Yeah. I know it's been done b4, so what's the harm in doing it again? ^_-
Don't worry I haven't abandoned Love Labors Lost, I'm just taking a break, next chapter I'm hoping to be up between Thanksgiving and Christmas break! Thanks for all your support!
Sk8er Boi
"Look, he's a boy, and I'm a girl, can I make it ANY more obvious?" Serena whispered to Lita as they warmed up side by side for their ballet lesson.
"Yeah, but Serena you can't be serious! SKATER BOY? Do, do you KNOW what he is? Don't tell me you seriously LIKE him!" Lita scoffed, and Serena could hear that tone of excitement rising in her voice, the one she got when she was about to hear or share some really good gossip.
"Of course I know what he is, he's a boy." She stated simply.
"HE'S A PUNK!" she hissed, trying to keep the scream she was holding in check.
Serena winced, "Jeez Leats, chill!"
"Now YOU look Serena, if you go out with him, you're rep will be DESECRATED."
"WHOA!" Serena held up her hands defensively. "Whoa, who said anything about going OUT with him?"
Lita raised a brow, "So you don't like him, RIGHT?"
Serena stretched out her leg and touched her toe, "No..." she said softly, "No, of course not, I was just. I think he's cute is all." She turned, hiding her lying eyes.
"Good," Lita breathed, "for your sake, I'm glad."
That's not what Serena wanted to say. She really wanted to tell her best friend about the wonderful day she had just spent with said punk, or 'Skater Boy' as Lita called him. So as the rest of the class did the routine plié with their legs, Serena Tsukino was doing somersaults with her heart.
**********************
It was earlier that day when she had bumped into him. It was hours before her ballet lesson, but she was headed there anyway, and evidently her head was up in space, or somewhere else because before she knew it, she had collided with a tall body.
"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, reaching out for her bag, but instead her hand fell on a very decorated skateboard.
Her victim had already gotten up, but knelt on one knee, bare from his torn jeans, and offered her his hand. "It's fine, happens all the time. I really need to be more careful on this thing, I just get a bit cocky ya know?" he smiled, as she took his hand.
She did a double take as she saw his face, but refused to let any sign of her recognition of him show, instead she merely stuttered, "you, you go to Kennedy High don't you?"
His grin broadened, "Yeah, I do, I think I'm in your math class actually." He added the last bit hesitantly.
"Oh! Yeah, of course. I've just never seen you outside of school." She commented offhandedly, knowing she had just lied through her teeth. She saw him everyday in the park, and every other day at school in her math class. He sat two over from her left, and she could recite every detail of that side of his face. For instance, she knew that he had one piercing in that ear, a skull stud, and another directly above it, a silver hoop. Not to mention she could draw the exact outline of his half dry, half spiked jet-black hair. But never till this moment had she seen that his eyes were a gorgeous dark blue.
God she wanted him... but it was a secret she'd never tell.
The boy, who she knew to be Darien Shields, laughed suddenly and ran a hand through his hair. He stomped his toe on one end of his board, and when it popped up, he caught it.
"Look, I'm totally lying here. I don't 'think' your in my math class, I know it for a fact. Your name is Serena Tsukino; you do ballet, and your favorite color is pink."
She looked at him stunned, "How did you..." but she trailed off when he held up a hand to silence her.
"You hang out everyday at the park on... THAT bench," he pointed across the street to a park bench, "and this," he swept his hand over the scene, "me bumping into you, wasn't an accident, I did it on purpose." He looked down past his baggy pants to his shoes, a sheepish grin on his face.
"Don't worry, I'm not stalking you, I over heard you talking about your ballet lessons with your friends, and you're constantly wearing pink, so I assumed that it was your favorite color. The park bench I know about first hand cause I skate over there everyday, and..." he shifted nervously raking another shaky hand through his hair, "and well... how can you not notice someone so beautiful?"
She couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. His words were reeling through her head as she tried to comprehend their full meaning.
After a few minutes had gone by and all she could do was gape at him, he finally shook his head, embarrassed. "Hey, I'm sorry for bothering you, I- I don't even know why I said that, I'll be leaving now."
