A/N: As promised, here are the next three chapters. I know you all want your Patch fix but shit is going DOWN. Could you concentrate on the story please? LOL
It's been very difficult to write in third person but I hope you enjoy getting a glimpse into the minds of the other characters.
Thank you very much to: Cherry-Chick14; candywasted; VarArSkarsgard; Sorry I Just Did; Annie Wilde; ParanormalLove; and AliKool2. Thank you for your reviews and messages supporting this story.
Off topic - Before Hush, Hush there was Twilight (and I've always been a vampire-chick before I met Patch). Who's excited for Breaking Dawn Part 1? I had a Twiathlon at home this weekend so I am uber-excited for the wedding. Dum-dum-da-dum... Who's with me? :D
CHAPTER 54:
"Girl we've got work to do.
Pass me the paint and glue.
Perfect isn't easy but it's me.
When one knows the world is watching,
one does what one must.
A few minor adjustments, darling,
not for my vanity, but for humanity.
...
Pretty is nice, but still,
It's just pretty.
Perfect my dear, is me."
Bette Midler (Perfect Isn't Easy)
Meanwhile, further inland at the mall, Marcie was occupying a seat at the salon under a mountain of curlers.
With carefully trained hands, the curlers were removed effortlessly and her strawberry blonde locks fell into loose curls past her shoulder blades. Some finger-combing here and hairspray there gave it a stylish finish.
"I love it!" she said, smiling joyously, as she turned her head left then right, watching her reflection in awe. "Déonne, you're amazing. This is why I come to you... because only you can keep me looking this fabulous."
Déonne, in his fashionably-torn white jeans, tight yellow top and white loafers, put his hands together and bowed slightly forward to say thanks for the compliment.
"Honey, you look so fine, even I'd go for you!" he said, humorously.
She laughed, thinking she could turn any man straight, then took another look in the mirror. "How long will it hold? All night?"
"Girlfriend, you can swing from the chandeliers and do a triple summersault into a swimming pool and it ain't going to change a damn thing! Those curls are locked!" he said, emphatically.
There was no way her hair was getting that much action unless her boyfriend Patch was finally going to have sex with her tonight – a thought which excited her all over because she'd been thinking about it since he first showed up at school – but she liked the exaggerated guarantee anyway.
"That's what I like to hear," she responded and gave him a satisfied smile.
She picked up her handbag and gave herself one last look in the mirror thinking Patch was one lucky S.O.B. to have her for a girlfriend.
Déonne strutted up to the counter, Marcie following with her handbag hooked in the curve of her elbow as she opened her large, leather purse. She handed one of the many plastic cards inside to her favourite hairstylist, who took it from her with pleasure and swiped it through the card machine.
In exchange for her card, she gave him a twenty-dollar bill as she normally did.
"And here's your tip," she winked.
"Thank you, my dear," he smiled.
"See you, but not soon... hopefully," she said as she took a step back to prepare for her exit.
"Take care, girlfriend. And give that hunk of yours a tush-squeeze from me."
"I will!" she laughed, waving as she left the shop to meet her boyfriend who had just arrived outside a few minutes before.
"You done?" he asked.
"Yep. Do you like it?" she asked, excited.
"Yeah," he simply replied.
She was disappointed he wasn't a little more enthusiastic but she wasn't going to make a scene of it in public. However, she would do other things in public, like accept requests to squeeze his firm ass on behalf of other people. It was a public service.
Just as he turned his back on the salon windows, she opened her hand, spread her fingers widely, and placed it on his bottom for a generous squeeze. She quickly looked over her shoulder to Déonne and gave him a wink before looking back at her boyfriend, who looked surprised by anyone's guess, and kissed him.
No, he was not surprised. He had simply taken note of her silent conversation with her stylist. He didn't know he had been touched because he couldn't feel it.
Before he fell, he never knew the human touch. Before he found a nephil whose body he could possess and experience the human world with, he didn't care for the human touch. But after he'd spent two weeks experiencing everything as a human - every touch, every smell, every taste, every emotion – it became something he couldn't live without. It was an overwhelming experience, like 14 days of being on a constant high. And it was addictive, being human.
No, he couldn't feel a thing. But with Nora, it was different.
He had learnt, from years of observation, what was pleasing to the human eye and Nora was very pleasing to his. When he was with her, in his unfeeling earthly-angel form, he imagined what her touch would feel like by remembering all the weeks he'd spent in his nephil's body.
However, without any physical feeling, he was still attracted to Nora in an esoteric way. When he was with her, he felt what could only be described as a warm vibration deep within him, like a beating drum. He didn't understand it and he couldn't explain it because it had never happened before. But when she was away from him, he missed it.
