Old Habits Die Hard-Chapter 1

Don't own anything

The music surged through his mind, hammering away every coherent thought and leaving his heart to beat to the same beat of the music. The room was filled with sweating bodies, dancing in a way that wasn't taught in any dance school. It was basically sex without the passion, it was lust and everybody in the room moved to the same emotion. Everybody grinded together like the plates of the universe, if one body moved on way everyone around had to move the same way, the friction was like a minor earthquake and the unbridled heat of the situation was the volcano.

He slalomed through the crowd, avoiding any contact with the dancers as he made his way to the open porch doors which in the sea of people appeared to be a million miles away. He felt the collar of his plaid shirt be grabbed and suddenly he was face to face with a dancing girl, her faked tan skin was outlined by the dyed blonde hair that fell in waves down to her breasts where a few strands slipped into the cleavage her lacy pink dress revealed. He looked back up at her face after his short examination embarrassed to have been caught staring at her assets however she seemed to enjoy it, raising her arms in a snake dance above her head, letting the already low front of her neon pink dress slip further south.

Incidentally she was just like every other girl at this party, in fact she was just like every other girl at every Hollywood party so he awkwardly smiled and left, this scene wasn't for him.

He didn't want to see girls in dresses shorter than their towels; he didn't want to be part of the dance that frankly disgusted him. He wanted something or someone real in a crowd of people who basically were clones of each other.

Keeping his head down as a way of blocking his vision he wandered out of the room and into the outside air, wondering why on earth he'd agreed to go to this party. It was "some chic's birthday" as his friend had told him, it wasn't a posh dress code and you didn't have to bring a gift. It wasn't the sort of birthday party he'd ever been to before. It was more of a club with a bit of meaning behind the party.

The cold air blew his hair back, no longer giving him a curtain of shadow to hide behind. In his ear he could still hear the music from behind him and he could hear the voices of the people who had escaped outside. They came with their new found partners or their loyal partners who they'd arrived with.

He continued across the land, keeping his eyes down and trained at the sand coloured tiles beneath him, watching as his boots padded over the immaculately cut grass, as other peoples feet came into his vision before leaving completely.

People had horrible shoes.

He kept walking until he bashed into a pair of black boots similar to his; heavy duty work boots that he'd had since high school.

"Sorry," he muttered, stepping to the side to pass the owner of the boots, his head still trained on the ground as if the bone in his neck had snapped and left him hanging like the Scarecrow.

"Nice shoes," the voice returned, it was an odd voice to have been owned by the kick-ass boots, it was a sweet Southern Belle that he'd recognise anywhere. "So is your neck broken or what Mr Superstar?"

"Jade?" he questioned whipping his head up to see his dark angel standing there.

"Beck," she nodded, fiddling nervously with the tulle of her skirt.

She hadn't changed.

Mile long waves of the richest chocolate cascaded down, her snow white skin paled by the contrast. Her winter blue eyes embedded with diamonds and silver, her dusk pink lips round, open and full like always. She was still the same girl he'd left behind 3 years ago.

"You look beautiful," he smiled; she was the first real person he'd seen all night.

Her boots came up to just below her knees and she wore thick woollen black tights despite it being both Hollywood and the middle of July, her dress fell a few inches short of her knees but it still looked like a floor length gown compared to the other girls at the party, she had a long black cardigan pulled tightly around her front revealing scarcely a chunk of her ice white neck, this was the girl he'd loved and grown up with.

"You look pretty damn scruffy for a Blockbuster Movie Star," she chuckled, finger the collar of his flannel shirt, "It looks so much better than those high end suits you wear on the red carpet."

He laughed at her and pulled on her waist, drawing her nearer so their bodies were touching. It was a crazy force, they hadn't seen or had any contact with each other in the last three years, four months and twenty-nine days-not that either of them had counted- yet at the first meet they had managed to flawlessly and with ease slip back into their high school selves, the permanent touching, the invading personal space, the oblivion to the outside world. The oddity of their relationship that was once what they lived for.

"So what have you been doing Miss West, you seem to know everything about me?" Beck asked, wrapping a lock of dark hair around his finger, pulling lightly because he knew she liked it.

