Turns out Beck waiting a few days to talk to Jade wasn't as much of his decision as it was just something he had to do.
Jade never returned to school that day and the next day, Friday, she didn't show up at all.
The whole thing had both Beck and Andre, as well as Cat (albeit to a lesser degree, as she was usually oblivious) concerned.
It was possible that she was just sick, but considering her disappearing act happened right after Beck cornered her about her cutting, it made Beck and Andre pretty sure that it was the root of the problem.
If Jade was cutting again, is that why she can't come to school? Did she cut too deep and end up in the hospital? Did she cut too deep and no one found her in time? These questions plagued Beck and Andre all weekend.
Andre's worry only grew when Jade failed to attend the teen mental illness support group they both were apart of on Sunday morning.
That was Andre's secret, and how he knew that Jade had a problem with self-harm.
At the age of fifteen, Andre had been diagnosed with clinical depression. Which unfortunately for Andre, meant that to a degree, he would probably always be depressed. Clinical depression was a kind of depression that is just kind of always there, it isn't caused by external stressors, though it can be exasperated by them.
When he was diagnosed, his doctors recommend he seek out therapy. Andre wasn't one for one-on-one therapy, but he knew that there were groups for people with similar issues to talk about their struggles, so he went on the internet and found one. He had been attending ever since.
Jade started coming about eight months prior. She hasn't told Andre or the group much, but Andre knew Jade wasn't there by choice. Her mother forced her to go. At first she took measure to make sure that Jade attended every week, but over time she relaxed on them, and usually Jade would come. But that Sunday was the second time Jade skipped group in a month.
He tried texting her, but she didn't respond. So Andre relented on the fact that he would just have to wait until Monday to talk to Jade, that is, if she showed up.
Jade did in fact show up on Monday. Beck found her before Andre though.
As Jade walked through the front doors of Hollywood Arts Beck walked up to her holding two coffees in his hands.
"I brought you coffee, black with one sugar." Beck said as he held the drink out for Jade.
"Why?" Jade raised a stunned eyebrow at him.
"Friends bring friends coffee." Beck lied about his reasoning, he really just wanted to do something nice for her before he tried to talk to her about getting back together.
"I don't want it," Jade responded simply.
"Oh, come on Jade. You drink at minimum four cups of coffee every morning." Beck reminded her.
"Your point?" She stared back at him.
"Look, I know that I shouldn't have cornered you like that. I'm bringing you a peace offering." He pushed the cup even closer to Jade, she still didn't take it.
"I really don't want it." Jade kept her expressions looking uninterested.
"Please, just take it. I got it for you," Beck insisted.
"Give it to someone else," she shrugged.
"Please." Beck practically begged Jade.
Jade took the cup from Beck, pulled off the lid, and walked over to the nearest trash can. She faced Beck, held the cup over it, and dumped the contents into the bin, not breaking eye contact with Beck the whole time. When she was done she crushed the cup in her hands, threw it across the hallway, and walked in the opposite direction.
Tori, Andre, and Cat walked up to Beck, who, to everyone's surprise, was smiling.
"What was that about?" Tori asked.
"Why are you happy Jade dumped your coffee?" Cat interjected.
"Because that was the most Jade-like thing she's done in a while," Beck said.
Granted, he would have preferred that she just accepted the coffee. But seeing a coveted Jade West outburst was a good thing as well. He used to get mad when she did stuff like that, and once she goes back to normal and starts lashing out at people more regularly, he's sure he will be mad about it again. But for the time being, seeing Jade be Jade was comforting.
"She doesn't usually do that stuff to you, though." Tori pointed out.
"I'm just happy she didn't dump it down Robbie's pants. He complained about burns for a week last time." Cat shuddered at whatever memory was running through her mind.
"She probably would have dumped it down Robbie's pants if he were around," Andre noted.
The rest of the day went by relatively normally. Jade managed to avoid everyone, coming to every class at the last second and bolting out of every one as soon as it ended. It wasn't until their last class, which Beck had with Jade, that something else weird happened.
Jade showed up ten minutes late, and again it looked like she had just been crying.
He couldn't help but wonder what would even make her cry in the middle of the day?
Little did Beck know in less than twenty four hours he would know the answers to all of his questions.
...
In coming chapters we will get to hear more and more about Andre. I want this story to have layers to it and not just be entirely one bland plot line so I'm holding a lot of my cards right to my chest.
I'm also really excited to utilize the support group to further the story, I think it will be an interesting way of doing things.
Also I just love Andre, so even though this is at heart a Bade fanfic, we will get a lot of him.