Handle With Care

(Jade's POV)

I literally had messed it up this time. After Chester had took me home a couple days ago from Disneyland, I acted like a complete tool. I didn't even kiss him or talk to him much on the drive back, so I obviously must have hurt his feelings. I knew he had asked me to go to the video shoot for the In The End on Friday, but I made up my mind and wasn't going. There was no way I could face him after the way I acted and for what I had said. We had barely been dating a few days, you can't just bust out with the serious 'Falling for you aka pretty much in love with you' card that soon! It's inhumane to do that to someone! "You know, avoiding him all together just makes it worse than it actually was. I'm surprised that he hasn't shown up yet." KayT said as she looked up at me from her magazine as she laid across the couch. "Actually he has, practically begging to see Jay but she was being stupid. Poor guy, he really cares about her too." Melody spat from the table as she pretended that I wasn't there. That's a whole other issue on its own. Okay not really, she's mad at me for being such an "immature, bipolar, love scared bitch" as she liked to call it. I didn't blame her for being mad at me though, because ultimately she was right.

"Well he's going to group tonight isn't he?" I shook my head sadly. He was missing tonight because he had band practice that couldn't be rescheduled. "Ugh Jay, I really hate to say it but you have to call him or something. It is pretty messed up..." I then shot her a glare, groaning loudly as I was now clearly frustrated. I understand they were on his side completely, but I didn't help any to keep nagging at me about it. And then as if things couldn't get much else worse my phone started to ring loudly beside me on the floor. Just who I needed it to be. "I swear to God if you don't answer that phone call Jay I'll do it for you and say some pretty horrible things." KayT warned glancing down at my screen. I sighed deeply before pressing answer and putting it to my ear. "Hey..." I said uneasily before getting up and walking to the other room, knowing full well he probably was calling to dump me. I wouldn't blame him if he did though, really. "Can you miss group today? I really want to talk to you and they moved up the shoot to start filming some scenes tonight. Please, babe." I felt my heart drop into my stomach at the sound of that name. Okay, so he obviously didn't want to break up. And he obviously wanted me to be there with him so then things were good with us, right? Ah fuck.

"Um, yeah I'll be there, Chester. I really need to talk to you anyways." I bit down on my tongue hard as I realized how bad that probably had sounded. "I'll pick you up in half an hour or do you think the girls could bring you?" I peeked at the clock on the wall, seeing it was already 6:00. "I'll just have Mel and KayT drop me off before they leave. Send me the address, okay?" He said he would and that he couldn't wait to see me. When I walked back into the living room, instantly I could feel Melody burning holes in the back of my skull with her angry eyes. "Did he break up with you?" She asked casually with a hint of bitterness in her voice. I rolled my eyes slightly before looking over to KayT. "No, he didn't. But I have to miss group, he said we need to talk and that it's important. You can cover for me, can't you, Melody? He also asked if you could drop me off." Our eyes shifted to hers as she stared down at the floor, picking at the chipped black nail polish on her fingers. "I swear to God if you get broken up with Jay I will rip your heart out and eat it. But yes, I'll cover for you. Just tell me where it is I'm taking you and I'll let my mom know Chester is taking you home." I tried my hardest to contain my smile before tackling her in a big hug. "Alright, alright get off." She chuckled before KayT decided to jump in and dog pile on top of us, sending the three of us straight to the floor with a loud thud.

Within thirty minutes I was dressed and ready to go. I definitely didn't look like I was going to therapy but thankfully Melody's mom knew I was dating Chester and she always assumed I had a reason to get ready now. We said our goodbyes to her on the way out before I texted Chester quickly saying I would be there in about ten minutes or so. I nervously played with the strings on my jeans as I peered out of the window, trying to control my heavy breathing the closer we got to the place. But just as I felt like throwing up KayT announced that we were here. I climbed out of the backseat ever so slowly before telling them both I felt like I made a mistake. "Don't even start thinking like that Jay. Just go in there and act like nothing had happened, he'll understand. You can't let fear win this one, or I will kill you. Love you, bye!" Melody said as they pulled away from the curb leaving me standing there all alone. Assholes. I walked calmly over to the entrance of the large brick building before texting Chester that I was now outside of the place. In a matter of minutes he appeared, only this time he was dressed in tan colored pants and a tan button up shirt. My initial reaction was to give him a kiss but I hesitated greatly until he made the first move. His lips felt just so natural when the grazed mine in a small but soft kiss. "I've missed you." He admitted once we pulled away, hugging me close. My heart pretty much broke at that point. God I was such a fucking loser.