He turned to walk away when a faint murmur was heard behind him. He shook his head once more and laid his skateboard down, but he heard it again and turned. He almost jumped out of his skin when a soft hand touched his shoulder where it met the rolled up sleeve of his garage band shirt.
I stood there for a moment, hope gleaming in his eyes, and when he finally put his hand atop hers, she spoke.
"I know lots about you too." She said, nervously, she couldn't believe she was doing this! But she pushed on, looking directly into those shocking blues. "Your name is Darien Shields; you love skateboarding, and you sit two over from my left in Ms. Copenhagen's math class." She stopped, reflecting on what the repercussions of what she was doing might be, but he brought her still resting hand from his shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze before letting it go.
That was all she needed.
"You moved here a little over two years ago at the beginning of freshman year from Minnesota, and you're an orphan." She said the last part softly, not wanting to sound accusing.
It was his turn to gape at her. Could his friends have been wrong?
It didn't seem real, talking to her the way he was now. The most words they had ever exchanged was a witty remark she had let fly from her lips once during sophomore year when he came in late to class, skateboard still in hand. The remark, he recalled, hadn't actually been cruel, only made to seem that way later when her friends laughed atrociously to cover up the possibility that she had actually acknowledged his presence as anything other than that of slime.
Before and after that he had only admired her from a distance, his friends having assured him that she was "well out of his league," and that she was just a, "Preppy, rich, snobby bitch who thought of herself as better than everyone else just because she had a pretty face and was head of the Student Council Association at Kennedy High." She sure did not seem that way now, standing tall, but trembling before him, humility shown in her eyes as she had just barred what he knew must have been a deeply buried secret. The thought that she should have any interest in him whatsoever, all things considered, was inconceivable to the people she associated herself with, or rather those who associated themselves with her.
She looked desperately up to him, and he chuckled reassuringly, "Well, looks to me like we both have some explaining to do huh?"
She gave a short giggle, as if to say, "you have no idea buster."
He laughed and tucked a stand of hair behind her ear. "Well you have about three hours till your class, so how bout I get us some ice cream? Double Cherry fudge sound OK?"
She whipped her head up to his. "There's two more on you bucko." She laughed referring to his knowledge of her dance class, and her favorite flavor of ice cream.
He swung his skate bored under is arm, and she shyly, much to his surprise, took his hand and they proceeded just so to the corner store.
************************
Serena yawned as she parked her purple volks wagon in the junior parking lot. She had hardly gotten any sleep the night before, as Lita's words along with lingering feelings of Darien's hand in hers running untiring through her mind.
From the moment she walked through the front doors of Kennedy High, she could *feel* something wasn't right. Smirks were shot in her direction left and right as she walked past. However, before realizing it, she was passing in front of Darien and his morning clique, and all the smirks still planted in her mind faded away as he smiled and gave a wink in her direction.
She blushed and smiled back, walking slowly past them, and running straight into a panting Mina. That seemed to be happing a lot lately, she mused before Mina's rushed words came out in jumble.
"SERENA, thank GOD!" she hissed, taking Serena's arm forcefully with a glare shot in Darien's direction, pulling her friend into a corner. "Do you have ANY idea about what people are saying?" she squeaked.
Serena furrowed her brows in confusion, "No Mina, what ARE people saying?" she said cautiously.
Mina tugged at her chiffon skirt hesitantly, but kept a firm grasp on Serena's arm, "They're saying, well, you see... Jake Rodriquez told Tim McDonald that Molly Baker was talking to Chad Eves, who heard it from Joe Chase, who was playing football at the park with Jon Rivera, whose girlfriend, Jessica Montrose saw you and that SKATER BOY," making a violent wave to where Darien stood," walking HAND-IN-HAND to the ice cream store!"
Serena pulled her arm violently out of Mina's grasp and rubbed it slightly, "His NAME, is DARIEN!" she hissed.
Mina threw her arms up into the air, "I don't care if his name is George Bush! He's a P-U-N-K PUNK Serena! He's bad news! If any more rumors like this go around do you know what will happen to you? You'll be labeled as one of THEM. You'll be an outcast to anybody who is anybody! All your connections? POOF! GONE!" she waved her hands franticly to add a visual emphasis to her point. "I know you're a sweet girl Sere and it's cute, it really is, but it's going to bite you in the ass. This school doesn't reward sweet people; it rewards the persistent and ruthless ones. You of all people should know this."
