Burning Star
Rae
Pairings: Jade-Beck, Jade-Andre, Beck-Tori
Word Count: 3272
Theme(s): Fire, Darkness, Game
Song: In The Dark-Flyleaf
In the beginning, it had been her hair.
It had irked him in a way he couldn't describe completely, but he knew the feeling. He was ashamed. Maybe it had been the way the dark, bloody red streaks had stood out of her brunette locks she had twirled with a slender finger when he had introduced her to his family, or maybe it was the way the shadowed pink highlights had clashed with her personality.
She had one hand rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly as he started the formal introductions, and denied her an opportunity to speak for herself. She had tapped her right foot quietly against the floor, as if these people were nothing to her. Her eyes remained distant, and her face remained emotionless. She was heartless, displaying the coldness willingly and freely to both her new boyfriend, as well as her new boyfriend's parents. But she didn't care.
In the beginning, he was just playing a game. He was known for playing with girls, making them fall for him, and then play with their feelings before backing off and giving them icy gazes. When he had seen her, her forearm had been wrapped from a tattoo she had gotten inked upon pale skin, and draped in a large black shirt that fell to her knees and torn up skinny jeans. She was angry and determined, and he couldn't help but play with her. But with her, it was different.
Her make up was heavy, and lips barely twitched into a smile when she stood alongside her two closet friends, a strange, and annoying girl who had gone by Cat, as well as a boy he had known since he was young, one by the name of Andre. He had waited for her to catch sight of him-just as every other girl had, but she never did. She continued to sip her coffee and listen to the red head prattle on about some annoying thing her brother had attempted, and give a short laugh when Andre mentioned something. It had stirred something-a new game, and new toy to play with. Already she was rebelling, and he wanted to fix her before she broke.
She was withdrawn most of the time, out of his reach no matter how tightly he held her hand in his grasp. He couldn't back away, and became trapped inside her dark gaze, and became transfixed. She became the center. He had taken every bit of effort to break into her soul, and make her feel. She was cold and unwavering.
To get her to say yes to his proposal of a date took twenty attempts of asking, a new shirt and to buy her a new pair of scissors. He didn't understand the obsession with the sharpened scissors that she wore inside her boots, and he didn't like it. It wasn't normal. She wasn't normal. She was like the plant Venus, bright and unwavering, and yet casted into the shadows-so far from the sun.
He had introduced her to his parents on the second week of them dating (after she had reluctantly said yes), and found himself humiliated as he stood beside the dark princess in front of the two aging parents, as they saw what he had fallen to. Black chipped nail polish and scuffed combat boots. It had seemed like she was always rebelling-against school, laws and love. She was defiant, and he had hated that. He wanted to find the warmth that was somewhere inside her, but all he had found was a black five-point star. He wanted more. So, he played a game that could have been deadly. He began toying with other girls, friends of Jade, strangers of Jade-and worse, enemies of Jade. They sparked a flaming fire inside her, and brought heated fights and passionate make ups. He enjoyed the sensation of controlling her like this, reeling her into him. He managed to ensnare her, and never thought twice.
"Why do you always do this?" Jade had screamed at Beck in the pouring rain, headlights zooming past on the highway-people going places.
"Do what? You always do this, Jade!" Beck had roared back at her, inwardly beaming at the flame he had created. "I'm sick of it!"
And its magic words. Words that bring her off her rage, and became broken. He knew her story-he wasn't stupid. She had dreams, ones that were crushed and shattered. She had parents she refused to introduce him to, because they were detached and cold. She didn't want to be left alone.
The rest of the night is spent engulfed in the fiery storm that was pure Jade.
He had always been proud of what he had accomplished, breaking into her core-but was never able to leave her and move on to the next girl. He pulled her along through his life as if she were nothing but a trophy. He didn't want to give her up to anyone. No matter how furious he had been when she dyed her hair black (he had later evened the odds by sleeping with Tori secretly), or when she petrified some innocent student, he knew that the moment he let her go, she would become a forest fire of raging fire and untamed she would roam, and he would lose her. Every second he had fought for would turn to ash, and disappear into the curls of the smokes, and lost to the crackle of the fire. He knew Andre loved her-and he knew the musical-talented friend of his would treat her right. But she didn't deserve someone like that. They had been friends when they were little, and Cat was part of their close relationship. He never really understood it, but it was part of her he failed to erase. She was so tainted, dull and rusted. Her heart was like black ice, and her smiles were cold and unnerving.
He caught sight of the screen picture of her PearPod, a snap shot of a familiar red head laughing, the younger Andre beaming into the lens, and a long forgotten brunette whom was grinning widely at a joke he would never understand. He wasn't fond of the picture-Infact he hated it. His display picture was one of him and her, the latter glowering at the camera angrily, and if you squinted, you would make out the smirking face of Tori. He knew he had caught glimpses of the real Jade in her picture, buried beneath mascara and scissors, but he also knew, deep down, he never really saw the strange and lost creature.
