Oh man. I feel a little sad... This, my dearest readers, is the last full POV, normal chapter of 'Far From Perfection' until the sequel.
Apologies in advance if anything in the formatting or editing of this chapter is off. Having hassles with my computer so am forced to do everything on my iPad which I'm still getting used to after getting it a week ago!
Now, the lovely and deserving reviewers that are appliable for receiving a POV after this chapter are...
- Marril96
- H2O forever
- H2Ozikkiaddict
- ObsessedwReading
- zikki 3
- blitzholly
- WALIXELA
Once you have R&R'ed this chapter, I will send you a message asking who's POV you want. You will either receive it very shortly, or after the next chapter (if the POV you want is not featured until the second half of the final and last chapter). I advise that you choose a guy, so say if you LOVE Clewis, pick Lewis as it'll make sense to read his POV as Cleo follows on from him. The same applies with Bella and Rikki. You can ask for whoever you want, but it would make much more sense to choose and read Will or Zane first then.
I may not reply immediately as I will be out all day seeing a few different lots of friends tomorrow.
PS. My little goal is to get to 600 reviews by the end of this story. Think we can do it guys?!
Chapter 37 – Displacement
Zane's POV
The last week or so, the house and everybody within it had been in a complete shambles.
Since Allie's kidnapping when the Daniel situation had well and truly hit its traumatic climax, the mother-daughter duo had temporarily moved into the house too, until Bella found a safer place for them to start a fresh, which she guaranteed me she would do as soon as she could.
In less than six months, our mansion had digressed from being a bachelor pad for just myself and Will where we lazed around, lacking domestic cleanliness to now where we had become an outnumbered minority against the four other girls we were sharing our home with.
Even from what our house and household was a week ago compared to the present seemed like a whole other world...
Every single powerpoint in the house has been either in use, or fought over to be able to charge or power electronic items.
Food has been coming close to non-existent, despite how much had been bought by whoever did the daily shopping.
Silence was another pleasure which had faded away from the now bountiful creation of noises between people talking, yelling, arguing; televisions, phones or music playing, a crying baby and normal day-to-day actions that produced sounds.
Not to mention the fact that trips to the bathroom had become so brief and rare between the three girls who never-failed to use and occupy it to maintain hair, teeth, makeup, you name it as if it were an organized relay, holding guard of the fort until their position could be filled by one of the other two girls.
... It really was like a whole other world.
One, when Rikki had moved in had been an adaption. Two, when Tam tagged along it had been a stretch on the living situation. Now with three and four since Bella and Allie had moved in had become insane.
Any other twenty-two-year-old would believe living with threewomen would be a dream of the greatest fantasy. It probably is if the girls were three silent, Victoria's Secret-clad drama-free, emotion-less robots.
Not so much when one is underage, one is a parent with your best mate and the last one is your ex-girlfriend. Each and every one of those girls had their own baggage and current dramas plaguing their lives, turning the house upside down.
When Saturday morning came around, everyone was in a relaxed and chilled out mood.
Bella sat on the couch dozing in and out of sleep as she supervised Allie eating her breakfast in front of the television, watching Tangled. The Disney flick was a favourite movie of the one-year-olds which every member of the household had become well acquainted with, being able to recite the narration word for word by now.
On the single armchair, Will sat half-attentively watching Allie and the movie as his attention was shared between the girl, the television screen and the mobile phone in his palms.
Tam occupied the last lounge with Bella and Will's daughter, feeding her as they watched the movie together. The two youngest girls had taken a particular liking to one another since Allie and her mother had moved in.
Even from the kitchen, I resisted the urge to hum along to the melody, solely due to the familiarity of the repeated song as 'Mother Knows Best' echoed through the surrounding rooms of the house.
Although I never did, the fact that I had even considered humming it is a pretty good indication of just how warped my house had become...
In the space of one week, each and every one of the existing member's had been transported to an alternative universe just from having a kid in our house.
For Will and I, our general cleanliness, language and habits had been transformed – as Rikki had been nagging for us to do ever since she had moved in. Rikki's tendency to shout or yell, instead of calmly discussing matters had been altered completely to avoid frightening Allie, while Tam had just become this nanny-robot, two steps behind Bella 24/7, eager to do absolutely anything that was vaguely related to Allie.