She placed two hands on Serena's shoulders and took a deep breath inward, "I- just tell me that this isn't true, or if it is, promise me, PROMISE ME, that you'll stay away from him!"
Serena looked hopelessly over to Darien, who was smiling like the schoolboy he was at her. She'd liked him for so long, and to finally have a chance with him, to know that he felt the same way, it was like a dream come true! On the other hand she knew that what Mina was saying was right, she would loose not only her connections, but her friends as well. She bit her lip.
"It's nothing," she clenched her fist, "He had a crush on me, and I thought it was sweet, so I let him buy me some ice cream. You're right, I'm too sweet for my own good."
"Okay," Mina let out a breath she was holding. "Okay good, you were scarring me there for a minute. But of course, I shouldn't have had so little faith in you, I mean look him! You'd never go for a guy with that little fashion sense, I mean, just look at his baggy clothes! It's like he walked out of a Salvation Army!" She laughed lightly, needing a little more insurance that her friend really thought this way.
Serena let out a sad chuckle, "Yeah, a Salvation Army..." She chanted.
Suddenly the bell rang and Mina perked up instantly, "Well, now that that's settled, just make sure it doesn't happen again. Give him a line or something; you can't afford another sighting with him. I gotta get going now, but I'll see you in history 'kay?"
Serena nodded meekly and Mina disappeared into the crowd, sticking up her nose to Darien as he passed in front of her. He slipped out of the crowd and squeezed in next to Serena in her corner.
They stood there awkwardly for a moment, before he spoke, "Man this school is was too packed, these crowds are insane."
When she said nothing he touched the side of her face lightly, she turned away. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly, turning so he could face her a bit more.
"Nothing." She spat. She felt like slime.
"Oh." He said simply. "So...I was wondering, see there's a really cool club my friends and I go to a lot. People say there's a lot of shit that goes on there, but really compared to most places this one's pretty clean, and the stuff they DO do, my friends and I stay away from. So I was just wondering if you wanted to go with us-, well, me, this Friday?"
"I have plans this Friday." She said with an icy calmness, the warmth he knew from the day before was gone.
"How about Saturday?"
"Full."
"Sunday?"
"DARIEN!" she yelled, tears lining her eyes, "No, not Sunday, not Saturday, not any day! Don't you see?" She pleaded, "Don't you see? We can't do this! You, you're you! And well... I'm me, and, it just wouldn't work." She looked down, to the side, anywhere to avoid his eyes.
"Why not?" He asked softly, "Why can't we at least give it a try? I know we're different but-"
"We can't because it would never work! I'm not like you, and you deserve someone who is, someone better than me." she said sadly, cutting him off.
"But I don't WANT anyone more like me, or better than you, I- I want you!"
She removed the hands he had laid on her shoulders, and before turning she said, "See ya later boy..."
*********************
Serena sighed as she unhooked her bra and tried desperately to get the baby to suckle her nipple.
"Come on," she coaxed, "you did it last time, I know you can do it again... There ya go!" Once the baby started to drink, she winced at the usual pain, and reached for the remote, looking to find something to keep her mind off it.
She found it.
"This is Carson Daily for MTV, I'm reporting live from Madison Square Garden where new pop-rock sensation Darien Shields will be performing tonight, as millions gather to watch."
She nearly dropped her poor baby as she reached shaky desperate hands to the telephone, and she quickly dialed Lita's number.
"Pick up, pick up," she urged, "YES! Oh I mean Lita, turn on MTV you'll never guess who's... oh, you already know... and you've got tickets... Um, sure I guess I'll tag along if I can find a... oh you'll get your sitter to do it? Thanks... yeah... cool... 6:00, okay... no prob, I'll be outside, yeah see ya then... bye..." she slowly hung up the phone. She could not believe it, they knew! Her friends knew and they didn't tell her. Of course they didn't tell her, they didn't know there was anything to tell, they had no idea how she had felt about him, still felt about him...
