Trying to finish college while being in rehearsals for Our Town at the same time quickly becomes very stressful for Jade. She wakes up, goes to class, goes straight from class to rehearsals for the rest of the day, comes home to eat dinner, and then goes to bed. Maybe she has a bit of time in between to study or work on her homework, if she's lucky. Thankfully, graduation is approaching and life will only have to be this way for a little while longer...she isn't sure if she would be able to sustain this kind of lifestyle for an extended amount of time.
As exciting as it is to be almost-graduated and working her first professional job, Jade feels like she barely gets to see Beck anymore. His show just wrapped its first season and he has about three months off before they'll go back to start the second, so he has more free time than ever. Now it's Jade who is always busy or working. The couple begins to live for Friday nights and weekends, the only time it seems like Jade isn't in class or in rehearsal. They cherish their time together that much more, because it seems like they get less and less of it with each day that passes.
"I don't know how my parents did it..." Jade admits to Beck one Friday night as they lay in bed watching a movie "Going to school, working, and taking care of me? I've only been doing the 'full time student, full time job' thing for a few weeks and I'm exhausted. There isn't even a kid involved."
She didn't even have the energy to go out to the bars tonight, requesting that they stay in and have a quiet night instead. Beck happily obliged her, figuring they were about due for a night in anyways. It seems like they're always going out, and they could both probably use a break from it for the weekend.
"I think in those kinds of situations people just...find a way." Beck shrugs "Like, they don't really have any other options. They just have to make it work."
"S'true, I suppose." Jade agrees "I'm glad that's not something I have to worry about right now though."
It's hard for her to fathom, the idea of having a child on top of everything else in her life right now. She's twenty-two years old. When her parents were her age, she herself was already a walking, somewhat talking, two year-old.
"Me too." Beck agrees "Don't get me wrong, I want to have kids one day, but I think I need to be a bit more established both as an adult and in my career."
"You want to have kids?"
"I do yeah. Like I said, one day...not right now." Beck tells her "Do you...?"
"One day, yeah. Not any time soon though, I'm really focused on my career right now." Jade echoes her boyfriend's thoughts "You said kids, like with an 's'. Would you have more than one?"
They're both only children, Beck by his parent's choice and Jade because her mother had passed and her father never remarried. They've both admitted to each other that they would have liked to have had at least one sibling, if for no other reason than to know what it's like.
"At least two." Beck nods "I...we've talked about this before, y'know? Growing up without any siblings kind of sucked. Sure, it did occasionally have it's perks but at the end of the day...I want my own children to know what it's like to have a brother or a sister."
"Me too." Jade agrees "I don't know if I could have more than three...I feel like once you're outnumbered, things start to get a little dicey and then when you're outnumbered by more than one..."
"Yeah, four sounds like a lot." Beck laughs "Two or three seems like a good amount."
"Listen to us talking about kids like we can just...purchase them or something." Jade smirks "Not like they're living, breathing, beings that take a ton of effort to create."
"Well, s'not something we would have to worry about for a while anyways, right?" Beck tells her "S'not like you're pregnant...are you?"
"Oh my god, no." Jade assures him "This whole conversation started because I said I was happy I don't have any kids, remember?"
"Right." Beck chuckles "Well, thank goodness for that."
"Yeah really."
They're both quiet for a moment, the only sound coming from the movie on the TV. Jade is once again thinking about her parents and how much respect she has for them being able to find a way to balance school, work, and her at the same time. Beck, on the other hand, is thinking about what his future could look like, especially what his future with Jade could look like. Will they have kids one day? Right now he feels like it's too soon to know. But their first anniversary is quickly approaching, and things are going well...very well. He's the happiest he's ever been and while he knows some of that can be attributed to his career, he also knows most of it is because of the woman laying wrapped up in his arms right now.
He wants to take the next step with her, and he hopes that she wants to take it with him as well.
"So, speaking of the future..." Beck breaks the silence in the room "I wanted to talk to you about something..."
He waits for some kind of response from Jade, but she doesn't make one. Confused, he looks over to see that her eyes are closed and her breathing has become more slow and even. She's fast asleep, obviously exhausted from a very busy week of being in class full time and being in rehearsals. Beck can't blame her for that, if anything he's a bit relieved that she's finally getting the sleep that she so very badly needs. They can have this conversation another time, maybe even the next day if the circumstances are right.
