Three day weekend. Hopefully, that means more updates.
THANK YOU: WakeMeUpWhenItsYesterday, Sydney (i know! it's been so long. but it seems like your never on your account anymore, haha), CBlover1812, and xoxoDDSLG (and thanks for the long reviews lately :D).
Chapter Fourteen: Hear You Me
"I love this song," Claire stated before turning the volume up on the radio. She bounced a little in the buttery seats of Massie's BMW M6 Coupe as the start of a very upbeat song filled the luxury car.
"There's only two types of people in the world
The ones that entertain, and the ones that obser-"
Massie leaned forward and stabbed the power button, silencing the song mid lyric and leaving the car in silence.
"You turned off Britney," Cam joked from the back seat, the laugher and feign shock apparent in his voice. He leaned forward between the two front seats to address Massie. "How could you?"
Massie ignored him, turning back to the window to watch the trees pass in blurs. She would've been able to see the morning sun glowing on the yellow treetops but the round black Prada sunglasses over her eyes gave the day a darker feel. Just how she wanted it.
Claire shot Cam a look in the rearview mirror. It was Thanksgiving, and Massie should not still be acting like this. And as Claire averted her eyes back to the road that lay in front of her, she swore that by the end of this weekend she would knock her friend out of this funk.
[ ]
The Block Estate loomed over Claire as she drove Massie's car up the driveway. It still had that powerful feel it had five years ago when Claire first moved to Westchester. But that was before Claire knew how wonderful Westchester was, before Claire was friends with Massie and the rest of the Pretty Committee, before Claire met Cam. She couldn't deny it- Cam was a big part of what made her so crazy about Westchester. And then when he left…
Well, it sucked big time.
Peeking into the rearview mirror again as she slowed the car to a stop, she glimpsed at Cam as he wrapped his ear buds around his iPod Touch before slipping it into his backpack. To her right, Massie pulled her door open and stepped outside, the crunch of her shoes on gravel was the last thing Claire heard before the door slammed shut.
"Well, this should be fun," Cam said with a smile etched on his face.
Claire grinned. "Don't I know it."
[ ]
As Massie had already strode inside the vast estate, Claire and Cam followed, sanding awkwardly in the foyer. "Uh, hello?" Claire called.
"Claire!" Judi Lyons appeared from the kitchen and went to hug her daughter. "You're here!"
"Mom," Claire said as her mother engulfed her in a hug. "I've missed you."
"I missed you to sweetie," Judi's voice was muffled, as her faced was pressed into Claire's hair.
"There's my Claire bear!" Claire broke away from her mom to see her father surface from William Block's office, with William himself not far behind.
"Dad!" Claire rushed over and embraced Jay Lyons into a hug.
"We're so glad you could make it Cam," Cam, who was previously standing awkwardly in the foyer, jumped a little at William's voice.
"Glad to be here," Cam extended his hand to shake with Massie's dad. "Thanks for having me."
"Anytime dear," Judi said. She gave him a quick hug.
"Does anyone know why Massie's acting upset?" Everyone looked up at the staircase, where Kendra Block stood, looking elegant as always in head to toe designer wear. "She came in the house a few minutes ago without saying anything to anyone and went up to her room."
"Um," Claire decided not to tell her parents about her break up with Derrick. If Massie wanted to tell them, then she will. "I have no idea. Want me to go talk to her?"
"Just at least ask her to come down and say hi, please," Kendra continued to descend the stairs to stand at her husband's side. "And Cam, is it?" Cam nodded his head, his dark hair falling in his eyes. "I think we've arranged to have you sleep in the guestroom upstairs. Just up down the hall and the first door on the right."
Cam thanked both Massie and Claire's parents before following Claire up the stairs with the luggage.
"I think I'm going to unpack and get settled," Cam stated when they were in front of the guestroom. "You and Massie should talk by yourselves."
"Yeah," Claire agreed. "I think that might be a good idea, considering you could blab to Derrick as soon as you get the chance."
Cam gasped, his face drenched in a look of mock hurt. "I would never!"
"Mmmhmm, sure," Claire smiled at him. "See you downstairs?"
"See you downstairs." Cam repeated before entering the guestroom. The door closed behind him with a snap.
Claire soon found herself facing Massie's door, and she lightly rapped her knuckles against the wooden surface. "Massie? It's Claire. Can I come in?" There was no response, so Claire pushed the door open slowly.
