18. Dumbstruck.
Jade rested her head on her arms, her wet hair feeling cold against her skin. Tomorrow was Friday, and the weekend couldn't come soon enough. Anything would be better than dragging herself through another day at a school that felt like an alternate universe — everything seemed to have flipped upside down, and no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to make it make sense again.
It was late, after one in the morning. She hadn't gotten anything done, but she was still sitting at her desk, trying to enjoy the silence of the house. She doodled on her textbook, watching the ink seep out of the pen and into the glossy paper. When her phone rang, she jumped.
"Hello?" she answered quickly, keeping her voice low as to not wake her father and Celia.
"Can I come over?" Beck asked.
"What? No," Jade said indignantly.
"Oh. Well, I'm in your backyard."
"What?" Jade said again. She leapt up from her desk, ripping open her curtains. In the streetlight, she could see him, waving and grinning. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I have a gift for you." There was a slight delay between his mouth moving out on her lawn and his voice coming through her phone. She scowled at him through the window.
"Is it edible?" she asked. His face fell a little.
"No… Not even a little. But will you come out anyway?"
She glared.
"Please?"
"Hold on," she sighed. Hanging up the phone, she zipped up a hoodie, shoved her feet into a pair of cheap black flip-flops, and tiptoed down the stairs. She slid the door open and trotted out to where Beck was waiting for her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she greeted.
"Hi," he said, grinning madly. "I was just…you know…out."
"At one in the morning."
He nodded.
"On a Thursday night."
He nodded again.
"Why?"
"I did something kind of stupid."
"Oh God," Jade pushed her wet hair out of her face. "Did you lie about getting me a present to get me out here to help you bury a body or something?"
"No, I really did get you a present…."
"Okay then," Jade said impatiently, "let's see it."
Beck produced his gift for her from behind his back, holding it out to her between his fingers.
"Tell me this is a replica," Jade demanded, staring at the large blue rectangle in front of her.
"I can't do that."
"Why?"
"Because it's not a replica."
"Beck, you fucking idiot."
He doubled over, in hysterics.
"You have to hang this up in your room," he said, tears of laughter in his eyes. "It'll be hilarious."
"Yeah, super hilarious until my dad sees it."
"Just tell him it's a fake you bought downtown or something."
"Right, because I'm sure no one will notice that the sign for Westwood Boulevard has been stolen!"
"It's not like it'll be hard to replace. And you're West! Living west of Westwood in a room that faces west. You can't not have this."
Jade bit her lips to keep from smiling, but the longer she looked at the boy in front of her, the harder it was to contain her laughter. Soon they were both in tears, laughing hysterically at the metal sign in Beck's hands.
"You fucking idiot," she said again, shaking her head with a chuckle. "What possessed you to do this?"
He shrugged, leaning his palms against the short edge of the street sign, the other end cutting into the manicured grass.
"No," Jade said. "No shrugging. I want a real answer, because this is bizarre, even for you. And I'm trying to be pissed at you."
"Can we hang it in your room?"
"No."
"But I wanna see the inside of your house! I've only ever seen the dining room that one time at that super awkward dinner. And then we can go get tacos or something."
"Tacos? What are you talking about?"
"Yeah, let's go get tacos."
"I shouldn't have to be concerned that you're on meth this often."
"I'm not on drugs," he rolled his eyes, still grinning. "I just feel like tacos."
"At one in the morning?" Jade said.
"It's almost two. And you're still up," Beck said as an example.
"Yeah, and I'm probably going to sleep through my alarm."
"Oh, well I'm not going to school tomorrow."
"Why?"
"So Sikowitz can't have rehearsal."
Jade blinked.
"I don't follow," she admitted, tugging her sleeves over her fingers. The cool breeze combined with her wet hair was raising goosebumps on her scalp.
"Well I thought—" Beck paused, frowning, as he looked at her. "Aw, I'm sorry. Look at you, you're shivering."
He reached over her shoulders and pulled up her hood, patting her on the head.
"Go get dressed in something warm and put a hat on and we'll go get tacos and I'll tell you the whole story."
She pursed her lips thoughtfully, looking up at him. His hands were still on her head.
"Come on," she relented. "But if you wake up my father I'll claim you broke in."
He followed as she stalked back to the house and slid the back door shut behind them.
"Wow," he whispered, glancing around in awe.
"Shut up," she hissed. She climbed the stairs with her flip-flops hanging off her fingers and started digging through her dresser when they reached her room.
"At least your room isn't white anymore," he murmured, chuckling. She rolled her eyes at him.
