Here's chapter 10 - enjoy!

Beck was buzzing to tell Jade the good news. A modelling offer was certainly closer to the acting realm that he was so eager to enter and, furthermore, it promised a more fulfilling and likely lucrative use of his time than making sandwiches at Subway.

He rang Jade's doorbell and waited patiently for the girl to arrive. He still hadn't managed to check his text messages, but she'd known that he was at work so it was understandable that he hadn't been able to reach his phone.

"Hey ba-" He began as the door swung open.

"Why haven't you answered my text messages?" Jade interrupted as soon as she saw him.

Beck was a little taken aback at the sudden ambush. "I haven't had the chance. I've been at work, you know that." He explained.

"You're not at work now." She challenged.

"No, but I'm here. Why would I text you when I'm outside your house?" He asked, a little irritated.

"You could've replied before you got here."

"Well, I prioritised getting here, didn't I?"

"I don't know, did you?"

Beck let out a frustrated laugh. "Are you for real?"

"Yes I'm for real, Beck, what if I'd texted you saying Toby was in the hospital?"

"Well did you?"

"No, but that's not the point."

"What is the point then? Because this feels like you're picking an argument just for the fun of it."

Jade opened her mouth to retort but was interrupted by her mother's voice from behind her.

"Jade! Are you inside or out? Close the door, for god's sake!"

Jade looked back at Beck as if debating whether to close the door in front or behind him. With a barely stifled groan she chose the latter and stepped aside so the boy could enter the house.

As soon as the door was shut, Jade turned on her heels and headed for the stairs, with Beck more chasing than accompanying her towards her room. Once inside, she flopped down onto her bed and faced him, arms crossed. Beck, meanwhile, had decided to delay the continuation of the argument by reaching into the cot by Jade's bed to pull an awake Toby into his arms. With the baby securely in his lap, he sat down in a desk chair opposite Jade.

A staring contest ensued.

"Are you gonna read your texts now?" Jade asked, breaking the silence.

Beck raised an eyebrow. "I'm right here, can't you just tell me?"

Jade groaned loudly. "Oh my god, just look at them."

Beck sighed irritably but relented, opening his phone and heading to his messages with Jade. It seemed as though she'd sent him a barrage of texts over the past few hours, all unanswered obviously.

Clearly, she'd been trying to reach him to find where the spare RV key had been. Something to do with her stepdad and his family being around. At first, Beck didn't understand why she had been so insistent on him reading the messages but as he scrolled he began to gauge the desperation through the screen in a way he wouldn't have been able to through her words.

He looked up to see Jade watching him intently.

"What happened?" He asked.

She simply shrugged. "Doesn't matter now."

Beck rolled his eyes. "Well it clearly does if you're pissed. C'mon, tell me."

"I'm pissed because you didn't reply. You didn't give a shit before, why do you care now?"

"Jesus Christ, Jade, I was at work! Do you not believe me or something?" Beck cried, exasperated.

"I believe you but-"

"Then why are you being so crazy about this? I was at work - I can't just drop everything to reply to your messages every minute."

"Don't you dare call me crazy." Jade spat. "You know how much that pisses me off."

Beck exhaled in frustration. She was right. "I'm sorry, you're not crazy. But you are overreacting to this. I'm not always gonna be available, okay? You know I have to keep that job to make money."

"I know, but you usually reply. Five seconds out of your job could've saved me hours of torture." She huffed.

"Jesus, what happened?"

"Uh, nothing!" She groaned, collapsing back onto her pillows and placing her hands over her face.

Beck let his head drop in frustration. "For god's sake Jade, you can't tell me that you've been tortured for hours and then not expand on that. I get that you feel like no one gives a shit about you but I will never be one of those people. I love you and I want to know what happened that was bad enough to put you in this mood and then maybe I can see if I can do something about it."

Jade was still for a moment, before wordlessly drawing herself up off the bed. For a moment, Beck thought she was going to walk straight out the door but instead, much to his relief, she walked towards him. Taking Toby from Beck's arms, she assumed the baby's prior position on Beck's lap and wrapped one arm around his neck, nestling her head into his cheek.

Beck smiled softly, leaning into her and wrapping an arm around her waist.

"David was being a dick again." Jade mumbled.

Beck took his head off Jade's to look at her, but she continued to look forward into the depths of her room. David was her mom's husband - her stepdad in anyone's definitions but hers. The pair weren't the firmest of friends.

"In what way?" Beck asked, gently.

"His parents were around, to see Luke or something, I don't know. And you know how he likes to use me as a story to tell."

Beck nodded. The pair had told their parents of Jade's pregnancy just before Easter earlier in the year, which had seen Jade both overhear and endure comments about it when David's family had arrived for the holiday.

"Well, I would have just stayed in my room but my mom said that I had to come down and talk to them because they were asking about us or something. She was threatening me about daycare."

Beck bit his lip, nervously. Jade's mother, Katherine, had surprisingly agreed to pay for Toby's daycare so that Jade could return to school. Beck's parents wouldn't pay and it wasn't something they could afford on their own so it really was a weight over Jade's head.

