By Any Other Name

Chapter Ten

Beck couldn't help but grin as he walked into school that day. It was a lovely 79 degrees outside, the sky was blue, his bedhead was perfectly messy, and Tori had agreed to go out with him on Friday night. This was great day.

Yesterday he'd been so worried she'd say no, or something like 'Jade's my friend I can't I'm sorry' and he'd spent the seven minutes it took for her to reply pacing back and forth in his trailer. He really liked Tori; he loved her smile, her personality, her voice... and let's be real. Tori had a great figure. In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have asked her out so soon after the break-up, but Jade had made it very clear that they were over.

Thinking of Jade made his grin falter.

He'd never been so angry with her than he had been yesterday. Looking back, it scared him, how angry he had been. Even so, why she thought she had a right to interfere in what could be a great, long-lasting relationship was completely beyond him, and he'd been putting up with her attitude for years! He thought he'd seen it all! Hell, he'd seen her set a kid's set on fire just because he'd insulted her singing! But what she'd done yesterday had topped that, easily. Going so far as to make up some crap about liking her... liking her that way... it was just too much. He had been so pissed off. If he hadn't have stormed out of there when he did, he could have very well done something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

But he had left, left Jade behind in that dark, empty closet and decided to move on with his life. He'd sent Tori a text, asking her to go out with him, and she'd said yes.

To bring his grin back up to full capacity, he retrieved his phone from his pocket. Scrolling through the texts, he stopped when he found Tori's reply. Reading it brought the grin back full force, even splitting it into a full-on smile.

'I'd love to :) see you at school tomorrow?'

He kept on smiling all the way to his locker, staring down at his phone as he went ahead and read through the entire conversation. Luckily, he didn't bump into anyone, plus he knew the walk to his locker by heart.

His first text had been simple; he'd been too nervous to write anything eloquent. 'Hey Tori, what're you doing Friday night?'

'Nothing that I know of. Why? What're you doing?'

'I dunno. I was wondering if maybe we could go out to a movie or dinner or something. That is, if you want to'

Seven minutes. Seven horrible minutes while he'd waited for her reply, but it had been worth it. Today he'd ask her where she wanted to go, and on Friday he'd make sure they had the best first date ever, and Jade would just have to deal with it.

A voice made him look up from his phone. "Yo, Beck!"

"Sup, man?" It was André, heading straight for him with fear written across every feature. Beck cocked a brow, wondering why in the world such a big dude looked like a terrified two year old on a haunted hayride.

"Dude, what up with Jade? She's been practically growling at every person that comes within a five foot radius! What did you do?! Please don't tell me you decided, after all this time, to hook up with Alyssa Vaughn! Aw man, if you did, she's gonna kill us all!"

"Dude, relax." André was twitching fiercely, eyes darting around the hallway, keeping a lookout for the black cloud of terror that was an angry Jade West. Instead of being nervous or frightened though, Beck was only irritated. Even though André was probably just overreacting, Jade still had no right to be so angry. She'd said it herself: they were over. She'd told him that she didn't love him anymore. That should have been the end of it.

But wait... I know Jade. She's only ever really angry when she's been hurt. Man... I mean, I feel awful but I can't just wait for her to be okay... she's never gonna be 'okay' and I have a life to live. She's gonna have to get over it. She has a right to be upset... but still...