"What can I say I read the tabloids, it's hard not to when your High School Boyfriend Beck Oliver is all over them," she shrugged, "I've been at College, not living the high life. The closest I've been to being in the newspapers is modelling for this girl at college who just got her line launched unlike you who became the hottest movie star of Hollywood today."

"I haven't seen you in the newspapers and believe me Jade, I was looking," he said, "but I can tell how you managed to get the modelling job, you're the most fucking gorgeous woman in this whole club."

"Language Mr Oliver," she smiled politely, her twice used Alabaman accent intertwining with her own.

"I don't see any children around, I will apologise profusely however if there is," he answered, taking her over to the swinging chair on the porch.

"There isn't. I haven't heard you swear outside that RV of yours before though," she laughed taking a seat on the chair, rocking it back and forth with her toe, "course I haven't heard you talk to me since you were nineteen either so all of this is sort of a lot unreal right now, especially now I've remembered we're adults."

"You didn't remember?" he chuckled, looking at her after sweeping the curtain of hair from his face.

"Don't tell anybody but you're my teenage years, I don't know you and me in the real world, I just sort of slip into being a teenager again but hearing you swear made me see you as a grown up despite how stupid that sounds" she shrugged, looking away to hide the emotion he could pick out in every crevice of her face.

"It doesn't sound stupid," he promised, taking her hand into his larger olive skinned one.

"Yes it does," she replied, rolling her eyes as she looked back at him.

"It doesn't," he repeated honestly.

"So you're telling me you felt the same?" she questioned.

"No, but I get it, it's not stupid," he answered.

"Yes it is," she replied indignantly.

"It's not," he laughed, remembering one hundred and one conversations that had gone the same with Jade over the years of knowing her.

"It is," she said stubbornly trying not to let her smile slip through as she saw him laugh. Years ago she would have managed to win this argument but listening to it in her head as a twenty-one year old woman it did sound terribly childish.

"You haven't changed," he stated, watching her begin to laugh with him.

"I have but only a tiny bit and in places that don't particularly mean anything," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Where?" he asked, looking her over as if her personality was laid out in front of him.

"Well my boobs are about one and a half sizes bigger," she laughed, "and I don't argue so much unless I'm with certain people, I'm not AS mean as I used to be I guess, I don't wear my streaks as often as I used to and I no longer know what I want to do."

"What do you mean you no longer know what you want to do, you always wanted to be an actress?" he asked, trying hard not to look at her chest to see if he could prove the size difference.

He was a guy after all and he had been her boyfriend for longer than he'd been a man.

"I don't know I don't think I'll make it anymore, you know you got there and that's because you're crazy talented and meaningful and deep and you have all the girls after you, I just think if I was meant to be an actress I would have been one before now and I wouldn't be struggling to pay college debts or rent and I wouldn't be getting background places in all the plays at the theatre," she answered.

"Don't you dare give up on your dream Jadelyn West, don't you dare, you know you're good enough, I know you're good enough to make it and so what if you're going to college first, if I could take it all back and do the same I would, I would like to have qualifications for more than just standing in front of a camera quoting lines from scripts. What about your music, I bet that's taken off?"

"More like it's hovering, I'm not mainstream enough to pick up on anywhere near enough listeners to be put a record label so I'm hovering from song to song hoping that an Indie Record Company will pick up on it. Would you really go to college instead of becoming an actor?" she asked looking at him.

"Definitely, I admire you for doing that, everybody in the business says they're here because they didn't go to college, I wish I could have waited a bit longer for the jump into a career, I wish I'd come with you and did the whole college thing,"

"You wish you'd come with me?" she repeated, confused.

"Like we planned, I wish we'd have gone to college together," he smiled, "I wanted to."

"I wanted to but you never would have gotten the big Hollywood movie offer if you had," she pointed out.

"There would have been others," he shrugged.

"Not like that one," she stated.

"Well anyway, don't you dare give up okay?" he said sternly, taking her chin so she was forced to look at him.

She nodded, the vulnerable child in her eyes that only ever came out when Beck sat in front of her.

