CHAPTER 10: Double Vision

Summary: Unable to shake the provocative memories of her wild night, Laura drops many bombs on Max about her true feelings.

Laura stared into space with a contemplative furrow of her brow as she sat before Max, her fingers pensively fidgeting with her bottom lip as her best friend's attempts to get her attention flew right over her head. And the introspective silence didn't make for a very engaging conversation. "...Did I tell you that Will Smith asked me to marry him?" Max quipped as she leaned over Laura's shoulder to gauge whether or not she'd died sitting up or something.

Finally fishing eye contact out of her, she abandoned her efforts to fix Laura's hair in order to pull up a chair beside her and try to dig her out of her own head. "Hey. This is only a conversation if two people talk."

It hadn't been Laura's intention to ignore her but the unforgiving thoughts in her head were louder than a crowded stadium, not to mention that her battle with Mister Hangover had her still feeling like she was underwater. "…I'm sorry," she said contritely as she finally landed back to earth. "It's ... just, something's been on my mind for the last couple of days," she revealed tentatively, straightening from her slouch in the chair as the pensive fog cleared to allow clarity of thought.

"Oooh, that patch of small hair on your chin?" Max quipped with a grin, hoping to break the solemn tension Laura had induced. She hadn't seen her friend this out of it in a while and judging by the spectacle she witnessed last night, she had a right to be a little concerned.

Laura swatted away her teasing, even though she couldn't help lifting her fingers to her chin to make sure it just a joke. "Girl!" A hairy chin was all she needed right now!

She was still rather hesitant about telling Max how deeply complicated her love life had become, knowing that 'foot-in-mouth' backlash was imminent … but she had to tell somebody! It was already a secret that was so much more difficult to maintain than she thought. As evidenced by the bullets she dodged this morning, she knew the scandal was on the brink of exposure. But despite how juicy it was, she knew Max was the only one who she could trust to keep it hush-hush …possibly because she suspected she wouldn't even believe her.

"It's just that ...ever since Steve started improving himself, I'm finding myself ...sorta …kinda …well …y'know!" The closer she got to spilling the beans, the more she couldn't believe the words were actually rolling off her tongue to begin with — it just seemed incredibly absurd, even now. She squirmed sheepishly as if to quell the unease that came with pretty much admitting everything she thought she knew about her entire worldview was completely wrong. " ...Attracted to him…"

Her caramel cheeks flushed hot red and a team of acrobatic butterflies invaded her gut the moment she surrendered to her twisted reality. But to her surprise, the uncomfortable quivers of her heart weren't the result of embarrassment at all. It was actually a very familiar, more inviting sensation — more like an aggressive case of the school-girl jitters, which felt extremely bizarre considering who was on the other end of that crush.

Laura could tell immediately by the deadpan expression on Max's face that she thought that statement was complete bull — so funny, she forgot to laugh. But when Laura didn't laugh either, a brow quirked dubiously and like a stoic crime detective, Max grabbed the hairspray and examined the label for evidence that maybe she had sprayed a little too much of it on her head. "… This explains it! 'Can cause brain damage.'"

Laura wasn't surprised by her skepticism …if anything, she figured she might as well get used to all the shock that was bound to accompany such a scandal. But now that her secret had wings, she suddenly caught an urge to let the truth take flight if only to get it off of her chest. And who knows? Maybe her best friend could offer a little insight, but it probably would have helped to put it all into context first. "Nah, I'm serious! Remember last night when Steve said I kissed him? And I told him I didn't remember because I was too drunk?"

"Yeah...?" Max confirmed skeptically, becoming more and more displaced by the direction this conversation was going.

"…Well, I wasn't that drunk," Laura confessed barely above a whisper, timidly casting Max a sidelong glance in time to see her jaw drop to the floor in astonishment as a silent gasp escaped her.

Somehow, of all of the secrets she had told her throughout the years, this one in particular sparked perplexity beyond her ability to rationally process it. But when it was clear Laura wasn't joking, Max eagerly interrogated her in search for clarity. "You remember the kiss?"