*********************
"I KNOW! ISN'T IT AMAZING? I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED THAT SKATER BOY: REALLY SUPER DUMB, WOULD BECOME DARIEN SHIELDS: CHART TOPPER #1!" Lita screamed over the music.
"HEY SERENA! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY TO TALK TO HIM AFTER THE SHOW!" Mina yelled. "DIDN'T YOU HAVE A THING FOR HIM BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL?"
"NO!" she yelled back, still in denial.
Mina shrugged, "WHATEVER, YOU SHOULD STILL TRY, I MEAN YOU NEVER KNOW, HE MIGHT RECOGNIZE YOU!"
Lita winked, "HE'S BIG BUCKS NOW YA KNOW?"
After the show Mina prodded Serena towards the backstage door. "Go on girl... There he is!! OH MY GOD he is SO FINE! GIRL you have got to talk to him!"
As Serena approached him she noticed he grown slightly taller, and had fully lost whatever kid-like looks he might have had. As Lita put it: he was all man, then again that's what she had said about the asshole that had gotten Serena pregnant too.
It was so weird that no one was around; she would have thought that there would be security guards or something around him, but it was just him, walking down the hallway and her starring stupidly at him. It all seemed a little surreal, but the only thing she was thinking about right now was the man coming towards her.
She was about to get his attention when out of one of the side doors, popped a girl with bone straight black-purple hair and violet eyes, and Serena recognized her to be none other than Raye Hino, Darien's best friend back in high school.
As the girl latched herself onto Darien's arm, she looked up and spotted Serena. "Oh, can we help you? Do you want an autograph?"
Serena could only shake her head as Darien removed his Hollywood sunglasses, "I- I KNOW you!" he mused, but suddenly recognition flashed in Raye's eyes and before Darien could see it too, she pushed him into an open door, calling, "Go get cleaned up for the press! You look like a wreck!"
Once he was fully out of sight, she moved swiftly up to Serena, "Look," she said sternly. "I know who you are, and," she laughed disbelievingly, "in fact, I was just on my way to a studio, to record a song about... well, you. Darien told me all about you. You had your chance. Sorry girl, but you missed out. He's mine now, and we're finally more than just good friends but thanks to you, it took me five agonizingly long years to get him to notice me that way." She gave a wistful glance to the door through which he was exited.
Raye grabbed Serena's shoulders and looked deep into her eyes, into her soul, "I should be sorry you couldn't see the man he'd become, but..." She bit her lip. "But I'm not. I saw his soul, cause I know, beauty is only skin deep."
For her part Serena could only stand there, bewildered. This all was all too real. Or was it unreal? She couldn't decide! Everything, it was happening too fast! Where did the last five years go? What happened after she turned down that amazing man she had just watched on stage? She couldn't remember any of it. She was filled with loss, hurt, and above all anger, anger at herself for not, as Raye said, 'seeing the man Darien would be'. How could she have been so shallow?
So she sank to her knees and cried as her world spun around her, the colors swirling together like batter in a mixing bowl, along with all the feelings she had kept buried inside for those five years she could not remember. From the haze, it all became suddenly clear, and everything was at a stand still as she opened her eyes.
*******************
She opened the right one first, then the left, unsure about where she was or even if she wanted to know, but when she saw her ballet shoes starring back at her from across the room, reality sunk in. She shot up like an arrow and clutched her sheets tightly. She was home! Not in some dirty apartment with a crying baby, her real true home.
She grabbed a tissue from her nightstand to blow her nose, and wiped the forming sweat on her brow. How wonderful it was, to know that it hadn't happened! She didn't have a baby; there was no concert and-,
"Oh God' She thought. Oh God, Darien, he wasn't with Raye, he was... She looked over at her clock. 3:30 AM, three hours till she had to wake up for school, but she couldn't wait that long. He needed to know now how she felt, and what a jerk she'd been. Well, she was sure he knew that, but... 'THANK GOD' was all she could think as she ran out into the freezing cold night with half-on tennis sneakers and her flannel 'Pooh Bear' pajamas.
Second chapter up! Go now! Shoo! Read!
