"Jade! I'm…" Beck yelled as he chased Jade out of the janitor's closet.
"NO! Don't you 'Jade' me! I can't believe you ditched me for that!" Jade interrupted before she continued storming through the hall.
Beck knew it was best not to run after her anymore. Once she was mad, there was no telling what she might do, but Jade wasn't mad. She was infuriated. She even took out her anger on Sinjin, who greeted her as she stomped to her next class, by shoving him out of the way so intensely, that he hit his head on the vending machine and fell to the floor.
At the end of the day, Jade was still really irritated, just as she felt she had every right to be. Beck came around the corner from his last class, and quickly rushed to Jade's locker where she was getting everything she needed for her homework. Just as she noticed him getting closer to her, she threw the last of her notebooks into her bag, slammed her locker shut, and began to walk out of the building.
"Jade, wait!" Beck shouted as he followed her into the Hollywood Arts parking lot.
"Leave me alone!" Jade yelled back at him.
"We need to talk about this. You can't avoid me forever!" Beck argued still continuing to chase after her.
Jade ignored him as she threw her bag into her car and slammed the door shut after she got in. Beck kept knocking on the window and rambling on about how they needed to talk things over, but Jade couldn't hear since she had music blaring to drown him out. Beck noticed she wasn't listening, and she was even putting her car into reverse and was about to back out over his feet, so he jumped back away from the car.
Jade zoomed all the way home, and angrily stomped up the stairs all the way into her room. She took her phone out of her back pocket and saw that Beck had sent her five texts and called her twice. She threw her phone on her bed just before flopping alongside it and taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. She couldn't believe what Beck did on Friday. She let out a big sigh and opened her eyes just as hundreds of thoughts were running through her mind at once. She was so overwhelmed, and she didn't know what she should do. Beck made her so mad sometimes, but she loved him more than anyone else—yes, even more than her own family members—so she knew it would be really hard to stay mad at him for a long period of time.
Beck was so frustrated. He knew Jade would be upset. That's why he had tried to put off telling her as long as possible. He paced the floor of his RV debating if he should text her one more time, call her again, or if the fact that she hadn't replied to him at all meant he should leave her alone for the rest of the day.
…
The next morning, Cat approached an angry looking Jade. She hoped her best friend would be just as willing to talk as she was over the weekend at their sleepover.
"Hi Jade!" Cat greeted in her normal upbeat tone.
"Look, I'm really not in the mood to talk today, okay?" Jade interrupted.
"But, don't you want to tell me what's wrong? You talked to me when you slept over." Cat begged.
"No. I don't want to talk to anyone today. I just want to be alone. Why don't you go bother Tori." Jade suggested motioning over to the other side of the hall where Tori was standing at her locker.
"Pleaaase!" Cat persisted.
Jade rolled her eyes, because even though she didn't want to talk to anyone, she knew how much talking to Cat this weekend helped her feel better.
"Hold out your arm." Jade demanded.
"Huh?" Cat said as she did as she was told.
Jade then pulled on Cat's arm—causing a nervous squeak from Cat—and lead her into the janitor's closet where they would have more privacy. She knew Beck would be at school soon, and she had tried so hard to wake up and get to school earlier than she usually did to be sure she could avoid him as long as possible, so she didn't want to be caught talking to Cat about this. Once Jade felt safe in the privacy of the small closet, she began.
"Okay, I guess I'll tell you what's bugging me." Jade spoke up.
"Kay kay." Cat agreed softly with a small head nod.
"Beck told me where he went when he left right after school on Friday." Jade admitted with a sigh.
Cat didn't respond. She simply stood and watched Jade wide-eyed, knowing Jade would know that she was listening attentively and ready for her to go on with her story.
"He said he was with Andre. Can you believe that?! He was with Andre and not me!" Jade said, starting to get angry.
"But why does that make you so mad? Don't you like Andre?" Cat questioned, very confused.
"I do…well at least I did, before Beck told me what he and Andre were talking about all night." Jade continued.
"What were they talking about?" Cat asked nervously. She liked Andre, and she didn't want to hear anything that would make her mad at him like Jade was.
"Andre made Beck rethink his choice to go to USC with me." Jade explained before telling Cat what Beck had told her the day before.
"Hey man, thanks for coming over." Andre started.
"What's the big emergency? Why did I have to get here right after school?" Beck asked, out of breath from rushing over to Andre's grandmother's house.
"Well, I was just thinkin'…" Andre began.
"About?" Beck wondered aloud.
"I wanted to talk to you about this at lunch, but since I didn't go to school today, I didn't get the chance to." Andre explained. He had been invited to take a day trip to a recording studio and talk to producers, so the school gave him permission to miss a day of classes.
"Just talk. I didn't even tell Jade where I was going, because I was in such a rush to get here." Beck said, anxious about what Jade might think is going on.
"Look, don't take this the wrong way, but are you really willing to give up your acceptance from Juilliard just to be with Jade at USC?" Andre continued.
Beck furrowed his eyebrows at Andre. He was confused as to why Andre had decided to express his concern. He had never been this vocal about his opinions, especially when it really wasn't his problem.
"I just don't want to see you end up regretting your choice. I know you're smart enough to make your own decisions, but what if—and I'm not saying it's going to happen—you and Jade break up during college? What are you going to do when you're forced to see her every day at a college that was basically your back-up plan?" Andre asked.
"Well, I guess I've never really thought about it like that before. I was just making sure Jade was happy, but I never stopped to think about my own happiness." Beck started.
"I'm not trying to talk you out of USC, especially because I got into UCLA, so we'll be close, but all I'm sayin' is: think about it. What's going to make you happy?" Andre finished.
Beck then asked for a glass of water and sat himself on the couch. He began to think about what Andre had just said. Once Andre came back from his grandmother's kitchen with a glass of water, the two friends ended up staying together all night. Andre mostly played his travel keyboard while Beck lay down on the couch, just thinking.
The bell rang just in time for Jade to finish explaining. Both girls began walking out of the janitor's closet, but Jade suddenly pulled on Cat's arm, dragging her back into the closet.
"Cat." Jade began.
"Yeah?" Cat asked, rubbing her arm where Jade had yanked it.
"…Thanks" Jade said, forcing a small smile.
Cat smiled back at her. She was happy to help Jade. Once they had finished their little bonding moment, they were off to their first class of the day.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed that small Cade bit. I just love them! I really hope I didn't disappoint you with what Beck was doing. Remember: everything happens for a reason in this story. Thank you for reading and please continue to review! I love hearing from you all(: