She was staring again, but she couldn't really help herself and she had an excuse this time, a reason to stare in that direction that made a little bit more sense than her true reason. After all, Dr. Manhattan stood just beside the woman, and anyone would be fascinated by him. Anyone would find cause to stare at him; even Laurie had initially been drawn in by him, but her focus was soon stolen by the woman at his side.
Very little was known about Janey Slater other than the fact that they had been together since before the accident. The media didn't focus on her like it focused on her lover. Without him, she would have been a nobody and with him, she was barely much more than that. But now that Laurie was seeing her for the first time, she thought that she was positively breathtaking.
Her interest in women was something that she had kept to herself ever since she had figured it out. She knew that her mother, who lived for and lived on the attention of men, would never understand it. Maybe nobody would, maybe she would be shunned by anyone who knew about it. She didn't know and so she kept quiet about it, doing her best to pretend to be the same as everyone else.
In her thoughts, however, she was free to do whatever she wanted and think about whoever she wanted, in whatever way that she wanted them. The object of her fantasies today was Janey Slater, a classic beauty in every sense of the word, the girlfriend of the most powerful man in the world, the most gorgeous woman that Laurie had ever laid eyes on.
Or at least that's how it felt in the moment, and she was young anyway. She hadn't seen many gorgeous women in person, so maybe her assessment wasn't too far off. Either way, even as she tried to pay attention to the meeting unfolding around her, she couldn't stop her eyes from wandering, staring at Janey and drinking in her features, and they always felt new, every time she looked back.
And then the mix up happened and Janey looked back at her, and in her panic, Laurie turned her eyes abruptly to Dr. Manhattan, her mouth shifting into a small, nervous smile. He returned her smile and Janey glared at her and then she looked down, wanting to groan to herself. Now she had really done it. Now Janey would assume she was shamelessly ogling her boyfriend and would hate her for it, when really Laurie only had eyes for her.
She tried to think of some way to make peace without saying anything, to do something that said, 'I'm not trying to steal your boyfriend,' from across the room, but before she could, the Comedian began making a seen, clearly pissed off about something, and the meeting began to fall apart. Before she really knew what was happening, he had stormed out of the room and an awkward silence descended on the group.
When everyone began to mumble their excuses and try to leave, Laurie did not wait around and left quickly. She didn't bother explaining her reasoning to Nelson, figuring she could leave that up to her mother.
~X~
"Jon, I think I'd like to go home now," said Janey. She was so unbelievably angry at him that she could hardly speak. He hadn't denied it when she had accused him of staring at that Silk Spectre tramp, and now this bullshit meeting, which she hadn't wanted him to go in the first place, had all been for nothing, just as she had predicted. The night had been wasted on some skanky teenaged eye candy.
"In a moment," he replied. "I need to speak with Nelson."
"Then I'm taking a walk," she snapped and stormed out of the room before he could reply. He didn't stop her and that only increased her anger. Things had been tense between them for years, ever since everything had changed, and it hadn't really felt like being with Jon at all. He was no longer the man she loved and no matter how hard she tried to force it, she couldn't make it feel the same, and now she had caught him staring at a younger, prettier woman.
And speak of the devil, there was the Silk Spectre herself, making her way down the hallway, trying to find her way out of the mansion. Janey knew that she shouldn't waste her time, that she was old enough and smart enough to not lower herself to picking fights with teenage girls, but she couldn't stop herself from calling out, "Hey, you, wait up!"
The girl turned around, looking surprised and even a little bit scared. Good. She knew what she had done and she knew what was coming. Still, she waited, and Janey closed the distance between the two of them in a few short strides. "Can I help you?" asked the girl, trying to play innocent.
"You could start by learning a little bit of respect," replied Janey. "Don't think I didn't see you eyeing him. You may think you're so sneaky, but you're not."
"No, I wasn't...I didn't..." Oddly enough, Silk Spectre was blushing. "I wasn't looking at him. I didn't mean to..."
"Didn't mean to what? Get caught?" A victory against her would be a petty one; Janey really shouldn't be picking on her like this, but she was lonely and she was bitter and it was better than trying to pick a fight with Jon. At least she had a chance to actually get a rise out of the girl.
"Well, yes, but not..." She shook her head, starting to get annoyed. "I wasn't looking at him, alright? You don't know what I was doing, so just give it a rest already."
"If you weren't looking at him, then just what were you looking at?"
"Someone else," she replied vaguely, her blush returning. Janey was far from unintelligent, but the meaning behind the girl's words was uncertain. Even as she tried to think about it, she couldn't piece together one that made sense. There was no way that Silk Spectre really meant what she thought she meant.
"Who?" asked Janey, and this time her tone was not so accusatory and her face had softened, anger fading just a bit. She had to know if her suspicions were correct.
"Just give it a rest," she muttered, looking down, guilty. The answer was there, so obvious, but so impossible that Janey still wondered if she was right or if she was looking too much into this. What did she care either way? It wasn't as if she wanted a beautiful young woman thinking of her that way, she wasn't like that and she had Jon, and it wouldn't make sense for her to want that.
"What's your name?" she asked, before she could stop herself. She didn't need to know that, she didn't need to be here, she didn't need to be having this conversation.
"Laurie," the younger girl replied, sounding confused by the question. And why wouldn't she? Janey had gone from attacking her to this, whatever the hell this was, and as she stood, looking at Laurie, she felt something in herself that she hadn't felt in a very long time. Was it her loneliness causing this reaction? Was it her loneliness, the misery in her failing relationship, causing her to think this way?
"Laurel Jane, what on earth is keeping you?" A woman, older than the both of them, with hair whose color was fading, came down the hallway. "I saw some of the others filtering out, so I assumed this little meeting was over."
Laurie gave Janey an apologetic smile, cringing as her mother started firing questions at her about what had transpired in the meeting. She looked embarrassed and turned to go with the woman, and Janey stood, watching them leave.
Though she was annoyed by the interruption, she was also somewhat grateful for it. Just before Laurie's mother had broken her focus, she had been sure that she was only moments away from pulling Laurie in for a kiss.