Massie was standing at her closet, her arms crossed over her chest. A mountain of clothes covered the usually neat floor of her bedroom, scattered about to cover the cream carpet in an even layer. But in even in all the mess, Claire could still see Massie's old room; still see where The PC had their weekly sleepovers. Over at the foot of Massie's bed was where they would read gossip magazines whilst gossiping about their own lives. And near the computer desk was where they would always wait around for the boys to iSight them. Claire could almost hear the ding! of the computer and see Derrick, Cam, Josh, Chris and Kemp's thirteen-year-old self's grinning on the screen.
"Are you okay? Your mom asked me to check on you, and you've barely said a word to me in a few days," Claire took a few steps out of the doorway so she could shut the door. Massie wouldn't open up with the possibility that everyone could hear her.
"I'm fine Claire," Massie turned around. Her sunglasses were off, and Claire could see why she had them on. There were some severe bags under her eyes; a real difference to what she normally looks like. "I'll get over it." She sighed and wiped her hands on her grey skinny jeans.
"I think your mom also wanted you to come down and say hi to everyone," Said Claire.
Massie exhaled. "Um, sure," She looked around at the mess she had made. "I guess I'll clean up here and I'll be right down. Can't seem to find what I was looking for…" Massie bent down to scoop up a pile of clothes, and Claire glimpsed at an old BOCD sweatshirt dangling from her arms, the name HARRINGTON gleaming in white across the back.
[ ]
Alicia groaned as she struggled with a heavy box. Having just found herself an apartment for a decent price, she couldn't wait to get everything set up and watch some reruns of Paris Hilton's My New BFF. But she underestimated her belongings and didn't bother to hire a moving company to do the lifting for her, leaving her to do it all by herself.
"Whoa," Somebody said. Alicia struggled to see the owner of the voice, but the box in front of her face was obstructing her view. "Need help?"
"Yes," Alicia managed to gasp out. Her arms gave way and the box was about to fall, but somebody caught it and half of the weight seemed to evaporate.
"Careful there," From the deepness of the voice, Alicia could tell it was a man. Now curiosity sparked inside of her. Was he hot?
The two of them began to shuffle over to Alicia's room and get out of the hallway, and as they turned to fit the box in through the door, Alicia strained to get a glimpse of his face.
"Chris?" Alicia almost dropped the box in surprise when she saw her helper's face, and Chris Plovert groaned under the weight. "Oh my god! Sorry!"
Plovert let the box fall and it hit the hard wood with an dull thud. He looked up at Alicia and shook his head before bending down to open the box.
"Shoes?" He asked incredulity. Sure enough, inside the cardboard box was half of the collection of shoes that was in the possession of Alicia Rivera.
"Well nobody asked you to paw through my stuff in the first place," Alicia retorted. "But anyway, oh my god! I didn't know this was your apartment building," She had known he now lived in Soho, but she had completely forgotten all about him while checking out the place.
"Yeah, well I would've never guessed I'd see the day when Alicia Rivera lived in a Soho apartment," Chris scratched his head. "Aren't you supposed to be at Harvard or something right now?"
"It was Penn," Alicia rolled her eyes. "And I kinda, um, got expelled."
There was a brief silence of two seconds before Chris exploded into laughter. He bent other a clutched his stomach, all while Alicia watched, getting more and more frustrated.
"It's not funny!" She stomped her foot, and as preschool-ish as it was, it ceased Chris' laughter.
"I'm sorry," He said, still chuckling. "But I wonder if it would be inappropriate to say, I thought you would?"
Alicia frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Yes, yes it would."
She walked back out of her apartment and into the hallway, where the rest of her belongings were piled with Chris right behind her.
"I'm sorry," He said. "But um, it's Thanksgiving. Shouldn't you be with your parents or something?"
"They," Said Alicia while she slung a rug over her shoulder. "Decided that they would rather spend the holidays in Spain than with me, thinking that I would be loaded down with work from school."
"Ah, so I take it you haven't told them yet?"
"Nope," She stood and stormed back into her apartment. "And I don't plan to for a while." She dumped the rug on the floor and turned back to face him. "What's your excuse? Why are you alone for the holiday?"
Chris shrugged. "My uncle died, so my parent's are out in Oregon for the funeral."
"Oh." Alicia immediately felt bad. Personally, she had never been good with dealing with deaths of any kind. When she was seven she completely freaked out when her goldfish died. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be. He was kind of an ass," Plovert said, waving his hand as if they were talking about something that didn't really matter. "So they wanted to drag me down there as well, but I didn't really want to go. I mean, I hate funerals. So I told them I had the flu."
