Chapter Two: Summer Flings

There was one thing and one thing only that Beck Oliver would openly admit to not understanding, and that was history. Why would anyone in their right mind enjoy sitting around and memorizing the date of when some old crackpot invented peanut butter? Or what east India's most profitable export was? Seriously, people who did enjoy that kind of stuff needed to get lives. And quickly.

He was careful never to share this opinion with Jade, however, as she was some sort of self-proclaimed, "history nerd," and would have cussed him out back to the seventeenth century.

Of course, there were other things that Beck Oliver did not understand, though he'd never admit it. Feelings were one of those things. Oh sure, he understood the basic feelings, like how it felt to be hungry after not eating all morning, and was quite familiar with the pain of having a two-hundred pound linebacker crush you into the cold, wet grass, but there were several more complex, deeper feelings that Beck could not, or would not, wrap his gorgeous head around. Love was one of said feelings. Beck knew very little, if anything, about love, and though he admitted it, it was always to himself and never aloud. Sure, he loved his family, but in an I'm-forced-to-so-of-course-I-do way. In his near eighteen years on the planet, Beck was almost ashamed to say that he had never found another person whom he loved more than himself. It was obvious that if Beck did know anything about love, he would have noticed the way that Jade West's big blue eyes lit up every time she saw him, or how she literally glowed whenever he put his arm around her, or, perhaps the most obvious of all, how she had the subconscious habit of pulling her hair out of it's usual ponytail whenever around him for an extended period of time, because in the back of her brain, she knew she looked ten times more attractive with her hair down than up.

And yet Beck failed to notice all those things. Maybe it was because whenever he was talking to Jade one-on-one, his eyes tended to stray away from her face and settle on her chest or behind. Sure, Beck was more partial with using his charms to try to get Tori to fall for him, but whenever he had to pick a second choice, it was Jade. Hey, he appreciated fine art, and to him, Jade's body was fine art. A girl with an ass like that had to be appreciated, or at least that's what he told himself.

Which was perhaps why it was best that he was unaware that she had been completely, totally, one-hundred percent head-over-heels in love with him since freshmen year, because knowing Beck, he would have used it to his complete advantage and conned the poor girl into bed with him.

Not that she would have complained.

With his usual cocky, self-satisfied smile in place, Beck opened the glass door to the lobby of the middle building at Hollywood Art's, which held the classrooms and other basic rooms, such as the kitchen, dining hall, office, and library. The other two buildings were dorms buildings, the east wing and the west wing. He had been fortunate enough to get his own dorm room in the east wing on the senior floor, and had already trudged up there and deposited his bags. He knocked on the room next to him, D09, but apparently Robbie and André were not in there, for no answer had come. The three of them, tired of having roommates and wanting to experience what it was like to live on their own, had applied for separate rooms, but when it turned out that André was going to be in the west wing while the other two guys were in the east, he had immediately agreed to double up with Robbie. Even though André and Beck had been best friends long before Robbie arrived, André had roomed with Beck their sophomore year and had quite enough of his nightly guests.

Thus was why, for one of the few rare moments of his life, Beck swaggered down Hollywood Art's familiar halls by himself, searching avidly, though looking very casual at the same time, for one of his five best friends. He glanced in a faux-careless way at his Lorenz watch and realized with a slight shock that it was nearing the dinner hour. He flashed a flirty wink in the direction of a group of scantily clad junior girls, the majority of which had badly dyed blond hair and long, acrylic nails with the most awkward-looking designs painted on them. One had a tall poesy detailed on each nail. Another had unicorns. Flames, cats, the Playboy bunny, and butterflies were all accounted for as well, and even something that looked oddly like…sugar cubes? A slight chuckle escaped his lips, and, as usual, all the girls around him smiled brightly in return. When Beck Oliver smiled, the world smiled back.

He had the kind of casual sophistication that contrasted perfectly with his arrogant manliness to create the most incredible heartthrob Hollywood Arts had ever seen. Maybe it was the way his soft brown hair was cut to fall so gracefully into his eyes. Or maybe it was those eyes alone, a deep, dreamy shade of chocolate-brown that captivated every straight female who stared into them, and several homosexual males as well. Perhaps it was his body, all tanned and toned and cut from years of athletics and lifting weights. His charming white grin didn't hurt either, nor did his suave manner and smooth voice. Beck had the ability to make people do whatever he wanted, and of course, he abused that right.

The only people he would not manipulate were his closest friends. For the most part, anyway.

"I love those jeans on him," he heard one of the junior girls whisper as he passed by. "Just look at that ass!"

"And how cute and understated is that white long-sleeved polo?" another whispered back. They truly were the most terrible whisperers Beck had ever encountered, and he had known Cat for quite some time. "It's like he's saying, 'Hey, I'm Beck Oliver, and I'm a Sex God no matter what I do.' And how true is that?"