~Claidi
Don't worry I haven't abandoned Love Labors Lost, I'm just taking a break, next chapter I'm hoping to be up between Thanksgiving and Christmas break! Thanks for all your support!
Sk8er Boi
"Look, he's a boy, and I'm a girl, can I make it ANY more obvious?" Serena whispered to Lita as they warmed up side by side for their ballet lesson.
"Yeah, but Serena you can't be serious! SKATER BOY? Do, do you KNOW what he is? Don't tell me you seriously LIKE him!" Lita scoffed, and Serena could hear that tone of excitement rising in her voice, the one she got when she was about to hear or share some really good gossip.
"Of course I know what he is, he's a boy." She stated simply.
"HE'S A PUNK!" she hissed, trying to keep the scream she was holding in check.
Serena winced, "Jeez Leats, chill!"
"Now YOU look Serena, if you go out with him, you're rep will be DESECRATED."
"WHOA!" Serena held up her hands defensively. "Whoa, who said anything about going OUT with him?"
Lita raised a brow, "So you don't like him, RIGHT?"
Serena stretched out her leg and touched her toe, "No..." she said softly, "No, of course not, I was just. I think he's cute is all." She turned, hiding her lying eyes.
"Good," Lita breathed, "for your sake, I'm glad."
That's not what Serena wanted to say. She really wanted to tell her best friend about the wonderful day she had just spent with said punk, or 'Skater Boy' as Lita called him. So as the rest of the class did the routine plié with their legs, Serena Tsukino was doing somersaults with her heart.
**********************
It was earlier that day when she had bumped into him. It was hours before her ballet lesson, but she was headed there anyway, and evidently her head was up in space, or somewhere else because before she knew it, she had collided with a tall body.
"I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, reaching out for her bag, but instead her hand fell on a very decorated skateboard.
Her victim had already gotten up, but knelt on one knee, bare from his torn jeans, and offered her his hand. "It's fine, happens all the time. I really need to be more careful on this thing, I just get a bit cocky ya know?" he smiled, as she took his hand.
She did a double take as she saw his face, but refused to let any sign of her recognition of him show, instead she merely stuttered, "you, you go to Kennedy High don't you?"
His grin broadened, "Yeah, I do, I think I'm in your math class actually." He added the last bit hesitantly.
"Oh! Yeah, of course. I've just never seen you outside of school." She commented offhandedly, knowing she had just lied through her teeth. She saw him everyday in the park, and every other day at school in her math class. He sat two over from her left, and she could recite every detail of that side of his face. For instance, she knew that he had one piercing in that ear, a skull stud, and another directly above it, a silver hoop. Not to mention she could draw the exact outline of his half dry, half spiked jet-black hair. But never till this moment had she seen that his eyes were a gorgeous dark blue.
God she wanted him... but it was a secret she'd never tell.
The boy, who she knew to be Darien Shields, laughed suddenly and ran a hand through his hair. He stomped his toe on one end of his board, and when it popped up, he caught it.
"Look, I'm totally lying here. I don't 'think' your in my math class, I know it for a fact. Your name is Serena Tsukino; you do ballet, and your favorite color is pink."
She looked at him stunned, "How did you..." but she trailed off when he held up a hand to silence her.
"You hang out everyday at the park on... THAT bench," he pointed across the street to a park bench, "and this," he swept his hand over the scene, "me bumping into you, wasn't an accident, I did it on purpose." He looked down past his baggy pants to his shoes, a sheepish grin on his face.
"Don't worry, I'm not stalking you, I over heard you talking about your ballet lessons with your friends, and you're constantly wearing pink, so I assumed that it was your favorite color. The park bench I know about first hand cause I skate over there everyday, and..." he shifted nervously raking another shaky hand through his hair, "and well... how can you not notice someone so beautiful?"
She couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. His words were reeling through her head as she tried to comprehend their full meaning.
After a few minutes had gone by and all she could do was gape at him, he finally shook his head, embarrassed. "Hey, I'm sorry for bothering you, I- I don't even know why I said that, I'll be leaving now."
