A/N: Tori harbored some ill will toward Jade but she softened a little upon seeing Jade in her current state.
And these feelings came to haunt Tori.
Today's a new day and its Beck's turn to take Jade to school.
The morning began like the last one.
Jade made a point to be as ready as possible, doing as much as she could the night before. She used to do whatever until sleep set in. Despite have an inclination to party or goof around in her room, she was a morning person. Coffee was instrumental in that. But this injury made every little thing take forever so she had to work around that.
It was Tuesday so Beck would be here any second.
If things weren't weird enough with Tori, who she engaged in a screaming match with last time they spoke; this morning would be especially awkward with Beck.
They did have history after all.
The breakup was rather mutual; both parties feeling that they outgrew the other. Not that they didn't want to remain friends but as a romantic pairing, they weren't getting what they were after in a mate.
But despite everything they remained close. They had conversations that Jade never had with Cat and Beck opened up about stuff he wouldn't have thought to reveal to Andre or Robbie.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
"Come in!" she shouted.
Beck opened the door and looked around.
"Boy it's been a while since I've been around here," he said. "Actually, can't remember the last time..."
"I do," Jade said, hobbling into the living room. "That night you snuck into my room."
"Was that the night we..."
"Oh yeah," she nodded.
To say that night was awkward would be the understatement of the year. First of all, both being relatively inexperienced, they took a lot of their cues from movies and TV. Initially, they tried to do everything in the dark. It was a comedy of errors. People banging into things, stepping on hair, getting tangled up trying to undress, forget unhooking a bra, and best of all failing to "feel around" for where things go.
Once they gave up and turned on the light, things went much better.
Jade tried talking dirty because she heard that was a way to liven things up. But her brand of dirty talk was less sultry and more morbid. Beck wasn't receptive to his girlfriend sounding like she was going to kill him afterwards. He knew it wasn't serious but something did die and that was the mood.
That was one of the earlier signs of them just drifting apart. They kept finding more ways that they were incompatible and things they turned a blind eye in the beginning were now hard to ignore.
"So, you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," Jade replied. "Coming."
She went out and Beck closed the door behind them.
"How you been holding up?"
(I'm sure Pam has been less than nurturing.)
"I'm here, aren't I?"
(Class Jade. Saying nothing and somehow saying everything.)
They got in the car and drove away.
Jade sat in the back while Beck was up front. The amount of silence between them they may as well be in separate vehicles.
The goth was practically clawing at the walls.
(Dear God, this silence is driving me crazy! If we won't say something I will.)
"I guess I'm gonna miss out on Mr. Selick's class today," she finally said.
Beck understood what she meant. His room was on the second floor; the only one of Jade's teachers that wasn't on ground level.
"Um, I think I heard him saying that he was relocating his class to Room 22 by the auditorium."
"Really?" she asked.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Mr. Selick heard about your injury and didn't want you to struggle with the stairs so he told us we would be in 22 until further notice."
Jade felt guilty that one of her favorite teachers was pulling up stakes and moving his operation to the other side of the school for her benefit. He would be the first to say it was no trouble at all, but Jade didn't like anyone fussing over her. She could barely stomach these escorts courtesy of her former friends.
"You okay back there?"
"Huh? Oh yeah I guess."
Beck wasn't used to being around Jade this long without her getting worked up about something. He wondered how the accident had affected her.
"You know..." he started cautiously. "I saw video of the whole thing."
Jade's eyes widened but otherwise she didn't react. Not in a way Beck would notice.
When the gang had heard about Jade's accident, it wasn't seen as that serious at first. It was all talk and in the school game of telephone, details were blown out of proportion or outright fabrications. At worst, they figured she tripped off the stage into the pit. Nobody was prepared for the idea that Jade fell the equivalent of a three story house to the floor.
Beck was numb to videos of life's little disasters caught on the fly. He could fall in a YouTube rabbit hole seeing accidents involving bikes, hang gliders, and animals attacks. But when he saw Jade helplessly plummeting to the earth, he felt sick to his stomach.
There was no reason Jade should have lived but she did. Freak incidents can happen. There was that woman from Peru in the 1970's who was the sole survivor of a plane crash. But two things about that: one, she fell thousands of feet before the plane did. And second, she would go on to survive for weeks in the Amazon with no food and injuries that were getting infected.
Jade somehow beat the odds and only got a broken leg. What is she was paralyzed? What if she died?
It didn't hit Beck just how serious her accident was until he saw the raw footage with his own eyes. He could only imagine how that must have hit Jade.
"Jade, I'm sorry about what happened."
She closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears at bay.
"Yeah. I'm sorry too. About everything."
(That didn't sound like acting. She was really sorry.)
"Just so you know, we're all glad that you made...that you didn't...um..." Beck tried to see her in the rear view mirror during the red light. "We're relieved that you're still here. I'm glad...you're...still here."
Jade folded her arms and dropped her head.
"That's nice," she softly said with no emotion.
(But we BOTH know that's all bullshit.)
When the school day ended, Beck was there to bring Jade back.
Throughout the day, her crestfallen face was all he could see when he looked around.
Now the drive to her house was dead quiet. Beck wondered if their previous conversation made her feel worse.
