"Serena!! Serena! Open this door right now!!"
"Hurry up Serena, I want to get there early. You know there's
gonna be a lot of guys there that are waiting for me to charm them,"
"I'm not going to sit here all day Serena. If you're not out in 5
minutes, we're leaving without you,"
Serena hurried to the door and let her friends in. They were
about to go to the fair. Darien was supposed to meet them there along
with Andrew.
Serena smiled to herself as she thought of Darien. They had been
going out for 2 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days exactly. And Serena was
having the time of her life.
He was so sweet… and funny, and charming, and clever. Serena
giggled at herself. She was besotted with the hottest jock in school
and she was actually having a somewhat normal life. She still acted the
Dowd and refused to sit with Darien at lunch unless he took her
someplace where they wouldn't see schoolmates. Darien had agreed and
took her to the most unusual restaurants.
Almost every night they were on a date: Sometimes a movie,
sometimes carnivals, sometimes… the list went on. And Serena loved
every minute of it.
"Come on Serena, snap out of it,"
"We don't want to see you drooling over Darien, it makes me
nauseous,"
Serena just smiled at her friends and walked to the coat closet.
The carnival today was going to be fun. And, Serena thought, she could
probably find a present for Darien and their three-month anniversary.
She only had three days left and she was really going to surprise him.
When they arrived at the Carnival Serena a was in awe. It was
marvelous, the lights sparkling and the noises of excitement,
exclamations of clamorous fun. Serena smiled to herself. This was the
definition of fun.
She got out of the car, her eyes focused entirely on the entire
amusement park. She felt Raye lay a hand on her shoulder. "Great isn't
she said. Then she walked off, scurrying for signs of hot guys. Serena
laughed followed after.
The amusement park was definitely way bigger than Serena thought.
And, she realized with a wistful smile, it was going to take longer
than she thought to find Darien. But, she thought immediately
brightening, she could find his present.
Serena looked around and found Mina and Raye talking to two
really hot guys and decided not to bother them. She looked around for a
stand where something suitable for an anniversary would be. She felt a
shock of recognition as she saw a stand full of glass figurines. Serena
smiled. Perfect she thought and almost skipped to the stand.
She looked around, everything was marvelous. There was a
sculpture of an angel with tears running down her face, another of a
unicorn. Serena looked upon the sculptures with glee. She let out a
gasp of pure shock when she reached the perfect one, the one for
Darien. It was a rose, a giant rose, the pedals carved into it with
care. The rose was red and the step was green and it held two
intricately carved leaves. And, running down the rose were what Serena
perceived to be tears of love. The tears were red hearts and they fell
in a squiggly line down the stem of the rose. At the bottom, a medium
sized heart fell and it was followed by a giant heart at the bottom. It
was just perfect Serena thought with ill concealed glee.
"Serena?!? Is that you?!?!"
Serena turned from the rose to find a handsome guy running up to
her. She couldn't place the face until he came closer.
"Seiya?" she said, feeling strangely weak. Seiya was her best
friend when she lived in Los Angles. That was before her brother died.
She was somewhat surprised she remembered him. She was only 11 years
old when she had seen him last. 5 years was kind of long.
Seiya ran up and gave Serena giant bear hug. Serena studied him
and realized that he had changed a lot since she had last seen him. His
black hair was longer and he had a deeper tan. She saw him studying her
felt compelled to check her hair to see if something was wrong. He
studied her for a moment, his look perplexed and Serena wished he would
just tell her what he was thinking.
"Seiya," Serena said, attempting at conversation with her long
lost best friend, "It's been a long time,". She smiled becomingly but
only received another perplexed look.
Impatient and frustrated, Serena glared at Seiya. "Okay, what are
you looking at? Is my hair messed up or something?"
Serena almost laughed at herself when she realized what she said.
Her hair was totally different from what it had been she was younger.
She had always worn it down and she didn't have glasses 5 years ago.
She suddenly wished Seiya would go away, and blushed at her selfish
thoughts. Seiya used to be her friend and it was only rude to turn
away. But she couldn't help feeling as if something bad were going to
happen if she didn't ask him to leave or simply leave herself. But,
Serena decided, hospitality was a virtue and she wouldn't be rude when
had no reason to be.
"Well, Serena," Seiya said grinning up at her, "Your hair is
plenty different from when I saw you. In fact, your whole appearance is
atrocious," he laughed and Serena blushed. Seiya had changed in five
years. He was ruder than she remembered. She repeated the word
hospitality in her head over and over to keep herself from telling him
to leave her alone.
