Beck acted normal throughout the entire week. Jade paid close attention to things he said while he was on the phone, but she never heard anything that should concern her. Although he wasn't acting suspicious, Jade kept her guard up. She didn't like having to keep such a close eye on him, but after the phone conversation she overheard on Monday, she couldn't help herself. It was Friday morning now, and she was becoming exhausted from constantly looking over Beck's shoulder to read his texts and listen in on his phone calls, that she decided she would lighten up a bit. He obviously hadn't done anything yet, so she figured; why not trust him?
"Hey guys!" Tori greeted when she reached the lunch table where Cat and Jade were sitting.
Cat greeted her back in an upbeat tone alongside Jade, who barely muttered the word 'hey'. Jade made sure to tell Tori all about how no one noticed she was gone until Cat brought it up at lunch, when she returned from her tour of AMDA on Tuesday.
"Where's everyone else?" Tori asked, ignoring Jade's irritated greeting.
"Robbie's over there getting lunch, but I don't know where Andre and Beck are." Cat replied, pointing out the curly haired boy near the food truck in the Asphalt Café.
"Beck's in Sikowitz's classroom. He forgot his notebook in there. I honestly have no clue where Andre is, though.
"Hello ladies!" Robbie greeted as he joined the three girls.
Soon after Robbie got to the table, Beck and Andre walked up as well.
"Where were you?" Tori asked, directing her attention to Andre, since no one seemed to know where he was.
"I was reserving the music room for tonight. I want to have some stuff written for when I get to Berklee."
"Berklee?" Tori looked confused. She didn't realize how much she had missed out on Monday while she was taking a look into her very near future.
"Yeah, the music school in Boston I applied to. They accepted me." Andre explained with a smile. He was so proud that such an amazing school asked him to join their community.
"What!? That's great! Congratulations!" Tori exclaimed, stretching her arms out and pulling Andre in for a hug.
Everyone was really happy for Andre. He always worked so hard when it came to his music, and it paid off. He was an exceptional musician and everyone knew it. It was no surprise that one of the best music schools in the country thought so as well.
"What day is it?" Cat asked, being as random as ever.
"Friday, why?" Jade replied, wondering why Cat needed to know the day and how she didn't know it was Friday.
"Friday!? Oh my god. I'm going to be all alone!" Cat squeaked in a worried voice.
"Alone? Why are you going to be alone?" Beck asked.
"My Nonna is going out of town to visit some of her old friends until Sunday afternoon, so I'll be in her apartment all weekend." Cat explained. Her parents had to move closer to her brother's 'special' hospital, so she had gone to live with her grandmother last year.
"I'll come over if you want!" Robbie offered.
"No. You'll just want to play pirates. I'll be okay by myself." Cat reassured.
No one else offered to stay with Cat, because as much as they loved her, an entire day at school plus all night with her was a lot of Cat to handle. They simply went about eating their lunches until the bell rang. Just as they were all walking away from the table to get to their classes, Cat tugged on Jade's arm.
"Jade….?" Cat called in a soft voice.
"What?!" Jade groaned, turning to face her best friend, allowing her boyfriend to continue walking to class alone.
"I really don't want to be by myself tonight." Cat admitted.
"So why don't you let Robbie come over?" Jade asked.
"You know I don't like the way he plays pirates!" Cat squealed.
"So just tell him you don't want to play. Watch a movie or something." Jade suggested.
"Will you just come over?" Cat pleaded.
Jade thought for a moment. As much as she didn't want to give Beck the opportunity to possibly meet up with this mystery person he claimed was his mom, Cat was her friend, and she knew that if she were to need her, Cat would be there.
"Sure. I'll be there at seven." Jade agreed.
"Yay! I'll see you tonight!" Cat yelled in excitement before skipping off to her next class.
...
"Hey, I can't hang out tonight. Cat wants me to keep her company while her Nonna is away." Jade explained as she approached Beck's locker.
It was the end of the day, and although they had made plans, Beck understood.
"That's fine. I'll just see you later then, I guess." Beck replied.
"Okay, what's up with you?" Jade asked in annoyance.
"W—what do you mean?" Beck asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"You've been super coy lately, and now that I'm changing plans at the last minute, you aren't the least bit bothered by it." Jade explained.
