She was just about to leave the house, her hand on the door, when her father called her name, stopping her from going any farther.

"What?" She turned around, her hands on her hips, glaring at him.

"Where are you going?"

"To a party. I met up with some of my old friends from school… and they invited me to a party."

"Well… don't you think you should stay here with Alex and I?" She paused for a moment, before shaking her head.

"No. Bye." And with that she opened the door, about to step out when her sister's voice stopped her.

"Wait, Jade." She looked at her, "Don't… leave."

"Alex, you're fine. You have dad here."

"Yeah, but I want to spend time with you."

"I'll be back later, okay? And we can play UNO or whatever you want, I promise."

"Really?"

Jade nodded, "Really."

"Okay." She giggled and then skipped away. Her father stared after her for a moment before turning back to Jade. "She's not—"

"Look, give me the lecture later, about how we should all stick together right now, but honestly, I don't care. I want to go out. I need to go out. I'll… see you later." And with that, Jade was out the door.

Fifteen minutes later, she was walking along the beach, when she saw the party. Cat ran up to her, excitedly throwing her arms around her. Jade halfheartedly hugged her back, noticing how skinny and tiny she was. She stepped back to get a good look at her and saw she was wearing short jean shorts, a thin white v-neck and a strapless bikini underneath it. On her feet were just regular black flip-flops.

Jade suddenly felt insecure, since she felt like what she was wearing wasn't as good as what Cat wore.

She had on jeans shorts, a vintage band tee, and regular bikini and on her feet were her favorite black Chucks.

"You look amazing!" Cat suddenly cried and Jade blinked at her.

What?

"I look what?"

"Amazing!" She said, immediately linking her arm with hers. "I love your band tee. I have like a whole collection at home, you should come by sometime and check it out." Jade paused, but nodded.

"Yeah, sure I'd like that."

Cat giggled again, and then pulled her over to where everyone else was. Tori was standing next to Andre, her eyes closed, holding a red cup of some sort of questionable substance, shaking her body she moved next to Andre who was standing there, laughing as he started to dance with her.

Beck was talking to Robbie, his hands in the pocket of his skinny jeans. Robbie seemed to be gesturing wildly and he was just nodding his head listening patiently. There were a few other people at the party too—some she recognized and some she didn't.

Cat had turned to talk to another girl, unhooking her arm with hers. Jade just stood there awkwardly, staring at Beck who she noticed was staring right back at her. The fire was blazing in between them, so it created a sort of glow, as he kept glancing up and looking at her.

She bit her lip and put her hands in the back pocket of her shorts, she looked down and began to rock back and forth. She felt awkward, out of place… like she didn't belong there.

And maybe she didn't. She hadn't seen anyone in years. Maybe all she really belonged with were the stuck up snobs her parents forced her to go to school with.

Yeah right.

Since she hadn't been paying attention, she hadn't realized Beck had ended his conversation with Robbie and was walking towards her. He stopped a few feet in front of her, and motioned her to go with him.

She sighed, and hesitated. Did she really want to do that?

After a few minutes of agonizing over it more in her head, she decided it was just best to go ahead and go with him.

"Hey." He said once she'd reached him. "Are you okay? You're looking a bit… pale."

"I—I'm fine." She smiled at him, putting a strand of hair behind her ear, as he bent down to the cooler and picked out two cans of… well, she couldn't really see since it was a bit dark out.

He looked up at her, "Do you want…" Her heart stopped when she saw the can of beer in his hand. She couldn't… she's not supposed to… she… "A root beer?"

She breathed a sigh of relief, although, she had to admit, it was a little strange what had just transpired in her mind. "Y-yes." She said, taking it from him and calming herself down. "I—I would love one, thank you."

He smiled at her, "I wasn't going to offer you a beer."

"You…weren't?" He shook his head. "Well, why not?"

"Because Jade. Even though we were together just ten months, I do remember you had a bit… of a problem with alcohol." He shrugged, and walked away. She just followed after him, a bit dumbfounded, and annoyed.

"Wait, you just assume because I had… a slight problem before, that it's okay to assume that I'm recovering from it?" He said nothing so she just continued, "I'll have you know, I don't have a problem."

"Yeah, not anymore."

"What makes you think I had one to begin with?"

"Jade." Beck sighed, running his fingers through his dark shaggy hair. "Whenever we went to a party, you'd drink… a lot. And be so drunk you could barely function." He paused for a moment, as he remembered something. "I even think you came to class drunk a few times."

Jade was about to speak, but he held his hand up to stop her. "I'm just looking out for you, okay? Don't get all pissy with me because I'm just trying… to… I don't know, make sure you're okay and don't make the same dumb mistakes you made back then."

Well, that sucked. She couldn't be mad at him for just… being sweet, could she?

"Oh." Was all she said, playing with the top of her root beer can. "Thanks, I guess."

"Yeah." He said, "No problem." He smiled at her and she smiled back at him. He began to walk away and she followed him.

"So, I have a question." She said, catching up with him and he nodded for her to continue. "What's up with…Cat? Is that her name?" He gave her a look, but she ignored it. "Are you guys like… together, or…?"

"No." He responded, "We're not a couple. If that's what you're asking."

"To be honest, I'm not really sure what I was asking," Jade admitted. "I just…"

"Didn't want me to be in relationship because you still have feelings for me?" He asked and she just looked up at him, her eyes wide.

"What? No!"

"Yeah, sure…" That was when she realized he was just teasing her… or at least that's what she thought.

Though, the smirk on his face told her otherwise.

"Jade." He said, and she looked at him. "Why are you back? And… you know, don't give me some bullshit about family problems. What's really going on?"

"How did we go from Cat and what your relationship is or isn't with her to this?"

He shrugged and said nothing. It was silent for a few minutes before she realized they'd walked pretty far and the party noises had died down. But she wasn't really too focused on that. If anything, she was. Pissed. Off.

"I'm not going to talk about it." She finally spoke. "I—I don't want to."

"Okay." He said and that made her even more pissed off.

"Okay? Okay? That's it?"

"Yeah, what else did you want me to say?"

"At least act like you give a shit!" She suddenly shouted at him, causing Beck to look at her, very confused. She blinked, not believing had just happened. "I…I have to go." She said, and turned around running away from him before he could say or do anything to get her to stay there with him.

She kept running until she reached the party again. She then bent down and without even thinking about it or realizing it, she had grabbed a few beers, and then pulled Cat's hand. She didn't say anything to her, just ripped her from whomever it was she was talking to and then ran down the beach with her.

"Jade?" Cat finally spoke, once they were far enough down the beach, that no one would be able to find them easily. Jade hid behind a rock, motioning for Cat to do the same. "Why are we here? And why did you just pull me away from Robbie?"

"I…" Jade didn't really know what to say. She looked down and noticed she had six cans of beer and the root beer in her hand still. Almost as if they'd burned her, she dropped them and gasped, backing away.

"Jade?" Cat looked at her concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I…I'm not… I'm not sure." She said, tears filling her eyes as she picked up one of the cans of beer and popped it open. She held it towards Cat. "Will you drink with me?" Cat looked down at the drink, uncertain and then looked back up at the clearly distressed girl in front of her.

"What's gotten into you?" Cat asked, "Why are you acting like this?" She backed away from her shaking her head. "You're clearly not alright."

"I just want to drink," Jade stared at her, narrowing her eyes. "I just want to know if you want to do it with me."

"Not really," Cat responded. "I can't be around that shit."

"Yeah and neither can I." Jade responded, "But you know, who the fuck cares?" She then took the can of beer she'd been holding towards Cat and drank it, a few gulps gone. "But you know, my mother doesn't, neither does my father… my sister might, but she's too young to understand what's going on."

