Hidden Beneath the Mask

Disclaimer: Well two shows I do not own: "Good Luck Charlie" and "How to Rock", so try not to give me grief, as I'm not claiming them.

A/N:


Chapter 7 (Trust is Difficult to Find)

At the mall, Skyler was waiting at the food court for Grace to get finished with her manicure. She didn't really want to get involved in that, and was actually fairly hungry, so she just wanted to deal with eating first. Plus, she was still trying to avoid doing anything that might lead into discussions revolving around her own background and past. It was far too delicate for her to get too comfortable.

She was currently eating a pizza. The toppings were pepperoni and Italian sausage. She didn't like bell peppers on her pizza, and wasn't a fan of the supreme pizzas. It was something PJ loved about her, she was a much simpler girl. She didn't like over complicated things, but that was only due to her own faults in not quite understanding stuff. Her 'cluelessness' was beginning to go away as she pretended to be Molly, and she was finding out a lot more of what she wanted to be in life, but sometimes she was uncertain. She liked the thought of one day being a doctor, but that sounded complicated as well.

To Skyler's surprise, as she was sitting there completely involved in her pizza, Zander and Nelson came and sat at her table. She narrowed her eyes and glared at them, not happy with their unexpected visit. "Nelson, when did it become okay for you to sit at the same table as me? I don't remember sanctioning this just because you're dating Grace." Nelson chuckled nervously and Zander rolled his eyes. She honestly wouldn't care so much, but right now, she only wanted to be left alone. "So what do you want…"

"I have a question," Nelson began, "It's about Grace." She raised an eyebrow and set her pizza slice down on the plate. He leaned forward and bowed his head. "Okay it's sort of about her, and sort of not, it's more anxiety and how she'd react. The first date was amazing, but I was so nervous that I nearly vomited." Skyler's eyes widened and a shudder ran though her body. She was immediately reminded of her first official date with PJ, in which they wound up driving on some windy road, thus making her vomit all over their picnic basket. Her stomach flipped over and she slowly pushed her plate forward. "Are you going to eat the pizza?"

"Not anymore…"

"Cool!" Nelson grabbed the plate. Zander slowly brought his hand to his forehead and shook his head. "Anyway I was just wondering, how bad would it be if I got sick? What do I do, would she be mad at me if I had to rush off to the restroom?" Skyler pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned.

"No she wouldn't care. My advice is that you try to focus on anything but the anxiety. Oh, and uh, try to avoid curvy roads…Anything else you have? If there's anything to ruin the rest of my appetite, I'm about to turn into your worst nightmare." Nelson picked up one of the pizza slices and Skyler quickly swiped it back, deciding to try and eat it anyway. "That's still mine."

"Aw man." Skyler flashed a smirk and returned to devouring her pizza. Nelson bowed his head, then put his hand to Zander's shoulder. "Anyway, Zander wanted to talk to you about something. Kind of coming to you for suggestions…" She slowly chewed her bite of pizza and moved her eyes to Zander, not really certain what to make of it all. "We're sorry if we're bothering you." She hummed and lifted her shoulders, ready for whatever Zander wanted to talk about.

"Anyway, my cousin's coming to town," Zander muttered. "Not one of the ones I actually like. I think he's a douche, to be honest." That sounded a little harsh, but who was she to judge? She was too focused on chewing her pizza to make a Molly-related quip. "There's also this band that's coming down, I think they're going to review the battle of the bands and try to find two members, so I've been focusing a lot on my music lately…" That was cool, she'd be interested in seeing who the band was that was coming down. She wasn't too concerned with trying out for it, but she'd definitely like to see them. "So I've been working on a song that embodies how I feel about the guy coming down here. I figure an original song would get this band to consider me among other bass players, but I wanted to come to you and ask if you have some suggestions on the lyrics."

"He doesn't usually do that, I don't know why he wants to ask your advice, Molly." She didn't know either, but if she had any suggestions on what he could sing about, then she'd be glad to help. Granted, Molly wouldn't care, but she didn't want to act like Molly right now.

"All right Zander, tell me about the cousin then…" Zander blinked a couple times, then sank back into his chair. He raised his eyebrows and looked over to Nelson, both seemed surprised. "Come on, let's just get it over with."

"Well, he's kind of a womanizer, I know that. He's cheated on his girlfriend a few years back, and I think he told me he hooked up with her again. Probably couldn't get another girl after that. I find it hard to trust the guy, and I wish I could tell the people he's with to just watch out, I mean he's done stuff like that before, so I wouldn't be surprised if he would do it again…" She was astounded by his story, his cousin sounded a bit familiar, reminding her a little of Spencer.

"Sounds like you have your song right there. Everything right there that you just told me can make a good set of lyrics." Zander wasn't the type of guy to need help with songwriting, she knew that, he was the damn songwriter for his own band. So was there an ulterior motive behind his coming to her? "I don't see why you need my advice, you're just as good without it." Maybe he was hoping she'd inquire about his cousin, but she didn't really care. Besides, how would he know anything about ex-boyfriends of hers? "I hope it goes well, and hope this band considers you. You're a good guitarist."