As bad as she still felt for lying to Steve about blacking out, Laura couldn't help the sheepish smirk that faintly tugged at her lips as said memory flooded back to her with crystal clarity. Everything from the surprisingly alluring scent of his cologne to the pliable texture of his lips came into focus in that moment. "Oh, yeah …"

"And you liked it?" Max demanded, twice as incredulous as before, scowling with disbelief.

That was when Laura allowed herself to recall what she felt the moment she abandoned her inhibitions and took that fated, intoxicated leap into the unknown. And she concluded that it was a similar feeling that she had when she'd kissed him at the auction.

For those brief few seconds that her lips touched his, Steve Urkel wasn't the aggravating, socially-inept nerd she'd painted him to be all of these years … at all. The contradiction was baffling enough to throw anybody privy to his less-than-stellar reputation for a loop. "Ohhh, yeeaah…" she admitted with a drawl of satisfaction as her gaze wandered wistfully, verifying to Max that she had completely fallen off her rocker.

Max had listened to her bestie complain about Steve for as long as she knew her. To hear her imply that she had the hots for him after all of this time sounded like something straight out of the Twilight Zone. She parroted her skepticism again to be doubly sure this wasn't joke. "Girl, you actually like Steve Urkel?"

Laura paused to seriously consider that question. It had been the one question disturbing her sanity all month and she always circled back to the same conclusion, no matter how awkward and distressing the implications seemed. "… I'm starting to ..." And she wasn't sure if that classified her dilemma as a crisis or not.

But she realized that saying it out-loud made the reality of her feelings that much more poignant and far less frightening. Her stomach was slowly untying the knots it had created out of fear, allowing room for that eerie feeling of infatuation to pulse within her and become more than just a fluke she was trying to avoid. It seemed unstoppable at this point and the only way to contend with it and possibly get rid of it, she realized, was to acknowledge it.

Max's first impulse was to laugh heartily at the irony, but before the humor could hit her, skepticism returned to hit her twice as hard. Giving Laura the side-eye, the corner of her mouth twisted dubiously. "Okay. Who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?"

"Believe me, I wish I was an imposter," Laura said with conviction, even though she knew prayer and passion wasn't enough to make it so.

"In that case …" Max quickly popped up to her feet as if a fire had just broken out in the room. "I gotta find a straight jacket because we have a new kind of crazy on the loose!" Feigning panic, she comically scurried towards the door to the living room, pushing it open quickly to holler through it, "Somebody call 911!"

"No-no-no! Shhhhhh!" Laura shushed and hissed frantically, rapidly standing to sprint behind her so that she could claw at her wrist and yank her away from the door. "Keep your voice down!" Afraid the satirical outburst attracted attention, she quickly poked her head through the door to make sure no one came running before turning to Max with a scowl. '911' was not the phrase to scream without consequence in a cop's house after all. Surrendering to her embarrassment, she flailed in defeat and shook her head pitifully to condemn her big mouth. "Jeez Max, see? — I knew I shouldn't have said anything; the paparazzi can keep a secret better than you can."

Tickled pink, Max continued to grin and giggle with delight but she noted Laura's obvious distress towards her amusement and so she offered reassurance, a hand lifting to caress her shoulder apologetically. "Aww, c'mon girl, I'm just kidding. It's not that bad. I dated Waldo, for Christ-sakes."

…Well, Laura couldn't argue with that. Pointing out this simple fact was enough to quell her embarrassment … for the time being. "…You got a point there." With a heavy sigh, she meandered pensively back to the chair to plop back down, Max close behind as she retook the seat next to her and leaned in to continue her interrogation.

"You gotta admit though, this is insane! You're the one that said, and I quote: 'The day I like Cheese Boy is the day Lucifer gives out free skiing lessons.' End quote." She shot Laura another dubious brow-raise as she pulled contradictions from the horse's mouth.

