"Jade...?" the man said in disbelief. He squinted to make sure he wasn't just on some weird trip again. It happened before, and he could have sworn she was real every time. He snapped his fingers in front of his face, sticking them between his view of her and his eyes. When she didn't disappear, he knew she was actually there.

He dropped the spray can on the floor and rushed to her, with Lily following right behind him. His arms dropped down and her arms flew up. Even after all this time, they still had their hugs down to a science. She took over the shoulders, and he went under her arms, lifting her up slightly as she buried her face in his shoulder.

Jade's heart was rushing faster than any other part of her body could manage. She talked herself into thinking that she was never going to see these two again, and now they were standing right in front of her, "Lily... Justin... I can't believe you're here."

When Lily hugged her, she couldn't help but get tears in her eyes. She held on tight to the little blonde girl who was still about an inch or two shorter than her.

Lily pulled away from the hug with a tear running down her cheek, but she quickly pulled down her black sleeve and covered her hand before wiping the tear away and sending Jade a smile. Justin was the same way, without the tears. He was just happy.

His heart felt like it was smiling, unlike it was for the past two years without her. Jade was his everything; everything that made him happy, everything that made his days better, everything that sparked his interest. He had never found any girl close to her, and he knew in his soul he never would again.

"So this is where you disappeared to?" Lily asked, remembering how her best friend had left both of them alone and in such a rush she couldn't even spare them a single goodbye.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you... it was just easier this way..." Jade tried to explain, but her words wouldn't come out the way she wanted them to. It was all just a babble of chaos in her mind, but in reality it just wasn't coming out.

"Easier? You left us with nothing, not even a note or a fucking smoke signal," Lily said. This was why Jade and Lily had become so close. She was a bowl of sarcasm and Jade was the mean milk and the frosted bitch cereal.

"Don't you pull that shit on me," Jade said pointing her finger at the girl, "You know exactly what I'm talking about. Like you wouldn't have done the same thing."

Lily rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, sending her gaze to Justin. Jade smirked in triumph. This always happened when Lily knew she was wrong.

"I know she would have," Justin said as he pushed his side into Lily's, sending her off balance. "Why wouldn't you at least tell us where you were going after you moved? Or just told us that you were leaving, but not tell us where?"

"I don't know, okay? It just seemed easier this way," Jade said. "But it's the past, and now you're here, so it doesn't matter. Now what are you doing here?"

"We got transferred here," Justin started, "Lily got in for her art work, and I got in for my writing."

"Congrats to both of you," Jade said when she was at a loss for words. Lily had always been amazing at art, but Justin caught her off guard when he mentioned his writing. Jade hadn't seen anything he wrote before. "I didn't know you could write..."

"There's still a lot you don't know about me," Justin said with a smirk.

"We were just about to ditch... wanna join?" Lily said, digging into her pocket and pulling out a little bag of green, and putting on a sinister smile.

"Um... I haven't really smoked in a while..." Jade said. For a while was exactly one year and eleven months ago, the day she started dating Beck.

Beck. Her feeling of absolute rage came back into play.

"Fuck it. My car's out in the parking lot..."

Beck spent the rest of the day with his phone in his hand and his necklace in his mouth, chewing on the leather strap. He was worried about his girlfriend. Jade was always in a bad mood when he didn't return her phone calls or text messages, and she always wanted to talk to him. Now she wasn't returning anything he sent.

"Hey," Andre whispered as their vocal teacher droned on about scales in the background, "Anything?"

"Not yet..." Beck said as the bell rang. Luckily, he didn't have another class in the day, so he was free to check on the ever missing Jade. He was almost positive she would be at her house, either writing or sleeping... unless she was plotting against the world. That was something that he really didn't want to get into. "Wanna go with me to check on her?"

"Yeah, man. I've got Creative Writing next and it just isn't as fun when Jade's not giving back the harsh and sarcastic criticism," Andre said, "Besides... I should probably apologize."

