Players & Thieves
Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious or its related characters
Chapter 1
Jade had only been in New York for a couple of weeks but already this quaint coffee shop near campus felt like home. She had just started her first semester at Tisch and was eager to find a nice cafe nearby where she could unwind and enjoy some great coffee. Luckily she found this place two minutes away, on Mercer Street, which usually wasn't too crowded. Today it was practically desolate.
She had arrived earlier than usual to meet up with Scott, from her script writing class, to go over some last minute details before they turned in their first rough draft assignment.
He was a good looking blonde with bright blue eyes and crazy writing skills. If his personality wasn't so chipper and annoying she may have considered taking him up on his previous offer of a date. But alas, the boy was just too bubbly for Jade's taste.
After a quick scan of the small cafe, she concluded that he hadn't yet arrived. She went to place her usual coffee order and made her way to her favorite spot in a corner at the back of the cafe, next to a window.
She was half way there when she noticed a slender, tan skinned guy with long, fluffy, dark brown hair that stopped just below his chin. He was sitting in her spot, engrossed in a book, and looking like he just walked out of the Victorian era.
He was wearing a perfect fit light grey vest with matching pants, a white undershirt and a dark blue tie. He was sitting with his legs crossed showcasing his beige dress shoes as he sipped his cup of coffee using only two fingers. Honestly the only thing missing from his ensemble was a top hat.
Any other day, Jade would find this somewhat comical but with him sitting in her seat, she's nothing but annoyed. So without giving it much thought, she finds herself marching up to the table and glaring down at him.
"Excuse me?" she asks as nicely as possible, desperately trying to keep her annoyance from dripping into her tone. The guy, however, is still too enraptured in his book to notice her presence.
"Excuse me?" she says again a little bit louder.
He just turns a page in his book and continues reading. By now Jade's blood has started to boil because if there is one thing she hates, and she hates many things, it's being ignored.
"DUDE!" she all but screeches as his head finally shoots up to look at her.
It's the first time Jade has gotten a full view of his face and she finds herself taken aback as she mulls over his features.
His skin is practically flawless, with early signs of stubble coming in around his chin and upper lip. His lips are a nice moist shade of pink, and his eyes are a deep, penetrating shade of brown. His long dark brown hair rests perfectly around the outline of his face and works to accentuate his features, as if that were possible.
To put it plainly the boy was downright gorgeous. So much so that Jade had lost her train of thought and with it, her anger.
She just stared at him as she watched his face go from surprise, to confusion, to something resembling amusement.
"Hi" he says softly in a voice that's not as deep as Jade thought it would be but still just as sexy.
"Hi" she manages to get out in a faint whisper that sounds nothing like her.
His face breaks into a smile that makes Jade's heart beat faster than it already was.
Her anger starts to return, but now she's more angry at herself for acting like an idiot. It's not like she hasn't see a hot guy before. She's from LA after all and there is no shortage of eye candy there. Yet here she is behaving like a giddy school girl.
She mentally admonishes herself for her uncharacteristic stupidity, and furtively takes a deep breath to regain her composure
"You're in my seat" she says finally in a steady tone
"Am I? I wasn't aware there was assigned seating" he says still grinning
Jade suddenly wishes she thought this through more thoroughly
"Uh well I usually sit there" she says somewhat acerbically
"Do you? Well you're certainly welcome to join me." He says this in a way that Jade is sure would make the average girl melt.
"I don't know you" she spits snarkily
"Well, let's fix that" he says as he gestures to the seat across from him
There's a confident smirk etched on his face and Jade can tell he's probably used to getting what he wants. Used to women falling at his feet, jumping at the chance to keep him company. He's just the type of guy she can't stand so she decides right then that she hates him.
"I'm already meeting someone" she answers flippantly
He just stares at her for what seems like forever, only briefly breaking eye contact so his eyes can roam the length of her body. Jade notices this and is far from pleased.
"Your boyfriend?" he finally asks
"Maybe...Not that it's any of your business" she's answers back in a biting tone
His smirk widens and Jade is seriously starting to get annoyed
"I'm Beck by the way. Beck Oliver"
"Congratulations! Now about the seat, how much longer do you think you'll be sitting here?"
For a while he doesn't answer, he just stares. It's an intense, infiltrating stare. It's almost like he's trying to extract more information about her through her eyes. And oddly enough Jade feels exposed. Yet, for some reason, she doesn't look away. She just stares back.
And so they stare at each other until he finally breaks the silence
"You're very pretty" he states candidly, completely ignoring her previous question.
Jade shifts uncomfortably as she is momentarily thrown off by his frankness. She's heard this before of course. Her number of male suitors has never been particularly scarce, but she still finds the sincerity in his tone a bit unsettling.
She's certain he's said this to many different girls, probably just this morning, but strangely she can't detect any guile in his voice. It seems as though he's simply just stating something he believes to be fact instead of intentionally wiling her with words he'd expect she'd want to hear.
But she knows better. She knows a player when she sees one. She's had enough dealings with his kind in the past to understand the game he's playing and she's definitely not interested in becoming another tally on his presumably long list of conquests.