"… Yup! And I definitely signed up for one yesterday," Laura confirmed with a dismal shrug, still slightly resistant to the road to acceptance — as Max had just said, it was hard to make sense of something that seemed far beyond the realm of possibility in her world.

As a result, there were many questions that remained unanswered. Brows knitted in confusion, Max addressed the ultimate discrepancy of the entire dilemma. "But … didn't you say kissing him was a nightmare?"

Well, the answer to that one was very simple. "… I lied."

Max's jaw dropped again, impressed by her tact in that regard — she would have never guessed! "Wow, you're good."

Reluctantly, Laura turned towards her and leaned in as well in order to contain the secret even more than the four walls of the kitchen could, offering a low murmur, "And not only that … wanna know the creepiest … weirdest ... scariest part about it?" That was when the deepest of truths echoed clearly in her mind and the thought stopped just short of her parted lips as she balked. Her eyes quickly sized up her friend — who was practically drooling for gossip — still somewhat skeptical that she wasn't the most truth worthy person to talk to. Swatting a hand dismissively, she relaxed against the brace of the chair once again in surrender. "… Oh, nevermind, you're just gonna laugh at me."

"I won't laugh, I swear!" Max bolstered quickly before admitting with a wicked grin, "...But I can't promise I won't snicker softly behind your back."

Sigh. Laura rolled her eyes impatiently but she just shook her head; there was really no use in expecting anything less than snickers once the whole world knew. "But you do promise to take this the grave, right?" she spat firmly, markedly demanding loyalty with a shaky index finger. "In fact, you better take it beyond the grave — if the Good Lord himself asks you what happened, you gotta promise to plead the fifth, even if it means blowing your ticket to the heavenly gates."

Sounded like a good deal to her! If it meant getting the juice, she was all for it! "Cross my heart and hope to live a long life as a witness to this miracle," she promised solemnly as her finger marked an X over her chest. "Now spill it, you."

Oh, God … Did she really want to say this? Even if she wanted to just cut the conversation short right there, she knew it was a little too late at this point either way — all she could do was hope that Max kept her word. Her shoulders sunk as she exhaled a long, tormented breath before finally spilling the beans, her voice barely above a whisper. "Well … to be honest? … I don't think I've ever been kissed the way Steve kisses me."

GASP! If Laura got a dollar for every time she'd made Max pick her own jaw off the floor within the last few minutes, she'd be rich by now. What was worse was that her friend's shock only served to solidify the seriousness of her dilemma. "…Not even Stefan…?"

Max expected her to be completely at odds with that question, but she was served yet another shocker when she took note of the fact that Laura didn't even hesitate to answer. "Not even close."

Whooooaa … Max froze in disbelief as she stared in deadpan silence at her for several tense seconds, pausing to take a long, suspicious look around the kitchen as she plunged back into her skepticism before turning to Laura again with a quirked brow. "…Are we on Candid Camera?"

If only her life were that easy. Laura wouldn't have minded if a camera crew popped out and told her she was dreaming right now. Unfortunately, any road down denial only seemed to put the truth directly in her escape path. "I'm afraid not."

"Wait-wait-wait-waaaaaiiit one darn minute here," Max interjected eagerly with a scowl of disbelief as she paused to allowed the irony of it all to process — it was almost like being told the Earth was actually flat or that 'blue' wasn't a real color; she had to make sure she'd heard her right one more time! "You mean to tell me that not only do you have the hots for Steve, but that he's actually the best kisser?!" Surely Laura would come to her senses once she heard it put that way … right?

Wrong! "… I can't seem to get my mind off of his lips, so he's doing something right, that's for sure," she admitted meekly, her shoulders rising to her ears in shame as her cheeks reddened, the weight of the matter sinking in completely. Max was right … she'd lost her mind for sure.

"You. Me. Mall. Now!" Max demanded firmly and abruptly rose to her feet. Grabbing Laura's wrist, she yanked her from the chair and dragged her towards the front door with conviction.

"What? Why?" Laura asked, confused by Max's sudden urge to shop but she wasn't necessarily surprised — the mall had always been their favorite place to gossip the day away and those intentions were confirmed as Max paused to turn towards her, her brows raised in wide-eyed anticipation.

