A/N: I know I've been dead for a bit, and I apologise for that, but in my defence Fanfiction was having a brain fart (or my wifi was) and I couldn't do anything. Anyway, this fic is dedicated to one of the most (well, actually, the most XD) genuine, funny, awesome, beautiful and caring people I know. It was meant to be a birthday gift, but I couldn't upload it due to the aforementioned brain fart. Anyway, thank you, Mandy/x-clownsdontbounce-x, for being a truly epic person c: Seriously, she's so helpful and I love her, like, a lot. She also comes with the added bonus of being a superbly excellent writer, so go check her out :)
I don't own anything, and this may or may not turn into a three-shot. Let me know.
She pulled out a hair clip from the bun that had miraculously managed to stay in and slotted it quickly into the lock.
Up, to the left, down, hook that up, and then...
Click.
The door swung open.
This was technically breaking and entering, wasn't it?
Ah well. She wasn't going to steal anything, and she certainly wasn't going to get caught.
She slid in, pulling the heavy wooden door closed behind her as quietly as she could, cringing when the sound of it banging shut echoed around the empty church.
Wow. Spooky. She mentally took note of the way the shadows looked - it would be great in a book. Hard to replicate in a screenplay, though. The atmosphere was new to her. Not... Related to ghosts. More... Personal. She liked it.
It was weird being back here. She only remembered bits of it from when she was a small girl, and she'd never returned in the years she had been moved out.
She remember one thing very clearly, though.
She ducked behind the purple curtain at the back and began climbing the spiral metal staircase, her calf-high boots clanging against the cold steps.
Once up, she looked around. She'd loved being in the choir up here, looking over everybody.
That was, of course, before her father pulled her out.
"You need to spend your Sundays doing something more productive, Jadelyn."
After walking along the balcony, she glanced around quickly to double check for people before making her way to the back right corner, her fingertips brushing across the dent in the wall that she remembered making, but she wasn't sure how.
She brushed aside the old white curtain to reveal the wooden steps that were embedded and went up the side of the massive organ.
She hooked her foot in one.
This wasn't safe.
Oh well.
The multitalented beauty climbed up, and when she reached the top, looked around at the sight. It was dark, but not dark enough to not see anything. She turned around again.
Jade walked around to the back of the ledge on the side of the organ that she was currently standing on, and remembered finding out about it.
"Yes, but how do they tune it?" The impatient young girl asked.
"Magic. They fly up there."
"Shut up, Michael. Tell me!" She tugged on the sleeve of the caretaker, and he cracked a smile at how determined Jade was.
"Okay, okay. But you can't tell anyone else, okay?" He turned and walked along the balcony, stopping only to turn around and beckon her to join him.
He drew across the curtain and pointed up to the ledge, and then down to the steps she had just climbed.
"There. They climb these steps here. Don't tell anyone, they're dangerous for young lasses like yourself."
She smiled. Even as a child she was rebellious.
This was the hard part, though. She swung her body under the railing that was at waist length so her legs were dangling from the ledge.
It wasn't far. Come on. You could do it, Jade.
She closed her eyes.
Back, forward, back, forward, aaaaand...
Jump.
Her feet hit the window ledge on the other side, and she turned to her side when her shoulder hit the side of the wall.
Nicely done, Jade.
After getting her heart rate down to a relatively normal pace, she sat down. She tilted her head to stare out of the window, relaxing in the security of her own spot.
The way the moonlight shone back through the stained glass window was magical. She held her hand up, admiring the way her pale skin was almost painted on, like it was paper. That was why she liked tattoos - it was someone drawing on her, and the excitement of it being permanent was another perk. The gaps in her rebel star on her forearm were tinted red, and she looked up to see the source. It was a robe, and she was amazed at how something as simple as a window could turn out so... Beautiful.
"Sorry, mind if I join you?"
She almost fell off the window ledge, she was so scared.
"What the fuck?" She exclaimed, laying a hand adorned with only a bracelet over her now racing heart.
"That kind of language in a church is fucking unacceptable." The stranger said, as he shot her a charming grin, swept a hand through his hair, and jumped from the balcony attached to the organ. She held her arms up, expecting him to land on her given they were in a very small space, but she dropped them at hearing his feet next to her.
"Oh, ye of little faith." He quipped, smiling at her once more and sitting down. He mirrored her position on the ledge, one leg up in front of him and one dangling down. He shifted until his back was comfortably resting on the wall.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She questioned, a bewildered expression on her face. "And who the hell are you?"
"I come here to think. And I'm Beck Oliver. Why are you here?"
'Jade West (23) viciously told a fan to "die painfully in a hole"'
-False
'Jade West doesn't write her own songs? Check this scandal out here!'
-False
'West, 23, spotted making out with casting director of new show Angels In Hell, Michael Dernick, who's 58!'
-False
'Is Jade West sleeping her way to the top?'
