Brandon. Her finger hovered uncertainly over his name. It should've been easy; he was a nice enough guy and they had at least one common interest, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She sighed as snippets of various conversations she'd engaged in throughout the day flashed through her mind, including said boy's "Come see a film with me, maybe?" after she'd helped him out with his sparring in the back garden and her best friend's frank but brutal "I wouldn't" after she'd asked him to give him one good reason why he'd take her to the pictures. The two boys' attitudes towards her couldn't have been more different.
Tears threatened to well up in her eyes. He wouldn't take her to the pictures because he didn't have money? That was a bulls*** excuse; he'd have thirty quid in a matter of days. No, the truth was that he just didn't want to. She chuckled at her own naivety, remembering how strangely he'd behaved during and after their last cinema trip. At the time, she'd brushed it off as a one-time discrepancy, what they called an outlier in a set of experiment results, believing that he couldn't have possibly not liked her back but the crux of the matter was all too clear to her now: he'd never seen her as anything other than a friend who happened to be a girl, let alone girlfriend material. All the indications of his feeling more than just friendship for her, the too-long gazes and the surreptitious glances, had all been in her head, part of a wondrous dream she'd drifted off into one night and had never truly woken up from.
Until now.
Maybe this was how it was meant to be: her with Brandon and him with some version of Chanelle or Sophie. Perhaps the pair of them had always been destined to be best friends, nothing more, nothing less, and when he'd almost brutally shot her down not twenty minutes ago, he'd saved her the trouble of explicitly stating her unrequited feelings and inevitably causing the destruction of their six-year-old friendship.
She smiled sadly, swallowing the lump in her throat. No matter how much of an idiot he was at times, he'd always been a good friend to her, warning her off the incorrect path when she either couldn't or wouldn't see that she was wrong, and she did the same for him, his recent ill-fated rebellion against Mike and May-Li coming to mind. It was just what they did for each other; keeping one another right. She hadn't even considered listening to him back when he'd warned her to leave Ella alone, only realising how utterly foolish she'd been, and how right he'd been, until after she'd completely albeit unwittingly humiliated the girl. Perhaps, by turning her down, he'd once again just been trying to avert another disaster of her own making? Being heartbroken and all, she couldn't quite see the bigger picture in the way he no doubt could, but maybe after a few days or weeks, she'd be able to see that he'd rejected her for the good of their friendship. All she had to do now was get over him and what better way to do that than to see someone else?
Before she could second guess herself, she finally pressed down on Brandon's contact number. The dulcet dialling tone rung loud in the aptly named quiet room as its sole occupant observed her unmanicured nails, forcing down the nagging sense of guilt at potentially using the boy who fancied her. No. She wasn't using him. She'd never do that to someone; she knew first hand how awful it felt. She was merely going to go out with him to get to know him better, to see if she liked him well enough to take things further (although she didn't really know what further was). Wasn't that the point of dating? And, who knew, maybe she'd come to like him as much as he liked her and even as much as she liked Tyler? It was a waiting game... one that she had no choice but to play.
.:. QK .:.
That evening, Jody didn't get back home until half eight. Wanting to avoid Candi-Rose who'd helped her get ready for the date as if she were minutes away from walking down the aisle, she gently opened the front door and tiptoed to the stairs while scanning the lobby for stalkers. There was no one in the office and the doors to the lounge were closed, though she could hear the low but distinct humming of the telly coming from inside the lounge. Satisfied that no one (Ryan, really) was watching her, she jogged up the stairs and went straight to her bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she took her jacket off and let it drop to the floor before collapsing on her bed. With any luck, Candi-Rose wouldn't pester her with questions regarding the date until tomorrow.
Contrary to her expectations, the date had been pretty easy to handle. Maybe it was because there hadn't been much opportunity to talk, what with it being entirely inside a cinema screening room, but it'd been bearable and Brandon hadn't done anything weird like attempting to kiss her. In fact, he hadn't even tried to hold her hand which she appreciated much more than he could possibly know. She wasn't ready for any sort of touchy-feely interactions so soon after the incredibly physical (?), and, in hindsight, embarrassing, phase of her friendship with Tyler, and she didn't think she would be anytime soon, whether with Brandon or another boy. As for Brandon himself, no matter how sweet and cute he was, he didn't really feel like anything other than a friend at the moment—no butterflies, no blood rushing to her face, no heart beating fast—so she wasn't sure whether she was going to go out with him again. If he asked her out again, that was.
