Redeemable: Part X – At First Sight?
Tara rolled over on the bed, kicking her feet back and forth, roughly in time with her mouth. Every so often she would check the battery meter on her cell phone, they go right back to chattering away on it, twirling her wavy blonde hair with her free hand.
"Oh, hang on, Hope, call waiting." She pressed the button and sang into the phone, "Hel-lo!"
Rolling off the bed, she shot to her feet "Joshie! Hey…no, my flight doesn't leave until morning. You can pick me up around three…no…I'm at Bonnie's right now…no, she's not here, she went somewhere with her boyfriend…yes, I said boyfriend, and you're not going to believe this…no Josh." A scowl crossed her usually pretty features. "It's not half the football team. He's in law enforcement, kinda-sorta…well, he's, uh, cute. Really, really tall, well, taller than you…hang on, I've gotta say bye to Hope before my battery dies…of course I have a charger with me, I'm not that blonde…hang on." She beeped back to Hope. "Sweetie, It's Josh, hate to cut and run, but boyfriend trumps girlfriend…sure, love ya, girl…Josh? Yeah…so, what's the plan tomorrow night? Uh huh? No, baby, I can stay at your apartment, but I'm going to be in the extra bedroom, you know that…oh, don't pout Joshie. I didn't say I'd be going to bed all that early, now did I?"
She flopped back on the bed, thinking that it likely hadn't been made since the last time the sheets were changed. Bonnie was just like her, tending to camp out on her bed much more than any chair. Grinning wickedly, she touched the little strip of belly that was showing as her top rode up. "Oh yes. Joshie, that's dirty…No, I don't mind…I kinda like it…just cause I won't do it doesn't mean I don't want to…you got that right…yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about…uh oh, I think Bonnie's back. Lemme call you when I get to the motel…dream about me, Joshie, I'll be dreaming about you. I love you, my little artist…bye." She closed the phone just as the door swung open.
Her expression changed right away, noting the dark cloud that seemed to hover over her oldest friend. Bonnie threw down her purse and slumped sideways across her desk chair, leaning on the back.
"Bon? What's wrong, honey? Did Mervin show you where he lived."
"Yeah, he did."
Tara perked up slightly. "So, what was it like? Is it a big, pretty house? Or does he live in something like the Ferret Hole?"
"I can't talk about it." Bonnie said flatly.
"Bonnie, is something wrong? Did he hurt you or something?"
"Tara, just drop it, okay. I said I can't talk about it, not that I don't want to. He made me promise to keep what he showed me a secret."
"Is that why you look like you're either about to bawl you eyes out or claw somebody else's out? Because you want to tell somebody."
Bonnie turned her back on her, leaning over her work desk. "No. I'm just really bummed because we're not going out Friday, that's all."
"Oh no! Don't tell me he dumped you already."
She sat up and glared at Tara for a moment. "You make it sound like that was a foregone conclusion."
Tara looked away. "Well…you haven't had that good a track record since Brick, uh…dumped you."
"Well, he didn't dump me. I didn't give him the chance. I just told him that it was better if we called the whole thing off."
"What? Just because he turned out to be a superhero? Bonnie, that's…"
"Shallow?" Her voice was almost half growl.
"No, considering the way you talked about him up till we found out, I say it's dumb."
Bonnie looked up and glared at her again. "Dumb? You know what's dumb? Dumb is trying to get away from all the old crap I dealt with in Middleton, away from Possible and all her mission crap, and what do I do? I hop in the sack with a guy who not only knows her, but worked with her in the past. I could've took it if he turned out to be some kind of rich-kid slacker, which is what I thought he was. I could even take it if he was some broke kid on a student loan, but to find out that he lives in a tower out in the middle of the bay…"
"Oh, so that's what that is." Tara blurted out.
"Yeah. Well, that's all I can say about it, like it's any big secret around here anyway. Guess nobody thought to tell me that the local superheroes lived in a tower on a man-made island. More than that, I can't help but feel like I've been played by him."
"Well, you said yourself he's got secrets to protect."
"Secrets? Now that I know about him, it occurs to me that just about everybody else but me knows who he is. They have got to have the worst kept secret identities in the whole city. The only people who don't know who they are don't actually live here, like me."
"If they're so big," Tara countered, "How come we've never heard of them before. It's not like every big city in the country has its own superhero team."
"Don't know, don't care. It's all behind me now. I'll just turn on the full 'Rockwaller' tomorrow, and by nightfall I'll have another date lined up for the weekend. Some nice, plain, good looking jock who doesn't go around shrinking. For crying out loud, what kind of power is shrinking?"
"He did get in your room. Apparently he got in your pants too."
"Shrinking had no…Tara! That was just a mistake. I should have gone out with him first…gone out a few times instead of playing like I'm some major-league slut. I still can't believe I did that."
Tara sat there, slowly shaking her head. "You know what, and this is going to sound strange coming from me, but I can believe it."
"What, that I would sleep with a guy I just met? Geez, Tara, I know you're this big snow-queen and all, but hey."
"Not what I'm saying. Sorry if it came out like that. Bonnie, you've been with, what, two other guys? Brick maybe?"
"Told you a hundred times, I never did that with Brick, but yeah, exactly two other times besides with Mervin."
"So, do you think that you, uh, you know, with him because maybe you wanted to?"
"Well doy. I'm not gonna do that if I didn't want to. I just can't figure why I did."
Tara sat up, leaning forward with her hands clasped together. "I think you're in love with him."
"WHAT? Tara, I haven't known him long enough to even know if I like him, let alone love him."
