A/N: Don't own, don't sue. I really appreciate all the reviews, so please keep it up! Enjoy.
Sorry I haven't updated lately, but I just got back from a torturous week long vacation in Florida.
Chapter 14
"So do you really want to hear the story?"
Elizabeth and Will were sitting on the steps in the pool around midnight one Friday night, about a week before the start of the school year.
"Yes, I've told you this a thousand times over the past two weeks, Lizzy!" he said in exasperation, running a hand anxiously through his dark hair. Despite what he told her, he was still unsure of whether or not he really wanted to hear the story of her first serious boyfriend.
"Well, keep your voice down, Will, we're not even supposed to be here," she said, casting her eyes around anxiously, more out of nervousness about telling him than of being caught.
"Oh, please," he snorted doubtfully. "You've never had scruples about sneaking in here before. Besides, what will they do to us? It's our neighborhood, and we're not skinny dipping or something." She looked down at herself, blushing. She was wearing a swimsuit, but it was a bikini, something she was not used to. Somehow, she had let Jane talk her into wearing it. Will was wearing swimming trunks, and was shirtless, exposing his sculpted chest to her. "You just don't want to tell me," he accused, poking her playfully on her bare shoulder.
She looked up at him, frowning, and rubbed her arms with her hands. "Will, really," she said softly. "This is really serious."
He too frowned upon hearing this and said, "Sorry, Liz, I thought you were just embarrassed. I'll be serious now. But just… tell me. You know you can tell me anything."
"I know," she muttered, looking down at her feet through the water of the pool again. "So a few months into freshman year, I started dating this guy named Dennis."
"Yeah," Will said, nodding his head, "go on."
"We dated through all of freshman year, which is pretty serious, you know, for freshmen," she said, and he nodded again, urging her on as best as he could. "Last summer… I broke up with him, because I just didn't like him anymore."
"Is that it?" he asked, sounding hopeful. However, he couldn't fight off the feeling that there was something she hadn't told him yet.
She shook her head, and continued. "He got really pissed off. That night, he snuck into the room I shared with Jane. Jane was in Pennsylvania visiting our aunt and uncle, kind of like she did this summer, so I was alone. But Chris was spending the week at our house because his parents were on vacation in Florida, and he was sleeping in our living room. Anyway, Dennis snuck in. He… Will…"
"What is it, Elizabeth?" Will said softly, taking her hands in his. "It's okay. Just tell me."
She looked at him, her blue eyes shining sadly in the darkness. "He tried to rape me," she whispered, her lower lip quivering.
"What?" he gaped at her, gripping her hands even tighter and lowering his voice.
"I fought him off easily enough," she told him, shrugging. "I started screaming Chris's name as soon as I got his hands off my mouth and Chris came bursting into the room. He helped me kick Dennis's ass, and he went and got my father. Dennis was sent to a juvenile delinquent center, and then to military school in Ohio."
Will screwed his eyes shut, trying hard not to think about someone trying to rape her, the girl he loved. He leaned his forehead against hers, reveling in the fact that she was with him, and she was safe and unharmed. "It's nothing, Will," she lied, trying to reassure him.
"Bullshit," he said. "This is most certainly not nothing, Lizzy." He pulled away a bit, looking at her seriously. "I am glad you do karate, though. I must say, I always found it attractive, but I have never been more grateful for that fact than in this moment." She allowed a small smile to spread across her face. "And I'm glad Chris was there to help you. I don't think I've ever been more grateful to him either. I'll have to start favoring him over Jake."
"Actually, Jake had a lot to do with the getting Dennis in a juvy center part of the whole ordeal," Lizzy told him. "His dad is a lawyer, and Jake convinced him to take the case on for free."
"Wow," Will mused, "I guess I'll have to favor both of them for the rest of their lives."
"Don't tell them that," she advised. "They'll never let you forget it." He allowed himself a chuckle before he resumed his serious attitude.
"But really, Elizabeth… this isn't nothing. This is serious," he told her gravely.
"Oh, I know," she replied, "but you were going to obsess over it, I could tell. If I didn't diffuse the obsession bomb right then and there, you'd be hunting down Dennis right now."
He allowed a wry smile to cross his face. "Well, you sure as hell are right about that." The smile faded as he squeezed her hands, saying, "Thank you for telling me."
"It was no big deal," she shrugged. "You had a right to know."
"Well, that may be true," he admitted, "but I know how hard it had to be for you to talk about it."
"Really?" she said, cocking her head at him and raising a single black eyebrow. "And how do you figure that, Mr. Darcy?"
"Well," he said, "you're a strong person, but you feel compelled to keep these things bottled up inside of you, because that's how you keep up the appearance of being strong. Especially stuff like this. You think that if you tell someone, it's showing weakness. And you don't like to do that. So telling me that must've been hard for you."
She met his gaze, her blue eyes shining and her mouth twisting into a crooked smile. "You know me too well, Will," she told him, reaching up with a hand to stroke his cheek.
He smiled back, saying, "Is that something bad?"
"No," she said slowly, shaking her head. "No, it's not at all." She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his briefly, before pulling away and scooting closer to him, snuggling her head against the warmth of his chest. "I like it that way."
