Say Cheese 2.0 -[ Part 11 ]
Brooke leaned against the car patiently waiting for her friend. What was keeping Nicole? She was usually the first one out the door when the bell rings.
"Brooke…"
She looked up and fought the urge to jump in glee. Instead, she flashed one of her polite smiles.
"Sam…" she said short.
Sam's finger couldn't stop fiddling with the strap of her bag. "Are you waiting for Satan?"
"Yeah, have you seen her?"
"I think I saw her heading to Principal Hall's office…" Sam said.
"Hall's office? Why?" Brooke asked.
Sam shrugged. "I don't know…" she said. "Erm… If you don't want to wait, you can ride with me…"
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Storming out of Principal Hall's office, Nicole fumed at being duped.
Wait till I get my hands on the dirt eating Tuna! I'll wring the life out of that bugger…
Nicole hurried towards her car, shifting her books to her left hand as she searched in her designer handbag for her keys.
"Damn!" she breathed. She made her way across the parking lot. She froze when she saw Dean standing beside her car. Cool, brown eyes regarded her nonchalantly as she made her way to her. Then, last night's event started to rush back at her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Waiting for you…" Came the lazy reply.
Acting on reflex whenever she found herself talking to one of the 'unpopular', Nicole glanced around making sure no one was watching.
Dean scoffed. "Don't worry, none of your rich socially acceptable friends are watching…"
Nicole's fair complexion bloomed with annoyance. "What do you want?"
Dean shrugged. "Just to give you a message from Brooke… She went home with Sam…"
"Fine…"
Dean stared at her for a moment. "Right…" she said pushing herself off the car. She began to walk away. Her job's here is done.
No need to tell her about flirting May Tuna's socks off so that she would tell Nicole, Hall wanted to see her. Brooke's with Sam… End of story… Well, if Sam's able to conjure up the courage to actually confess to Brooke that is…Now, just get away, far away from this delectable… delicious… sexy… err… Spawn of Satan… Descendant of Lucifer… Devil Impersonated…
"Who is she…?"
She turned back, puzzled. "Who's who?"
"Claire…"
"What do you want to know for?" Dean asked.
Nicole shrugged "Like I said… I'm curious…"
She was staring at her. Although the gaze was more searching and puzzled, it still did crazy things to Nicole's heartbeat. She wanted to lift her hand and lay it against her hard jaw and to trace the line of those sensual lips. Her shirt collar was open at the throat and she wanted to touch the pulsing nerve just above her collarbone. Even the scent of her perfume – which she recognized with delight as one of her favorite, Giorgio Armani's Aqua Di Gio – was teasing her senses, inviting her closer.
"Give me your car keys…"
"What?"
"This is not the place to talk…"
Nicole handed her the keys wordlessly and climbed into the passenger's side. Dean got behind the wheels and started the engine. Nicole didn't have the faintest idea to where they were going but neither did she care.
The breeze lightly teased Dean's thick hair. Although it was cut and styled to lie flat at the sides, it was long enough at the nape to brush her shirt collar, just long enough, Nicole reflected wistfully, for a woman's fingers to slide through it. Her fingers. Tearing her gaze away from her profile, she pushed her sunglasses down onto her nose and turned her head to gaze out at the passing scenes.
Dean slowed and turned off the tarmac, easing the car up the dirt road until they came to a turning circle where she parked. Nicole stared at the high-rise building under construction in front of them.
"Where are we?' she asked.
"Someplace where no one can hear or see us…" Dean answered as she climbed out of the car.
Nicole got out too and watched as Dean made her way to her side and leaned her hips casually on the hood behind her. Putting a cigarette between her lips, she flipped a lighter with a sharp flick of the wrist.
"I didn't know you smoke…"
Brown eyes squinted at her against the aromatic smoke drifting up from the cigarette.
"There's a lot of thing you don't know, Nicole …"
"It could kill you…"
Dean chuckled. "What's this? Show of concern over my mortal insignificant life?"
"Stop that…!"
An eyebrow cocked up. "Stop what?"
"Sounding like an ass…"
"What can I say…?" Dean shrugged. "You bring out the worst in me…"
The blue eyes narrowed sharply but she didn't make any comments.