She sighed, getting up to change into her nightclothes. A few minutes later, she padded out of her room, walking up the hallway to the bathroom and nearly colliding into Ryan. He didn't even react to their near-miss, looking straight through her like he was a blind man.
"Oi, watch where you're going!" she exclaimed, glancing sideways at the bathroom door to see that it was engaged.
"Huh?" he let out dumbly before visibly snapping out of his daze. He narrowed his eyes at her, looking her up and down in a condescending manner. "You borrow those from Candi?" She cleared her throat. She liked to think that her jammies were peach, not pink.
"No," she replied amusedly, noticing that there was something off about him. Well, even more so than usual. "What's got your knickers in a twist? You not happy even after becoming a hero and going on TV?"
She still couldn't believe he'd tackled a burglar just this morning. It wasn't like him at all. Before Brandon had shown up with a new gumshield for her, she'd been berating herself for not taking the burglar out herself and claiming the cash reward. She didn't care about it so much anymore but had wished that someone other than him had stopped the thief when she'd heard about how he'd shot Candi-Rose and Chloe down when they'd asked if they could accompany him to his interview. His 'friendship' with Candi-Rose was shaky at best but she was the one who'd made him an internet sensation and Chloe was his sister... How could he snub them like that?
"Of course I'm happy," he responded flatly, not appearing to be happy at all. Then again, that was just what he usually looked like. "Not all of us make it on TV." He needed knocking down a peg or two. She could literally feel the arrogance radiating off him.
"You're not the only one. You weren't the first neither," she stated pointedly, smirking at him. "Ella made it on the internet and the telly way before you. Months, even."
"Hmm..." he hummed, stroking his chin in mock thought. "She did make the news"—he nodded—"but not as a hero."
She scoffed. She didn't have a response to that. Crossing her arms, she leant against the wall behind her. Ryan Reeves was truly despicable. At one time, she'd thought he had the potential to change because Chloe seemed to think that he was worth something but given how he'd treated those closest to him today, she wasn't so sure anymore.
"You're never going to change, are you?" she questioned coldly. "You're just like my brother. He's never going to change either. That's why he's in prison, again." She shook her head in chagrin. In his last letter, Kingsley had yet again asked for more money. "Be careful, Ryan. My brother reached the point of no return when he was your age too. It's when he joined a gang and started treating me like shit."
"I'm nothing like your brother!" he snapped, his face going red. "I'd never hurt Chloe!"
"Wouldn't you?" she countered, frowning. "You already did today; Candi-Rose told me all about the interview..." He looked to the ceiling, seemingly recalling what he'd done. "Not to mention the other things you've done."
All of a sudden, his face drained of colour. Her eyes widened in surprise. He'd always been a pale-skinned boy but never this pale. "Wh—What is it that I've done?" Was he seriously playing the innocent here? He knew that she knew about all of his wrongdoings during his time at Ashdene Ridge, beginning with him convincing Tyler to help him steal the office computer and letting him take all of the blame.
"Oh, give it up," she said with a sigh. "I know."
He appeared to be worried. "You... know?"
"You know, the blackmail," she elaborated, giving him a pointed look. He straightened his back.
"Why bother with anonymous messages when you're going to threaten me in person?" he sneered, staring down at her. She stood up as tall as she could—he was pretty tall but not as tall as Tyler—and peered up at him in bewilderment. What messages? "For your own good, I suggest you keep your mouth shut. I've got so much dirt on you that you won't be able to show your face to that new boyfriend of yours if you slip up." Boyfriend? She'd never thought she'd have one of those. "Get rid of that precious blackmail photo as well while you're at it."
Far from being intimidated, she was actually amused. He sounded so delusional that she had to wonder if he was actually sleepwalking—and sleeptalking. "What are you on about?" she asked, chuckling. "Why would I have a photo of you blackmailing Candi-Rose?"