"You didn't do anything wrong, man. It's just how Jade is," Beck said as they walked out of the classroom together.

"Yeah, but even after all the times I've spent cooling her down, I still feel like it's the first time."

Andre wasn't one for confrontation, but being one of Jade's closest friends caused him to see or fend off an argument almost twice a week. Just last week, he had to fend her off against Jessica for the third time in a month. The girl had sent Beck a text message while he was in the shower, and Jade picked up the phone for him. That was all it took The next morning, Jade was ripping everything out of Jessica's locker and either ripping it or sending it to the nearest trashcan while screaming obscenities at the helpless girl.

It was never boring with Jade around...

They arrived at Jade's house in minutes. Beck almost missed the driveway as he pulled in.

"Man, could you have driven any faster?" Andre asked after he got out of the car. He grabbed his chest like he was having a heart attack.

Beck had already started walking up the pathway that lead to her front door, ignoring the rhetorical question completely. His hand landed on the doorbell, ringing it twice. He really, really hoped that she was home and it wasn't her mother or father. Her dad still intimidated him to the bone. The talk that man had given him when they went out on their first day was all too memorable:

"Jade is first and foremost, my pride and joy. I always wanted a daughter, and it was sheer luck that I was blessed with one after my wife had our son, Kendall. The doctors even told us that she was going to be a boy, and they were obviously wrong, thank God. But, you will be careful with her heart. She isn't the type to get attached very easily, but when she does, it's her putting her entire being into it. If you hurt her, I swear to every God in the Universe, so help me, you'll wake up with your body on a cutting board and be served as the night's special. Got it?"

Although he was almost positive he was on her father's good side, it still gave Beck the shivers to replay it in his memory, even after all this time.

The door finally opened, but it wasn't any member of the West clan who opened it.

"Who the fuck are you?" Beck asked in shock.

A guy that was a little taller than he was stood in the entryway. Maybe if he had a shirt on, things would have been a little better looking. His eyes were an intense shade of green due to the cloudy redness that took over the white surrounding it. He was attractive, but in the back of Beck's mind, his ego was trying to tell him otherwise.

"Woah, bro. No need to be hostile," the guy said with a smile. There was a slight slur in his voice, "Jade, someone's here for you!"

She was just as shocked as Beck was when she came to the door, but not for the same reason, "What are you doing here?"

"We came looking for you after you disappeared during first hour," Beck said, looking all too seriously.

"Wasn't that like, four hours ago?" the guy said.

Jade rolled her eyes, "Just... go inside, Justin. Help Lily find whatever she's looking for."

He shrugged his shoulders and sent a wink towards Beck. Justin disappeared behind Jade in a flash, calling out to Lily in a funny old man accent, "I'll help you find tha butta!"

Jade stepped out of the house and closed the door behind her as pans crashed down to the floor from the Kitchen. She bit her bottom lip and winced. Her father was not going to be happy, but she should have known better than to leave those two alone while stoned.

"Who the fuck are they?" Beck almost yelled. His voice was still too loud, and he earned a strange glare from the two older ladies that walked down the sidewalk in front of her house.

"Remember how I told both of you about my two best friends in Calabasas?" Andre and Beck nodded, "That would be them."

"Jade, that's Justin?" Andre asked wide eyed, "he's hot. You got taste girl."

Beck glared at him.

"I'm gonna go wait in the car..."

He left the couple to work out their problems by themselves. Beck started to talk again, "Why was he shirtless in your house?"

"Because every time he smokes or does some form of drugs, he loses track of his shirt. I don't know how he does it," Jade said with a little smile. "It's not a big deal."

"Yeah. Sure." Beck said, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn't the type to get mad, but Jade seemed to bring out the worst of him at times. "I'm supposed to be comfortable with this."

"Why wouldn't you be?" Jade asked. "Oh, I forgot. You just started to not trust me. How awesome."

"I do trust you, I just don't trust him," Beck said, waving his hand at the door.