"Why do you think, I need details! … And a new jacket and some shoes so we might as well kill three birds with one stone." She gave a cavalier shrug before continuing to drag Laura out of the back door. And Max's giddy drilling began the moment they made it to the garage where Laura's car was parked. "I want to know everything. Tell me about the kiss. How did it happen? What was it like?"

"Oh, Lord … well …" It was then that Laura allowed herself to fully relive the memory without shame, unable to stop the faint smirk that sprung to her lips as a soothing revelation occurred to her, for the first time overcoming the fear that plagued her with self-doubts for the last month. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but … it was kind of amazing …"

LAST NIGHT…

Winded and still slightly dizzy from being sucker-punched, Steve struggled to sit up after clumsily depositing Laura's plastered, dead weight onto the cushions, pausing to gather his strength as he unraveled his arms from her with the intention of getting right back up to start the second leg of his rescue mission. "All right ... now. What you need is a visit to nappy-land. After that, you'll wake up in sober-land. C'mon, let's get you upstairs." Pushing against the couch to stand, he barely got enough leverage before he felt his arm being abruptly yanked, plopping back onto the couch with a wild flail of shock and suddenly finding himself nose-to-nose with her, completely caught off guard by the uncharacteristic desire to be this close to him. But he didn't dare protest — he could only stare at her like a deer in headlights.

And the first thing he noticed was that she was very generous with her hands. His eyes inconspicuously scrutinized them several times during their exchange, almost in shock that she was crossing her own boundaries as he watched her offer up subtle caress after caress along his arm, across the back of his hand, and even a brush or two against his knee, all the while hypnotizing him with those alluring brown eyes as she began to slur. "You know what? Steve. You are such a good friend."

Whaaaa? Where he'd been halfway expecting an insult, he'd gotten the most humbling compliment instead — something was amiss and he quickly concluded that it must've been the liquor talking. In fact, her unexplainable tolerance for him sparked a moment's concern and he figured he'd better get her to bed. Now. "… Oh, thank you. You're a good friend, too," was his cavalier reply, having every intention on cutting their conversation short and trying to stand again, only to be gridlocked as Laura applied more effort into making sure he heard her.

"No-no, I'm serious." Before he knew it, his cheeks were being squeezed within her grip as she forcibly grabbed his jaw in order to tug him in closer and slur at him, "You always cared for me and y'know what? I appreciate it ... you know that?"

"I know you do - oof" he replied just as her hand landed on his cheek with two gracious, albeit heavy-handed, love taps. Wow, this was the most this woman had ever touched him in such a short period of time! As much as he would have taken advantage of such utter compliance any other night, he had way too much respect for her to influence her intoxicated state in any way. Tonguing his sore cheek as she released his jaw, he tried once again to get her to get with the program. "Now, upsy-daisy."

Despite his tainted reputation as the town screw-up, Steve certainly felt like Mister Fix-It today and he couldn't help but feel like a total stud for stepping up. He wouldn't have guessed in a million years that Laura would ever need him to save her from herself in such a way. One of the things he admired about her was that she was extremely conscientious, sometimes to a fault. Seeing her this wasted was certainly a first and while he should have been disappointed in her for letting peer pressure rule the night, all he cared about was that she made it out of that animal house unscathed.

What neither of them seemed to know was that the Deltas had a sure-fire formula for how their parties turned up and apparently, it worked like a charm every time. The word on campus was that they would pinpoint the most gullible girl and deliberately introduce her to many, many drinks, the next always stronger than the last. Before long, the chosen sucker would become the party's out-of-control centerpiece and everyone else would follow suit. Laura had been that prime target of the night and she didn't even realize it.

It explained why Max hadn't been half as tipsy as Laura was; she'd only had two beers … versus Laura's three or four, plus the copious amounts of rogue liquor they snuck into her cup during each round of Quarters she played. The unforgivable mix of different alcohol in such a short amount of time explained the wild child spirit that made an unceremonious appearance tonight.