He wrapped his arms around her, saying, "Good. Because I like knowing everything about you, since I practically bore my soul to you in that letter back at Rosings."
"Oh, jeez," she muttered, pressing a kiss to his chest, causing him to shiver, despite the heat. "Don't remind me of that. I was so unbelievably cruel to you."
"Don't feel bad," he admonished her, pressing a kiss to her wet hair. "Like I've told you a million times before, I deserved it. Can you please stop apologizing?"
"Fine, fine," she said, shaking her head against his chest. "I just… ugh. To think we could've been together all that time, if I wasn't such a prejudiced ass."
"Your prejudice was well-intentioned, even if it was misguided," he told her gently. "I don't blame you for thinking I was an ass. I was one, when you first met me."
"But you changed," she said. "For me." She sighed, leaning her head on his chest again, and he stroked her hair. "I love you."
"I love you too, Elizabeth."
TSTSTSTSTSTSTSTSTS
"First day of school."
Elizabeth grinned widely when she heard his voice and slammed her locker door shut. Will was leaning against the row of lockers, grinning widely at her. "Excited?" she asked dryly, letting him take her hand in his.
He shrugged. "Sure, let's go with that."
"You're real enthusiastic," she laughed. "I for one, am very excited. One year closer to graduating and getting the hell away from my family."
"Are you really that unhappy?" he asked with a frown.
"Don't get me wrong, Will, I love my family," she replied quickly, "but I can't stand living with my mother. My sisters are okay, even Lydia and Kitty, as of late. Lydia's seemed to mature, ever since the whole Wickham ordeal."
"Well, that's good," he said, sighing with relief. "What class do you have first period?"
"Broadcast journalism," she replied, with a quick glance at her schedule. "You?"
"Theology," he grimaced. "Second period?"
"Here, just take my schedule and compare it to yours." She handed him her schedule as he kept walking her to her homeroom.
Eyes wandering up and down the piece of paper she had handed to him, he grinned delightedly. They both had second period honors trig, third period AP European history, fourth period honors chemistry, fifth period lunch, and eighth period AP biology. "We have four classes together, plus lunch," he told her, handing her schedule back to her.
Her blue eyes grew wide with excitement. "Really?" she squeaked.
"Second, third, fourth, and eighth periods," he listed, "and fifth period lunch."
"Great," she chirped. She stopped walking, realizing that they were standing in front of her homeroom door. She turned to face him, saying, "Well, this is my stop."
"I'll see you next period," he said softly.
"See you next period." She stood on her tip toes and was just barely able to reach his lips with hers, giving him a quick peck. As she backed into her classroom, he grinned back at her, deliriously happy.
What?
He was in love.
So sue him.
Grinning to herself, she took a seat at the back of the classroom, hoping to be somewhat inconspicuous. Though she was a straight A student, she hated sitting at the front of the classroom, and besides, she always sat in the back.
Just then, a dazed looking Chris stumbled into the classroom. He spotted her and made his bumbling way over to her, taking the desk on her right. "Damn, man," she chuckled, "what happened to you?"
"I forgot to set my alarm," he yawned, "so my mom woke me up about twenty minutes ago, threw me into the shower, and drove me over here like a madwoman. God, I hate the first day of school."
"Get used to it, buddy," she told him, smiling. "At least we have the same homeroom this year. Lemme see your schedule."
He handed her the sheet of paper, and she examined it for a few moments. Then she cracked into a grin. "Hey!" she said brightly. "I have first, fifth, sixth, and seventh periods with you."
"Sweet," he said, grinning through his sleepiness. "I remember last year, we didn't have any classes together… sucked. I was stuck with Jake."
"Sorry," she shrugged. Seeing Jake stumbled in through the door, she muttered, "Speak of the devil."
Jake spotted them and smiled, waving at Lizzy and Chris. He made his way toward them and took the seat to Lizzy's left. "Hey, guys," he said brightly. "Schedules?"
"Got it all up here," Lizzy told him, tapping her head with her finger. "Let me see yours."
She scanned his, then announced, "You have second, third, and fourth periods with Chris, and sixth and seventh periods with both of us."
"Yes!" he said, pumping his fist in the air. "Sweet, first day of junior year."
She eyed him critically, ignoring the thump from behind her that signified Chris's head hitting his desk. "You had sugar this morning, didn't you?" she asked knowingly.
"Maybe," he said, sounding abashed. "Okay, fine. I had Cap'n Crunch."
"Jakers!" she scolded, doing her best to be patronizing. "You know what that shit does to you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he said. Looking past her at the sleeping figure that was Chris, he queried, "Rough morning?"
"Something like that," she said. "He forgot to set his alarm, his mom woke him up about twenty minutes ago, body slammed him into the shower, and drove him here like she was trying to win the Indy 500." Shrugging, she added, "But that's just the impression I got."
He chuckled, but then he glanced at the door and the grin faded from his face. "Holy shit," he muttered, his hands clenching into angry fists and his eyes tightening.
"What?" she asked, looking alarmed. When she glanced at the doorway, she saw what had alerted him.
Dennis was back.