I don't need sleep. Cuz sleep is for the weak.

Jade

"You worthless bitch!" Beck Oliver screamed into the back seat of his car. "I am so sick of your crappy attitude about everything! We've been together for five years, and you won't even change for me?"

"If you want change so bad, then why don't you leave me?" Jade replied, her voice practically in a snarl. "You can find another girl who'll be your little puppet and give you all the meaningless sex you want. See yuh." With that, the girl threw open her door, slammed it behind her, then stormed off into the night.

"Where are you going?" Beck demanded, shouting out the window.

"Away from you!" Jade called back. The blond-haired teenager swore, on that night, that she would never let anyone into her heart ever again.

All those idiots I have to go to school with, the freakin' media, and all those magazines make it sound like dating is an essential part of life. Like you're not worth crap without a boyfriend. Do they really think there's someone out there for everyone? Screw what my parents told me, I'm spending the rest of my life alone.

Jade stormed into her house, ran up to her room, slammed the door behind her so hard her arm began to ache, then dropped down on her bed, pressed her pillow into her face, and screamed until her throat was raw. Five years. Five years! All for nothing. I made an ass out of myself in front of everyone at Hollywood Arts, let that creep kiss me and rub my back in public. I acted like a stupid whore. How could I have been so stupid? The girl clenched her forehead tightly, feeling hot tears forming in her eyes and an agonizing lump well up in her throat.

I don't even know who I am anymore. I let Beck ruin me. Tears continued to fall, staining the sheets on the girl's bed. It all hurt so bad: the loss, the shame, the regret. What am I feeling? I haven't asked myself that question for years. Am I really getting this upset that I left that jerk? No, I'm angry. He did everything he could to change me, and I was too clueless to know. I paraded around like a baby, so overjoyed that I had a boyfriend. The teenager stood up, her eyes locked in a scowl, and walked into her bathroom. She left the drying tears around her eyes, wearing them as a sort of scar to make up for what she had done to herself.

Inside the light-blue-tiled bathroom, Jade looked at herself in the mirror. With one final disgusted thought of Beck, she grabbed a thing of hair dye, and poured it onto her scalp. Rubbing it in, the girl saw her bright blond hair turn to a depressing, practically black color. Looking up at her changing self, Jade violently shot her arm out, and grabbed a black mascara dispenser. Grimly, the girl painted around her eyes, locking on them a look of disdain.

Her mother's words rang in her head like wind chimes in a furious tornado: I'm so glad you found your missing puzzle piece. I knew you'd be happy once you found someone. Her rage reaching a climax, the girl thrust her fist into the mirror, shattering it around the reflection of her new self. Jade then stormed back into her bedroom. The old Jade West is dead. I'll never be hurt or used again.

"What happened to Jade?" Robbie asked one day.

"She's so cold," Tori added. "I can't even talk to her anymore."

"We used to be such close friends," Cat said, tears forming in her eyes. "But she's so different now."

"I miss the old Jade," Andre declared.

"When did she and Beck break up?" Tori asked.

"I don't know," Katrina added. "But I think he was her last boyfriend."

Jade walked down the hallway of Hollywood Arts, her eyes locked on the exit. No one to call, no plans to keep or make, just solitude. No more "being out there", no more obsessing over the way she looked, no more pain. Those guys are such pansies. They couldn't live without someone to date. I used to be like them. The girl exited the building, and walked back to her home, her mind finally at peace.