Before I begin I wanna give a special shoutout to my girl rexjdk, because she's awesome and she reviewed, I was so happy! Her story for OLTL What A Guy Can Do is a must read for my OLTL peeps out there in fanfiction land, and you need to go read it now. I also wanna thank my follower/favorite aphass and rexjdk! You guys rock! So happy! Hope you guys enjoy!
++ PARTS OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER ARE BASED ON AN IDEA REXJDK AND I DISCUSSED. I HOPE YOU DON'T MIND MY USING OUR DISCUSSION AS INSPIRATION FOR THIS CHAPTER! ++
"I can't believe you're actually going to go through with this, girl." Destiny said as Gabrielle giggled and Danielle held out a lipgloss, ironically, it was red, strawberry flavored, Gabrielle's favorite one, her 'lucky' one..
Gabrielle took it and said "Gotta show 'em it doesn't bother me, the stuff they're starting about me here. What pisses me off is that they're dragging Shane into it, saying things about him. I don't want it to mess up any shot he's got with this girl he likes."
Destiny and Danielle exchanged puzzled looks and Danielle asked curiously, "What girl?"
"He came by last night, right? Asked me if I'd teach him how to dance.. So he can ask this girl to dance with him at homecoming tonight."
"Did you?"
"Yeah.. Not much I could say, I mean he doesn't like me so I might as well get over it, right? Nothing I can say or do to change his mind, make him want me like I want him. Besides girls.. I'm about to be in the middle of a really, really nasty thing."
"And I'll be right there with you."Destiny muttered as Gabrielle sighed and said quietly, "People are fuckin idiots. You have me and Dani and you know you have Matthew. That's all that matters. Fuck these other idiots, right?"
"Definitely." both the other girls said as Danielle said quietly, "Are you sure he wanted to learn to dance so he could ask another girl? I mean that doesn't sound like Shane..."
"It doesn't matter, okay? I taught him.. And I really do love him.. God I can't believe I'm saying that. I'm only fifteen for the love of Christ.. Anyway, if you love someone, you support whatever they wanna do.. Even if it means you get left behind.. At least that's how I see it."
Something told her two best friends that there was definitely more to the story than met the eye. Shane just wasn't that kind of a guy. And the last they'd heard, he was going crazy wondering why she didn't talk to him anymore, why she went out of her way to avoid him.
–
"So you asked her to show you how to dance.. And you said you wanted to know so you could ask a girl to dance at Homecoming.. Not bad.. But maybe you should've told her the girl was her?" Matthew asked his cousin as Shane shoved books from his locker and into his bookbag.
"It's supposed to be a surprise." he mumbled as Zane nodded then said "Herein lies the problem, cousin... Gabrielle's the kinda girl who thinks that if you ask that, it's not because you wanna dance with her.. She thinks that you really want another girl or something, shit."
"It's still a good move though, buddy." Nathan butted in as he added, "And we just might be able to save it.."
"Doubtful.. I mean she didn't even look at me when classes switched earlier. Not even a polite nod like usual. I really, really messed it up, I think." Shane insisted as he looked at Nathan and his two cousins, all of whom shook their heads.
"We'll figure something out man, let's just get to gym before we're all late."
–
She heard the whispers and the veiled insults, the catty eyerolls. She'd only told her parents and Matthew's parents that she was pregnant of course. And Matthew hadn't told anyone either. Tru Rosenberg said from behind her, "It's digusting.. Girls like you and that Starr.."
"You do know that's Jack's sister.. Right?"
"Doesn't mean he's trash like her." Tru said as she added with a dismissive eye roll, "Or you for that matter, I mean people over heard what went down at the Buenas Dias last night.. That you're pregnant with Matthew's baby?"
Destiny grumbled and Danielle started to speak up, then Tru muttered "What the hell is she doing?" and stared at the door of the gym. Gabrielle slunk through the doors, obviously pissed, sat down on the bleachers next to her friends, scowl set firmly in place.
"So you're embracing your inner slut too? Like Destiny here?" Tru asked as Gabrielle bit her lower lip and ignored the remark.
"Girls like you three should be banned from Llanview High."
