Chapter Twenty-One
After my picture fades
And darkness has turned to grey
You're watching through windows
And wondering if I'm okay
[Cyndi Lauper]
"Jerk!" Serena called after him.
"He's a nice boy," Peggy said diffidently as the door slid shut behind him, and Serena wrenched her gaze back.
"Hunh?" she said vaguely.
"Darien's a very nice boy. And he's fond of you."
"Who, Darien?" Serena's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. "No way. Honestly, Peggy, he never lets up with the insults. You should hear some of the names he calls me."
She noticed Peggy's tiny smile, and scowled.
"He's a creep," she said comprehensively. Except when he smiles ... She shook herself furiously as one hand lifted unconsciously to touch the rose caught in her hair, pushing away the thought of those few moments outside the gallery when he had been almost human...
"Hmh," Peggy said absently. She was staring at the painting again, her head cocked to one side. "Still ... you two were great models. It's all in the eyes ..." She sighed, reaching out to rub away a small smudge of dust from the frame. "The perfect fairytale love."
Serena's eyes widened. For a second, she couldn't find her voice.
"What?" she whispered.
"Just look at the painting if you don't believe me," Peggy repeated. "And you like him, don't you."
Serena felt herself turn a little light-headed.
"No way," she breathed, and gave her head an emphatic shake to clear it.
"Way," Peggy said gently. She pushed Serena towards the door, locking it behind them, and gave her a quirky little smile as she absently felt through her pockets for the key, found it still in the door and tugged it free.
"Mortal enemies who fall hopelessly in love ... Now there's a romantic idea for a painting," Peggy said thoughtfully, walking away.
Serena stood there, her voice ... all coherent thought ... scattered. She screwed her nose up in a sudden scowl.
"I do not … like … that jerk!" she yelled after Peggy.
Since the first time they'd met, she and Darien had been sniping at each other, so where, Serena wondered mutinously, had Peggy gotten the bizarre idea that there was something going on between them?
In her room, as the evening sky darkened, she found herself staring at Darien's rose lying across the books spread out on the desk in front of her with a small frown between her eyes, and her homework forgotten as she leaned her chin in her hands. Behind it, the lamplight shone golden on a tiny music box. Serena reached out to lift the lid absently. The box chimed a pretty little melody, and Serena went back to staring into space.
As her fingers tugged gently at the dark leaves of the rose, her chin sank lower into her arms. And she had told him he had a nice smile.
"I can't believe I said that." Serena buried her head in her arms with a faint wail. "Raye's going to kill me."
Between her fingers she could still see the crimson rose. So maybe she could understand why Raye fell for him after all, if he'd smiled at her like that.
"I don't even like him," she whispered to the rose. "And anyway, he's Raye's boyfriend."
She reached out and touched the rose with one finger.
"And even if he wasn't," she sat up a little straighter, grimacing, "He's still a low-life, smug creep. Ha!"
Having settled that, Serena purposefully picked up her pen. She frowned, idly tracing patterns across her maths book, and slowly sank until her chin was resting on her forearms again. The music box chimed its song, and Serena closed her eyes. Why did everything have to be so difficult?
Against the darkness behind her eyes, she could see Tuxedo Mask, mysterious and brilliant, with those midnight eyes behind his mask, and the chill in those eyes when he'd turned on her. Without looking, she reached out and silenced the music box.
"I really thought he cared," she mumbled into her arms. "All those times he helped me, and it was just to get at the crystals."
Serena's lip trembled a little and she buried her face deeper in her hands. Between her fingers she could see Darien's rose, warm and velvety in the pool of light from her desk lamp. She sighed, touching the edge of one petal with her fingertip.
"He's so cold ... like Darien ..."
Serena's head lifted swiftly at a sudden thought, then she gave a nervous little giggle. "As if!"
"Daydreaming again?" Luna's disapproving voice wafted through her consciousness. "Still mooning over Tuxedo Mask?"
And Serena sat up with a jerk, sweeping the rose into her lap, her face turning pink.
"I was ... studying ..."
"Oh, really?" Luna gave her a flat stare. "Then let's see what you've done so far."
"No!" Serena squeaked. "It's ... ah ... really complicated, and I wouldn't want you to see it until ... until I've tidied it up a bit. And divided things. And ruled up the margins ..."
"You haven't done a thing, have you?"
Serena hung her head.
"All this time you've been sitting here," Luna sighed, "and I suppose you haven't even finished the first question."
"I was going to," Serena said plaintively. "It's just not that easy."
"How would you know if you don't even try?" Luna asked in exasperation. "Honestly, Serena. I despair of you sometimes."
"I've had other things to think about."