The best behavioural psychologists would never be able to control or alter four people's lives as greatly as the oblivious one-year-old had!
"If I have to see Rapunzel once more, I swear I'll chop her hair off before anyone else in the movie has the chance to" Rikki grumbled sarcastically as she walked into the kitchen. I failed to distinguish whether she was sharing the comment with me in particular or just venting aloud to whoever heard.
I sniggered at Rikki's remark, knowing exactly how she felt as I finished wiping the last newly clean dish from the dirty dishes that had been allocated as my duty to cleanse.
"Hey, where's the tea towel?" Rikki added while looking around the room, pausing as our eyes met to display her confusion, and this time I knew she is talking to me.
I could feel the synthetic rectangle of material that Rikki was looking for in my hand which I hadn't had a chance to put down since drying the last glass of the dish, but I failed to put it down just yet, maintaining its hidden shelter in my hand.
"I think it's hanging out with a pretty amazing guy. Don't know who though."
"Well it can't be you then" Rikki retorted sharply.
I shrugged. "Apparently that wasn't a nice comment for such an awesome person who doesn't deserve such nastiness. I don't think that that tea towel will want to be found anytime soon now..."
She examined my hands closely, only needing a moment to determine that the badly-hidden tea towel was in my hands, unsurprisingly.
"Zane..." She whined with a roll of her ice blue eyes. "Stop being annoying. Just give the damn tea towel to me."
I smirked at her clear frustration, as always, being motivated and feeling especially empowered by knowing that I had hit Rikki's annoyance in particular. What can I say, I have always been a bit of a sadist and some zebras can never change their stripes. There are just some people that satisfy quirks like that more than others.
Failing to reply to Rikki further than giving her the expression of a smirk obviously moved her to take action. In the same seconds as Rikki reached for and managed to grab a hold of the tea towel, just between a few of her fingers, marked the exact same second that I took further action to hide the soft rectangle. With a flick of my wrist and swing of my arm, I moved it behind my back, attempting to keep it away from and avoiding her grasp, but in that second it happened to be too late.
The repercussion of our unintentionally coordinated actions surprisingly simply resulted in my force pulling Rikki a step closer to myself, closing the gap between the two of us.
As we fully realized the result of our actions, neither of us made any effort to correct the mistake, neither of us succumbing or 'throwing in the towel' for the sake of personal space.
Both Rikki and I are far too proud, and unintended closeness just happened to be a repercussion of that.
Standing in front of one another with mere centimetres between our chests apparently seemed to be no problem, but I knew it could have easily been awkward or uncomfortable. Instead, both of us are far more intent on piercing into and reading one another's eyes, reading what the other was thinking, deciding what our next moves would be as we maintained our own poker faces in yet another game between us.
Only my lips gave me away, spreading into a smirk of revelation regarding my thoughts as it dropped my game and charade I had tried to maintain.
"I know that smirk. You so planned that move, Zane! You can't teach an old dog new tricks..." she debated, attempting to pull off a pout of annoyance that failed in its translation, visibly using a pout to badly cover up her own amused smirk.
The fact that she is trying so hard to conceal her enjoyment of the move could only mean that she is not complaining, and that she even welcomed the accident. Right?
"Oh come one. Don't flatter yourself, Chadwick! And I might be fast and sharp, but I'm not quite at ninja-level yet..."
Rikki took another step closer towards me, and I had no idea that getting even closer to each other was even possible with the gap that is now absolutely minimal between our bodies. But my thinking wasn't all that is overridden by Rikki's unexpected actions.
While the motion felt slow, happening in a slow-motion to allow total awareness, in a matter of moments her hand had flicked and brushed past my stomach, curve-less hip and my back as she quickly snatched the tea towel from behind my back, easily stealing my grasp of the material triggered helplessly by the sensations sent as her hand had touched parts on one side of my body, being too preoccupied and distracted to do anything other than let go.
"I didn't have to flatter myself" Rikki retorted, referring back to my last comment that I had long forgotten. "You just did it for me."
Immediately Rikki stepped back, moving away from myself, exiting the room momentarily and entering again within seconds, throwing the tea towel on the bench, managing to utterly confuse me within less than a minute.
"Thanks for the tea towel. Gotta go, see ya."
Confidently waltzing out through the archway of the kitchen, I heard the blonde's voice echo back through to where I hadn't moved a muscle since she left while she said similar goodbyes to her sister and our friends who were all occupying the lounge room.
Quickly, I hurried out, passing the others and towards the house's front door for a reason that even I didn't understand.
"Where are you going?"
"Just out, Dad... I would let you walk me out to the car if you're so concerned about me, but I don't think it would be appropriate without a chaperone. Can never be too cautious, hey?!"
I rolled my eyes. Rikki is never straightforward and I am the idiot for expecting and even considering that she might have been. There is no such thing as simply answering a question.
"Okay. Are you catching up with someone?" I gently questioned, trying to prod her further, but expecting the unfruitful answer more so this time.
"Yeah" she nodded enthusiastically, almost startling me from exceedingly surpassing my expectations. "I heard Barney; the big purple dinosaur is in town, so I thought that we could catch up."
Bam. There is the variation of the answer that I had been expecting all along and while I thought that she had proved me wrong, she had in actual fact just proceeded to prove just how right I am.
"Nice. Say hi to good ole Barnes' for me, won't you?" I replied, contributing to her sarcasm that she had started.
"If you're lucky, I might. Bye" Rikki stated before quickly leaving the hallway through means of the front door that led to the multiple current occupant's of the house's cars, including Rikki's, exiting with an impressive slam.
Re-entering through the archway that I had passed through minutes ago which lead me back into the room that Will, Bella, Tam and Allie were sitting in, I decided that I would try to make myself useful and stay busy to avoid overanalysing my last two confusing discussions with Rikki that would only cloud my blurred thoughts, feelings and perceptions even more – if that is even possible.
"Anyone want a drink?"
Bella, who I had assumed was still dozing on the lounge, surprised me as the first to respond immediately after I posed the question with an enthusiastic response that is complete with a yawn for an added effect: "Coffee, please."
"Can I have a cold Milo? Thanks Zane" is the second reply I received from the younger sister of the woman who I have been trying to push from my mind.
Lastly my offer received a declination from Will, before I re-entered the kitchen, immediately seeing 'the' tea towel on the bench. I quickly distracted myself, turning the kettle on and grabbing the instant coffee jar, tin of Milo and went grab the milk from the fridge.
The second that I opened the fridge door to grab the not-present milk carton it became extremely noticeable that there was a risk that we had ran out of milk; especially due to the recent addition of extra mouths in the house.
I extended my search through the fridge, foraging passed various jars, tins, sachets, bottles, cans that are all of the same mediocre significance compared to what I am really looking for, albeit, unsuccessfully.
I snatched my car keys from a bundle that is attached to about three or four others, leaving the kitchen again to inform the other's that I was going out to collect some milk, which was an essential in our house that if it were not needed for the hot drinks, would undoubtedly be needed sometime soon within in the next few hours...
While I could have taken the faster option to just visit the Deli down the road from the house, I decided to take the marginally longer route of going to the supermarket instead of having to fork out a bank loan to buy a stupid carton of milk from the smaller, closer and far more expensive destination.
Driving to the supermarket I had been completely pleased and unfazed by my 'budgeting' decision when I know that I have always been a bit more of a frivolous spender... Well, I was pleased with my decision until I passed by the dozen local shops that led up to the closest Coles supermarket.
While the bundle of smaller shops are mostly old news that I have passed by many times since living in the current share-house and area of the Gold Coast, there happened to be one that caught my eye and attention as I drove through the newly-reduced to 40 speed limit zone.
Infusion, the new Tapas place that had opened in between two other established businesses caught my eye since it had been a topic of discussion with the other's a few nights ago talking about if it is open to the public yet and whether it is even any good.
... That discussion made so much more sense as I drove passed the quaint, yet modern, establishment.
Under one of the large, permanent and logoed umbrellas sheltering a small table beneath it was none other than Rikki sitting in the outdoor Al Fresco dining seating, in full view of and overlooking the main road I was currently driving on.