"So what brings you here?" Beck asked, changing the subject as he looked around.

"I live here," she smiled.

"Really?" he asked looking up at the massive building.

"Me and a bunch of other kids from the college, my room's on the third floor at the second door."

"What does that mean, "a bunch of other kids?"" he questioned, hoping she wasn't living with anyone dangerous and somewhere deep inside him hoped there wasn't a boy in the house.

"Me, Cathy, Jenny, Lucy, Jasper, Ethan and Isaac, that's all," she smiled, watching his face drop at the mention of Jasper, Ethan and Isaac.

"Boys?" he asked and she nodded laughing.

"They're perfect gentlemen and their rooms are upstairs from ours, the worst thing that's happened so far is Jasper caught me getting out of the shower but we laughed it off," she grinned watching his face.

"He caught you naked?" Beck's voice wavered.

"No he caught me putting a towel on, he promised he didn't see anything though, you're the only guy who's ever seen under my clothes," she smirked.

"So you're still, you know," he said awkwardly and she laughed out loud.

"Yes Beck I'm still a virgin," she nodded, "with my studies I don't particularly have time to be out finding a guy much less having sex with them."

"What about Jasper, Ethan and Isaac?" Beck questioned.

"Ethan's gay, Isaac's got a four year old daughter and an ex girlfriend that drives him to wits end and Jasper's well, he's Jasper, we're friends I met him on my first day at the College."

"Just friends?" Beck questioned again and suddenly chastised himself, why was he being so nosy?

"Just friends, believe me he's just a friend, our joke is that he's been completely friend-zoned because of the line from that movie 'if a girl changes in front of you, she either likes you or you're 100% friend zoned," she smiled, Jade was so relaxed here, just talking about life; he never thought he's see her like this.

"So what about you Mr Superstar, you got yourself a new girl every night?" she asked.

"Yes, she's called my bed. As soon as I get in every night I sleep Jade, I haven't got time for a life."

"So what are you doing out on the town, shouldn't you be in wherever that movie of yours is being shot?" she asked.

"Toronto and no, lucky me I get the week off so I came home with two buddies of mine which brings me to why I'm here and why I'm wondering where the hell they are because he's my ride home," he chuckled.

"Why are you here at this party anyway, surely there are a hundred other better parties in Hollywood right now?" Jade asked, twiddling with the piece of loose tulle again.

"My friend says this was a college party and I ought to know what it was like," Beck replied.

"We're not much of the college party types, this is all Lucy's show and believe me when I say this is nothing like a college party; this is actually nice." Jade laughed.

"What happened to 'I don't have time to go out?'" Beck asked, "And seriously this is good?"

"This is good and I did at the start, Jasper took me to one but I left after an hour it was ironic to find out that Hollywood Arts had actually babied us with their parties, I thought they'd been a bit strong with them you know with the alcohol at the end of year parties and the empty make-out rooms but now I found otherwise."

"Yeah, here they just seem to make-out wherever. Where are your friends?" Beck asked, taking over rocking duties of the swing as she lifted both her legs up and curled them around her.

"Cathy's pregnant so she's spending the night with her boyfriend, last time I checked Lucy was in a cupboard with some guy, Jenny's asleep, so is Isaac and Ella, Ethan's being the bar man and Jasper was trying to get this girl to dance with him."

"Ella?" Beck repeated.

"Isaac's daughter, he had her when he was sixteen," Jade replied.

"Eek," Beck commented, remembering when at sixteen they had spent a lot of time in his RV experimenting but never hitting for a home run.

"Yeah, he said it was the best thing that ever came out of the worst situation, but he does wish he'd waited."

"What do you think would have happened to us had we ever gotten pregnant?" Beck asked, unbuttoning the sleeve of his shirt.

"We wouldn't have lasted, Isaac and his girlfriend broke up after they had Ella and I think we would have been the same besides if we had, you wouldn't be Mr Superstar and I wouldn't be in college."

"Would you have kept it?" Beck questioned, rolling the shirt sleeves up his well-toned arms.