"Listen, I know you and Cat are close, so I get that she wants you with her. No worries. I'll just hang out in the RV tonight. I'll call you though, okay?" Beck reassured, giving Jade a nice smooch before shutting his locker and walking to the parking lot, where his car was parked.
He hadn't carpooled with Jade in the morning, but he did offer. She was running late, and didn't want to make him late as well, so she refused his offer. Jade then proceeded to her own locker, when she saw Tori walking to the parking lot. Jade knew for a fact that Tori still hadn't gotten her license yet, so she closed her locker and followed her out. But Jade's suspicions were shot down; when she saw Tori get into her mother's car and drive off. When the car pulled out of the way, she noticed Beck's car was gone as well, so she stopped thinking about any suspicious behavior, and walked to her own car.
…
Jade pounded on Cat's front door and waited to be let inside. When she finally opened it, the two girls walked to Cat's room where Cat had prepared some popcorn and laid out some movies for the night. After a few texts back and forth, Jade reluctantly agreed to sleep over. It took a lot of pleading and whining on Cat's part, but she was happy with the end results.
"Can we pleaaaase watch the unicorn movie?" Cat begged.
"NO. I told you the only way I would sleep over was if we watched something where someone—preferably several—people get hacked into bits." Jade replied sternly.
"But—" Cat began.
"But nothing. We're watching the chainsaw one. Put it in the DVD player." Jade interrupted.
Cat obeyed and sulked to the DVD player with the disc that was sure to give her nightmares. She was just glad that Jade would be sleeping over, and she wouldn't have to be scared alone. As much as Jade loved watching the gory movie, her mind was preoccupied. She was still thinking about how she could have even thought Beck was sneaking around doing something she would make him regret. She decided that it was time to trust him way more. They did have four more years of college together, which meant a lot more trust was needed in their relationship.
...
While Jade was busy at Cat's house, Beck was back at his RV. He had just finished eating a microwave meal for dinner, when his phone rang.
"Hello?" Beck answered.
"Yeah, tonight. Are you done with what you had to do?"
"No. She's at Cat's house."
"Don't worry. She's sleeping over, so you can hang out all night if you want to."
"Just come over. I want to talk to you about something."
"Alright, I'll see you in ten." Beck then hung up his phone and walked to the back of his small trailer.
Just as he finished unfolding two lawn chairs in his driveway and setting out two sodas, Beck heard footsteps approaching behind him.
"Oh hey! You're here. I got us some sodas. I hope you like root beer. It's all I had." Beck greeted, turning to face his guest.
"Root beer's fine." Andre replied as he took a seat next to Beck.
"Thanks for coming over. I feel like you're the only person I can trust with this." Beck began.
"No problem, what's up?" Andre asked, prompting Beck to continue.
"The other day I got a phone call, and I think Jade might have overheard. I tried to be honest with her, but I didn't know how I would explain what it was about, so I told her it was my mom and she just wanted to talk about some school stuff." Beck explained.
"Alright, well, who was it?" Andre questioned.
"My mom. I didn't lie about that." Beck chuckled.
"I'm not sure I'm following you." Andre furrowed his eyebrows.
"It was my mom I was talking to, and we were planning to meet up and talk about school stuff, but when I went over today she tried to convince me to forget about Jade and go to New York anyway." Beck admitted.
"Why would she want you to do that? Didn't she and your dad just pay for a trip to Cancun for you and Jade? I thought they liked her." Andre added.
"They do like her. But they just want what's best for me, and they think that leaving Jade here and going to New York is what's best for me." Beck continued.
"So what are you going to do?" Andre wondered aloud.
"I just really don't know right now." Beck sighed.
Although it was mostly his father's idea, Beck's mom usually went along with whatever her husband said. That's why Beck wanted to make sure she was at the house alone when he came over to talk, which they were, but his dad had completely brainwashed his mother. Even though she loved Jade, she loved her son and husband more, so she lectured Beck about going to New York until he got frustrated and said he would think about it. But the truth was, he didn't know how he could ever make up his mind about something this big.
Author's Note: How did you all love the plot twist. I bet you all for sure thought it was Tori, now didn't you? Lol that was the point! If you didn't fall for it, congrats! You win cool points. Anyway, what do you think Beck should do? Let me know! Please continue to review, I love reading all your thoughts(: