Soo instead of looking for a summer job I decided to start writing a new story last weekend. Who needs money anyway, huh?! This won't be too, too angsty...at least not for now. This also has a heavy Cat/Tori/Jade friendship focus as well as Beck/Jade! :)

"Beck's coming home today."

Jade couldn't help but smirk at the trepidation in Tori's voice. She continued to bang the keyboard on her PearBook with a shrug. "So?"

"Well, he called and wanted to come over tonight," Tori carried on cautiously. She bit her lip when Jade shrugged again. "Is that okay?"

"I don't care," Jade admitted shortly. She closed her laptop and gently tossed it on the coffee table. As much as she loved making Tori squirm, she nodded. She and Beck had been broken up for close to a year. She was over it by now. "I'll behave if that's what you're worried about."

Tori smiled and patted Jade's shoulder. Shortly after graduation last year, her parents moved to Santa Barbara, leaving her the house. With Trina "modeling" in Japan, she invited Jade and Cat to move in with her. While Cat attended a small community college for fashion design, Jade pursued acting and had since been in three horror movies that were pretty popular. Tori signed with Andre's start up label and they were currently putting the finishing touches on her debut album.

"Do you think he'll be the same?" Tori asked Jade in wonderment. "I mean his TV show is the highest rated on the network."

Jade turned on the TV and flicked through the channels. "Only because he's shirtless every six scenes."

"I thought you didn't watch?" Tori asked coyly. She nudged Jade's shoulder with her own teasingly. "I told him Cat and Robbie would be coming home from their camping trip tomorrow. Maybe we can do it then."

"I'd rather get it over with," Jade mumbled. "I'm still trying to picture Cat in the wilderness." With that, she chuckled.

"Poor girl," Tori said sympathetically. "Who knew she'd last this long without a hair dryer?"

"Or Robbie," Jade added in sharply. She was still not quite keen on the idea of Robbie and Cat dating. Though it had been close to six months, she wasn't convinced Cat could really handle the intimacy of a relationship. Heck, the longest "romantic" relationship Cat ever had lasted a grand total of 82 hours.

Suddenly, the door swung open and Cat ran in the house, making a beeline for the TV. "Television! I've missed you!" she squealed, hugging it tightly. "Tori! Jade! I've missed you!"

Tori and Jade winced as Cat dove on the couch and laid across their laps, her tiny fingers gripping the red couch cushion. "Don't worry, Cat," Robbie said from the doorway. He was clearly out of breath. "I've got the bags."

"Kay, kay!" Cat said in satisfaction when she heard Robbie drop the luggage.

"I thought you guys weren't coming back until tomorrow?" Tori asked curiously. She patted Cat's back as she sat up and nestled herself in the small space between her and Jade.

Robbie cleared his throat nervously. "Uh, you know…change of plans."

"Robbie got a tick in his…private region," Cat giggled.

Tori and Jade both burst out laughing for three consecutive minutes.

"Is it still there?" Jade asked curiously. "Please tell me it is."

"No!" Robbie yelled, obviously frazzled. "Cat! I thought we were going to keep it between us."

Cat tilted her head in confusion. "You did not make that clear."

"What part of 'don't tell anyone about this!' isn't clear?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Cat asked shyly. She looked at Tori and Jade, then back at Robbie. "Yes? No? Oh! Maybe so?"

Robbie sighed and collapsed on the couch next to Jade. "I had to go to the doctor on the way home. He…he removed it very carefully."

"The doctor said Robbie probably doesn't have lemon disease. Yay!"

Jade rolled her eyes. "It's Lyme disease, Cat."

"Oh my gosh!" Cat gasped, burying her head in her hands. "Was that racist?"

"Did she sleep at all on the car ride home?" Tori asked Robbie curiously.

"Nope," Robbie admitted carefully. He distanced himself from Jade and stood up to inspect something on the shelf.

"I didn't sleep a wink this whole weekend," Cat complained with a high-pitched whimper. "The tent was so smelly and we had to sleep on the ground! Then I thought a bear was outside but it was just the wind."