"And what's that?" Cat asked her as Jade thought back to earlier that morning when she'd spoken to her father about her mother.

"Yeah, real good parenting." Jade commented as Alex ran back into the house to change out of her underwear. "You're doing a great job."

"Ease on the sarcasm, would you?" Her father snapped as she just hung her head, looking down at her tan legs, annoyed. "Feeling a little hung over? I thought you got your act together."

"I did." She said, looking back up at him, and glaring. "Not that you've noticed you know with my perfect grades or how I'm in extracurriculars at my school. Remember that play I was in last month? No, probably not. It's not like you bothered to show up or anything."

"Why are you taking all your anger out on me?" Her father demanded as she moved her feet in the pool back and forth.

"Because, dad, clearly mom's not here for me to do it." She snapped as she jumped into the pool, waist deep. Her father glanced up for a moment, looking to see if Alex was behind Jade before he finally looked at her.

"We need to talk."

"Whatever."

"It's about your mother." She didn't say anything. "The uh… the doctor's told me… she's not going to make it."

Jade's head snapped up. "What?"

"She… they're taking her off life support. It's what she wants."

Jade at first, had no reaction. She just bit her lip to keep from crying, before she suddenly dove underneath the water and screamed until she felt her butt hit the floor. She started to swim toward the house more before she finally jumped out of the water and looked at her dad. "Jeez, dad! Did you have to do that in the fucking pool?" She snapped at him before angrily grabbing her towel and rushing into the house with it, pushing past Alex who just looked at her father, who offered nothing more than a shrug in her direction.

Jade drank some more before she answered her, already feeling tipsy being the lightweight she was. She started to move back and forth, before she collapsed on the sand, and brought her knees to her head, her hands going to her head, grabbing her hair she pulled on it, and started crying.

"Jade?" Cat approached her quietly, afraid that if she touched her or anything she'd break. "What's wrong?"

She didn't answer at first. She just continued to rock back and forth, before getting another beer and drinking it. And then, she finally started to laugh, which scared Cat.

She'd been in a similar situation before, and it… it never ended well.

"My mom's dying," She spoke, her voice raspy probably from the tears and the burning sensation of the beer going down her throat. "My fucking mother is dying and I can't… I can't tell her how, how damn stupid she is." Cat's eyes widened at that last confession, tilting her head.

"What are you talking about?"

"I just… I hate her, you know?" Jade turned to Cat, who could see she really was drunk and out of her mind. She quickly pulled her phone out and dialed Beck's number since he seemed to know her pretty well.

He answered on the second ring, "Hello? Cat? Where are you?"

"I'm about two miles from the party." She said, "By the cove, can you uhm… can you please come here?"

"Yeah sure." He said, "Is everything okay?"

She shook her head, even though he couldn't see her. By now, Jade was on her third beer and laughing so hard she couldn't speak. "I'm fine," She finally answered, "But Jade isn't."

"Jade?"

"Yeah."

"Is she drinking or anything?"

"Yeah, she had like three beers already and she's laughing and talking about her mother and I don't know what's going on, will you and Robbie or whoever just come down here please? I don't know her well enough to help her like you guys can."

"Yeah, Cat. We're on our way, just relax and keep an eye on her, okay? "

Cat looked at Jade, a bit uncertain, before responding, "yeah… yeah, okay. I can do that." And with that, she hung up the phone.

"You're like… you're perfect, you know?" Jade spoke, slurring her words. "I mean, you look amazing and skinny and beautiful and I'm just… me."

"You're beautiful too." Cat assured her, "Don't think otherwise."

"Yeah, but not—" She hiccupped, "Not like you."

"Trust me, Jade. I'm not as beautiful as you think I am."

Jade didn't respond, she just lay back on her back and stared at stars. "Why is this happening to me?" She whispered, "Why is my mom dying? Why did she hurt my father? My sister? Me? As much as she did without realizing she probably was hurting herself too." She sighed, tears streaming down her face as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Cat didn't say anything, just sat down next to her and looked up.

