The new year brings lots of changes for everyone, both big and small. Despite her engagement, Cat decides to continue living with Jade through their graduation in the spring, neither her nor Robbie wanting to pay the fee that would come with breaking their housing contracts so they could move in together. Jade returns from her trip to Canada to find her room decorated with balloons and a poster reading 'Will You Be My Maid of Honor?' laying on her bed with a bottle of champagne. Of course she tells Cat yes, and assisting with wedding planning becomes one more thing on what feels like her never-ending to do list.
The start of the new semester is both exciting and terrifying all at once. On one hand, there's an end in sight...all of her hard work will have been for something in the end...even if it's just a pretty expensive piece of paper. On the other hand, there's so much to get done before May, and then once graduation arrives...the safety net of being a college student is gone and true adulthood begins.
Jade is scheduled to put on her one-act play during the first weekend of February. It's earlier than most students choose to debut their senior showcases, but Jade wants to get it out of the way as soon as she possibly can. Not only is the deadline causing her stress, but she wants to be able to enjoy what's left of her last semester of college without it looming over her. She's chosen to direct and play the main role herself, and has casted the other parts using friends of her's from her major. The university is producing, to an extent, as they do with most senior showcases, she just needs to put the finishing touches on the script so that they can begin rehearsals as soon as possible.
The first week of classes also brings New York's first major snowfall. There had been some flurries back in November and December, but this has been the first system that has brought anything that has stuck. Overnight, the city receives close to an inch and a half of powder, and it feels like a completely different place. The mundaneness that had settled in when the temperatures began to drop is momentarily replaced by excitement, only temporarily of course. With time the snow will turn to slush, a dirty grey color instead of white, and the magic will fade...but for now, everyone is enjoying it.
"Did you ever try to catch snowflakes on your tongue when you were a kid?" Beck asks Jade as he stops walking and pulls her to the side of the pavement, out of the way of the other pedestrians
"Of course I did." Jade chuckles, sticking her tongue out "I never caught nearly as many as I thought I did though."
"Snow is so much more fun when you're a kid." Beck admits "Now that we're adults, it feels more annoying than anything."
"Oh, come on. Don't say that." Jade laughs "It's been less than a day!"
"Thank god I don't have a car here." Beck smirks "Then I'd be really annoyed. Driving in it is almost worse than walking in it."
"I didn't expect you to be so annoyed by snow..." Jade laughs
"Why?" Beck raises an eyebrow at her "Because I'm Canadian?"
"Something like that, yeah." Jade shrugs "Hey! Don't look at me like that! You're obsessed with hockey! That's the biggest Canadian stereotype of them all!"
"Come on..." Beck laughs, grabbing his girlfriend's hand "We'll miss our reservation."
It's Saturday night, and Beck had finished filming early. He wanted to take Jade to dinner, as he did most weekends, but Jade insisted that he see Washington Square Park all lit up at night with the snow for the first time. There was no way Beck could argue with her, knowing how much the park meant to her and how important it had been to their relationship so far, and he agreed that they could stop through on their way home.
They eat at an Italian restaurant not far from the park. A few people do a double-take as Beck walks by them when the waiter seats him and Jade, but for the most part the meal is peaceful. Beck tells Jade about how they've started filming the second part of the season, and how the episodes will start to become more dramatic as they approach the finale. He's really enjoying the challenges that it's posing him as an actor, and the opportunities that it's providing him to grow more in his craft. Jade loves listening to him talk about his job, she loves how passionate he is and how happy it makes him. She hopes that one day soon, she'll have similar stories to tell him about whatever work she's doing.
"How's the script coming?" He asks her, changing the subject of their conversation "Almost done?"
"Almost..." Jade nods "It just needs a few more tweaks...I'm not quite all the way in love with it yet."
