He's rummaging through his locker the next day when Beck comes over, "Hey."

"Oh, hey man, sorry I wasn't around last night. I just, well uh, I... was, you know, just..." He mentally kicks himself for being the worst liar ever.

"It's fine."

"So, uh, how are you doing?"

Beck raises his eyebrows, "Uh, okay."

"So, are you broken up for good this time, or..."

"Uh, well, she changed her Slap status to single."

"Oh, she's never done that before..." He knows how awkward this is, that this isn't the conversation to have when one's best friend has just broken up with his girlfriend, but at this point he's just sort-of rambling, "Has she?"

"No..."

Thankfully, Robbie and Rex come over before he can ask more stupid questions.

"Hey, what's cracking," although he forgot Robbie was likely to say something stupider.

"Hah, I'll take it from here Rob," Rex joins in, "Beck, congrats on ditching the freaky one."

"Uh... thank you?"

"Now, I can set you up with some of my girls... they'll show you a good time."

"Rex!" Robbie takes the puppet off his hand and holds it to his chest, "He didn't mean it."

"Yeah," Beck gives all three of them a look, "I'm gonna go to class. Thanks for your, uh, support..."

"That went well," Robbie says as soon as Beck rounds the corner.

Andre just sort-of rolls his eyes and goes back to rummaging through his locker, "Uh... sure."

"I wonder if Jade needs someone to comfort her..."

"...Yeah, don't do that."

He turns back to his locker and checks his phone. Yup, both of their profiles say single, which has never happened - the last time they broke up for like a day, she just didn't put anything. He keeps digging through his locker, intensely focusing on finding his history book (which is probably at home), and nothing else. Tori comes over to show off her new phone and Cat to confirm that Beck and Jade are done for good.

"Did you see Jade and Beck's profiles on the Slap?"

"I did."

"Yep."

"What do they say?" Tori asks.

"Not in a relationship."

None of them really know where to go with that, but the conversation is cut short by Trina running in with the new XT. When Tori stalks off, the conversation instantly turns back to Beck and Jade.

"Have you guys seen Beck?" Trina fluffs her hair, "He needs to know that he's going out with me this Saturday."

"He went that way," Robbie points down the hall.

"Yay!" Trina scurries down the hall as fast as she can in her heels, yelling for Beck.

"What are you doing that for?"

"Just helping out a friend," Robbie replies, "Why are you so grumpy anyway."

"I'm not," he says in what he quickly realizes is a grumpy tone, "...I'm going get to class."

"See you in Sikowitz's class!" he's not sure why Robbie's upbeatness is bothering him so much. Yeah, it's annoying, but he shouldn't be fighting off the urge to strangle him. That's more Jade's department.

He winces at the thought because he does not need to be thinking about her, or how she was at his house, or how he's pretty sure he left his history book on his bed because he got distracted when he smelled her perfume on his covers.

Jade's in his history class, but she doesn't show up that day. Which is annoying, because if she's going to make him forget his book, she could at least show up and share hers. Not that Jade would agree to share anything, but it would have been nice to have the option instead of sharing with Sinjin, who smells like feet.

Jade comes into Sikowitz's class and takes the chair next to his, the one that was usually Beck's, but he guesses it's not like they can sit next to each other anymore.

"Hey."

"Hey," he turns to her, "You could have like, said goodbye."

"Not here," she hisses, pointing to Cat, who is absorbed in her phone.

He rolls his eyes because it's not like Cat is going to have any clue what they're talking about, "Why weren't you in history?"

"Didn't feel like it."

"But you feel like being here? You do remember Beck is in this class."

She rolls her eyes and shrugs as Beck walks in. They just sort-of glare at each other and Beck collapses in the seat on the other side of Andre. Great, this is exactly where he wanted to be.

As the bell rings, Sikowitz pokes his head out from behind one of the curtains, "Hello!" he scans the room and pauses, "Jade, Beck, why have you moved your seats?"

"Well, uh..." Beck begins.

Jade cuts him off, "We broke up."

"Oh, really?" Sikowitz sits down on the edge of the stage, crossing his legs, "Why?"

"I'm not telling you that!"

"Jade..."

"Shut up," she turns to Beck, "You want to tell his goon all about how unhappy you are?"

"I will remind you that this goon determines your final grade, Jade. But I can see where lines are being crossed," Sikowitz stands up, "And I probably shouldn't ask you two to do the scene I planned..." he scans the room, "Jade, come up here. Andre, you'll take Beck's place."