I looked up at him, seeing that same familiar spark in his dark eyes as he kept his stare fixed on me. "I missed you too. I'm really, really sorry Chester, for everything. Especially the way I've been acting these last couple of days with you. I just-I don't know. I didn't want to rush things with you and ruin the great friendship we built. So when I word vomited that I was falling for you so soon, I seriously thought you were going to feel weird about it. I didn't know how to just control my feelings I guess. I know it just proves that I'm probably too young or inexperienced so I mean honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to leave me." There was my nervous tick right on cue. I couldn't seem to shut the hell up for the life of me. Thankfully he helped and kissed me numerous times, shutting me up instantly. "Jay, I don't think you're too young or anything. You said what you felt and I fully understand. That's honestly a huge step for you, you weren't afraid to really tell me how you felt. I'm more than happy knowing that because honestly I'm starting to fall for you too. You've made me a lot happier than I've been in a while and you're just so fragile, how can I not want to care about you?" My stomach then erupted into millions of butterflies, a feeling I have still not gotten used to.

Just as I was about to attack him with more kisses and hugs, his friend Mike popped his head out, telling him that it was time to go back in and shoot more scenes. "Hey, Jay. Nice to see you." He said afterwards, suddenly noticing another head poke out beside him. "Oh Jay's here! Hi Jay!" Shae exclaimed excitedly before pushing through Mike and running right to me. We hugged before following the guys inside. "Wow it looks so cool in here." I noted seeing all the screens and cameras set up. "Just wait until you see the actual scenes they are shooting, it's so bad ass." She grinned, motioning me to follow her to a few seats set up behind the large camera. "You guys okay with everything?" Shae finally spoke up once we got comfortable. I nodded, trying hard to hide the smile that seemed to glue itself to my lips. "Couldn't be better, actually. We had a little miscommunication in the feelings department but it turned out better than expected. He said he's starting to fall for me." She covered her mouth with her hands in a gasping motion before almost knocking me over off the chair in a hug. That's also not something I have gotten used to yet either, that everyone loved to hug around here. "Oh my God Jay that is so fucking sweet! You seriously have turned him around, you have no idea how cute that is aww!" She continued to gush loudly until Mike had came and asked her to please stop embarrassing me and that she was once in my position too. "It's okay, she's just doing what all girl friends do." I laughed, shaking my head.

I looked passed them, seeing Chester standing in front of the camera looking absolutely handsome. He was gorgeous, especially his eyes. They always seemed to keep my attention the most more than anything else. "Hey Earth to Jay!" I snapped back quickly, seeing Shae waving a hand in my face. "Sorry." I blushed, sighing some. She smiled before clapping a hand to my back. "Come on we can see this later, lets go get something to drink." I followed alongside her to a small room where a table was set up with drinks and snacks. Seeing as I hadn't had much today, I graciously accepted whatever was passed my way. "The perks of dating the band members." She joked with a wink before handing me a water bottle. I seriously was starting to like this lifestyle if this was going to be how it stayed, smooth sailing. "Thanks Shae, you honestly have been super great to me since I've started hanging around and I just appreciate it a lot." She put a hand to my shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Jay, I'm just an honest person. Sure I was a little overprotective of Chester when you two first started hanging around but you're a really awesome girl. You're like the sister I never had." And cue to the ugly crying, make up smearing, tears from two women. This day was seriously a crazy.

After we had finished up our chat and composed ourselves enough to head back out to the filming room, I couldn't help but notice that someone was continually watching the guys from behind, making me tense up instantly. It was a girl from what I could make out and she had bright bleach blonde hair. "Shae, who the hell is that?" I pointed out nonchalantly, trying not to make it too obvious that I was glaring at the unknown woman. She narrowed her eyes some, obviously trying to make out a face to the body. Immediately I could feel a thick tension rise in the air as Shae now somewhat growled lowly under her breath. "Woah is everything okay? Who is that?" I was starting to get nervous now, my hands starting to shake. "Don't worry about it sweetheart. I'll take care of it." Was all she said before she left my side, making her way over towards the girl. I watched in shock as I saw her approach the other, almost shoving the other girl back into the wall hard. In an instant, all I could see was a blur of people practically yanking Shae off of the mystery woman in a matter of seconds. Just as I was about to rush in and help, I felt a strong pair of arms pull me back. "Come on, let's go outside." It was Chester and from the look on his face, he must have known that girl.