Seiya grin turned into a tender smile. He looked up at Serena
with memories filling his head. He remembered his old best friend as
she used to be. She used to be a brazen Tarzan, witty and fun. And with
a heart that took up half of the world. He remembered her being overly
sad and remorseful when anyone was mad at her and her taking the blame
for things that weren't her fault when one of her friends had done it.
He remembered and decided that looks weren't' the only thing that
counted and if Serena had the same personality as before, he didn't
mind the change at all.
Then he remembered how he had just phrased his greeting and
winced. Great start bucko.
"Serena, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking
because I was so excited over seeing you again. I was just joking. You
know me," he said with a self assured grin.
The grin was indeed infectious and Serena found herself grinning
back. Once a best friend always a best friend….
"So Seiya, you here to see the amusement park?"
"Yeah, I'm here with a couple of friends. In fact I think you
might know them."
"I cant Seiya, some people are waiting for me," Serena smiled up
at him. "Well, it was nice seeing you again,"
She started to walk away only to find Seiya grabbing onto her
arm. She lifted an inquiring eyebrow and looked at his hand on her arm,
a look that told him to let go.
Seiya didn't let go. He pulled Serena closer. Serena looked up to
see Seiya staring at her with a sadness that pulled at her heart. He
looked into her eyes and said quite calmly, his voice etched with loss,
"Serena, I remember you as the generous girl that I had a crush on in
the 6th grade. Will you give me a kiss so that I can at least have that
to hold onto?".
He looked so sad to Serena that she could naught but give in.
Just a harmless kiss, she thought and lifted her lips to give a quick
peck.
She looked into his deep blue eyes and felt a moment's pang of
sadness for him. He was so happy to see her and all she could think
about was herself. She suddenly felt happy that she had not told him to
go. She gave him one last smile.
"See ya Seiya," she said, and it was he who sauntered away.
Serena smiled to herself as she watched him walk away. She remembered
him always teasing her and making her angrier than she could handle. He
had a crush on her for all those years. Well, Serena thought
objectively, she wasn't acting the Dowd all those years ago. She was
just her carefree self.
She looked back to the glass figurines and decided on the flower.
It was just perfect for Darien. She couldn't wait to see his reaction.
She brought it up to the clerk and bought hoping that he wasn't
somewhere near watching.
Darien was indeed watching. Darien and Andrew had arrived at the
park over an hour ago and they had spent all their time looking for
Serena and Mina and Raye.
Exhausted from all of the searching they sat down to eat.
Darien looked at Andrew and felt a pang of regret as the picture
of him as his own personal maid formed in his mind yet once again. Too
bad he thought.
"Andrew, I have to talk to you about something,"
Andrew looked up from his cheeseburger. "What is it Dare?"
"Well, it's about the bet. You see, I have decided not to go
through with it,"
To Darien's surprise, Andrew looked oddly relieved. He blew out a
breath of relief set his cheeseburger down, smiling at Darien.
"That cool man. I mean, I was feeling kind of bad about the whole
thing. I don't even know why I wanted to do it in the first place. I'm
glad you came to me before I came to you," he grinned at Darien.
Darien couldn't help but laugh. All his brooding wasn't
necessary? All this time he was so worried about hurting Serena and
Andrew was going to tell him to end it.
Andrew stared at Darien, trying to search for signs. What had
made his friend want to end the bet? It was beyond weird. He asked
Darien just that.
"Well," Darien said looking into the distance, "I kind of
developed some feelings for Serena," and then he continued, telling
Andrew of his confrontation at Raye's house, her breaking into his home
to apologize, and his sister's reaction to her.
"You should have seen her when I took her glasses off Andy,"
Darien said with great sincerity, "she was gorgeous,"
Andrew lifted his eyebrow surprised. "Really Dare? You mean that
whole bitch thing was some kind of façade?"
"Yeah," Darien said grinning at his best friend. "And I intend on
making her tell me all of her secrets and maybe even make her turn to
her real self," He smiled and looked beyond Andrew and tensed.
Andrew saw Darien tense and turned to see what he was looking at.
He saw Serena standing with another guy. They hugged and started
talking. Then Serena turned away and he grabbed her arm. They started
taking again and then Serena kissed him. Then he walked away.
Darien saw red. What was Serena kissing another guy? Did she have
another boyfriend? Is that why she was dressing like a Dowd, because
she had to look ugly to keep herself f from getting the unwanted
attention of other guys. If that was the case, why was she hanging with
him? Darien took a deep breath and counted to ten.