He turned to walk away when a faint murmur was heard behind him. He shook his head once more and laid his skateboard down, but he heard it again and turned. He almost jumped out of his skin when a soft hand touched his shoulder where it met the rolled up sleeve of his garage band shirt.
I stood there for a moment, hope gleaming in his eyes, and when he finally put his hand atop hers, she spoke.
"I know lots about you too." She said, nervously, she couldn't believe she was doing this! But she pushed on, looking directly into those shocking blues. "Your name is Darien Shields; you love skateboarding, and you sit two over from my left in Ms. Copenhagen's math class." She stopped, reflecting on what the repercussions of what she was doing might be, but he brought her still resting hand from his shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze before letting it go.
That was all she needed.
"You moved here a little over two years ago at the beginning of freshman year from Minnesota, and you're an orphan." She said the last part softly, not wanting to sound accusing.
It was his turn to gape at her. Could his friends have been wrong?
It didn't seem real, talking to her the way he was now. The most words they had ever exchanged was a witty remark she had let fly from her lips once during sophomore year when he came in late to class, skateboard still in hand. The remark, he recalled, hadn't actually been cruel, only made to seem that way later when her friends laughed atrociously to cover up the possibility that she had actually acknowledged his presence as anything other than that of slime.
Before and after that he had only admired her from a distance, his friends having assured him that she was "well out of his league," and that she was just a, "Preppy, rich, snobby bitch who thought of herself as better than everyone else just because she had a pretty face and was head of the Student Council Association at Kennedy High." She sure did not seem that way now, standing tall, but trembling before him, humility shown in her eyes as she had just barred what he knew must have been a deeply buried secret. The thought that she should have any interest in him whatsoever, all things considered, was inconceivable to the people she associated herself with, or rather those who associated themselves with her.
She looked desperately up to him, and he chuckled reassuringly, "Well, looks to me like we both have some explaining to do huh?"
She gave a short giggle, as if to say, "you have no idea buster."
He laughed and tucked a stand of hair behind her ear. "Well you have about three hours till your class, so how bout I get us some ice cream? Double Cherry fudge sound OK?"
She whipped her head up to his. "There's two more on you bucko." She laughed referring to his knowledge of her dance class, and her favorite flavor of ice cream.
He swung his skate bored under is arm, and she shyly, much to his surprise, took his hand and they proceeded just so to the corner store.
************************
Serena yawned as she parked her purple volks wagon in the junior parking lot. She had hardly gotten any sleep the night before, as Lita's words along with lingering feelings of Darien's hand in hers running untiring through her mind.
From the moment she walked through the front doors of Kennedy High, she could *feel* something wasn't right. Smirks were shot in her direction left and right as she walked past. However, before realizing it, she was passing in front of Darien and his morning clique, and all the smirks still planted in her mind faded away as he smiled and gave a wink in her direction.
She blushed and smiled back, walking slowly past them, and running straight into a panting Mina. That seemed to be happing a lot lately, she mused before Mina's rushed words came out in jumble.
"SERENA, thank GOD!" she hissed, taking Serena's arm forcefully with a glare shot in Darien's direction, pulling her friend into a corner. "Do you have ANY idea about what people are saying?" she squeaked.
Serena furrowed her brows in confusion, "No Mina, what ARE people saying?" she said cautiously.
Mina tugged at her chiffon skirt hesitantly, but kept a firm grasp on Serena's arm, "They're saying, well, you see... Jake Rodriquez told Tim McDonald that Molly Baker was talking to Chad Eves, who heard it from Joe Chase, who was playing football at the park with Jon Rivera, whose girlfriend, Jessica Montrose saw you and that SKATER BOY," making a violent wave to where Darien stood," walking HAND-IN-HAND to the ice cream store!"
Serena pulled her arm violently out of Mina's grasp and rubbed it slightly, "His NAME, is DARIEN!" she hissed.
Mina threw her arms up into the air, "I don't care if his name is George Bush! He's a P-U-N-K PUNK Serena! He's bad news! If any more rumors like this go around do you know what will happen to you? You'll be labeled as one of THEM. You'll be an outcast to anybody who is anybody! All your connections? POOF! GONE!" she waved her hands franticly to add a visual emphasis to her point. "I know you're a sweet girl Sere and it's cute, it really is, but it's going to bite you in the ass. This school doesn't reward sweet people; it rewards the persistent and ruthless ones. You of all people should know this."
