Chapter Five.
One week later, Cat had been discharged from hospital, fully recovered for now. She'd been diagnosed with bipolar and anorexia. It was the day for Beck and Tori's wedding and Jade was slipping into her dress.
"Jade!" Tori yelled.
"Yeah?"
"Can you pass me the concealer?" Jade rolled her eyes. Couldn't she get it herself? But she had to be nice to the bride, not just to be polite but to prove Andre wrong. She was not going to ruin this wedding.
"Sure, which one?"
"The second lightest, please." Jade handed her the concealer and turned to walk away when Tori whispered,
"Thanks, Jade. I mean for everything." She turned to face Tori and tilted her head slightly in confusion.
"What?"
"I'm sorry for taking Beck from you and I hope we can still be friends. Thanks for all you've done over the past couple of weeks. You've been very mature about the whole situation and you're...uh...you're..."
"I'm what?"
"You've changed. You're a friend. You are maturer in everything. Thank you."
"I'm sorry and thank you, Tori." Jade gritted her teeth, subtly. Tori opened her arms out wide and Jade gave her a hug, still gritting her teeth.
"Where's Cat and Trina?" Tori shrugged.
"Probably upstairs getting ready, they better hurry the car gets here in ten minutes." Jade began to walk up the stairs to get them when she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head, she'd been hit. The room starting spinning and fading, until it all went black...
"That should do it." Tori smiled. Jade was not going to go anywhere near Beck today. Not if she could help it. Now to move her into the closet before Cat and Trina come downstairs.
Two hours later, everyone was beginning to sit in their seats ready for the ceremony and the car was just arriving.
"Where's Jade?" Tori shook her head and smiled sadly.
"She said she couldn't come, it hurt her too badly." Cat scrunched her eyebrows together, that didn't sound like something Jade would say, especially to Tori but she went along with it. The music began to play and all the guests stood up in sync, glancing back to the door. Tori looked around, Beck was there but Andre wasn't. Oh well, less distractions. They walked down the aisle and just as Beck reached out to hold Tori's hand, the door burst open. In came Jade with her hand held to her head, holding a napkin pressed to her wound, Andre following her. Everyone looked back, expecting Jade to scream some pathetic tale against Vega, causing the wedding to stop and Beck to fall in love with her.
"Jade, are you alright?" He asked, sympathetically. She opened her mouth, ready to feed the entire story to the guests but stopped and just simply said,
"I'm fine, sorry I'm late I just banged my head and needed to go to A&E." She grinned at Tori, sarcastically and sat down next to Andre. He put her arm around her and she decided to let him keep it there. She leant her head on his shoulder and watched Beck marry her enemy but she no longer minded, she just wanted him to be happy.
Later on at the reception, they had arranged for a performance to be put on by Jade. She didn't know but she could do it. The beginning bar of "All Too Well" began to play and Jade gulped.
"I walked through the door with you
The air was cold but something 'bout it felt like home somehow and I
Left my scarf there at your sister's house
And you still got it in your drawer even now"
She carried on singing, despite the memories replaying in her brain. Beck was staring at her, the memories obviously hitting him too.
"Oh, your sweet disposition
And my wide-eyed gaze
We're singing in a car getting lost Upstate
The autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place
And I can picture it after all these days
And I know it's long gone, and that magic´s not here no more
And it might be okay, but I'm not fine at all"
Several tears began to drop down her cheeks silently, but she carried on, looking down to disguise it.
"Cause here we are again on that little town street
You almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me
Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well"
"Photo album on the counter
Your cheeks were turning red
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin-sized bed
And your mother's telling stories 'bout you on the t-ball team
You tell me about your past thinking your future was me"
She began to belt out the lyrics, they meant so much to her. She pressed her dress down and her knuckles turned white, gripping onto the microphone.
"And I know it's long gone, and there was nothing else I could do
And I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to"
"Cause here we are again in the middle of the night
We're dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light
Down the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well
Yeah"
The tears were flowing down her cheeks uncontrollably now and no matter how much she tried to deny it, she still loved Beck but he didn't love her.
"And maybe we got lost in translation
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece
´til you tore it all up
Running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well"
She was almost screaming the lyrics now and she couldn't help it.
"Hey you called me up again just to break me like a promise
So casually cruel in the name of being honest
I'm a crumbled up piece of paper lying here
Cause I remember it all all all too well"
Her voice dropped back to a whisper, almost raspy. She looked across at Beck and stared him in the eye, watching his every move until she saw a single tear slide down his cheek unexpectedly. Was she touching him?
"Time won't fly it's like I'm paralyzed by it
I´d like to be my old self again
But I'm still trying to find it
After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone
But you keep my old scarf from that very first week
Cause it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me
You can't get rid of it, cause you remember it all too well Yeah"
"Cause there we are again when I loved you so
Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well"
"Wind in my hair, you were there, you remember it all
Down the stairs, you were there, you remember it all
It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well"
The song finished and they were both crying their eyes out. She wanted to run over to him and hug him until the tears stopped falling. But she couldn't. He was married now. She walked off the stage and stood next to Andre.
"You alright?" Jade nodded, sniffling and wiping under her eyes.
"Want to dance?" She nodded again, taking his hand and dancing slowly around the room, along with many other couples.
"Switch couples!" The dj spoke smoothly, before I knew it I was holding onto Beck.
"Hi Jade, what happened?"
"When?" She looked down, embarrassed.
"You 'hit your head'?"
"You don't wanna know."
"I do." She shrugged, explaining how Tori had hit her over the head before placing her in the closet.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I believe you Jade." She raised her eyebrows in surprise. He believed her but why? She'd given him no reason to trust her in the past.
"You trust me?" He nodded. "I'm sorry, Beck."
"I should be the one apologising, I went out with Tori to hurt you and well..." He pointed at Tori, who was busy making out with Andre in the corner.
"I'm so sorry." Instinctively, she hugged him before pulling back. "Sorry. Habit."
"It's okay. I've missed you." She cracked a smile, which made Beck smile.
"You know when I was singing?"
"Yeah.."
"Why did you cry?" Beck looked her in the eyes.
"Because I missed you and all the memories, good and bad, came flooding back and I realised just how much I loved you and how I'd never be able to marry Tori and how I'd never be able to live without you."
"But you married Tor-"
"It was fake. Notice how we didn't need to sign anything?"
"So you're not married?" Beck shook his head. "You're not in love with Tori?" He shook his head. "You're single?" He crashed his lips against hers and she melted into his arms. She was finally home. Finally happy. Finally his.
THE END.