Title: She's Leaving Home
Author: Rose With Thorns
Rating: T, for language
Summary: Zoe thought she had her entire college experience planned from her first day, but that was before she made friends with the President's son…
In a bullet-proof vest,
With the windows all closed,
I'll be doing my best,
I'll see you soon
Coldplay, See You Soon
Tessa squeezed her hand and Zoe gave her a smile as they checked their appearances one last time before heading back out. They were standing in the bathroom, since girls never went to the bathroom alone, together. Tessa prodded at Zoe's bun, and she yelped.
"I have a head under there, you know," she said, smoothing back the pieces that actually were pinned back. Why she ever let her friend Jordan, a fashion major, cut her hair she'd never know. What he called layers was really just plenty of bangs at different spots on her head that took meant a longer time to do her hair for tonight.
Because a ball for the Presidential Inauguration is not the sort of thing you schlep to. She'd begged a dress from Jordan's growing closet of dresses he'd made ( he was actually rather good), and had taken two hours on her hair and an hour before that on makeup. She deemed herself presentable after Jordan, who was their on call fashion EMT, had not tried to tackle her after she started towards the door.
The two girls headed back out into hallway and back to the large ballroom they were in. Jeff's parents had already come and gone, off to the next of many balls that night, but their son stayed behind with his friends.
The ball was gorgeous, all in gold and blues and there was fabric falling from the ceiling in a dramatic show. The tiny voice in the back of her head said to try to snag one-somehow-for Jordan as a 'thank-you', since he hadn't been invited. Maybe later she'd try.
Jeff looked over at her-she'd been conveniently seated next to him while Tessa and Richard had been placed together on the other side in a way that put Jeff between her and any contact with them. The security guards loomed around their table, and Zoe could only guess how many more lurked in shadows nearby. She wondered if it comforted Jeff to know that, as much as it had comforted her to know Shane Wolf had been doing the same a few years ago.
That was a sore subject, one that she'd tried very hard to suppress as best as possible. He'd gone over to Iraq right before her graduation. She and Shane had struck up a wonderful friendship via emails and letters. It had started as something she felt was obligatory, but then…it evolved. They were friends, and he knew her better than anyone else. Almost a year ago, it ended abruptly. Not being a family member she guessed that she just hadn't been on the notification list. And he had no family. With his mother missing, no one was sent that letter of condolence. It had been very difficult. The rest of the family had been upset, but for some reason it had hit her the most. Maybe because she had been the only one to try to keep up some sort of friendship with him. It was a year later and it still hurt like hell.
She turned her attention back to the ball. They danced. Tessa of course seemed to have molecularly bonded to dear old Dicky's arm and was doing a wonderful impression of that large handbag she always had with her during the day. Zoe danced with Jeff and made the polite small talk one was told to make when they were three and going to their parents' friends' home for the first time. There weren't any long, engaging conversation, nor laughter, nor any sort of anything that could have redeemed Jeff's behavior in her mind. But this was her once in a lifetime chance to be there, and she wasn't going to waste it.
They were seated again and were in the middle of listening to the Vice President give a speech before he left when Jeff's hand drifted towards Zoe's. She shifted slightly in her chair. The press was everywhere, and she had no plans on shooting him down in front of all of them. He did it again.
She started, idly, with that hand to make sure all of the hair pieces were still in. There were little rhinestone pins in the bun and if she lost one, well, hers would be the first death-by-gay man's nail file on campus. And she'd barely done anything with her life yet. Pity.
Zoe excused herself and started towards the bathroom once the Vice President was finished. And started briskly-well as briskly as she could in Channel's that she really shouldn't have worn-towards the bathroom.
The hallway was around the corner, but the acoustics of the building had been designed masterfully, and it was a rather oppressive silence that fell on her as she rounded towards her destination.
The search of the bathroom proved to come up empty handed. She frowned. Zoe had almost been sure she'd felt something fall out of her hair around here somewhere. As she exited the bathroom she noticed a man in a suit, with a rather gorgeous rear end she couldn't help but add to her thoughts, had kneeled and pick something up. It glimmered in the lights from over head. Zoe put on her best formal voice.
"Is that a hair pin, sir? I think that's mine. I was looking-" Her words were stuck in her throat.
He looked amazing, he was looking at her in a way she'd never seen , and to top it all off, he was alive. Zoe didn't know which to approach first, but then the emotional part of her took over and she found her self resolving into a blubbering mess.
"Shane?"
Zoe watched as his Adam's apple rose quite visibly. Her stomach started to drop.
"Hi-hello, Zoe. You look-wow."
There was an awful tightness in her chest. Oh it hurt to breathe! She focused on the pin.
"That's mine. If you could please give it back." She stuck her hand out. His made contact with her as the object was placed back in her palm. Such polar opposites, the softness of his hands and the sturdy metal hair pin.
"Thank you," she said shortly, putting it in her purse. She fiddled with the little handbag to keep from having to look at him.
"Zoe, listen, I was going to tell you-"
"No that's quite fine, Shane Wolf." Breathe girl, breathe! "Um, I have to get back to ball." She turned quickly but then decided to say something else. "Shane, glad you're not dead. See you around."
He called her, but she kept going.
Tessa pounced on her the second she sat down, dragging her chair around a fairly disappointed Jeff. Alas, someone had been able to defeat his super cardboard powers, Zoe noted vaguely. Her roomie gave her that maternal look she always did.
"Everything okay?"
Zoe nodded curtly before turning her attention back to the speaker, some squat little man with a horrible toupee. "Later," she mouthed, since her voice wasn't working suddenly. She swallowed heavily. Tessa took her hand and squeezed it.
It had suddenly hit her that their had been a cord tucked into Shane's shirt. It was skin colored and looked like an old telephone cord. It was part of one of the earpieces the Secret Service used.
As dancing continued again and she numbly went through the motions, she noticed movement at the sides of the room. Something was going on.
Zoe watched for some sign over Jeff's shoulder, wishing she'd learned how to read lips. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice when someone interrupted to dance with her. Shane.
As he took her hand and she distanced herself as best as she could with his wonderfully warm and strong arm on her back, she steeled her self.
"Aren't you on duty?"
He nodded, not surprised she knew. After a good minute of awkward dancing that to anyone else must have looked strange, he pulled her closer. She'd never been attracted to him but with his warm breath on her ear, and his embrace so wonderful…
"We need to get Jeff out of here. I'm going to hand you back off to him, and you tell him that all four of you need to go to the bathroom, okay?" It was a little jumbled. He must have barely moved his lips.
She nodded. And suddenly Jeff had pulled her back into his sweaty palmed grip. She forced herself to make eye contact.
"Jeff, I think we all need to go to the facilities."
He raised an eyebrow.
"All four of us." When she realized he had no idea of what she was talking about, she grabbed his hand forcefully and tapped Richard on the shoulder, Tessa peeked over the tall boy's shoulder. Zoe repeated herself and the group started towards that hallway. By the end of the night the carpet would be worn bare by all the times she'd walked the same route.
There was a small group of Service men at the end of the hallway, including Shane. They flanked them and suddenly they were being led to a parking lot. Many of the guards got into other cars. Jeff was even starting to look alarmed.
Shane wasn't getting into a car.
"Aren't you-" she said, hand hovering on the door handle.
He shook his head. "I have to stay. My job."
Some little voice in the back of her head screamed that something was not right. He must have seen it in her face. His hand gently pushed her into the car and closed the door. He thumped the roof of the car twice and the car peeled out. The others were too busy talking to notice she'd turned around in her seat to watch as he ran back inside, and the van turned the corner.