He began this thing wanting to still dislike Jade because of what she did to Cat. Beck wrestled with himself how someone so close to her could do something so cold. But today gave him a glimpse of not a complete bitch but a brittle spirit stripped of whatever armor she used to have.
Jade laid herself bare and it was jarring to him. Beck had never known this vulnerable side of Jade. Not that seeing her less irritable was a bad thing but this new Jade scared him. He wonders if she might do something to herself if left alone.
Not that she looked unkempt but Jade was clearly putting minimal effort into her well-being. As long as he known her, she tried to impress but now she looked like she only got out of bed out of obligation.
Beck parked in the driveway and helped Jade to the front door.
"Have you talked with Tori?" he asked her.
"No," she replied. "Not since this time yesterday."
"I see," he sighed.
He didn't know what came over him but he felt like she needed reassurance right now. Beck gently put his arms around Jade's back and hugged her. She stiffened at first but then let her crutches drop and gripped hard to him.
Beck could sense from her whole body shaking that she was crying.
"It's okay," he said. "It's okay."
He held onto her for a solid five minutes as she just unloaded over a week of pent up emotions. She was in terrible pain and completely depressed and what little human contact she had, Jade was compelled to keep it to herself. But now she felt safe and the floodgates opened.
Jade sniffed and broke the hug, feeling Beck's shoulder.
"You're shirt's wet."
He shrugged, "It happens."
"I'm really sorry," she sniffed. The tears hadn't completely dried out yet.
"I know," he nodded. "Please take care, okay?"
Jade nodded.
"Promise me?"
"Yeah," she swallowed. "I promise."
"Good night, Jade."
"Night."
When Beck got home he replayed the conversation he had with Jade.
He had seen her upset before but this was different. She looked destroyed.
A text from Tori snapped him out of his thoughts.
"How did it go?"
Beck replied that she looked really rough.
"I know what you mean. I was mad but now I'm more worries than anything."
Jade had a long road ahead in terms of that leg. But something else is going on inside. Beck thought he would feel better hearing a similar vibe from Tori, confirming that he wasn't projecting or imagining. Only now he feels worse because now he knows Jade is going through something.
And he just knows that her mother will not be there for her.
"I think Jade needs help. What do you think?"
He said that he didn't know and shut the messaging down because he was feeling tired after today.
The smell of the seaside overwhelms Beck. He knows this place.
Uncle Jeremy's house in Alberta overlooking the water. He had gone there more than any other place for summers.
One day he invited Jade there while they were going out.
It was the only house in a relatively remote area so ti was very private most of the time. Just the occasional fishing boat or hiker that got lost.
Jade wasn't privy to the natural setting but Beck convinced her that she would enjoy the quiet. She reluctantly agreed to come along.
The day they arrived, they put their stuff away in the cabin. Beck and Jade were separate during this time because they had their own rooms. His uncle was cool but he wasn't THAT cool. Beck was about done when he noticed that he hadn't heard a peep from Jade since they got there.
He didn't hear a single echo from the direction of her room.
Beck was curious and started wandering the house. He didn't remember it having this many rooms. But he tried every one. This was insane; he was sure he tried the kitchen at least twice and there was a new door ALSO leading to the same kitchen. Uncle Jeremy was a bit of a prankster but the ambition to turn his summer getaway into a funhouse of mystery was too ambitious for the balding bowler.
"JADE!" he called out. "JADE!"
No matter how many times he called her name he got no response. He then wondered if she was outside. Now he was on a mission to find a door that would lead him out of the house. That became a new series of a dozen doorways.
At long last, he made it outside.
In the distance, he could make out the shoreline and there was Jade wandering toward the lapping water.
"JADE!"
But she didn't turn around or acknowledge him in any way.
She just continued to walk and walk and walk.
Jade was waist deep into the water when Beck got a terrible feeling in his gut and he ran toward her.
The goth got deeper until she was to her shoulders.
"JADE!"
Up to her neck.
"JAAAAAAADE!"
It was never this long of a distance from the front door to the shore. He remembered but there it was.
Now his ankles were wet as he finally made it to the water.
Normally the surrounding lakes were crystal clear but this water was murky, dark. Like the water in the apartment building from that movie.
Jade disappeared beneath the surface and was gone.
Beck got to where he thought she was and frantically reached below and found nothing. No bubbles to indicate that she was struggling to breathe.
Not a thing.
He held his breath and dived underneath to look but he could barely make anything out beyond his nose. While underwater, he turned and there was Jade, beyond pale. She was devoid of all life, like there was no blood in her veins.
Then Jade's dead eyes snapped open and a screeching sound pierced Beck's ears.
But her mouth remained shut.
Beck sat up in his bed, pouring sweat.
(What the fuck?)
He reached for his phone, which was dying. After reaching for a charging cord and plugging it in, he noticed the screen was still on him and Tori's texts to each other.
The last thing Tori wrote was:
"Jade needs us."
Beck just stared at that sentence until he was overcome with sleepiness and surrendered.
A/N: That Peruvian woman who survived falling from a plane without a parachute(!) was Juliane Koepcke. I recommend Episode #419 of MORBID: A True Crime Podcast. The hosts cover that amazing story if you want an overview of the facts.