"What now?"

"Don't get your panties in a pretzel, it's just acting," Sikowitz throws a book at him, Much Ado About Nothing, "Act 5, Scene 4. Jade, read for Beatrice. Andre, read for Benedict."

He skims the pages, "...There's a kiss in this."

Sikowitz raises an eyebrow, "So?"

He turns to look at Beck, who just shrugs.

"What, you don't want to kiss me, Harris?" Jade's leaning against the wall, a smirk on her face.

"Uh, no," he says hurriedly, "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with you, just, uh, you and Beck and, uh, you were dating, and that makes you, like ... bros before hoes, you know?"

"Oh, so, now I'm a ho?"

"Uh... no," he looks frantically at Beck.

"Uh... I'm ... okay with it?" Beck says.

"I'll do it!" Robbie chimes in.

"No, Andre's doing it," Jade looks right at him, her smirk growing, "Aren't you."

"Andre, just get up there and do the scene. You kiss your classmates all the time in this class and you will do so when you're a professional actor."

"Uh, I don't want to be an actor," he's stalling, "I want to be, uh, a musician. And all of this kissing does seem, uh, kind-of, you know... inappropriate..."

"Well, there's even more meaningless kissing in the music world, so you might as well get used to it."

He slowly makes his way onstage and they work their way through the scene. Jade slowly moves closer and closer to him until, when she says her last lines, she's about six inches away.

"I yield upon great persuasion; and party to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption!"

"Uhh..." he leans back and turns to Sikowitz, "Do I really have to do this?"

"Yes."

"Uh, okay, fine," he looks down at the book, "Peace. I will stop your mouth."

"Do it again, you need to show passion! Remember you are in love with her!"

"Uhhh," he swallows. Jade's blinking up at him through her eyelashes, he can tell by the lack of smirk that she's completely in character. He tells himself that this means nothing, it's just acting, and takes a deep breath.

"Peace! I will stop your mouth!" he takes her chin in his hand and brushes his thumb against her cheek, bringing her face close to his. She's still totally in character, but he can see something in her eyes almost light up and he's not sure if she's amused or excited about this, but if he thinks about that, he's going to stop and he's never been this close and he has sort-of wanted this for months even if it's absolutely not okay. His thoughts rocket to a halt as she closes the remaining millimeters between them and places her mouth on his and oh god, he is kissing Jade West. She brings her hand up and runs it through his dreads and sucks on his lower lip and he can feel himself sigh into her and her lips perk up, just a little as they keep kissing. She slowly lowers her hand down his back and carefully pulls away, leaning her forehead against his. She's still in his arms and her face is so close and she's looking into his eyes and -

"Scene, there we go!" Sikowitz is clearly excited, "That was some great acting!"

"Yeah, Harris," Jade pulls away, smirking again, "Great acting."

He approaches Beck at his locker after class, "I'm sorry man, just you know, the assignment."

Beck shrugs, "Don't worry, I know Sikowitz is nuts. It's not like it meant anything."

"Uh, yeah, it meant nothing. Nothing at all. I did not enjoy that."

"Hey, you want to go to that new sushi place for lunch? I don't want to deal with sitting with Jade."

"Yeah, sure," he does not want to sit with Beck alone for an hour, but he just made out with his ex of like sixteen hours in front of him and really liked it, so he can't say no, "Let's invite Robbie too."

Beck shrugs, "Yeah, sounds good, we haven't done a guys' thing in a while."

He's at the bar trying to order a refill of green tea when a girl cuts in front of him.

"Hey! You can't do that!"

"Yes, I can," she turns around, and looks him up and down, "You're cute."

"Uh.. thank you."

"You should date me."

"I don't even know your name."

"Hope, Hope Quincy."

"Quincy? Like the record producer?"

"Yup. So, are we dating or not?"

If he's a bad person already, he might as well get a shot at a record deal out of it.

I know I took some major liberties with the staging of Much Ado About Nothing, but I do hope it worked anyway.

Thank you all for the lovely reviews! I've mapped out where I want this story to go and hopefully I can keep up some sort of pace. To those who commented you were in college too - I'm done with college. Some college saw fit to give me a degree. I'm doing my masters now, and I'm still obsessed with Victorious, so, don't worry, that doesn't go away or anything?