Things began changing in the last year of high school. Jade was changing. He wasn't oblivious, and he could see her drifting for a new destination. He was losing his prize. She was still dark-but at the same time, her shell of anger and hatred was breaking. She and Andre found themselves floating towards each other, and soon he had to share her with his best friends. She waited for texts from the other one, and began smiling a little bit more for the other one and she began to change. She was unraveling, and he was furious. He had to break her swiftly, and break her to the core. He had slept with Tori three times that month, the overwhelming smell of flowers clung to his skin, and he partnered with her-rather than Jade. But she never gave a care. She seemed to skirt around the issue-as if she knew what was coming-and wanted to break the silence. He knew she was caught between, and he knew one way, the only way to make her bend.
Darkness was thick, and headlights from cars darted from beside them, as Beck gripped the wheel tightly. Jade was silent, detached ever further from his grasp. He was lost without her burning light it seemed-despite how deeply it was buried- It shone through the cracks of the shell, and was blinding.
"It's over." He managed to say those words, blocking out the moments he replayed day after day. It hadn't been all bad. She meant so much more to him than any other girl could have imagined. He poured every effort into raising the flame, and suffered along side her.
"Fine." She had shrugged, and continued to stare outside the window where the world blurred by as he picked up speed. A crack ran through his heart, she didn't even want to fight for him.
"What? I said it's over. I can't take you anymore!" Beck had craned his neck to study her, and saw how calm she was. But within seconds, her lips had parted, and brought fourth a scream that shattered his world, and the last thing he remembered was the sound of grating metal and endless blackness.
His face was changed. Scars ran down his tanned cheeks and his one eye remained swollen shut. His hair was shaven in order to stitch the skin, and he walked with a limp that would never go away. He was changed. He was lost in the dark, but yet waited for Jade. Every day. People stared at him, differently than before. Gone was the lust and friendly gazes, now they were looking at him if he were a stranger. Girls he slept with in the dark gave him no second gazes, and Tori found it hard to look him in the eyes. Andre avoided him, and Cat trailed after the him. Robbie tagged behind Beck, waiting for a sign that said the storm was over. And then she came back. After a month of emptiness and gossip, she came back. She wore a long white button up shirt that was slightly too big for her, a pale blue skinny jeans and the same combat boots. Her hair was a mixture of fire-streaks of yellow, orange and red ran free and unrestrained, and she walked free and proud. Andre and Cat walked along side her, and he waited for her to notice him. And she did.
"Jade!" He yelled at her. She turned and gave him a smile.
"Yeah, Beck? Need anything?" She had replied, adjusting the strap of her bag.
"Where were you? It's been three months." He glared but she continued to smile as if unfazed.
"Your accident left me temporarily blind. Andre and Cat have been helping me with homework and things. You broke up with me, so I figured it wasn't necessary for me to update you on everything I was doing anymore. Please, my most insincere apologies." And with that, she was gone. Leaving behind a trail of fire, destroying everything that they had.
He was different now, and she was an alien to him. He missed her. No longer did the game exist. He wanted her back, and needed her. But she was rising upwards, and in a glow of light, leaving him behind and a pool of darkness. His marks suffered, and his chances at Hollywood Arts were lacking now, and his endless leading roles in plays quickly came to a stop. He didn't care anymore. Tori began falling behind as well, everyone found out about her and Beck, after she had gotten pregnant with his child, leaving her father on his doorstep-demanding he marry her. His life was gone now, but Jade's was just beginning. She filled those spot lights, and it was her fingers that carried the bittersweet notes of the piano over the crowd's cheers. She began to light the world, and with it, she brought Andre and Cat with her. Everything he knew was gone; everything he cared about was swept away. A tide of fire, unkept and yet-endless.
It was dark in the area he was sitting in, far back in the audience-somewhere she would never see him. Her notes were dark and haunting, spinning tales and memories. He hated being like this-unable to say the words to the one whom meant the most. Gone was the game that he had played with, and here was an emotion he had never felt.
Numbness.
His life became increasingly difficult. His face remained unchanged from its violent scars, and his hair hadn't grown back properly. Over the three years his limp became increasingly difficult to manage, and his dreams of accepting scholarships and Universities went down the drain. He couldn't function without Jade. He had once thought he needed to fix her before she broke-and now he realized how wrong he was. She was just fine. Her hair was a flaming being of fire and energy, reflecting her life. Already having starred in twelve major movies and other sequels and spin offs, she continued the trek to Broadway. Andre had become a major musician, creating gold with his finger tips. Cat had also risen, also starring in plenty of movies. Tori though, had been nothing but a disaster.
She was drunk, and he was trying to maneuver him to the RV where their child slept next to the posters from the movies Jade starred in. She was giggling random things, but one thing caught his attention.