"I told you not to go camping with Nerd Breath," Jade told Cat slowly. An overtired Cat was the worst kind of Cat there was. She rambled non-stop and whined at every little thing.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Cat cried in offense. She rubbed her eyes until they were dry and itchy.

"I take offense to that!" Robbie guffawed. "I do not have nerd breath!"

"Your breath is kinda smelly," Cat giggled. "Especially after you ate those stinky chips!"

"They were sour cream and onion!"

"Oh my god, enough," Jade groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Tori stood up and patted Cat's head. "Come on, Cat." She turned around and motioned for Cat to get on her back. "Hop on."

"Yay, a ride!" Cat squealed. She stood on the couch and launched herself on Tori's back, squeezing the brunette's neck tightly. "Where are we going?"

"To bed," Tori said as she headed for the stairs.

"Aw, are you tired?" Cat pouted.

"No, but you are," Tori chuckled. By the time she reached Cat's bed, the redhead was out cold. She carefully dropped her in the middle of the bed and covered her with a fuzzy pink blanket.

Downstairs, Robbie peered at Jade curiously. "Beck's coming home, huh?"

"Stop with the small talk," Jade demanded. She turned up the TV. "In fact, stop with the talking. You returned Cat in one piece. Bye."

Robbie feigned offense and brushed the lint off his shirt. "I told you nothing would happen to her. I think I deserve some respect!"

Jade responded by pushing Robbie off the couch. She smiled in satisfaction when he hit his head on the table and curled up in the fetal position. "How's that for respect?"

Tori looked at Robbie in confusion when she came back downstairs. "Why are you on the floor, Robbie?"

"J-Jade injured me!" Robbie cried out in pain.

"You have no proof of that," Jade said in a sickeningly sweet tone. She kicked Robbie's back gently. "Get up before your girlfriend sees how pathetic you look."

"Cat's out like a light," Tori told Jade. "She's not waking up for a long time."

Robbie finally willed himself to sit up and adjusted his glasses accordingly. He eased himself back on the couch. "What time is it? I have to pick Beck up at the airport at five," he asked giddily. "I can't wait to see him."

"Control yourself, Shapiro," Jade said hotly. "You look like a cat in heat."

"Don't mind Jade," Tori advised Robbie sweetly. "She's just nervous to see Beck. That's all."

"Vega!" Jade hissed. It took all of her strength not to reach over and smack the smirk off Tori's bony face. "I am not! Beck and I broke up a year ago. One YEAR ago. I'm fine!"

With that, she stomped up the stairs.

"I don't know about you but she doesn't seem fine to me," Robbie stage whispered to Tori. "Beck did kind of break her heart."

Tori just shrugged. "True," she mumbled in agreement. "But she also didn't want to hold him back. It was a big opportunity for Beck."

"Also true," Robbie said. "However, Jade did mope for like three months. I don't think I've ever seen her that…hurt."

"Maybe you should get a head start on picking up Beck," Tori suggested when the doorbell rang. She knew it was Andre. Since Jade was probably pouting upstairs and Cat was sound asleep, they'd get some alone time finally. It was almost their one-year anniversary after all. "Might be traffic."

"You're just kicking me out cause Andre's here," Robbie complained. He sighed dramatically and shuffled his feet over to the door. "I'm leaving," he said to Andre dejectedly.

"Okay?" Andre said, patting Robbie's back when he walked past him. His eyes lit up at the sight of Tori on the couch. "Hey, baby," he greeted coolly, dropping a kiss on the top of Tori's head. "Where is everyone?"

"Jade's probably upstairs prepping for Beck's arrival and Cat is sound asleep," Tori said excitedly. "Which means you and I are alone."

"Alright." Andre grinned and pulled Tori on his lap. "It's about time you and I were alone."

Jade cleared her throat when she was halfway down the stairs. "Don't even think about having sex on that couch."