"I had to scare the decorators off on Monday. My father's still trying to get it repainted," she said, stepping into the bathroom with a bunch of clothes in her hand. She pointed at the Westwood sign he was still holding. "Hide that thing somewhere."
Jade shut the bathroom door. She was relatively horrified when she looked at herself in the mirror — the circles under her eyes were as dark as they felt, the rest of her face unbearably pale. She sighed, dragging a pair of pants onto her legs. After shoving her feet into a pair of warm socks, she did her best to cosmetically conceal her tiredness quickly (before Beck got antsy and started looking through her stuff). When she finally reemerged from the bathroom, Beck was sitting on the end of her bed, leaning against the wall, flipping through her copy of the script for Sikowitz's play.
"Ready?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
"I… Do you really want to do this?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"Because it's weird…."
"It's not weird."
"Well what are people going to think?"
"Who cares? And who's going to see us?"
Jade bit her lip, hesitating.
"C'mon," Beck said. "Let's just go get tacos. Friend tacos."
"We're not friends," Jade insisted.
"Okay. Acquaintance tacos, then."
"Acquaintances only go and get tacos when at least one of them wants to be more than acquaintances…."
"Maybe at least one of them does."
"Well maybe at least one of them isn't comfortable with that."
"Jade," Beck sighed. "I'm trying to apologize for being such an asshole to you this past week. And for Sikowitz being such an asshole. And your dad being an asshole, too. So please, come get an apology taco with me."
"An apology taco."
"A platonic apology taco. Which I will pay for."
"…fine."
"Okay. Now are you ready?" he asked. She nodded, not quite sure why she'd agreed to go. "Put a hat on."
"No," she refused.
He rolled his eyes.
"Where'd you put it?" she asked.
"Put what?"
"The sign, you idiot," Jade explained, rolling her eyes and sighing.
"Oh. It's under your bed."
"How clever of you. Fine. Let's go get tacos and you can explain this whole kerfuffle to me."
"Kerfuffle?"
"Yes."
He was still chuckling as they were buckling themselves into his car. He was grinning as she messed with the radio station. He was smiling as the car pulled onto the street.
"So exactly what taco place is still open at two AM?" she asked casually as she pushed the stereo buttons.
"There's gotta be something."
Jade didn't respond, instead quietly humming to the radio and watching the lights out the window.
"Are you going to tell me why you stole a street sign yet?" she asked as the song was ending.
"For you."
"Excuse me?"
"I stole the street sign for you."
"And what made you think that was a good idea?"
"Nothing," he paused, craning his neck to look for oncoming traffic before merging onto the street. "Nothing made me think it was a good idea. It was just an idea and I just…did it. Not a huge amount of thinking involved, really."
Jade sighed frustratedly.
"Well," she said, "between your insane gift-giving strategy and your random craving for tacos, you've kidnapped me and ruined whatever chance I had of getting any sleep tonight."
"Hey, you didn't have to come," Beck said, shooting her a sidelong grin. "But let's be real: who can resist a midnight taco run?"
"Apparently not me," she laughed. "But I won't be going to school tomorrow. Er, today. Later today."
"Well I already told you I'm not going to school, so we can get pancakes or something."
"And why aren't you going to school again?"
"So Sikowitz can't have rehearsal," he repeated.
"Again I ask why?"
"Because you can't make it," he said seriously, looking at her as they pulled up to a red light. "And Sikowitz told you that he would recast you if you missed this rehearsal."
"It doesn't matter," Jade muttered, looking away from his intense gaze. "I'm not even really in the play…."
"It does matter. So I'm not going to school. Because if I don't go to school, then I can't go to rehearsal, and if I don't go to rehearsal then there's really no way Sikowitz can run the show."
"You decided to skip school so Sikowitz wouldn't have to recast Tori's understudy?" Jade said skeptically.
"No," he said, turning a corner. "I decided to skip school so he wouldn't recast you."
"Same thing," she mumbled, inwardly thankful no one could see the heat on her cheeks.
"Not really."
"Whatever. I want a tamale."
Now you've hit a wall and it's not your fault
My dear, my dear, my dear
Now you've hit a wall and you hit it hard
My dear, my dear, oh dear.
I've been waiting to post this chapter for, like, ever. It's been hanging out at the end of the document and I basically wrote the first 17 chapters so I could get to it. Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed Bade being Bade-y again. Also, I've hit 101 reviews and I can't even describe how insanely happy that makes me feel! I've never gotten that many reviews on anything. Thank you so so so much. Happy Friday!