... Rikki and an unknown guy I had never seen before in my life.
From my brief glance at the guy after recognizing he is Rikki's company, I noted that he sported a medium-dark brown tan which is either natural, melanoma-inducing or as fake as Brynne Edelsten's. The man is evidently toned, muscular and had every bit the sort of body that would be paraded around shirtless, which seemed to be a prerequisite for girls. Even his biceps were of a size that caused me to wonder whether he would even be able to make it through doorways with ease...
Rikki is sitting there eating with a pinup guy!
If I knew he cooks, has a love of small animals and visits his grandma regularly I have no doubt that I will be seeing his face on the news in conjunction to winning the 'Cleo Magazine: Bachelor of the Year Award'.
As if I wasn't insecure enough as it is over my ex-girlfriend dining with the Gold Coast's latest 'hunk-o-spunk' as my eyes rejoined the road to focus on what lay further ahead, I conveniently remembered where and what they had been eating and sharing.
...Tapas. Stupid, little Spanish appetizers, which had the intention of intimate dining and sharing, especially with people you are either close to or to very obviously send the message that you're wanting to get to know them better...
At this stage, I feel as though I could write an entire novel over the stupidity and downfalls of tapas food.
While I continued driving to the supermarket further along, I suddenly became so interested in the idea of burning down the newest Tapas joint along the boulevard, so my milk-agenda became a welcome distraction that kept me on the right side of the law.
"Hello?" I bellowed through the house that I realized is surprisingly desolate given the thriving state of energy that I had left it in earlier that day. "Is anyone home?"
I trailed through to the kitchen to put the milk -that seemed to be unneeded after all- into the fridge while I mentally began to compose an exciting list of all the things I could do and enjoy while the house is in its rare silent state, believing that I was home alone until Will entered into the kitchen.
"Hey... Sorry. I was in my room. It's just you and me now though. I think Bella and Tam took Allie to the playground or for a walk or something."
I tried not to reveal too much of my let down at losing the rare opportunity to be home alone to avoid offending my closest mate.
"Okay cool... But just you and me, hey?! It's like the old gang – it's just like the old days with the two bachelor boys again... Well sort of, even though you're not that much of a bachelor anymore."
"I wish I am though. You have no idea how many times I have tried to dump Amy but she's either managed to somehow wriggle out of it or twist my words. It's insane. It's like she has a gift for it... And besides, am I right in saying that you wouldn't be a bachelor anymore if you had a choice?"
I shrugged at Will's question, playing it coy and not even remotely admitting that my answer really is a big, fat yes if I am completely honest with myself, and Will.
"By the way, I saw Rikki at that new tapas place down the road. She was with some guy."
Will's face erupted into an intense smirk while I stood there in genuine fear of what would be coming next...
"How is that a 'by the way'? It's a totally different subject except for the fact that it relates to you wanting to change your bachelor status! You still have the hots for Rikki, don't you?!"
I didn't give in immediately knowing that it would be far too yielding, easy and un-Zane of me, but I knew Will well and he knew me on an equally knowledgeable basis... The truth is going to come out eventually, even in spite of all my stubbornness.
"No. I just care about her. You should too. Neither of us knows the guy that she is with and much less the sort of person he is! For all that we know he could be another Daniel... Rikki could be in as much danger as we've only just gotten Bella out of! He could be a rapist, a serial killer going after women dining alone in new establishments; he could be a convicted murderer... " I listed off, exaggerating the possibilities in an attempt to subtly persuade and convince Will otherwise and to put him of the initial scent that he had caught onto.
"Well to me, it sounds like a date with a perfectly normal guy. That's your problem, isn't it? You're all caught up on the idea of Rikki on a date, sharing tapas with someone who could be competition for you. Am I right?"
I rolled my eyes, backing away from Will as I walk out of the room to take solace in my un-interrogational bedroom.
As I left the room, I could still hear Will's teases all the way up the stairs as he mocked me, telling me to do something about it when I know that he has all the ammunition and blackmailing power against me that he will need for a year...
By the next time I came downstairs, many rounds of 'musical rooms' had occurred, with people coming home, moving from one room to the next, noisily might I add, since I had heard the whole lot from my own bedroom.