"Oh, so true."

"Like, totally, incredibly true. Couldn't have put it better."

Though Beck grinned at their comments, he kept walking. He knew he could always catch up with them later if he felt like having casual sex that night.

Which, more often than not, he did.

The token cream-colored carpet of the hallways slowly faded into hard, glossy oak wood as Beck took a sharp left, nearly plowing over a few anxious-looking freshmen boys. They jumped out of the way at the last second and stared at him as he hustled by, not even caring he had nearly knocked them down. And the last thing they were going to do was inform him of such, as he was Beck Oliver, and no one in their right mind wanted to be on Beck Oliver's bad side.

He continued down the halls, passing various doors and students, stopping briefly to say hi to a few of them and offer smirks to his teachers, most of who frowned in return. Finally he reached his long-awaited destination, and instantly grinned at the sight of it. Two tall, swinging doors with a large red sign next to them that read, "dining hall," stood in front of him, and without hesitation, he pushed one open and stepped into the room.

Heavily polished, round wooden tables were placed randomly around the huge room, tall-backed, crushed-velvet dining chairs situated around them. Beck turned to his right instantly and his grin widened when he spotted his familiar table, way back in the far corner of the room, with five recognizable friends sitting around, laughing and eating.

There was Tori, looking as cool and tanned as ever, daintily chewing on her fruit salad.

Jade sat at her side, taking a long swig of Gatorade that she nearly spat out at Cat's flailing arm movements. Her dark hair was pulled up, as always, and she looked as pale as ever.

Cat's hair was an offensive shade of red, nearly as offensive as her outfit, and contrasted greatly with the vanilla color of her chair from where she was perched, next to Jade. Her half-eaten plate of food was pushed away, and instead, she seemed to be talking so animatedly that it was almost a theatrical performance. Beck grinned as she clutched a hand to her chest, a look of heartbreak over her face. Good old Cat.

With his back to Beck in the chair on Cat's side, slouched down so that his dark hair was barely visible, sat André Harris. He nearly fell over in laughter at Cat's actions, and lifted up a huge hand to run over his black hair, as he did nearly twenty times a day. Tori had counted once.

There was a space, where Beck was undoubtedly to sit, and then there was Robbie, who seemed to be having trouble shoveling large spoonfuls of mashed potatoes in his mouth as he laughed hysterically as well. He looked so much like Andy Samberg that it was still a shock for Beck to see that same wildly curly, brown-black hair, those brown-green eyes, and pug nose.

It was with all the ease in the world that Beck crossed the distance between the doorway and the table. Heads turned as he went, because after all, he was Beck Oliver. He just had that effect on people. The girls thought he was gorgeous, and the guys thought he was a hero. And he loved it. Hey, if people wanted to worship him, why not enjoy it?

It was Jade who spotted him first. The shriek she let out was so piercing and shrill that nearly everyone within a twenty foot radius cringed as she hopped out of her seat and all but ran to Beck, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly, as though she hadn't just seen him the previous month before jetting off to St. Bart's.

Anyone who got so much as a glance at her glowing, excited face and star-struck eyes before she buried her face in Beck's shoulder would have known in an instant.

Jade West was in love with Beck Oliver.

It wasn't something she had wanted to happen. Jade had known Beck before she was even potty-trained, for Christ's sake, and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin such an old, strong friendship. But one fateful day her freshmen year, back before things got so screwy and her head was taken over by love, her boyfriend of ten months, Ralph Clark, had unexpectedly asked her to talk. He explained quite nicely that while he thought she was great, he wasn't sure they could work out anymore. It was natural that little Jade, at the age of fourteen, had secured her first broken heart in the ending of that relationship, though she had pretended to agree so they could end on good, mutual terms. When Jade had left Ralph's dorm room, however, it became quite a different story.

After all, Ralph had been her first real boyfriend. He bought her roses and told her all the right things. He was the first guy she had ever really seriously fooled around with. He was the first guy she had ever fallen in love with, or at least what she thought love was at the time. When Beck had found her, somehow lost between the short seven yard walk back to her own room, she had been in a flood of tears and so embarrassed and appalled at the thought of him seeing her that she had only succeeded in crying harder. In true gentleman fashion, Beck gently tugged her back to his room and let her cry on his shoulder all night until she fell into a physically and emotionally exhausted slumber. When she awoke, she found herself curled up into Beck's frame, sunlight spilling through his drapes, his hair cascading down into his softly fluttering eyes.

It was right then and there that Jade fell for him. Hard.

Securing his arms around her newly sculpted waist, Beck lifted Jade off the wooden floor with ease, twirling her around, her surprised squeal making him laugh. When he finally set her back down, he gave her his patented grin and asked, "How are you, West?"