"I think you might want to reconsider my friend," Darien heard
Andrew say. Darien was thinking the exact same thing. Serena deserved
it after all. How could she?
Darien wondered at his sister's judgment. Surely a great kid like
her could see through something like that. His sister was great at
reading people.
Darien watched Serena purchase something as if nothing happened.
He watched her walk back to get Mina and Raye. He watched her search
the crowd, looking for him he guessed.
HE smiled grimly. Well, he definitely had something planned for
their anniversary. Something that would wreck her. Darien ignored his
consciences asking him whether he should look more deeply into the
situation. He saw all that he needed to see. But he couldn't help
feeling as thought he was missing something that was big. He was too
angry to care at the moment anyways.
He saw Serena walking toward him and put on his best smile. It
was hard but he managed something that may have passed for a smile.
Serena ran to him and kissed him on the cheek all while sitting
in his lap. She suddenly realized that it was sorely out of character
for her to do that and stiffened only for a moment then relaxed. She
had been acting out of character for almost three months. It was no
surprise.
"Hey Dare, did you miss me?"
"Sure I did Serena. Why wouldn't I?"
Serena looked at Darien sharply when she heard the viciousness in
his voice. What was wrong with him? Was he mad about something. She saw
that his smile didn't reach his eyes and knew that something was wrong.
Concerned, she got off of his lap and knelt beside him.
"What's wrong Dare?" she asked, so innocently that Darien wanted
to punch something. He felt like…
"Nothing Serena. Did you eat lunch?" he changed the subject so
quickly that Serena almost didn't notice the change.
She frowned at him, a remorseful frown. "Well Darien," she said
and Darien stiffened perceptively at the first time she had used his
full name in 2 months. Was he wrong? No, he had seen it all hadn't he?
"If you don't want to tell me you don't have to,"
"There's nothing wrong," he said shortly looking around to see
Andrew, Mina, and Raye no where to be found. "let's go find everyone
else,".
He got up and started walking away. Serena sat for a moment,
looking after him. He was immaculately dressed in baggy blue jeans and
a navy blue shirt that read 'playa for life'. He had a navy blue had on
to match and his eyes were shaded. Serena wondered what was wrong. She
was truly worried and something in the pit of her stomach told her that
she would not come out of this endeavor unscathed. She sighed shakily
and followed after him, her happy mood drowned in darkness and
melancholy.
"Hurry up Serena, I want to get there early. You know there's
gonna be a lot of guys there that are waiting for me to charm them,"
"I'm not going to sit here all day Serena. If you're not out in 5
minutes, we're leaving without you,"
Serena hurried to the door and let her friends in. They were
about to go to the fair. Darien was supposed to meet them there along
with Andrew.
Serena smiled to herself as she thought of Darien. They had been
going out for 2 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days exactly. And Serena was
having the time of her life.
He was so sweet… and funny, and charming, and clever. Serena
giggled at herself. She was besotted with the hottest jock in school
and she was actually having a somewhat normal life. She still acted the
Dowd and refused to sit with Darien at lunch unless he took her
someplace where they wouldn't see schoolmates. Darien had agreed and
took her to the most unusual restaurants.
Almost every night they were on a date: Sometimes a movie,
sometimes carnivals, sometimes… the list went on. And Serena loved
every minute of it.
"Come on Serena, snap out of it,"
"We don't want to see you drooling over Darien, it makes me
nauseous,"
Serena just smiled at her friends and walked to the coat closet.
The carnival today was going to be fun. And, Serena thought, she could
probably find a present for Darien and their three-month anniversary.
She only had three days left and she was really going to surprise him.
When they arrived at the Carnival Serena a was in awe. It was
marvelous, the lights sparkling and the noises of excitement,
exclamations of clamorous fun. Serena smiled to herself. This was the
definition of fun.
She got out of the car, her eyes focused entirely on the entire
amusement park. She felt Raye lay a hand on her shoulder. "Great isn't
she said. Then she walked off, scurrying for signs of hot guys. Serena
laughed followed after.
The amusement park was definitely way bigger than Serena thought.
And, she realized with a wistful smile, it was going to take longer
than she thought to find Darien. But, she thought immediately
brightening, she could find his present.
Serena looked around and found Mina and Raye talking to two
really hot guys and decided not to bother them. She looked around for a
stand where something suitable for an anniversary would be. She felt a
shock of recognition as she saw a stand full of glass figurines. Serena
smiled. Perfect she thought and almost skipped to the stand.
