 pm, begging for your number, if there was nothing? Tell me!"

Jade narrowed her eyes. "So you gave him my number! I should've known..."

"Jade!"

"What?"

"Tell me!"

The pale girl rolled her eyes. Knowing Cat, she would find out sooner or later anyway and Jade didn't want to hear her begging all day. "Fine," she sighed. "But promise you won't embarrass me in front of Beck or Tori and talk to them about what I'm going to tell you now, alright?"

Cat nodded eagerly.

"OK, so you know that Beck asked me out yesterday-"

Cat gaped. "Oh my God, you went out in the end?"

"No," Jade hissed through gritted teeth. "Let me finish."

"Phooey..."

"So, I thought about what you said, about regretting and stuff-"

"Ha!" Cat exclaimed, grinning.

Jade groaned. "Would you just let me tell the story? So I went to Beck last night. I don't exactly know why I did that, I just felt like it, I guess... Anyway, guess who was with him in his stupid trailer?"

"Uhh, his mom? - No, wait, maybe Santa?"

Jade groaned again. "No, stupid. It was Tori."

"Oh OK... and then what?"

"Nothing then, I left, of course," Jade said.

"Huh, I don't get it. Why did you leave when you saw Tori?" Cat said confused, knitting her eyebrows.

"Hello-ho? He hit on Tori right after he had asked me out, duh!"

Cat gasped. "Unbelievable! But wait... why did he sound so desperate then, when he wanted me to give him your number?"

"How should I know? Maybe he didn't want everyone to know how much of a douchebag he is, so he tried to smooth away difficulties."

"What did he say when he called you, anyway?" Cat asked.

"He said he wanted to explain things."

"Oh, so what was his explanation?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know?"

"Nope. I said 'fuck you' and hung up on him."

"Jade!" Cat wailed.

"What?"

"Maybe he really had an explanation for all this? You should have at least listened to what he had to say!"

Jade snorted. "I don't need his pathetic excuses."

"So what are you gonna do now?"

"Ignore him and never talk to him ever again, of course."

"Oh Jade..." Cat sighed.

YES, I MADE IT! Updating, I mean LOL my best friend will arrive her any minute and will stay for a week and I really wanted to update once more before, because I won't be able to while she's here. Yeah, so here's the update XD

Further on, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all your encouraging words! I'm glad that so many people still like the story and was overwhelmed by the amount of reviews I got! Thank you!

... my friend just arrived as I was typing that last sentence XD