"You don't know him like I do. He knows we're dating, and he respects that."

"Sure he does. Didn't he love you? He probably still does." He muttered the last part to himself so she couldn't hear.

"So? He doesn't still have feelings for me," Jade stated. "Even if he did, I don't give a fuck. I don't want to be with him, I want to be with you. That's why I'm with you instead of him."

"Yeah, that's why you're going against what I asked you not to do. I love how it's such a double standard. I listen to everything you say, tell you everything about my life, but you're allowed to hide things about yourself. It's the greatest shit ever," Beck said, turning to leave down her front steps.

"I'm not doing anything wrong! This is like I invited Cat and Andre over. They're just two of my friends I haven't seen in forever and-"

"That's not what I'm talking about! Besides, I trust Cat because she's the purest girl I've ever met, and Andre would never do anything to hurt either one of us. He's like a giant bear. What I'm talking about, is the fact that you reek of pot," Beck said. "You know how I fucking feel about that shit."

"I didn't smoke any!"

"Yeah, sure. That's believable when you have two people in your house who seemed to be stoned as fuck," Beck huffed.

"That's because I let them smoke, but I stayed out of the loop. I didn't want to because I knew how you felt about that, and I respect you, but obviously you don't trust me enough to believe me, even though I've never done anything wrong," Jade retorted. It was true. She never went against what Beck had asked her too. She was more than loyal when he asked, but he hardly ever did. She was more demanding, more controlling, and he knew that about her. They had a mutual understanding, and she wouldn't think about jeopardizing anything they had.

"Sure..." Beck was still unconvinced.

"You know what..." Jade said with an aggravated smile that showed just how frustrated she really was. She was fighting back every threat and curse that flowed through her head. "I'm going back inside. You keep not trusting me. I don't give a fuck."

Before he could say anything, she was back in the house. He heard the sound of the lock twisting and sliding into place. A part of him was glad. All of his comeback wouldn't have made anything better, even if he had some on his tongue.

He turned and stomped away from her house and over to his car. Andre was standing outside, watching the entire thing unfold from the other side of the car. He locked eyes with Beck and knew it was better not to say anything.

They both got in the car, saying nothing, and Beck took Andre home before going back to his own house...

Jade had her back against the door as soon as she locked it. Her eyes were closed as she repeated the same thing over and over in her head.

Don't cry. Don't you fucking cry, Jade. You're better than that.

Every time they fought, it scared Jade to death. In reality, she knew it was mainly her fault. She was insecure about so many things in their past. How he would flirt with random girls, just so she would get jealous and prove she still had feelings for him. How he was push her buttons, just to get a reaction.

She was scared that he was going to get tired of her bullshit orders, and her manipulative nature. He was the first person who could actually put up with who she was for more than a few months, and on top of that, he was the first person she didn't get annoyed by within a few days. Justin had a way of bothering her, and maybe that was the reason she didn't want to be officially his... it was all different with Beck.

The bottom line: Beck was Jade's. No matter what they went through, what they were going to go through, no matter what anyone said. They were meant to be.

"Are you okay?" Justin asked, coming back into the hallway.

She wiped away at her eyes. She couldn't tell if she was crying or not, but she felt like she was. This was just a precaution, "I'm fine."

"No you're not. I know you better than that," he said, moving so he was next to her. He let their arms touch, and he looked at her like he always used to.

For a second, it made her heart beat quicken up, but she quickly ignored it. It wasn't the way Beck could make her feel. That meant it wasn't right.

"I just know what's going to happen now. Beck and I are both going to have a stand off and see who could possibly be more stubborn, so I could go days without an apology. It's annoying," Jade said.

"Well, at least you have me and Lily," another bang came from the Kitchen, "or at least you have me. I'm always gonna be here for you, because guess what. I still love you."

Those words shocked her to the core. He walked away after sending her a wink and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Fuck my life..." Jade stated before following him.