She placed two hands on Serena's shoulders and took a deep breath inward, "I- just tell me that this isn't true, or if it is, promise me, PROMISE ME, that you'll stay away from him!"
Serena looked hopelessly over to Darien, who was smiling like the schoolboy he was at her. She'd liked him for so long, and to finally have a chance with him, to know that he felt the same way, it was like a dream come true! On the other hand she knew that what Mina was saying was right, she would loose not only her connections, but her friends as well. She bit her lip.
"It's nothing," she clenched her fist, "He had a crush on me, and I thought it was sweet, so I let him buy me some ice cream. You're right, I'm too sweet for my own good."
"Okay," Mina let out a breath she was holding. "Okay good, you were scarring me there for a minute. But of course, I shouldn't have had so little faith in you, I mean look him! You'd never go for a guy with that little fashion sense, I mean, just look at his baggy clothes! It's like he walked out of a Salvation Army!" She laughed lightly, needing a little more insurance that her friend really thought this way.
Serena let out a sad chuckle, "Yeah, a Salvation Army..." She chanted.
Suddenly the bell rang and Mina perked up instantly, "Well, now that that's settled, just make sure it doesn't happen again. Give him a line or something; you can't afford another sighting with him. I gotta get going now, but I'll see you in history 'kay?"
Serena nodded meekly and Mina disappeared into the crowd, sticking up her nose to Darien as he passed in front of her. He slipped out of the crowd and squeezed in next to Serena in her corner.
They stood there awkwardly for a moment, before he spoke, "Man this school is was too packed, these crowds are insane."
When she said nothing he touched the side of her face lightly, she turned away. "What's wrong?" he asked worriedly, turning so he could face her a bit more.
"Nothing." She spat. She felt like slime.
"Oh." He said simply. "So...I was wondering, see there's a really cool club my friends and I go to a lot. People say there's a lot of shit that goes on there, but really compared to most places this one's pretty clean, and the stuff they DO do, my friends and I stay away from. So I was just wondering if you wanted to go with us-, well, me, this Friday?"
"I have plans this Friday." She said with an icy calmness, the warmth he knew from the day before was gone.
"How about Saturday?"
"Full."
"Sunday?"
"DARIEN!" she yelled, tears lining her eyes, "No, not Sunday, not Saturday, not any day! Don't you see?" She pleaded, "Don't you see? We can't do this! You, you're you! And well... I'm me, and, it just wouldn't work." She looked down, to the side, anywhere to avoid his eyes.
"Why not?" He asked softly, "Why can't we at least give it a try? I know we're different but-"
"We can't because it would never work! I'm not like you, and you deserve someone who is, someone better than me." she said sadly, cutting him off.
"But I don't WANT anyone more like me, or better than you, I- I want you!"
She removed the hands he had laid on her shoulders, and before turning she said, "See ya later boy..."
*********************
Serena sighed as she unhooked her bra and tried desperately to get the baby to suckle her nipple.
"Come on," she coaxed, "you did it last time, I know you can do it again... There ya go!" Once the baby started to drink, she winced at the usual pain, and reached for the remote, looking to find something to keep her mind off it.
She found it.
"This is Carson Daily for MTV, I'm reporting live from Madison Square Garden where new pop-rock sensation Darien Shields will be performing tonight, as millions gather to watch."
She nearly dropped her poor baby as she reached shaky desperate hands to the telephone, and she quickly dialed Lita's number.
"Pick up, pick up," she urged, "YES! Oh I mean Lita, turn on MTV you'll never guess who's... oh, you already know... and you've got tickets... Um, sure I guess I'll tag along if I can find a... oh you'll get your sitter to do it? Thanks... yeah... cool... 6:00, okay... no prob, I'll be outside, yeah see ya then... bye..." she slowly hung up the phone. She could not believe it, they knew! Her friends knew and they didn't tell her. Of course they didn't tell her, they didn't know there was anything to tell, they had no idea how she had felt about him, still felt about him...