Tori pulled back from Andre with a sigh. "I thought you were hiding in your room until Beck got here?"

"Oh," Jade snapped. She rummaged through the fridge for a bottle of water and took a long gulp. "It's like I told you; I'm fine with Beck coming over."

"You sure?" Andre asks quizzically. "You look like you're sweating."

Jade slammed the bottle down on the counter. "I don't sweat!"

"You sweated that one time last year in the RV," Tori reminded her roommate thoughtfully. "Oh, and you definitely sweated a lot during our little jog around the park yesterday."

"Jade West jogging?" Andre scoffed. "I can't picture that."

"Picture my foot crushing your insides," Jade seethed. "Can you picture it now, wazz bag?"

"I can picture it clearly," Andre mumbled in fright. He reached for Tori's hand and held it to steady his rapid heart rate. Even after being friends with Jade for so long, he was still so scared of her. Who wouldn't be?

"Good," Jade said in satisfaction. "Now move over," she demanded, plopping down next to the couple. "The directors cut of The Scissoring is on in five minutes."

"We'll just go upstairs," Tori said faintly, pulling on Andre's hand. "You enjoy your movie…"

"Wusses," Jade muttered under her breath. She grabbed the remote and turned on the horror channel, a big grin spreading across her face.

It immediately faded when she saw the tail end of a behind-the-scenes special they were doing on Beck's show Twisted. Admittedly, she hadn't seen a lot of his show. It still kind of hurt. After all, it was what he left her for. Twisted did indeed skyrocket him to fame literally overnight. Suddenly, he was everywhere. Billboards were all around the city promoting the breakout hit of 2013.

Jade couldn't turn away. Beck's hair was much longer than it was the last time she saw him. It was almost down to his shoulders. He had a little scruff on his face that made him look a lot hotter than he already was.

"Whatever," Jade finally said to herself. She muted the TV and waited impatiently for her favorite movie to come on. But she couldn't concentrate. Not even when Tawny Walker-Black sliced her best friend's throat open in one swift motion.

Jade fiddled with her ratty old band shirt and ran a hand through her slightly greasy hair. With just her and Tori around lately, she certainly had no need to impress her. After some heavy internal debating, Jade shut the TV off and stomped up the stairs and straight into the shower.

Forty-five minutes later, her hair was curled, her face was made up, and she may or may not have purposely sprayed herself with Beck's favorite perfume. She pulled on her favorite black dress and debated whether or not to hide her cleavage. She decided not to. Beck was probably going to drool over her no matter what.

"Wow, look at you," Tori commented from the doorway teasingly. She invited herself in and plopped down on Jade's bed.

Jade scowled and crossed her arms. "What do you want, Vega?"

"Nothing," Tori said, fixing her tousled hair. "Just wanted to see how you're doing. Robbie texted me and said they're on their way."

Andre popped up and strolled in. "Damn, girl," he whistled, looking at Jade in approval. "Who you trying to impress?"

"No one," Jade argued rather quickly. "I wear this dress all the time!"

"I don't think I've ever seen you in that dress," Andre said. He rubbed Tori's shoulders and lazily draped an arm around her waist. "Are you trying to show Beck what he's missing?"

Tori agreed with her boyfriend. "You know, I was thinking that!"

"Bye!" Jade hissed, motioning for the couple to leave.

Andre held his hands up in defense. "Be careful, Jade," he said softly.

Jade rolled her eyes at Andre's attempt at instilling some type of big brother wisdom on her. "Whatever."

After Andre and Tori left the room, she sighed and let Andre's words sink in. She sat down on the bed and reached for the leather jacket lazily draped over her desk chair. She pulled it on and fixed her hair in the mirror. It was a lot shorter than it was the last time she saw Beck. Would he like it? Was he going to miss the highlights? Jade quickly dyed her hair solely black four days after Beck left for New York. The highlights were a constant reminder of how much he loved running his fingers through them and telling her how sexy they looked.

