Disclaimer- I dont own any rights to this material it is only written for fun and in admiration of the characters from the movies.
Opening her eyes this morning was just going to hurt, the pain and humiliation from last night bouncing around her brain like a ball inside her head. The sun poring in through the blinds normally would have made her feel energized and happy but nothing was going to break this tinted haze today. "How did this happen" she thought as she pulled herself up "I am Stephanie Zinone, I was one of the captains of the pink ladies that means something for god sake! Well at least it used to" .
After pulling herself through the usual morning ritual which was a task normally helped by with the presence of HIM! Even the passing of this thought cut through her like a knife through butter, "maybe I brought this on myself I mean I haven't always been a great person and although I tried to be nice its not always easy is it…. But did I really ever deserve this? I mean what on earth could I have ever done to deserve this pain" .
The day went by slowly after she got to shop just the usual too and fro of orders and the all to familiar arrangements that she just pulled out like knowing the words to a song. People thought she would fail when she opened the florist but after three years of being open the shop was the most popular in the area and was still going strong. Seems like a big step in another direction after working at the garage all through her teens with her father and brothers but it felt good to work with the beauty and freshness of flowers after all the grease and dirt of a car engine.
Every time the bell on the door rang the over whelming urge to run and hide in the back should HE walk in and the flood of pain and anger should return, however what she did not expect was to see someone she did know and knew very well. The same familiar tingle of the bell rang out and she looked up, from a bouquet that could for all she know be going to a woman suffering from the denial she was living with the past couple of months.
"Johnny?" she gasped in shock, she hadn't seen him since the last meeting but that's was always a brief encounter, HE didn't like her talking to Johnny. He looked good a small butterfly in her stomach reminded her of all the love she had once felt for him. "Hey Steph, the shop looks great" he looked at her with a cheeky grin that always made her melt even after all this time. "Johnny what can I do for you? Some flowers for your ma maybe or somebody else?" in the back of her mind she was hoping he knew what had happened the night before and he would not mention her name but something was telling her that he had no idea.
"Oh actually am after some for my ma and Paulette and while I was dropping in I thought we could have a quick-lunch you know catch up for old times" He smiled, remembering that last time that he had asked her to lunch, that was the day she told him it was over between them and he had to get through the rest of the day feeling like part of his chest had been ripped out and was running around the school halls without him.
"yeah sure let me just get my purse" he said it… he said her name in my shop, that means she hasn't told him and I am going to have to pretend I don't know anything.
The Frosty Palace was quiet they had been there so many times together and with the gang, while sitting waiting for Johnny to return to the table she thought of everyone, Goose and Rhonda where expecting their first baby next month, Louis and Sharon where due to get married as soon as Sharon graduated from law school at the end of September. Davey and Delores had moved in together a couple of months back and had seemed happy enough when she last spoke to them. Rizzo and Kenickie where as turbulent as ever but happy with it, Frenchy had started her cosmetics shop and her and Doody still kept each other laughing which was all those two needed. Jan had started work in a Gym and had lost loads of weight only to start putting it back on when her and Putsy had a baby. Marty and Sonny where both living in Hollywood after Marty got offered a job with KZAZ. Danny and Sandy of course where happy and where thinking of starting a family soon. She thought how after speaking to the girls the other week how everyone had their happy ending, well how wrong could she have been when one of them had been sat there making her life a lie.
"Steph, Steph….Stephanie?" She looked up stunned to see Johnny looking at her with a puzzled expression, "you alive in there?" he asked as he sat down. "yeah sorry just remembering the last time I was here and thinking about the gang you know just how much has changed since we was in Rydel" "yeah I get what you mean it seems like a life time ago don't it". She had to brace herself she could tell that he was going to talk about HER and she was going to have to try to conceal the pain that she was going to feel if he asks about HIM.
The food arrived and she could tell that conversation was going to end up there eventually and so she decided to escape the inevitable by jumping in first "so how's things with you and Paulette?" just saying her name made her want to be sick, "everything's great" Johnny smiled at her with a linger of something hidden behind it, Did he know and was playing the same hiding game as her, No he couldn't be you didn't buy flowers for someone if they had betrayed you like that, even Johnny wasn't that desperate.
"how's things with you and Shakespeare?" she knew that was coming but it still hit her like a tonne of bricks, " oh actually not so great, I think we separated last night" "oh Shit, Steph am sorry I wouldn't have asked if I knew"
" its ok Johnny, it wasn't expected to be honest sort of spur of the moment thing but lets not get in to that now don't want to make a scene now do we".
As they left the restaurant she turned and kissed him on the cheek, " see you Steph, look I don't know what happened between you and Michael but he was crazy for ever leaving and you never know you might go home tonight and he will be sat there waiting for you with the biggest sorry you ever heard" He knew that Shakespeare could talk his way out anything that's how he had gotten Stephanie in the first place, He thought back to when he first arrived and how she would never had looked at him twice but Michael had managed to talk her in to leaving him.
"thanks for lunch Johnny, but I don't really want him to be there when I get home I would be happy if I never saw him again" She smiled and turned to walk away, but then she turned back and launched her arms around his neck and hugged him like she used to when they where together, after a couple of seconds she kissed him on the cheek and turned and left walking away from him with the familiar wiggle of her walk that he always loved. Stephanie Zenoni, he thought to himself, she always had a way with him, he remembered how he used to feel the butterflies he would get just by looking at her, how he would feel every time she walked in to the room and it was like someone jumped started his chest. The warm feeling he would get if she smiled at him and how for the past three years he had waited for those feelings to start with Paulette, thing is he knew he was lying to himself even after all this time the only person who gave him that thrill, that spark had just walked away from him with a broken heart and an empty look in her eyes.