"G'nite, babe..." He whispers to her as he reaches for the remote to turn the TV off "I love you."
Beck awakes the next morning to find Jade draped halfway across his chest, her face buried in his neck. One of his arms is wrapped around her, holding her close. Whether he had done this willingly in the middle of the night and just doesn't remember, or whether he had done it instinctually while they were both unconscious, he can't be sure. Either way, he's not surprised. It isn't that uncommon for them to fall asleep in one position and wake up in another.
He expects his girlfriend to be asleep but when he shifts ever so slightly so his neck is in a more comfortable position, she turns her own head to look at him and smiles sleepily.
"Good morning..." She yawns
"Good morning." He smiles back at her "How'd you sleep?"
"Oh, so good." She admits "I don't think I woke up once."
"Wouldn't surprise me." Beck chuckles "You seemed pretty tired, you fell asleep on me pretty early last night."
"Shit, did I?" Jade laughs "I'm sorry."
"Don't be." He assures her "You've been working on overdrive for the past few weeks, you deserve the sleep."
"Y'know what we should do?"
"What?"
"We should go over to that bakery on the next block that has those cinnamon donuts." Jade suggests "I could so go for a cinnamon donut right now."
"So could I, but..." Beck takes his phone off of the charger on the bedside table and checks the time "...they're probably out of them by now. S'already after 10:30."
"Shut up, no it's not..."
"Sure is." Beck chuckles, turning the phone so she can see the time "I told you that you were tired last night."
"Aw man." Jade pouts
"We can go tomorrow." Beck assures her "And we'll set an alarm this time so that we don't miss it two days in a row."
"Alright, fine..."
"Don't be sad." Beck teases, wrapping both arms around her now and squeezing her tightly "Sad Jade is no fun."
"I can't be too sad." Jade sighs "I woke up next to you."
"So about that..."
"Oh god, what is it?" Jade asks
That kind of transition between conversation topics can't mean anything good, at least she doesn't think.
"Nothing bad, I don't think." Beck assures her "I just...I don't think we'll have that many 'wake ups' left in this apartment after this weekend is all."
"Oh?"
Jade shifts positions so that she's laying next to Beck, rather than on top of him. It makes it easier to have a conversation. Beck shifts his position as well, and they're both laying on their sides facing each other.
"The studio put me up in this place for a year." Beck explains "They pay me more than enough to afford this place now, so in the next few weeks I have to make the choice to either take over the payments myself or find somewhere else to live. I think I want to move."
"Oh..." Jade nods, slightly relieved that it's something as simple as moving and nothing to do with the state of their relationship "Move where, exactly?"
"I'm not sure yet exactly." He tells her "I've been torn between staying around here, or trying out Chelsea or the Upper West Side. I wanted to talk to you about it."
"Me?"
"Yeah..." Beck reaches out and tucks some of her hair behind her ear "Because I've been thinking that wherever I end up...you could be there with me..."
He had wanted to bring this up to her last night, before she fell asleep unexpectedly. The idea has been floating around in his head for a while now, about how both of their names should be on his next lease. They've been together for close to a year, and they spend practically every free moment with each other anyway, it's the next logical step for their relationship.
"Are you asking me to move in with you?"
"I am, yeah." He admits with a smile "What do you think?"
Jade isn't sure what she thinks. Her heart tells her to say yes to him immediately, that of course she wants to live with him. They love each other and things are going more than well for their relationship, why shouldn't they move in together? But her head tells her something different. It tells her that it isn't logical, she's never lived entirely on her own and she should try to experience that before she lives with a man.
But what good has listening to her head ever done for her? Her head told her to stay with Marcus for as long as she did, that they would be able to work through their issues...and look how that ended for her. Her head told her to stay in and work on her theater history paper that night almost a year ago until Cat talked her into going out. Thank god she had listened to Cat instead, imagine where she'd be today if she hadn't.
Yes, listening to her heart has always done her so much more good than listening to her head ever has. Rather than diving into this headfirst, she's going to dive heartfirst.
"I think that sounds like a great idea." She grins "But-"
"I know, I know." Beck stops her "You and Cat want to finish out the school year together, I completely understand."