"Girls like you should be thrown in front of a bus." Destiny stated with a roll of her eyes as Danielle added "or have their heads shoved down a toilet and flushed."
"Or," Gabrielle said with a smirk, "or thrown off a cliff." as she turned to look at Tru for a few seconds, rolled her eyes and promptly turned back around, faced the front as she nudged Destiny and said "Ignore her."
"Oh I am. I mean I think we all know who the real slut of Llanview is."
"She's too pathetic to be a slut." Danielle said as she rolled her eyes at Tru and said "Hey you.. Why not try taking a picture, it'll last longer, really."
"All three of you better watch your backs."
The three girls burst into laughter and started the process of ignoring her, getting engrossed in their own conversations..
Until the commotion at the other end of the gym made them all run closer.
–
"Damn it, Jack, give me back my clothes."
"Or what, Wheezy?"
"Or we're gonna all kick your ass." Zane, Matthew and Nathan said from behind Jack who chuckled and looked at Shane, held out the t shirt and jeans. "If you want 'em, Wheezer.. Come get 'em." Jack said mockingly before tossing the jeans and t shirt out of Shane's reach, to his friend Brad who quickly ran out the door with them.
"That's it.. The little shit's dead." Zane muttered as he turned, ran out, Matthew giving Shane a look as he said "We'll be right back, Shane.. With your clothes. And then, Jack? I'm gonna break your nose. Not just for this.. For this and all the other crap you've been doing lately. "
Across the gym, Destiny, Gabrielle and Danielle watched what was going on, concerned. Danielle smiled when she saw Nathan, Zane and Matthew walking up behind Jack as Destiny cheered on her boyfriend for sticking up for his family.
Shane looked embarassed and upset and it was killing Gabrielle. She shuffled her feet against the floor and bit her lower lip as she watched them taunting Shane, some even recording the event.
She'd shoved forward when Danielle called out "What are you going to do?"
Gabrielle stopped and turned back to look at her two friends and shrug. "I have no idea. I just know I can't stand there and fucking watch this." she called out over the noises and shouting.
Shane tried edging out of the middle of the gym. But the crowd kept at him, kept taunting him. A girl grabbed for his towel and he could hear the fight between Brad and his cousins and Nathan outside. He wished that he'd just melt through the floor, really. He shoved at Jack who tried to yank the towel. Jack shoved back and Shane finally snapped. He threw a left hook that connected with Jack's face.
The towel was slipping when he stood up, angry and about to try and punch Jack again but Jack quickly yanked the towel and jumped back after shoving Shane against a wall, laughing about it.
Gabrielle shoved through the crowd and walked up, glaring at Jack in disgust. She spotted Tru's phone and said " Might want to record this, Tru." as she held Shane's gaze intently and took a few deep breaths.
'He might like someone else, damn it, but I love him and I can't watch these small minded idiots ruin his life. I can't take watching how much it hurts him anymore.. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I gotta do something.' she thought to herself as she walked towards Shane who looked at her with a raised brow, a wary look on his face.
"Do you trust me?" she mouthed.
He gave her a strange look, one of those looks she wasn't good at deciphering. She licked her lips and walked closer. Grabbing the towel from Jack after slapping him in the face when he tried to snatch it back, she stopped in front of Shane, held out the towel and said in amusement. "Leave you alone for ten minutes and you're stripping?"
He looked at her, brow raised, confused.
What the hell was she up to anyway? Was she about to do something to embarrass him? As soon as he had the thought he felt guilty because even if she had been avoiding him, and even if she did do things to drive him insane, she hadn't turned her back on him so far.
She mouthed it again and he gave a slight nod. She bit her lower lip as she moved closer. He'd put the towel back up now, he was trying like hell to keep it from falling. She knew that if she didn't do something that one of the idiots watching, taunting him, laughing about this jerk of a thing that Jack and Brad had done would just snatch the damn thing off again.
Destiny and Danielle exchanged looks as they pushed their way closer. "What the hell is she doing?"
"Girl, you know her.. Your guess is as good as mine right now." Danielle said as Destiny watched the door and the scene in front of them intently, worried about Matthew.
Gabrielle pushed Shane back against the wall. Her hand slid down, stopped over his hand and she looked at him, bit her lower lip. She was standing close enough that their hips brushed now. He gaped at her, brow raised, confused.
She was just as confused as he was, frankly.
But she'd had to do something, she couldn't just stand by and watch them doing this to him.
She leaned in even closer and pulled him into a deep kiss, she nipped at his lower lip. For about three seconds his brain completely stopped working, he hadn't been expecting her to do this, to go this far.. He knew why she'd gotten him near a wall and put herself between him and the crowd.
Anybody trying to record this would only get her back in the shot.
Nothing he didn't want seen would be seen by anyone, even if someone who was recording and laughing did upload this to some site or something.
This was totally not how he'd pictured his first kiss to go, but he wasn't entirely displeased with it either. Then he realized that he should probably start to kiss back.. He'd already made a big enough mess the night before when he told his little white lie to get her to talk to him again, got her to show him to slow dance just so he could turn around and ask her to slow dance tonight at Homecoming.
Catching on wasn't as hard as he thought it'd be, because his tongue slipped slowly past her lower lip and she purred a little, her body wedged closer. He tensed up, not because it was awkward, but because the kiss was feeling just a little too good for the view that everyone around them would probably get by the time it was all over.
Her eyes popped open wide when he kinda took over, deepened the kiss, said something that sounded like "Yeah, well now you see how pissed I was that you came to school dressed like that and all these idiots got to see it."
"Jealous, huh? But did you really have to strip down for all these stupid bitches to get a free show?"
"Didn't have a choice in the matter." he muttered as the kiss deepened and people were starting to gape, visibly uncomfortable by now.
"Get a room."
"Eww, gross."
"Gross? They fit together.. It's the town slut and Wheezy."
The two of them, however, were more interested in this spontaneous kiss than anything any of the people watching what was supposed to be the worst and most embarassing thing that could possibly happen to a guy in high school, having his clothes stolen, become something far less embarassing.
"Your um.. Your towel is slipping. And everybody's about to see your superman boxers." gabrielle said as she held his gaze, blinked in surprise when he came in for another kiss, shrugging. Gabrielle kissed back and he muttered "Did you really have to wear a corset like a shirt, I mean.."
The booming of a very confused and angry teacher cut through their moment and the pair sprang apart. "Mr. Morasco? Ms. Lovett? You two follow me down to the office right now. I'm going to call your parents. This is not the kind of behavior we tolerate at Llanview High."
"Yet you tolerate assholes stealing his clothes and making his life hell.. Or people picking on a girl who's pregnant and happy with a guy who's perfect for her. Or you think it's cute when girls write things like twat or whore on another girls locker.. Kinda hypocritical don't ya think?" Gabrielle smarted off as Shane gave her a look and she shrugged then said "What? I mean it is... And if we're gonna get in trouble for that whole thing? I'll be damned if Jack Manning and his idiots aren't too."
"What on earth has gotten into you,both of you?" the teacher asked them as Gabrielle rolled her eyes and Shane said quietly, "It was kinda my fault."
"I kissed you because I wanted to do it. It wasn't your fault, Shane, damn it. Sir, don't listen to him.. It's PMS and horomones and... I've been having these real vivid sexual dreams lately. And..."
"Ms. Lovett, that is quite enough."
"Sorry sir.. Point is, it's not Shane's fault. Just let him go.. He probably didn't even wanna kiss me back."
The teacher watched the two teens shaking his head as he did so.
Shane and Gabrielle sat in silence for a few moments outside the office while the principal called their parents and then called down to the gym for Zane, Matthew and Nathan who'd apparently gotten caught fighting Jack and Brad and a few of the other guys..
"I did." Shane finally admitted as he looked at his hands.
"Don't say that, okay? You didn't.. I mean you said last night you wanted to learn to dance for this girl.."
"The girl was supposed to be you, okay? I just didn't want to tell you, I was kind of going to show up and surprise you.. Then you did this.. Why did you do that? And then try and take the blame?"
Gabrielle shrugged as she tried to get her head around what he'd just said.
He'd only asked her to teach him so he could ask her to dance tonight? She groaned when she realized that their parents just might ground them for the next century.