"I can't… I can't believe this is happening." And with that, she closed her eyes, trying to get rid of all her thoughts. She soon fell asleep and was woken up a couple minutes later by Cat who was shaking her.

"What?" She opened her eyes, her vision blurry as she tried to figure out what was going on around her. Beck looked at her, disappointed as Robbie slowly helped her up. Andre and Tori were there too, looking more concerned than pissed off, unlike Beck.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He snapped angrily. "Do you want to be an alcoholic for the rest of your damn life?"

She vaguely saw Cat's eyes widen, but couldn't be sure since she was so out of it.

"Why do you care?" Jade demanded, "Why does anyone care?"

"Jade." Tori spoke, "What's gotten into you? What's wrong?"

"My mom's dying!" She bit her lip, and looked down not making any eye contact with anyone. "I just found out today… she's not going to live."

"What?" Tori looked around, "Why? What happened?"

"She was in a boating accident." Jade whispered, "That's why I'm home… to see my mom. But you know, she hurt me and my dad and my sister, so why the hell should I care?"

"Okay. Guys." Beck spoke up, "I think I'll take it from here, she's obviously very emotional and… I'll just deal with it. You guys go ahead to the party, okay? And Cat?" Cat looked at him. "Thanks for staying with her."

"No problem."

"No." Andre said, "I'll stay here with you. We all will, because she's… she's gonna need more than one person, trust me on this."

The others all nodded their head in agreement. Beck turned to Jade. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah." Jade said, and then leaned on his shoulder for support. "But I'm gonna need help."

"Here we go." Robbie muttered and got next to her, so she was in between them. They then started to two-mile walk back to the party where Beck's truck was, so they could just take her home.

About an hour later, Beck pulled up to her house, and then went to the other side of the car where she was laying, passed out. He took her out bridal style and carried her up the pathway to the front door. He rang the doorbell and then waited a few moments, before the door opened and he saw her father.

"Hi, Mr. West. I'm so sorry, but Jade… she uh… she got drunk."

"Why's that?"

"I wasn't with her, but she took one of my friends and then just… went for it I guess. She also said some stuff, but I wont repeat it. Can I uh, take her upstairs to her bedroom?"

"I suppose." Her father nodded, opening the door wider for him. The moment he stepped in though, she had opened her eyes and somewhat groggily looked up at him. He was just about to go up to her bedroom when a little girl ran up to him.

"Jade! Jade! You're home! Remember what you said? That we could play UNO!"

"Alex," He heard Mr. West behind him. "Keep your voice down."

"But… daddy! Jade promised! Remember?"

"I'm aware, but it looks like she's going to have to break it. I'm sorry."

Her lower lip quivered as she looked up at him, "Why?"

"Because…" He took a deep breath and came up with the only answer he could think of. "She's sick."

Alex looked up at Jade who was now moaning and hid her face in Beck's chest. "Oh."

Beck then turned and walked up the steps—going up carefully—and then lay her down gently on her bed. He took off her shoes and then tucked her under the covers. She drunkenly turned over, and closed her eyes, falling fast asleep again. He just stood there for a moment, before leaning over and kissing her forehead softly.

"I'm so sorry you have to go through all this, Jade." He whispered, and then without another word, left the room.

"So, how did it go?" Andre asked as soon as he got back to his truck. He just started it, not saying a word; he sat there, and then looked at all his friends.

"As good as you can expect it to go, I guess." And with that, he pulled out of the driveway and started the drive home.

Cat though, looked at him and noticed he had a somber look on his face.

"Beck?" She whispered and he just shook his head, silencing her for the moment.

She then looked down and played with her fingers.

Someday she was going to tell him what she'd been hiding, but… that day… that day was not now.

But it would be… soon enough.

How did you like it? Kinda sad though… isn't it? Poor Jade.

More to come later! Thanks for the kind reviews I've gotten so far :)