Down the hallway from my room I had heard Will looking after Allie by the sounds of it, taking the opportunity to bathe her and get her ready for bed, seizing the rare time she was away from Tam who was working on her homework in the dining room as Bella cooked the group meal in the kitchen.
Currently, Rikki was the only occupant whose whereabouts I am not completely sure of, before eventually narrowing it down to her being in her bedroom through the process of elimination.
What I saw at the cafe earlier that day and my partial conversation with Will had been playing on my mind over the last few hours as what had been brewing for a long time was now showing signs of beginning to boil over as I began to lose control on what feelings and thoughts I had managed and tried to hide over the last few months.
All of those factors are what led me to her room, what led to me knocking on her half-opened bedroom door and exposing her position on her desk where she was clicking away madly as she would do when she is completely focused on doing her work from home.
However as she replied to my knock, without even looking to see who is standing at her door, informing me to "come in" is when what had felt so right for so many months, what I had concealed for all that time, began to feel so wrong.
The best that I could compare the feeling to is the little study I did for my end of year exams in year 12, the study that I had felt so sure of and so effortlessly worked on throughout the year. Except for the minute that I walked into the classroom to sit my exams was when my yearlong confidence at my subjects felt so wrong, being completely washed away as I answered the thick paged, large font papers for three hours.
That is what I felt... I felt nervous.
While it is a common feeling for most, it is an extreme rarity for me.
"Hey..." I greeted hesitantly as I walked into her room as equally unconfident as my speech. "I saw you out for lunch today..."
"Spying on me, hey?"
I shook my head as my reply to her smirk-infested and joking question.
"You wish... Nah, I was just on a milk-run. I noticed you and a guy sitting out the front of that new Tapas cafe."
"That would've been Hamish... Yeah, we were on a date."
I nodded, trying to apply all of my limited acting skills into delivering my reply convincingly and as though the last six words she said had not affected me whatsoever.
"That's what Will thought."
"You told Will? Will thought I was on a date? Why did you say something to him about it?"
I shrugged, taking a moment to reply and requiring time to convince myself of an answer that did not make me sound like I am an overprotective, creepy housemate and ex-boyfriend.
"I'd never seen him before. I just thought that I would mention something to Will in case he knew more. I care about you, if there was something going on or if there was any chance that you were with someone even potentially dangerous, I would want to know about it. Especially after everything that's happened with Bella lately I figure that it's better to be safe than sorry."
She screwed up her face and I instantaneously knew I needed to brush up on my acting skills.
"Really? That's it? You've been strange all day. The kitchen fiasco... all the questions before I left... talking to Will about seeing me... Do you want me to go on or do you want me to save your never-ending pride?"
I rolled my eyes. While I had entered that room nervously, which had surprised myself, it's the words that came next that surprised me even more than that.
"What do you want me to say. That yes, I was paranoid that you were on a date with a bad guy so I wanted reassurance? That this morning in the kitchen felt like old times when things were really good with us? That I still have ridiculously strong feelings for you? You can pick which part of those answers you want to hear."
And just like that, it's all out in the open. All of my hard efforts to conceal any and all feelings over the past in the difficult situation of the enclosed space of sharing a house with Rikki was now worthless.
My fleeting moment of lacking care of what I said couldn't be taken back and now I was going to have to live with the repercussions.
It all came down to my split second decision to take and deal with whatever would come from my revelation as Rikki's face dropped, surprising her with more shock than I realized I would, as I all the while waited on receiving a real reaction.
So another chapter bites the dust! We're nearing the end of the H2O clans first 'far from perfect' journey, but I can't wait to lead you onto their next one!
Thoughts on the chapter and seeing the world through Zane's eyes? What's Rikki gonna say to that no-detail-spared confession?!
Also, a reminder that if your username wasn't on the list in the beginning of this chapter and you wanted it to be, IT'S NOT TOO LATE! Only chapter 34 to this one have to be reviewer and then you're in! Or, if you've reviewed some but not every chapter since then, ask and i will let you know which still needed a review. Win-win!
Next chapter: The finale part one! Cleo and Lewis make a big step forward to the future and Daniel receives a very unexpected visitor.
Love ya's!