"What's wrong?"
"If our parents have a bitch fit, Shane, we might not be attending said dance."
Shane shrugged and said quietly, "Won't matter.. I was only even going to the stupid thing to confront you about why you were avoiding me and how dumb your reasons were." fixing his eyes on her.
She stammered for words for a few moments and then said quietly, "Did it really make you that crazy, I mean that I showed up like this today?"
"Let's put it this way.. I had serious thoughts about walking over to you and putting my shirt in front of you."
She looked at him and then said with an amused smirk, "Eventful day, huh?"
"You don't know the half of it." Shane said as they looked at each other for a few moments trying to figure out just what the hell they were going to tell their parents that didn't sound too far fetched not to be believable.
"That was probably the only kiss I've gotten that I've wanted." Gabrielle blurted out as Shane winced, knowing what she meant, because of what he knew his father had dug up for Brody about her old life. She moved to lean against him, tucked her legs up and beside her on the bench as she looked up at him and said "Sorry this got out of hand.. I was just trying to do something to keep those damn idiots from having a good angle to upload anything."
"That's why you did it?"
"Not really.. I kinda wanted to and I definitely liked what I was lookin at." Gabrielle said as she blushed and bit her lower lip and started to blurt out an apology.
"I just don't get why it's me..." Shane said, cutting off the apology as he looked at her and then admitted, "But when I kissed you just now.. I've wanted to do it for a while now.. You're just too good at hiding."
Their parents showed up throwing questions left and right and Shane looked at Gabrielle and smiled. Gabrielle smiled back and then Nathan, Matthew and Zane all got lead past them.
"We kicked his ass, man. Little bitch has a broken nose." Zane called out as he added "Hey Ms. M.. I'd say I'd stop by and eat your food tonight but I kinda can't.. I'm probably in really, really deep shit now."
Gigi looked at Shane and then at Gabrielle and Brody said "Okay, something's being left out.. Both of you better start talking right now.. Have these idiots gotten worse, Gabrielle? Is that why all this happened?"
"They stole my clothes.."
"That's it, I'm going in there and I'm going to give that kid the ass beating.." Gigi started as Rex grabbed her quickly and said "It's handled.. Besides, pretty sure our children's explanation's probably a lot more interesting to hear than any excuse the school will give for Jack being allowed to be a miniature dick."
"Try shrimpy dick, sir." Gabrielle said as Brody gave her a look and she muttered quietly, "Sorry, dad.."
"Anyway, you were saying, son?"
"Gabrielle kissed me and stood in front of me to take away their shot at embarassing me? I don't know, Dad, okay?"
"Actually, sir, he's right. Anybody who tries to upload what Germ Manning did with his clothes today is only gonna have a makeout."
The three parents groaned and shook their head and then the principal called them all in to discuss what would happen as a result of their breaking the school's 'PDA Policy'.
"We'll make sure this doesn't happen again, sir." all three parents said as they stood and walked their children out.
"Damn.. I hate waking up early on Saturday." Gabrielle mused which made Brody look at her and say "You two are just lucky two weekend detentions are all you got.."
"Let me guess, mom.. Can't go to the dance?"
"Well, now that we know what happened, we're not really sure if we should punish you for all this.. But it was wrong, the way you both handled it.. You two deliberately broke a rule."
"But it was for the greater good."
"But it was still a broken rule." Brody argued with his daughter.
"So if we can't go to the dance..."
"You two can go.. This time.. But this better not become common occurrence. " Gigi stated as Rex nodded and said "It'd be wrong to punish you for Jack being a little asshole.. And you handled the situation creatively."
"Rex, seriously?"
"What, it's true.. I'd never have thought to make a bad situation into a good one." Rex said as he dodged the fore arm punch that Gigi lazily sent his way.
"So.. This mean you're not avoiding him anymore?" Brody asked his daughter who shrugged and said "Maybe not.. I mean I had to do something, sir.. I know I did the wrong thing, but I had to do something.. I couldn't just stand there and watch it."
"I know." Brody said as he looked at her, shaking his head. He smiled to himself when he knew for certain that she wasn't looking.. God only knew his daughter didn't need any encouragement for her stunts. He loved her but she was most certainly capable of getting into her fair share of mischief with ample time and opportunity.