She looked around, everything was marvelous. There was a
sculpture of an angel with tears running down her face, another of a
unicorn. Serena looked upon the sculptures with glee. She let out a
gasp of pure shock when she reached the perfect one, the one for
Darien. It was a rose, a giant rose, the pedals carved into it with
care. The rose was red and the step was green and it held two
intricately carved leaves. And, running down the rose were what Serena
perceived to be tears of love. The tears were red hearts and they fell
in a squiggly line down the stem of the rose. At the bottom, a medium
sized heart fell and it was followed by a giant heart at the bottom. It
was just perfect Serena thought with ill concealed glee.
"Serena?!? Is that you?!?!"
Serena turned from the rose to find a handsome guy running up to
her. She couldn't place the face until he came closer.
"Seiya?" she said, feeling strangely weak. Seiya was her best
friend when she lived in Los Angles. That was before her brother died.
She was somewhat surprised she remembered him. She was only 11 years
old when she had seen him last. 5 years was kind of long.
Seiya ran up and gave Serena giant bear hug. Serena studied him
and realized that he had changed a lot since she had last seen him. His
black hair was longer and he had a deeper tan. She saw him studying her
felt compelled to check her hair to see if something was wrong. He
studied her for a moment, his look perplexed and Serena wished he would
just tell her what he was thinking.
"Seiya," Serena said, attempting at conversation with her long
lost best friend, "It's been a long time,". She smiled becomingly but
only received another perplexed look.
Impatient and frustrated, Serena glared at Seiya. "Okay, what are
you looking at? Is my hair messed up or something?"
Serena almost laughed at herself when she realized what she said.
Her hair was totally different from what it had been she was younger.
She had always worn it down and she didn't have glasses 5 years ago.
She suddenly wished Seiya would go away, and blushed at her selfish
thoughts. Seiya used to be her friend and it was only rude to turn
away. But she couldn't help feeling as if something bad were going to
happen if she didn't ask him to leave or simply leave herself. But,
Serena decided, hospitality was a virtue and she wouldn't be rude when
had no reason to be.
"Well, Serena," Seiya said grinning up at her, "Your hair is
plenty different from when I saw you. In fact, your whole appearance is
atrocious," he laughed and Serena blushed. Seiya had changed in five
years. He was ruder than she remembered. She repeated the word
hospitality in her head over and over to keep herself from telling him
to leave her alone.
Seiya grin turned into a tender smile. He looked up at Serena
with memories filling his head. He remembered his old best friend as
she used to be. She used to be a brazen Tarzan, witty and fun. And with
a heart that took up half of the world. He remembered her being overly
sad and remorseful when anyone was mad at her and her taking the blame
for things that weren't her fault when one of her friends had done it.
He remembered and decided that looks weren't' the only thing that
counted and if Serena had the same personality as before, he didn't
mind the change at all.
Then he remembered how he had just phrased his greeting and
winced. Great start bucko.
"Serena, I didn't mean it. I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking
because I was so excited over seeing you again. I was just joking. You
know me," he said with a self assured grin.
The grin was indeed infectious and Serena found herself grinning
back. Once a best friend always a best friend….
"So Seiya, you here to see the amusement park?"
"Yeah, I'm here with a couple of friends. In fact I think you
might know them."
"I cant Seiya, some people are waiting for me," Serena smiled up
at him. "Well, it was nice seeing you again,"
She started to walk away only to find Seiya grabbing onto her
arm. She lifted an inquiring eyebrow and looked at his hand on her arm,
a look that told him to let go.
Seiya didn't let go. He pulled Serena closer. Serena looked up to
see Seiya staring at her with a sadness that pulled at her heart. He
looked into her eyes and said quite calmly, his voice etched with loss,
"Serena, I remember you as the generous girl that I had a crush on in
the 6th grade. Will you give me a kiss so that I can at least have that
to hold onto?".
He looked so sad to Serena that she could naught but give in.
Just a harmless kiss, she thought and lifted her lips to give a quick
peck.
She looked into his deep blue eyes and felt a moment's pang of
sadness for him. He was so happy to see her and all she could think
about was herself. She suddenly felt happy that she had not told him to
go. She gave him one last smile.
"See ya Seiya," she said, and it was he who sauntered away.
Serena smiled to herself as she watched him walk away. She remembered
him always teasing her and making her angrier than she could handle. He
had a crush on her for all those years. Well, Serena thought
objectively, she wasn't acting the Dowd all those years ago. She was
just her carefree self.
She looked back to the glass figurines and decided on the flower.
It was just perfect for Darien. She couldn't wait to see his reaction.
She brought it up to the clerk and bought hoping that he wasn't
somewhere near watching.
