Author's note: It took me a long time to figure out what to call this chapter – and I wrote most of it while I was on a plane back to my parent's house. So let's hope that it's as good as when I'm writing on terra firma. I don't own Sailor Moon and remember once again that Serena's thoughts are in italics. Anyway…here we are.
Chapter Six: A Bit of Paranoia
I had gotten home fine last night – eaten my tea and cookies, and then fallen asleep on the couch in front of the TV with a full stomach. When I woke up – it was almost as if the events of the previous night had become twisted – as if they were a part of some horrible nightmare. The first thing that hit me when I woke up was the sensation of someone watching me; as if Rini's pink eyes – that had turned red from anger were peering at me into the house from the bushes in front of our house. The room stank of treachery– one that I felt I should have never committed, but then again was I really betraying Rini at all? I shrugged the feeling off and a new smell entered my nose – the pleasant smell of Mina's cooking.
"Good afternoon Serena." Mina said as she entered the room with a plate filled with bacon, eggs, french toast, and a glass of orange juice and then set them in front of me. "You're up later than usual today, it's already 2:30pm."
"Wow breakfast in bed, well sorta. You didn't have to do that for me Mina. I know that I'm waking up really late, I had a long night last night and I didn't get off of work until late."
"I know – Raye told me all about it, that's why I decided to be a nice big sister today." Mina said grinning at me and taking a seat in one of the plushy chairs that occupied our living room.
Mina doesn't wake up in the morning and decide to be a lovely big sister to me. The very words 'Raye told me' are also way to suspicious to be thought of as a casual remark. "What do you want Mina?"
Mina blushed "am I really that obvious?"
"Let's see, I've lived with you for how many years of my life? You would think that by now I would be able to tell when my own sister was bullshitting me."
"You're right Serena."
"Spill it Mina." I said, grabbing the fork and knife that Mina had brought with my breakfast and starting to eat hurriedly. I guess that paranoia and guilt can do that to a girl.
"Raye told me that Darien was waiting for you last night, and that she overheard part of a conversation that you two had while at Polaris."
My favorite raven-haired employer strikes again.
"So tell me, what are you planning to do with Darien? As your matchmaker I have a right to know." Mina said emphasizing the words 'as your matchmaker.'
"You mean Darien never told you? Never consulted with you about this?"
"No actually – I find it to be a bit peculiar, but I've had more bizarre clients than I can possibly ever count. Anyway, tell me dear sister, what are you and Darien up to this Sunday?"
It was almost as if Mina had already known every detail and was just hounding me for info because she was scared that Raye was incorrect – or maybe that she had missed some information concerning the date scheduled for Sunday.
"I think that you already know everything Mina. But I'll re-inform you…"
"And of course tell me what happened when Darien waited for you last night, something must have happened then. Maybe since you didn't get one on Sunday…you might've gotten a big juicy kiss!" Mina declared, leaning in closer towards me to see if my cheeks betrayed what my mind already knew. The kiss replayed itself in my head, followed by the sight of Rini's cotton candy pink hair in the distance. It was almost as if once I got the thought out of my head, it wanted to make a re-occurring visit. To try to get the thought out of my head once and for all I thought about the kiss once again, and to Mina's triumph my cheeks turned a bright shade of red. "Ah-ha! Just as I suspected."
The benefits as well as the problems of having your sister as your matchmaker – she has to immerse herself completely in your personal life. If it doesn't work out with Darien, maybe I'll go looking for love all by myself, and definitely not at Polaris because then Raye will tell Mina all about it.
Reluctantly I informed Mina about the planned date scheduled for Sunday as well as the kiss that we had shared last night. I did not talk to her at all about the events, which had taken place with Rini and how I had probably ruined her life by kissing my own…well whatever the hell you want to call Darien and myself.
"Wow Serena, sounds like you two are really hitting it off! Am I good or am I good?" Mina declared, dancing around happily.
"Believe what you want to Mina – but you're acting like some celebrity is coming to our house or something. All he did was ask me to go on a second date; he didn't get down on one knee and ask me to marry him or anything like that.
"Well I know that." Mina said, "besides Darien's a pretty romantic guy so I doubt that he would pick the outside of Polaris to ask you to marry him anyway."