His eyebrows knotted together in perplexity. "Candi-Rose?" He looked off to the side for a moment before letting out a disappointed sigh. "Candi-Rose," he breathed, wiping his face with one hand.
"You were saying?" she prompted, wondering what had been going through his mind when he'd threatened to ruin her in front of Brandon. Whatever it was, it appeared to have nothing to do with the pregnancy test debacle. Did that mean he was blackmailing yet another person? Who? Meeting her gaze again, he opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the sound of the door being unlocked.
"Ooh, what's going on here?" May-Li inquired cheerfully, and Jody stepped back in surprise. She'd thought May-Li had left ages ago since the night care worker was already here but here she was, coming out of the bathroom, again. Over the last month, she'd been going to the bathroom an awful lot. She was too young for bladder issues, wasn't she?
"Err, nothing," Ryan replied just as joyfully. Jody raised an eyebrow at his one hundred and eighty degrees turn. "I was just asking Jody how her date went." He gave her one last look she couldn't quite decipher before quietly backing away in the direction of his room. Apparently, he didn't need the toilet anymore. Weird.
"Oh, how did it go?" May-Li implored, turning to her, resembling an excited mum. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, it was alright," she answered, nodding awkwardly. Her own mum should've been here for her at this moment, grilling her about her first date, but deep down, she knew that May-Li was way better than Denise ever would've been. "It was a good film."
As they continued to chat outside the bathroom, of all places, Jody felt strangely invigorated. Now she finally understood why Sasha had been so happy following her first date with Josh even though they'd decided to remain just friends; it wasn't about the boy so much as it was the fact that the first date (and kiss, in Sasha's case) was a sort of milestone on the way to adulthood. She had to admit to herself, it felt good.
.:. QK .:.
The next morning, Jody actively avoided both Candi-Rose and Tyler for two very different reasons: she didn't want Candi-Rose grilling her for details about the date and she didn't want to face Tyler just yet, the pain of being rejected by him still far too fresh for her to be able to talk to him properly. Luckily for her, the resident hero was in such a good mood—perhaps from last night—that he had prepared breakfast for them all and had, therefore, been the centre of attention. Sat in a relatively safe seat between Bird and Charlie, she hadn't even looked Tyler's way once and he hadn't made an effort to talk to her either, probably realising her need for space to sort herself out. Not for the first time since their talk about Brandon the prior day, she'd wondered how much he knew about her feelings for him and if he'd truly understood at the time that she'd been trying to get him to admit to feelings, on his side, which sadly didn't exist and never had.
Shortly after breakfast, she'd been in her bedroom, messing around with her gumshield and thinking about both Tyler and Brandon when Candi-Rose had burst into the room with Sasha in tow. So elated at seeing Sasha had she been that she hadn't immediately kicked said girl and Candi-Rose out of the room when they'd started asking uncomfortable questions about the date, including about kissing. She'd shuddered at the thought. There was only one person she would let kiss her in a heartbeat, anywhere, anytime, but it wasn't the boy who actually fancied her. Still, since she hadn't seen Sasha in ages, she'd allowed the girls to talk her into a shopping trip to town. That was how she found herself sifting through jackets with Sasha.
"She is not serious?" Sasha asked, watching in evident disgust as Candi-Rose tried on yet another lipstick not too far away from them.
"Oh, she is," Jody replied, laughing. "I left Bird to deal with her by himself the last time she did this."
"Bird?" Sasha questioned, puzzled. Jody turned to her, trying to remember if the Wallis brothers had moved in before or after she'd left. "Oh, one of the brothers... Right, I'd forgotten their names." Sasha made a face. "That's not actually his name, is it?"
Jody laughed again, eyeing up a purple jacket. "I think Jay's actually Jacob but Bird's plain old Bird."
"Right," Sasha said, her eyebrows nearly flying up into her hairline before a devious glint suddenly appeared in her eyes. "So, about Brandon, is he the same guy you told me about before—the one from the gym?" she asked, giving her a knowing look. Jody merely nodded, hoping that if she gave casual, disinterested answers, Sasha, and, by extension, Candi-Rose would lose interest in the topic. "I knew you liked him."
"Wait, what?" she asked, nearly dropping the jacket she'd tried on. "What do you mean?"