-False
'West doesn't write her own screenplays! See Janice Morise talk about how Jade West cruelly blackmailed her into writing a film for her here!'
-False
'Is Jade West the owner of an outrageous anonymous hate website?'
-False
'Check out this shocking clip of Jade West, 23, without the layers and layers of auto tune she usually has on recorded tracks!'
-False
"No reason." She shrugged, wincing at how unconvincing her lie sounded.
"Even you knew that was a bad one. Come on, tell me. You know my name, we're not strangers anymore."
"I just... People are dickheads." She said, sighing as Beck laughed quietly. Not unkindly, though. Like he understood.
"I know, right?"
She shook her head. This was so unrealistic. Here she was, enjoying a good dose of sympathy from a guy she only just met. What was next, sleeping with him? Wait, not in a church.
"And what are you thinking about, fluff-head?"
He laughed at the name. "I don't know. Well, I do. It's a downer though."
"A problem shared is a problem halved or some shit like that. I don't know, I'm not positive or anything." She said dryly.
He smiled at her humour, then sobered as he spoke. "My parents died six years ago, when I was seventeen."
She did the math quickly in her head. He was the same age as her. Good. This felt a little less weird now.
"Were they buried here?"
"Yeah. They loved this church. They used to bring me here when it was really quiet, just to admire the stained glass windows. I found this one just after they died."
"Oh. It's nice, isn't it?"
"What is?"
"This window. The red looks really nice with the moonlight."
"Yeah, it does." She hadn't said 'I'm sorry' yet, and it was actually a nice change. He lifted up his arm to see the red on it, then surprised her by grabbing her hand and lifting it up so he could see the colour on her skin instead.
"It works better on your pale skin. Nice tattoo."
"Thanks. Tan skin's probably better in the long run, though." She said, letting her hands ghost over his skin. It raised in goosebumps, and she smirked but didn't remove her hand.
"Are you cold, fluffy?"
"A little, vampire."
She chuckled at the name.
"Aw, diddums." She reached over to pinch his cheek and he grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to him while he used his other hand to hold her side, careful to watch their distance from the edge of the window ledge.
"Wanna come over and keep me warm?" He asked cheekily, laughing at her eye roll.
"But I'm a vampire. I'm cold, remember?"
"Well then I'll warm YOU up." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, rejoicing on the inside victoriously at the sight of a genuine smile on her beautiful face. A blue light was cast on her, and time froze as he studied each and every one of her facial features, admiring the eyebrow piercing and noticing the nose stud. They didn't look tacky, like they might on other girls. He could imagine her getting them as a teenager. His eyes finally locked on her own icy-blue ones.
In a strange moment of understanding, she recognised the pain in his eyes as he saw it in hers. She leant forward and lay her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him. He buried his face in her hair and embraced her protectively.
For a while, they weren't two people who had just met on a window ledge in a church, they were two people who knew each other's souls.
As she pulled away, their gazes locked again. He brought up his hands to cup her cheeks, and he guided her lips to his in an innocent, comforting kiss.
When she leant back for a second time, it struck her how strange this was. She hardly knew Beck, yet it felt like she had known him for years. She didn't believe in this, she never had. This whole 'love at first sight' bullshit. It was garbage. They didn't know what they were talking about. She shouldn't feel this way about s stranger. She didn't want to feel this way about a stranger.
Actually, she didn't care.
She was pretty sure that she would be able to just not give a fuck if this turned out to be another cruel joke life was throwing at her.
Take that, life.
She came here to bask in her own pity, to get rid of some of her anger before she killed one of her (admittedly lovely) PAs.
Instead, she ended up both hugging and kissing a stranger.
Oh look, she was about to do it again.
Jade leant in again, this time resting one hand on Beck's cheek and another in his hair as their lips met, a little more passionately though.
He was quite bewildered. He didn't actually think she'd kiss him back. He was expecting a slap in the face and a shove off the window ledge. He did not expect a second kiss. Ah well. Who was he to complain?
So, he put his hands on her waist like the respectful gentleman he was (although, seeing as they were in a church and making out, he wasn't sure how much of a 'gentleman' that actually made him) and kissed back.
He was aware that it was weird. He didn't really care, though. He believed in love at first sight. It didn't matter to him that he's never actually been in love - the moment was the only thing that was on his mind.
He slowly pulled back, laughing internally (and sniggering externally) when she pouted. He soon stopped sniggering when he realised that dang her lips looked really kissable when she pouted.
"Miss, I don't even know your name." He tried. Well, he did. But he figured he might as well do it properly.
"Jade. Jade West. But that doesn't make things any different. Right?"
A million different things rushed through his head. She was famous. She was very, very famous. She was an insanely good singer. He couldn't count how many movies she had been in. Go to the movie theatre and her name would be in the credits somewhere - whether it was in the cast list, or under the title of director or screenwriter. That made things incredibly different.
Than again, maybe-
"No, it doesn't."