Adoration glowed in Jade's deep brown irises as she surveyed his strong jaw, full lips, and gorgeous gray eyes that seemed to sparkle with all the mischief and arrogance in the world. Beck was a God, and he knew it. He knew everyone knew it, too, he just didn't know as to what extent Jade knew it. If he knew that her thoughts at the moment were on cupping his face in her hands and pulling him into a long-awaited kiss, he probably would have laughed out loud. But since he didn't know, he couldn't laugh.

"I'm as good as I look," she answered in a much more saucy way than Beck was used to, as she spun around in a showy circle, clearly proud of her improved figure. Jade was almost always saucy, but never to Beck. She was far too timid around him when it came to her appearance to really make him try to notice it.

Oh really? What happened?

A slow grin gathered on Beck's face as he gave her a drawn-out once-over, admiring her trim look. "Wow, West."

André twisted around in his chair, his blue eyes sparkling with mirth. "She knows she's hot shit, she just wants the rest of the world to comment on it too. So go on, Beck. Comment."

"Later," Beck promise, making his way around to hug Tori. She stood up rather reluctantly, and gave him a half-hearted, mandatory hug she clearly did not enjoy. As usual, he whispered seductively into her ear how sexy she looked and how he'd just love to get a private showing as to what she had done to herself over the summer.

It might have meant more to her if she wasn't so repulsed by him.

When he moved to hug Cat, she dodged his open arms, and instead, did a quick circle around him and jumped onto his back. He just laughed, as this was classic Cat behavior, and inquired as her tiny hands clamped tightly around his neck, "What are you doing, Kitty?"

"Giving you a hug-from-behind," she explained as though it were the most obvious, logical thing in the world. "God, get with the times, Beck."

After two what Jade called, "man-hugs," with André and Robbie, Beck took his seat, far too happy to see his best friends than to care about eating at the moment. "Talk to me, people," he demanded, propping his elbows onto the table, as eating was resumed all around him. "What's new?"

"I got my Porsche taken away," Robbie offered, mashed potatoes flying into his mouth," Because I crashed it into a mailbox."

André cracked up and demolished the last of his corn on the cob. "Dude, I told you not to drive it when you're wasted. We should have taken my dad's Hummer, because it would have caused a lot more damage."

"Rob and André were bad asses while you were away in Italy," Jade explained, sensing Beck's confusion and being one hundred percent correct. She gave her eyes a mighty roll, and without even realizing what she was doing, reached up and pulled the little red elastic hair tie out of her hair, letting it fall down her back. "They got completely trashed, drove around, and succeeded in murdering one mailbox, three garbage cans, and a small tree."

"The tree didn't count!" Robbie protested, brandishing a spoon at her in a manner that was not all threatening because he was just so Robbie. "It wasn't even in the ground yet! And don't call me Rob!"

"I'll call you whatever I damn well please," she shot back after draining her Gatorade bottle. She chucked it directly at his head, and with a mighty thwack, it hit its target, the direct center of his forehead. Before he had time to retaliate or respond, she picked up her tray and retreated towards the door that led to the kitchen.

"Coward!" he called after her, laughing lightly, and received a not-so-polite finger salute in response.

Relaxing his hands behind his head, Beck grinned before leaning around Robbie to look at Tori. "What did you do this summer, gorgeous?"

She stared at her long, French-tipped nails for quite a while before answering tonelessly, "Went to Spain."

"And how was that?"

She shrugged her halter-top perfect shoulders. "You know. Same."

"I went to England!" Cat announced, stabbing her butter knife down into the thick wood table. It quivered for a moment, and then stood on its point. She grinned, revealing a large sprout of spinach stuck between two of her bottom teeth that everyone failed to point out to her. "Stayed with my aunt, I did. 'Twas lovely."

Jade returned by then, and scooted her chair up close to the table, glancing at her gleaming Rolex. "Quarter past six," she said before anyone could even ask. Turning, she looked at Cat, who was trying to stick her spoon into the table as well. "Cat, number one, you've got a big hunk of green shit in your teeth. Number two, tell me about England. You got my postcard from St. Bart's, right?"

"Oh yeah." Giving up, perhaps due to the ADD Tori often swore she had, Cat tossed her spoon into the air and caught it. "Not much to say. Stayed with my aunt and cousins and corrupted little Molly into piercing her nose and putting pink streaks in her hair. Aunt Susan just about cried. No, she did cry. Several times. They couldn't have been more happy to get rid of me."

André crossed his long arms and laughed. "I saw Delilah a lot. No summer flings for me. What about you guys? Any flingage?"