First Mina was determined to find me a date, now that she's found me one she's determined to get him to marry me even though we have yet to go on a second date. What has the world come to?
"Um sure Mina." By this time I had already finished my brunch and decided that it would be best to take a shower and get ready for the new day, instead of just lounging around the house with Mina around – constantly hounding and bothering me about Darien. Going to work early had started to become a ritual anyway. "I'm going to go and take a shower then get ready for work." I told Mina as I got up from the couch.
"Already? So early Serena? It's not like you to be early for things usually you know? I mean don't you want to stay here and chat some more!"
Hell no that's why I'm leaving Mina! "I like going to work early, get my station set up – chitchat with Lita and some of my other friends."
"I know but we hardly get to chat anymore since I'm always so busy with work and all." Mina said and at that very moment, much to my delight her phone went off. Mina looked at the caller id, "oh hold on a second Serena – I have to take this phone call it's from one of my clients. I can't wait to hear how the date went. Hello?" Mina said as she stepped into the kitchen – away from my ears, which were sometimes prone to a bit of eavesdropping. Yeah the confidentiality policy apparently applies to everyone except for me.
About a minute later Mina returned she really seemed to be in a rush. She quickly grabbed her purse and car keys from the small table in the living room. "Listen Serena – I've got to go! Duty calls…"
"So you're leaving to go to the office right now?"
"Well I've got to be there to help out my customers…I can't sit around here and play big sister to you all day you know. You're 24 – almost 25 years old, you've got to start doing things for yourself sis." She giggled.
"Screw you!" I told her with a laugh and took a pillow and threw it at her playfully.
Mina let out a little scream, and I was about to grab for another pillow when Mina said between laughs "all right Serena! I've got to go to work now."
"Fine – I'll see you tomorrow then, unless you're still up when I get back."
"Who knows…we might be." Mina said giving me an obvious wink as she left the room.
"Oh hell no Mina! You two better not be making the mattresses squeak by the time that I get home." I yelled after her as I heard the door slam behind her. Mina seems to always have sex on her mind, what a matchmaker. Now no one was home – which was a change, I had no idea where Raye was – and maybe it was better that I didn't. I mean she had told Mina about the whole thing with Darien last night, plus she eavesdropped on my important conversation. The more I thought about it the more angry I got, so I decided that it would be best if I just got ready to go to work. I had just finished putting on my lipstick (or the final touch as I like to call it) when my doorbell rang. Who the hell could that be? As I ran downstairs to answer the door a million thoughts were swimming through my head. Is it Rini? Could she be here to tell me off for what happened last night? I shook that thought away since Rini didn't know where I lived – at least that's what I assumed to be true. Maybe it's Lita and she's here to give me some sweets – maybe even carpool to work? But I'm not sure if Lita would feel like making food especially for me since she can just do that at work. It could be Michelle and Amara wanting to invite me for breakfast again – well even if it is I just had breakfast so I'm not hungry. Then there's Darien…what if he came over here to tell me that our date for Sunday is off or something? I don't know what I'd do if he said that…the closer I got to the door, the more nervous I became. I seemed to think of tons of people who could be at the door, even the possibility of Raye coming home and ringing the doorbell because she couldn't remember for the life of her which of her many keys was the house key. The doorbell rang once again as my hand reached to the door handle and I started to apply a light downward pressure on it to open it. Why the hell am I so nervous and hesitant? Why can't I just open the door? With that I just flung open the door and to my surprise it was no one that I had thought of earlier. Instead an emerald haired Trista was standing before me, smiling.
"Hello Serena. How are you today?" She said with a smile, then gazed at my dumbfounded look in confusion. "It looks like someone's not happy to see me. Maybe I should come by another time?"
"Oh! No-no-no-no! I was just getting ready for work you see. I'm sorry – you just surprised me that's all. Um, come in, it's wonderful to see you."
"Thank you Serena." Trista seemed to glide into the room and took a seat on the couch, which I had been sleeping on earlier. I really hope that I didn't drool on the couch or anything. I cringed a little bit, making sure that Trista didn't see my facial expression.