Good thing he showed up when he did or Laura could have easily been taken advantage of by the creep who clocked him in the eye for denying him the luxury of bringing her and the party 'to his room'. He couldn't help but wonder what the heck she was doing there around all of those piranhas in the first place — it was so out of character for her.

Despite being completely tanked, Laura was still cognizant to know that she was enjoying this newfound wonder of discarded inhibitions that unlocked her from her mental cage. She found herself reveling in whatever magical powers alcohol had that made her completely forget everything that had been raging anxiety through her bones for the past few weeks. In fact, she was enjoying it so much that it was also incredibly easy to forget that this weird crush she had on Steve was not just some dormant, twisted fantasy. Now that he was within arm's reach of her, it was hard to deny the swell of desire that made her gut quiver, in a way that would have her thirteen-year-old self gagging and running for the hills.

He'd once again proven his loyalty to her by scooping her out of a precarious situation with zero judgment in his heart for her, expecting absolutely nothing in return. There was always this scathing pressure to conform to everyone else's expectations — her parents, her brother, her friends … even Stefan. But not Steve. Acknowledgement of his unconditional devotion sparked the motivation to finally let him know after so many years how much she really appreciated it. He made her feel like he was the only one in the world who accepted every flawed thing about her … was it really that hard to do the same in return? The impulse to thank him became so strong, she couldn't have contained herself if she wanted to. And at that moment, she really didn't want to.

So she was persistent in her urging, grabbing his hand to keep him planted next to her so that he could know without a shadow of a doubt that it hadn't been her intention to get him beat up this time. And just the fact that he took that knuckle sandwich for her was a turn-on in its own right. "You know what, Steve? I am so sorry about your eye."

Steve, on the other hand, seemed to completely fly by the implications of her aggressive efforts to thank him. As far as he was concerned, getting her home safely was just another day of sweeping up messes behind him — her safety had always been his main concern and priority. "Oh, no problemo. Actually, my vision is getting better. I'm only seeing double now!"

Even though the room was spinning more and more out of control, he seemed to sharpen in her blurred field of focus and it was as if her perception of him had completely collapsed in on itself. Where she once saw a lost, uncouth, annoying, nerdy little boy before, she suddenly felt as if she were sitting next to the smartest, funniest, most attractive guy she'd ever met… and for the life of her, she couldn't figure out why!

As her half-lidded gaze scrutinized the blackened swell of his eye, she guessed that the only reason it was hard for girls to appreciate his looks was because of his clownishly large glasses; him and Stefan were nearly identical after all … or it could have been that she was so drunk that she was suffering from a mean case of the 'beer goggles'.

Either way, she was itching to find out for herself just how right she was about her newfound outlook … or rather, whether or not she'd simply been wrong about him this whole time. "Well, I know what'll help ..." Fearlessly, she reached up to unveil his face, gently grabbing the frames of his glasses and letting them hang around his neck. Steve blinked in confusion, not altogether sure what was happening right now but he didn't dare stop her!

The next thing he knew, he was being drawn closer to her by a guidance of her hand against the back of his head, his heart thundering madly against his chest the moment he felt her lips press against his good eye, immediately free-falling out of his eagerness to tuck her in … he suddenly forgot he even had legs to stand. And he had no idea what to think … because he couldn't think; she'd turned his mind into mush in a matter of milliseconds. "… Oh ..." Whoa mama…

"How does that feel?" she asked tenderly, unable to help herself as her fingers gently grazed against the abrasive buzz of his haircut as she paused to gauge his reaction.

He couldn't explain why after all this time of chasing her with little to no progress, she was suddenly all over him with almost no effort on his part. Though he was still ambivalent about her intentions, Steve couldn't deny that the pulses of electricity shooting up his spine wasn't the result of wishful thinking, nor was it was result of one of his makeshift potions — ironically, the alcohol flowing through her veins was proving to be more powerful than any love potion he'd ever created! He tentatively rolled with the punches. "Great ... only it's the swollen ... black and blue eye," he pointed out sheepishly to test the waters, wondering how much of this fleeting, blind luck was actually on his side tonight.