Beck just grinned his cocky grin that left no doubt in anyone's mind that he had banged so many Italian chicks that he had lost count. Robbie made a face before asking, "What exactly makes a fling a fling? Isn't it like…meaningless hooking up? What if you care about the person?"

It was Beck who answered that, as he was undoubtedly the king of flings. "Dude, if you hook up with a chick you never plan on seeing again or having a romantic relationship with, then yeah, it's a fling. So did you get any ass this summer?"

A blush crossed Robbie's delicate cheekbones as he refused to reply. After a few moments of awkward silence, Tori, desperate for a topic change, leaned forward towards Jade slightly and asked in a voice she hoped held convincing interest, "Tell us about St. Bart's, Jade. You had your own villa, right?"

"Naturally." Jade ran her hands through her thick, straight hair, shaking it off her face, though her longish bangs were uncontrollable and fell across one blue eye. "Daddy sent me there to keep me away from that bitch who calls herself my mother. Of course, that bitch insisted on him sending Danita too, because we all know how much she adores 'Nita. It didn't bother me though, because she's great to party with, so we had a blast."

"How many guys did you hook up with and drink their blood when you were finished?" Cat wanted to know, toying thoughtfully with one of her blonde streaks.

Jade grinned. "Only like…six or seven, Kitty, I swear."

Cat nodded solemnly for a moment before bursting out so loudly that it made everyone jump, "I met a boy in England this summer!"

Everyone stared at her. Finally, André offered, "Cat, no offense, but…boys are scared of you."

"They think you have very limited mental capacities and need to be tied down before you hurt someone," Tori added.

Shaking her head, red pigtails bouncing everywhere, Cat insisted, "This boy was different! He had black dyed hair and wore eye makeup! His name was Austin and he showed me the most beautiful scars on his wrists from where he tore a knife across his skin because no one loved him! He dressed all in black, because he wanted to color-coordinate with his hair, I guess, and listened to really sad music!"

Jade and André exchanged an amused glance, knowing where this was going.

When Cat fell silent, her head bowed slightly, Tori waited only a moment before asking with a note of curiosity in her voice, "What happened, Cat?"

Cat shrugged and adjusted the strap of one of her pink and yellow overalls. "You know what they say about Emo boys. When you dump them, they cry, and then they threaten to kill themselves. I just didn't know Austin was serious about it. I figured out that he was though when I got a call from his mother telling me that Austin was dead. Poor guy. He followed Hitler's take-some-cyanide-and-then-pull-the-trigger way out. Kind of reminds me of, "Whisky Lullaby," to tell you the truth."

Silence followed Cat's little spiel. Finally, Jade cracked up, because she was the kind of bitch who could laugh regardless as to if Cat's story was true or false. André was shortly after, because he too shared Jade's twisted, cruel humor. Eventually, Beck and Robbie joined in, and even Tori gave a giggle or two. Cat, apparently pleased with herself, stood up, gave a sweeping bow, and then snatched up her plate and hurried off to the kitchens.

Beck flashed Tori his to-die-for smile. "What about you, Tor? Did you finally stop being so prude and let a guy pop your cherry this summer?"

Looking highly affronted, Tori swept her long brown hair out of her face and narrowed her eyes at him. "Beck Oliver, you have no right to talk to me that way and I demand that you apologize now."

He held up his hands in his defense, and opened his mouth to say something else, but at that moment, André's girlfriend of a year, two months, three weeks, and six days (André counted religiously) plopped down into André's lap and placed a kiss on his lips. Once he secured his arms around her petite waist, she swiveled around and offered a smile that could not have been more obviously fake at the rest of them. "Hi."

Delilah Rhodes was good at two things. One was hating Cat, Tori, and Jade so severely it was startling. The other was making André see her on a pedestal as the perfect girlfriend, when she couldn't have been any farther from it. Her pixie cut, copper hair framed her delicate face, the face of an innocent girl, complete with wide blue eyes and pouting cherry lips.

Jade had it in good confidence that her chin reduced and her nose had been shaped by the great Dr. West, though she was careful not to mention this when André was within earshot. While Jade could cuss someone out to an inch of their life, the one person she did not want to fight with was André, because while she was cruel, he was cruel and ruthless if you pissed him off enough. And anything that involved shining a bad light on Delilah would definitely piss him off.

André's whole world revolved around Delilah. He ate, breathed, and slept solely for her presence in his life. It soothed him greatly to know that she was such a sweetheart and would never do anything to hurt him, as she promised on a daily basis.

Right.

In a way that seemed almost unwilling, Delilah's eyes strayed over to Beck, who looked very relaxed and as he sat there languidly, looking as sexy and poised as ever. He glanced at her for a moment, and they locked eyes only for a split-second before both hurriedly looked away, eyes purposely darting to opposite directions.

Luckily, no one noticed, as they were all far too caught up in their own shitty lives to care.