*********************
"I KNOW! ISN'T IT AMAZING? I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED THAT SKATER BOY: REALLY SUPER DUMB, WOULD BECOME DARIEN SHIELDS: CHART TOPPER #1!" Lita screamed over the music.
"HEY SERENA! MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY TO TALK TO HIM AFTER THE SHOW!" Mina yelled. "DIDN'T YOU HAVE A THING FOR HIM BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL?"
"NO!" she yelled back, still in denial.
Mina shrugged, "WHATEVER, YOU SHOULD STILL TRY, I MEAN YOU NEVER KNOW, HE MIGHT RECOGNIZE YOU!"
Lita winked, "HE'S BIG BUCKS NOW YA KNOW?"
After the show Mina prodded Serena towards the backstage door. "Go on girl... There he is!! OH MY GOD he is SO FINE! GIRL you have got to talk to him!"
As Serena approached him she noticed he grown slightly taller, and had fully lost whatever kid-like looks he might have had. As Lita put it: he was all man, then again that's what she had said about the asshole that had gotten Serena pregnant too.
It was so weird that no one was around; she would have thought that there would be security guards or something around him, but it was just him, walking down the hallway and her starring stupidly at him. It all seemed a little surreal, but the only thing she was thinking about right now was the man coming towards her.
She was about to get his attention when out of one of the side doors, popped a girl with bone straight black-purple hair and violet eyes, and Serena recognized her to be none other than Raye Hino, Darien's best friend back in high school.
As the girl latched herself onto Darien's arm, she looked up and spotted Serena. "Oh, can we help you? Do you want an autograph?"
Serena could only shake her head as Darien removed his Hollywood sunglasses, "I- I KNOW you!" he mused, but suddenly recognition flashed in Raye's eyes and before Darien could see it too, she pushed him into an open door, calling, "Go get cleaned up for the press! You look like a wreck!"
Once he was fully out of sight, she moved swiftly up to Serena, "Look," she said sternly. "I know who you are, and," she laughed disbelievingly, "in fact, I was just on my way to a studio, to record a song about... well, you. Darien told me all about you. You had your chance. Sorry girl, but you missed out. He's mine now, and we're finally more than just good friends but thanks to you, it took me five agonizingly long years to get him to notice me that way." She gave a wistful glance to the door through which he was exited.
Raye grabbed Serena's shoulders and looked deep into her eyes, into her soul, "I should be sorry you couldn't see the man he'd become, but..." She bit her lip. "But I'm not. I saw his soul, cause I know, beauty is only skin deep."
For her part Serena could only stand there, bewildered. This all was all too real. Or was it unreal? She couldn't decide! Everything, it was happening too fast! Where did the last five years go? What happened after she turned down that amazing man she had just watched on stage? She couldn't remember any of it. She was filled with loss, hurt, and above all anger, anger at herself for not, as Raye said, 'seeing the man Darien would be'. How could she have been so shallow?
So she sank to her knees and cried as her world spun around her, the colors swirling together like batter in a mixing bowl, along with all the feelings she had kept buried inside for those five years she could not remember. From the haze, it all became suddenly clear, and everything was at a stand still as she opened her eyes.
*******************
She opened the right one first, then the left, unsure about where she was or even if she wanted to know, but when she saw her ballet shoes starring back at her from across the room, reality sunk in. She shot up like an arrow and clutched her sheets tightly. She was home! Not in some dirty apartment with a crying baby, her real true home.
She grabbed a tissue from her nightstand to blow her nose, and wiped the forming sweat on her brow. How wonderful it was, to know that it hadn't happened! She didn't have a baby; there was no concert and-,
"Oh God' She thought. Oh God, Darien, he wasn't with Raye, he was... She looked over at her clock. 3:30 AM, three hours till she had to wake up for school, but she couldn't wait that long. He needed to know now how she felt, and what a jerk she'd been. Well, she was sure he knew that, but... 'THANK GOD' was all she could think as she ran out into the freezing cold night with half-on tennis sneakers and her flannel 'Pooh Bear' pajamas.
Second chapter up! Go now! Shoo! Read!
~Claidi