"Like Tuxedo Mask? Serena, you really shouldn't be focusing so much time and attention on him. We still don't know anything concrete about him."
"I thought you wanted me to take things more seriously."
"Important things!" Luna lashed her tail. "Things like your mission to fight the Negaverse, and your schoolwork. Not some silly crush."
"But this is important," Serena pouted, and sniffed back the sudden tears that threatened to spill over. "Not that it matters, anyway. He just wants the crystals, and he's only been protecting me because he thinks that I can help him get them."
Luna's tail stopped lashing, and the cat jumped up onto the desk, nudging Serena's arm with her nose.
"Oh, Serena …"
Serena sighed heavily. "Is love always this complicated?"
"Sometimes it's worse," Luna said gently.
" 'Cause I don't know why Lita keeps falling in love all the time, if it's like this. At least when I liked Andrew, I knew he probably wasn't going to turn out to be a Negaverse demon, and, okay, so I was just a kid to him, but he really did like me." In her lap, the petals of the rose were soft against her fingers. "It's all too confusing."
As she threw herself into bed, she felt Luna curl up, warm and comforting, beside her. Serena stared up into the darkness, and finally drifted into restless dreams of masks and roses and a fairytale prince who wouldn't rescue the princess because she had a hairstyle like a doughnut.
Just as the princess was trying to strangle the prince with her own hair, Serena felt a cold damp nose in her ear and shot upright with a small scream. Luna tumbled backwards off the bed as Serena blinked in the morning light filtering through the curtains.
"It can't be morning already," she complained. Luna shook her fur, and glared up at the young girl.
"I've been trying to wake you up for fifteen minutes now, and if you don't hurry, you're going to be late."
Serena rubbed her eyes and groaned. She opened them slowly, wincing, and closed them again, falling back into the pillows as she caught sight of Darien's rose on her desk.
"I'm not feeling well," she mumbled into the pillows as Luna nudged her again. "I think I've got a fever, and my throat's sore. I can't go to school today."
In spite of it all, she found herself at school, dragging her feet through what must have been the longest day she'd ever suffered. Even the thought of icecream and the new Sailor V game didn't help – the arcade meant Darien, and a Darien encounter was the last thing she needed after the strange things that had happened last time.
On the way home from school, Serena stopped outside the arcade, biting her lip. She should go in. She always went in after school, and she took a slow, reluctant step towards the door, staring blankly through the glass window as people pushed past her. Leaning closer, she pressed her nose against the glass and gave a faint sigh that might almost have been relief when she saw only Andrew at the counter. Idly, she traced the shape of a rose on the glass with one finger as she watched Andrew grin cheerfully and push a handful of change across the counter at someone.
"Now, there's a guy who knows how to make a girl feel special," she muttered. Someone behind her gave a heavy sigh, and she turned quickly to stare in surprise at her friend standing behind her.
"Lita?" Serena asked. The tall girl pouted miserably as she looked past Serena through the arcade window.
Lita sighed again. "Except Andrew has a girlfriend," she said dolefully.
"Hunh?"
"Andrew has a girlfriend."
"What?" Serena's voice rose in a faint wail. "How come he never told us?"
Lita shrugged. "What do you care, anyway? I thought you liked Tuxedo Mask."
"I ... do ..." But he doesn't like me. And Serena shook herself sharply. "But I liked Andrew first, and he's such a honey. I can't believe he never told me he had a girlfriend."
She felt a hot wash of embarrassment flood through her, and a tiny hint of hurt and anger. Serena winced. Had they both been laughing at her all this time? And Darien had let her make an idiot of herself. He must have been laughing so hard over stupid little meatball-head and her hopeless crush.
"... leaving," Lita was saying.
"Hunh?"
"Haven't you been listening to a word I was saying? It's not hopeless yet. I've still got a chance. Andrew's girlfriend's going to Africa, see? And he's pretty cut up about it. So they might break up, and then I'll be there to console him and steal his heart," Lita explained triumphantly.
"And since when did you care whether Andrew has a girlfriend or not? I thought you were still hung up on that guy … what's his name, Joe?"
"Oh, that was last week," Lita said, waving one hand dismissively. "Anyway, Andrew's much more gorgeous, and he's so sweet … he gave me a free game token, and was really nice about that chair that I broke …"
Serena's blue eyes narrowed, decision made. No more tall, dark and cold-hearted jerks for her.
"I liked him first" she challenged.
"Oh, yeah?" Lita looked down at her with folded arms. "Well, I like him best."
"Says who?" Serena retorted. "Anyway, Andrew's known me way longer than you, and he does too like me."
"Well, we'll just see." Lita grinned. "And we won't give up until one of us has won his heart."
"Yes!"