"Well, yes...that's true." Jade agrees "And I appreciate you acknowledging that and being respectful of it, but that's not what I was going to say."
"What were you going to say?"
"You make a lot more money than I do right now." Jade points out "Hopefully it won't be that way forever, but right now I can't afford to live in any of the places that you listed."
Honestly, her plan post-graduation was going to be to move back in with her dad until her first few paychecks from Our Town came though...then find an affordable studio somewhere nearby. She can't afford to live in any of the neighborhoods that Beck mentioned, even with them splitting the rent fairly.
"I understand that too." Beck assures her "And that's okay. I-"
"I don't want to take advantage of your paycheck, Beck."
"You wouldn't have to." Beck tells her "I know you're still in that transition period right now where you have work, but you haven't seen the payoff yet. I've been there before too, and I get it. So I was going to tell you...that until we're able to split everything equally, I would pay the rent and electrical, and you would pay for water and groceries. What do you think?"
It's definitely not an even split, but as they had both just voiced...an even split just isn't possible at the moment.
"I think...it sounds fair for the moment." Jade nods in agreement "But as soon as I'm able-"
"Fifty-fifty." Beck stops her, chuckling a bit "I know."
"I'm not trying to be a bitch about it, I swear." Jade confesses "I just don't want to go through life always relying on someone for something, you know? I want to be able to pull my own weight."
"I know you do, that's why I'm not fighting back on any of this." Beck laughs "And as much as I would love to discuss the specifics of everything right now...we're missing the very obvious celebration here. We're going to live together."
"Yeah." Jade grins "We are. I love you."
"I love you too." Beck tells her as he leans over to kiss her "Just think, we get to go to bed together every night and wake up next to each other every morning."
"And have sex whenever we want." Jade adds
"That too." Beck smirks "I think we should start getting used to that part now, don't you?"
"Oh, for sure." Jade agrees as she moves to climb on top of him "The more practice we get with that, the better."
After discussing it and doing a fair amount of research comparing the various neighborhoods that Beck had in mind, he and Jade decide that they want to move to the Upper West Side. It will be closer to work for both of them than Greenwich Village currently is, closer to Jade's father in Midtown, and closer to the heart of the city where most of their entertainment options are. The only downside, for Jade at least, is that they'll no longer be within walking distance of Cat and Robbie, who will be staying close to the NYU campus so Robbie can attend grad school there. Even Tori and Andre, who plan to move to the Kip's Bay neighborhood together once they graduate, will be further than Beck is used to having them, although he and Andre had lived in opposite parts of the city to start with. Either way, both couples that Beck and Jade are friends with will always be a short Uber ride away, and they're thankful for that.
When Jade had told her father her plans for after graduation, he reacted much differently than she expected him to. She expected some lecture about how she and Beck haven't been together that long in the grand scheme of things, and how she should experience living on her own first before she moves in with a boy. Instead, her father seems...supportive? In his own unique way.
"I'm not surprised." John tells her "I figured you two would be headed in that direction soon enough anyway. Congratulations."
"Thanks?" Jade responds "I think."
"You were expecting a lecture?"
"I don't know what I had been expecting." Jade lies
She had totally been expecting a lecture. Every life choice she's ever made has come with a lecture in some respect. Choosing a college, choosing a major, even picking an on-campus job. She knows her father only does it because he loves her and wants what is best for her and because he cares, but sometimes the lectures can be overwhelming.
"Life is short, Jade." John shrugs "You and I of all people should know that. You should be allowed to take risks and try new things without worrying about what I think."
"You think moving in with Beck is a risk?"
"All choices that we make are risks, Jade." He explains "Not all risks are bad. Most of them turn out to be good risks. I think this will be a good risk for you. You and Beck seem like a really good fit for one another, and I hope that this is just the first major step for the two of you in the line of many."
That explanation makes Jade feel a lot better. She sees his point, every choice is a risk because every choice has an undetermined outcome. Hopefully this outcome is a good one, like her father had said. Hopefully this is the first of the major life choices that they will make together, even though the next one is most likely a long way off. Regardless, she's happy that her father is sparing her the lecture, at least for tonight.
"Thanks, Dad." Jade manages to smile "Once graduation is over and we're all moved in, we'll have to have you over for dinner."
"I would really like that." John admits "I can't wait."