"What did you think of Tori today?" Beck asked, paying as keen attention to the conversation that he was starting with his girlfriend as he did the road ahead of him as he drove her home from school.
Jade sighed, looking out the passenger side window before Beck noticed that for once she felt truly bad for the friend of hers that she loved to hate. "You know what that freak did to her, right?" she asked hollowly.
She saw Beck flinch out of the corner of her eye as he said in a low voice, "You know that we can only speculate – and maybe we shouldn't even be doing that."
Jade turned to look at him sharply, knowing that he would know what she referenced when she said, "Trust me, Beck, we both know what he did to her. You know what that much sudden damage in a girl means."
"Yeah," he said raggedly, neither one of them wanting to revisit the memories that this was bringing back from the proverbial grave.
"How's Andre holding up?" Jade asked.
"His girlfriend was-" There was an edge to his voice that Jade had halfway been expecting, but he cut off his response suddenly, not able to bring himself to finish the awful statement. "How do you recall the boyfriend holding up when that happens to his girl?"
"They're not a couple, Beck," she reminded him. "Don't try to turn them into us, it'll make what's going on now worse than what it already is and we both know that."
Beck glanced at her sharply before turning his eyes back to the road as he said, "He loves her, she loved him, and everybody with eyesight knows it. That means that the same emotions are running through his head that have run through mine in the past."
"So is he okay?" Jade repeated her earlier question.
"As well as can be expected, I guess," Beck answered before pointing out, "You never answered my question about Tori."
"I've been trying not to think about it," Jade admitted softly, her gaze falling to her hands.
Knowing full well what was actually going through her head, Beck reached across the console and took her hand in his.
Jade took a deep breath, adding bravely, "But she's tough when she wants to be; Tori will be alright, and so will Andre. We all will be."
Beck squeezed her hand, understanding the subtext of the statement, and Jade returned the gesture, wanting the contact instead of shying away from it like Tori had become prone to doing.
Jade smiled to herself as Beck lovingly murmured, "That's my girl."
Sorry about the shortness of this chapter, I had hoped that it would be longer. I'm going to try and get one part of the story each from everybody's POV - Robbie's next. Reviews make my day full of sunshine and spur me on in my writing! Thanks!:)