The story is more personal to her than she had originally intended it to be. The main character, the one Jade will be playing, is a therapist who sees a multitude of different clients. The most important one, the one the story centers on the most, is a teenage girl coming to terms with the death of her parents after a plane crash. It's not entirely different from her own experience with losing her mother, but there were obviously some major differences. She wants to make sure she does the story justice, true experiences or not, and that it's her very best work. It will be on her resume when she starts looking for professional jobs, and she wants to make a good impression.
"Do you want me to look at it again?" Beck offers "You know I don't mind."
He's actually been rather helpful to her in her whole experience of writing, from the very beginning too. If anything, Beck has been a fresh set of eyes that has caught things that she hasn't, and he's offered an outside perspective that she wouldn't have otherwise had. At first she had been worried about letting him read the drafts, afraid that any feedback he gave her might not be genuine or authentic because he was trying to spare her feelings or too harsh because he's worked in the industry longer than she has, but his help has actually been greatly appreciated.
"Not yet." Jade admits "I'm in the middle of a few things and I don't want to stat changing them before they're finished. If that makes sense."
"Perfect sense." Beck nods "Just let me know."
They finish their meal and begin the walk back to Jade's dorm, making sure to cut through the park on their way. Jade is right, it does look beautiful under it's first real layer of snow. There are some tracks visible from people who have gone sledding or children who have made snow angels or attempted to make snow angels...but for the most part, it looks like something straight out of a Christmas card.
"I wish it had snowed at Christmas time..." Jade sighs "Would have made it more magical."
"Yeah..." Beck agrees, holding her gloved-hand tighter "After New Year's I'm always just excited for it to hurry up and melt so the warm weather can come back."
"Me too..."
"Weren't you the one who was just trying to convince me a few hours ago that the snow wasn't that bad?" Beck teases "What happened to that Jade?"
"She got cold..." Jade shivers "And she's longing for warm weather so that she doesn't have to be cold anymore."
"Alright, let's get you inside then." Beck chuckles "I can call an Uber, if you want."
"No." Jade insists "I've been walking all over this campus for three years, I'm not about to start Ubering now."
The couple makes it back to Jade's building much quicker than they usually do, they had been walking faster because it was cold. As Jade unlocks the door to let them into the lobby, snow begins falling more steadily than it had been before. The weather app says they could get up to half an inch more of snow overnight, and Beck agrees to stay with Jade rather than trying to make the trek back to his own apartment in a snowstorm at midnight.
"I wish we had a fireplace..." Jade sighs as they enter the apartment, shrugging her coat off and hanging it on the wall
"I dunno about you, but fireplaces and college students don't seem like they'd be a good combination." Beck laughs as he kicks off his boots "Especially in a dorm for upperclassman where alcohol is allowed."
"You know what I mean..." Jade rolls her eyes "My grandparents had a fireplace when I was a kid. I remember going out and playing in the snow and then coming inside and snuggling up next to my grandma on the couch while my grandpa built a fire, then watching movies until I fell asleep. When the weather gets cold now, when it snows, I dunno...I just wish I had a fireplace."
"That sounds like a really sweet memory." Beck tells her as he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her closer to him "I'll tell you what...one day, I'll get you a fireplace. Not one of those fake gas ones, a real wood-burning fireplace."
"I like that idea." Jade smiles
For multiple reasons too. For one, it's a very sweet gesture. For another...it's the first time he's mentioned a future for them more than a few months out. He sees them together long-term, long enough to be living together...living together somewhere with a fireplace.
"Good." He leans in and kisses her quickly "Me too."
Beck turns a movie on while Jade goes to retrieve her laptop, intending to work more on the finishing touches on her script. They snuggle up beside each other on the couch, with Beck engrossed in the movie and Jade staring at her computer screen. When the movie is over, Beck suggests they go to bed. It's a cold night with snow falling outside, it's the perfect night to cuddle up together in bed. Jade shakes her head though, not ready to go to sleep quite yet.
"I'm on a roll with this." She tells him "I think I can finish tonight."
"Okay, well then I'll stay up with you while you-"
"No, you've been up for over eighteen hours." Jade reminds him "You should go to bed. I'll only be like an hour behind you."