Darien was indeed watching. Darien and Andrew had arrived at the
park over an hour ago and they had spent all their time looking for
Serena and Mina and Raye.
Exhausted from all of the searching they sat down to eat.
Darien looked at Andrew and felt a pang of regret as the picture
of him as his own personal maid formed in his mind yet once again. Too
bad he thought.
"Andrew, I have to talk to you about something,"
Andrew looked up from his cheeseburger. "What is it Dare?"
"Well, it's about the bet. You see, I have decided not to go
through with it,"
To Darien's surprise, Andrew looked oddly relieved. He blew out a
breath of relief set his cheeseburger down, smiling at Darien.
"That cool man. I mean, I was feeling kind of bad about the whole
thing. I don't even know why I wanted to do it in the first place. I'm
glad you came to me before I came to you," he grinned at Darien.
Darien couldn't help but laugh. All his brooding wasn't
necessary? All this time he was so worried about hurting Serena and
Andrew was going to tell him to end it.
Andrew stared at Darien, trying to search for signs. What had
made his friend want to end the bet? It was beyond weird. He asked
Darien just that.
"Well," Darien said looking into the distance, "I kind of
developed some feelings for Serena," and then he continued, telling
Andrew of his confrontation at Raye's house, her breaking into his home
to apologize, and his sister's reaction to her.
"You should have seen her when I took her glasses off Andy,"
Darien said with great sincerity, "she was gorgeous,"
Andrew lifted his eyebrow surprised. "Really Dare? You mean that
whole bitch thing was some kind of façade?"
"Yeah," Darien said grinning at his best friend. "And I intend on
making her tell me all of her secrets and maybe even make her turn to
her real self," He smiled and looked beyond Andrew and tensed.
Andrew saw Darien tense and turned to see what he was looking at.
He saw Serena standing with another guy. They hugged and started
talking. Then Serena turned away and he grabbed her arm. They started
taking again and then Serena kissed him. Then he walked away.
Darien saw red. What was Serena kissing another guy? Did she have
another boyfriend? Is that why she was dressing like a Dowd, because
she had to look ugly to keep herself f from getting the unwanted
attention of other guys. If that was the case, why was she hanging with
him? Darien took a deep breath and counted to ten.
"I think you might want to reconsider my friend," Darien heard
Andrew say. Darien was thinking the exact same thing. Serena deserved
it after all. How could she?
Darien wondered at his sister's judgment. Surely a great kid like
her could see through something like that. His sister was great at
reading people.
Darien watched Serena purchase something as if nothing happened.
He watched her walk back to get Mina and Raye. He watched her search
the crowd, looking for him he guessed.
HE smiled grimly. Well, he definitely had something planned for
their anniversary. Something that would wreck her. Darien ignored his
consciences asking him whether he should look more deeply into the
situation. He saw all that he needed to see. But he couldn't help
feeling as thought he was missing something that was big. He was too
angry to care at the moment anyways.
He saw Serena walking toward him and put on his best smile. It
was hard but he managed something that may have passed for a smile.
Serena ran to him and kissed him on the cheek all while sitting
in his lap. She suddenly realized that it was sorely out of character
for her to do that and stiffened only for a moment then relaxed. She
had been acting out of character for almost three months. It was no
surprise.
"Hey Dare, did you miss me?"
"Sure I did Serena. Why wouldn't I?"
Serena looked at Darien sharply when she heard the viciousness in
his voice. What was wrong with him? Was he mad about something. She saw
that his smile didn't reach his eyes and knew that something was wrong.
Concerned, she got off of his lap and knelt beside him.
"What's wrong Dare?" she asked, so innocently that Darien wanted
to punch something. He felt like…
"Nothing Serena. Did you eat lunch?" he changed the subject so
quickly that Serena almost didn't notice the change.
She frowned at him, a remorseful frown. "Well Darien," she said
and Darien stiffened perceptively at the first time she had used his
full name in 2 months. Was he wrong? No, he had seen it all hadn't he?
"If you don't want to tell me you don't have to,"
"There's nothing wrong," he said shortly looking around to see
Andrew, Mina, and Raye no where to be found. "let's go find everyone
else,".
He got up and started walking away. Serena sat for a moment,
looking after him. He was immaculately dressed in baggy blue jeans and
a navy blue shirt that read 'playa for life'. He had a navy blue had on
to match and his eyes were shaded. Serena wondered what was wrong. She
was truly worried and something in the pit of her stomach told her that
she would not come out of this endeavor unscathed. She sighed shakily
and followed after him, her happy mood drowned in darkness and
melancholy.