"You've mentioned him to me quite a few times before," Sasha stated matter-of-factly as Candi-Rose joined them. "Brandon this, Brandon that."
"No, I never!" she retorted, her eyes widening in shock as she realised Sasha was right. She had told her about Brandon many a time... but only ever when she mentioned the gym. Up until their date, Brandon hadn't been part of her life outside of boxing. "Okay, I did, but I didn't bang on about him twenty-four seven."
Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Didn't say you did."
"Come on, you were totally going on about him the day of the royal wedding!" Candi-Rose exclaimed, jumping up and down. She turned to Sasha. "She kept saying that Brandon would totally agree with her about how lame the wedding was"—her eyes flit to Jody—"which it wasn't, by the way!" Jody rolled her eyes in response. "I loved Meghan's dress."
"Yeah, I thought she was going to show up in some weird puffy thing," Sasha agreed, a look of horror passing over her features. "I think Dex has a crush on her."
All three of them giggled at that, recalling Dexter and Sam, a newbie relief care worker, competing for the affections of a pretty farm girl last year, even though Jody hadn't been there to witness it herself, having been away on a residential school trip. Dexter seemed to be into older women; some of those women being old enough to be his mum.
"Are you and Dex staying for lunch, Sash?" Jody inquired, trying to change the subject. Candi-Rose had already done her head in last weekend when she just wouldn't shut up about the wedding.
Unfortunately, fate had other ideas. "Are you going to wear a dress when you marry Brandon?" Candi-Rose teased just as Sasha responded to Jody's question in the positive.
"I'm not marrying Brandon!" she shouted in annoyance, drawing a few looks from other customers. She'd never tried to picture herself as a bride—never dared to, actually—but standing here and thinking about it now, she knew almost straight away that she wanted a simple white dress as opposed to whatever tomboy brides wore. "But I would wear a dress, yeah," she admitted, fixing Candi-Rose with a stern look as she added, "Not a pink one, though.
"Let's all be each other's bridesmaids!" Candi-Rose excitedly proposed before skipping to the counter with a plum lipstick. Jody and Sasha exchanged a glance, going to sit on a bench right outside the shop.
While waiting for their friend to complete her purchase, the two girls proceeded to update each other on their respective home lives but Jody couldn't help but feel something wasn't right. Despite their intense Jyler shipping tendencies, neither Sasha nor Candi-Rose had mentioned Tyler once. It wasn't as if she wanted or liked to be teased about him but the sudden change was unsettling, as if the two girls had never taken her feelings for him seriously, just shipping and teasing until someone else like Brandon came along. Brandon himself was a worry as well. She hadn't realised that she spoke about him so much around her friends to the point that they thought she fancied him. She paused, a question suddenly taking root in her mind.
Did she actually fancy Brandon after all?
A/N: I've been rewatching the entire series with my brothers and have picked up on a few strange things. We've reached the end of Series 5 (including Island) and won't be able to resume until after Ramadan. Anyway, onto the weird things: Chloe somehow gets upstairs for Carmen's pamper party, Dexter is 12-14 in S5E1 (or S5E2) but 11 in Island which has got to be afterwards chronologically, there are two Sashas (filmmaker/social worker from S2E3), two Rosies (Lily's sister, Kingsley's ex girlfriend), two Poppys (Lily's sister, Liam's ex girlfriend ?) and two Lukes (though one is technically Lucas), and Floss only seems to have one Jeff which she ends up giving to Alex even though Harry gave her his one as well. Also, Johnny and Tee have the same surname as Keith which is just whaaat? I know that some women change their child's name to their husband's but Keith was only a boyfriend so, err, what? What's going on?
Another thing, though this is more about fans rather than the show itself. I've witnessed a lot of hate directed at Chloe for outing Ryan in S5E3. Why? It wasn't anything he didn't deserve. He actively manipulated, or rather, in his own words, influenced everyone into voting Joseph out of the DG and then tried to turn them on each other. IMO, she was lenient enough when she handed his written confession back to him in the Series 4 finale.
Finally, a huge thanks to CharlieSMarts12 for the review. It feels like an episode from the show? That is the best compliment ever! Thanks again!