Chapter One
Belle's footsteps echoed through the high school's empty hallways. A slacker passing by smirked at the sight of the perfect student actually being late to a class. Belle turned left and ran smack into someone else, dropping her books all over the hallway.
"Damn!" She said, immediately dropping to her knees to pick up her books. The other person dropped to his knees too, to help her. "Have I ever heard Perfect Girl say such a word?"
Belle looked up and Shawn couldn't help feeling his heart skip a beat...one strand of blond hair was hanging loosely over her eye and he resisted fixing it for her. Belle put the strand behind her ear and smiled. "I can't help it, I'm so late for History."
Shawn helped Belle off the floor as they walked to the end of the hall. "I doubt Mr. Hall will care if your late once in your life. It's only been one minute since the bell rang," he said, opening the door of the classroom for Belle.
"Two minutes, actually, Mr. Brady," said the teacher, giving the two a stern look. A few students rolled their eyes, knowing Mr. Hall was a pushover and would just go back to writing notes on the chalkboard. That's exactly what he did and a couple of students put their heads back on their desks. Belle and Shawn took their seats, and Mimi turned to them.
"So did you two ask your parents?" she whispered.
"Yeah, they were fine with it." Shawn whispered back, excited. He tried to glance over to Belle casually, but he wasn't sure he would want to go if she wasn't. Shawn shook his head...because she was his best friend and it wouldn't be fun without her there. That's all, Shawn, he thought to himself.
"My parents were actually fine with it, also," Belle said, smiling. "I'm bringing Brady, too."
Mimi shook her head. "Chloe will flip."
Belle couldn't help smiling. Chloe and Mimi finally made up after Mimi told Chloe about Jan's plan about operagirl.com, and Mimi even apologized. Now Mimi was actually concerned about Chloe's feelings. "Well, I know she won't be happy, but Brady needs to get out. No one's forcing her to hang out with my brother, anyway."
Shawn nodded. "Exactly. So it's set: me, you two, Brady, Chloe and Philip." He looked down. "And Jason," he mumbled.
"What?!" Belle and Mimi said, not sure if they heard him correctly. The teacher was so lost in his own world of looking for his lost notes on the Vietnam War in his desk that he didn't even notice all the kids in the class were talking. "Did you say Jason? As in Jason Welles?" Mimi asked.
Shawn shrugged. "Um...well, yeah."
Belle grabbed Shawn's wrist and tigthened her grip. "Brady, why--"
Shawn rolled his eyes. "Oh, ow, the pain," he said sarcastically. Belle swatted him on the arm and looked at him with expectant eyes. "Look, Jase isn't that bad since he broke up with Jan. And he has nothing else to do for Spring Break, so I just thought..."
Mimi ran her hands through her brown hair and exhaled. "Whatever. Just don't expect me to hang out with him after he's been such a jerk to everyone."
Chloe closed her locker with a bang. She giggled to herself, thinking she probably has super-strength from over-excitement. The last bell of the day has rung and now her and the rest of the student body had a week of Spring Break to look forward to. Not to mention that she, her boyfriend, Shawn, Belle and Mimi were flying down to Florida to celebrate the vacation. She hugged her books to her chest. "Boyfriend." Whoever knew Chloe Lane would be using that word? A pit in her stomach erased the smile from her face. She was so nervous that Philip would think the vacation would mean something would happen between the two of them. After all, the teens would be at a condo all by themselves...all of a sudden, two arms were wrapped around her waist and lips were kissing her neck. Chloe heard a familiar, "Hey, baby," be murmured and she felt her knees go weak. She turned to face...her boyfriend.
"Hi, Philip," she said, giving him a quick kiss and taking his hand. They walked down the hall to meet the others at the entrance of the school.
Philip smiled at Chloe, his excitement showing as well. "I cannot wait for this trip. It's going to be great Chloe. You, a condo, beaches..."
Chloe rolled her eyes and looked at Philip. "Beautiful girls in bikinis chasing after my boyfriend."
"Well, there's not a doubt that will happen," Philip laughed as Chloe rolled her eyes again, smiling in spite of herself. "But I only care about one beautiful girl in one certain bikini."
Chloe closed her eyes. Philip helped her with her bathing suit shopping yesterday. Belle and Mimi warned her about going shopping with a guy for swimsuits, but Chloe didn't listen. She should have: most of the day was spent looking for old Aerosmith CD's and sneakers. When the couple finally reached a bathing suit store, Philip of course preferred a skimpy navy blue string bikini with light blue piping. Chloe bought the suit since she had no other opinon to go on and she didn't know what looked good on her and what didn't. However, she wasn't too sure if she was ready to prance around the beach in some Britney outfit.
