Behind The Scenes

Prom Wrecker

Beck wrestles with his suitcase as he tries to unlock his door. It's almost midnight and all he wants to do is sleep. While he enjoys visiting his family in Canada, the jetlag never gets better.

His door gives way, finally, and he pushes through it. He flicks the lights on and drops his bag. He can unpack tomorrow. He turns to his bed and then freezes. Jade is in his bed. In a prom dress. He walks over quietly, thinking that she must be asleep. But as he gets closer he can see that her eyes are wide open and bloodshot. Beck glances over to where she's staring but there's nothing.

"Babe?" She doesn't respond. She doesn't even look at him.

Beck takes a moment to reassess. The dark teal dress is wrinkled like someone forgot to line dry it after putting it through the wash. Black heels are strapped to Jade's feet.

He could have sworn that the prom was a couple days ago, but it must have been tonight. Beck reaches out to gently rub Jade's arm. He needs to get her out of these clothes and maybe make some food before they go to sleep, but when his hand lands on her arm he pulls back. Her skin is cold. Unnaturally cold, even for Jade. That's when it clicks. The prom was a couple days ago and Jade hasn't moved in two days.

"Jade. You need to stand up, okay?" Beck takes both of her hands. "1, 2...3." She doesn't move. "That's okay. I've got you." Beck takes off his jacket and throws it on the end of his bed. He rolls up his sleeves and works Jade's heels off. Then maneuvers her into his arms. He carries her into the bathroom. He should have thought this through because he can't turn the shower on while holding Jade.

After a few minutes of struggling, he finally gets the water on and turned to hot. He gives the water 5 minutes to heat up before he carefully steps into the shower with Jade. He can feel the water soaking through his clothes as he lets her down slowly, leaning her against the wall. When Beck is sure that she won't fall, he reaches for the side zipper on her dress. "We're going to take this off, okay?" The dress sticks to her, but he manages to roll it down to her ankles. He crouches down and lifts one foot at a time. Once the dress is off Beck tosses it out of the shower. He can deal with that later. He unsnaps her bra and peels off her soaked underwear. They follow her dress.

He stands in front of Jade trying to make eye contact, but she's just staring through him. "Let's sit down, okay?" Beck helps her down onto the floor. He turns the temperature up knowing that the further she is from the shower head the cooler the water will be. He glances at her shampoo and conditioner before impulsively grabbing them.

His shoes squeak as he kneels next to her. He rubs her arms trying to warm her. Her skin isn't cold to the touch anymore, but he's sure the hot water has more to do with that than he does. He tilts her head back into the water making sure that her hair is soaked. Then he reaches for her shampoo. He tries his best to lather her hair, but he can tell by how difficult it is that she hasn't showered in days. He washes the shampoo out and shifts their positions so that her back isn't under the water, then he works the conditioner into the ends of her hair. Almost immediately, he rinses the conditioner out. He knows that he should leave it in longer, but this isn't an ideal situation for proper hair care.

Jade is starting to feel hot under the water, so he stands up to turn it off. "We're going to get out. Ready?" He takes both her hands and pulls. This time she stands with his help. He helps her step out and wraps her in a towel hanging on the bathroom door.

He takes the time to run the towel over her body until she's almost completely dry. He sits her down on the closed toilet. When he reenters the bathroom he has her underwear, a pair of her sweatpants, and his Hollywood Arts sweatshirt. "Arms up." He pulls the sweatshirt on over her head, pulls her arms through, then pulls her hair out. "One foot at a time." He pulls her underwear and then pants up.

Beck plugs in his hairdryer and starts to dry her hair. Once he can feel that only the ends are damp, he turns off the hairdryer and pulls Jade up. He walks her back to his bed and helps her lay down. He pulls the blankets over her. She's still staring at nothing but at least she's clean, warm, and not in formal wear.

Beck peels off his wet clothes and hangs them up in the bathroom with Jade's dress. He hesitates as he passes his small kitchen. He wants to make her food because he's pretty confident that she hasn't eaten in two days. But he doesn't think he could get her to eat right now. And he's really freaking tired.

Beck decides that food is tomorrow's problem. He pulls on his own pjs and climbs into bed with Jade. He tries to stay awake until she falls asleep, but his eyes flutter closed against his will a half-hour later.

_______________________

Beck glances at his phone as Tori and Andre laugh about something. He's already pushed aside his lunch and now he's just waiting for Jade to text him back. He thinks she slept a couple hours last night and she ate most of a frozen waffle this morning (he'll take what he can get). They'd hadn't talked about whether she should go to school today. In fact, Jade isn't really talking. After the waffle, he'd set up snacks and water on his nightstand and left her in his bed with a promise that he'd be back after school and to text him.

He still doesn't know what happened at prom, but he doesn't know if it matters. Maybe something triggered it this time, but this is hardly new. Sometimes Jade stops being a functioning human. She doesn't go to school, she doesn't get out of bed, she doesn't eat.

Tori pulls him from his thoughts as she says, "Beck, you should have been there!"

"Been where?"

"The prome! It was so much fun."

Beck glances back to his phone. He still hasn't heard from Jade. Although he knows better than to get his hopes up. "Prom's not really my thing."

"Ugh, is that because of Jade? Because she was such a gank. Everyone else had an amazing time."

Beck glances up sharply. "What do you mean?"

Andre seems a little suspicious of his answer, but Tori takes the opportunity to complain about Jade without the girl herself there to intimidate her. "She tried to ruin the whole thing. There was this freaky video and she hired some creepy diaper guy, but that just backfired on her since he ended up following her around all night. But seriously, if she'd just relaxed, she might have had some fun. What a concept." Tori rolls her eyes.

"A guy in a diaper followed her around all night?" Beck isn't even trying to keep the edge out of his voice. Maybe it doesn't matter what triggered Jade, but their friends leaving her to a fucking creep all night does matter.

"She was fine, man. We were looking out for her." Andre pipes up. He knows how protective Beck can be and he did try to keep an eye on Jade.

Tori is oblivious though. "Are you kidding? She totally disappeared halfway through and thank god."

Andre watches Beck clench his jaw. "I mean she left early, but she was fine while she was there." Beck doesn't look reassured.

"Where is Jade anyway?" Tori glances around the asphalt cafe, but looks to Beck when she doesn't find Jade.

"She's sick," Beck spits out.

"Oh. Well, it did rain on prome and everyone-."

Beck stands abruptly. He grabs his bag as he curtly says, "I'm going home."

"You're skipping?" Tori squeaks.

Beck doesn't bother to respond as he throws his lunch out on the way to the parking lot.