She shook her head and stood up, brushing off the imaginary lint on her dress. What was she doing? She was totally over Beck. He barely crossed her mind these days. But why now all of a sudden was he back invading her memories? Beck broke her heart. Absolutely shattered it into a million pieces. She barely left the house for over a month.

There was no way she was putting herself through that again.

With one last look in the mirror, Jade took three deep breaths when she heard the doorbell rang. But instead of going straight downstairs, she made a pit stop to Cat's room. Sometimes Jade wished she could live in Cat's little naive world. Everything was so happy there. She carefully opened Cat's door and smiled softly at the sight of her best friend curled up in the middle of the bed sound asleep. Mr. Purple was clutched protectively in her grip as she contently sucked on her thumb.

She just looked so small and innocent. How could she quite possibly handle being in a relationship? She'd be nineteen in a month. But Cat was still kind of trapped in her childish world where there were no problems. Only happy things.

Jade smiled and perched herself on the edge of the bed, shaking Cat slightly. 99.9 percent of the time Cat was a grump if woken up. "Cat," she said softly, brushing the hair out of her friend's face. "Wake up."

It took Cat a minute to stir, but when she did, she whimpered in annoyance and buried her face into Mr. Purple. "Nooo."

"Beck's here."

Cat immediately shot up. "He is?"

"Yes," Jade confirmed with a nod. "Didn't Robbie tell you he was coming home for the summer?"

"No," Cat pouted. No one really told her anything. "Are you happy?"

"Sure."

Cat sighed and fiddled with Mr. Purple's ear. "Are you guys going to be nice to each other? I don't wanna listen to you two fight."

"I'll behave," Jade promised. She knew how hard Cat took the breakup. It was just as bad she took it. Cat always sort of viewed them as her parents. They took care of her and protected her. When they broke up, her ideal world developed a crack. And when Jade sulked around and shut everyone out. It was the only way she knew how to cope. But then Robbie came along and slowly started patching up that crack. Jade was terrified if things went sour with Beck being home for the summer Cat would be the most affected.

Cat leaned forward and hugged Jade, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I think I'm going to take a quick shower! I still smell like the outdoors."

"Yeah you do," Jade joked playfully, tickling Cat's sides. "Wish me luck."

"You don't need luck," Cat smiled from ear to ear. She crawled off the bed and grabbed her obnoxiously bright towel. "Tell Beck I'll be down soon!"

Jade nodded and followed Cat out of the bedroom, watching as the little redhead skipped happily to the bathroom. When Cat was out of sight, Jade slowly began to descend the stairs. She could hear Beck's stupid Canadian accent floating through the living room.

Their eyes met for the first time in nearly a year when she reached the bottom step. There Beck was, with his ridiculous looking hair pulled back into a bun and scruffy face, smiling up at her like nothing happened. Jade forced a smile back.

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as bad as she thought it would.

But when Beck closed the distance between them and swept her off her feet with a tight hug, she took in the scent of his all too familiar cologne and let the memories take over. He set her down and held her at arms laugh, his goofy grin still in tact.

"Look at you," Beck said, the pad of his thumbs rubbing Jade's forearms.

"Look at you," Jade countered. She couldn't help but pull at his bun. "You know you look ridiculous with that hair, right?" Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Robbie, Tori, and Andre watching their interaction cautiously.

"Yeah," Beck chuckled, self consciously rubbing his head. "It was for the show. I'm probably going to cut it this week since we're on hiatus."

"Don't," Jade said quickly. She cleared her throat when Beck looked at her. "Or do it. Whatever, I don't care."

Beck smiled again. "So…how are you?"

"Great," Jade answered honestly. "My new movie's coming out soon."

"Yeah? That's great. I'm happy for you."

"Uh, thanks."

Jade was glad when Beck's cell phone began to ring. It broke the awkwardness. He excused himself and took the call out on the back deck where Sinjin and Robbie used to spy on the Vega's in high school.

"Beck!" Cat's loud voice preceded her as she ran down the stairs excitedly.