"Sorry about that babe, things got a little carried away in there." He said as we finally stopped around a corner outside the building, sitting down on a small set of steps. I just shrugged, not really knowing what else to say, everything had happened so goddamn fast. "It's okay I guess I mean I don't even know what really went on. Shae was talking to me one minute and then the next thing I knew she was about to pulverize some chick into a bloody pulp." I let out a long sigh, running my hands through my hair. Then I remembered that Chester looked like he had saw a ghost right before we left. So without much warning, I decided to ask him about it. "Do you-I mean, did you-Did you know who that was?" He kept his eyes averted from mine, his hand resting on my thigh. "You can tell me, Chester. I'm not going to get mad or anything." He seemed to ease up a bit but something still kept him quite. I wasn't desperate to know but my always growing curiosity was telling me otherwise. "She-" But before he could get anymore else out, that unknown woman had suddenly appeared in front of us, almost throwing herself into Chester's arms. "Like oh my God! Chesty, I can't believe it's really you! I seriously have missed you!" Her voice was incredibly high pitched and too cheery for my liking. Furthermore, I didn't appreciate some plastic, spray tanned, barbie looking bitch touching my man and calling him a name. "Uh, Ashley. How are you? When did you- How did you even get here?"

She then started to rant annoyingly about how she left Phoenix about a year ago to come here and pursue her dream of becoming famous. Although from the sound of it, she had really no talent at all. She tried to call herself an actress and a rising singer, but my ears practically bled out when she started to screech like a dying cat. Having enough, I stormed away in a fit of rage. I desperately looked around the building for Shae, seeing her and Mike were off in a distant corner away from the others. "Oh Jay, come here!" She got up from her spot beside him and rushed over to me. I didn't want to seem weak and cry, but the tears were inevitable. "Who the fuck is that? She came up to us and threw herself down into Chester's arms right in front of me. I didn't want to hear anymore bullshit about her leaving Arizona so I'm assuming there's something that I need to know, correct?" Mike's face stayed flat as he looked to Shae for help, a smug and angry scowl on her lips. "That's Ashley. She used to live in Arizona before Chester joined the band and moved out here. But she-she's just some ugly tramp who I want to beat the living shit out of." I groaned, clearly not satisfied by the half ass answer Shae had given me. Obviously there was something else to her that they didn't want me to know about.

"Just fucking tell me, please. I can handle it." She put a hand on my shoulder again before telling me to sit. Mike insisted he was going to go find Chester and get things set straight. "Ashley is Chester's ex girlfriend. They used to date a few years back before he moved out here but when his career took too long to get started, she dumped him. Completely shattered his heart. I wanted to kill her the minute I had seen her. She's always been some snotty, rich brat who just got with him so her parents wouldn't approve. She only used him for his image so her friends would think she's some type of bad ass. But all she is, is a rotten whore who I swear to God would have been dead a few minutes ago if they hadn't of stopped me." I felt a knot tighten in my throat as I tried to process all the information I was just given. So she was Chester's no good ex, I got that far. But why she was here, really didn't make any sense. Eventually Mike came back to us with Chester following right behind him. "Apparently, Ashley's dad is one of the head directors at the record label. So he's the one who told her about where the video was being filmed and all that. Come on Shae, they need to talk." I hugged onto her once more before her and Mike left, leaving Chester and I alone.

I stood there awkwardly, feeling like the tears were going to fall at any given moment. "I honestly had no idea she was going to be here. I didn't even know she lived out here until today. I promise you, I can't stand her. She's my-" I cut him off before he could finish. "She's your ex. I know, they told me. I don't really care, Chester. I just want to know that she isn't going to tear us apart. I mean I really have strong feelings for you and I don't just go throwing that out there for anyone. You know how hurt I've been, you say that you know that I'm fragile. I just want to know that you're going to handle me right. That you're not going to let her come between us. I want your word." I knew that I probably sounded a bit selfish and one sided, but it was just the truth. After being hurt by so many people, trust and feelings weren't exactly in my nature anymore. But with Chester, things seemed to be so fucking different. He took my face in his hands, looking at me deep in the eyes. "I promise you she isn't going to come between us, ever. You mean too much to me, Jade. I would never give you up over some girl who broke my heart." I relaxed a bit after hearing that, it never gets tiring hearing him say my real name. "I trust you."

Without much warning once again, the barbie doll known as Ashley appeared once more, making my skin crawl. Mike kept Shae at a good distance as the blonde came toward Chester once more. Instead of stepping in and blocking her, I decided to listen to what it was she had to say to him. "So listen, my daddy said he can put a tour together for you guys, you know like, all over the U.S and whatever in a month or so. The only thing is, is that I like of course have to go, hello shopping sprees!"