"Why are we here?"
"I thought you wanted to talk…"
"Okay, then tell me who Claire is…"
"Not until you tell me why you want to know…"
"I'm…" Nicole stopped herself. "I'm curious…"
"So you keep telling me… But why are you curious?'
Nicole looked down at her shoes. She frowned at the dust forming at the tip of her new Jimmy Choo's.
"I don't want to share you…"
The answer was barely audible that Dean had to strain to hear her. It wasn't exactly the respond she was expecting. Nicole balking and fighting she knows how to handle, Nicole whispering and lowering her voice, well, that had different effect entirely.
"Good one, Nic… You almost had me there…" She said, "You made it sound as if I mattered…"
"Dean…"
"She's my sister…"
"What?"
"She's my sister…" Dean repeated flicking the cigarette butt. "Both my sisters are in town…"
It was then that the resemblance began to take place. Nicole recalled the night she met Claire. She realized now, that Claire and Dean had the same hair color. And the girl in the parking lot... Although her hair was lighter, leaning more towards dark blonde but she shared the same eyes with Dean, right with the same mischievous glint. And all three had the same lopsided smile.
No wonder it seemed so familiar…
Nicole practically ran to her, crushing her in a tight embrace. Vastly relieved of the revelation.
It took all strength in Dean's part not to succumb when, she felt Nicole's lips against the skin of her neck, her warm mouth nuzzling the sensitive areas, then slowly wandering upward along her neck to her ear. Her mouth left a burning trail of kisses up to her temple, and then slowly began to drift to her lips.
"Dean…" Her hot breath teased her lips. "Kiss me…"
Dean closed her eyes, steeling herself against the silky demand.
"Please…"
"No…" She whispered shakily.
Nicole shrugged and began leisurely kissing her other cheek, standing at eye level because of her stiletto shoes; she stopped to linger sensuously at her ear. Her tongue tracing every curve and hollow, She nipped her earlobe, and Dean involuntarily lurched forward in a startled movement that jolted their bodies together. A current leaped between them and they both stiffened with the delicious shock of it.
"Nicky…" Dean's voiced was raspy, wanting both to push Nicole as far away as possible and at the same time wanting to absorb her… "Please…"
"Please what?" Nicole asked. "Please put us both out of this misery?" she teased as she slides her fingers in her hair.
"No…"
"No?" Nicole repeated silkily, raising her head. "You don't want to kiss me? Undress me and make love to me?"
Her lips were so close that Dean was almost faint with the desire to feel them crushing against hers.
"No…" It was more a statement directed at herself rather than to Nicole.
"Why not?"
"Because I love you…"
Nicole jerked away from her as if burned. The look of horror and mortification flashed through her eyes and Dean saw it all. She sighed and shoved her hands into her jeans.
"It's appalling isn't it?" She said. "The thought of me loving you… To want to be with you… The thought that I want you to love me back…"
"I can't…" Nicole's voice was barely a whisper.
"I know you can't…" Dean said. "That's why I'm ending this…"
"But we're so good together…" Nicole turned to her. "Can't we just…?"
"Fuck our brains out?" Dean cut her off. "Then what? Today we make love, but tomorrow we're no more than classmates who hates each other's guts, is that it?"
"What the hell do you want from me?" Nicole exploded.
I want you to love me…
"I don't want anything from you…" Dean said running shaky fingers through her hair in desolate reserve.
"Admit it Nicole, you're miserable… What we have between us is misery… You can't even acknowledge me as a friend… You can't say a word to me in public without the fear someone was watching, that someone would point and say 'Nicole Julian is talking to a dyke'… You're afraid that any contact made would affect your popularity poll…"
Nicole stared out into the empty space in front of her, arms wrapped around her body. She wanted to deny all of it. She wanted to tell her that all that was not true. But whom was she kidding? Popularity was what she sought; it was the only thing that mattered in her life…
"Nothing good will come out of this… You're not gay and I know you don't want to be one… Let's just forget this ever happened. You can go back to your normal life, to your cheerleading and your throne at Kennedy High…"
To be continued