She wasn't quite ready to give up the thought just yet. "What I'm getting at, I saw the two of you together. When he showed up a few hours ago you lit up like I can't tell you what. Yes I can, you lit up like you did the first time Brick asked you out, like when Brick got all old-fashioned and asked you to go steady. I'm not talking about the deep lasting kind of love, I'm talking about just plain old love at first sight."
"Pfffft. If you believe in any of that hokum, then you can believe all that monkey nonsense Stoppable was spouting off about back in High School. Now, maybe it was lust at first sight, but I don't think there's any kind of love in this equation."
"Why not? Maybe the two of you were destined to be together."
"Or maybe his cologne drove me wild. Earth to Tara, the world really doesn't work that way. This isn't a fairy tale and he's not Prince Charming. Outside of him being, like, a costumed freak, he's just an ordinary guy who's not especially good looking, especially smart and on top of that, he's not exceptionally nice, at least to other people."
Tara wasn't convinced. "Okay, then if that's the case, and you're not turning real loose on me all of a sudden, why'd you do it? Sounds to me like you're the one making the case for turning into a slut."
"Tara, it's not like that. A while ago, when he took me to his home, we went up to see his room."
"Went up to see it, or 'went up to his room?'"
Bonnie stood up, pacing the small room. "That's just it. He was just showing it off to me, like he was all proud of all this stuff he had, medals and plaques and all this stuff from the city thanking him for all the stuff he's done. He was just droning on and on about him doing this and him doing that, all while I was standing there just looking at his bed, thinking about closing the door and hoping his little brothers were nothing like my own sisters. I was like, undressing him with my eyes and the more I thought about that, the more it pissed me off. That's not me."
"What, that you're physically attracted to a guy? Come off it, Bonnie. It's normal. Hell, if you hadn't come in when you did, I might have been having phone s…uh, talking a little dirty with Josh."
Bonnie's eyebrow shot up. "You, doing that?"
"Yeah. Bonnie, that's part and parcel of being in love with a guy. I want to sleep with Josh. I love him and I hope one day we get married so I can. I don't do that because I made a conscious decision that I was going to wait, no matter what, until I was married. Doesn't mean I don't want to. On the contrary, I think about it all the time and my will gets tested when I'm with him. I don't think badly at all about what you do. That's your decision, but I don't think you would ever make a decision like that unless there was something there. Oh, and on top of all that, Mervin's a whole lot hotter than you're saying he is. Not my type, being all tall and stuff like that, but still."
"Okay, so he's a little handsome. I still don't feel right about this, and if I'm not feeling it now, how's it going to be a couple weeks down the road? How's it going to be six months from now if we were still together? Something isn't sitting right with me and I'd rather be alone than waste my time."
Tara sat back on the bed, propping herself up on her elbows. "So you're not going to even give him one chance. You're not going to let him take you out to dinner, to have a normal date, to give him the chance to prove himself? That's not the Bonnie I know."
"Tara, if I went out with him, you know what would happen. We'd either end up right back here, or in that stupid tower…"
"Then don't do that. Promise yourself right from the get-go that you'll go out, have a good time and when the date is over, you kiss him goodnight and come home. You're not a pair of animals in rut, you can make decisions for yourself. Take that out of the equation and get to know him as a person."
Bonnie threw up her hands in exasperation. "But he's not a normal person. Without that holo-whatsit on his writs, he's purple. He's freaking purple! He's got purple skin, he's got purple hair. He shrinks, for crying out loud!"
"So? Did he ask to be purple? Maybe he got bit by a purple bug or something, or got something spilled on him."
"He told me how he got his powers, and no, he didn't ask for it…"
"Then he's just a normal guy. So he looks a little strange if he doesn't have that thing on. Apparently he didn't need to turn it off to…"
"Enough, Tara. Look, I know you're trying to be a friend, but I've made up my mind. This isn't what I want in my life right now. You see what Possible is like. Hell, you see what Ron is like too. Those two can work because they can do all that stuff together. I'd always be on the sidelines with him. He'd be doing all that hero stuff and coming home to me at night. I'm not built for that sort of thing."
"Was Ron?"
"Well, yeah." She stopped herself. She had seen firsthand what he was capable of during her short stay at Yamanuchi, but she couldn't talk about that, even with the girl who had been her best friend for most of her life.
"Bonnie, ten or fifteen years from now, say you're married to some 'normal' guy. He gets up in the morning, kisses you goodbye and goes to work. Then he comes back home to you in the evening. How is that any different? He'll have some kind of career, you'll have yours. The only difference is he's saving people like us from that trash that jumped in your car this morning. That's a pretty good thing in my book. You don't have to be a part of that to have a go with him."
"It's different, Tara. I can't put it into words right now, but it's just different." She sat back down, rubbing her temples. "Listen, I'm tired of talking about it, and I really could use a cigarette right about now."
Tara sat up again, concerned. "I thought you quit."
"I did, and I'm not going to smoke, but that doesn't mean I don't want to. Lemme get changed and we can go out somewhere. There's a club not far from here that lets eighteen year olds in, let's just go there and see if we can get our minds off this, okay?"
Tara wasn't convinced, but she let the matter drop for the time being. She was sure she had seen what she had seen, and knew her friend too well to know that she could put it behind her so easily. Almost sadly, she borrowed a dress that would fit her and went to the dance club.
As usual, Bonnie spent the evening sitting at a table, nursing a non-alcohol beverage, obviously wishing it were something stronger, and Tara knew she was really wishing there was a tall, thin young man with purple eyes there to ask her to dance.
Bonnie Rockwaller (and all Kim Possible Characters) © Disney