She does want him to move though, but he seems a bit preoccupied in his ogling and Jade is sure his thoughts are anything but appropriate. Suddenly, a smirk forms on her face as an idea pops in her head.
"So you think I'm pretty?" she asks slyly
"Absolutely" he responds without hesitation
"You live around here?" she asks quickly
He raises his eyebrows at this and pauses before responding
"Yeah, I do" he says slowly
"Then let's get out of here" she says in an enticing voice
His eyebrows furrow as he goes back to studying her face, once again trying to find the truth behind her eyes. Jade's alluring expression however, remains unchanged.
After a while his face breaks out into a full on smile that just might be the sexiest thing Jade has seen in a long time.
"You're not going to tell me your name first?" he asks. His smile never wavering
Jade leans down over the table to place her palm on his forearm and whisper in his ear.
"You have to earn it" she says as her lips graze the top of his right ear.
His skin is comfortably warm, contrasting against the icy cold that is hers and his smell is intoxicating.
She pulls away, standing upright again. She gazes down into his eyes that are now noticeably glossed over and smirks as she watches him slowly close his book and round up his belongings. He snags his grey tail coat off the back of the chair before he finally stands up, his eyes never leaving hers.
Jade takes a minute to catch her breath at the sight of him standing over her.
"After you" she says once her breathing has been regulated.
He takes a few steps around her and she immediately plops down in the seat he just vacated and puts her feet in the seat across from her, blocking him from sitting down.
She starts to laugh wickedly and it's only exacerbated when she looks up and sees his facial expression.
"Oh my gosh!" she manages to get out between her cackles "I honestly can't believe you fell for that!"
Mirthful tears threaten to spill from her eyes and Beck begins to clap slowly as his exasperated expression starts to fade.
"That was good. I'm impressed" he says as he starts to chuckle as well
"Seriously how often does that happen?" she asks starting to calm down a bit
"You mean random, beautiful women begging me to take them home? More often than you might think" he responds
"Hmm I can only imagine! Thanks for keeping the seat warm though. How very thoughtful of you" she says sarcastically
"I'm a very thoughtful guy" he remarks as his dashing smile returns
"Yeah I bet! Now if you'll excuse me, like I said, I'm meeting someone" she says with a satisfied smirk
"Right of course. Are you doing anything this weekend?" he asks seriously
Jade's facial expression is a mixture between confusion and incredulity.
"I'm...I'm sorry I thought that me leading you to believe that I wanted to hook up with you, and then laughing obnoxiously in your face at the mere thought of it, would have convinced you that I wasn't interested but...apparently it did not."
His smile is so big, Jade wonders if he might break his face.
"Pretty and feisty..." he starts to say as his look turns smoldering. "I like it."
His voice is barely above a whisper and Jade finds herself having to mentally shoo away some inappropriate thoughts as she moves to take a sip of her coffee.
Just then she sees Scott approaching out of the corner of her eye.
"There you are!" he greets with a big smile "Sorry I'm late. I was going to take the bus but it was such a nice morning I decided to walk instead."
Jade struggles to keep from rolling her eyes; the boy is way too happy this early in the morning
"Scott? Scott Brooks?" Beck asks barely holding back a laugh
"Well if it isn't Beck 'Pretty Boy' Oliver. How's it going man?" Scott greets with a chuckle
The boys exchange what Jade supposes is a bro hug and a few more familiar pleasantries, much to her disgust
"Wait..." Jade starts to say, somewhat confused "You two know each other?"
Scott was old fashioned, respectful, and an all-around nice guy. Jade couldn't imagine why he'd be friends with an egotistical womanizer like this Beck character
"Yeah we went to high school together here in New York. Ultimate ladies man right here" he says with a smile as he pats Beck on the shoulder. "If you ever have any relationship problems, this is the guy to see, he helped me out a lot with my ex"
Jade scoffs as Beck gives a flattered shrug
"How is Megan by the way?" Beck asks
"No clue. I broke off all contact after she slashed my tires. Last I heard she's out on parole and with child. I don't know if I ever thanked you for helping me dodge that bullet" he says with a laugh
"Don't mention it" Beck says returning the laugh
Jade was struggling to hold back some laughter of her own. She made a mental note to get details later. Now, however, she wanted nothing more than for this Beck guy to leave so they could finish their assignment.
Unfortunately, much to her annoyance, they just kept chatting away like she wasn't even there.
She was on the verge of telling the fool to get lost when they starting talking about how much they hated one of her math professors
"Hold up..." Jade interrupts again as she addresses Beck, "You go to Tisch?"
"Of course! Ol' Beck here is already one of Tisch's premier actors. He even has Professor Grant asking about his Oscar speech!" Scott beams
Jade's brows quirk at this. She had been trying to garner Professor Grant's attention the moment she'd arrived. He was one of the more reputable drama professors in the faculty and notorious for being a hard ass. If he even looked in your direction it was considered an accomplishment; him actually complementing a student's acting skills was practically unheard of.