Walking home he wondered to himself what had Michael done to make Stephanie look so distraught and he felt the over whelming urge to go and make Michael tell him what had happened and if he didn't like the answer well that crater that Michael once jumped, well he might just end up being pushed to the bottom before it gets filled back in.
As he got to the door of his apartment he paused and plastered on the fake smile the one he had worn for a several years now, she would be waiting for him in there and she would expect him to be happy to see her and if he wasn't she would want to know why. He remembered how many times he had things thrown at him and the abusive words she would slang at him when she thought he might be cheating. The truth is he had never looked at another woman and if he was honest it was not because they had not tried with him or that he didn't want to…. Or that he didn't want to cheat on Paulette because he was fond of her but he did not feel any love for her. He didn't cheat because the only woman he wanted he had avoided for almost 4 years now and after seeing Stephanie today he remembered why he avoided her.
"Johnny is that you?"
"yeah Paulette its me"
"where have you been? I went by the garage and they said you had gone out! Where did you go? Who where you with?"
Oh here we go again he thought to himself as he geared himself up for yet another accusation and he dread to think what she would say the minute he mentioned Stephanie's name. "I dropped by the flower shop to pick up some flowers for my ma and while I was there I got steph to make up a special bunch for you too, what you think?" he could see that her face was about to explode, he was in for it now. "so if you only went to get flowers how come you have been gone for over two hours then?" she had started screeching that was never a good sign, "well I took steph to lunch she was really down you know her and Shakespeare broke up yesterday?" "no I did not know, so does that mean your going to leave me now then, I guess her being single again means you can go back to following her around like a lost little dog" "Paulette, I am not going to leave you just because Stephanie and Michael have broken up and I have no intention of following any one around like that, now I need to go and take a shower and ill be back down in about half an hour"
Johnny climbed the stairs thinking that although Paulette had shouted she didn't seem her normal self, normally if he mentioned Stephanie's name not even taking about Zinone she would have hit the roof, the usual accusations that she was always second best and how he settled for her. I mean to the observer it would seem that way but he had always tried to love her and he didn't mean it to be like he was settling for her, Paulette was a great chick but she just wasn't Stephanie.
"Yeah he's in the shower, yeah am all packed, ill be there in a little while"
"Good, don't worry about hurting him Paulette he never loved you anyway just like Stephanie never loved me"
"He saw her today you know and he came in looking all glowing and happy, he never got like that over me but that doesn't matter now does it I have you now "
"Ok Paulette ill pick you up around the corner in say half an hour"
Paulette felt a pang of guilt as she put the phone down but she knew that Johnny was never going to love her the way he loved Stephanie and if stealing Michael of Stephanie was the only way to get their attention well it was worth it. She had always thought that Michael was cute and she understood why Stephanie had started a relationship with him all those years ago, he had changed everything about him to just get with Stephanie, why didn't men ever get like that over her. Johnny had been the leader of the T-birds and had been the most popular boy in school with the biggest cycle in the area but that wasn't good enough for Stephanie. When she left him he followed her around looking heart-broken and trying everything he possibly could just to get back with her. Michael became a cool rider after just a word from Stephanie and he became her perfect man. Well, she thought, he was her perfect man but that was probably till she came home early last night…. What a show she got. The thing is Paulette had heard the door when Michael asked is she heard anything but she just wanted Stephanie to feel an ounce of the pain Paulette had felt for years, every time they met up and Johnny would see steph the way he would look at her and she just knew that he wished he wasn't going home with her but with Stephanie.
"Johnny, am in the living room can you come in here please? We need to talk about something"
"what's up now Paulette look I have told you before I do not love Stephanie and I have not cheated on you so what else can you possibly want to talk to me about"
"you might not have cheated on me but I have cheated on you Johnny and you brought it all on yourself"
"WHAT?!"
"well Johnny I have to be going. I'm leaving you for Michael, we started meeting up a couple of months ago after the last meeting of the groups, when we realised that you spent all night looking at Stephanie and she spent all night making sure you where and well it all sort of got well personal after that"
" are you telling me that another chick of mine is going off with Shakespeare? Is that what you're saying that I deserve this because I spent sometime with my ex girlfriend?" "yeah Johnny that's what am saying, well I have to go now see you at the next meeting"
As she shut the front door, she walked quickly away and around the corner to make sure that she had time to get away with Michael if Johnny followed her they would end up fighting and although Michael maybe the better rider Johnny would win in a fight. Though why would he follow her, he wouldn't fight for her, he never loved her in fact he was probably on the phone to Stephanie right this minute and asking if he can go round and score.
"Goose"
"Yo Johnny"
"Goose she left me"
"What"
"Goose Paulette she left me for Shakespeare"
"Johnny wait there ill be over, ill get the boys don't worry"
As Johnny hung up he was all mixed up, he wasn't sad and he wasn't angry that she left, he felt angry that they had hurt Stephanie and he felt pissed that Michael had stolen yet another girl from him. Not only that but was angry that Paulette felt that he deserved all this when he had tried to do right by her for so long. When her beauty shop failed and she had no money he let her move in, he was making enough money working with Stephs father in the garage and was now a co-owner since Stephs brothers had opened up garages of their own to start a chain.
A familiar knock at the door let him know that he had been sat there thinking for half an hour and hadn't noticed that he hadn't moved since she shut the door. He got up and walked to the door, and there was all his boys Goose had rounded up the gang, Danny Kinickie, Doody, Sonny, Putsy, Louis and Davey. They all came in carrying Beers and chips.
They all rallied around him offering comfort and then they just sat down like it was any other night and started watching the game, Rydel was against Saint Bernadette in girls soccer.
"so where are the girls then? They all at home?"
"no when you called I told Rhonda what had happened and she called around all the girls and that's how I ended up with everyone here, you know what chicks are like they all went to stephs"