"Careful, Cat," Tori winced. The number of times Cat fell running down the stairs was close to a hundred. "Don't fall."

Cat disregarded Tori's warning and jumped down to the landing. She looked all around for Beck and pouted when he was nowhere in sight. "I thought Beck was here? I don't see him!"

"He's on the deck, cutie," Robbie assured his girlfriend with a wink. When she was at ease, he smiled.

"Kay, kay!" Cat beamed. She looked at Jade pleadingly. "Can I go see him?"

"You don't need my permission," Jade muttered, gesturing for Cat to go.

Cat gave Jade a quick hug and skipped to the glass doors frantically. She threw them open just as Beck was hanging up the phone. "Beck! Beck!" she squealed, throwing herself into Beck's arms.

"Hey, Cat," Beck greeted with a smile. He scooped the little girl up with ease and held her. "When did you get so grown up looking?" It wasn't a total fib; Cat did look slightly more mature but the childish glint in her eyes never dulled.

Cat twirled her fingers around her ponytail and giggled. She wrapped her arms around Beck's neck and hugged him tightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you," Beck smiled against Cat's shoulder. "I heard you and Robbie are dating now, huh?"

"Yeah." Cat took her head off Beck's shoulder and nodded. "For almost six months now."

"Is he good to you?"

"Yeah!" Cat said frantically. "But last week he made me cry and Tori and Jadey broke his glasses." She smiled shyly. "They still treat me like a baby sometimes. I'm a big girl!"

"They just love you," Beck said softly, gently setting Cat down on her feet. He smiled when her tiny fingers wrapped around his wrist.

Cat forced a smile and buried herself in Beck's arms. She felt the tears well up in her eyes. It had been so long since the six of them had been in the same room. The feeling was almost too overwhelming.

Jade cracked the door open and sighed when she saw Cat clinging to Beck like her life depended on it. "The pizza's here."

Beck rubbed Cat's back. "We'll be right in."

"What did you do to her?" Jade asked once she noticed Cat had tears running down her cheeks. "Why is she crying?"

"Jade, relax," Beck began calmly. "I didn't say anything."

"Well you must have done something-"

Cat pulled back from Beck and wiped her eyes. "No! These are happy tears. I promise!"

"Happy tears?" Jade scoffed. "There's no such thing as happy tears."

Beck bit his lip so he wouldn't respond. Instead, he took a breath and ruffled Cat's hair. "You should go get some pizza before Tori and everyone else eats it."

"I'm just happy we're all back together," Cat finally responded after wiping her eyes several times. She reached for Jade's hand and used all her strength to pull her best friend close. "It's like we're a family again."

"Yeah," Jade agreed softly, not wanting to upset Cat. She pulled back and gently guided Cat away from Beck. "Go get some pizza, baby girl."

Cat's gaze flickered from Jade to Beck. "Aren't you guys coming?"

"You guys coming in? Pizza's getting cold," Andre said from the doorway, taking a large bite of pepperoni pizza.

It was Beck who broke the long silence. "Yeah," he nodded, giving Cat a gentle push toward Andre. Cat complied and scampered in the house when she saw Robbie grabbing another slice. "After you."

"What a gentleman," Jade griped sarcastically. She stepped in the house and frowned when she saw Robbie feeding Cat a piece of pizza.

"Can we talk later?" Beck whispered to Jade once he got inside.

Jade took a bite of food and shook her head. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Can we catch up then?"

"Maybe," Jade said vaguely. She sat down next to Tori and Andre and continued stuffing her face.

"Be nice," Tori said covertly when Beck wasn't paying attention.

"This is me being nice," Jade argued innocently. "Go suck your boyfriend's tongue somewhere."

Tori rolled her eyes and dropped the subject. She watched Jade's body stiffen as Beck sat down next to her. Despite Jade's repeated reassurance, Tori knew her roommate was going to have a hard time adjusting to Beck's presence.

She just hoped this summer wasn't going to be a repeat of the last one.