"Definitely," Jade replied without hesitation, "The baby shouldn't have to pay for what we did and I would kinda like to see what a mini me and you would look like,"

"They'd be the best looking baby in all of town, especially with you as a Mum," he chuckled.

"Stop flirting with me, and yeah they would look pretty sick," Jade laughed, resorting back to her teenage-tongue.

"I'm not flirting," He replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"You told me I looked beautiful, you said our baby would be the best looking especially with me as an ingredient and you haven't stopped looking into my eyes or at my boobs all night," she laughed.

Crap, she had noticed.

-Victory Meets Again-

"I can't find him," Beck exclaimed in a big breath of air.

"Stay the night," she shrugged, "my rooms big enough for two."

"You sure?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I don't bite," she smiled.

"Yes you do," he answered laughing.

She bared her teeth and led him up from the living room to her bedroom.

It was past one in the morning and the party was still burning downstairs but both Beck and Jade were exhausted from doing absolutely nothing. Beck sat down on her black, silky bed sheets, rubbing over them with his hand as he watched her pull out an oversized t-shirt. She threw it to him before rummaging again and he stood up.

"Can I change here, I don't particularly want to be caught by Jasper and I'm afraid I'll get lost," he asked.

"Sure," she chuckled, taking a vest and shorts from her drawer.

"So am I friend-zoned or do you like me?" he asked, admiring her legs, rear and perfect skin as she stepped out of her dress.

"You were my boyfriend, you get the privilege," she laughed, rolling her tights down her now very long legs.

He tore his eyes away from her for a moment, just long enough to focus on getting out of his own clothes and into the old shirt that she'd had as a nightgown since they were fourteen, he thought about keeping his jeans on to be decent but decided against it opting for just the t-shirt and his boxers, he was sleeping after all.

The black underwear against her ice-white skin was an incredible sight, he knew she'd always worn dark underwear and when he'd seen it as a teenager his hormones had driven him crazy but now even as a an adult seeing such the tonal difference and the proper curves on her body made him go crazy and while alarm bells in his head sounded telling him to unleash the vicious wolf inside of him and pounce on her he waited and watched as she slipped into the black shorts and to add to his fire the see-through grey vest that over the black bra did absolutely nothing.

"I'll take the floor if you want?" she smiled, wrestling her hair into a bun on top of her head, a handful of strands refusing to be tamed and slipping out.

"Don't be silly Jade, we'll take the bed, we're adults here," he returned the smile.

That was the problem.

They were Adults.

Not kids anymore.

He slid in first and she switched off the lights before joining him, fitting right into his body like a piece of a puzzle, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, keeping her warm with the heat of his body under the freezing, silky sheets.

"Sweet dreams," he whispered into the air.

"Best nightmares," she whispered in reply, the same thing she'd done for years.

He laughed and squeezed her tightly.

-Victory Meets Again-

"Wake up," she said quietly shaking his shoulders.

"Why?" he groaned, feeling Jade's hands on his shoulders.

"Because it's breakfast," she smiled just as he opened his eyes allowing him to see the beauty he'd missed of seeing Jade West wake up.

And today she was straddling him which was always new.

"You have allotted times?" Beck questioned, stretching and awakening his sleeping and happy muscles.

"No but we always eat together and if we don't go down Lucy'll come up in a minute and the rumours will be spread and we'll be screwed cause a guy in my bed won't go down quietly," she laughed, shaking his shoulders more rapidly now so he could feel his brains wobble like jelly in his head.

"Especially not in this position cowgirl," he whispered in her ear moving her so he could get up, admiring the blush on her face.

"You ready?" he asked and she rolled of the bed where he'd placed her.

"Let's go," she smiled walking in front of him to keep him in the right direction.

"You're going looking like that?" he asked, watching her shorts and vest as if they were about to pounce.

"We're adults; all the guys will look like you and all the girls will be a slightly more putridly coloured me."

"Putrid?" he questioned.

"They wear pink to bed, I asked them how they don't get nightmares they replied 'it's a nice colour', I still don't get them," Jade shrugged.

The pair walked down the stairs, Beck a tad self conscious of both him and Jade's attire and Jade completely at home and used to doing this for the last two years.

