Behind The Scenes

The Worst Couple

Beck whirls around in the driveway at Jade's words. "You what?"

Jade glances anxiously towards his parent's house. There are no lights on but they've just gotten out of school and the afternoon light is still enough that his parents may be home anyway. "Can we just go inside?"

Beck rolls his eyes. "Like my parents don't hear us fighting all the time?" He bangs his hand against the RV. "It's not soundproof." Jade glares at him as she stalks past him and pushes the door open. She slams it in his face when he follows her. "What the fuck, Jade?"

"Yelling at me in the middle of the goddam street, that's bullshit." She hisses.

Beck sighs as he holds up his hands. "Fine. I'm sorry." He points his finger at her. "But how could you keep that a secret from me?"

"It wasn't a secret." He rolls his eyes. "It's my decision! It's my life!"

"You need help."

"I got help." Jade crosses her arms over her chest. This is why she didn't tell him.

"You didn't even try therapy! And now you're telling me you stopped taking your medication two weeks ago and never bothered to tell me?"

"I don't have to tell you!" He would never understand.

"You're right. You don't. But since I'm fucking in love with you, I'd love the heads up."

Jade shrugs. "Too bad."

They stand in silence for a long time. Not the 60 or so seconds that people usually endure before becoming uncomfortable. No, they stand there for 10 minutes before Jade declares, "I'm going home."

She grabs her bag that she dropped by the door and storms out.

"How are you going to get home?" He yells after her.

"I'll take the bus!" Sure. she'd have to wait 30 minutes for the next one and transfer 4 times just to get close enough to walk home but it's better than letting Beck drive her.

***

Jade grabs Beck's hand as they slowly filter out of Sikowtiz's class. She can feel his annoyance before he even looks at her. "Cut it out."

Beck raises his eyebrows at her. "Excuse me?"

"If you're mad at me, be mad at me but have the decency to shut up about it in class."

"You're mad at me for causing a scene and putting our relationship woes on display? Are you kidding me?"

"I have never brought up any of our real fights in school ever." Jade glances around at the people walking past them.

"I haven't said anything."

Jade rolls her eyes and then hisses through gritted teeth, "Don't talk to me the rest of the day."

Beck runs his fingers through his hair as he watches her walk off. There's a part of him that wants to go after her. Wants to apologize and tell her he loves her but he can't bring himself to do it. He knows she has a point but he can't keep this bottled up anymore. He just can't.

***

"It's one extra sugar! Not even. It's half an extra sugar!" Beck ignores the uncomfortable looks their friends give them. He knows they shouldn't be fighting at lunch like this. It's not fair to their friends.

Jade mocks, "It's half an extra sugar."

"You're a child." Jade makes a face at him. "Seriously?"

Jade raises an eyebrow. This isn't like Beck. Getting into fights like this in public. Or rather feeding into the fights. She yells all the time but he doesn't usually take the bait. They're both so irritable lately though that everything sparks some sort of fight. The way he chews his food, where she puts the toothpaste, the radio station in the car. Literally everything. She knows it's getting out of control. It already is out of control but she can't figure out how to stop it. It's her fault really. She's been irritable for weeks. Irrationally irritable at everything and everyone and Beck took it for as long as he could but then he snapped and they haven't been able to find their way back ever since. "Seriously?" She parrots back to him.