"Would you like something to drink or munch on? I'm not the best cook in the world but Mina made some cookies yesterday and I could easily make you some tea, I'm pretty good at that…" I babbled, why the hell is she here? My curiosity was peaked – even though I knew that it was time to play hostess, I really was curious as to why Trista was here and not immediately asking if Mina was around – then leaving when she found out that Mina wasn't here.
"Oh no that's fine Serena, thank you." Trista said, smiling. "I just had lunch not too long ago."
"Okay. So, unfortunately Mina's not here right now – she went to work. If you want to go and see her at her office or something…"
"Actually I'm not here to see Mina. I'm here to talk to you Serena."
"Me?" I said in a surprised little squeak, shit I didn't mean to let that out.
"Yes you Serena, now come and sit down next to me." She said, patting the cushion next to her. "I have a very urgent matter to talk to you about – and it can't wait."
"Oh all right." I said and uncomfortably plopped myself on the couch.
"Well you see…" Trista began, and her cheeks started to turn bright pink. "I have this date with Lita on Saturday before she goes to work…"
"Uh-huh." I said – I realized that in times like these it's best to play dumb. Simply because if I had told her 'I know' or something like that – she probably would have gotten mad at me and left, I mean I feel that way all of the time when Raye and Mina do that kind of thing to me. So it's like that saying do unto others and all of that stuff.
"I just had a few questions that I'd like to ask you about Lita. I figured that since you work with her, and I know that Raye does too – but you seem to like me better than Raye ever will…" - well Raye is the jealous type – "you could probably help me out with this whole situation."
"Sure, I know Lita decently well enough I guess. Ask away." I said with a smile. Trista's not a bad person at all – it's just a bit awkward getting asked all of these questions about Lita by someone that used to bang Mina during college.
"Do you by chance know what type of flowers that Lita likes? I really wanted to surprise her with a bouquet on our first date. I'm into the more traditional sort of romance – the stereotypical kind is what a few people would call it. Anyway, I love surprising the person that I'm dating." Then Trista seemed to do a complete one-eighty in her mind concerning the flowers. "But oh shit, what if she doesn't like flowers or if she's allergic to them. I didn't even think about that…" She seems so anxious and nervous about the date – she must really like Lita.
"Lita's favorite flowers are roses. She even has a pair of pink rose earrings. I don't think that she wore them the day that you guys met."
"Any particular color?"
"I trust your judgment Trista."
"What about chocolates? Any particular kind of favorites? She's a chef so I don't want to give her just any ordinary chocolate – it might be beneath her or something. Does she like truffles? Or is she more of a Belgian milk chocolate girl? Maybe she's allergic to chocolate – I've met a few people who are – but as a chef I wouldn't think of her like that. Maybe she doesn't prefer chocolate? Another candy or some other kind of sweet perhaps?"
"Well last time that I checked Trista – I barely know a woman on earth who won't refuse chocolate – especially not Lita. She loves using truffles in her recipes – so maybe a chocolate truffle; raspberry chocolate truffle would be great for her. I think that any kind of chocolate and flowers that you get Lita will make her happy Trista, you can't go wrong with Lita."
"I also need to know Serena…this is more important than flowers or whether or not I should bring her chocolates on our first date." Trista said, looking at me – tears seemed to be forming in the corners of her eyes. "Who was that man that she was with at Polaris last night? They seemed to hit it off quite well…and really if she was already in a relationship I didn't think that she would do this to me. We seemed to have a connection – or so I thought. Also she told me that she was into women…didn't mention anything about being a bi-sexual that I can recall."
So Trista did show up to Polaris last night…maybe she saw Taiki and Lita talking together so she left – heartbroken. "I can assure you Trista that Lita only likes women – and she's very interested in you. I didn't want to tell you this before but last night at work all she could do last night was gush about how wonderful your date is going to be on Saturday. She was really looking forward to it."
"So who then was that man Serena?" Trista asked – I was still in shock at this point concerning the way that Trista was acting. All of the times that I had ever seen her – she never acted like this around Mina. My guess is that she had really fallen for Lita hard and now her insecurities were taking over.
"That was Taiki – one of the owners of the bar…" I said – not sure about how much I should reveal to Trista. I thought that maybe it was Lita's job. "See he offended her and he was apologizing, that's all. I can assure you that Lita's only into you – and she's definitely not interested in Taiki at all."