"Hey Jasper," Jade smiled at the tall boy already in the kitchen, sipping a coffee waiting on the toaster to pop.

"Hey Death Girl, who's the guy?" Jasper questioned, his dark blue eyes staring intently at the brown liquid in the cup.

"Beck, he was at the party last night, we went to high school together," Jade replied, gesturing for Beck to take a seat as she went through the fridge.

"The Boyfriend?" Jasper asked and Jade nodded.

"See I do remember some of the things you tell me," Jasper chuckled taking the Pop Tarts out of the toaster.

Jade made two cups of coffee before sitting down in the chair next to Beck and handing him one.

"I know," Jade smiled.

"So are you two still you know boyfriend-girlfriend?" Jasper asked taking a bite out of the crumbling piece of candied pastry.

Jade shook her head and Beck opened his mouth to say the first thing of that morning and was interrupted by a loud cheery voice.

"Oh My Gosh, who's that and if he isn't already claimed please let me have him," the blonde cheered from the stairs, true enough she was keeping in Jades rules she wore tiny pink shorts and a purple bunny top.

"Hey Lucy," both Jade and Jasper nodded.

"So anyway why is there a super hot guy sitting at the table and who does he belong to because I will claim him if he doesn't have someone," Lucy grinned taking a seat at the table.

"He's Jades," Jasper answered, "Beck his name is."

"Hi Beck," Lucy smiled at him before turning to Jade "Holy girl how'd you land him, Voodoo?"

"High school," Jade replied, "And he's not mine he's his own."

"So did he sleepover Jadey?" Lucy questioned.

"Yes we were tired after the party and he couldn't find his ride home so I let him stay the night," Jade answered, "Just sleeping," she added to answer Lucy's next question.

"Seriously girl you're no fun whatsoever, what about you Jasp, you get lucky last night?" Lucy asked the taller boy.

"Nope, sleeping alone," he replied.

"Fine, Beck what do you do for a living?" Lucy interrogated.

Beck laughed internally, Lucy was NOT the person he would ever think of Jade managing to live with without murdering her with the hundred pairs of scissors she owned.

"I'm an actor," he replied, waiting for the name to kick in.

"Oh my gosh Beck Oliver?" Lucy squealed, "You're Beck Oliver?"

Beck nodded and took Jade's hand under the table which he squeezed tight once he noticed her clench her teeth.

"Wow, you sure get the good ones Jade," Lucy laughed.

"See being the Queen of Darkness has its upsides," a boy coming downstairs chuckled, "I apologise Beck nobody seems to have said 'Hello' to you yet. I do greatly apologise, we're not all like that."

"Morning Isaac," everybody chorused.

"Where's Ella?" Jasper asked, looking around for the little girl.

"Waking Jen up, she refuses to come to breakfast without her," Isaac chuckled; having a four year old was definitely taking him through some of the weirdest things and conversations.

"Daddy! Jenny's up," the little girl shouted from the top of the stairs before emerging lugging a half asleep twenty something year old behind her.

"So I think are the neighbours," Isaac said to the crowd in the kitchen.

Most of them laughed and Beck smiled, this was a weird bunch but Jade seemed to be well looked after and got along well with all them.

"Who's he?" Isaac asked, pouring three bowls of cereal on auto-pilot.

"Beck, he's Jade's sleepover friend," Lucy chuckled.

"Jade!" Isaac exclaimed in mock disgust.

"We just slept," Jade said in surrender, "Ask him yourself."

Everybody looked at Beck and he looked at Jade before turning back to the crowd.

"We just slept," he assured them and laughed, Jade was obviously the baby of the group and surprisingly she'd taken to it.

"Well it was nice seeing everybody in the land of the living but I'm going back to bed, nice to meet you Beck," Jasper nodded leaving the room and climbing the stairs.

"You too," Beck called in reply, turning his attention back to the table.

"I'm sorry Ella woke you up," Isaac apologised to Jenny handing her a bowl of cereal.

"It's fine, it's cute to wake up to a four year old on top of you shaking your shoulders like there's an earthquake," Jenny grinned.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Beck let his thoughts drift to how he was woken up.