Zander and Nelson were stunned once more. He choked up and cleared his throat. "Did you just wish me luck and compliment me?"

"Geez, I'm not completely heartless."

Some time later, Skyler was walking with Grace through the mall, sighing nonchalantly as they passed many outlet stores. Grace was studying her carefully, as she didn't have any bags at all. She had enough clothes, she didn't need any more shoes, and there was no point in buying wall decorations when her father didn't really want to decorate the walls. Grace, on the other hand, had about four bags stuffed with different items. "I see you're not much of a shopper."

"I'm not an avid fan of malls, no." She liked anything else, but hated malls. She absolutely detested running into all the different people walking about. Malls were more crowded than a horde of ants on a picnic basket. "Zander and Nelson showed up while you were getting your manicure, by the way."

"Really? What did they want?"

"To bother me." Grace laughed and Skyler turned her lip up into a smirk. "Honestly though, Nelson wanted to know how you'd react if he started getting really anxious on a date." Grace raised an eyebrow and looked to her with an inquisitive gaze. "Then Zander was talking about this song he was working on, and this cousin of his that he can't stand. Reminds me of an old boyfriend of mine, though. Like years ago."

"Oh? What happened?" The eagerness in Grace's voice was easily detected, but Skyler was still just a little uncertain that she wanted to explain. After all, she didn't need the emotions. Grace seemed to catch her uncertainty, because she stopped walking, took her hand and gave her a very comforting look that lulled her into an almost false sense of security. "You know I'm your best friend, right? You can tell me anything. Whenever you feel like it, I'm there for you."

"I know…"She bowed her head and closed her eyes as the painful memories started to come up. They knocked her off her feet, sucking the life from her. She felt Molly lead her to one of the metal benches and sit with her, holding her arm around her shoulders. She didn't really want to be babied.

"You really do have a lot of cousins, Spencer…" Spencer and Skyler were seated at the mall food court, his arm was around her and his lip was tucked up into a sweet smirk. "I can't believe your family is so huge!" She was holding his phone in her hand, gazing down at the beautiful blonde, Teddy Duncan. "I think it's great you're sharing this with me."

"I like to be honest and open. I want you to trust me, you know." She smiled and quickly nodded her head. Sometimes trust was too easily given. Her first boyfriend, Brock, was captain of the wrestling team, and he was very highly aggressive and controlling. So she left him, he couldn't hurt her anymore. He tried to threaten Spencer, but Spencer wasn't scared. It really made her respect him.

Her heart pulsed and she carefully set her head on his shoulder, breathing out slowly. "I think this is the first time I really felt like I could trust a guy…"

Skyler breathed in heavily, bringing herself back to reality. She felt Grace sweeping her eyes with a tissue and quickly shook her head. Once Grace pulled away, she figured that she may as well fill her in on that one part of her life. "A few years ago I was dating this guy, Spencer Walsh…he was nice, on the football team, and not as aggressive as my first boyfriend, Brock. Well…I saw this girl's picture on his phone, so I questioned it, right?" Grace's face grew serious and she slowly nodded, understanding the situation.

"Anyone would be right to question that."

"I was naïve. He told me she was his cousin, and it turned out…she was his girlfriend." Grace cupped her hand over her mouth. Skyler held her hands in between her knees and bowed her head, chills ran along her spine as tears began running down her face. "He was a true womanizer, and you know what I found out?"

"What?"

"Well this girl and I, we became friends, good friends. We found out, he was dating me for a good two or three months before he started dating her." Grace put her hand over Skyler's, squeezing it gently. Her eyes moved to her friend's hand and her muscles began to relax.

"Once a cheater, always a cheater, that's what my Momma always says." It was funny that Grace would say that, since when she was dating Spencer, his last girlfriend tried to warn her. She said Spencer was dating her for about a year before he found some hot Hawaiian girl while on vacation, and they had an affair. When she found out, she dumped him immediately.

"Yeah, apparently this girl and I weren't the first. I wonder if we wouldn't be the last either…" It actually felt good opening up to her, she didn't know why that was. "I always thought it would be painful to talk about that…" She had a warm feeling growing inside of her, confusing and perplexing her. Grace hugged her tight and brought her voice down to a whisper.

"I want you to know you can tell me anything, don't ever be scared to talk to me. I know it can be hard to trust, but you can trust me. I won't judge you, I won't turn away from you, I'm here." Her chest ached as she fought the urge to spill her guts. She couldn't do it, she just couldn't!

"What are you talking about? I'm…I'm fine, see?" She mustered a pathetic fake smile and tried to laugh it off like Molly would do. A very unimpressed Grace rose to her feet, sighing heavily and began walking. Skyler quickly got up and hurried after her. "I'm sorry Grace, I just…" She closed her hands, she was disgusted with herself. Why was it so hard to open up to Grace, of all people? "I'm scared, Grace." She did trust Grace, she was just too scared to tell her anything about her life that might make her turn away and leave her. That was too hard for her to swallow.


She's finally opening just a little, not a lot though. What do you guys think?