She sunk down onto the front steps of stairs, holding her head between her hands. They found their way into her hair, and buried her fingers into her soft, black, hair. She pulled tightly on her scalp, squeezing her eyes shut with the pain.

Justin sat next to her, letting their sides touch together. Heat radiated off of him, but she couldn't tell if it was because she was wearing such a tiny amount of clothing, or if it was because she still had feelings for him. She liked how she felt when he was around her, but not like she used to.

"Don't worry about him. I'll make sure he doesn't keep bothering you," Justin promised her.

"You don't need to do that." Jade said.

"But I will if it's going to make you happy," he said, turning towards her, "I just want to see you be happy."

Jade rolled her eyes and looked at him, resting her chin on her knees. He had a cheesey smile across his face, showing off his dimples. She smiled a little.

"There we go!" He laughed, grabbing her cheeks and pinching them playfully.

"Stop it!" She ordered though a giggle. She locked eyes with him and he stopped. His eyes turned from playful to intense in a matter of seconds. They were deep, and loving, if she saw correctly.

He started to lean in again, "Where were we...?"

Jade couldn't respond before his lips were gently pressing against her own, with barely any force behind it. Nothing like a kiss Beck would have given her, especially when she was upset. Their lips didn't stay connected for long, as Jade pulled away and stared at the door, giving him no hints to her feelings towards him. If that kiss didn't say anything to her senses, she was an idiot.

"I think you might want to go..." Jade trailed off.

Justin was mad. He left without saying a word, and slammed the door behind him on his way out, causing Molly to growl and bark at him though the front window as he left. Jade knew she had hurt him.

For the second time that night, she began to cry...

This was the first day since her beginning year, that Jade was actually nervous about going to school. Dreading it, actually. The back of her mind was telling her to stay home, or this was going to be a horrible day. She would have to sit through all of the girls obsessing over her boyfriend... ex-boyfriend, that is.

She bit her bottom lip as she finished the final touches on her outfit. Her shirt was a simple, gray, crop top that showed off her flat stomach, and a pair of tight fitting, black, skinny jeans. She was debating on wearing her favorite sneakers, or her new black pumps. Her heart said she needed to be the center of Beck's attention, so she opted for the pumps, knowing the hotter she looked, the better she'd feel about all of this.

As she walked down the stairs, her phone started to vibrate. It was a text from Cat: "Tell me when you get here. I need details, missy."

Jade smirked a little. She hadn't realized she skipped over her best friend in the information category. She told Cat everything that happened in her life, because as weird as it seemed to Jade, the girl never got tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. It made her feel happy that she had someone who wouldn't get tired of her, that wasn't a guy.

"I'm leaving my house now. I'll see you soon," she replied quickly. She patted Molly on the head as she left, knowing her mother was still asleep. There was no need to wake her up.

It wasn't long before Jade arrived at school. A good fifteen minutes before the bell, so she was going to have plenty of time to talk to Cat about her break up. She cringed at the thought. It still hurt to tell herself that Beck was no longer her's. She still had the feeling of her eyes welling up with tears as she pulled into the closest parking spot she found.

She let out a deep breath and her eyes closed. "You're going to be fine," she whispered to herself.

Then someone knocked on her passenger side window. It scared her, and she let out a small scream. Her eyes found Cat's as she leaned over and peered in the window. She had her normal dazed expression on, but there was a slight eager look about her.

Jade's hand pressed the unlock button, and Cat slid in. Her door wasn't even closed before she started asking questions, "Are you okay? What happened? Did Beck do it or did you do it? Oh my God. What happened?"

"I'm fine..." Jade lied, looking down at her finger nails, picking at the black paint.

"Nope. You're just a liar," Cat said. "Now, spill. I need to know if we hate Beck."

"Oh yeah, we hate Beck," Jade said, repositioning herself to face Cat. She explained everything that happened, even adding the parts with Justin to get her every detail. Her mind found comfort in Cat. The girl had never let a secret spill, even though she was often clumsy with words, and she gave amazing advice on any subject Jade had a problem with.

She looked at Cat like this: she was common sense smart, but not so much book smart.

"Do you still have feelings for Justin?" Cat asked cautiously.

"I don't know. I don't even want to think about my relationship status with anyone," Jade said in a quiet tone, "I'm too busy trying to not think about Beck. As of right now, Justin is just in the friend zone."

Cat giggled, "Justin is Just-In. Hahaha, it's funny. But I think you need to talk to Beck."

"Why?" Jade asked wide eyed.

"Because you never really got to hear his side of the story, just what you saw."

"Sorry, but seeing a girl on top of my almost shirtless boyfriend in a lip lock kind of seals the deal for me," Jade retorted with attitude.

"But what if she really did kiss him first, and he just didn't know what was going on until you walked in. I mean, that's happened to people before," she gently pressed on the subject.

"Stop being logical, I'm mad at him," Jade wined. Cat was too good at making sense of situations Jade already planned out.

"Just talk to him," Cat said as the bell rang in the background.

Jade rolled her eyes as they both got out of her car. They continued arguing back and forth until they got into the building when Cat decided to let Jade continue to be stubborn. They parted when the minute bell rang, Jade going on her way to English, and Cat on her way to her Stage Costume class...