"Anyway, I went downstairs and they were going on and on about this boring fucking wedding they went to recently, with all these flowers and fucking napkin holders that were so 'gorgeous' and 'enchanting'."

Beck chuckled at the palpable disgust that seemingly dripped off her words.

"So that was god awful, but then they started asking me when I was getting married, so I said I'm not. And then they started asking about the baby and you and everything and how they thought I was engaged, but I insisted I wasn't. Anyway, it turns out David had told them we were getting married, which is stupid, but it restarted that whole conversation and they were all just getting on my back about it and I couldn't tell them all to fuck off because my mom was right there dangling the daycare fees above my head. So obviously I had to get out of there, but I couldn't leave Toby so I actually needed somewhere to go and that's why I was texting you, but of course you didn't fucking reply so I was stuck there listening to three people I hate drone on about how shameful it is that I'm an unmarried teenage whore mother to a bastard child."

Beck tightened his grip on her, sensing her discomfort. "I'm sorry that happened. I hope that you know they're dicks and you shouldn't be ashamed of anything."

Jade sighed. "I know, but it's so annoying not being able to get away from any of it. I hate being so reliant on other people."

Beck nodded. "I know the feeling."

Jade huffed. "I'm still mad at you for not replying though. If I'd known where the key was, I could've escaped."

Beck raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't need a key if you have a foot?"

"Your mom said she'd call the police if I kicked the door down again." Jade replied monotonously.

"Really? Even if you had her grandchild in your arms?" Beck asked incredulously.

Jade snorted. "It's your mom, Beck, she'd have called the cops as he was coming out of me if she could've thought of a reason."

Beck laughed. "I should've taken her up on her offer to be in the room." He joked and Jade gasped, her eyes widening.

"I would've kicked you out too." She retorted.

"Great! More room for my mom." Beck replied and Jade smacked him lightly. "Hey, if we're getting married you're gonna have to stop doing that." He joked and Jade groaned.

"Ugh, please don't. If David hears you he'll wet himself."

Beck chuckled and threw both arms tightly around Jade and Toby, who had been drifting in-and-out of sleep in Jade's lap. "Will he ever give up on that?" He asked.

Jade shook her head. "I don't think so."

David Page had been in Jade's life for twelve years, which, for most people, was more than long enough for him to gain stepfather status. But not for Jade. To her, he was her mother's husband and her brother's dad, but there was no bond between the two of them.

The two were so disconnected that when Jade and Beck had sat down in front of their parents to tell them their untimely news, David had not been part of the audience. He had had to hear it from Jade's mother.

All of this made his obsession with Jade and Beck's theoretical wedding all the more strange. He wasn't Jade's dad, or even a father figure in her eyes, and she couldn't understand why someone who was clearly not particularly bothered about her existence would be so interested in her significant life choices.

Nevertheless, it had only been days after Jade had revealed her pregnancy that he had pulled Beck from her room and demanded that he propose.

"It's what a man would do." He'd said.

Beck, a little timidly, had backed away with his hands in the air. "I'm taking responsibility sir, I promise."

"You will take responsibility by marrying her, kid. You do not get my stepdaughter pregnant, force her to keep the baby and then not marry her!"

"Force me? He's not forcing me to do anything, David, we made a decision together." Jade, now at Beck's side, had spat.

"This is between me and Beck, Jade. Go back to your room."

"Fuck off, David. I don't want to get married."

"You don't have a choice, Jade. You get pregnant, you get married, and that's the end of it."

"Oh my god, you're so old fashioned. I'm not even sixteen yet and you're trying to wife me off, you fucking freak."

"Jade." Katherine had warned, uneasy with the unravelling situation.

"I'm not getting married, mom, reign in your psycho husband." Jade had replied.

"Is he telling you to say this?" David had asked, pointing at Beck, who'd reacted with irritated confusion.

"No! I haven't told her to say anything." Beck had insisted.

David's eyes had almost seem to burn red in that moment and he lunged for Beck, taking him by the collar and throwing him back against the wall. "You listen here, Beck. You may think you're a man now that can do whatever he wants and sleep with whoever he likes, but you're really just a stupid little boy and you will not come into my family home and talk to me in that manner."

"You've got the wrong impression of me, sir. I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not doing whatever I want or sleeping around or anything. I love Jade, I don't want to be with anyone else and I'm going to stick around for her and the baby, I promise."

David, seemingly satisfied with that answer, had released Beck from his grip and the boy had shuffled over towards Jade, the pair sharing a look of concern.

"This matter isn't finished." David had warned.

Jade had rolled her eyes. "Yes it fucking is." She retorted, taking Beck's hand and pulling him out of the door with her. They hadn't even planned on going out, but she needed air and, more importantly, space from the people that were attempting to control her life.

The door slammed behind the pair with an air of finality that Jade solemnly knew was temporary. She'd have to come right back through it soon enough.