Jade's face contorts into a pout. Knowing that this Beck fool had already sparked the professor's interest before her, only served to increase her dislike for the "pretty boy" more. She is the competitive type after all.
"He was just being nice" Beck chuckles out "I actually have class with him later this morning. It's dress rehearsal for his new play"
Jade winces at his mention of the play. It's a star crossed love story centered in the 1800s that she too had auditioned for. She had lost the lead however to this annoying brunette named Terri or Tori or whatever the hell her name was. Her anger over losing the part has since simmered down, but not before half of the negligible items in her dorm room met up with her trusty scissors.
"So I guess that explains how ridiculous you look", Jade remarks scathingly to Beck, and she is met with another one of his smoldering stares.
"Jade is quite the actress herself, not to mention an amazing writer" Scott cuts in with an innocent wink
Jade shoots him a death glare for revealing her name and Scott takes a step back in fearful confusion
"So it's Jade? How suitable of a name" Beck coos at her and Jade finds herself giving the biggest eye roll of her life
"So you are an actress? That explains your ease in manipulation" he says, throwing some of her words back at her
The staring contest resumes. Scott's eyes flit uncomfortably between the two of them as the tension in the atmosphere grows
"I didn't know you two knew each other" Scott utters to break the awkward silence
"We don't" Jade says quickly
"Not yet, anyway" Beck adds
"Not ever, actually" The bite in her tone is practically tangible
Their eyes had remained locked throughout the exchange and if Scott didn't feel uncomfortable before he definitely was now
"Ok well I'm going to go get some coffee while you two finish... doing whatever it is that you're doing..." He says awkwardly before walking away. Beck and Jade hardly notice however.
"A friend of mine is throwing a party at his apartment in Soho this weekend. You should come" Beck says
Jade lets out a snort. "For what? To hang out with a barrage of drunken, pestilent, idiots while they engage in lascivious activities? No thank you!"
"It's not that kind of party Virginia Woolf! It's upscale and sophisticated. "
"I'll pass; I'm not one for parties. Besides, I already don't like you, what makes you think I'd like your friends?"
Jade breaks eye contact to get out her class materials
"Some important people are expected to be in attendance. Maybe playwrights, film execs, Professor Grant..." Beck adds.
A devilish grin appears on his face when jade's head shoots up.
"I thought that might get your attention. I saw how you responded when Scott mentioned him. But trust me; he's trivial in comparison to the others that might show up"
"Might?" Jade counters
"Will" he says with confidence
"You don't know me. You don't know if I have any talent or if I'm just some crazed, bohemian wannabe. Why invite me to a party that's as prestigious as you say? Is sleeping with me that important to you?" Jade asks curiously
"Who said anything about sleeping?" he says with a straight face and soft voice
Jade fights off a blush as she tries to keep her thoughts in order.
"Scott thinks you're talented and he's pretty trustworthy. Plus you completely duped me earlier; in impressive fashion might I add."
Jade can't help but to return his smirk
"Look, I bet you anyone else at Tisch would die for this opportunity! You should take it" Beck pushes
"I'm not going to screw my way to the top! If...scratch that, WHEN I get there, it's going to be because I'm damn good" Jade states confidently
Beck's face breaks out into another huge smile
"Ok look, do I find you attractive? Definitely! Do I want to sleep with you? If I'm honest, Yes very much so! But if I'm really honest, I do see some potential in you and regardless of your first impression, I really am a thoughtful guy. Forget about me for a second and think about your future"
"Right, quick question! How many other girls have you invited to this party using that exact same line?"
Beck just laughs as he runs a hand through his hair.
"I have to get to class" he chuckles out as he pulls out a pen and small pad to scribble on
"Oh I bet you do!" Jade says sarcastically
Scott returns to sit down with a large cup of coffee just as Beck finishes writing.
"Here's the address to his place and my number. Just come, you won't be disappointed" He says as he slips Jade the piece of paper
"I have to get out of here but Scott, it's always a pleasure my friend!"
"You too Beck, see you soon my man"
The two shake hands before Beck turns to leave.
"Oh and Jade?" He starts to say as he turns back around "I'll be seeing you"
He gives one last smile and wink before walking away. And as much as Jade hates him, even she can't deny how good his butt looks walking away in those pants.
"So... You and Beck huh?" Scott asks sheepishly
"No, just me" is all she says
The statement brings a smile to Scott's face before they both shift their focus to their assignment. Every so often, however, she catches herself glancing at the piece of paper Beck left, the word "opportunity" steadily ringing in her head.
Author's Note: Oh Dear! What was that? Lol thank you to everyone one who made it to the end of this chapter because I felt like it was really long! This will be my first multichapter installment so I hope you enjoy it! I haven't decided whether or not to include all the original characters but I'll think about it. Please feel free to give me some feedback, reviews are greatly appreciated. Also, a big thank you to those of you who read and reviewed my first fanfic "I Know You". Your reviews were very kind and made me smile. Go check it out if you haven't yet! Thanks again! :-)