Cat was roaming through the upper levels of the school on her way to class. She was late, as usual. Today would be a little different though.

As she got to the final corner of the hallway, she overheard two different voices discussing something involving her best friend.

"I can't fucking believe this," a girl stated. It was a voice that Cat couldn't recognize yet, meaning it was probably someone she hadn't talked to before.

"Stop getting mad at me. I've almost got her back," a boy said.

"Got her back? You probably just crushed her life into little pieces!" The girl yelled, and was instantly shushed.

"I'm going to fix it though," he defended. The voice had to have belonged to Justin.

"No you won't. She's not the same girl you used to know, Justin. You're being stupid."

"Lily, you just don't see it like I do," he said. "She's still Jade. She won't ever change."

"She's already changed! Beck is the total opposite of you, idiot. She was perfectly happy, then you had to go and do this stupid plan with that bitchy girl-"

"Tori. Her name's Tori."

"What the fuck ever! You're ruining Jade's life, and you know it. Stop being such a douche bag."

"Would you stop calling me names? Fuck."

"No. Not until you fix it. I still care about Jade, and you shouldn't keep trying to get her back if she already got over you."

"She's not over me..." he trailed off, talking more to himself than to her. "She kissed me back."

Cat let out a mini-gasp. Jade had left out that part in her details this morning.

"It's a reflex, Justin. She's over you, and you need to accept that. She was happy with this guy, and if there was anything you've ever learned about Jade, you should know that she's a stubborn, hard headed, girl with an attitude. Do you really think she's going to let him back into her heart now? He was her world, and you just forced her to fly off into space!"

"That made almost no sense, Lily." He said after a minute of thought. "I don't care what you say though. You're not in my shoes. You don't love someone who doesn't love you back."

"Because I'm not an idiot. I know how to get over people, unlike you."

"This doesn't make me an idiot. It makes me human," he said.

That was the last thing Cat heard before footsteps started to walk down the hallway towards her. She almost panicked, but remembered to stay cool about it, before she walked towards the footsteps. They belonged to Justin, who paid no mind to the red head.

Lily stood with her back against the locker, deep in thought. Cat took the initial action, "Hi hi."

It knocked the girl out of her trance, "Um... hey?"

"I'm Cat, one of Jade's friends, and you're Lily." She said in a cheerful tone.

"That I am..." she was nervous, "nice to meet you, but I've gotta-"

"I heard it." Cat blurted out. Lily's eyes shot to her, "The conversation, that is."

Lily looked down, "Yeah. I'm sure you already know the other details."

"I do. Jade caught Beck and Tori kissing, Jade dumped Beck, Jade had a talk with Justin, Justin and Beck almost fought, all of that other stuff, but I have a feeling you know something more," Cat said, doing her little lean with her hands crossed in front of her.

"Jade needs to know this, too." Lily said, pushing herself off the lockers. "I might as well tell you together."

She took out her phone and texted away, telling Cat exactly what she was saying, "Met Cat. Need to talk. Cut out of class. Meet up the stairs."

"But do you really think she'll-"

Lily cut Cat off before she could ask, "I'm pretty sure Jade's still able to pull off that fake sick routine pretty well. She should be here in no time."

Sure enough, a minute or two later, Jade was walking up the stairs and into Cat's view. She waved quickly with her happy expression, "Hi hi."

"Hey, Cat. Why was I talked out of staying in class?" Jade asked, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow at the two new friends.

"I need to tell you something, that's probably gonna piss you off. At least finding it out would piss me off..." Lily said to herself, "Anyway, Justin told me that he made friends with that girl, Tori."

Jade's jaw tightened and her eyes turned into daggers, "he's what?"

Lily moved cautiously closer to Cat, who was hardly paying attention. Lily kept talking, "he's friends with Tori, but that's not all. He kind of had this plan, to get you and Beck to break up so he could have another chance at being with you, because he still 'loves' you." She used air quotes to surround the word love.

"Why'd you go..." Cat mimicked her fingers, "'love'?"

"Because I really don't think he loves Jade anymore. I think he loves the idea of her, and how she used to be," Lily said before she changed her gaze to Jade, "you really have changed since you've been here, and obviously it's been for the better. I'm not going to let Justin ruin your life. You were happy with Beck, and I saw that."

It gave Jade a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach to hear Lily talk like that. She wasn't one for sentimental words, but she did have her moments. They always tended to impact Jade's life a little more every time she heard them.

"Anyway, what'd he do that was so horrible?" Cat asked.

"Tori came up with this idea to have her kiss Beck, regardless of if you saw or not, because it would make you break up with him, then both of you would be single. She would get Beck, you would get Justin as a rebound," Lily explained to them. "I would have stopped it if I knew before hand, and I didn't. He literally just told me when Cat over heard."

"So it was all a set up?" Jade asked for clarification. Lily nodded her head.

"Why would he do that!" Cat yelled, getting shushed by Jade and Lily. She must have forgot that they were in a hallway in the middle of class.

"Because they wanted to break us up," Jade said. This was the last straw in the dispenser. Her hate list just added two new members.

"I don't like that look you're giving off there, Mrs. Radical Thinker," Lily warned. "I know that much hasn't changed."

"Just wait for lunch," Jade said as she let out a breath. "People are gonna get what they deserve."