Belle's voice cut through her thoughts. In fact, it nearly gave her a headache, since it was unnaturally perky at the moment...even for Miss Black. "Chloe! Can you believe it? It's finally Spring Break!"
Chloe laughed and returned the hug that Belle rushed over to give her. "I know! It's going to be amazing. It's going to be the first really fun thing I've ever did." Chloe immediately closed her eyes, realizing how stupid she sounded. She re-opened them when she felt Philip kiss her on the cheek. His dimples set her right at ease again...those things work wonders.
Mimi hugged Chloe too, and then Philip. "I still can't believe this trip is happening. Our parents really must believe we're all golden children. They probably think we're going to sit and do extra credit all week."
Shawn's voice rang out from behind them. "Maybe they all think Perfect Girl will rub off on us." The girl's smiles faded when they saw Jason cheerily walking with Shawn. Philip nudged Jason's arm. "I bet Shawn would be wanting to do some private rubbing with Belle Black here." Philip whispered as Shawn glared at him. Luckily, Belle was too busy glaring at Jason to notice.
Chloe crossed her arms. "Jason. What are you doing here?"
Jason looked down and shuffled his feet. "Well, um, Phil and Shawn here invited me to come along."
Chloe whipped around to face Philip, who immediately put his hands up in defense. "You what?"
Philip grabbed Chloe's hand and cocked his head to the side, which he knew drove her crazy. "Chloe, hon, we just knew that Jas--" Chloe wrung her hand free from Philip's grip. "Oh, no, Philip, don't think you can charm your way out of this, okay? You should have asked me before you invited...him." Jason looked around uncomfortably, suddenly rather wanting to sit at home than spend a week with someone who didn't even want to say his name.
"You would have said no!" Philip protested.
Mimi threw up her hands. "Exactly! Then Jason wouldn't have to come. It's bad enough we have to squeeze Brady in our condo, but now him?"
Chloe spun around toawrds Mimi as Belle bit her lip. "Brady?!" She immediately turned in Belle's direction. "Belle Black, you didn't."
"Chloe! Brady doesn't have anything to do for Spring Break, either! He just wants to get out and have some fun. He'll only be staying with us, I doubt he'll want to hang out with us, though." Belle said at rapid speed.
Chloe nodded her head slowly. "I guess your right. I just don't want Brady to ruin my vacation."
Belle nodded solemnly. "He won't, I promise."
Mimi pointedly stared at Jason. "I don't want anyone to ruin my vacation, either."
"Listen, Mimi, I'll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine. I'll meet you guys at the aiport." Jason said, running over to his car.
"It's a deal!" Mimi yelled after him. "Bye, guys, I'll see you later," she said, with an edge to her tone.
Philip took Chloe's hand, who in turn, glared at him. There's a lot of glaring going on in the past five minutes, Philip thought to himself. "Come on," he sighed. "I'll apologize a thousand times in the car." Chloe nodded briskly as she waved goodbye to Shawn and Belle. Philip opened the car door for Chloe and she climbed in.
"It's ok, Philip, I understand why you invited Jason. As long as I don't have to hang out with him or Brady, I'll be fine. But you better help me pack. I have no idea what clothes to bring."
Philip smirked. "Who said you needed clothes?" Chloe looked down and nervously twisted her hair around her finger. She wiped her palms on her jeans and looked out the window. "Are you ok, Chloe?" Chloe nodded and offered a smile, even though she didn't feel all that great. She looked back out the window and took a deep breath. This trip was going to be interesting, all right. But maybe not the kind of interesting that Chloe wanted.
Chapter 2
Shawn smiled as he picked up a framed picture of him and Belle from the seventh grade. He was teaching her to play baseball and Marlena thought it was the cutest thing in the world that she just had to claim it as a Kodak moment. Belle was wearing Shawn's baseball cap for luck and Shawn has his arms wrapped around Belle's to show her how to hold the bat. "And you still can't hold the bat right," Shawn said, showing Belle the picture.
Belle looked up from her packing, smiling. Shawn had come over to help her pack after Mimi, Philip and the rest of the gang left school in less than high spirits. "Whatever, Brady. I hit a grand slam that day, remember?"
"Um...no." Shawn said, putting the frame back on the shelf. "What I remember is you getting strikes after strikes. And then you finally got a run in the last inning but you tripped over your shoelaces and landed flat on your face."
"Shawn Douglas! That never happened!"
"Maybe you just chose to block that extrememly embarrasing moment from your memory." Shawn said, smiling crookedly.
