Writing IV

Episode 4: [Trying to] Act Normal

The same night that Logan cried over Pepper and the same night that Jade met Wyn, Wyn made her presence known to Jade. Every time she started to dream, Wyn would show up and make small talk. She was very... flirtatious. She would always sit on the sidelines and drink a dark red drink in a clear crystal glass. She would never talk to Jade, just simply observe her. 

The next morning, as Jade stared in the mirror in the bathroom, she psyched herself up. "Okay, breathe." She stared blankly at her reflection, unsure if she was even breathing at all. She had dark circles under her eyes. Had those been there yesterday? She was suddenly more aware of how she acted yesterday. She kept thinking about what Mr. Peterson had done. "I should have asked Wyn about him," she thought out loud. 

"You could ask me now." Wyn's voice echoed in her head.

"So you are real. That or I am losing it." Jade said.

Wyn only laughed in response. "So what did you want to ask about?" she asked.

"Jake Peterson, do you know him?" Jade asked.

"Of course, I know him. We have... history." Wyn answered.

"So you know why he..." Jade started.

"Yes, but let's not dwell on that," Wyn said.

"So you're the reason that he did what he did?" Jade asked.

There was no response. 

...

Matt Young ran towards the set, the script in hand. As he ran he bumped into several of the cast. "Sorry..."

"Hey!" Ashley shouted back at him.

He dodged Jessica, Jumped over Roger as he laid down to show Brad what his choreography was supposed to be. He ran past Mark, narrowly missing the stage lights he was holding. He ran past Chet, hitting his arm on his shoulder. Matt turned back to say sorry and completely slammed into Vanessa and the mountain of costumes she was holding.

Matt was on the floor, costumes completely covering him. He could hear Vanessa saying sorry over and over as he felt the clothes being taken off one by one. 

"Hey, is he okay?" Tyler asked.

"I think he's okay, I can't exactly see him," Fredrick said with a laugh, standing by the camera. 

"Here let me help,"  Barbara said, helping take costumes off of him. 

The first thing that Matt saw when most of the costumes were removed was not Barbara or even Vanessa. It was Jade. She was nealing over him and looked into his bright green eyes with a worried expression. 

"Are you okay?" she asked. 

He stared at her and a blush crept across his face.

"I-" he started.

"Let me see," Alice said as she moved close to him. She looked him up and down. Moved his arms and stared into his eyes. Even shining a bright light on them making him close his eyes. 

"I'm okay, nothing hurts." He finally finished, looking at Jade. 

She gave him a smile and his blush deepened. Alice stood up, gave him a thumbs-up, and left. Jade offered her hand to him and he nervously took it. He lifted himself up and accidentally moved closer to Jade. He could now see how much taller than her he was. He had to look down at her to look into her beautiful brown eyes. He stood there for a minute staring at her. She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen and being this close he just wanted to-

"Uh, Matt? You okay?" Jade asked.

Matt's attention snapped back into focus. He looked down at her worried expression and remembered what was going on. 

"Y-yeah, I guess I was a little too preoccupied," he answered.

She giggled, which made him blush again.

Matt stared at her, completely forgetting the script in his hand again. He desperately wanted to tell her how he felt, but now wasn't the right time.

"What's this?" she asked him, taking the script in her hand.

"Oh, well these- I mean this..." he stared letting go of the papers. "Is the new script," he finished as she looked through the stapled papers.

Jade's eyes scanned the paper and her eyes landed on Pepper's name and frowned. Gosh, it had seemed so long since she had seen Pepper, even though it was only two days since they were here talking. In the back of her head, she wondered what Logan was doing. Wondering how he felt about it. Was he going to show up today? She doubted it.

She looked up and met Matt's expecting eyes. She looked back at the papers and then back up at Matt. 

"Where... where did you get this?" she asked.

Matt looked confused. "From that Jake dude," he answered slowly.

Jade looked at him and blinked. "Who?" she asked.

"Oh my! Jake Peterson, you adorable idiot," Wyn said in her mind.

"Yeah, Jake... uh, his last name is so hard to remember. It sounds like a first name too." Matt answered.

"Jake..." Her heart sank "Peterson."

"Yeah, that's who I meant," Matt said as he snapped his fingers.

Jade started breathing heavily. "He's not here... is he?"

The rest of the group saw the change in her attitude and decided that they did not need to be there at that moment.

Matt looked back at where he had just run from, "No, I don't think-" He looked back at Jade's pale expression. "Hey, are you okay?"

Jade looked at him and suddenly felt dizzy. "I have to get out of here," she said quietly. 

She tried to step forwards but her legs turned to jelly and she started to fall. Matt caught her at the last minute as she was near the ground.

"Jade?" he asked.

"I... I need to..." Jade said weakly. 

"I could help you, you know," Wyn said.

"Okay, I'll get you to your car," Matt said starting to pick her up. 

"No..." Jade said, falling limp in Matt's eyes.

"Okay, then I'm going to take you to your office," Matt said, finally picking her up.

He took her to her office. Opened the door awkwardly and walked over to a bare wall. He set her down so that she was leaning against the wall. Her head slumped over as he stood back up and closed her door. He walked back over to her and lifted her head to get a good look at her. She grabbed his arm and he blushed.

"It's okay, I'm here," he said, caressing her cheek.

"Logan..." Jade said weakly.

Matt felt disappointment rise in his throat, he tried to swallow it down but couldn't. She held his hand close to her face and smiled. He couldn't help but feel bad about the situation. Did Logan even know she liked him?

"You don't even know do you?" he said sighing.

He kissed and caressed her cheek before he left. As he was closing the door behind him, he watched Logan walk onto the set. He walked up to Vanessa.

"Hey, have you seen Jade yet?" He asked her.

"Uh, yeah. She was just here helping Matt after I accidentally knocked into him," she answered.

Logan looked around and spotted Matt. They made eye contact and he started to make his way towards Matt, looking back at Vanessa momentarily to say thank you. She nodded and continued to work.

Once at Matt, Logan smiled at him. Matt could feel the jealousy rising. 

"You were with Jade just now, right?" Logan asked.

Matt didn't want to tell Logan where Jade was. He wasn't sure why he felt so jealous all of a sudden. It wasn't as if Logan even liked her that way. Or at least it didn't seem to him that he did. Could he have liked her?

"I was, what do you need her for?" Matt asked.

"I need to talk to her... a-about Pepper." Logan continued.

Matt felt relief and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"She's in her office, wasn't feeling well," Matt said, his attention seemingly somewhere else. He was too busy thinking about Jade. The thought of Jade calling for Logan crossed his mind again and he huffed in response. 

Logan gave him a puzzled look, one that caught Matt's eye. He looked and blushed out of embarrassment, then sighed.

As Matt was leaving, he stopped. 

"Do you love her?" he asked.

Logan blinked but didn't say anything.

"I-" he started. He didn't want to think about that question. He didn't know how to answer, because he didn't know what the answer was.

"Well, you shouldn't play with her feelings," Matt added finally as he left.