And the future seemed a whole lot brighter the moment she obliged him with another affectionate kiss against his swollen eye, pulling back to pierce his soul with a gaze that he could only describe as … sultry. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn that those dreamy eyes of hers were smoldering with passion. As a result, it became harder and harder take his own hopeful eyes off of her. "Better?"

Was she kidding?! As far as he was concerned, she'd just proposed to him! "Much!" he perked with delight, still steeped in his uncertainty but allowing himself to savor the rare affection — in the back of his mind, he knew it was a short-lived blessing.

… Or was it? In true unpredictable form, he was once again graced with another kiss he didn't have to beg her for — this time against his forehead, each tender show of affection bewildering him more drastically than the last. She was just full of surprises tonight! "… Oh yeah …" he mused with a drawl of satisfaction, his eyes gleaming with awe as he stared at her like she was a pearl unicorn. "Pain's alllll gone now …"

One thing Laura would come to learn the hard way about alcohol: it definitely didn't care about consequences. Any other night, she'd be fishing for the most reasonable excuse to invalidate her feelings and skillfully redirect them elsewhere. But right now, her inebriation simply didn't allow the stubbornness of her mind to rule over her pounding heart — she followed a powerful impulse that overwhelmed any inhibitions that would rationally stop her.

As if compelled by some mysterious magnetic force, she found herself slowly leaning in to quell a burning curiosity about him that she hadn't been able to quiet in her mind since the auction, consciously ignoring the tiny, sober voice in her head warning her that once she followed through, there was no turning back.

Before he even realized what was happening, Steve found himself being reigned closer to her once again with a guiding tug of her fingertips beneath his chin and he remained in stunned denial until it was clear she wasn't looking to pamper another wound; he rarely encountered miracles of this magnitude! But when her lips delicately captured his in a passionate, yearning kiss that lingered far longer than any pity kiss ever had — with far more tongue action than she'd ever allowed in the past — he knew he wasn't in Kansas anymore. His heart pounded in his chest so violently, he was convinced he would choke on it.

Laura's suspicions about her feelings were confirmed the moment she succumbed to the urge to do what she had wanted to do for weeks now. She wasn't sure if the liquor was to blame but now that she'd finally kissed him again, she was finding it extremely difficult to stop and the longer their lips touched, the dizzier she became. By the time she reluctantly withdrew from him, she felt like she'd been surfing on a cloud — he wasn't the only one who was seeing double tonight.

As for Steve … he might as well have died and been resurrected. Through heavy, hypnotized lids, he was speechless as they both settled into a deep trance of mutual satisfaction. Their eyes met innocently, rewarding one another with soft, breathless smiles … did that really just happen?

Unfortunately, there was little time to find out since the moment was short-lived. Within seconds of their lips parting, the disorienting spin of the room quickened until Laura's dizziness abruptly overcame her. With no warning whatsoever, she fainted with a dramatic plop against the cushions as the alcohol saturated her blood.

Astonished by the most stunning wave of euphoria he'd ever experienced in his life, it didn't take long for Steve's low tolerance to shock to snatch his consciousness as well. Becoming extremely light-headed in an instant, he followed his love dove to nappy-land — his eyes rolled in the back of his head and his scrawny frame went limp like a fish out of water, sliding off of the couch and melting into the rug.

"No waaaay!" was all Max could really say, gaping in excitement from the passenger seat of Laura's car as she listened to her account of the most unlikely event in human history — she couldn't believe what she was hearing right now!

Apparently the madness hadn't ended there. Laura cast her friend a guilty side-long glance as she drove into the parking lot of the mall and she assured her with a guilty murmur, "Oh, it gets better…"

"There's more?!" Max squeaked, her voice at least an octave higher.

With a pitiful nod of her head, Laura's hand slowly lifted for a face-palm, admitting through a heavy sigh, "…Much more."

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 11