Summary: She thinks that one day, he might feel something and realize what a mistake he's made. / Beck, Jade, and after.

A/N: BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS BADE'S BREAKUP AND EVERYTHING HURTS.

She sees him in the hall on Monday, and she's conflicted between slapping him and wanting to run into his arms and say something Jade West never says: I'm sorry.

Of course, he just gives her this tired sort of half-smile, as if he were greeting any old friend. He gives her a small wave, but his heart's not really in it and she knows he doesn't know what to do.

Three years. Three years of their life together. It's only natural that they try to remain somewhat friendly, except friendly isn't the right term. It's more like a simple acknowledgment of each other's existence at this point.

She doesn't slap him, nor does she get to speak to him. He walks away to class without her, without anyone around him.

Jade realizes that she doesn't really have anyone either. They're both so...alone.

The rest of the gang is, naturally, divided.

André and Tori lean more toward supporting Beck, while Cat and Robbie try to be there for Jade. Nobody cares about Trina's opinion (quite a few people actually blame her for some of what happened that night), and Sinjin is, well, Sinjin.

"You know, you two could talk to each other," André casually tosses out to Beck one day during lunch. "Yeah, or we could just continue to ignore each other," is his reply.

"Oh, come on!" Tori whines. "You guys just can't act like you don't know each other at all!"
"We don't. I wave at her in the hallway and sometimes she sort of smiles back at me".

Tori and André just give each other knowing glances and give Beck pity stares.
He throws his water bottle a little too hard into the recycling container when he leaves. But who can blame him, really?

Elsewhere, Cat and Robbie try to get Jade to calm down as she's crying.

"He won't even talk to me, Cat! What am I supposed to do?"
Cat thought for a second, and then said something that actually made sense:
"Maybe you just need to tell your heart and your brain that they need to work together! If you two didn't argue all the time, maybe he would talk to you now!"

Robbie nodded. "He's probably afraid that you'll get into an even bigger fight than before. He still cares about you, Jade".

"What do you know? If he cared he would have opened the door!"

No one speaks for a few minutes, and Cat and Robbie make brief, awkward eye contact until he speaks again.
"Jade, you need to trust us on this. We know it's not easy right now, but for your sake and everyone else's, you have to try".

The rest of the gang, naturally, also plots and connives in order to force the two of them to at least talk to each other.

Tori drags Jade into the janitor's closet (instead of the other way around for once), insisting that they had to talk about everything. They open the door, and Tori acts surprised when she sees Robbie and Beck on the ground, but Jade isn't stupid and knows they planned this.

"Uh, I...I totally forgot! Robbie, don't we have to go practice that scene for Sikowitz's class?" She nudges him with her elbow.
"Right, we do! Let's go do that now!" They exit, leaving Jade and Beck alone.

Neither of them speak. Beck ruffles his hair, and Jade is reminded of the reasons why she fell in love with him in the first place. He's not as sure of himself as he comes off, and she loves that about him. He's not perfect, and he's not afraid to let her know that.
I was such an idiot to take him for granted, she thinks.

She quickly snaps out of her thoughts when he asks:

"So...how are you?"
She looks at him, pensive, and replies:
"You know. Just trying to get through by the skin of my teeth. Why did everyone decide to give us major projects at the same time?"
He chuckles. "Because no one has done their job and they need grades. That's how it usually goes".

"Are we okay, Beck?"

She can see him stiffen as she asks him that question.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, can we be 'just friends'?" she asks, making quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

He thinks for a second, and then truthfully answers:
"I don't know if I could ever be 'just friends' with you, Jade".
For the second time that week, she's torn between slapping him and running into his arms.
She wants to say to him: What if we tried harder? What if I tried not to be so possessive or angry?

What comes out is:
"Okay".

To: Jade
From: Beck

When I said I don't think we could be just friends, I meant it.

To: Jade
From: Beck

I don't know how to stop loving you.

She doesn't reply to either text. She doesn't know what to say.

He comes up to her in the hallway, and both of them start to talk at the same time.

"What if-" she starts as he says "Can we-" and both of them stop talking.

"You go first," Beck says.

"What if I tried harder? Could you take me back if I promised you that, Beck? I can try to let myself become more...caring about others. Not just you. Hell, I'd even start to care about Tori if it meant you would give me one last chance".

"That's kind of what I wanted to say. Can we try at a different angle this time? Maybe we could both try to soften the parts of us that make each other angry. I won't let myself get riled up over something as stupid as a game show – did you know that Sinjin's PearPad app failed halfway through and so he just made up the results? And you can do what you suggested. Try to care about others and what they think of me. As much as I love you, we have friends that we need. We can't let our anger ruin their lives and their fun. It's not fair to us or them".

She smiled, and said.
"We have a deal," and went to embrace him.

He hugged her, and felt her worry melt away in his arms.
They were back where they belonged.

"Okay guys, you can come back now!" Beck said.

Tori, André, Cat, and Robbie rounded the corner excitedly.

"YAY! YOU'RE BACK TOGETHER AGAIN!" Cat shouted.

Everyone else couldn't wipe the grins off their faces.

"And you guys are going to argue less, aren't you?" André asked.
Their fingers twined together as they nodded.

"I think you guys are going to see a big change in our relationship dynamic from here on in," Jade supplied.

Everything was right with the universe again.

Fin.

Review if you want Bade to reunite. And also to tell me if you liked it. =)