Belle swallowed...she always had a weak spot for Shawn's smiles. She chucked a bathing suit at him, shaking off her nerves. "Maybe you chose to block the fact that a girl did better than--"
"Well, well, well, Miss Black. This is quite the bathing suit," Shawn said, holding up the pink string bikini. From what he saw, it seemed rather small...which was alright for Shawn. He tried to cover up a groan deep in his throat when he imagined what Belle would look like in the bathing suit.
Belle crossed her arms. "Oh. I really don't plan on wearing that. It's kind of just there for back-up. It's not really my type of bathing suit, I'm not into the skimpy bikini thing."
Shawn continued to admire the bathing suit. "Well, in my personal opinon, I think you should wear this everyday. And to lunch. And to dinner. And--"
"Shawn!" Belle protested, getting embarrased. She walked over to Shawn and reached for the suit. At the last moment, Shawn held his arm high up, dangling the swimsuit just out of Belle's reach. "Oh, come on, Shawn, I'm not going to jump for it."
Shawn smiled down at Belle, who stood on her tip-toes in vain. "I beg to differ, shortie. You know, maybe you can ever wear this to breakfa--"
"That's it, Brady!" Belle shouted before she could start blushing. She jumped up and grabbed the bathing suit a little too hard. Shawn wasn't expecting her to jump and lost his balance, falling backwards. He grabbed Belle's waist on instinct and the two fell back on her bed. Belle gasped a little when she realized how close she was to Shawn...and that his arm remained around her waist. Shawn, meanwhile, kept trying to think of college basketball, instead of the fact that Belle was lying on top of him while they were alone in her bedroom. Shawn stared into Belle's eyes and immediately couldn't think straight. For the past year, he has been getting all these thoughts about Belle that he never had before...he dreamed about her and thought about her constantly. Shawn always knew Belle was special, caring and loving...but lately, he's been seeing something else about his best friend. Something that he can't deny anymore, even if he can't name what that something is. But was he just confusing friendship for...love? Could he really be in love? Could--
"Shawn?" Belle whispered. The whisper cut his thoughts short. In that whisper, he heard confusion and almost--yes, desire. Or was that just wishful thinking? He swallowed and closed his eyes. "Yeah?"
Just then, the door swung open. "What the hell is going on here?" Belle and Shawn turned their heads to see Brady, who has been crutch-less for a month now, standing in Belle's doorway with a look of rage on his face. Shawn immediately rolled Belle off of him...but misjudged the width of Belle's bed. Belle rolled right off the bed and smack onto the floor. "Ow! Shawn!"
"Oh..uh...I'm sor--sorry. Um...yeah." Shawn stammered, not taking his eyes off Brady.
Brady helped Belle up and she stepped in front of him, blocking his view of Shawn. "Brady, I just fell on him, okay? That's all."
Brady easily could see Shawn, who was now off the bed, over Belle's shoulder. "Shawn? You better not be doing anything stupid. Because I swear, she's still only in high school...and I know how high school guys think."
Shawn dug his hands in his pockets, and clenched his teeth. He wasn't worried that Brady would do anything...he had a feeling Belle's brother believed her. Now he was just mad that Brady interrupted something--was it something? Shawn's head started to hurt...he just wish he knew how Belle felt. "Um, no, Brady. I'm stupid-free."
Brady smiled. "All right, man. Let's keep it that way, all right?" Belle sighed and went back to her suitcase. She looked over her shoulder and caught Shawn's eye for a couple of seconds. Belle broke the gaze and concentrated on the terribly interesting luggage. She got flustered thinking about how close she was to kissing him. "Anyway," Brady continued, "do you have your suitcase here, Shawn?"
Shawn nodded. "It's in my car, I got it before coming over here with Belle."
"Good. So let's get moving, little sis, we have to leave in ten minutes," Brady warned, leaving the room and closing the door. A couple of seconds later, the door opened again. "We'll just leave this open," Brady said, and walked back to his room.
Belle's bedroom was full of silence as she closed the last of her suitcases. Shawn finally gathered up his nerve. "Belle? What just--?" He was cut short when suddenly an armful of luggage was dumped on him.
"Let's go," Belle chirped, grabbing the other suitcases. She didn't want to talk about the almost-kiss...she didn't want to find out that she wanted something that Shawn didn't. She has had feelings for him for as long as she could remember. Belle did everything she could to lie to herself...she could never deal with being rejected by Shawn and having to work through an awkward friendship because of it. But Shawn wasn't like any other guy she knew...he was...different. He knew when she needed to talk or when she didn't want to and just needed a hug. Shawn knew how to make her laugh and knew every little like and dislike she had. But the only thing Shawn didn't know was how right she was for him.
Shawn followed Belle downstairs, struggling to see over the mountain of luggage. "You know we're only going to be gone a week right?"
to be continued...