"What did you say?" He paused, forcing her glazed eyes to meet his one good eye. His heart stopped, and anxiety rose.
"She's not yours!" She had slurred, referring to their daughter. "I wanted you, you see Becky."
Everything seemed to freeze, her stupid grin, and his heart. "What do you mean, she isn't mine. It's the reason why I married you." He shook her hard.
"Exactly. You loved Jade but couldn't at the same time, and I loved you, and she loved everyone but us! I wanted a baby, so-" Tori continued, pausing for dramatic effect before hiccupping, "I did the 'bad' thing with that jock. You feel for it and it worked! But you got in that accident and Jade went missing and you couldn't handle a thing and you became obsessed with her and can't handle a freaking thing now and now my life is ruined and I hate you so much!" She began screaming words that never made it to his ears, and at that point-Beck was gone.
The next day, he woke up and his daughter and wife were gone. He didn't care.
He kept the walls of his RV covered with a constant pictures and posters of Jade, and the newspaper and magazine clippings of interviews and reviews. Every moment in the public eye he acknowledged. He even kept the announcements of her marriage, and her child with Andre. A little girl, born the same day the one that he had thought was his was. He became obsessed, unable to live without being surrounded by her face, her smile and her touch. His days became empty, and his bottle ran dry quickly.
He had caught sight of her hair at a reunion ten years after they had graduated. Her hair was like flames, and her smile was like the bright flame. He had been sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair in a corner next to some deflated balloons, with a plastic cup of overly sweet punch. She was holding Andre's hand with a soft smile, as she traded tales with a pair of girls he vaguely remembered sleeping with on that week she had left for Cuba. Now, here she was in a dress that floated around her ankles and in a shade of indigo-and looking beautiful as she had always been.
He had risen from his seat, unnerved by the way she smiled as if everything was okay. As he got closer, he could barely manage to pick out the fading scars from the accident-the one she declared his. And it was. He had never held tight enough to her.
She caught side of him and began to slightly narrow her eyes as if she was unsure of who he was, before realizing whom was the one walking towards her. He frowned at that, because it was as if he meant nothing to her-just a face in the crowd. Already he could here Tori's laugh in the background-and he barely had a moment to wonder if it had always been so fake.
"Hi Beck. Long time, no see." She had smiled-a real one this time-not one of those plastic ones he had demanded to see years ago.
"You to." He frowned again, and waited. An invisible barrier stood between them, and Andre glared at him darkly.
"Your face looks better, if it helps." She offered, noticing what he had noticed just days before. The scars were finally paling. In her empty hand, she twirled a white rose innocently. Maybe she had been trying to add to the short conversation, or maybe she was just rubbing acid to his wounds.
"Um, your neck looks good to." He nodded. They were nearly invisible to the eye, and he was unsure how he had spotted them from so far away.
"First time in a long time I decided not to conceal them." She had smiled, as if it was alright, she was normal. As if this was normal. But even he knew she was a brilliant actor-despite how violently he had denied it.
"Sorry." He said shortly and began to walk away, broken and weary. Distantly, as if in another world, he could hear someone calling his name, and felt someone put something in his hand.
A whispery voice and breathed in his ear a quiet message, "This was your game, but I think you lost. I'm the one who's sorry for you." And within an instant, the fiery demon had glided through the gym and had met with her partner. Together, almost instant they began to dance slowly with one another. They molded into one another perfectly, and he knew it now.
He really had lost.
He felt a tiny prick and a slight stab of pain in his hand-his right one that he had held her hand always with (it was always his right hand. Never the left.), and looking down, he saw that white, innocent rose, covered with thorns.
It was all lost.
He kept that rose near to his heart, even after it died. He left it because it was the last piece of Jade he had left, and he held it-even when he killed himself. It wasn't with a gun, because it was too quick. To sudden and violent. He wanted to carve his story into his skin, and tell the truth. He used scissors-the ones he had stolen from her before he broke up with her- and finished destroying his life, with only the light of a flickering candle which had casted a soft glow across the room. It reminded him though, of her hair. Soft glows of reds, yellows and oranges, creating a dancing flame of fire. He had always been irked by her hair, when he had introduced her to his parents, or when it had clashed with her personality-or the one he had thought he had known. But now, her hair created comfort.
It had been her hair, in the end.
A/N: Came up with this story listening to 'In the Dark' by Flyleaf, and took me four hours to create. I like Victorious a lot-if mainly for Jade, Andre and Cat. I've always though, hated Tori and Beck. And Robbie… well-he was useless to me.
I wanted to show a not so innocent side to the innocent characters, and I wanted to change Jade. Hope you all like. Also, hoping I won't get flamed for the outcome.
Also-Lately when I have attempted posting things in the past, anything with Italics have skipped over any spaces and meshed into one really long word. Please review or message me if this happens again, and I will update it immediately.