The tears were still in the corners of Trista's eyes, but now they were no longer threatening to fall onto her pretty face. "Oh thank you Serena! I'm sorry to come here on such short notice and bombard you with all of these questions. It's just that I really like Lita and I was a bit worried. To me it was like love at first site and well…" now I'm babbling. Trista said, laughing a bit and wiping away tears with the back of her hand as a small smile started to come onto her face.
"Don't worry Trista – I completely understand. I think that it's part of human nature…so I don't think that you're bizarre or weird or anything like that for coming and chatting with me for a while. Besides I'm a nice person and I don't bite."
Trista smiled – a nice big one this time, "you're so sweet Serena. Can I give you a hug possibly?" Trista asked politely the tears were almost completely gone from her eyes.
"Well I don't see why not right? Go ahead." I said and Trista gave me a quick but tight embrace.
"I'm sorry to just run in and run out like this – but I've got to get back to work. We've got an important project that we're dealing with right now." Suddenly her phone rang, she fished it out of her bag and then gazed at the person who was calling. Trista shook her head and put the phone back into her purse. "That's my sister calling again – she's a psychologist. I don't know what happened to the confidentiality laws around here" hell neither do I Trista, I think that Mina got rid of them years ago when it comes to talking about me. "My sister will always come home and talk to me about her patients. Especially this one poor young girl who does everything to try to stand out – even dye her hair pink you know? But that's neither here nor there. Thank you so much once again Serena. I really appreciate all of the advice as well as the resolution to my confusion that you provided." Trista said, getting up from her chair and walking towards the front door.
"Sure no problem. Actually, let me escort you out." I replied, did she say dying her hair pink? Is that a coincidence or could that potentially be Rini? I shouldn't ask her – client confidentiality and all plus who knows how much she actually knows about the girl, that all depends on how much her sister tells her. I got up from the couch and led her outside, she smiled at me again as she left, and waved goodbye once she got into her car. I stood there and watched her leave – my mind in deep contemplation. Great what if that IS Rini? She might be a psychopath killer ready to skin and gut me because I've gone on one date and had one kiss with a certain real estate business owner/stripper by the name of Darien 'the businessman.' I groaned out loud as I decided that I needed to get out of this house – the idea of a psychotic Rini running around ready to murder me since I was home alone had started to eat away at me ever since Trista had mentioned the words psychiatrist and pink-haired girl. Let's just hope that there's tons of pink haired chicks at Polaris today.
I quickly grabbed my keys, purse, and bag with my change of clothes and ran full speed to my car – not forgetting to lock the front door behind me. There was no way that I wanted a creepy Rini who was driven mad with jealousy to enter my house – subdue Mina and Raye, then come to kill me! Of course my imagination is running wild right now, but I can't help it. I mean a little paranoia never hurt anyone right? It's not like I'm going insane from all of this. I started the car and looked in my rear-view mirror, there was nothing behind me. I backed out of the driveway and gunned it full speed to Polaris. Once I got to the club I noticed that there were a few cars in the employee parking lot, which was absolutely wonderful. I went to the door, checking around for any pink-haired seventeen-year-old young ladies that might be coming in for work – seeing none I opened the door and after taking a breath entered the club. Everything looked normal. Raye was there barking orders at the setup/cleanup crew to get ready for work, although she wasn't too busy to smile and wave at me. I went to go set my bag in the women's dressing room, calming myself down as I reached the place where I often sat to change into my civilian attire after work every night. I put my stuff down, turn around to leave – and there in the opening of the door is the person who had been invading my thoughts all day.
Author's endnote: Sorry for the super short chapter…I'm just so occupied at the moment (my parents are trying to drag me into doing all of this stuff while I'm here at their house – when all I want to do is relax – something that I don't do much when I'm at my apartment or even sometimes at my fiance's house. So I apologize for all of this – I mostly only get to write really early in the morning it's the only part of the day where I actually have time to do it and write a semi-decent chapter). I was going to make this into a longer chapter, but in my usual style I decided that I might just go with a cliffhanger. Don't worry though – the next chapter should be coming relatively soon – I don't want to keep you guys waiting for too long.