It's true, Beck had been on set rather early that day. His call time had been five in the morning, so he had been up by 3:30 to shower and get to set on time. He's exhausted, but he doesn't want to come across as unsupportive.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive." Jade nods "I'll be there soon."
"Alright..." Beck agrees, kissing her temple softly as he stands up "I love you, don't work too hard."
"I love you too." Jade smiles "I promise that I won't."
After eight months together, Beck and Jade each have a drawer of things at each other's places. A pair of pajamas and a spare outfit to put on the next morning when they stay the night, a toothbrush, socks and clean underwear, just the basics. Beck changes into his t-shirt and pajama pants and grabs his toothbrush to brush his teeth, then returns to crawl into Jade's bed. She's added another blanket in light of the cold weather, and he has to admit that he's quite comfortable and warm. It doesn't take him long to fall fast asleep.
He awakens around 2:45 in the morning to find the bed beside him empty. A bit disoriented, he moves his arm around a bit just to be sure...but his girlfriend really is nowhere to be found. The empty space beside him is cold too, there's no lingering body heat to suggest that Jade had just gotten up to go to the bathroom and will be back shortly. She hasn't come to bed yet.
With a yawn, Beck sits up and throws his legs over the side of the bed. Stumbling a bit in the dark, he moves towards the bedroom door, opening it and staggering out into the hallway and towards the living room.
"You can't keep doing this to yourself, Jadey..." He hears Cat say "You're going to get sick if you don't sleep and then you'll be screwed when it's actually time to put this thing on."
"What's going on?" Beck asks, still a bit sleepy "Jade, are you okay?"
Jade's laptop is open on the coffee table in front of her, screen shining brightly, while Jade herself sits slumped over on the couch, hiding her face in her hands.
"I just got home and found her like this." Cat tells him "This is the third time this week. She's going to work herself to death if she's not careful."
"I can take it from here..." Beck nods "Thanks, Cat."
"Sure."
"Baby..." Beck sighs, kneeling down next to Jade so that they'll be eye-to-eye when she looks up "What's goin' on?"
"I dunno..." Jade sniffs, looking up at him with red and puffy eyes, a dead giveaway that she had been crying "I just can't get this right."
"I think you're overthinking it..." Beck tells her as he rubs her back gently "The script is really good, babe."
"I need it to be great!" Jade insists "Beck! My whole future is riding on this! If it sucks I-"
"Jade." Beck takes her hands in his "It's not going to suck. You are a brilliant writer, and the script is fantastic. I should know, I've read every draft of it so far. Everything is going to be great, you just have to trust yourself and get out of your own head."
"I'm so nervous..." Jade admits
"I know you are, and that's okay." Beck moves to sit on the couch beside her, wrapping her up in a hug as he does so "But sitting here staring at a screen all night looking for something to change and depriving yourself of sleep isn't going to help you at all. The script is done. You just need to worry about acting and directing now, you'll do great at both."
She's also seriously overtired and that's making her more emotional, but he knows that mentioning that right now won't do either one of them any favors.
They sit in silence for a few minutes, Beck hugging Jade and rubbing her back while she calms down.
"Wanna go to bed?" He asks her after a while, knowing its the best option
"...yeah." She tells him quietly
Beck stands up first and helps Jade to her feet, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to guide her to her bedroom. While she changes into her pajamas and brushes her teeth, Beck returns to the main part of the apartment to turn out all of the lights and make sure the front door is locked. When he returns, Jade is already in bed. He climbs in beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist before pulling the blankets back on top of them both.
"Thank you..." She tells him
She doesn't need to say for what, he knows.
"You're welcome." He kisses her cheek "Couples support each other, right? It's what we're supposed to do."
"Right." Jade agrees "I love you."
"I love you too." He smiles "Let's get some sleep."
They're both fast asleep within a matter of minutes, cuddled up together and warm beneath the blankets while snow continues to fall outside. It's the best sleep that Jade has gotten all week.