Matthew, Nathan and Zane caught up with Shane and Gabrielle, their parents and Matthew said quietly, "Jack Manning stole his clothes and shoved him out into the gym with only his boxers and a towel.. Me and Zane and Nathan went out to beat the crap out of Brad, who Jack threw his clothes to, and beyond that we know nothing else. I do know that if Jack's mom doesn't do something about him, one of us is gonna.. Because Shane's family now and we don't let anybody mess with our family."
Zane nodded and then said "And my mom and Aunt Blair are having words now. That's gonna be a fun thing to hear all afternoon.. Blair doesn't realize just how far out Jack's going, ma'am.. But I'm gonna tell her when my mom shows up to get me."
Gigi nodded and thanked the two boys and Nathan said quietly, "Shane's a nice guy.. He doesn't deserve all the crap Jack and his friends give him. It's jealousy."
While the parents were discussing what was going on heatedly when Blair finally showed up, Beau and Nora and Nathan's brother Robert in tow, the group of teenagers stood talking quietly about the situation.
"So.. If Jack gets us all grounded for his crap and we miss this dance? I vote we gun for the little prick."
"Agreed."
"Totally agreed. I cannot believe he'd actually steal Shane's clothes and shove him out in the gym for the world to see. It's sick.. I keep telling you guys, the jerk's gonna be the next Ted Bundy or serial rapist or something."
"He's not gonna mess with you anymore.. And you don't have to keep doing the thing with the A's." Shane spoke up as he said firmly, "I mean it. "
Matthew and Zane elbowed each other, chuckling.
"Did you two FINALLY get it out in the open?"
"Kinda."
"Yeah, we did actually." Shane said as he gave her a funny look and asked, "Kinda?"
"I didn't wanna make any assumptions, okay?" Gabrielle said as she giggled a little and then asked "Does it really bother you? The clothes and stuff?"
"Honestly, yeah.. I hate the way those idiots were looking at you when you walked in earlier."
"Aww, how cute." Destiny said as she walked over. Matthew nodded and said "It's just good that they finally did something about everything. If it'd went on any longer, the two of them would've exploded.
"You got a black eye." Destiny pouted as Matthew shrugged and then said with a smirk, "Brad's face looks a lot worse right now."
Destiny groaned and shook her head as she gave him a quick kiss and then said "Text me later."
"You know I will.. You take it easy for the afternoon.. Do you understand me, Desi? I have to go home thanks to Jerk and Brad. I hate it cause I won't be here if you need me."
"I will be fine. You just go home and rest.. We'll meet later and talk about what our parents said the other night at the Buenas Dias and how we're gonna work around it.."
"I think I might have an idea about that, actually.. I'll tell you later." Matthew said as he gave Destiny a quick goodbye kiss.
Danielle walked over to Nathan and held out an ice pack, biting her lower lip. "I could kill my brother, really."
"I wanted to. Guy is a grade A jerk. Does his mom even know what he does when her back is turned?"
"No she didn't before.. but Zane's mom is giving her an ear full right now.. As well as the rest of the north wing. She's yelling so much that she disrupted my history class." Danielle admitted as Nathan said "Robert wasn't happy with me.. But he gets why I did it."
"So we're still good for the dance tonight?"
"Duh, I was gonna pick you up even if he did tell me I couldn't go. I promised and I don't break promises if I can avoid it." Nathan said as Danielle smiled and asked, "Did you hear what happened inside the gym though? With Shane and Gab?"
"Yeah.. I heard. It's about damn time with those two.. I was beginning to wondr if you and Desi were going to have to lock them in a darkened room for a while."
"It was sweet."
"It's probably gonna be on youtube later."
"Regretably, yes.. But at least it's not going to be something bad or embarassing." Danielle said as she gave her friend Gabrielle a smile and thumbs up.
Shane smiled at Gabrielle and then asked, "So... are you done avoiding me now? It kinda drove me crazy."
"That was kind of my plan, Morasco." Gabrielle admitted with a giggle as she looked at him.
Today really had been an eventful day for her.. for all of them, really.