The two of them were silent.
"Hey," Began Chris, "I was just out to get myself a turkey, and I managed to snag one before this lady could. It's in the oven now. You want to come over later?"
"Sure," Alicia smiled. "Yeah, I'd love to."
"Alright then," He smiled back, revealing straight, white teeth. "I'll see you then." Chris turned and began to walk out, but before he reached the door he turned back. "Oh, and I don't think your going to have enough room in the closet this place comes with for all those shoes. So I'd consider getting yourself one of those under-the-bed show organizers."
[ ]
"Could you cut these potatoes, Claire?" Judi asked, handing her daughter a bowl filled with small red potatoes.
"Sure thing. Excuse me, Kendra," Claire reached over Kendra to grab a kinfe out of the knife block, and carefully began to slice the potatoes into small pieces.
"Hey," Massie spoke as she entered the room. Claire looked up, and noticed that her friend had cleaned herself up well; applying more eye makeup and changing shirts from the plain white tank top she was wearing to a red v-neck sweater. She had to admit Massie looked way better then when they first arrived.
"Hey Massie!" Kendra and Judi both walked around the island counter to each take turns giving her a hug.
"Is there anything I can help out with?" Offered Massie as she eyed the various dishes being prepared.
"I think we're all good in here," Kendra said, looking at Judi for approval. "Why don't you two go for a walk around the neighborhood or something? It must be nice to be back here."
"Okay," Claire placed the knife down on the counter and wiped her hands on a towel. "Is Todd home? I haven't seen him around yet."
Judi glanced at the clock. "You know, he was supposed to be back a half an hour ago. I said he could sleep over at his friend Ryan's house if he comes back around ten-thirty, and he's late." She frowned, and placed one hand on her hip. "Remind me to ground him when he gets home."
Claire laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. "Alright, then I guess it's just me, you and Cam Mass,"
"That's more then fine," Massie said, no doubt remembering Todd's school boy crush on her that lasted until the moment she left her house for college.
[ ]
The brown and yellow leaves brought on by fall crunched under the shoes of Cam, Claire and Massie as they took each step. The traffic on the streets today was light, so a car flying past didn't disrupt the peaceful mood. The trio was reminiscing about their childhoods and their years of adolescents together.
"Remember that one time when Nina was in town, and you dumped milk on her head?" Claire laughed at the memory of seeing Alicia's cousin standing in the OCD lunchroom, drenched head-to-toe in milk.
"Ugh," Massie's amber eyes became slits at the mental vision of Alicia's big boobed, slutty cousin. "I hated her."
"Oh I remember her too," Cam said. "God, I couldn't stand her either."
"Yeah," Claire tried hard not to bring up that he ignored her for weeks because of that girl, and instead stared down the street at a green Toyota Prius beginning to grow on the horizon. "She was a piece of work." The trio walked in a comfortable silence, and soon the Prius was passing by. But the driver slammed on his breaks just after he had passed them.
They stopped and turned around, Cam stepping in front of the two girls protectively. But there was no danger, no men in black ski masks jumped out of the car, but instead an ecstatic Todd Lyons scrambled out of the passenger seat.
"Thanks for the lift, Nathan," Todd slammed the door and patted the roof of the car, the signal to drive off. Then the sixteen-year-old boy turned to his sister and her friends. "What's up fellas?"
"Todd!" Claire wrapped her brother in a bone-crushing hug.
Todd tried his hardest to pull away from the excited blonde. "Get offa me, woman! Your even more weird then you were before college."
After Claire reluctantly pulled away, Todd faced Cam and Massie.
"Cam, my man!" He raised his arm enthusiastically for a high five, and Cam returned the gesture half-heartedly. "I had no idea I'd ever see you again. It's been years!"
"Yeah," Cam said slowly, putting his hand back into the warmth of his jacket pocket. "It's been way too long."
"And Massie," Todd raised his eyebrows seductively as he eyed the brunette. "Dumped Harrington yet?"
Claire and Cam froze, while Massie's eyes darkened.
"Todd," Claire said quickly, desperate to change to conversation. "Don't you have a girlfriend? Melody, or something?"
Todd's attention was pulled away, and he turned to face his big sis, scoffing. "Melody? I dumped her last week."
Cam raised his eyebrows at Claire, who shrugged in return. Who knew that Todd would even get a girlfriend, let alone be the one to end the relationship?
"Now come on," Todd began to walk in the direction of the Block Estate. "Let's go home. I want turkey."
Hear You Me - Jimmy Eat World
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