Chapter 20

The next day, before chica's night, Kay called Charity to discuss.

"Hello," came Charity's subdued voice over the phone.

"Hey, Charity, got a minute?" Kay asked, hearing her somber tone and responded by keeping her own voice neutral. She wasn't sure what Charity was thinking and didn't want to freak her out.

"Yeah, of course, Kay, what's up?" Charity forced a bit of normalcy into her voice. There was no reason for Kay to be as upset as she was about recent events.

"Well, I just wanted to talk about what happened last night, you know, with the whole blue thing..." Kay let her voice trail off, waiting to hear Charity's reaction.

"Okay... only, it's not really fair to leave Simone out of all this, so why don't you meet me at her place in an hour? We can start chica's night early today."

Kay knew as well as Charity did that this was a two-fold tactic. Not only was Charity delaying the discussion, she was also using Simone as a buffer. But Kay would do anything to help her cousin through what she knew was going to be a trying experience with her true love. "Okay, Charity, that sounds great. Will you call Simone to let her know?"

"Yeah, sure, sounds good. I'll see you then." Charity quickly broke the connection. She needed as much time to mentally prepare herself for this next chica's night as possible.

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The three women were settled comfortably around Simone's living room, munching on a fabulous salmon and pasta dinner that Simone had prepared. As Kay looked around, she noticed new candles with slightly melted tips placed strategically around the flat.

"Simone....uh, did we interrupt something?" Kay asked, hating to think that she and Charity were letting their personal life get in the way of Simone's.

"Oh please, just a little self pampering," Simone said lightly. "So what's up? I mean, I know you women can't live without me, but I thought the regular chica's night time was enough....." Simone's voice was drowned out by the massive pillows Kay and Charity had chucked her way. Once the silliness had died down, though, a serious mood feel on the room. "Okay, give, Kay, I take it you talked to Miguel," Simone began.

"Yeah," Kay admitted. "And it wasn't so bad really; he was sort of feeling the same way. I think we'll be alright," Kay ended with a shrug.

Simone was confused. "Then why are we here? Seems like it went as well as can be expected."

"Well," Kay began slowly, "It wasn't the breakup we need to discuss so much as it was what superwoman over there caused afterwards."

"I was only trying to be supportive," Charity muttered.

Simone grinned, eager to hear what new drama her two friends had gotten into now. Simone was pretty flamboyant on the outside, but she preferred a certain normalcy in her own life. And this new thing with.... well, that was another subject for a day when her two best friends weren't spazzing out. Besides, keeping it to herself WAS keeping it normal. She had no doubt that they'd find a way to make a big hooha out of it.

"Okay, spill it Charity, what did you do?" Simone egged her on.

"Yeah, Charity, do tell," Kay chimed in.

"Look, I was trying to help. I just don't like seeing my family upset. And I thought that HE was upsetting her...."

"Uh-oh. Charity, ummm, is Miguel in one piece at least?" Simone asked playfully.

Kay snorted. "Barely," she muttered enough for Simone to hear her and enough to get a sharp look from Charity.

"So I kinda... umm... I uh.... I slapped him, okay?"

Kay couldn't contain herself any longer. "You WHAT?!" she hooted, bouncing up to demonstrate. "So she comes barreling up, growling in this deep, disembodied man voice, callin' him a bastard and such and winds up and lets him have it. Simone, I swear, he's gonna have a hand print across his face for another week." Kay sobered slightly and continued. "And to think, his one true love gave it to him."

"WHAT?!" screamed Charity and Simone.

"Oh come off it Charity, that's why you've been actin' funny since last night, and you know it," Kay said. She turned to Simone to explain. "You wouldn't have believed it, I'm just glad it's finals time and most people were inside the library and not standing outside of it near us. I was grabbing Miguel to pull him away from Mighty Mouse over there as her hand hit his cheek and we were all thrown backwards while, you'll never believe this, I'm sure," Kay threw in facetiously, "Blue light flashed all around us. Miguel thought it was lightening," she paused for effect, "But it was really just a sign of true love smacking him and Wonder Woman in the face, literally."

"Kay!" Charity was shocked. "That's not what happened at all!" Charity was bright red from having to relive the moment when she unfairly wacked her cousin's boyfriend and Kay's implication was making the blush deepen quickly. "I thought we were here to discuss someone else discovering our familial blue thing, but I guess I was wrong," Charity said, hurt by Kay's teasing. "You know, it's a serious thing when outsiders find out about this," she continued gathering her purse and jacket. "I would think that you would take it more seriously, too, Kay, since it has caused you so much trouble with Nicholas." Charity regretted the barb the minute it was out of her mouth, and sank back down in the sofa, letting her things drop softly beside it onto the floor.

All of the mirth fled Kay's face as she quickly sobered. She wasn't really hurt by Charity's careless words. She was, however, shocked to hear such hurtful things coming out of her sweet as sugar cousin's mouth. She leaned back into the plush chair she was sitting in with a thoughtful look on her face. Something about Charity's reaction seemed familiar to her.

Simone had decided that enough was enough. She wasn't going to sit back and let the two cousins pick on each other all night, especially when things were taking a hurtful turn for the worse. "Oh stuff it, both of you. Kay, don't pick on Charity, she's right about one thing," Kay looked at Simone shocked. "Don't look at me in that tone of voice, she IS partially right. With all that nonsense with Nicky dear, you should know how difficult it is to realize that someone you barely know is your true love and cut Charity a little slack."

Charity's jaw dropped. "Simone!" she practically howled. "Miguel is NOT my true love. The blue light thing happened because of Kay and I he was just a... uh... a conduit, yeah... he was just a conduit."

Kay and Simone shared a smirk. "Riiiiiiight," Simone reached over to pat Charity's hand consolingly. "A uh... conduit. Now, tell me, Charity, have you ever experienced this err... 'conduit phenomenon' before?"

Charity's red complexion returned. "Well, no, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen last night."

"Charity, I don't understand why you're in such denial about this. I mean, you were there, Miguel and I aren't together anymore and it ended on fairly amicable terms. Do you not like him or something?"

Charity paused a moment to interpret her own fears, now that someone had pointed them out to her. "I don't know, I mean, Kay, you guys broke up and all, but that's just tacky... and besides, I don't even know Miguel."

"Well, that's easy enough to fix..." Kay began and then had a slow-coming second thought. "Oh wait, he's prolly not inclined to see you at the moment..." at Simone's Look, she added quickly, "But I mean, that's gonna blow over soon, it has to, right? You two are meant for each other..." she finished weakly.

Charity knew it was more than what she was saying keeping her from accepting this new thing with Miguel. It was the secret that she'd been keeping from herself for a couple of weeks now. She really did like Miguel, she was just scared out of her mind about how he would react to learning about the blue light and all that came with it. The best way to avoid the problem that Kay was having with Nicholas was to avoid Miguel and the situation entirely.

Simone sensed Charity's reticence was genuine and not some temporary fear, so she forced a change in subject. "Okay, so now that I have an idea of what has happened, can we go downstairs and get milkshakes or what?" Both Kay and Charity were ready to change the subject, so they followed Simone's lead down the apartment stairs to Haven.