A/N: This hit me at work and I had it all written out in my head. Now to try and remember it and get it on paper.

This was inspired by a book I read years ago, in it the author wrote that two of the characters were the one and a million couple who found and started dating their soul mate in high school. Jade and Beck remind me of that line.

He can see his life, how it would have been, if things had gone in typical life fashion and he met The One later on, during late college or shortly after graduation.

He would have dated Cat. She's pretty and would make him smile. They'd say they're in love. He'd carry her books because she thinks it makes him a gentleman and hold hands in the hall. She'd smile prettily at him and blink those large blue eyes and he'd kiss her lips and offer to drive her home after school every day.

She'd get annoying. Always positive, easily offended and so damn happy all the time. She has the attention span of a goldfish and bounces back from anything within seconds; a fact he'd love at first, but it wouldn't last. He'd break it off just before the four month mark; a decent time for a high school relationship. He's pretty sure they'd stay friends, she's too positive for them not too.

Tori'd be his High School Sweetheart. He'd ask her out after acting class, joking that she owed him a new coffee... and a new shirt, and she'd laugh and blush, dark eyes flitting to the floor before meeting his as she agrees. She'd insist on paying, laughing and pointing out that he said it himself, she owned him a coffee. He'd buy later, when they go on what she says is their first official date. He'll always consider her buying him the beverage the first though.

He'd feel a little threatened that he best friend's a guy, but he'd get over it.

Their first fight would be over a forgotten anniversary and she'd cry herself to sleep that night and he'd feel like an asshole. They'd make up the next day, with an awkward "Hey" and shuffling of feet before he'd apologize and promise to make it up. She'd smile and kiss him, saying he screwed up, but she over reacted. They'd talk about it, because that's what healthy in a relationship and fights are normal. They wouldn't have every class together, because her mom says it's not healthy to spend every minute together and her dad would never let her stay out later than ten. And when they learned that he lived on his own, they'd have to hang out in his parents' house, lounging around in his old room talking and making out.

It'd be real love, as real as love can be between two seventeen-year-olds, and he'll realize he's never been in love before. They'll look at colleges together, agreeing to have a long distance relationship if they must, and they'll put on a brave front but it'll hurt, the thought of being separated. She'll major in Music and Biology because she's practical like that and still doesn't believe she's as good or talented as the kids they went to high school with.

College would split them. It's all about finding who you are and trying new things and they thought they were strong enough to survive it. There'd be long fights and weeks where they don't speak to each other. Everyone can see it coming from a mile away, but it'll take nearly a year before things are called off. They're stubborn, refusing to give up until neither can hold onto the flimsy shreds of their relationship anymore.

He'll go to class in sweats after they break up, not really bothering to do his hair and go to the bars with his friends on the weekends, listening to them tell him that no one wants a serious girlfriend in college anyways. A year and half later, when a dark hair girl tucked into his side's clipped voice is proclaiming that she doesn't want to have the ex talk , he'll realize kind of absently that Tori was everything he ever wanted.

She'll be in his Statistics Analysis class because even theatre majors such as himself are required to take math courses. She'll kind of frighten him, with her one too many facial piercings and sour demeanor. They'll bump into each other at a cheap coffee house later and he'll ask her out because scary or not, she's hot.

Their first date he'll take her to a restaurant and the waitress would be a little too friendly to him, prompting a biting remark from the dark haired girl across the table. Normally he hates jealous girls, but the way she directs her anger at the waitress and not him, deadly glare leaving the girl stuttering out a few words before walking away, feels a little nice; like she's claiming him or something.

Eight months later his roommate, whose also a psych major, will say they have dependency issues and that they need to take a break. He'll blow it off, thinking he's just mad that their already small dorm is cramped even more by her constant presence. But the next day, when they're having some random fight over his pretty lab partner in Chem, he'll call a break, saying things like "needing space" and "time away from each other." She'll leave in an angry huff and they won't talk for days. Two weeks later he'll decide his roommates an idiot and call her up while she's in class, leaving a message that they need to talk. An hour and half later he'll come out of English to see her pacing before the door, clothes baggy and hair all one tone. She's skipping a vocal class, and that alone scares him. She'll start babbling the moment she sees him, just this side of begging him not to break up with her, gray eyes filling with tears and he'll know, without a doubt, that he's going to marry her someday. He won't tell her he wasn't going to break up with her, she appreciates him more after she thought she lost him, instead he'll take her hand and kiss her softly, cutting off her words before walking her to the cafe down the street.

He met her in Short Story. The semester's half over and they've never spoken but she's speaking loudly now, complaining to a redhead about her mom's claim she can't get a facial piercing and how she knows this guy that won't card her. He kind of panics at this, thinking of her in some dirty shop with unclean needles infested with disease. "My brother's friend owns a shop. If I ask.." He doesn't finish the sentence, and she shots him an aggravated glare, something he'll grow used to, before agreeing. They talk on the way, about tattoos and piercings and how he's almost saved up to buy this trailer he wants and he makes an offhand comment about not liking lip rings on girls on the way in, "I think it'd be awkward to kiss with." She gets her nose and eyebrow done and then claims she'd rather have a tattoo then the third she'd inquired about on the phone, shelling out the extra cash and Beck is unsure if it's his words that changed her mind or if it'd been something she'd been thinking about all along.

He's watching his dad being pulled away, bandaged and bloody and his thoughts are a jumble as to what exactly happened. She's about to cry though, babbling away, her words not even registering as he realizes she's brash and aggressive and nothing that he wanted. He can't live without her (he's tried), she's exactly what he needs.

A/N: I have nothing against lip rings, but I needed some facial piercing that he didn't like, so that's what I used.